Category: Richmond, VA

  • PRE-BLAST 2019 Hammers & Ales 10/26

    PRE-BLAST 2019 Hammers & Ales 10/26

    This Saturday night is Hammers & Ales! Come on out and support the Richmond Community Toolbank. Good times, great food, good beer, live music …

    You can purchase tickets online or get in touch with Viral at bbassett [at] gmail if you want to come but can’t swing the fee for you and your plus one.

    See You Near The Brooms!

  • 19 years = 19 laps or AMLAP

    YHC was joined in the gloom by 6 other willing PAX members and we crossed paths with a 7th along the way. Thanks, men, for coming out to help YHC start of his 19th wedding anniversary with a lap for each year…or close.

    So, YHC checked the Q sheet late last night and it was empty. YHC thought this must be a sign that he needed to take it and attempt this feat. I’m sure the PAX was happy.

    We took off at 0530 and headed for the JRHS track. The pace was great this morning, including LugNut’s sneak attack and roller-derby’esque slingshot to the front. Followed by Rosie’s afterburner pace that left all of us in the dust.

    Alas, only Rosie accomplished the goal, but everyone enjoyed no hills, even if it resulted in a bit of boredom.

    Great work men. Thanks for celebrating with me!

    Announcements:

    • Contribute to Raise and force YHC and Vinny to grow mustaches from 11/1 to 12/7. Better yet, contribute and grow with us. And, get your Hawaiian shirt ready for The Second Annual Magnum PI Day at Dogpile, 12/7/19. https://www.aplos.com/aws/give/Raise_Donations/f3
    • Continued prayers for Marv’s mom and Cerrano’s dad. And, any others in need.

    NMS:
    Great morning for some laps…right? Even Don Draper thought so. He was already on the track when we got there and I believe still there when we left. Way to work brother.

    Thanks for posting men. Running weather is upon us finally!

    No More Gumbo For You!

  • 5 for Stumpies…

    5 PAX regulars arrived at Batteau with Sippy Cup running his way to COP at 0530, and yes, Hot Potato Q for this Monday. Swirly took lead and over to tennis courts for COP and it went something like this–SSH, Don Quixotes, Helicopters, Imperial Walkers, Planks, Merkins, LBC’s, and Flutter Kicks.

    Swirly kept Q and over to the playground we went: x 5 pullups, x 5 dips for 5 sets. Mosey to picnic table-x 10 Incline Merkins, x 10 step ups for 5 sets. Q handed to Bleeder.

    Bleeder leads us back down the steps, that were lined with trees, to concrete bottom. Bleeder instructed-up the steps to a stump, decline merkin x 5, back down steps to bottom x 10 squats. Back up steps to stump x 10 decline merkins…repeat with increments of 5 for merkins till 20 done. Merkins switched for poll smokers due to high of some stumps. Decline merkin with stump=Stumpies. Nice new workout Bleeder. Bleeder handed Q to Posh.

    Posh lead us halfway down the road to the lake. Stop and bear crawl back to the steps. Lots of bear crawls. Q handed to Flatline.

    Up the steps to the circle at The Pump House. Indian Runs with the six performing x 5 merkins and 2 loop runs around the park. With 5 minutes left, Mary called out. X 30 American Hammers, x 30 Freddie Mercuries, x 30 LBC’s, and 30 second count down of Iron Cross (head up, arms up, legs 6 inches). Number-ama, Name-r-ama, Announcements: Prayers for Marv’s Mom, Cash For Stash (see Vinny or Gumbo).

    YHC took us out.

    NMS: Silent but efficient group this morning. Swirly called out YHC a few weeks ago heading to work so Batteau was a must this morning. It is half way to VCUHS. Way to start the week off right boys. Get it all out. Only those who post understand.

    Loud and Proud,

    Flatline

  • Please adjust my balls

    A Fabulous Five gathered at Hoedown to start a new week. Here’s how it went down:

    COP: SSHx25 // DQx20 // Helicoptersx10 // Armcirclesx15, Reverso // Lutinent Dans x10 // Merkins x10 // LBCsx15

    Mosey to Third Church back parking lot

    Four Corners: VUpsx10 // Hand Release Merkins x20 // Jump Squats x30 // WW2s x40.

    Suicide Burpees: Run to the first parking line line, do 1 Burpee. Run back to the curb. Run to the second parking lot line, do 2 Burpees. And so forth, up to 10.

    HUNGRY HIPPPOS: One man in each corner, crab walk to the center at which was stationed a baby pool filled with plastic balls, grab as many balls as possible, bear crawl back to the corner and desposit balls in bucket. Repeat for 5 minutes.

    Mosey back to Tuckahoe lot.

    COP: Flutterkicksx25 // American Hammersx25// LBCsx25

    Namerama, COT.

