Author: THE Yankee Aggressor

  • Pick your poison

    10 strong and fast posted for a Friday morning run, including one Friday Run New Guy and one FNG.  Weather was a little chilly for this time of year, but perfect for a run.

    The Thang:

    Pick your poison – 4, 5, and 6 mile loops with a .3 mile extra credit at the end.  Everyone head towards Grove and take a right.  4 mile loop run to Sauer and turnaround, 5 mile loop run to Thompson and turnaround and 6 mile loop run to Roseneath and turnaround.  All run to Three Chopt, turnaround and head back to shovel flag.  For extra credit run the long way around the school.

    Moleskin

    The PAX continues to get stronger and stronger.  Swirly stepped it up and tackled the 5 mile loop for the first time.  Great job Swirly, everyday out there you are getting stronger.  Despite running the longest loop and the extra credit, Sippy beat all PAX back to the shovel flag.  It does not seem like you can send him far enough.  The five mile crew was paced by Pucker and Saab.  Both were first time Friday run guys but proved that they can push the pace.  Bleeder continues to improve weekly.  He and Wedding Singer ran the last of the four miles together and could not be caught by the five milers.

    During the naming ceremony for all FNG’s Brain Tumor continues to point out that the name Hemorrhoid is still unused.  Luckily today’s FNG avoided getting this name.  Hopefully this name will go unused for quite a while.

    Sippy let YHC know that his six mile loop was not actually a six mile loop, but closer to 5.5.  I will get the bike out this Sunday and remeasure each of our routes and get an appropriate turning point for Sippy.  We may have to send him all the way to the eastern Henrico county before he has a longer enough run!

    Announcements

    Hardywood 4 miler on Sunday.  F3 booth at packet pickup will be manned from 1230 to 430.  Let get out there and EH some new PAX.

    T-Shirts are on sale on the website.  Log in and get yours asap.

  • A Toga for a Freeloader?

    10 PAX represented at the SOT this morning.  Weather was 70 and Sunny, but the ground was a tiny bit wet from a soaking rain the past two days.

    The Thang:

    Mosey to large field behind the school.  COP 20x mountain climbers, 20x Don Quixote, 25x SSH.  Mosey to corner of field near posts.   Q called for a Deion Sanders through the posts.  What he really meant was Barry Sanders.  Huddle up at base of hill on track.  Triple nickel up the hill to the fence, 5 flutter LBC at top, 5 flutter LBC at bottom.  Repeat 5x.  Round two of the triple nicker this time with Monkey Humpers.  Mosey back to parking lot, pick up a rock from the rock pile.  Two rounds of rock exercises (20x tricep press, 20x curl, 20x overhead press and 15x russian twist).  Mosey to the front of school for 6 Minutes of Mary, dealers choice (Freddy Mercury, Merkins, Flutter Kicks, Rosalita’s)

    Moleskin

    Great to have a visitor from Charlotte join us today.  Freeloader was passing through Richmond on the way from Bristol to VA Beach and spent the night in Richmond so he could catch an F3 workout.  After the workout, one of Richmond’s regulars (Toga) texted Bleeder that he had attended “Ranger” in Charlotte.  YHC took a brief look at the recent posts from that AO and saw Freeloader’s name come up several times.  So, in essence, we traded Toga for Freeloader for the morning.  Since both are going to be at the BRR, we can see if either side wants to make the trade more permanent?

    Welcome to the bootcamp workout to our BFNG (bootcamp FNG) Sunshine.  He did a great job all morning despite being thrown several obstacles..  During the triple nickel, Sunshine was the first one to find out the that the terrain was rather rough just past the top of the hill.  Actually there were a few holes in the ground, waiting to claim an ankle or two.  Fortunately, no one got injured, but a good lesson for YHC to better scout the route in advance (I walked the AO the previous day, but did not walk the hill all along our line to look out for danger).

