Category: Richmond, VA

  • Quarter Mile Repeats every Five

    Six of the faithful posted on a chilly late-fall morning at GridIron, one of whom hails from Charlotte and the other of whom hails from Durham. Johnsonville took the Q, and this is what went down, more or less:

    Warmup with 50 ssh, 25 imperial walkers, 25 don quiotes.

    Mosey to the track. do 12 hillbillies, 12 merkins, arm circles, and 10 burpees.

    Do 1 quarter-mile repeat then and another every five minutes. There should have been 10 or so quarter-mile repeats in there. If an exercise was interrupted, we paused it for the repeat and picked it back up after.

    After that, and during the pauses between intervals, there were too many exercises for YHC to remember details. After the first repeat, we moved down to the lower field; did dips; ran around the lower field and surrounds ending at the front of the school; did wall thrusts; ran to Pouncey Tract Rd and to the south side of the shcool; did elevens with merkins and bunny hops; took a break in the middle to run back to the tennis courts; completed elevens; ran a loop around back; did a COP in the back tarmac with Makhtar N’Diaye’s and some other things; ran around to the end of the pillars; did a COP with 99 LBC and Alabama prom dates; ran to Pouncey Tract Rd and back to corner of school; did COP flutter kicks, 10 burpees, and plank walks right, Ran back to VSF and did plak walks left.

    It was great to have Disney and Porterhouse join us from Charlotte and Durham respectively. Disney was on the team that launched F3RVA over 3 years ago. Porterhouse is a fleet footed guy in town to visit in-laws and joined White Deer and I for a Thanksgiving morning kettlebell workout.

    It was also good to have ByProduct and DK back out after a hiatus from GridIron.

    Thank you for giving me the opportunity to lead! Jville

  • And then, the sprinklers turned on…

    A stalwart 15 men defrosted the windshields and gathered in a parking lot of Lab Rat’s boyhood hometown for a guest Q opportunity.  The Q having checked the F3 RVA doppler radar realized it was going to be 70 and sunny.  F3 Florence checked a different weather app, and it was going to blizzard.  Regardless, a workout had to be done, so away we go:

    COP- All IC:  SSH, Imperial walkers, Don Quixote (windmills), hand release merkins, arm circles

    THANG-

    Lindsays- around the tennis courts, stopping at each corner, performing merkins and WW2 Situps (big boy situps). Corner 1: 10 and 30 reps.  Corner 2 15 and 25, corner 3 20 and 20, corner 4, 25 and 15, corner 5 30 and 10.

    The Beast- mosey to football field, complete 6 reps of exercise at the 25 yard line, 50, and 25.  Touch the other endzone and come back, performing exercises again on the way home.  Repeato six times.  Merkins, jump squats, Freddie mercury’s, American Hammer, Lt. Dan’s, and of course, burpees.

    Chicken peckers + Honeymoon suite.

    BOM + Pledge of Allegiance.

    NMS-

    YHC has really enjoyed his time with the F3 Florence guys whenever he comes home and tries to post every time he is in the area.  They treat him like one of their own….meaning they verbally abuse him at every opportunity.  It brings to mind a pamphlet he saw when pledging a fraternity at good old Francis Marion University.  On the cover, it read “there are two types of hazing, physical and mental”.  Below that in pen, someone had written “which would you prefer?”

    At times, this rowdy group was so focused on making fun of the Q and impressive mumblechatter that the Q had a hard time keeping up with what the count was on cadence.  Of course, Ginger led the charge on this front, but that didnt stop others from joining in as well.  Stand out comment had to be Nurse Jackie making fun of my “northern” residence.  The beauty of this is that he did it with a Hispanic accent.

    The highlight of the morning had to be when in the middle of The Beast out on the gridiron when the sprinklers came on.  No going back, we got in a little extra fun by dodging thru.  The good news was the ground water was much warmer than the actual ground.

    Lab Rat is known for his verbal antics in the RVA, but he is just a squire among knights when posting to F3 Florence!  It was truly an honor to lead such a fine group of men.  Thanks for the opportunity, and for all the laughs.  YHC looks forward to the next time he can view the sun rise with this group!

    Apology of the week goes out to the grounds keeper of the football field.  Sorry about the mess!  Just consider your field extra aerated.

     

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • You’ll Wish You Eloped

    19 warriors rose to greet the dawn of a new day.  According to legend, it went a little something like this.

    COP:  IC X 20 SSH, IW, LBC, FM, X 15 merkin

    Fantastic Fours:  Start at the top of the Valley of Doubt behind the amphitheater.

