Category: Richmond, VA

  • The Long Cut

    By 0700, a PAX of 3 including 1 K9 had emerged from the gloom, ready to take full advantage of an extra hour. The North Bank Trail was closed between the pump house and Maymont – the word is that the stairs are under repair, likely through this week.

    So, the PAX took the long cut to Texas Beach, picked up North Bank to Belle Isle, and took Buttermilk back. The mosey clocked in at 7.75 miles on Marco Polo’s app. The PAX knocked out 100 merkins on the Merkin Challenge along the way.

    There is still time to sign up for the Merkin Challenge! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-L8e9W24ygnU0suaGyKxzi1PgPqY1CBd57hLrKTZI-g/edit#gid=2105645288

    The Merkin Challenge was a big turning point physically for YHC when YHC first participated. YHC encourages newer F3 members to give it a shot. Some advice: 1. Try knocking out sets of 20 merkins during TV commercials (or during breaks at work, or whatever else you are doing), 2. As you start to get more reps in, avoid injury by not dropping down too fast, especially on hard ground.

  • Happy November, Let’s Destroy Our Arms

    It’s the beginning of November, and that means the beginning of the Merkin Challenge, and that means a great day to have a shoulders/arms/chest/back beatdown. Here’s how it went down:

    COP:SSHx25//Helipcopterx5//DQx10//Emperial Walkersx10//Russian Soldiersx10//LBCsx25// Crabcakesx10//Merkinsx10 (all in cadence)

    Carrillon Field: Bearcrawl the width, 10 merkins, Crawlbear back // Polarbear across and back // Wheelbarrow across, 10 merkins, switch and come back

    Big Triangle Loop: Run to the bottom, Bernie Sanders back up the hill, American Hammersx10//Squatsx10//Merkinsx10. 3 Loops (audible on 5 loops called after YHC realized we would be there til noon). PAX did 10 werkins and 10 diamonds as we waited for the six

    Rusty Cage: partner up, 10 pull ups//10 jerkins x3.

    Amphitheater: Start at the top step with 18 V-Ups. Shifted to WW2s at Step 15, shifted to LBCs at step 10. // 5 Box Jump Burpees at the bottom as we waited for the six. // Back up the Steps with Incline Merkins, 1 on Step 1, 2 on Step 2, and so forth, for a total of 170 Incline Merkins.

    COP for the six, core exercises.

    Sprint back to the flag. Numerama, Namerama. COT

    NMS: So great to see Double Bag and Loveseat post today! Also Tadpole from Connecticut. It was an awesome temperature and so fun to be out there with all of you. I’m not entirely sure how many merkins we did, but I believe it was 300 if you count the jerkins (is that allowed?).

    SYITG.

  • Cold or being Fat “Murph”

    10 strong for the Murph today with an option for advance route on the last mile up Twin Team!
    Mossy to the main playground = 1mile
    10 rounds of the below with each round consisting of the following exercises.
    • 10 pullups
    • 20 Merkins
    • 30 squats
    After we completed the 10 rounds 3 headed back to the parking lot = 1 mile and 7 headed up twin team = 1 mile
    COT, Name-a-rama, Number-rama
    Good work today by all and it was nice to add the twist running up twin team on the last mile!

  • Trochanteriosis (yes, you have this)

    13 runners started, so 13 runners must have finished. Start times, routes, and paces varied. No bikers were present or accounted for. Best anyone can tell, temps were sunny and 70.

    The security cameras recorded someone starting at 3:45. Two someones. How do you train for a half-marathon? Run 15 miles. Yeah, do the math. Well done, Lug Nut and Bleeder.

    Those who started at 05:00 headed west on Grove, turned past St. Chris, then east on Patterson, and looped back somewhere ’round The Arthur Ashe Boulevard before coming back to the ranch.

    Those starting at 5:30 headed east on Grove before turning north on Malvern and proceeding across Broad to Westwood. 5’s turned around at Laburnum. 6’s turned east on Laburnum, and turned around at Lynwood Holton.

    Number-ama, Name-a-rama, Marv took us out with a message about genuine love.

    Announcements:

    Stache for Cash hit the mark. Well done, fellas.

    NMS:

    Slow start to the chatter this morning. YHC tried to goad Handshake into one of his good stories of lore. Not having it. YHC shared a practical joke about a man and a person who walked like a woman and talked like a man (a “Lola,” if you will). Yet, still, relatively modest chatter.

    Who knew that Lola himself would, on the last mile, jump start the conversation with the word trochanteriosis, or at least that’s what YHC thinks Lola said. Inflammation of the hip. Ask him about it. Good stuff.

    UpChuck spits the bit.