    When YHC announced SSH as the last exercise of the first COP, the PAX let out a collective laugh. Although Freeloader was a little confused to begin with, he quickly figured out the issue.  Despite TYA’s attempts at better executing the SSH, he still cannot get more than 4 or 5 in proper form.  After that, all hell breaks loose and body parts are flying everywhere.

    The real crowdpleaser of the morning was the Russian twists with the rocks.  After performing a 10 reps of the exercise, a majority of the PAX looked like they were going to pass out.  Must mean we need to get back to that exercise again soon

    Announcements

    Hump day happy hour today, 5-7 at willow lawn American Tap House

  • M TYA is in the house

    11 Strong posted today for the weekly RAMM run.  M TYA was there at 5:30 sharp with her stopwatch to time the PAX.  Thanks M TYA for helping out this morning!

    The Thang:

    2 timed runs today.  First was a 1/4 mile sprint.  Next was a 3.6 mile loop down Libbie to Three Chopt and back.  Everyone runs the same route today.

    Moleskin

    The PAX have been improving so much lately, that the Q wanted to get a baseline of where we were so we could track progress.  In the last four months, the PAX have lengthened the max distance on the run by 2+ miles and the average pace has increased dramatically.  But exactly where are we from a pace and an improvement perspective?  Lets find out by doing our two timed runs!

    Johnsonville was visibly shaken when YHC announced that we were going to be doing timed runs without a warmup.  How could that be (that may be a more difficult task than creating teams of three with 16PAX)?  Won’t there be an issue running fast without a warmup.  Despite our initial trepidations, the PAX persevered and no hammies were pulled along the way.  SIppy Cup and Bleeder both planned ahead and got there warmups in before the run by running to the run.

    Bleeder set the initial pace on the 1/4 mile sprint, leading the pax through the first half of the course.  By the end Sippy (1:23), Doner Kebob (1:25), and Wilson (1:27) led the crew.  Swirly and Johnsonville finished neck and neck at 1:29, followed by Chumbucket (1:39), Lockjaw (1:42), Bleeder (1:43), TYA (1:44), Wedding Singer (1:48) and Pelosi 5-0 (1:51).

    On the 3.6 mile loop, to no ones surprise, Sippy led the way at 25:24.  Next was a crew of three, Wilson (28:42), Johnsonville (28:49) and Doner Kebob (28:51).  Lockjaw made an epic comeback in the last half mile and overtook TYA right at the finish line (both logged in at 30:37).  Next up was Swirly (31:49), Chum (32:01), Pelosi 5-0 (33:57), Wedding Singer (36:25) and Bleeder (38:57). One note, had bleeder used the last 200 of his 3.6 loop as his second half of the quarter mile, his quarter mile time would have been 0:59.

    Announcements

    M TYA announced that there is an earthday 5k coming up sometime in the next couple weeks.  For details see Wedding Singer!

    Fudd is hosting a gathering tonight with refreshments and pizza.  Stop by his crib if you get a chance.  Address is in yesterdays backblast

    Monday Punisher will start next week at Holton elementary at corner of hermitage and laburnam

     

  • There’s a cardiologist in the house

    14 veterans and one FNG posted for a perfect Friday RAMM run.  At start of the run the temperature was 62 degrees warm.

    The Thang:

    Today was timed run day.  All pax run same route.  From shovel flag to Grove, left on Grove, all the way to three chopt, turn back down Grove and head back towards shovel flag.  At the 20 minute mark in the run, turn around and retrace your steps back to the shovel flag.  This should get us all back to the start at approximately the same time.

    Moleskin

    Lots of mumble chatter pre-run about the previous day’s beatdown.  Those who were there were peppered with questions about exactly what went down the prior day.

    Two of the PAX went for the run to the run daily double.  Sippy cup, as usual, made the 2.5 mile mosey to and from his house to the run.  Bleeder joined Sippy in his pre run ritual and sauntered over to the AO from his house.  The warm up for Bleeder helped loosen up his injured leg.

