Category: Richmond, VA

  • Any given Monday

    Two Punisher regulars posted for its most recent offering.  Arriving on foot (walking), YHC waited only a few minutes before Offshore arrived (running) at the AO.  We hit the front yard for a conversational COP with Imaginary Jump Ropes, IWs, DQs, Helicopters, Cherry Pickers, and Arm Circles.

    Mosey around the school to the outdoor classroom for dealer’s choice Lindsays.  Offshore Lindsay to start – Decline Merkins and WWII Sit Ups.  Chum Lindsay follows – Copperhead Squats and 2 Count Mountain Climbers.  Quick lunge walk around the pavilion with a Burpee at each support post.

    Begin dealer’s choice Elevens.  Offshore Eleven to start with American Hammers and Nolan Ryans (each side) – the latter picked up from Offshore’s F3 tourist experience in NOLA – from a Plank, right hand high and punch down under your left armpit and back up – repeat on the other side.  Chum Eleven with 2 Count Dips (elevate each leg and complete a Dip) and Bench Kicks.  We took a jog around a nearby tree somewhere in there Offshore.

    Move to the school wall for sequence of People’s Chair and Elbow Planks – 30 second hold for two-legged Chair and Plank, 15 second hold for one-legged versions.  Mix in 15 second Balls to the Wall and Reverse Planks and finish with 30 second regular Chair and Plank again.  Hit the grass nearby for 100 LBCs and 50 APDs while checking out constellations.  Finish with stretching and COT, and YHC took us out.

  • Cliffhanger Hangs out @ Breaking Bread

    2 dads and 2 sons met up with pots, pans and other assorted cooking implements to feed some folks at Breaking Bread on a Sunday evening.  This is how it all got eaten:

    -Warmup:  lug all Lab Rat’s crap up the steps.  Let Cliffhanger know that he’s cooking.

    -THANG:  The Chicken Bog:  Saute some onions, garlic and sausage and warm up the broth.  Combine above with fresh pulled chicken and rice.  Cook for 20 minutes.  Load up bowls and serve with butter bread.

    Mary:  mint chocolate chip ice cream (plus some other kind, who cares?) plus chocolate chip cookies.

    NMS:  Young Cliffhanger got handed the reigns of tonight’s dinner right out of the gate by the Q, and there was no turning back.  He handled it like a pro though, kid’s got game.  Also, he’s just about as tall as daddy now too.  Toro did a great job of guarding the chair by the door.  To his credit, a room full of strangers is not his wheelhouse.  He complained minimally.

    Somehow, we ran out of food, with BARELY enough to feed the guests (everybody got some, a couple folks got seconds).  Rosie, Toro and Lab Rat took one for the team and skipped the meal.  No worries though, there was plenty of ice cream and cookies for us to calm the rumblings enough to get home and make an alternate supper.  Next time 3 chickens.

    As always, these are some down on their luck folks trying to get by and are super appreciative of a meal.  Thanks to Rosie and Cliffhanger for lending support and knocking dessert out of the park (did I mention the mint chocolate chip ice cream?!?).  Rosie, you should be proud of such a grounded young man you are raising.

    Announcement:

    -November 25th is the last Breaking Bread that needs a Q for the year.  Get some.

     

    Apology of the week goes out to Rosie for no dinner.

     

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • Brocode Prevails at River Run

    9 runners posted for River Run this morning to take on the headwinds and start their week of right.  YHC feeling the after effects of running 12 miles yesterday, wanted deeply to run 1 mile and head for coffee, but that urge was resisted and instead a nice easy BROCODE run was called – around by the high school, across through River Downs South and then River Downs North.  Total mileage varied depending on circling back efforts but somewhere between 4 and 4.8 miles covered at a moderate pace with plenty of conversation and, unfortunately, one turned ankle…sorry Slumlord, hope you got some ice on that bad boy.

    It’s dark men.  Get those headlamps and other reflective gear out.  Let’s be safe.

    A fun recovery run this morning guys.  Thanks for indulging me.

