Author: Whitesnake

  • Deep Potato

    We had Seven today. “Who’s the Q?” was screamed with the same passion as Brad Pitt from that great movie.

    No one signed up so it was a Deep Potato. Whitesnake started with warmups. Mr Rogers took the batton and took us to the loading dock with a few different running exercises and then 11’s of jump squats on the ground and Mike Tysons on the dock. Chicharon took over and did doors around the school with Squats, WW2 and Merkins, going up in count and doubled when double doors. Seymor then took us to the track for a triple check of squats and penguins. It got cut a little short due to time as we had to head back to the flag. Seymor took us out.

    Hope everyone has a great week!

  • Polka’s Origination Story

    WeirdSnake and 17 others, including an FNG, conquered another Weird Al kettlebell setlist.

    It started with and “Eat It” Warmup where we were reminded no one from the group has ever taken dance lessons. The bad dancing included SSH, Jazzercises, IW, and more Jazzercises. “The Saga Begins” with some ab work and our first of two Star Wars inspired songs. We then grabbed the bell during “Canadian Idiot” and rotated through American Hammers with Bell and WW2s.

    Time to move so the circle shifted to the bus loop for a Taylor Swift inspired “TMZ (Parody of “You Belong to me“) where we did rotating sets of Curls and Hi-Pulls (20).

    Triple check time with squats, sit’ n press and timer lunging to the wall and returning any way they prefer. Song to kick it off is “Living With a Hernia” and moved to “Polka Party“, “I Love Rocky Road” and ended with “A Complicated Song”(Parody of “Complicated“)”

    “(The Song’s Just) Six Words Long“, got us back to You vs You and a rotation of 6 burpees and 6 overhead presses (2 times). And the burpee warmup prepared us for “Yoda” and a burpee every time the word “Yoda” was repeated. Roughly 40 burpees in that song.

    We moseyed back to the flag and during “Foil” rotated through three sets of Swings and Triceps (15 each).

    The finale was “Ode to a Superhero (Parody of “Piano Man”)” as we warmed down with some abs work, stretching, deadman hangs and helicopters.

    We then learned more about Mr. Rogers 2.0, and he was properly named “Polka”. Polka is starting to learn the Accordian and became a Weird Al fan after Mr. Rogers brought home some Weird Al tunes after a Weird Snake workout in 2025.

    Weird Snake, helping grow the Weird Al fandom, one fan at a time. Who’s next??

  • That’s gold Jerry, gold!

    So what’s the deal with trail running? (please read this backblast in my terrible Jerry Seinfeld voice)

    We start at Miles Godwin High School. Nice parking lot. Sidewalks. Roads. Civilization. And the first thing we do is leave all of it.

    Nobody has ever looked at a perfectly paved road and said, “You know what this needs? More roots.”

    You get into the trail and suddenly every step is a game show.

    “Is that a root? Is it a stick? Is it a snake? Find out in three-tenths of a second!”

    And why are roots always exactly where your foot wants to land? The entire forest floor is a giant practical joke.

    Then you’ve got the creek. We crossed that creek so many times I started wondering if the creek was following us.

    “Didn’t we just cross you?”

    “Yep.”

    “And now we’re crossing you again?”

    “That’s right.”

    The wooden bridges don’t help. Nobody trusts a wooden bridge in the woods. Every guy who steps on one does the exact same thing. He slows down and looks at it like he’s evaluating a used car.

    “Looks okay…”

    creeeak

    “Maybe not.”

    Then there’s the cobweb situation. The first guy on the route isn’t a runner. He’s a human windshield. Thanks Lighthouse!

    Every spider in the county spent all night constructing a beautiful web and we’re charging through like a parade float.

    And the guy behind him? Completely fine. That’s the injustice of trail running. One guy eats the web, the next ten get a clean path.

    At some point we ended up in Stone Run. How do you know you’re in Stone Run?

    Because somebody always says, “Are we in Stone Run?”

    And three different guys answer with three different levels of confidence.

    “I think so.”

    “Pretty sure.”

    “No idea.”

    That’s not navigation. That’s a focus group.

    Eventually we found our way back through Trellis Crossing and returned to the school, looking like a group of men who had escaped from somewhere.

    You know you’ve had a good trail run when you get back to the parking lot and think, ‘Look at this place… roads, signs, pavement. We’ve really come a long way as a society.”

    Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.