  • Measuring Tape

    7 prime guys came out for the 1st day of a merkin challenge. This is what went down…

    Hallelujah Run around the lot

    COP–
    20 merkins, arm circles, 20 wide merkins, DQ’s, 10 tempo merkins, hackeysackers, 10 diamond merkins, ball dippers, 20 uneven curb merkins

    Mosey to Track in back
    CMIYC –1 partner does a broad jump and 5 lunges — repeato until partner catches up
    Partner 2 does 15 hand release merkins then catches up to Partner 1

    Touch a bus/car/truck modified DORA
    Complete the following exercises as a team while one partner touches a different vehicle every time:
    50 merkins
    100 Jump Squats
    150 Merkins
    100 Jump Squats
    50 Merkins

    back of school
    number off —
    #1 runs to pull up bars, does 5 pull ups
    on turn around #2 starts running to meet #1, do 5 boo ya merkins
    Continue until all are done
    While waiting the PAX continues with more merkins (or wall sits as an alternative)

    various runs back to the flag
    increasing merkin ring of fire — PAX reached 4 before YHC called time

    County tax dollars hard at work this morning when the maintenance guy comes to the back of the AO and parks his truck where we are doing the merkins, takes a measuring tape out and kind of measures the width of the blacktop path and then goes on his merry way. Hmm…? Was he really there to measure that small piece of pathway or was he checking in on us? Who knows? Anyways, what did measure up this morning was the PAX. They crushed it without too much complaining. What more could a Q ask for?

    SYITG!

  • ET legs

    6 men climbed out of bed, tired from staying up to watch the Nationals win their FIRST WORLD SERIES! Time to get moving.

    COP: SSH, helicopters, DQ, Freddie Mercuries, merkins. Mosey to field.

    20 of each of these: merkins, boxcutters, plank jacks, Helix squats, mountain climbers, LBC’s. In between exercises alternate bear crawl and lunges, 10 each, until you reach the end of the field, turn around and repeat.

    Mosey to top of hill near second playground, Dora time! Partner up, 100 Freddie Mercuries, 200 2-count flutter kicks, 300 SSH. Timer runs to the end of the third playground and back. Mosey to inside perimeter of school, time to work the abs. 20 heels to heaven, 40 something I can’t remember, 60 LBCs. In between each run around the inside perimeter. People’s chair for the six.

    Mosey to flag for ring of fire, which was mostly variations on merkins. Numberama, namerama, YHC took us out.

    NMS

    YHC was supposed to Q The Anvil 2 weeks ago, but his M’s sickness had him begging out at the last minute. So, as YHC already had a workout prepared baseball watching was possible. Great to see the Nats win (sorry Glide) their first title. The PAX was awesome today, and Emoji brought the Halloween theme with a red light headlamp that lit his legs up while doing LBC’s like ET’s finger, as noted by Mudface. The SSH during Dora were challenging as the PAX ended up about 20 feet back of where they started due to a slight decline.

    Merkin Challenge sheet is up for November, here’s the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-L8e9W24ygnU0suaGyKxzi1PgPqY1CBd57hLrKTZI-g/edit?fbclid=IwAR1tl11gTibRBc38OGvP7sdmN2kTOpleTQifi8oElayQWFrbxb0LBI_VTYQ&pli=1#gid=2105645288

    As usual, I have No Idea what I am doing

  • 2019 Merkin Challenge

    2019 Merkin Challenge

    It’s November so you know what that means. Time to work on those guns and bust out some Merkins

    5000 is the goal but it’s always You vs You (I know Swirly has gone 10k+ almost everything year). Here is the link to the page to sign up!

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-L8e9W24ygnU0suaGyKxzi1PgPqY1CBd57hLrKTZI-g/edit?usp=sharing

  • 2,8,17,28,31,45,48,70

    The 31st of October brought 8 warriors and 2 taperers to 45MOM to help YHC celebrate Family Week. This year is 17 years of marriage, 28 years of friendship, and my M’s 48th b-day. Temps were sunny, 70, and muddy.

    COP: Mosey to the blacktop for…

    SSHs, IW’s, arm circles, scorpion kicks (soak it up, boys!), HRMs, LBCs, and reverse crunches, all in cadence and capping out at a random number of YHCs choosing.

    Mosey to the tennis courts for 4.8 Corners:

    Progressive four corners with the addition of an extra 0.8 to get the PAX to 48. Exercises were HRMs, squats, LBCs, flutter kicks, and SSHs.

    Mosey back to the blacktop for 11’s, except that, in honor of the Nats, the PAX did 6, for the 6 runs the Cats scored last night. (YHC notes that the prior explanation is a bunch of self-justifying poppy-cock…YHC has done this exercise previously (thank you, F3 Patriot), and 6 is about the right number of reps, so YHC thanks the Nats, about whom he could care less, for providing a nice justification. Go Cubs.)

