Category: Richmond, VA

  • No Rain, Just Some Nightmares

    Flag was planted at 5:15, and the headlights started rolling in. At 5:30, we’re off and the beat down went something like this:

    Mosey to soccer field for warmarama:
    IC: 22 x SSH, 9 x Don Quixote, 22 x LBC

    Mosey to pavilion for a Dora:
    100 x Merkins, 200 x LBC, 302 x squats

    Mosey to basketball courts for a triple check:
    Partner 1 – bear crawl from half court to baseline, 5 merkins, run back to half court
    Parter 2 – American Hammers
    Partner 3 – Coppherhead Squats

    Stay on basketball courts for a little Four Corner Escalator:
    First corner – 10 merkins
    Second corner – 10 merkins, 20 LBC’s
    Third corner – 10 merkins, 20 LBC’s, 30 2-Count Mountain Climbers
    Fourth corner – 10 merkins, 20 LBC, 30 2-Count Mountain Climbers, 40 SSH
    Bear crawl the short sides, run the long sides.

    Line up in the area between the two courts facing the fence by the parking lot.  Varying methods of travel to the fence, 10 donkey kicks, run back.  Methods of travel to the fence:
    Bear crawl, high knee, butt kickers, karaoke each side.

    Line up and tour YHC’s favorite AO, Native American style:  down the entrance road, around the far side of the parking lot, around the edge of all the soccer fields and back to the basketball courts.

    Modified ring of fire:
    All PAX hold a plank, while two men opposite each other bear crawl to the center for 9 boo-yah merkins, and Reverse bear crawl back to circle.  Hold plank until all PAX complete their 9 merkins.

    Quick Mary on our sixes as rain began to fall on our faces:
    22 x flutter kicks
    22 x LBC’s

    Announcments:

    See Wilson for charity golf tournament 5/18

    See Shakedown for St. Baldrick’s shave 6/18

    See Lab Rat for Dogpile and Mosey on shirts

    See Viral for tool bank information/tours (or to lead a cheer)

     

    NMS:

    I have heard it mentioned by others that sleep comes fleetingly on the night before a VQ, and I can verify.  I woke up with two nightmarish starts: in the first, I had overslept the alarm and missed the thing entirely.  In the second I had lead the workout, and then somehow disappeared before COT and couldn’t remember everyone who was there to write the back blast. And then there is the gif shakedown posted to twitter yesterday while I worried – not worried, planned around – the rain.  Which never really came after all!

    As I said during COT, this group has pushed me to accomplish things I didn’t think possible.  I organized today’s based on my own experiences:  I have been coming to F3 for 9 months, lost 22 pounds, and shaved 6:02 off my 10k since last year (100+200+302=602).  The Ring of Fire at the end was a throwback to my first post, lead by Hardywood.  After suffering through that beat down, I was sure I’d never come back, despite Viral’s assurances that I should stick with it, that “it will get easier.”  But that activity at the end, with guys cheering each other on and working together, showed me that F3 was something special, and I came back.  I know I am not alone.  F3 has impacted all of us, and what we have is incredibly special.  Its been a hell of a ride with you all in the gloom, and it was an honor to lead you men this morning.

    Great work out there!

    Sugar Sock out

  • Norfolk and Weigh

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuNLLn23nUA

     

    Seven sponges came out to soak up the rain soaked fields of Atlee this morning.  Problem was, it hadnt rained!  I blame Andrew Frieden, mainly because Nikki Dee is perfect in every way.  We worked out anyways…

    Parking Lot Tracers

    COP

    • SSH IC until hole is located
    • Invisible Jump rope IC kinda until all stories are caught up
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Helicopters until train arrives
    • LBC’s until train departs……AUDIBLE!!!!  Damn that was a long train….Plank for a minute then finish up with Don Quixotes

    THANG

    • Hill of Dreams- Partner up, tag team running hill to left field fence of baseball field while partner performs exercises.  Alternate up the hill between backwards and forwards.  Each partner runs up hill backwards and forwards 3 times.  Exercises were LBC’s, Heels to heaven, burpees, merkins, flutter kicks, and burpees.
    • Out of Phonic’s pocket- 10 minutes OYO of 5 pullups, 10 merkins, 15 squats.  Rinse and repeat.
    • Indian run back to flag

    Mary- Ring of Fire, Rosie style.