    Lugnut was a just in time LIFO.  He hit the AO as the PAX took off for the run.  He had not set his alarm and was awoken by a text from Bleeder at 4:59, leaving him just enough time to get dressed and speed to the AO.  Great dedication Lug.  Rumor had it that we were schedule to have a surprise guest from Casa de Lug.  Maybe next time.

    Several of the PAX did not follow directions and turn back at the 20 minute mark.  Instructions were crystal clear, but the PAX took it upon themselves to change the plan for their run.  It happened to be the folks in the lead.  Back in my day the leaders were supposed to set the best example, just saying.

    Welcome to FNG Razor, friend of Fudd’s  Upon learning that Razor was a cardiologist, several of the PAX commented that they could now push themselves harder because there was help at the ready if needed.

  • Pre 10k Saunter

    Five Friday faithful and one FRNG posted for a pre-Monument Avenue 10k Saunter.

    The Thang:

    Two routes.  Route one go to Grove, take a left on Grove, all the way to Three Chopt, turnaround, run around the school back to the shovel flag.  Second route.  Run to Grove, right on Grove to Malvern, turnaround, all the way to Three Chopt, turnaround, run around the school back to the shovel flag.

    COT and off into the day

    Kotter to Lockjaw.  Lockjaw had been a regular Friday morning run guy until his second Wednesday night Brew Thru.  I do not have confirmation on how many beers in he was, but at some point on the run he twisted his ankle, putting him on the IR for 2 months.  He acquitted himself well on this run, keeping up a healthy pace the whole way.  Just a couple more weeks and he will be back to his old form.

    Today was Rest Stop’s virgin Friday Run.  Not having seen the rest of the crew run, he decided to join Sippy Cup on the long route (rookie mistake).  To his credit (and due to the fact that he is a HATE HATE 26 years old) he hung with Sippy all the way to Grove and Libbie (no startbucks break) where he turned back towards the shovel flag.  Great job Rest Stop, good to have you out there on Friday and we look forward to seeing you out there next week.

    The rest of the crew anticipating the next day’s 10k took a nice easy run.    Interesting observation afterwards:  Our route today was a quarter mile shorter than our first RAMM run.  Although we all took a slow pace today, it was much faster in all cases from where we started.   Week to week progress is hard to see, but when you measure it over longer periods of time, the improvement is more than obvious.

  • A little rain and a Startbuck’s stop

    10 Faithful and 2 FRNG, posted for the morning run.  The Friday faithful’s continue to get stronger and faster.   The hard work will pay off for the upcoming mud run and the Hardywood 4 miler.

    The Thang:

    Break into 2 groups:   Group 1:  From the shovel flag, turn right on Cary, right on Westmoreland, left on Grove.  Proceed to Three Chopt then head back to the Shovel Flag (4.0 miles disputed).  Group 2:  From the shovel flag, proceed to Grove, turn right and proceed to Thompson, turnaround and proceed to Three Chopt, turnaround again and head back to the shovel flag.  Try and catch a member of group 1 if possible. (Solid 5 miles)

    Both groups add in Speed Drills (Fartlek):  On the way back (after Libby Ave) sprint at 75% pace every other block until you get to Westmoreland.

     Moleskin:

    If the forecast is bad weather, expect a higher number of F3 men who will post.  (someone fact check that).   12 men post for a run in weather that probably had most of your co-workers running late today.

    Tclaps to Swirly who led the men from group one for most of the route with a solid pace.  Chum bucket, Oyster, Swirly and Pelosi 5-0, made it back to shovel flag with a few minutes to spare before Sippy Cup came rolling in.  Next in Toga, Fudd, and Brain Tumor, details are a little gloomy here as some of the men left to catch up to Bleeder.  Next in were Lug Nut, Scream, and TYA who might have been second guessing all those laps from Source of Truth.  Turns out Bleeder gave us the slip and took a different route back to the flag.