    NMS: YHC attempted a competitive game of human hungry hippos that devolved into chaos, much because the game was ill conceived by YHC, but also because Upchuck and Handshake were overtaken by their competitive instincts. YHC did not give precise instructions about how many balls were permitted for each trip to the center, which resulted in Upchuck stuffing all his clothing and orifices with as many balls as possible. This also resulted in many amusing quotes of the day, such as “Please adjust my balls,” “The balls are touching my nipples,” and “The sweaty balls are stuck to my back.” YHC will never attempt this again. Nor will YHC report to his church youth department that the church’s plastic balls were employed in this way.

    Also, great to have Viral back!!

  • Griff

    Mosey to the track (not the bus loop).

    The Griff

    For every 2 laps run facing forward, run one facing backwards.

    Mosey back to the flag

    Numberama

    Namearama

    No Idea took us out

    NMS

    It is YHC’s anniversary week and the original plan was to do The Murph at every AO in Da’Ville. In looking into it YHC found that there are a lot of these types of Hero workouts, all honoring a fallen serviceman or first responder. This week we are going to pay homage to some of the lesser known ones.

    “In honor of USAF SSgt Travis L. Griffin, 28, who was killed April 3, 2008 in the Rasheed district of Baghdad by an IED strike to his vehicle. Travis is survived by his son Elijah.”

    No Idea got a little lost this morning and we did not see him until he had already search the entire AO. But he was able to get in a few laps before it was time to go.

    Strong work was put in by all

    Thank you gentlemen, it was an honor to lead

  • Core Principles

    A smallish crowd of 19 men showed up this morning to start their day the F3 way. Lab Rat was combining a 4 year F3 Anniversary along with his last day as a 48 year old. Much celebrating happened…..hooray.

    Standard COP this morning with the exception of the 49 Side Straddle Hops and 4 burpees for the much celebrating time as mentioned above. Some wore party hats.

    We broke in to two groups so that we could get in quality pullup time. One group did 5 sets of 5 pullups while the other group played touch a tree with 5 burpees, 10 squats, and 20 LBC’s. Both groups got a turn at each. We reassembled for a fell run (it’s a thing) across the fields to get to burpee lake. 2 burpees at each light, along with an extra for the city at each burned out light. It’s hard to imagine, but we did more burpees than if we just did the standard Charles Bronson….where we would have capped it at 49. The group handled it well though, and it felt good to run this morning with the cool temps. We finished it off with a little yoga at the flag to bring it all back around.

    I switched the COT out a bit from the usual prayer to express how important I believe F3 is to this community. My feeling is that over everything else, it is important that this group remains open to ALL men and that it is a place where men can come and feel welcome. Individual personalities will come and go, but the core value of a group of men that can gather, do something relatively difficult to strengthen bonds, bodies, and minds is important to keep available. To quote George RR Martin from the Game of Thrones, “when the long night comes and the cold winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives”. It kind of applies…..shut up.

    That’s probably about the heaviest bb I have ever written, and for that,

    Lab Rat Apologizes…

  • I can’t feel my fingers

    It was a brisk 39′ at Grid Iron this morning but we had 12 brave men willing to put up with YHC’s second Q. After a warm up running the lines in the parking lot, we did the normal Side Straddle Hops, (modified) Imperial Walkers, Don Quixotes, LBCs, APDs, and Suzanne Summers. But we added a Bat Wings (fun to search the Exicon to shake things up).

    After warm up we moseyed to the grid iron for 4 corners (props to EF Hunton for his Wed Q) with: 5 WWIIs, 10 Merkins, 15 Mtn Climbers, and 20 Side Straddle Hops…with a Bear Crawl to the last corner. Increased by 5 on round two but most of us couldn’t feel our fingers in the 39′ wet grass. YHC probably should have stayed in the parking lot, but whatever.

    Moseyed to the school wall for 3 rounds of 20 Chicken Peckers and 20 Donkey Kicks. Moseyed to football field for a few sets of (partner assisted) Chin-Ups and Pull-Ups on the goal post. Final push was the Quarter Pounder: 25 Heels to the Heavens, 50 Freddy Mercurys, 75 Flutter Kicks, and 100 American Hammers. Ended with a Ring of Fire choose your own Merkin.

    Other than freezing our fingers off before sun rise, it was a great day with an awesome group of guys!

  • Cold Morning @ the Creek

    We had nine morning warriors show up this morning in the gloom for the first sub 40 degree workout of the fall and here is how it went down:

    Mosey to parking lot ran a lap to start warming up, 20 SSH, 10 DQ (slow), Bulkhead was missing the Harry Rockettes, so we lined up arm and arm and cranked out 10 reps. Emoji was trying to sing so we will need some more practice. We continued with 25 LBCs, 10 4-count merkins and 10 scorpions.