     

    NMS

    I was planning on waking up to a soaker thig morning and had planned my wardrobe accordingly before I went to bed this morning.  Took the pup out at 0445 and found not a drop of rain had fallen!  What the What?  Also thought I could be working out solo, but that was also not the case, as Yardsale was sitting in his car reading a Goosebumps novel when I pulled up (don’t make fun, what are you reading?).

    This morning’s workout was sorta unplanned, though I had a general idea that I wanted to run the hill a bit and also I wanted to work on good form pullups and merkins like we did last week on the Phonics Q.  That was plainly evident when we heard the train and the gears in my head started churning….how can we use this?!?  I know…LBC’s for the train!  After about 5 minutes (literally) of the train running, it was evident that this was a terrible idea and thus was shitcanned.  Right after that, the caboose passed.

    Mumblechatter was upheld this morning by the pax, to the point where cadence was when one story ended and the next story began.  Lab Rat was so proud!

    Good Luck to Circle K and the O.G. K…Kay as they tackle their trail marathon this weekend!

    Also, if you need something to do with the kids this weekend, VCU is hosting the NCAA championship dodgeball tournament at the Siegel Center….admission is free!  You can pretend like that won’t be awesome, but deep down you know it will be.  Usually, you have to pay extra for that, right, Kotten?!?

    Apology of the week goes to Phonics.  Im sorry for interrupting your story this morning with my incessant counting.  I’ll try to be quieter in the next COP!

     

    Lab Rat apologizes…

     

     

     

  • Inspecting the trails

    It was a perfect spring morning in DaVille as YHC drove into the parking lot of Atlee High School.  As YHC arrived, only No Idea was there.  No Idea said he was waiting for Mudface so they could do their 3 mile loop.  YHC then left to jog to Honey Meadows and Kings Charter.

    The Route:

    Mudface and No Idea – 3 miles on the grounds of Atlee High School

    Phonics – Around 5 miles.  Take school loop – Right onto Honey Meadows Drive.  Left onto Meadows Pond Drive.  Left into King’s Charter.  Take left onto Hopkins Branch Way.  Left onto Kings Charter Drive.  Run to Atlee Station Road.  Turn around and take Left onto Spring Ivy Lane.  Right onto Kings Charter Drive.  Left onto Hopkins Branch Way.  Run into Honey Meadows and take right.  Take left onto Honey Meadows Drive.  Run to end and take Honey Meadows Trails back to Atlee High School Trails and back to VF.

    NMS

    YHC had hoped that several runners from Rutland would join him at Atlee this morning.  After communicating with Anchovy, it appeared that the guys from Rutland were training for their mile challenge in their neighborhood.  At this point, YHC knew he would likely run solo this morning.  He was pleased to see No Idea in the parking lot.  He did not see Mudface until 6:15 when he arrived back at the AO.  Although YHC has run the trails of Honey Meadows before, he had the goal of inspecting them closer for upcoming Qs especially with it getting lighter in the morning.

    YHC is ready for the Atlee extension to be completed.  This will allow additional routes for the Tomato Run.  It appears it may be completed within the next few months.

    Phonics Out!

  • Is that the hill?

    2 RiverRun regulars and a SOJ regular hit the hills of Tarrington.  Shakedown has been out to RiverRun once before but didn’t recall much about the route.  He had the joy of the TwinTeam to SOT leg in the CSAUP so we decided to reverse it today and let him go down the hill.  YHC and Gumbo warned Shakedown of the climb up Ashwell, as we approached the roundabout he asked “Is this the hill?”  Yes and no, yes it’s the start but at that point you could only see about one-third of the fun to climb.

    An inordinate amount of traffic this morning.  Shakedown believes it’s gym traffic, non-F3ers realizing it’s getting warmer and summer is quickly approaching.  A nice easy run of 5 miles together into Tarrington,  up the hill and around the school to finish.  Bonus, there is a group of tires, large and small, behind JRHS.  That may be something a future Q at TwinTeam could utilize.

    Good run this morning guys, great weather to be out on the roads.

    Announcements:

    Golf tournament – See Wilson

    St. Baldrick’s fundrasier – Shakedown with more info

    Sugar Sock VQ at NoToll tomorrow.

