Category: Richmond, VA

  • River Run Rollercoaster Sans the View

    7 road warriors broke the hold this morning and started their work week off with a few miles, up and down and up and down again…The River Downs Roller Coaster was the order of the day….well, for those of us on time.

    Vinny miscalculated the time it would take to make it through customs this morning and arrived a minute or so late – just enough time to catch a glimpse of Bleeder’s bright orange shirt, but not close enough to follow the scent.  Nonetheless, Vinny put in some lonely miles around the James River park.

    Rosie and DeVito took off like bandits and crushed the entire roller coaster.  Way to go guys.

    All in all, a great start to the week, and the sweat was rolling (and frankly, still is on YHC).  Great job guys!

    Have a great day!

    No More Gumbo For You!

  • Shorts and skins

    7 two legged and one four legged beast posted for a Sunday morning run. Route was across to the buttermilk, forest hill loop and then back on access road.

    NMM

    Great day for a run in the RVA.  Vinny continues to push himself to new and higher heights every week. He found out this week that Forest Hill is a little more challenging than the normal buttermilk, northbankt loop.  But persevere he did…the guy is a beast.

    Great to have Lab Rat back out there today after a little hiatus from the trail run.  Also good to have a college classmate of Offshore’s Lt. Zika out there.  He is a commander in the Health Services and works of the CDC.  Nice guy and a good runner.  Today was his first day out on the trails.  He did well.

    We all stopped at the river on the way home and took a quick dip in the water.  The stop was about 1 mile from the finish.  The water did a good job of cooling the body down, and with the breeze coming back over the bridge, I was almost completely dry when we got back to the car.

    TYA OUT

     

  • While your dad is away, let me tell you what a Libertarian is.

    37 Warriors including several 2.0s came out for the rarest of rarities, a Lockjaw Dogpile Q.

    Long mosey down the road to the far circle beyond the Carillon.

    COP

    • Arm Circles (Flashdance was present)
    • Helicopters
    • SSH
    • Don Quixote
    • Russian Soldiers
    • Imperial Walkers

    Line up on the street heading downhill for 11s:

    10 Carolina Dry Docks, 1 Captain Thor; Bear Crawl 10 paces for the next series of reps

    Trot down the road a bit and turn into Pump House Park, cross the canal and hang a right heading to the end of the line maybe 150 yards down.  Partner up for Dora!

    • Partner 1 runs the loop back to the pump house and back (perhaps the longest run to date for Dora)
    • Partner 2 does 100 Copperhead Squats, 200 Monkey Humpers 300 Flutter Kicks

    Mosey on back to the pump house and return to the road at the bottom of the pipeline.

    Triple Check!

    • Partner 1 – Run up the pipeline and back down the trail
    • Partner 2 – Elbow Plank,
    • Partner 3 – American Hammers

    Mosey down the road to Love Hill and run most of the way up.  Lunge walk the remainder of way until the 6 catches up, run to the Shovel Flag.

    YHC asked Flashdance and Fudd to each say a little something to take us out.

    NMS

    Wow!  37.  It’s like a mini convergence.  Great to see so many familiar and new faces.  The following happened, more or less.

    The Pax explored new territory in Pump House Park heading almost all the way to the end to where George Washington once enjoyed lunch while waiting to discuss the Kanawha canal project with others.  Alas, they stood him up and he had his lunch.  So when you were laying down doing your flutter kicks, GW might have had a nap in that precise location.

    On the the pipeline is where most of today’s humor landed.  When Flashdance is partnered with Hardywood (and someone else), hilarity ensured.  Hardywood used each time Flashdance was running the pipeline to impart his wisdom to Flashdance’s 2.0.

    Round 1 – “Do you know what a Libertarian is?”  Taxation explained with a PB&J and the government taking their share.

    Round 2 – Adding honey to your PB&J when it is a controlled substance.  The government places you in prison with those who blow up sandwiches.

    Round 3 – Estate Planning – Once the government takes most of the sandwich, your sister lives off of what’s left rest with a drummer from a band.

    At least Flashdance didn’t need to explain Monkey Humpers on the way home.

    There was a bit of running today.  Someone clocked us about 3.4 miles.  Well, I guess that is what the Pax gets when YHC does not get his Friday RAMM Q.

    We had two FNGs today, both of which we changed their names.  Welcome FNGs Callahan and Safety Dance.  Callahan was temporarily named Sparks then we changed it to Dingo, then Tommy Boy, before YHC landed on Tommy Boy’s last name of Callahan.  Callahan will serve this FNG with more versatility.

