Author: Whitesnake

  • 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.

  • Brunch for 5

    Two originals came super early for a prerun and the three young kids came later and got in 3 miles. Paths were crossed, high fives delivered/received and we met up again before Gridiron.

  • Trail run for the Sour Cream Boys

    It is finally light enough in the morning to hit the trails. So that is what we did. There were warnings that the trail would be under water. I scoffed at the notion and off we went. I was right. Trail was filled with the normal root obstacles but no water. The first group down the trail ended up taking the long way through the condo complex at the end while the second group, led by Gypsy, took a short cut and ended up in the lead. We all met up on Cox and made our way back before the 45 minute clock expired. Almost 5 miles total with some good hills mixed in. It felt cool to start but by the end was hot and muggy.

    We then took part in National Donut Day. Sour cream donuts were popular with some. Good to see Carl out a second time post Gridiron although when he learned 5:30 was the normal weekday start time, you could hear the gears turning in his head. Can’t blame him. No rising senior in high school should think that is a good idea. I barely do.

  • Trashy

    Three warriors and part time garbage men ran to Short Pump Park for a trashy workout. I hurt my wrist and got a nice raspberry from softball last night. The wrist injury meant it would be all legs and abs this morning.

    We warmed up in the garden that I did not know existed and did some DQs, Imperial Walkers,Hillbillies, LBCs and Freddie’s.

    Then in between picking up trash, we did a modified double quarter pounder. Started with 25 reverse crunches , 50 American Hammers, 75 single count flutters, 100 SSH and a run around the grey bricked road between each. Second time, 25 squats, 50 step ups, 75 single count Ukranian soldiers, 100 SSH with laps in between.

    We picked up after more Tuesday park attendees, and then moseyed back through WB Village and back to Pocahontas. After a couple laps of the bus loop we got over 3 miles and likely 3 pounds of trash (including socks) disposed in trash cans along the way. Only the 3 regulars today—summer tour must not make its way to WTH.

  • Waffle House Celebration

    Short Pump now was a Waffle House! We’ve made it!!!!

    In its honor, we spelled Waffle House in exercises twice. First we did some warms ups of SSH, IW, Ukrainian Soldiers, Arm Circles, LBCs, Reverse Crunches and Merkins. Then the spelling started:

    1st time (20 reps each unless noted): WW2, American hammers, Flutters holding bell, Fourx4s (4 burpees with 4 mountain climbers mixed in), Lawn Mower pulls, Elevens of curls and merkins, Halos, Overhead press, Upright rows, Sit & press, Elevated merkins.

    2nd time: WW2, American Hammers, Floor Press, Flutters with bell, Lawn Mowers, Elevated merkins, Heals to heaven, Overhead press, Upright Rows, Squats with bell, Elevens with curls and merkins

    Stuffed with waffles we went back to the flag for a little Mary of Flutters, LBCs and very little stretching.

    Nice to have some visitors from the summer tour! Rosie and Heist and welcome any time.

    Announcements: Rock and Roll AO this Saturday for Rosie’s 9th anniversary, then more rock and roll from 2-4 at Kindred Spirit Satellite location with Whitesnake’s band, Left of July.

    Prayers for Rosie’s father-in-law and the medical staff trying to figure out what’s wrong and then fix it.

  • Gridiron Runs F3 Dodgeball

    A dozen warriors trained all morning to take on any region in a future F3 Dodgeball tournament. After some warmups in front of the school and a triple check of balls to wall toe taps, WWII and a runner, we hit the tennis courts for dodgeball. White Deer brought his balls and we split up into two teams: team DeerAtillaSnakeletville and team BluePintoSkinbuckethouse. Each team also had one of the FNG young Magnano’s, later named Crocket (moving to Miami) and Carl (landscape business).

    Rules: you get hit or have your ball caught, you have to run to the far side (past 3 courts) and do 3 burpees. If your team is still alive when you get back, you are in. Ready, set, dodge!

    After 15 minutes of a draw, we took a quick break of flutters and the 3 burpee dodgeball rule became 5. That rule change seemed to do the trick.