    Exercises were burpees and 4x4s.

    Mosey to the front of the school (the dark side which does not feel like the front) for a special Dora, Halloween-style. The treat was 50 derkins (per man), 200 monkey jumpers (per team), and 300 flutter kicks (per team). The trick was a special coupon (not the normal F3 type of coupon, but a real coupon): any man who has carved a pumpkin or helped a young person carve a pumpkin can take 10% off any of the exercises. Not sure if there were any redemptions.

    Mosey BTTF for some Mary:

    Dolly, American Hammers, Rosalitas, Frederick Mercurys, and WWIIs closed us out, mostly in normal cadence, but YHC rolled out last, special Halloween treat with the often requested, rarely heard Lawrence Welk cadence. Take it away, fellas.

    Announcements:

    Saab and TYA are tapering. Some 50k, non-ultra race on Sunday. Crush it, gentlemen.

    Stache for Cash…last day. If you find a month of Vinny and Gumbo looking like 70’s porn stars to be horrifying, remember, it’s for a good, F3-related charity (Raise!). Close your eyes to the Hawaiian shirts, chest hair, and lip-fuzz and help us get over the line. Today. Do it today.

    NMS:

    A little wet, a little muddy, and a little balmy…YHC found today to be a fantastic morning to be outside with you all. YHC thanks each you for joining.

    Great work all around. Roxanne continues to push and make steady progress. Way to stick with it. Keep it up.

    YHC’s M thanks each of you for celebrating her birthday, F3-style with a beatdown. From her heart, though, she thanks you for 3.5 years of helping YHC be a better father, husband, friend, and man. And, for that, we both thank each of you thoroughly.

  • Spooky Southside

    9 strong gathered at the Forge for a what may be one of the last warm mornings for a while. All treats, no tricks today. A Nationals pennant, no bench kicks, 5 waterfalls instead of 8, a solid PAX to welcome a west end regular… the list could go on. Here’s how it went down:

    Mosey to the upper lot for a warmup: 20 x SSH, 10 x HC, 10 x DQ, 10 x Merkins, 15 x LBC.

    Mosey to the bottom of the hill near the bleachers to start our excursion with a round of 11’s. Jump squats at the bottom of the berm, crawl bear up to WWII’s, then bear crawl down. Plank for the six.

    Mosey up to the school for a triple check. Timer runs to the base of the inclined ramp and Bernie back up to the top. Plank jacks and American hammers round out the triple. Al Gore for the six.

    Mosey to the base of the parking lot for a tricep waterfall. PAX members SSH at bottom while two at a time PAX members set off for 8x dips at each concrete barrier. MH’s at the top until the six arrives. Head back down the waterfall with another 8x dips each level, PAX starts with Freddie Mercuries and ends with flutter kicks in cadence.

    Mosey to the next parking level for a quick round of 10 x jerkins each, then bear crawl across the pavement to 20 x PLT’s. Head back to the flag and wrap up with a value add of 5 x burpees OYO.

    Numbers, names, announcements & YHC took us out

    Announcements: Midnight deadline tonight for Stache for Cash – see details in other posts.

    Moleskin: It was a treat to lead a great group at a new venue for YHC this morning. Strong showing by all, including Cooper Try Hard (respect!). YHC didn’t realize there are two waterfall opportunities at the Forge and had planned on the 8 barrier version… PAX got off easy. Next time we’ll bring the full waterfall and throw in some Tuckahoe classics like over/under walkway climbs, bench kicks and Heartbreak ridge repeats. Until then – GP

  • LIFO gets the backblast

    4 men showed up, one slightly later than others, to hot potato a KB Q. Here is what happened.

    Mudface Q: COP, inchworms, SSH, Imperial Walkers, stuff YHC missed as a LIFO

    Chewy Q: Walk the bus loop, stopping at each light for 1 burpee, 10 goblet squats, 5 demon crushers, walk to next light doing around the worlds, repeat til the end of the loop.

    Trout Q: Start at one side of bus loop, 10 burpees and 10 overhead presses, bear crawl to side of school, 10 donkey kicks, run back. 5 reps.

    Mudface part deux Q: Bear crawl with KB five times, rotate 180 degrees, keep going same direction using crawl bear, repeat.

    No Idea Q: 11’s with halos and 2 hand swings, farmer carry between, then boat/canoe called out by Chewy.

    Numberama, namerama, YHC took us out.

    NMS
    YHC was a LIFO today, and the rest of the PAX voted that he had to do the backblast. Sometimes democracy sucks. The PAX all brought it today, especially Trout, who one day, maybe, just maybe, will do his own Q and not just be part of a hot potato. Although judging by his hot potato Q’s, that VQ will be brutal. Next week has at least 1 opening, just saying….

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