    • Round 1: Run down and up the other side to the service road (corner 1) to complete 20 merkins, then run back to start.
    • Round 2:  Run to corner 1 for 20 merkins, run up hill to gate and complete 20 jump squats.  Back to corner one for 20 merkins, back to start.
    • Round 3:  Corner 1, corner 2, run to fountain (corner 3) and complete 20 WWII strict sit up (hands touch ground behind head and then all the way over to touch your toes.  Back to corner 2, corner 1 and run back to start.
    • Round 4: Corner 1, corner 2, corner 3, run towards starting area and complete 20 burpees.  Run back to corner 3, corner 2, corner 1, back to start.

    Elevens:  Partner up and complete a round of exercises where the total QTY equals 11.  Exercises are pull ups and T-merkins. Start with 10 pull ups and 1 T merkin.  Then 9 pull ups and 2 T merkins.  You get the idea.

    Mosey to amphitheatre.

    Chicken Pecker Lite: IC X 10

    Death By Box Jumps: Start on step 1 and complete 1 box jump.  Go up to step 2 and complete 2 box jumps.  Proceed on up until you get to the 18th step.

    Mosey back to flag.

    Numberama, namerama and the great Viral lead us out.

    News:  Breaking bread is this Sunday from 5-7.  See YHC if you are interested.

    Merkin Count: 225

    Moleskin: Great job gents and welcome Igor. This was a  big effort and a new take on a couple of favorites. Leading Dogpile is a real privilege and my appreciation runs deep for the Pax who abide by the prescripted workout. YHC will beg for preemptive request forgiveness to Circle K’s M who had a big day of him painting lined up.  3rd F at ETs was a blast as always.

     

     

  • Black Friday Shopping

    Cold weather, holiday travels, post Thanksgiving festivity fallout, and Turkey Trot recovery kept many away….except for six intrepid runners.

    The Routes

    • 4s/5s – Route going to Carytown and Grove/Libbie to check out the shopping deals.
    • 6s – Tour de Grove/Libbie, the Shops at Patterson, and a loop around Willow Lawn to find all the great deals.

    NMS:

    A lot of running as a pack today with great conversation.  YHC decided it was a day for Pax coffee and fellowship, so I drove down to Starbucks with the intent of making it back before the 6s got back.  Hardywood was standing with coffee mug in hand despite not knowing about the coffee run.

    Good conversation with the Pax as we drank a box of coffee and talked about everything and nothing.  With this crew, the conversation easily covers all basis with breadth and depth. Beyond a good workout, the fellowship with this fine group is what keeps me coming back; pushing myself beyond the physical pursuits.  Something to be thankful for year round, but particularly around these introspective holidays.

    I hope the entire Pax have a safe and fun holiday weekend with friends and family.

    Always Be Tapering,

    Lockjaw

  • Attention Black Friday shoppers…Beast Special at The Creek

    8 faithful awoke from their Turkey comas and post at The Creek for a Black Friday special. The shovel flag was planted and the PAX got to work.

    This is how it when down

    Mosey one loop around the church

    COP (All IC)

    • Arm Circles
    • DQ (Abe Vigoda Style)
    • Helicopters

    THANG

    The Beast – Black Friday Style

    Instructions were given to stop at each median on side for church. 3 times down and 3 times back. The PAX then headed out to pick up their Black Friday items.

    First Item at Target – Beats Headphones on sale $97
    -97 Carolina Dry Dock (16 at each median)

    Second Item at Target – XBOX One on sale $249.99
    -250 Merkins (41 at each median)
    -$40 Target card give at the register (40 SSH)

    Third Item at Kohl’s – Fitbit Blaze on sale $149.99
    -150 AL Prom Date (25 at each median)

    Forth Item at Kohl’s – DJI Drone on sale $399.99 with a $120 instant savings
    -280 LBC’s (46 at each median)

    Fifth Item at Amazon – Echo Plus on sale $199.99
    -200 American Hammers (34 at each median)

    Sixth item at Toys-R-Us – Hello Kitty Cafe on sale $2.99
    -43 Jump Squats (7 at each median)

    Mosey back to the SF for Numberama, Namerama, YHC took us out. 

    MOLESKIN

    The tradition is now in place for The Creek to host the ultimate Beast workout on every black Friday.  The PAX crushed YHC themed workout today with enthusiasm..

    For the first ever the 2.0’s outnumbered the adults (5 2.0’s and 3 adults). It is truly a honor to have these kids join us every week. Not all of 2.0’s wanted all the items on the list. BB commented halfway through the merkins, she didn’t wait a XBOX One anymore

    Welcome to Indy! Silently you crush your first workout.

    The sweat on YHC back was so much that is left a imprint on the asphalt (picture below)

    image1.jpeg

    YHC is thankful this year for F3RVA. Through the support of all his F3 brother, YHC was able complete things he couldn’t have imagine!

    SPIT ON THAT!!

  • Murph Friday – Post Thanksgiving

    4 brave men barred the cold to take on Murph Friday!

    Mossy to the main playground.