    YHC changed Polamalu to Safety Dance since he played safety on the University of Richmond football team.  He is wicked fast and came full speed today.

    TYA and Snowden joined us at ETs.

    Announcements:

    • June 15 – Amateur RAMMs Gears day.  Bring your Schwinn.  Bring your Huffy.  Bring some money for Starbucks.  See Lockjaw.
    • June 23 – Puppy Pile – Bring those 2.0s for a Sippy Cup beat down.
    • July 4 – Convergence at the Tredegar.  Kubota has Q.
    • Fudd and Flashdance are leaving town.  Mr. Roper is leading a a HDHH in their honor.  Pre-blast pending.

    Time to Taper,

    Lockjaw

     

  • Melting Pot

    A group of Gridiron warriors were joined by guests from North Carolina, RVA PAX checking the Gridiron AO off their summer tour list, and the humidity.   This melting pot of 13 strong redwoods engaged in a traditional Gridiron beatdown, and here is what transpired:

    • COP
      • 25 SSH
      • 20 Russian soldiers
      • 15 DQ
      • 25 FM
      • 10 2x merkins
      • 15 Scorpion Kicks
      • 15 Pickle Pounders
      • 20 Helicopters
    • Mosey to the grassy knoll for 10 minutes of burpees
    • 40 APD
    • Mosey to the football field for a Lindsay with dips and heels to heaven
    • Mosey to the school field for a beast
      • Scorpion dry docks
      • WWII sit-ups
      • Storm squats
      • Crab cakes
      • LBC
      • Merkins
    • Mosey to back to the football field for an abbreviated arch loader
      • Bear crawl
      • Crawl bears
      • Bunny hop
    • Circle up for a ring of fire (10 merkins)
    • COT with YHC taking us out

    Great to have our visitors from North Carolina join us.  If you have not met Gypsy, he is part of the Charlotte crew that has expanded the F3 flag, and he is joining workouts all over the country this summer.  Our tour of the Richmond AO’s is nothing compared to the stamps on his F3 passport.  Also, he did an hour long run before joining us, working up a good lather.  No sense in rattling his cage, even White Deer figured that one out.  The remaining NC guests were welcomed additions.  Yukon got double respect at COT, and Liverpool felt right at home joining in White Deer’s early mumble chatter.  Also, excited for the guests from various parts of RVA during the summer tour.  Good to see Offshore and Opus today.  Definitely something worthy of thanksgiving during COT.

    Strong effort from all of the PAX today as we kept a good pace in spite of the rising humidity.  Summer of Gridiron burpees has begun in earnest!

    God is good all the time!

    Attila

     

  • The Creek gets an R rating

    COP all IC

    SSH x 15

    Merkin x 1

    Helicopters x 10

    Crabcakes x 1

    Arm Circles x 10 small, 5 Big, Reverso

    Mosey to the dew covered freshly mowed field

    Belching (this is what it is named in the Exicon)

    Pax lines up face down

    Q says go

    PAX sprints 10 strides and hits the deck

    One merkin, one WWII situp

    Low crawl forward or back to line the PAX back up

    Repeat until they reach the end of the field

    Mosey back to the parking lot

    Four Corners Ascending

    Run to each corner and perform 10 burpees

    exercises added to the bottom of the burpee at each corner

    1st – 1 Hand Release Merkin

    2nd – 1 Hand Release Merkin, 2 WWII sit-ups

    3rd – 1 Hand Release Merkin, 2 WWII sit-ups, 3 2 count Mountain Climbers

    4th – 1 Hand Release Merkin, 2 WWII sit-ups, 3 2 count Mountain Climbers, 4 Alabama Prom Dates

    Yard Sale asked if we could do them again and YHC hates to disappoint the PAX.

    Four Corners Descending

    APD replaced with LBC’s because some things can never be unseen

    Work the corners back down to Hand Release Merkin Burpees

    Mosey back to the flag

    one Turkish get up each side and one Boat/Canoe to eat up time

    Announcments

    Summer Challenge is going on

    Puppy Pile 6/23 0705

    July 4th Convergence

    Numberama

    Namearama

    Chewy took us out

    NMS

    The Belching was just good, wet, messy fun that looked interesting while reading through the list of routines.