    COT, Number-rama, Name-a-rama and YHC took us out.

    Announcements:

    • Ghost Flag will be up Sat. at Dogpile. Nano region who brings the most qualifying FNGs wins. Adult males 18 and older.
    • Marmaduke continues to collect coats.  Let’s fill his truck up.
    • Shakedown is collecting canned food for FeedMore – let’s fill his bags up
    • I believe the last 8K Training with Healing Place is this Saturday – see Swiper if you can help out
    • RIP brother Grizzly – see Conspiracy’s backblast

    No More Gumbo For You!

  • Another Blow Out at Hoedown

    A lucky 13 pugilists came forth on the day before the penultimate day of October to celebrate the start of the week and the 31st Anniversary of Thomas Hearns winning his fourth boxing title.  The glow-light runners on Forest tell the tale this way:

    COP: Mosey to Church parking lot.  IW’s x 15, IJR x20, Hillbillies x10, SSHs x20, DQs, LBCs x25, Rosalitas, and HRMs x10

    Mosey to the Teacher’s Parking Lot:

    Partner up.
    Round 1: Wheelbarrow across parking lot.  Partner 1 does 10 shoulder presses.  Swap spots, wheelbarrow back.
    Round 2: x15
    Round 3: Q senses brewing revolution…Semi-audible…

    Mosey to the Parent Parking Lot:

    11’s…squats, run the parking lot, run backwards up the asphalt hill, and decline merkins

    Mosey to West Drive Circle for Lindsey: flutter kicks and monkey humpers.  Run West Drive Circle between rounds.

    Mosey back to the Bus Circle:
    Triple check…BTTW, Frederick Mercury, and run the loop.

    Circle up at the SF for one round of Mary…Hello Dollies x10

    Number-a-ma, Name-a-ram-a, YHC took us out.

    Announcements:
    November 3 – Hardywood is hosting FNG Fest with the Ghost Flag at Dogpile. Bring a friend and see whether they have the stuff to be nicknamed “Harambe”
    Marmaduke is collecting coats for the homeless…likely everyone of us has a closet with old stuff in it (YHC certainly does). If you haven’t worn it in 2 winters…consider the pride you will have seeing your coat keeping someone warm this winter.
    BRR…early December.  BT is looking to be persuaded to register. Ankle tape, elbow pads, and a decent rake are all optional.

    NMS:
    Hutton put it very well this morning.  “Did I miss a chili cook off this weekend?”  W.O.W.  The horn section came out in full force.  The PAX took “push yourself, don’t hurt yourself” to the edge.
    YHC was happy to welcome HoneyDo back to Hoedown, thus the Wheelbarrow + Shoulder Press combination…YHC apologizes to the PAX for not including ZingFit in the evolutions.
    YHC continues to be impressed with the PAX’s ability to come up with new ways to count reps. 2-count? 4-count?  By 5’s? By 10’s?   New math abounds…https://boingboing.net/2014/03/10/a-math-teacher-explains-new.html

    Enjoy the day, fellas.

    UpChuck spits the bit.

  • “We Bang ‘Em Out!”

    Seven people who didn’t stay up to watch Boston win another ring posted at Batteau for our weekly edition of Handoff-o-rama. This is how we do it…

    Swirly Q: COP IC – SSHs / DQs / Helicopters / LBCs. Mosey to picnic tables. Incline merkins x 10 … Dips x 15 … Stepups x 20 (10 each leg). Repeato x 3. PAX planks. various formations mixed with 10 HR merkins … 10 knuckle merkins … 10 wide grip merkins.

    Bleeder Q: Crazy 888s. Run figure 8 loop around the driveway by the Stonehouse. Start and finish each lap at the cross-section of the figure 8. At the completion of each lap, bang out 8 Lt Dans and 8 Scorpion kicks. 8 Loops total. Fast PAX ran an extra loop sans excercises.

