Author: Whitesnake

  • Here I Go Again!

    14 runners took about a dozen different routes around my beloved UR campus. Route started up Richmond Way past Wood Hall where Gomer and I lived in 89/90. Then we ran by the football Stadium that did not exist back then and wrapped around the Stadium & went past the Robins Center where we saw us beat Kenny Anderson and Georgia Tech back in Dec 1990. A downed power line/tree work on College Road put some of us on the trail to the Greek Theatre while others ignored safety instructions from the police and squeezed by. I think I saw the Connells in the Greek Theatre back then but that is hazy. More hazy than the Beast Light we drank. Many of us ended up back on the intended route down Crenshaw, past the great Apartment 1205 (numbered something else now), and then down to River Road and back up the bat cave (which also did not exist back then). From there, some went left through the female side of campus (not true anymore), some went straight to the Commons, many did a lap or two around the lake and everyone made it back on time. Campus looked great as usual. More hilly then I remember.

    Prayers for Sippy and his surgery next Monday.

    Westhoe takeover continues. Remember to set your alarms! Homegrown Half/10K/5K this Saturday. Order your shirts and/or hats for the 10K. And we need more Pickleball Tourney signups.

  • Short Pump Olympiad

    14 of the greatest athletes in the world were in Paris while at Short Pump Middle we had a dozen knuckleheads, one guest from Charlotte (Clipboard) and a young FNG (Forrest). But this group of misfits rose to the occasion at my Olympic themed Q.

    We circled up in the parking lot and did some warmups of SSH, IW, Ukarnian Soldiers, LBCs & Merkins. All done in cadence and stopping at random numbers to keep everyone on their toes. We then moseyed to the track for the first event.

    4×4 relay. Three teams and we did it three times, rotating positions. The relay started with bear crawls, 2nd leg did crabwalks, 3rd did broad jump burpees and the 4th ran the rest of the way (3/4 of the track). Everyone did SSH when it was not their turn. This is how young Forrest got his name. He is 15 and runs cross country and track for Deep Run. He ran the first heat and won by half a lap. We only did this three times as the fourth rotation would have had Attila and White Deer running and we would still be watching them if we let it happen.

    We moved to the swimming pool (parking lot) and did a 4×100 relays Dora style. Find a partner, run back and forth 25 yards while you and your partner did 100 freestyle (merkins), 100 backstroke (2 count flutters), 100 butterfly (wide merkins) and 100 breaststroke (HRM). That was a lot of merkins.

    We then hit the volleyball court (next parking lot) and did some volleyball practice. dig practice: 21 copperhead squats, Set practice: 21 squats with air press, block practice: 21 jump squats with arms in the air.

    If you were not aware, @pigskin is in Europe for two weeks and part of his travels includes negotiating with the IOC to bring his parkour routine to the 2028 Olympics. In his honor, we moseyed to the school loading dock and combined his parkour routine with biking. 3 rounds with 20 two count Freddies. Random shouts of “parkour!” added to the festivities.

    Then this “Dream Team” went to the bball courts and played 4 corners: 10 burpees, 20 WW2, 30 Plank Jacks and 40 Box Cutters.

    Time was running out on our Olympic dreams. We moseyed back to the football field and did a warm-down beast adding six of an exercise every twenty yards (and back): arm circles forward (36 total), reverso (30 total), squats (24 total), hillbillies (18 total), V ups (12 total) and burpees (6).

    COT and Atilla took us out. Prayers for Forrest and his family. They’ve been through a lot lately and Clipboard is a family friend in town to help. Clipboard was paying back the help he received from them when he had his own trials in life and he brought out young Forrest this morning. He sets a great example for all of us.

    Big group for coffeteria as Pinto and Gomer joined us. Gomer hit up two coffeteria’s today to show off his knee brace.

    Thanks for letting me lead.

  • H is for Humid

    Five of Short Pumps finest found the Wellesley Tunnel and the secret tennis courts to do some exercises up and down the “H”. During the search we did some warmups in the lot next to the lake: Ukrainian soldiers, DQ, Helicopters, arm circles, lbc and merkins.

    When we got to the courts we started with 5 burpees at the middle of the “H” and then 25 WWII at every end of the “H” (100 total) with another 5 burpees every time you crossed the middle. All OYO. Some crossed the middle every time and did 20 burpees and some did not.

    With better instructions we did it again but with a total of 50 merkins and crossing in between every set with 5 burpees. Math was involved to divide 50 merkins by 4.

    We went back to the tunnel and did balls to the tunnel wall. The tunnel is round with curved ridged steel walls. We did 5 toe taps in cadence and all got down safely.
    We headed back via the lake path and we all got over 3 miles and one extra minute for free.

    Go get your 10th anniversary shirt, do the home grown half/10k, the ultimate tournament and/or the pickleball tournament. All in the next month.

    And go listen to some Whitesnake!

  • Two minute warning!

    Six tough guys did an arms focused Kettlebell workout. It was 70s and sunny when we started our warmups of White Deer SSH, helicopters, arm circles, HRM, LBCs, & Merkins.

    We then followed the lights and did a routine of 12 reps of six exercises and then a lap around the bus loop. Exercises were overhead presses, lawn mowers (each arm), curls, upright rows, halos and overhead triceps. We did 3 rounds of this.