  • The Bridge Between Flab and Fab

    Thirteen joined the summer tour stop and found the bridge to nowhere. We first circled up in the parking lot for some warm ups and then worked our way into the Greengate neighborhood. On our way down Vinery Ave, we did 3 burpees, 3 merkins and 3 HRM and then at each block we did the 3 burpees and increased the merkins and HRM (6 each, then 9 then 12). Upchuck was very happy. My poor instructions resulted in us skipping one of the stops so we never got to 15. Final count: 12 burpees, 30 Merkins, 30 HRMs. It felt like more.

    We then moseyed to the Ghaly Creek bridge. One pax ran it to then end while the others did abs exercises called out by whoever was next in line to run. The bridge is long and peaceful. Not sure how much it gets used but I try to take us out there every few months. With Bodos coming all the way from the big city, I had to show him what the real outdoors looked like. The deer watched him closely from the woods but decided to stay hidden and not attack this time.

    13 rounds of mostly abs/core exercises that included picklepounders, WW2, Irish Hammers, Crunchy Frogs, SSH, Shazams, Mountain Climbers, Rosalitas, Wheelbarrows, LBCs and others I can’t rememeber. The run we all did was about 250 yards.

    Like I said, the bridge was long so this took most of the time. We moseyed back to the parking lot and had 5 minutes for some Mary: Freddie Mercuries, Mercury Freddies & Reverse Crunches helped get some gas out.

    Great to see all the summer tour visitors! 13 count messed up my triple check plans but I am glad everyone got to experience the bridge/creek run on such a nice morning. Working out with a group of friends and also getting a peaceful minute or two on your own in the woods is a great way to start the day.

    Congrats and prayers to Tatar with a new job starting today.

    Thanks for letting me lead and for bringing the summer tour vibes.

  • Escape from the Mud

    Fifteen of Short Pump’s finest hit the Gridiron this Saturday for a Snake Q. It started with a mosey to the covered championship pickleball court and we circled up for some warmups. Did some SSH, Copperhead Squats, DQs, Ukranian Soliders, Dead Man Hang, Cherrypickers, LBCs, Flutters, APDs, HRM, Burpees and Merkins. Not necessariliy in that order.

    15 meant perfect triple check numbers so thats what we did next. Partner ran around the parking lot or other courts picking up trash or doing one burpee (if no trash is found) while the other two did WW2 or Jump Squats. Some guy ran by and said he was from the “Princeton Chapter” and kept running. Whatevs.

    After the 3X check was over, I decided we were warmed up enough for some 11s: started with 10 dips at a local bench and then 1 burpee (groans). And we were off. That was fun.

    Time to leave the protection of the roof and so we moseyed to the track. Did a little hill work: bernie up and mosey back and then a couple rounds of bear crawl up and mosey back. Slow mosey across the field and to the next small hill down to the soccer field. Did some Die Hard practice and went up and down that small hill ten times.

    Continued towards the school and the runners circled up for 5 burpees and then we all gathered at the benches for 20 dips and 20 bench kicks (or as many as it took to get Code Red Moon to find a place to do a few).

    We finally got to the front of the school for a final triple check of the loop and some combination of balls to wall toe taps and Australians with a lot of modifications to milkers and wall sits.

    We then moseyed back to the parking lot and circled up for some squats, SSH, getting all our feet and hands confused and then burpees.

    Welcome to Messi from PA (where he has met State Farm). Also welcome to Offshore and EF Hutton who were looking for some variety and planning on Dogpile for Monday’s convergence. I kept us out of the mud but not out of the rain. Pax complained less than normal. Enjoy the rainy holiday weekend as see you Monday.

    -WhiteSnake Plissken

  • She’s a brick (light)house

    Lighthouse and six others went dancing through West Broad Village to find the ten lovely brick intersections and get some exercise. After a brief run, we met at the children’s playground where some creepy old guy was waiting for us. After realizing it was Pigskin, we did some warmups. Then we ventured East until we hit the end of the road and then turned right until we got to the Gazebo. Along the way, we hit these beautiful brick intersections and at each one did an exercise: either 20 merkins, 20 heals to heaven, 20 WW2 or 10 burpees. When we got to the Gazebo, we had already hit seven of these stops. At the Gazebo, we added 20 dips to 20 heals and 20 jump squats. Then we headed back towards John Rolfe and hit two more brick intersections for more exercises including another set of burpees.

    Needing some distance, we ran to John Rolfe and then down the path to the dog park. At the end we did more WW2s until the 6 arrived and then did 20 in cadence. We then moseyed home, brocode style and did one turn at the bus loop to hit 3 miles. We ended with 20 heals to heaven.

    The nice weather was a treat, as was the company. Thanks for letting me lead.