    Vinny Q: Mosey to pasture on left side of the Stonehouse. Form home base at a tree. Polar Bear to an assigned tree and back. Next – Russian Soliders to next tree and back. Next – crabwalk to next tree and back. Finally – sprint to next tree, bang out five burpees, sprint back to base tree. Mosey back to driveway loop for ascending incline / decline merkins with lunges. To 10. Back to the flag for Mary IC: Heels to Heaven x 10. Crunchy Frogs x 10. American Hammers x 10. 6:15 a.m.

    Faceplant took us out.

    Announcements: Ghost Flag will be up Sat. at Dogpile. Nano region who brings the most qualifying FNGs wins. Adult males 18 and older.

    NMS: Last weekend during CSAUP second F, there were lots of important discussions about many worldly topics. Why wearing jeans is inappropriate. Explaining to TYA what yard khakis are. Seasonal dictations for cords and seersucker, to name a few. Mixed in was the offering by Swirly that we don’t “do merkins,” “we bang ’em out!” We don’t “do SSHs,” “we bang ’em out!” Well said Swirly. I couldn’t agree more. So as we go forth men, don’t do today, bang it out!

  • Pickleball Suicides

    Five of the faithful arrived in the rainy darkness for GridIron gloom. Johnsonville (YHC) took the Q with no particular routines in mind. This is what we got into:

    15x ssh; 10x merkins; Rinse and repeat 3 times (total)
    10 half-burpees in cadence
    other warmup stuff in cadence

    Mosey to pavillion
    20x dips; 10x single leg squats per leg (with back foot on bench)
    repeat
    20x dips; 5x single leg pistol squats (to sit and up)

    Mosey to playground
    3 sets of ten Australians (3 wide, 3 regular, 3 narrow, 1 hold)
    Jerkins 7 to 4

    Mosey to pickleball court
    6 rounds of suicides, followed by planks, followed by a round of a random leg burning exercise in cadence, including shoulder taps, goblet squats, jump squats, Alabama prom dates, etc.

    Mosey to schoolhouse. Traditional triple play with run around pavillion, fullter kicks, and wall sit.

    ring of fire.

    COT with YHC taking us out.

    Moleskin — The cool weather was great, and the rain was tapering off by the time we got moving. During the 4th round of suicides, things were getting gloomier than normal. YHC asked Adderall for a 2 count. Adderall counted down to 10, then did burpees during the final 10. We don’t impress that easily. We were impressed. Great work!

  • KYP

    A hearty 8 1.0’s and 2.0’s made it out to October’s rendition of PuppyPile. After an all night Nor’easter and a legit threat of rain in the area, the normally robust group of 2.0s and 1.0s shrunk a little bit…mainly because most of us exercised the sports adage–KYP. Know Your Personnel. You see, I know my personnel (AKA, my 2.0s) and rain and low 50s wasn’t going to make anyone happy. For us, “Push Yourself, don’t hurt yourself” is a challenge, a badge of honor, a motto to get us to do one more Merican or Burpee. For 2.0s, well, it doesn’t mean the same thing.

    That said, the thought of TYA or Swirly or anyone giving me a hard time for not showing up for a Q was too much to take, so I found myself 2.0-less but out there at 7:05, ready to roll with 7 others who’s personnel has no problems whatsoever with a little rain and cold weather.

    The THANG

    Moseyed to The Carrillon bricks and got into the COT.

    15 Side Straddle Hops
    11 Helicopters
    8 Don Quixote’s
    15 Arm Circles (forwards and reverso)
    Burpees OYO (either your age or 1/4 or your age to the nearest even number)
    Hillbillies

    We then had a quick demonstration on how to do the following exercises…
    Monkey Squatters (verbiage cleaned up for 2.0)
    Polar Bears
    Bear Crawl

    The Pax then moseyed to the activity trail (not sure what the name of that trail is that we did the race on last month) and started at the two chin-up bars. The goal was to do exercises that got us all around the trail, one full lap.