    Everyone then found a partner and we did 3 rounds of overhead pulls while the partner ran to the end of the school and back.

    We moved to a triple check of curls, overhead presses and a lap around the courtyard. And then did another of mowers (L/R) and dips on the picnic tables.

    Back to the flag for 5 minutes of Mary. After 3 minutes of presses, hammers and Freddie’s, White Deer sounded the 2 minute warning (and the need for a change of a shorts). We then finished with reverse crunches, flutters and chuckles.

  • Brunch for 6

    Six dummies searching for extra heat and sweat had some running fun before Gridiron. Chum and Jville did 7.5 (!) and joined Gridiron a bit late while the rest of us did 3. Good to have Offshore join us and not complain because we were too slow for him.

  • I’m a Ziti. Get it?

    Homemade baked ziti was the main course this Saturday at the Daily Planet. Homemade by my wife Laura which means it is really good. We also brought Caesar salad, bread and a peach pie from Kroger. We were not able to stay but were glad to do anything we could to help.

  • Burpee Hill

    11 regulars sweated out their Friday night libations during a heavy aerobic workout (we traveled over 2.2 miles). For a change, we started with a Mosey to Burpee Hill where we did a bunch of warmups exercises and only one burpee. Piglet was running late and found us. Maybe it was from our Cherry Picker claps?

    Since the Pickle ballers were starting to flood in, I started us with a proper greeting of 11’s: Monkey Humpers and Pickle pounders, running back and forth between the courts. We got a lot of frowns while running. Maybe that was because we picked up all the empty plastic bottles that were left on the ground from yesterday. The “pick” in Pickleball obviously does not stand for picking up after yourself.

    We then went to the soccer fields for a double quarter pounder. Started with 25 Merkins, 50 squats, 75 single count Mountain Climbers and 100 SSH–done at the 25, 50, 75, 100 with Bernie Sanders after each. Second time with 25 HRM, 50 Plank Jacks, 75 LBCs and 100 SSH.

    Tired and wet, we headed back to Burpee Hill for ten minutes of ….Abs. We ended up doing 9 different Ab exercises for 45 seconds each and then a 15 second break. We did WW2, Flutters, Reverse Crunches, Side Crunches (both sides), LBCs, Freddie’s, American Hammers and WWI. We finished with one minute of Burpees (or ten count, whichever you reached first). We left the hill with only 11 burpees for the day. There was some gnashing of teeth and tears of disappointment across the Pax.

    We went back to the flag and had time for some bear crawls up the small hill next to the parking lot. We ran down, bear crawled up, five times.

    After a minute of dead man hangs, we were done. Some were done earlier…

    Announcements:

    7/4 convergence at Forest Hill Park, 7AM.

    Gomer, Hutton and I will be bringing a traveling AO to West End Neighborhoods, Mondays at 6PM. If you are interesting in co-leading with us, please reach out. Hoping to use this to find some more men who need F3.

    Home grown half marathon with 10K and 5K run by SOJ in early August. See Slack for more details on this and more!

    Thanks for letting me lead.

  • The Lovers of Five

    The Lovers of Five

    We had five this morning. Reminds me of a classic Sesame Street skit from the 70s.

    “Gimme Five” was performed on Sesame Street in 1979. The singing group “The Lovers of Five” (consisting of Gordon, Bob, David, and Luis) sang of their admiration for the number 5 on a stage adorned with numbers. The song is a parody of “Float On” by the Floaters. I will post a clip on the Slack stream.

    The four regulars welcomed our guest Pitmaster from Charlottesville F3 and we danced and sang just like the Lovers of Five. Our dance numbers included WW2s, HRM and Squats and 3.5 miles of running.

    Give me 1,2,3,4 but if you love me more, give me 5.

  • Live Free or Die Hard

    In the 4th installment of the franchise, and the first to take place on the 4th of July and not during the Christmas season, some terrorist group creates chaos by messing with communications, transportation and electricity. I tried to prepare our group of nine for those circumstances.

    We moseyed to the front of the school for some warmups on SSH, IW, DQ, Merkins, Plank Jacks and LBCs. We then went around the fence at the bus loop and took on the hill between schools. Like the movie (and life), this hill has its ups and downs. We did 11’s of Jump Squats and HRMs and the exercise you started with depended on whether your birthday had occurred or not. That made some uncomfortable. This was a long set of 11s.

    We then ran to the back blacktop and worked on modes of transportation: bunny hops, bear crawls, crab walks, lunges and running and we did different versions two times.

    To eventually work our way back to Heartbreak Ridge, and thinking of the summer, we hit the softball field and did 7’s of burpees and merkins.

    We then moseyed to the top of Heartbreak Ridge and reenacted an elevator scene wear McLane takes out the attractive double agent Maggie Q. We crawl beared down the hill and ran back up twice.

    After moseying back to the flag, we did some flutters, reverse crunches and LBCs to end the day.

    I don’t think we learned anything today but we did get about 2 miles in. A good day to die hard is coming.

    Prayers for my father-in-law John and Wildcat.

    Enjoy the day and thanks for letting me lead.

  • SOJ don’t do Brunch

    Four Westhoe runners did 3+ miles before a Nancy Lopez beat down at Gridiron. Thanks to Gypsy for leading Brunch Club PR.