    The weather brought out 2 more FRNG as we welcomed Chum Bucket and Pelosi 5-0 to the Friday Run.   Also, noted that Chum Bucket made a crack at Lug Nut’s shorts.  Not sure how anyone wearing Capri’s can make fun of another man’s shorts.  But the deed was done, unchecked.

    Fudd – didn’t want his morning issue mentioned in the back blast.  With that said we won’t mention it other than to say the group was unable to meet for coffee at Starbucks.

  • Ascending Curb Crawls? Why?

    14 posted for a morning beatdown in RVA.  Weather was 37 degrees and clear.  Great job everyone getting out of the fartsack and making yourself (and others) better and stronger.

    The Thang:

    Mosey to field, 25x Freddy Mercury, 26x Don Quixote, 25x SSH, 25x LBC.  Mosey to covered pavillion for 11’s.  At pavillion exercise is prisoner leg lifts, at far end of the field exercise is the Burpee (of course).  Faster PAX use poles at far side of pavillion.  Mosey to front of school for Yogi Bear.  Four stations (most on picnic tables), first station box jumps, second station Derkins, third station dips, fourth station incline merkins.  Repeato x 2.  Turn around and right into ascending and descending curb crawls.  Grab a piece of curb, bear crawl to other side, one merkins, turnaround bear crawl to other side 2 Merkins.  All the way up to 9 Merkins and then back down to one.  When finished, get into Al Gore and wait for rest of Pax.  Mosey back to shovel flag for 4 minutes of Mary.  15x Flutter kicks, followed by 20 second hold feet in the air.  10x (on each leg) bent leg raises.

    COT and out into the day, in better shape and energized to take on the world.

    Moleskin:

    Several Kotters today.  After a brief hiatus with several maladies (strep throat, etc) Loose Goose was back in the fold.  Olaf made his second (?) appearance at a workout after a month long hiatus waiting for the spring to come.  Pucker returned after his hibernations.  Not sure why a Yankee and Ice Hockey player needs a break due to the cold?  Great to have everyone back out there with the group.

    Fudd apparently shares the lack of eyesight with his namesake.  When TYA declared that the end point for the 11’s was the road at the second tree line, Fudd was all confused.  He said he saw many tree lines and could not see the rode.  Despite his difficulties seeing, he figured things out and almost kept pace with Conspiracy on the 11’s.

    The PAX continues to have difficulty with math.  When the PAX were asked to split into four groups for the Yogi Bear, confusion ensued.  How could we possibly split up into four groups with 14 people in the PAX?   The math does not work out to even numbers!  What are we to do?  We can’t possibly do an exercise with an uneven number of people in the groups!    Somehow we persevered and got through the appointed tasks without incident.

    What sadistic bas435d thought up curb crawls?  Why?  They are complete torture.  They sound so simple and in theory doing bear crawls with Merkins sounds doable.  This is the second time YHC has does this exercise and I have been completely smoked about halfway through both times.  At least the first time I had hope that a bus would come and run me over and stop this idiocy,  This time, my only hope was to finish the routine as quickly as possible and then try to forget that it ever happened. Worst part of doing them was that I actually chose the exercise.  What is wrong with me?

    Announcements

    HDHH yesterday.  Good time had by all and pretty good attendance.  Thanks to all that came out and had a little bit of second F.  One awkward thing heard in the bar (and hopefully not overheard by anyone else): “it weird to see you with your clothes on”.

    Run tomorrow at MM

  • Sunshine joins F3 RVA for a run

    10 Faithful and one FRNG, Dave Kibiloski, posted for a morning of running in the RVA.  Weather was 40 degrees and clear, perfect running weather.

    The Thang:

    From shovel flag, proceed to Grove avenue, everyone take a right.  Today, there were 4 different routes ranging in mileage from 4.0 – 5.5 miles, run to a turnaround point going east on Grove, then turnaround..  The stronger the runner you are the longer you get to run.  Then everyone ran to intersection of 3 Chopt and Grove, turned around, ran back around the school to the shovel flag.