    We started by doing “Relay 11s”

    Pair Up (fortunately, Sippy has two 2.0s at the Q, so I grabbed Blue Collar as my partner)

    One Partner Does 11 Mericans while the other broad jumps (or bunny hops) down the trail. Once the partner catches the jumper/hopper, they switch off. 2 sets

    The Combos–
    Monkey Squats / Broad Jumps
    Mericans / Lunges
    Burpees / Polar Bears (3 sets)

    The Burpee / Polar Bear combination was surprisingly brutal. Could possibly have taken it to a new level for a 2.0 workout.

    From there, we did an Indigenous Person run for about an 1/8th of a mile. Following that, we did the same thing while carrying their partner. Hat tip to Tyson, our 13 year old 2.0 of Sippy, who carried Sippy for that 1/8th of a mile.

    After gathering back up, we did a ‘still trying not to get really wet’ version of Touch a Tree. But this time, we used the exercise stations on the trail which included, but were not limited to…

    -climbing up and over bars around 8 feet in the air
    -parallel bars
    -squats while holding on to a pole

    More indigenous running until we happened upon monkey bars. The Q traversed those with ease.
    More indigenous running until we got to a wall. We all jumped over the wall with relative ease.

    Back to the flag for the Burpee Shuffle. Kudos to our FNG Gamer for calling out three burpees on a day where we did quite a few. Very much throwing down the gauntlet in his 4 1/2 year old 2.0 way.

    After looking at Big Data, Vinny remarked how Puppy Pile, pound for pound, gets the most attendance each time we have it. And he’s right. We have been averaging around forty or so each Saturday that we do it. That number, with the rain and the cool climes, will take a bit of a hit after this weekend. That’s ok, however, as all of us don’t have to worry about sniffles or sick days because we followed through on “push yourself but don’t hurt yourself.”

    Here’s to the weather looking good at the end of November for us to continue Puppy Piles into the winter.

  • How many “…….” did we do?

    19 inspired, hardcore mofo’s arrived this morning to Dogpile hoping that the weather, specifically rain, would ease up slightly (3 PAX members rucking)……0600 and it was time.

    Slow mosey around the Carillon to COP. And yes, YHC had worked on his cadence. And the COP went a little something like this……X 10 Don Quixote’s, x 50 Imperial Walkers, x 10 Invisible Jump Ropes, x 25 Flutter Kicks, x 15 Freddie Mercuries, x 15 LBC’s, and x 25 SSH.  That was enough and mumble chatter was light.

    Mosey down the road toward the pipeline except Upchuck and YHC traded paint there at the gate. Upchuck managed to fall with style and with little down time. My bad Upchuck!! Down the road past the pipeline and toward the toll booth.

    Nickel Bridge= starting at the toll booth, run to each light and perform x 5 Burpees and alternate with x 5 Merkins. Lead PAX member goes to the top of Westover Hills and back across the bridge. Trailing PAX turn around once leader had lapped them. YHC believes there are 15 light posts. Respect to the leaders this am!! However, PAX was unable to return to the start due to Toll Booth Wilma telling Bleeder that the PAX was on private property at the start. Thanks to Bleeder for directing the PAX to Road Closed sign on Pump House Road. YHC arrived with PAX planking and time to mosey up Love Hill!

    Thank you goes out to Slurpee and Abba for headlamps and Bleeder with the ankle strobe.  Lighting Love Hill was extremely beneficial. Once at the top, circle up on grass infield.

    Super 21= 1 Merkin, 1 Situp; 2 Merkins, 2 Situps; 3 Merkins, 3 Situps, up to 21. And IC!! Super awesome!! Slight amount of extra credit but PAX dug deep and water was found. 0703…..mosey back to the flag with Puppy Pile observing!

    Number-ama, Name-r-ama, Announcements-there were none! Weird….

    YHC took us out!

    NMS: Dear PAX, hope the cadence was better. Upchuck, sorry about the fall but 2 years at F3 with no fall is pretty good….great recovery time! YHC has a yellow bracelet for you.

    Bleeder-glad F3 Cooperate  was there to speak with Toll Booth Wilma regarding PAX being on private property. FFS….really!

    Hardywood-thanks for the final push at 19, 20, 21! Way to motivate!

    ET’s makes my week!!

    Only those who post understand.

