Category: Richmond, VA

  • How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up?

    Two Gearheads and one extra credit seeking novice set off on gravel to explore Pocahontas State Park. Twenty to thirtyish miles was the plan or so YHC was told. Thirty minutes into the ride, Q called for a little sidetrack exploration. Terrain was clear and open, no major obstacles it would seem. Somehow YHC caught a root or was snared by a booby trap, either way a spill was taken. After a few minutes shaking off the cobwebs, YHC realized he had some damaged equipment. No Tools and Pullout graciously guided YHC back to his car and off to Dick’s for replacement gear. YHC trekked a hair over 10 miles, No Tools and Pullout set sail again for a few more. A great-ish time was had. Where’s the Tylenol?

    Presumably No Tools and Pullout finished with numberama, nameorama, and COT.

  • Caution: You Will Get Wet on This Ride

    33 swimmers jumped into the deep end for today’s version of The Dogpile. According to the bacteria swimming in the parking lot puddles, this is what happened:

    Rolling COP:

    Quick quiz and not-so-slaughter starter: 5 WWIIs. Answer: Today was YHC’s 3rd Anniversary.

    Modified group run through the puddles, before circling up for…SSHs, IWs, arm circles, Hillbillies, LBCs, flutter kicks, HRMs.

    First Triple Check:

    One person bear crawls through the puddle and runs back. One person does squats and last person does Hello Dollies.

    Quiz #2 and 5 burpees. Bleeder was YHC’s first Q. W-Dog, June 8, 2016.

    Mosey to the Great Lawn for…wait for it…Another Triple Check.

    Person one polar bears the width of the Great Lawn. Person 2 does Rosalitas. Person 3 runs half of the length of the field, reverses direction, and runs Frogger Style through the PAX to the flower pots.

    WWIIs for the Six.

    Quiz: Hardywood came up with YHC’s name. 5 more WWIIs.

    Mosey to the Back Lawn for Touch-a-Tree (surprisingly, another Triple Check).

    Person one runs and touches 10 unique trees. Person 2 does Lt. Dans. Person 3 does flutter kicks. Repeato so that each person has the opportunity to touch 10 trees. Repeato again for 8 trees. HRMs for the Six.

    Mosey to the Amphitheater, with a quick loop to the far steps and back down.

    Quiz: HoneyDo introduced YHC to F3. 5 WWIIs.

    Quiz: YHCs favorite guest Q’s are F3 RVAs resident gymnasts, two of whom joined the PAX today…and led the PAX (literally and figuratively) in…Self Destruction. 1 SSH, 1 mercan, and one v-up on the first step. 2 of each on the second step…all the way to 18 at the top.

    Plank for the Six. BTTF.

    Number-am-a, Name-a-ram-a, quick group picture, and YHC took us out.

    Announcements:

    BRR, HDHH, July 4th Convergence…all the oldies, but goodies (when does ReeseStrong 5k come around again?)

    NMS:

    Today was YHC’s 3rd Anniversary (Triple Check Central), which means it’s been 3 years since YHC humored HoneyDo by agreeing to show up one time. Thank you, HoneyDo. YHC also thanks the PAX for being a strong, positive, motivating influence in YHC’s life. YHC thought life was good prior to F3, and life it just better with F3. YHC’s M, kids, and colleagues all thank you, even if many of them do not know it.

    Also, YHC postulates that he leads the PAX in the category “Percentage of Dogpile Q’s Done in the Rain/Mud.” YHC likes this. YHC thanks the PAX for playing along. And, welcome Danny DeVito. Great to day be an FNG.

    Lastly, YHC apologizes to Lab Rat for forgetting to bring a recording device today for the COT. YHC thanks LR for jumping in and scribing all the names. Much appreciated.

  • Bro Code in the Rain

    Ten men hit the early morning roads for today’s version of The Breakfast Club. According to the person stealing a bag of organic mulch from ET’s, this is what went down:

    Thomson to Cary to Robinson to the VITA Trail to Dogpile.

    Return trip was Blanton to Sheppard to Cary to Thomson. Wilson continued his tradition of taking point. Like a true Recon element, Wilson stood post well in advance of the Main Force.

    NMS: Good run in the rain on the outbound trip. Nice to catch up with Spit and Handshake.