    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 we headed back to the parking lot

    COT, Name-a-rama, Number-rama

    Strong work for all as it was a cold morning with frost on the pull up bars!  Great way to start off the day and burn off some of the turkey from the day before.

  • 396 or 398 years later

    38 determined redwoods posted on a perfect Thanksgiving morning.  Q declared right off the bat that the weather was 70 and sunny.

    The Thang:

    Mosey to side of school.  SSH x16, LBC x 19, Arm circle x16, Don Quixote’s x 6, Merkins x 10.  Mosey to front fields for suicide 11’s, first exercise is WWII setups, second is Merkins.  Mosey to tennis courts for four corners first corner is jump squats, second Lt. Dan’s, third is monkey jumpers, 4th is Merkins.  5 sets.  16x Rosalitas, 21 x LBC. Carpenter leads us in a prayer of thanks.  Mosey to side of school for double triple check.  Peoples chair, Carolina dry docks, run to the fence, first round 16 merkins, second 21 LBC,s each person do 6 runs.  Ring of fire – 4 way, Vee ups are the exercise.  Mosey or sprint back to shovel flag and close out.

    NMM

    All week long there has been an onslaught of information flowing about the first Thanksgiving in the United States.  Honestly, when YHC moved to the commonwealth of VA from the great commonwealth of Massachusetts, I had no idea there was any sort of controversy around this.  Well, after living in VA for 33 years, I am more than aware that the majority of folks in VA think that the first Thanksgiving was in VA.

    I have done my research, looked at all the information, run the appropriate regression models and determined with statistical certainty that the answer does not really matter.  What matters is the act of giving thanks and looking around yourself and realizing how truly blessed we are.  It is easy in this current environment and culture to look at what we don’t have and take for granted what we do have.  I had the unique opportunity this year to travel to a part of the world (Ghana in Africa) that shines a spotlight on what little things we have that are taken for granted (clean water, sanitations systems, roads, etc).

    (if you want to know what the rest of the country thinks about Giving, ask Alexa (thanks Marmaduke))

    Lots of mumble chatter around the circle today. As the Q of a group of 38 people, it is very difficult to follow the discourse.  Chime in below if anything was said that needs to be shared.

    Great to see folks from all around the RVA out there today.  One of the negative implications of our growth in RVA is that its now nearly impossible (see Upchuck, Lab Rat, and others who are hitting every AO) to hit every AO and to see all our brothers .

    Big thanks today to Hardwood who provided the refreshments post work out.  Tclaps brother.

    Good luck to all that are running Thanksgiving runs today.

    Announcements

    Hardywood is leading Sundays Breaking Bread.  The more the merrier

    HDHH next Wednesday at 705 Baldwin Road.  M’s and 2.0s welcome.  Come help bring some life to Marv’s new house.

  • Thanksgiving Eve on the Trails

    We had two runners  for a beautiful early evening run on the trails – TYA and Swirly .

    Route : North to South – 7 miles = boom!

    Great job TYA – see y’all  in the gloom for a TYA Thanksgiving Beatdown …..

    Happy Thanksgiving !

  • We are Half PROPER at SOT

    7 hearty souls looking for an excuse to consume a little extra tomorrow posted to SOT for a Thanksgiving appetizer of Gumbo, it tasted a little like this:

    Mosey around the bus circle and form up for COP in the adjacent parking lot, including the following exercises all IC:

    • SSHs x20
    • DQ x10
    • Helicopters x10
    • Imperial Walkers x20
    • Arm Circles (sorry Flashdance) – 10 small, 5 large – forward then backward
    • Merkins x20
    • LBCs (nice and wet and cold) x20

    THE THANG-

    The Suck – six exercise locations – each on a parking spot line with two parking spots in between for the transition.  7th PAX member was the rabbit timer who ran around the bus loop.  While rabbit was running, the exercises were AMRAP as noted below.  When rabbit returned and called switch, each PAX member bearcrawled to the next location and the person at Spot 6 became the new rabbit.

    • Spot 1 – merkins
    • Spot 2 – jump squats
    • Spot 3 – SSHs
    • Spot 4 – Flutter Kicks
    • Spot 5 – Mountain Climbers
    • Spot 6 – Monkey Humpers

    Proper (for SOT) Dora – After reading about the proper Dora routine a few times lately, YHC wanted to give it a try.  The PAX mosey around the school to the main entrance and formed up on the steps in pairs.  Each pair completed 100 proper Doras (1 WWII, 2 Merkins and 3 Jump Squats in sequence = 1 Proper Dora).  One partner exercised while the other ran the loop around the faculty parking lot and returned to pick up count where  the other left off.

    AUDIBLE DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS – Half Proper Dora and Half Lazy Proper Dora.  After reaching 50 as described above, each PAX member completed 25 additional Proper Doras and the run was eliminated (NOTE to PAX – I think this actually made it harder).