  • F3 RVA Celebrates Earth Day: News at 11

    Four tree huggers brought their gardening gloves and shovels to Forest Hill Park in honor of Earth Day 2018, and it went something like this:

    Mosey to the planning area to establish the day’s activities and celebrations. YHC was so excited to be one with mother earth, that he may not recall all that we did, but here is what YHC recalls:  SSHs / Helicopters / DQs / Imperial Walkers.

    Mosey to the Playground: pull-ups (5) / Derkins (10) / Incline Merkins (15) / Dips (20) / LBCs (25) x 3

    Mosey down the hill, grab rocks, mosey back up to green space beside the lower tennis courts. Circle up. Ring around the rosie merkins (great way to be one with mother earth), PAX picks up rocks for overhead slams (sorry mother earth) 5 x at each rock. Back down for another round of ring around the rosie merkins. One more set of overhead slams (we mean no harm, mother earth).

    Leave rocks, time to express our one-ness with mother nature.  Nine trees. Hand release merkins (5) / WWIIs (5) at each tree. You could taste the worms. On your six. Mark Spitz joined us to plant a few sapplings. Flutter kicks – ouch.

    Time to get to work. These trees won’t plant themselves. Partner up. Wheel barrow a load of mulch to nearby tree. Drop the mulch (touch the tree) and return the wheel barrow (backwards). Switch up and deliver a second load of mulch.

    PAX was really feeling the earth day love. Different partners. Plant (touch) a tree. 7 /5 / 3 / 1. Partner does SSHs. Hardywood was so taken by the sunrise that he forgot to count. Is happens to all us tree huggers, bro. Don’t sweat it. Peace and love!

    Rinse repeat (modified). Plant (touch) more trees. On your own. 5 / 3 / 1. 5 merks in between just to ensure the PAX was one with the earth.

    Army crawl to nearby tree – 40 yards of one-ness.

    Back to the flag. Ring of Fire. 3 burpees while PAX sits in plank and admires once again all that mother earth has to offer.

    Hardywood took us out.

    Congrats to Spit and his #Colonial200 brothers (sorry if YHC is leaving anyone out). It got Swirley’s competitive juices flowing – wow! Time for an F3RVA squad to field a team for next year.

    Great start to the week (and remember to recycle)!

     

     

  • Ode to Lockjaw

    A lucky 13 descended upon Tuckahoe Elementary expecting Lockjaw, but finding a rusty Saab in his place.  This is what transpired, more or less…

    COP:  Windmills, DQ’s (varying speeds), HRM’s, and LBC’s

    Tuckahoe field:  DK’s, bear crawl, merkins, run across field, WWIIs, then return running backwards.  Start with 10 count, 20, then 30 for each.

    Dora Countdowns:  300 Flutter Kicks, 200 LBCs, 100 Burpees.  Partner runs across parking lot and up embankment.

    Mary:  Rosalitas, Dollys, Heels to Heaven

    11’s (between light poles):  Jump Squats and HRMs

    Moleskin:

    YHC was a substitute Q for Lockjaw after he suffered a hand injury over the weekend involving stitches.  Some surmised it may have been a result of Lockjaw punching his insolent neighbor who reportedly built a fence over the property line.  YHC views Lockjaw as a gentle soul who would never resort to physical violence, but everyone has their breaking point I guess…and Lockjaw’s is apparently 8 inches.

    It had been sometime since YHC had Q’d, which was evident to the PAX.  Cadence was variable speed, and instructions sometime differed from the intended exercise.  Despite that, there was nothing but kind words of support from the PAX given throughout the workout (not really).

    Always a pleasure to be part of this group

    Saab abides

  • Breaking Bread

    The following showed up for Breaking Bread this evening:  Kubota (and his 2.0 Husky), Mr. Roper (and his 2.0 Charlie), and YHC (2 out of 3 of my 2.0’s = Ellie and Charlie).

    We had the honor of serving some bbq and fixings to a group of Richmond’s less fortunate this evening, what a great experience.  YHC enjoys exposing his 2.0’s to these experiences as often as possible…. Needless to say, YHC’s daughter (Ellie, 7 years old) and son (Charlie, 5 years old) had lots of questions about the wonderful folks we were able to serve, what a great learning experience for them.  It was fun to watch Kubota’s 2.0 along with the rest of the kids brighten these folks day, as they were able to interact and even play some rubix cube with the residents…

    Best part:  YHC’s daughter said to Kubota at the end, “that was cool, I’d like to do it again.”