    Moleskin

    Lugnut finished out front of the pack today, probably by a good 20 minutes before any other runner got back to the shovel flag.  He did do the shorter route (I think), but still smoked the pack back to the shovel flag.  He also got impatient waiting for everyone to return at the end and took off before the PAX finished.  Great job Lugnut…speed is definately increasing.  Oh….I forgot to mention that Lugnut started the run by himself 20 minutes before the appointed starting time and had to leave early to catch a morning meeting!

    Johnsonville gets a Kotter from the running PAX.  He was also a LIFO, but on the other side.  Undaunted by being a couple minutes later starting than anyone else, he still set a good pace out on the course.  YHC was quite proud of himself because Jville never caught him (jville did a half mile longer run) until he found out that Jville stopped to use the facilities at the local starbucks #outhouse.  Also because of his LIFO status, he did not hear the directions to run back around the school at the end, so he took a little jog at the end to make up the distance.

    Welcome Sunshine to the group.  He is quite an accomplished runner, but due to injury has not been on the road in over 3 months.  He acquitted himself well, pacing Bleeder back to the shovel flag at a pretty good clip.  We look forward to seeing Sunshine back to his sub 5 minute mile pace in no time.

    Conspiracy may have finally met his match.  He and Sippy Cup (who did have two water bottles with him) set the pace at the front of the group,   Leaving Toga and Johnsonville looking like Bleeder at the back of the pack.  YHC was impressed with the ease at which they completed the five and a half miles.  Then, after the COT, when everyone else was ambling back to their cars, Sipply cup quietly started running back to his house over near dogwood dell (about a 2 1/2 mile cooldown).

    See you next week in the Gloom

  • Dodgeball with Snowballs

    7 faithful posted for a morning of fun in the snow.  By the time the PAX arrived, about four inches of new snow had falllen, another inch or so fell during the beatdown.

    The Thang:

    Mosey to far side of tennis courts.  SSH x 20, Snow Angels x 20, Seal Jacks X 20, LBC X 20.  Mosey to first tennis court.  Shovel a straight line across the court at eight paces from net.    Split into two teams.  Fudd, TYA and Chum Bucket on team one, Bleeder, Pele, Swirly and Wedding singer on team two.  Next exercise is “Dodgeball with Snowballs”, you must stay within the 8 yard snow shovel line.   Three rounds.  If knocked out, pick up a shovel and continue to shovel the tennis courts.  Team one took the first two battles, but lost in the third.

    Mosey to soccer field.  Line up on the end line.  The Beast, dealers choice.  Merkins (TYA), Rosalita (Bleeder), Burpees (Chum Bucket), LBC (Fudd), Seal Jacks (Pele), Freddy Mercury (Wedding Singer) while waiting for PAX assume Al Gore position.  Mosey back to tennis courts, back into Dodgeball teams for Triple check.  First member sprint to other end line and back, second member plank, third member shovel tennis court.  Mosey back to virtual shovel flag.  COT and prayer and off to the day.

    Moleskin

    Since the Q has such a unique skill at side straddle hops, he decided that he would try as many versions of this simple exercise to begin the workout as possible.  We did regular SSH followed by SSH on the ground (aka snow angels) and finally Seal Jacks.  Despite his best efforts, TYA was unable to properly execute on any of the variety of SSH’s.  Lots of laughing and diverting of the eyes to avoid more laughing.  YHC is trying to improve this skill….but with no success.  May need to go back to grade school for some remedial training.

    Wedding Singer, Chum Bucket and Fudd showed considerable skill in the dodgeball challenge.  At one point Fudd was the sole surviving member against all four on the other team.  TYA, confident in his snowball and dodgeball skills was eliminated in about 2 seconds in the first round by Bleeder.