  • Support for the Left

    After too many Bernie Sanders on Monday, it was only fitting that LeftSnake control the route this morning. Left on Pump, Left on Falconbridge, Left on Raintree, Left on Ridgefield, Left on Pump–Repeato. Total is about 4.5 miles. Ten runners and 3 dogs navigated the tough directions. I ran with Saltlick and we talked jobs, AI, zombies and outer space. Looking forward to all four interacting one day.

    A famous set of twins once said “things will never change until you want them to”. They also grew up with Bob Dylan sleeping on their couch and Uncle George (Harrison) hanging out at their house. So what do they know??

  • People start pollution. People can stop it.

    Eleven of the finest men on this side of the Mississippi got an extra hour of sleep, joined Gridiron and did their part to save the world.

    5 burpee start in honor of Gomer’s 1000th post. Then after the four ruckers and a late Chum joined, we did it again. A traveling COT eventually made its way to the far end of the track. Back in 1989, when Gomer and I were doing shots of Vodka before going out to fraternity row, we dreamed about doing the biggest four corners known to Gridiron. While his days of running are over, I think the goal was met today.

    The running group started at the far end of the track with 50 WW2, then ran to the basketball courts in the back of the school for 50 Merkins, then we ran to the blue playground for 50 Squats and then joined back with the walkers in the newest pickleball lot for 50 SSH. The walkers did the same exercises but their 2nd stop was the front of the school and their 3rd stop was at the football field.

    It was at the parking lot that we saw that thanks to the “cool” high school kids who hung out at the courts last night, the parking lot was full of trash. I think I saw a crying Indian somewhere too. Instead of “touch a tree” we did “touch some trash” and did 3 rounds of running to grab trash & throwing it out. Chumbucket found a lovely smelling rice bowl while most of the trash was alcohol related. Rumor is finger prints could reveal Mariner or Joey Chesnutt were there (because they seem cool). We will never know. Either way, good work by the pax to clean up the parking lot.

    We then went to the sunny gridiron for a Quarter Pounder. 25 HRM, 50 single count flutters, 75 jump squats, 100 SSH. At some point, Pigskin had to leave to cheer on some family at the 10K.

    Shade was needed by YHC so we moved to the front of the school for a triple check with balls to the wall and heals to heaven as the fun parts.

    We slow moseyed to the lower football field, did 25 WW2, then 3 rounds of Pigskin-ups with ten merkins at the top of the hill. Running out of time, we went back to the flag for numberama.

    Ended up with almost 2.5 miles of distance today! Well done Pax!!

    While 4 of us gathered before launch, Tater asked me to predict numbers. I said 11. Him and Pinto took the under. 11 was the final number. As a result of my Nostradamus-like genius, here are some other predictions:

    1. Commanders trade up and get the RB. Trade next years #1 which they think will be #30 but it will be top 10 (again).
    2. CM Punk retains the title at Wreslemania. Turns heal in the process.
    3. The Dow will hit over 50,000 on Monday, drop under by the end of the week and not hit it again until 2027.
    4. The founders of F3 will rename it to F3-AI and the stock will triple.
    5. Tater will Q Gridiron soon and do lots of abs.

    Thanks for letting me lead

  • Quadruple Notch

    Eight was enough for a great morning at WTH. We started off moseying to the track and doing 2 laps. After that half mile, we circled up for some warmups. Pinto then led us to Three Notch Place and the first cul-de-sac.

    Time to partner up! One partner went right (the longer way) and up the hill to the end and back while the other partner went left to the cul-de-sac and did five burpees and then met their partner on the road to switch. We did it a second time with 3 burpees and then headed back to the original cul-de-sac. Here we circled up for some partner exercises, rotating partners each time: partner merkins with clap, bro-burpees, PLTs & Thor’s (ask Pinto). We then headed back to the start.

    Ran 3.2 miles total and still had time for some Mary. Did LBCs, APDs, Heals to Heaven, Rosalitas and maybe something else.

    And while most of us did 3.2 miles, Mr. Rogers did 5.2 as Wally made him run from home (!) and Lighthouse was nice to give him a ride back.

    Thank you for letting me lead.

  • The right wing lap dance

    Ten pax and 3 pups came to run or walk. About half did the prescribed lap twice while others had so much fun they did their own version.

    Main course was all rights: right on pump, right on raintree, right at the new roundabout onto falcon bridge, right on pump, repeat. And try to go faster on the second lap dance. 4.5 miles total. I think everyone who did 2 laps improved their time the second lap. Yipeee! We are all winners!!