    Quick Curb Crawl – Mosey back to our favorite curb spot at SOT with the most jagged and sharp asphalt in Richmond for a quick curb crawl up to 3 and back down to 1.

    4x4s – Mosey back to the flag for 1 minute of 4x4s – starting with arms up above your head, drop down to a plank (burpee style), complete 4 merkins, then 4 two-count mountain climbers, then thrust back up to starting position (again, burpee style) — all that equal 1 4×4.  AMRAP for 1 minute.

    American Hammers – Finish with 1 minute of American Hammers

    COT, Number-rama, Nama-a-Rama and McRib took us out with great words of thanks!

    Announcements:

    • 60MOM convergence at Mary Munford tomorrow 0600-0700 with coffee afterwards.
    • 0700 Late Show at Circus Maximus
    • HDHH at Soon to be Marv’s Casa – hosted by TYA (Lally Construction) next Wednesday – see pre-blast about it
    • Breaking Bread this Sunday – Hardywood has the Q – reach out if you can lend a hand

    NMS –

    Great morning over at SOT this morning, though at 0525 YHC was sitting alone in the parking lot thinking of the glorious backblast he was going to write about a Single Serving of Gumbo while he remained in the warmth of his vehicle if nobody posted — of course he would wait the requisite time to post the BB to make it plausible that the grueling beatdown actually happened…then, just like the rude interruption of a perfectly good dream, Cerrano and Honeymoon rolled in and their car lights shook YHC from his fantasyland.  YHC wiped the drool from his chin and proceeded with the actual planned beatdown.

    It was great to see Cliffhanger back out in the gloom with his dad — Rosie, Cliffhanger should be taller than you by the time the light returns to the gloom this Spring.  Way to push through a tough upper-body heavy workout Cliffhanger — enjoy and extra piece of pie!

    Apologies go out to the PAX for delaying the inevitable “on your six” for us to get wet and embrace the wonderful gloom this morning.  I know the suspense was worse than the event.  And always, getting wet is worse than being wet.  That wet asphalt was cold!

    Quick aside – Bobber’s stache is looking SWEET!

    Strong work by all this morning.  Thanks for posting (sort of) and thanks for letting me lead again!

    See you all tomorrow or, if not, have safe travels and a Happy Thanksgiving

    No more Gumbo for you…this week!

  • History by the numbers

    11 Redwoods posted at Wdog for a history class by the numbers. It was Sunny and 70.

    THE THANG

    Slaughter Starter
    OYO(on your own)
    100 Merkins

    Mosey to a COP

    2 Merkins

    21 Merkins

    56 Merkins

    Mosey to Edge of Shields Lake

    Regular Dora
    100 Merkins, 200 Box Cutter, 300 Squats- Partners run the Stair loop

    Mosey to Steps
    53 Dips
    35 Dips

    96 Merkins

    Mini Dora
    50 Merkins, 100 WWII Sit-ups, 150 LBC’s, running Stair loop in between each set

    Mosey back to the Flag
    18 Merkins
    COT
    YHC took us out

    Moleskin

    By the Numbers, the Berkeley Hundred was the designation of the landing area on the James River, (100). The journey was first acknowledged as a thanksgiving for surviving the Journey – It was ordered by the Berkeley Company to be an Annual Event. Two(2) years later in 1621, the Fine folks in New England celebrated a Harvest festival which has taken on the traditional Thanksgiving Feast. Not to be out down, the Texans discovered their first Thanksgiving was in 1598, twenty-one (21) years before Virginia. The Sunshine State came back and looked through their history books and realized that their first Thanksgiving was in 1565, Fifty-Six (56) Years before the pilgrims Celebrated their Harvest Festival.

    Because every group had levels of Explorers in them, Dora’s were the bulk of the activity today; thankfully.

    The number of Pilgrims eating at the Harvest Festival was fifty-three(53). Most likely they had to have some dipping sauces, because no turkey or cranberries were actually served at that the “first” meal. By the way, in researching the guest list for the Pilgrims, No Salvucci’s were on the list, however, there was one Peter Brown.

    The Berkley Company ship was named the “Margaret” It was thirty-five(35) feet in length.

    The Pilgrims being Puritans, were getting away from the holiday packed religions of the Times. There were ninety-six(96) different church holidays that they did not want to celebrate, including Christmas and Easter.

    It wasn’t until Dec 18, 1777 that the Continental Congress declared a Day of Thanksgiving.(18)

    Everything we did today was on your own, Many days can feel like we are on our own. YHC is thankful for F3, because even though we all have our separate lives, there will always be commonality in the gloom!

    Bleeder Out

    In case you are wondering about all the data: you can find the different links below

    Berkeley Thanksgiving

    New England Harvest Celebration

    Texas Day of Appreciation

    Florida’s Sunny Day

    US Thanksgiving