    Hermie continues to post and grind through workouts. Well done today with the double dip. Keep posting, my friend.

    Also, the PAX provided Vinny a short homage to Dodgeball today. On a side note, Canada notified INTERPOL today that Vinny is officially Public Enemy #1 in Ontario. Never wanting to miss the change to make something into a contest, YHC congratulates Vinny on being in first place.

  • Let’s Get To Work

    15 fighters rolled into the parking lot of The Creek, observed the temperature to be 70 degrees and went to work with a carnival that went something like this…

    Mosey to the far part of the parking lot.

    COP All IC – 50 SSHs, arm circles, 10 don quixotes, 2 helicopters, 10 hand-release merkins (HRMs), 10 imperial walkers, 10 plank jack merkins (PJMs), 10 copperhead squats, 10 HRMs, 10 hillbillies, 10 PJMs, 25 LBCs.

    Mosey to the field.

    Field Fun

    Run 100% across the field – 100 SSHs – run back to do freddie mercuries

    Run 75% across the field – 75 one-count mountain climbers – run back to do freddie mercuries

    Run 50% across the field – 50 plank jacks – run back to do freddie mercuries

    Run 25% across the field – 25 HRMs – run back to do freddie mercuries

    Run 10% across the field – 10 burpees – finish with freddie mercuries

    Mosey to the pavilion

    Crush It!

    5 skull crushers one way, 5 skull crushers the other way, 5 derkins, 5 two-count flutter kicks

    10 skull crushers one way, 10 skull crushers the other way, 10 derkins, 10 two-count flutter kicks

    15 skull crushers one way, 15 skull crushers the other way, 15 derkins, 15 two-count flutter kicks

    10 skull crushers one way, 10 skull crushers the other way, 10 derkins, 10 two-count flutter kicks

    5 skull crushers one way, 5 skull crushers the other way, 5 derkins, 5 two-count flutter kicks

    20 skull crushers one way, 20 skull crushers the other way, 20 derkins, 20 two-count flutter kicks

    Mosey to the flag

    Ring of fire – Round 1 with 10 shoulder taps, Round 2 with 10 heels to heaven

    Numerama, Namerama, Announcements, YHC took us out

    Announcements:

    • No Excuses Workout – Saturday, 6/22 at 7:30 am at the Milestone clubhouse parking lot in Mechanicsville
    • Summer tour
    • 5 AOs in Mechanicsville – One for each weekday – Check them out

    NMS:

    The PAX is growing out in DaVille and more guys are engaging. It is exciting to roll into the parking lot and know that the party is going to be a good one. This morning was no exception.

    The COP brought multiple moments of laughter and pain. Opus baited YHC with some hand-release merkins and YHC took the bait. YHC added in one of Opus’ favorite exercises, the plank jack merkins too. Mudface restrained himself and did not blow any kisses toward any other PAX members. That is a great thing since we had a FNG and didn’t want to scare him away.

    It was fantastic to have Chowdah back in the mix and he brought the FNG (along with encouragement from Gigawatt).

    The PAX went to work in the field and knocked out the exercises. They showed themselves to be just as strong, if not stronger, during the skull crushers under the pavilion. YHC called for some directional help from Spit along the way and he helped us “choose our own adventure” in terms of the number and sequence of the exercises.

    The Ring of Fire also brought out the best of the PAX. Mudface’s shoulder taps were legendary and the encouragement flowed like GLOOM sweat all the way around.

    YHC always enjoys the challenge and opportunity to lead the PAX in the gloom and this morning was right up there on the list!

    The Carpenter

  • 10 More on the EZ Dock

    Six SOJ stalwarts welcomed the sun’s arrival on a humid June morning with a DK beatdown that went something like this.

    THANG

    Mosey around BWES entrance loop twice, waiting on stragglers. Quick COP: SSHs & DQs.

    Mosey out of school. PAX given option of turning Left or Right. Left it is. Mosey to JRHS tennis courts for another quick COP: Copperhead squats, Merkins, Flutterkicks

    Line up on side line of one of the tennis courts for BearCrawlBear: bear crawl across width of tennis court and crawl bear back. Rinse & Repeat.

    Mosey down to Robious Park Landing to check out the new EZ Dock along the James River. Face the River in a line, welcome the sunrise, watch out for the crew teams, and get ready for some ground & pound.