    Great to meet one of Mr. Roper’s 2.0’s (Charlie, age 15), he’s a good kid!

    Thanks for the assistance guys, and I look forward to doing this again.. Thanks also to Labrat for coordinating this effort from the get go!

    -Slurp

  • Running on the Beach

    Three trail dogs and one actual dog converged at the trail head for a spring time run.  YHC called the route and off we went.

    The Route:

    Across the nickel bridge to buttermilk.  Cross Belle Isle via the Lost Trail and pick up North Bank.  Take Texas Beach up to the pump house and back to the parking lot.

    NMS:

    Its been a long time since YHC has been on the Sunday trail run.  As we were about to take off, Saab concluded his run early morning run.  Although TYA’s car was in the parking lot, we never crossed paths with him.  After the COT, he emerged.  Perhaps he had been hiding out in the blue convenience huts all this time or on a wicked long run.  Either way, he made the Pax list.

    The trails in Spring are a time of peace and reflection.  Complement that with two primo running buddies and its a great time.  Advice was exchanged as we discussed the finer points on possession makes law and the corollary that while good fences make good neighbors, bad neighbors make bad fences.

    It also turns out Upchuck is pretty smart.  He let me take lead through the Texas Beach jungle sweeping the trail for face level spider webs.  I picked up my quota making the coast clear for others.

    ABT,

    Lockjaw

  • Hard Work leads to Fun and Games!

    28 Gladiators of the Gloom posted at Dogpile to put in some hard work and have some fun. This was YHC’s Dogpile VQ and it went a little something like this:

    Mosey over and down to the North Bank Trail parking lot near the bridge for:

    COP:

    Helicopters x 15

    Don Quixote’s x 10

    Scorpion Kicks x 5

    YHC told you it was going to be short!

     

    Mosey down past the Pump House to the Pipeline Loop for:

    Triple Check # 1

    Bear Crawl/Crawl Bear curb to curb, merkin at each curb

    Lt. Dans

    Run the Pipeline Loop

     

    Mosey up the Pipeline Trail to the Rusty Cage for:

    Triple Check # 2

    Burp-ups

    Capt. Thors

    Run to Fire Hydrant and perform 5 HRM’s and run back to Rusty Cage

     

    Mosey over to Carillon Field for:

    Tug-O-War Tournament ( 4 teams of seven.  Two semi-final matches, Loser’s Bracket Final and Winner’s Bracket Final)

    Length of Carillon Field sprints with 5 Burpees halfway down

    100% AYG

    75%

    50%

     

    Mary:

    Heels 2 Heaven (IC)

    Rosalitas (IC)

    LBC’s (IC)

    6 Inches (IC 50 count)

     

    Mosey bag to Shovel Flag

    Still have one minute;

    5 Diamond Merkins, 5 Merkins right leg up, 5 Merkins left leg up (OYO)

     

    COT, Numberama, Namearama, Announcements and YHC took us out.

     

    Announcements:

    Slurpee has the Breaking Bread Q tomorrow with Mr. Roper and YHC helping.

    See Lab Rat for shirts for you and for your 2.0’s

    See Wilson for Galactosemia Foundation golf tournament

    See Shakedown for St. Baldrick’s shave

     

    NMS:

    Wow!  Longest hour of my life!  YHC arrived to the AO extra early (5:15am) to, of course, get YHC’s props in the correct place.  While YHC was at the Carillon field getting props out of truck, YHC noticed two sets of headlights at the parking area.  One was obviously Swirly, the other YHC would not find out who it was until he pulled up to park.  It was Upchuck.  He must have been ready to roll or could not sleep, either way, we all literally piled into Swirly’s truck and had a nice conversation about hockey playoffs, especially the Caps.  GO CAPS!  Then some random dude rolled up in a rental car and approached Swirly’s window.  Swirly rolled window down and random dude asked: “Are you Josh?”  Swirly answered: “No Josh here dude, this is F3”  Random dude: “I am here to meet Josh for a 5 mile run”  Swirly: “No this is F3 where we meet every Wednesday and Saturday for great beatdowns”  End of convo.  Great attempt at EH’ing that random guy, Swirly.  Wasn’t meant to be, though.