    YHC watched a video of a lady beating the world record for burpees in 60 minutes (1,490) with form that would get you mercilessly mocked at any AO that YHC has been to. This lead to too much though about burpees and all the fun things that can be done with them. That gave YHC an opportunity to get his work in for the Swamp Rabbit challenge as well. Tea Party and The Carpenter tore this one up. Aperently YHC will have to step up his Qing game if he hopes to challenge those two in the future.

    It was necessary to change out APD after watching the form and technique of Yard Sale, that along with the noises that he was making this morning was definitely NSFW. There is not enough brain bleach in the world for that image. YHC was just glad that he did not have to explain that to his kids on the way home.

    Proud father moment, when Chewy went back to the second corner to check on Ewok who was having some trouble and then staying with him until he finished the last corner. YHC seeing his oldest 2.0 go back and make sure that his youngest 2.0 was ok was almost enough to give him a feeling. Coincidentally, at that same time some dust got in YHC’s eye and he had to blink a lot to get it out.

    Thanks for letting me lead

     

     

     

     

     

  • My Tits Are Still Sore, Hardywood.

    Twenty three skaters (no healthy scratches) and 4 men of gears came forth from The Fart Sack to celebrate Lord Stanley’s version of the morning after party.  While what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, what happens at RAMM the morning after a CAPS victory in Vegas goes into the backblast.

    The Thang:

    Hockey Stick Route…Grove (the blade) to Malvern (the shaft).  Continue as Malvern becomes Westwood which in turn becomes Saunders.

    Forwards (4 milers) turn around at top of railroad bridge
    Defensemen (5 milers) turn around at Saunders and Laburnum
    Long-shifters for the 6 milers…right on Laburnum to Hermitage (site of The Punisher).
    Double shifters… (TYA, Swirly, any others?) put in eight on another route.  Well done.

    Reverso back to the Flag.

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

    Announcements:

    June is TYA Clothing Drive Month.  No better way to give back than to help a brother in need.  Special focus on size-large shirts and shorts/cover-ups (NO NUT-HUGGERS).

    June 15 at RAMM: Huffy Gears…bring your poor, tired, huddle mass of a bike…Huffy, Schwinn, Big Wheel…have an orange flag on a bike?  Bring it.  Have a playing card clothes-pinned to the spokes?  Bring it.

    June 16 at Dogpile.  Field Day workout.  Wear a shirt relevant to your elementary school experience.  See Vinny for details (or see the Pre-Blast).

    June 23 Puppy Pile, Part Deaux…BYO 2.0s.  Sippy Cup has the Q.

    July 4 Convergence at Tredegar at 7 a.m.  Kubota leading…

    Summer Challenge…visit every AO between the Saturday prior to Memorial Day and Labor Day.  Bonus points for hitting the Convergences.  Double-bonus points for posting to an out of town AO.  Triple bonus points for Nomad / Down Range with at least one non-family member.  Note: there are no official Bonus Points.

    Get your BRR training started…hit a running workout.  Sunday Funday, Wednesday Hill Run, RAMM, or any workout with the words “Twin Team” in the title…

    Moleskin:

    Great morning for a run.  Perfect weather, with even the humidity mildly cooperative for YHC’s Second Anniversary with F3.  YHC has been with F3 so long and he’s now so old that he even botched the facts of his own first post today during the COT.  Why wait to get old to tell stories incorrectly when YHC can start now?  For the record, first post was a W-Dog with Bleeder having the Q, and Hardywood nursing YHC back to the Flag with the age-old question,”How you doing, pal?” on the run back….  With apologies to both Virginia Slims and Fatboy Slims, YHC has come a long way, baby.  Thank you, fellas, for pushing my mind, body, and spirit.  It’s been a pleasure to have you all as role models.

    As for the route, rumor had it that YHC’s beloved Washington Capitals exorcised their demons and won Lord Stanley’s Mug last night.  YHC is not creative enough to design a Stanley Cup Route, so the Hockey Stick Route will have to do.

    As many are aware, YHC basically gave up watching CAPS hockey on TV due to stress, anger issues, superstition, hair loss, and biting of finger nails.  Other than that, YHC loves the CAPS.  Some of YHC’s fondest memories of growing up are of listening to the CAPS on AM radio with his brother, who introduced him to the team when the family moved to the DC area in 1982.  Don’t get YHC wrong, he is happy to have a full Capitals Bandwagon…but here are a few things YHC remembers from the days of old…why Yvon Labre’s jersey is retired, #5, Bobby Carpenter getting pummeled while covering his head on the ice like a baby, Mike Gartner’s mustache, Dale Hunter trying to kill another player well after the game ended, losing to the Islanders in like 27 overtimes, thinking Jagr was the savior, watching three of the best players on the team get shipped out for sexual misconduct (then watching some of them win the Cup elsewhere), Ron Hextall, Pittsburgh, the Rangers, Martin St. Louis (think: Bucky F-ing Dent), Filip Forsberg, being up 3-0 or 3-1 in the playoffs, owning the President’s Trophy, losing every overtime playoff game ever, and, of course, being tweaked by Kubota and Vinny this year for being a Nervous Nelly.