    The Thang

    CSBC – We start with the curbside bear crawl where we crawl from one island to the other island curb turn 180 degrees feet on curb and perform 1 Derkin we then go to the opposite side 2 Derkins repeat up to 13 reps. This was getting us warmed up.

    4 corners – We divided into groups of 3 and the rotation was the following: Partner 1- ran a lap, Partner 2 stands for PLT with partner 3 performing PLT. At halfway point partner 1 shouts switch and we go to booyah merkins until partner 1 completes lap. Partner 3 starts next lap, partner 2 performs PLT partner 1 stand for PLT. We completed 4 rounds of this and we were close to finish time.

    YHC had Pax walking lunge to first corner, Jail break (AYG sprint) to second corner, then mosey to Flag.

    Numberama / Namerama

    Moleskin-we caught up on the week and discussed our missing brothers, No Idea, we hope to see you Monday for the start of Mud Face week! Carpenter, we understand you are still dealing with severe back pain, wishing you a speedy recovery. Please sign up for the Q if you are on the sheet as we need to spread the word and the load.

    Wild Thing took us out…See you in the gloom Cheers from CB

  • The Inaugural “Tour de Carytown”

    16 fine Southern gentlemen (ok, maybe a few semi-reformed Northerners in disguise) – and 1 FND (Friendly New Dog) – arrived across many dimensions of time and space, almost all separately, to start their Friday morning the right way.

    How it went down (for the 6 of us who departed together):

    4 milers run East on Grove; 5 milers North on Commonwealth, East on Patterson; 6 milers North on Commonwealth, East on Monument.

    Everyone turn right on Roseneath.

    Everyone turn left on Cary.

    Everyone turn left on Boulevard.

    Everyone turn left at respective streets they ran out on to head back West (4 milers, Grove; 5 milers, Patterson; 6 milers, Monument).

    The route also was ~.25 miles short, so we ran a little further after returning to AO. Some chose to circle Munford, others did a loop East on Grove.

    Let’s just say the route is still a work in progress ?

    Other options:

    5am Friday crew did a extra-credit crazy mileage thing.

    Gears did their gear thing.

    NMS:

    YHC thanks the runners (well, at least the original 6 or so) for trying this route.
    Since my inaugural Carytown run one morning after Dogpile, I’ve aspired to call some sort of RAMM loop through the ghost town that is Carytown at 5:45am.

    From today’s run, I see I still have some work ahead of me..

    Although the mostly-empty street parking provided a decent running lane this morning, running with the flow of traffic on Cary is not ideal any time of day. According to Handshake, Hitchhiker “might” have been grazed by a passing car (maybe a slight exaggeration – not that Handshake would ever exaggerate ?)

    Anyhow, in the unlikely event it was as bad as Handshake made it sound, sorry about that, Hitchhiker.. I’ll make it up to you on the next ‘Tour’ with a better, more Westwardly-facing Carytown segment. Also have to add a few blocks to get the mileage dialed in..

    RE: Arriving in different dimensions — met up with Bootleg on Cary Westbound, met up with Double Fault and FND River on Grove (now known as Snot since he had to stop and sneeze on the way back).

    Announcements: Prayers for Marv’s mom, Pullout’s friend, and anyone else who needs it. See preblast for Vinny & Gumbo mustache charity!

    YHC was honored to take us out.

    Make it a great weekend, gentlemen!

  • I guess we’re on our own

    Despite various arrival times there was a nice round PAX of 6 waiting for the Q to show up at 0530. No Wojo so YHC took the potato and ran the crew behind the school for a warm up that included EFH’s Jazzercize along with some various planking and other stuff.

    6 pack of Pullups and Derkins at the playground

    Doozy – To the parking lot for touch a pole – Partner up. 1 up to 5 poles, while partner does squats, then flutters, then American Hammers. Getting to 15 without repeating took some running and some planning ahead. PeeDee finally caught on after 3 rounds or so.

    Loose Goose – More 4 corners, this time in the big parking lot – 15 merkins, 20 WWII, 25 Squats, 30 LBC. No time for a second round so he found some spots for us to repeat all of the above on the way back to the flag.

    YHC checked the Q sheet earlier this week but Wojo had it locked down so no worries right. Not so fast, apparently with UNC playing VT this weekend he must have been afraid the Hokie presence would be too strong. That is was with Radar, Loose Goose and I holding down the AO for the Hokies. With the size of the AO we recommend getting there before 0530 as Sonic found out. He searched some previous haunting grounds but we may have circled each other because he only found us at the end. Tclaps for sticking around and getting some miles in.

    Thanks for chipping in with the potato Goose and Doozy. PeeDee, BoBerry and Radar be prepared, the next potato could come your way. Excellent way to start a Friday.