    YHC had other tricks up his sleeve this morning, but had to go with a plan B because of numbers.  28 was probably the best number for this morning because it gave us 4 even strength tug-o-war teams.  It did leave one extra for the triple checks, but it all worked out.  Also, the dawns are breaking at a better time now in the gloom in order to see things better like the pipeline trail.  YHC likes to work everyone hard in YHC’s Q’s, but YHC also likes to have fun!  Thus, the tug-o-war tourney.  YHC does not remember who was on the winning team, but it was not YHC’s team.  So YHC will guarantee you that the rope will be making appearances again until YHC’s team wins it all!  The best match had to be the Loser’s Bracket final.  It was a good back and forth for a couple of minutes, until YHC’s team was ultimately defeated.  Will not happen again, right Swirly?  YHC hopes everyone enjoys their participation trophys they received from the back of YHC’s truck!

    YHC would like to thank everyone for coming out to YHC’s Dogpile VQ which landed on YHC’s 6 month anniversary of beginning F3.  As YHC told you in the COT, it has greatly changed YHC’s life!  Thank you all for pushing YHC to his limits and being there for him!  Thank you to Spike for spreading the word about F3 to me at church a while ago!  ET’s was great as usual!  YHC hopes everyone has a wonderful rest of the weekend and YHC will see you in the gloom!

     

     

     

     

     

  • Hill Repeats and a little No GLAM

    5 veterans posted looking for a well-balanced bootcamp beatdown but were instead greeted with hill sprints and leg work.  It went something like this:

    Circle the parking lot for the LIFO, then head over to the base of Twin Team for COP, including:

    • DQs
    • Helicopters
    • SSHs
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Copperhead Squats
    • LBCs
    • Flutterkicks

    The THANG:

    Hill Repeats

    Mosey briskly up to the top of Twin Team to survey our mountain.  Gather the six at the top then mosey back down part way (maybe 100 yards) for the first of several hill repeat sprints.  The challenge was to get back to the top in under 1 minute. Clock was set and the PAX was off.  All PAX conquered the first challenge with ease, so for each successive challenge we moseyed a bit farther down the hill but the clock remained at 1 minute.  5 or 6 sprints in all…heart was pumping for sure.  Great work fellas.

    No GLAM

    Mosey back to BWES and the visitor parking spaces in front of the school for a bit of No GLAM – 3 exercises (jump squats, 1-count mountain climbers and 1-count ball-dippers) followed by a lap around the welcome circle in front of the school.  Rounds included:

    • 11/22/22
    • 9/20/20
    • 7/18/18
    • 5/16/16
    • 3/14/14
    • 1/12/12

    Because of time-constraints (i.e., too much time on Twin Team) we had to skip ahead in the regularly scheduled programming and couldn’t climb up the ladder for the second half of No GLAM…next time!

    ROF

    Round 1 = Al Gore and 20 Monkey Humpers (howl optional) when it is your turn – pass to the left.

    Round 2 = Hold six inches and 10 heels to heaven when it is your turn – pass to the left.

    3 MOM

    Freddie Mercuries IC x25

    APDs IC x10

    COT, numbers, names, announcements and YHC took us out

    Announcements:

    • Good luck to Spit, Screen Door, Dreamliner and the rest of the HR PAX who are running the Colonial 200.  Stay safe and slay those miles.
    • Breaking Bread this Sunday – I think Slurpee and Kubota are still looking for another pair of helping hands if you can spare a few hours Sunday evening.
    • Dopile and Mosey (I think?) tshirt orders open to the end of the month
    • CSAUP planning for next year has begun.  Don’t be left out.

    NMS:

    Thanks for indulging the run-heavy No GLAM workout this morning fellas.  Special shout out to Mr. Holland, Bullseye and Roscoe who probably weren’t planning on those  hill repeats but crushed them anyway.  Flatline is in top running shape and the hill repeats were no sweat for him.  Well done men.

    For anyone who is interested, adding a ROF to your workout when Roscoe is in the PAX is sure to bring out his karaoke skills and his ad lib skills.  Many thanks for the entertainment Roscoe.

    Have a great Friday men!

    No More Gumbo For You!