    EZ Dock Work: walk out merkins x2, forward lunges, lt. dans, lbcs, hello dollies, slow rosalitas, monkey humpers, plank-o-rama x2, russian soldiers (probably others). Any exercise called OYO lasted about a minute until YHC called for 10 more.

    Time called, mosey about a mile back to VSF.

    COT – YHC took us out with a moment of silence in remembrance of all the lives sacrificed and families forever changed 75 years ago yesterday that allow us to live our lives today.

    Naked Moleskin:

    YHC had no plan upon arrival. A visit to the River was just what YHC needed.

    Next time, we’re going swimming. Get ready for it. We were soaked as it was anyway.

    Doozy was saying something about his hip hurting, then proceeded to lead the PAX on all moseys. TClaps to Rosie for some early morning extra credit.

    Cheers to St. Michael’s Episcopal School’s PE Teacher, Mrs. Martin, for taking out a skull on her own at 5:50am.

    I appreciate the moment of silence in honor of the 75th anniversary of DDay. My Great Uncle was killed storming Omaha Beach and is buried there. He was 24 and left behind a fiance and a full life ahead of him. I cannot imagine losing a sibling, like my grandfather did. This is a picture of Ben with my Aunt when she was a little girl. My dad thinks this picture was taken when Ben was 22. It was the last time Ben was home before he shipped off to England to train for the invasion. What a hero.

  • Giving The Bird

    This was the second route YHC constructed in response to Kubota’s “there are no new routes out of Mary” challenge. It goes something like this:

    4 Milers
    West on Grove
    Left on E Lock Ln
    Cross Cary on a diagonal to the left and take Old Locke Ln
    Take Old Locke Ln as it veers to the right, take to the end and turn around and head back the way you came taking a
    Left on Lockgreen Circle, at the intersection of Lockgreen Court, keep on the Circle
    Run the Lockgreen Circle
    Upon completing the circle, continue on Lockgreen Circle back to Old Locke Lane; take a left
    Cross Cary on a left diagonal onto E Lock Ln, continue on to Grove
    Right on Grove and back to the VSF

    5 Milers
    West on Grove
    Left on E Lock Ln
    Cross Cary on a diagonal to the left and take Old Locke Ln
    Take Old Locke Ln as it veers to the right, take to the end and turn around and head back the way you came taking a
    Left on Lockgreen Circle, at the intersection of Lockgreen Court, keep on the Circle
    Run the Lockgreen Circle
    Upon completing the circle, continue on Lockgreen Circle back to Old Locke Lane; take a left on Old Locke Lane
    After crossing Dover on your right, break left through the tree line onto Pocahontas Ave
    Take Pocahontas until it dead ends on E Hillcrest and take a right
    At the top of the hill, take a right on Hillcrest
    Turn left on Cary and immediate right on Stratford Crescent
    Take a right on Oak Lane and take it to Grove
    Right on Grove and back to the VSF

    6 Milers
    West on Grove
    Left on E Lock Ln
    Cross Cary on a diagonal to the left and take Old Locke Ln
    Take Old Locke Ln as it veers to the right, take to the end and turn around and head back the way you came taking a
    Left on Lockgreen Circle, at the intersection of Lockgreen Court, keep on the Circle
    Run the Lockgreen Circle
    Upon completing the circle, continue on Lockgreen Circle back to Old Locke Lane; take a left on Old Locke Lane
    After crossing Dover on your right, break left through the tree line onto Pocahontas Ave
    Take Pocahontas until it dead ends on E Hillcrest and take a right
    At the top of the hill, continue left on W Hillcrest and go down the hill
    At the bottom of the hill take a left on Hillwood and continue on Charmian
    Charmian will veer to the right, continue to take it and follow its loop (when it hits Poplar, continue on the loop to the left NOT right)
    It will dead end at E Hillcrest and take a right
    At the top of the hill, take a right on Hillcrest
    Turn left on Cary and immediate right on Stratford Crescent
    Take a right on Oak Lane and take it to Grove
    Right on Grove and back to the VSF

    BT informed YHC that Lockgreen Court was a gated community, so we had to improvise at the end to make up the distance. The intrepid 6 milers decided to challenge the perimeter and alarms were triggered at the gate house. 6 milers were deterred. Compound secure.