    Prior to last night, there was exactly ONE stellar Washington Capitals moment…YHC’s first real date with his M was to a CAPS playoff game.  Because the CAPS have been able to foul up any situation, why stop on that evening?  The Penguins eliminated the CAPS from the playoffs that night with Darius Kasperitis even returning to the ice to give the whole stadium the bird.  YHC’s M is not a big hockey follower, yet considers herself a Pittsburgh fan because of the civic spirit of the community and how good a guy Mario Lemieux is.  Seriously.  It’s been a living penance.

    YHC has managed three times to watch games, or portions of games, alone, usually in a hotel, often with a piece of plexiglass installed between the TV screen and YHC.  (No actual screens were harmed in the creation of this back blast).

    So, with that, YHC is really darn happy today.  And, YHC hopes BT’s tits feel better.

    And, Big Data wants to know if 6 milers get to count today as visiting The Punisher.

  • CAPS theme is back on at TT

    2, no 3, no 4 arrived at different times to celebrate the Caps Stanley Cup victory at Twin Team. We did:

    Lap around Parking lot for stragglers, picked up Boudreaux and then COP of: ssh, Don Qs, Merkins, Lbcs, Helicopters, Imperial Walkers.

    Triple check: Elbow Plank, Bunny hops over planker, 3rd guy runs field & back. Flipper arrived halfway through to throw off our numbers.

    Head to playground: Caps won 4 games in 4 playoff rounds, 4 sets of 4 Pull-ups.

    Head to baseball stands. Caps point total for regular season was 105 so 105 Benchkicks, broken into 3 sets with 10 Derkins between set. Then 16 Box Jumps for the 16 total playoff wins.

    Head around back to field: 3 sets of 25 PLTs. Then 8 sets of parking lot Sprints. Bear Crawl field, some Mary then 8 Burpees for the Great #8.

    NMS- YHC forced himself to post by signing up for the Q. YHC had a Caps theme planned but when Vegas went up 3-2 in the 2nd chose to head to bed prematurely. YHC was pleasantly surprised waking up from a text from Vinny at 5 am as he was aware of the Caps fun. Theme back on!

    Few things are as scary as a Q with just Rosie the solo Pax. What can a Q do to challenge or slow him down? YHC was mentally preparing to resort to 45 min of bear crawl as we 2 started then Boudreaux arrived to give us 3. Boudreaux put in solid work a day after spilling Merlot at Lab Rat’s Q.

    Mumblechatter was on the Caps win of course, Flippers weight loss, and Crossfit’s change to gear and equipment. Looks like Flip Dog is down 3 Lbs, you’re welcome!

    Small crowd at Twin Team but betting Pax chose RAMM to see what Upchuck had in mind as he is a real CAPS fan.

     

  • Narcoleptic Q

    A group of noble warriors joined forces to throw around the kettlebells this morning, and here is what transpired:

    • COP
      • 25 SSH
      • 25 IW
      • 15 DQ
      • 10 2x merkins
      • 25 2x LBC
      • 15 Pickle Pounders
      • 15 Scorpion Kicks
      • 10 burpees
      • 20 Helicopters
    • AMRAP challenge – rotation of 5 exercises over a 30-35 second period, with reduced rest after each rotation; rests start at 20 seconds and move down to 15, 10 and 5 seconds
      • High pulls
      • Weighted squats
      • Halos
      • Overhead presses
      • KB swings
    • Run the bus loop
    • AMRAP challenge/version 2 – rotation of 3 exercises over a 30-35 second period, with reduced rest after each rotation, rests of 20, 15 and 10 seconds
      • Overhead pulls
      • Sit ‘n presses
      • Skull crushers
    • Run the bus loop
    • 20 lawnmower pulls – each arm x2
    • COT with YHC taking us out

    This was a workout that the PAX just had to gut through.  YHC was tired, and there was concern that I would sleepwalk through the workout.  Offshore can now cross Circus Maximus off his summer tour of AOs, and good to have Tubbs back.  It is evident that Tubbs is growing more comfortable with the group as he and White Deer engaged in a symphony of the sphincters.  Solid work though.