    Chum and the Wedding singer discussed whether they were heading to work for the day.  After thinking about having just driven to the AO and given that their office was not further away, they decided it would be hard to justify not going to work because of bad driving conditions.   All stayed around for a few minutes of Second F in the driving snow.  Fellowship is a powerful thing.

    TYA, Pele, and Bleeder made a quick trip to Starbucks after the workout.  We walked into the Starbucks, straight to the counter where Bleeder asked “are you open”.  The Barista (and TYA) were a little dumbfounded by the questions, but moved on.  Bleeder explained to TYA that a coworker of his had gone into Hardees during the snowstorm the week before, walked up to the counter only to be told that they were closed.  His coworker had to go outside, get in his car and go through the drive through lane to get his food.  He tried to explain to the Hardee’s employee that they clearly did not understand the concept of OPEN, but to no avail.

    TYA and Pele spent some time after the workout shoveling driveways in TYA’s neighborhood.  In all we cleared three driveways in about a half an hour.  M TYA became the real hero of the day when she offered up homemade chocolate chip pancakes and chocolate milk.  After devouring 10 pancakes between them Bleeder arrived, luckily M TYA had anticipated his arrival and had more hot pancakes ready.  At one point during the meal, Pele spilled his chocolate milk on the table.  Despite TYA and TYA’s M trying to clean things up Pele insisted that he clean it up himself.  He did, with the sleeve of his sweatshirt.  Awesome to be 11.

    Three are still alive to match Lugnut’s six pack from last week.  Fudd, Wedding Singer and TYA have made the first three workouts of this week.  Three more to go to complete the six pack.  Good luck all.

  • 1

    Six adventurous F3 faithful posted for an early morning run in RVA.  Weather in all our minds was 70 and sunny, but in reality, the mercury rose to only ONE degree at the start of the run.

    The Thang:

    Fox Chase: 2 Chasers, head from shovel flag towards Grove Avenue, take a right on Grove and turnaround at Malvern.  4 Foxes take a jog around the school and then a left onto Grove.  All run to intersection of Grove and Three Chopt,  turn around, run around the school and regroup at the shovel flag.

    Moleskin

    Today was a day of 1’s

    1 degree Fahrenheit when we started out the run.  We were all well bundled up and were probably carrying an extra 10-15 pounds each of clothing and comfort gear.  Nobody was any worse for the wear from the cold weather.

    1 fox survived the chase, congratulations Oyster.   Lugnut, Bleeder and Swirly were all caught on the way back to the school on Grove.  Bleeder wins the stubborn fox award today.  As TYA and BT approached Bleeder, Bleeder picked the pace up, accelerated up the hill and held off the capture for a good 200 yards.  Swirly continues to get overtaken at precisely the same spot on the course each time.  I am not sure how that happens?

    1 Chaser pulled away and carried the pace.  Brain Tumor is getting stronger by the day

    1 shovel flags left at the AO until TYA turned back from his drive home and retrieved the flag

    1 PAX member who spent a good portion of the night fighting his food from the night before, but still posted because he is trying to hit all six workouts this week.  Good luck tomorrow Lugnut, finish off that six pack challenge!

    1 QIC, who was shocked when he hit the corner of Westmoreland and Grove and saw five cars waiting for the workout.  The QIC was expecting to see one (maybe two) car awaiting the workout given the temperature.  The power of F3 and the strength of the men in the PAX is astounding.  The tougher the challenge, the more determined the PAX are.

    11 Combination of the temperature and the wind speed by the end of the run, 4 degrees with 7 MPH winds.  Not sure what the windchill was, but it was pretty damned cold.  Despite the weather, the PAX hung out in the cold for about 10 minutes after the run, getting a little second F in.

    111 temperature difference that TYA experienced in 1 short hour.  1 degree outside at the start of the run, then a nice steamy bath dialed up to 112 degrees.  Nice and toasty (sorry for the bad mental image).

    Pleasure to work out with the group this morning.  See you in the Gloom next week for another RAMM!!!