    A humid morning for a run. Though it could be a lot worse. For example, Handshake had a leg hanging out of the grill of his car. A giant Robin got crushed through the small grill opening. YHC speculates that the bird was going to fly over the car, and then noticed the giant dog on the hood in his path. Opting for the low approach, he met a fatal ending.

    Feeling the need to reciprocate the great HVAC service Handshake provide Saab recently, Saab enthusiastically and quickly volunteered to remove the chicken sized bird. Handshake produced nitrile gloves and Saab began tugging on a leg as the extraction process commenced. With a swift pull and the bird was free.

    Despite attempts to resuscitate the bird, he was pronounced dead and buried under some leaves. If only someone had a shovel for a proper burial…..

    No Tools took us out.

    Always Be Tapering,

    Lockjaw

  • Tossing around some Deadweight

    6 hardy souls came out to the second iteration of The Anvil. Here is how we toiled.

    Mosey to blacktop for COP: SSH, DQ, arm circles, some other stuff. Mosey to track, trying to EH someone along the way, without success (for now). What a welcome sight, a 75 pound sandbag with handles!

    Each PAX took a turn throwing Deadweight (the sandbag) forward, then do a lap around the track, once you catch up, toss it again. Once the PAX had made it a quarter way around, switch to sandbag burpees with a throw at the end, another lap, rinse, repeat until another quarter lap was done. Switch to: throw it forward, next PAX bear crawls to where it lands, they throw it forward, repeat until the last of the track is complete. Mosey to field for Ring of Fire, explosive merkins with handclaps.

    Mosey to the flag, numberama, namerama, Chewy took us out.

    NMS

    Numbers were down this week, but those who showed up got to meet Deadweight, Mudface’s sandbag friend. Mudface tried his best to EH the guy doing laps, he seemed interested (hey, he was already up and here) but didn’t stick around this time. The PAX put in some miles this morning, a little over 3 in total. Not a typical Mudface Q, but we’ve just scratched the surface of The Anvil. YHC and Chewy are familiar with Deadweight, unfortunately, and keep hoping he disappears, but he has now shown up at every Mechanicsville AO. He might go on tour this summer…

    Let’s get more numbers here next week, need to keep this AO going!

    As usual, I have No Idea what I’m doing.

  • D-Day Respect

    Four strong mosey into the well-lit gloom

    The Thang

    Mosey around the school to the bus parking lot

    COP –

    25x SSH

    20x Imperial Walkers

    20x Jville Hops (Hillbillies)

    10x Helicopters

    10x Merkins

    20x LBC’s

    Very short mosey around the curbing to bus parking spot #1.

    Touch a Bus

    1 burpee for each corresponding parking spot number, then run to the bus and back to parking spot number 2 for 2 burpees, and so on, and so on through spot #12.

    Mosey to the light pole alley

    Elevens

    11 of the desired exercise, run to the end for 11 more reps and back to the first light pole passed.  Repeat with the run getting shorter each time.  Exercises were:

    monkey humpers

    WW2

    Star Jacks

    Lunges

    Imperial Squats

    Merkins

    Russian Soldiers

    Mosey to the flag

    COT

    Moleskin

    It was great to have Offshore and Scrum post at Timberwolf.   YHC had not planned to Q this morning but being the lone local wanted to give our guest a proper SOJ experience.  YHC was very thankful when McRib came around the corner to even the numbers. 

    In respect of the D-Day Anniversary McRib Crushed the 75+ burpees during the Touch a Bus exercise.  Special thanks to Offshore for commenting on what another AO may be doing, so SOJ style we added a couple more burpees to cover us until 2022. 

    Speaking of Offshore, he dominated Light Pole Alley.  YHC through a couple of hurdles in to slow him down but to no avail.  Also, Star Jacks appear effortless to this guy!

    Big Shout out to Scrum for crossing the creek.  The 38 minute drive at 0450 deserves respect.  Now if YHC how could only understand the M’ville counting cadence. 

    Great work men!

  • MAKING USE OF THE GRASSY KNOLLS

    10 Strong arrived for a high humidity beat down at the Forge!  YHC arrived on his old Rock Hopper (trail bike) expecting to see some tourists, but none were to be had.  5:30 we were off to the bottom of the hill to the Culdesac. 