    Loud and Proud,

    Flatline

  • You Might as Well Jump!

     

    3, … wait,      now 4, wait…       now ….  8 steadfast and brave warriors filed in this morning for a VH beatdown.

    Rock and Roll Slaughter Starter — 15 burpees

    COP —
    arm circles, DQ, angled knee jumps, one legged merkins, jump squats

    Love Lot —
    One partner runs the length of the lot and back, other does board jump burpees, exchange places, keep going till the end is reached.

    BoxJumpaLooza
    Pick a bench — 2 box jumps, run to the road 4 box jumps, run , repeato until 10 box jumps have been done

    VH Trivia contest — right answers are 5 burpees, wrong answers are bear crawl down and up the hill plus 5 burpees (answers in the NMS)
    1) In which country were the Van Halen’s born?
    2) Name the two other singers VH has had besides David Lee Roth?
    3) On what Michael Jackson song does Eddie Van Halen have a guitar solo?
    4) What color M and M’s did the band insist be removed at every gig? (true story)
    5) Who played clarinet for the band on one of their songs?
    6) What famous rocker signed Van Halen to their first contract?

    Pull out the speaker and the spotify for the classic “Jump”!

    Intro — plank
    drums kick in — mountain climbers
    verse — merkins
    pre chorus — angled knee jumps
    chorus — big jump on “JUMP”s little jumps in between
    solos — sideways bear crawls around the circle, both ways, forward and back
    interlude — back to plank

    Mary —
    flutters, scissors, freddies, heels to heaven, am hams

    Numbers, Names, announcements

    NMS —
    1) the Netherlands (got it right)
    2) Sammy Hagar, Gary Cherone (from Extreme — the More Than Words band) (missed)
    3) Beat It (missed)
    4) Brown (missed)
    5) Jan Van Halen, their father (got it — kind of)
    6) Gene Simmons (got it w/help)

    This whole workout was based on the routine I came up with for the song “Jump”.  The lads did a pretty good job on the trivia, but they could have done better. Mudface said that he would do much better on a genre called Black Metal.  No Idea what that is.   No one came dressed in spandex with a hole cut out of their butt, but Emoji did show up this morning with some wacky looking beard and hair.  It looked like an ancient medieval wizard get-up.  It did make us laugh though when he tried to do the burpees at the beginning with it on.

    See you all in the gloom
    Opus

     

  • Rest In Peace Grizzly

    Rest In Peace Grizzly

    Folk,

    This may be a first for F3 RVA. Grizzly, aka Chuck Friend, pass away on Tuesday after a year long battle with gallbladder cancer. To me, he was a friend, a neighbor, and a protector of this great country.

    Grizzly posted to grid iron in the early days, along with his neighbor Short Shank (maybe the worst F3 name ever).  He was always in great spirit and maximum effort, even if it was a ground pounding.

    Grizzly’s obituary reads as follows:

    FRIEND, Charles Lunsford, 58, lost his battle with gallbladder cancer on October 23, 2018. He was preceded in death in January by his beloved mother, Rosemary Thomasson. Chuck fought with strength, faith and courage to the very end. He spent his career as a U.S. Secret Service Agent and worked most recently as a Senior Manager with Altria Corporate Security. Chuck leaves behind to cherish his memory, his wife, Karen; adored children, Kevin and Emily; devoted son-in-law, Christopher Brown; brother, John Friend (Sandie); sisters, Emily Friend (Gray) and Dr. Jean Cary (Dave); along with his mother and father-in-law, Bob and Marilyn Snow. Visitation will be held at Woody Funeral Home, 1771 N. Parham Rd., Richmond, Va. 23229, on Friday from 5:30 to 8 p.m. A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, October 27, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. A reception will immediately follow at Richmond Country Club. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to St. Mary’s Church Haiti Fund c/o Dr. David Gilligan, 1700 Habwood Ln., Richmond, Va. 23238 or Ledwith-Lewis Free Clinic, Box 2313, Tappahannock, Va. 22560.

    Eternal Respect to Grizzly.