    God is good all the time!

    Attila

  • BRR training

    3 studs posted for the Wed night Hill run and here is how it went down!

    Lockjaw – rocked some  short loops

    TYA &  Swirly – started early and did two long loops and 1 short.

    A beautiful night for a run – those running BRR – the training starts now and roller coaster is a great way to get some hill work in – come on out !

    See y’all in the gloom.

  • Visitor’s Day at Mary

    Twitter lit up last night about the possibility of there being at least a couple FNG’s this morning at Mary, along with one kinda visitor.  I say kinda, because Obama (F3 Swamp Rabbit) posts often enough and knows enough folks up here to hold dual citizenship with F3 RVA.  Not going to lie, in the light of day, I was really scratching my head figuring out who were FNG’s, who were the visitors, and who were F3RVA guys which I just wasn’t too familiar with.  Besides, it was a massive group of 30 guys with too many LIFO’s to count (Saab may have been the last), and I didn’t know I was Q’ing until 0529, when Phonics pulled up and Opus was not with him.

    So let’s tackle the elephant in the room real quick so we can get down to what actually happened.  Word is Opus is fine, but the nightmare that keeps all Q’s restless the night before apparently had no effect on him….he overslept.  As much as that will probably suck for him this coming week, that truly is the best case scenario for a no-show.  The comment that was thrown around this morning (in jest, of course) was “I hope that he’s ok, in which case Im gonna kill him.”  We are not, obviously, but there will surely be a comment added to the corporate file.

    With this many guys, the thought was keeping everybody together.  Going off site would have been fun (usually done to mess with LIFOs and no shows), but let’s face it, we had a literal herd of dudes.  Not in the cards.  Since a member of Swamp Rabbit was here, we had to get in some merkins, some situps, and some running for the big June challenge they have going on.  Lindsay’s around the block was the obvious call.  I am not even going to feel bad that I used it Tuesday, and I will use it again next Tuesday at No Toll.  The usual suspects flew thru it, then did a victory lap to rub it in the faces of the mere mortals….not cool, dudes, not cool.  I kid, of course they were heading back to the six.  To be fair though, the six was looking pretty good here, so it was time to kick it up a notch.

    The Beast came next, with a little explaining for those unfamiliar.  I was a little disappointed when I started poling the pax for suggestions burpees kept coming up.  Come on guys, as the Dothraki would say:  “it is known that burpees always go last on The Beast….it is known”.  Well, we ran out of time and didn’t get the full 6 legs in, but burpees did go last just the same.  We did get in squats, American Hammers, and some Lt. Dans before though.  Good work all around.

    Thanks to Swirly for punishing the pax with some Mary while I got the recording device ready for this super sized pax list!  The 6 inches to finish it off was gut wrenching.   Sorry about the lack of personal stories thrown in here, it was truly a blur just trying to keep the pax moving in the right direction.

    A final note:  We are happy to have Frank Lloyd Bunyon From F3 Chapel Hill join us this morning, sorry I didn’t get to chat with you today in the chaos.  Hope that you were made to feel at home by someone in the pax.

    FNG’s:

    -“Partridge” came from a big family, just like the Partridge Family.  Google it, Millennials.

    -“FEZ” started as “Exchange Student”, since he named half of the NCAA on the east coast schools as his alma maters.  It was shortened to FEZ for it’s roll off the tongue linguistics.  For those not in the know, the Foreign Exchange Student on “That 70’s show” was named FEZ because nobody could say his real name.  He barely avoided getting named after some horse that won the Kentucky Derby, and “blah blah blah Sock”.   Oh yeah, and “Sandusky” wasn’t happening.  You are welcome.

    -“Le Tigre” was named for the LSU shirt he wore to the workout (where’s Gumbo?!?).  Le Tigre is an offshoot of the Polo shirt craze in the 80’s.  And it means Tiger in some language (not Spanish according to legend)…and has a cute little jumping tiger avatar on it.  Also, as a Gamecocks fan, who is also in the SEC, I wasn’t going to listen to “Roll Tide” every time he posted, which was the only other name worth talking about that got thrown out by the pax.

    Apology of the week goes out to …….well me.  I get the apology of the week for having to write this soup sandwich of a back blast.  I didnt mind the Q, that was easy!  Anyways…..

    Opus apologizes…