    Team DeerSnakeville took 3 in a row. Carl and Piglet led the way. By the third game, the losing was getting to BluePintoSkin and the bickering across both teams got louder. We had time for one more game and once you were out, you were out. Chum rallied his team and it was soon 3 on 1 with the 1 being White Deer. Could White Deer be the hero? Crocket, in his white blazer and pink t-shirt, soon took White Deer out and BluePintoSkin was the victor.

    We collected White Deers balls, moseyed back to the flag, did some LBCs (except Pinto who wanted Merkins), and then did some monkey humpers for the walkers as they made their way back.

    And best of all, no injuries!!

    So which AO is going to challenge Gridiron to the next Dodgeball contest?

  • Die Hard with a Vengeance

    Nine movie fans were super happy to take part in another Die Hard morning at Heartbreak. We started with a review of Die Hard and Die Hard 2. That started with running up and down Heartbreak Ridge 8 times and doing a warm up exercise in between including Cherry Pickers, Ukrainian Soldiers, Imperial Walkers, Hillbilly’s, Merkins, Copperhead Squats, and Arm circles (each direction separately). With the stairs to the 9th floor blocked, we hit the ventilation shaft and Bear crawled up the hill and ran back down twice. We separated those with an ode to Die Hard 2 and some Bird Dogs and then Plank Bird Dogs.

    The basic premise of the third Die Hard movie is solving riddles to stop a bomb. I had three riddles (two from the movie and one I made up) and Burpee Bombs planned if the riddles were not solved correctly.

    First riddle was from the movie and involved a man going to St. Ives. It is a riddle hidden in a math problem distraction. Like John McLain, the Pax failed and did not have Zeus (Samuel Jackson) to find the simple solution. We did ten burpees to light the fuse and then went to the baseball field and split up on the bases. Home plate was the timer at ten burpees while each base also did burpees until relieved by the previous base. Roughly 40 burpees later, it was time for another riddle.

    The second riddle involved the school name change 8 years ago (which the Pax got-Byrd) but did not connect it to the next location, the basketball courts. Another Burpee Bomb exploded. We partnered up and one partner did an exercise at the wall while the other ran to the opposite end and did ten burpees before coming back to switch. We rotated through exercises and 9,8,7,6,5 burpees until we finished. 45 burpees later and rounds of flutters, reverse crunches, LBCs, peoples chair with milkers, heals to heaven and jump squats and we had one more riddle from the movie.

    “What has four legs and is always ready to travel?”. Lighthouse got the answer (An Elephant) so we went back to the flag and never got to 100 burpees. Old Handshake was sad: “More Burpees” he said. Instead we did some Plank Jacks, LBCs and SSH to end the morning.

    The first of the non-Christmas themed Die Hard’s, Die Hard with a Vengeance is a great movie. None afterwards are worth a watch so I will need to wait until Christmas time for a Die Hard only Q. I think we can defeat Hans Gruber and his crew again. Heartbreak Ridge will be waiting for us, maybe with some snow next time.

  • Circus Maximus Merit Badge

    On everyone’s favorite holiday, “Love a Tree Day”, we took to the woods after our warm up. We rifle carried to the path and went into the leaves. Off the normal Circus path, we started with 11s of tree smokers and people chair on a tree with overhead presses. After that fun we did 5 burpees to get rid of the bugs. We then partnered up in the raintree neighbor and one partner ran to a pile of broken tree parts (and wept) while the other did a kettle exercise. We rotated through curls, triceps and lawn mowers.

    To finish our forestry merit badge, we went back to the woods and did 11s with sit and press (feet around a tree) and regular presses.

    After 5 more burpees, we waiter carried back to the parking lot, partnered off again and did 100 HRMs as a team while your partner ran and touched a tree and ran back.

    We circled up and finished with a minute of SSH. It was around that time we learned Pigskin was Wojos Scout master. No surprise that Pigskin was a good scout master. Wojo’s first time to Circus earned him his badge. He can put that on the same uniform with the facial hair merit badge—he had a great teacher.

  • Sweaty Lorraine

    4 of us ran five miles to Lake Lorraine and back, 1 Grow Ruck survivor ran and walked a bit less and 2 others probably worked the hardest doing laps around Godwin with some combo of Merkins and dips and maybe a squat or two.

    We were all sweaty.
    Have a great Friday everyone!