    POC: Arm Circles (just for Roper), DQ’s, Hillbillies, Russian Soldiers, Copper Head Squats, American Hammers, Freddie Mercury’s, Hand Release Merkins, 10 to 15 reps each.   

    Stay in circle for a quick warm – 15 each of 2 count Mountain Climbing Merkins, Jump Squats, Burpees. 

    Single file line for an Indian run from the Culdesac to top of hill, intersecting with Forest Hill.  YHC started in front, broke away to perform Burpees while the PAX caught up.  Once caught up, YHC fell back in at the end of the line, while the front person broke away for Burpees.  This continued to the top. 

    Mosey over to the Grassy Knolls – A total of three knolls.  Start at the first one, bear crawl to the crest, run the length, then Crawl Bear down to the “landing” in between knolls.  Perform 15 Carolina Dry Docks, proceed up the second knoll, repeat all the way to end of 3rd knoll.  Wait for PAX, recover, then back in the opposite direction, with WWII’s in between. 

    Mosey to the lower parking lot with multiple street lights positioned around the median.  Partner up, starting at first light and going up hill.  Partner carry to each light, stopping to perform 10 Booyah Merkins, before switching.  A total of 9-10 lights. 

    Mosey back up top for a ring of fire – 10 each Merkins to your liking.  6:15! 

    Number up, Namearama, YHC took us out. 

    Announcements:

    Summer tour-get signed up if you haven’t already (including yours truly)

    6/19 HDHH/Roller Coaster 6PM.  Palani Drive rear parking lot.  Hills at 6, Beers at 6:45

    The much anticipate Home Run Derby! 6/25 behind Robious Elementary.  Gumbo and Chris Berman (back, back, back) will be hosting. 

    NMS:  Great to take the Q for the first time at the Forge.  I can’t believe the grassy Knolls have not been utilized to this point, so good to mix them in.  YHC was driving by around 9:30 last night with his daughter and explained to her that YHC needed to detour briefly to study those knolls.  It was already a late night; she was not impressed!  

    Great work this morning, men!  The humidity made it challenging, but rewarding! 

    Make it a great day, men!

  • D-Day at Mary

    On a nice humid low 70s morning, 14 beasts showed up for a good beatdown from the Fireman.  

    COP (Warm Up) – 6 Don Quixotes (Saab kept going – I think he did 9), 6 OYO burpees, 19 Freddie Mercuries and 44 Side straddle hops.  So the PAX are wondering why the odd #s.  The reason is that on 6/6/1944 the Allies landed on Normandy for what we call D-Day.  After an “appropriate” recovery period we headed down for our first exercise.

    First Exercise: In honor of the 75th anniversary of D-Day, we split up 75 burpees into 19 sets by doing a set of 4 burpees at each tree (1 extra since we are tough).

    Second Exercise: At the next corner we bear crawled and at the first tree did 1 WWII, bear crawled to the next tree, did 2 WWIIs and so on. We stopped at the next corner.

    Third Exercise: We did lunges from the road to half way across the tennis court. I was initially thinking of going all the way across the tennis court but after someone asked when we should stop I stopped halfway.

    Fourth Exercise: We did modified Doras with a partner and did 75 Hand release Merkins, 150 2 count mountain climbers and 300 2 count flutter kicks.

    5th Exercise: We gathered around the monkey bars and we had 2 rings of fire with 2 participants doing 5 chin ups while the others were in plank position, doing derkins or tricep dips. I thought this was going to go around once but the group was so fast we ended with 2 times around and Swirly and Goldberg going 3 times. I guess they love some chin ups.

    Last exercise was 35 American hammers.

    Announcements: Summer Tour still going on, sign up if you haven’t already. Early risers club (or last call for you youngens) is on 6/22 at Dog Pile/Byrd Park. See HoneyDo for details.

    Musings: It was fun Qing Mary for the first time. The group tends to partake in more mumble chatter than at Hoedown or Heartbreak. And yes I am not a “personalized” trainer.

    Welcome Pistorious (FNG). He did a great job keeping up with the burpees, bear crawls and hand release merkins. He works with prosthetics hence the name.

    Lastly, let’s take time to remember those who lost their lives on D-day. Do Great things men!