Category: Richmond, VA

  • A Swampy River Run

    4 Stalwarts posted in the gloom this morning to fight through the swampy and foggy air and retake the Hills of Tarrington.  1 LIFO was mistaken for a different PAX member who knew the traditional route, so he was left in the dust to chart his own path in the darkness.  All was well as the PAX reconvened at the flag for COT and for YHC to take us out.

    Mileage varied from 4 – 5 miles.

    When YHC pulled into the parking lot at 0515 to secure the AO, he found a woman waiting in her car to meet friends…not YHC.  She looked a little concerned until her two friends showed up and they moseyed off.  For a minute there, I thought we might have wrestle for rights to the parking lot.

    Nice work men.  It was great running and chatting with Wedding Singer – thank for the company Singer.

    No more Gumbo for you!

  • Quiet Trails

    2 runners posted for a Sunday trail run.

    The Thang:

    Buttermilk to Belle Isle to North bank and back to parking lot.

    NMM

    Exceptional to have Saab back on the trails.  It has been a couple months, at least since Saab has been spotted running on the trails around RVA.  He has been missed.  Conversation was Lab Rat friendly today, but only two pax were there, so Lab Rat did not get to partake.

    Overall, the trails were pretty quiet today.  More bikers than normal, but a lot less runner.  See you out there soon.

    TYA Out

  • Audible ready DogPile

    30 Modern Day warriors and one Starsky met in the gloom to train as they fight and attack the day.  This is how it went down.

    THANG

    Mosey to Circle; Warmup IC

    • 20 SSH
    • 10 DQ
    • 10 Helo
    • 15 AC
    • 10 Chinook
    • 15 AC
    • 15 IW Squat
    • 10 Copperhead Squat
    • 10 Monkey Humper
    • 10 Merkin
    • 10 Gorilla Humper
    • 10 Iron Mike
    • 20 FK
    • 10 Rosalita
    • James Bond 10 each pos
    • 10 FK
    • 10 Hello Dolly

    Creature Merkin then crab walk to opposite curb then 20 LBC  x3; Bear crawl to the middle and 5 booya merkin with another PAX.  Al Gore for 6

    Mosey to Rusty Cage – Pair up.  First Half Jerkin 6; WW2 situp x 20  repeat x3.  Other half pullup 50; 20 WW2 Situp.

    Mosey to amphitheater – 5 dips each step on the way down.  2 merkins each step on the way up.  Al Gore for 6.

    Mosey to carillon – Triple check.  touch 3 trees, BTTW, squat.

    Guantanamo chase.

    Cadence run to flag for COT.  YHC takes us out.

    NMMS

    It was a real pleasure to see our brothers from Hampton Roads and Charlottesville at Dog Pile this morning. Thanks for making the haul.  Respect to Dreamliner for donning a restrictor plate for the entire workout.

    Ideally, YHC would do more running between events to explore the AO, but was trying to leave some in the tank for all those going to the 5k.

    Any time we can get Fudd complaining about the warmup is a good day.  Going forward, YHC is not sure about the IW Squat since it takes a bit more concentration and coordination to get right for many so early in the gloom.  Maybe next time.  The creature merkin + LBC was a hit. Best part of the PAX is our flexibility and rolling through the confusion on the Bear Crawl BooYa finish.

    YHC was looking forward to the rusty cage, but there are only 15 or so sandbags and we need 20 for what I wanted to do with PAX this size.  Audible for jerkins and pullups.  It does not matter which order you did them in – the second feature was tough for all.  Nice work.

    Felt moved by the spirit to welcome our out of town brothers to DogPile Amphitheater and the pleasures of 4 week old grass covered in dew.  One of Circle K’s friends showed up – he is sorry he missed it.

    Great jody call from Deflator – we need to get that to F3 nation.  You can tell that Deflator took his time to create it and its motivating.  The HR F3 guys use it for SSH – that nets out to 120+ and is a killer.   Swirly and I like cadence runs for the rhythm and breath control while running so we may see it again and its a fun way to finish. For my part, Its been 24.5 years since YHC stopped working for a living (E5 > O1) so calling a cadence run was a little rusty.  YHC will have more interesting stories to tell next time.  

    Lots of respect to Ollivander – fmr FNG Kevin for jumping into the BRR last minute and taking some tough legs last weekend and then coming out to his first F3 workout.  Ollivander is a runner seeking seeking personal expression through all around fitness.  We have some of that.  Welcome Ollivander.

    2nd F at ET was good as always.

    Best run to all hitting Reece Strong. Get Some.

     

    Announcements

    • Circle K cookout today  – 8146 Ashby Ridge Place Mechanicsville, VA 23111 804-787-3720 cell
    • Trail run in powhatan next Saturday 9/23
    • Tuckahoe Takeover last week of Sept starting on Monday
    • Convergence 9/30
    • New AO at Tuckahoe Elementary – Hoedown 10/2

     

  • When The Lights Go Out

    13 Davillians arrived ready to roll on this humid September morning to participate in another addition of The Creek. The Q sheet was empty until yesterday afternoon so a hot potato Q plan was put into action.

    This is how it went down

    Spit’s Q

    ReeseStrong start: 25 Merkins and 25 Squats OYO

    Mosey around the front of the parking lot to the grassy area around the flag pole

    COP (ALL IC)

    • SSH
    • Invisible Jump rope
    • Hillbillies
    • DQ
    • Helicopters
    •  LBC’s
    • Flutter Kicks
    • Merkins
    • Arm Circle

    Opus’ Q

    Mosey to the pavilion 

    Triple Check (on the picnic tables) – Skull Crushes, Dips, decline merkins (three sets each)

    Emoji’s Q

    Mosey back to the parking lot

    Curb crawls: Bear crawl to one side complete 10 incline Merkins, crab walk back complete 10 curb dips. Rinse and repeat for another set

    Four Corners: 10 Jump Squats, 10 LBC’s, 10 Burpees, 10 Merkins

    Spike’s Q

    Parking lot Subsides: run to and back each median; complete WWII Sit-ups. Sets were 5, 10, and 15 reps

    Rounders’ Q

    Indian Run around the field while completing high knees and butt kicks on Q’s command. Circle up in the pavilion and complete 500 raid boxers? (not sure of the name)

    Q was given back to the YHC to mosey to the SF for 3 to 4 MOM. Exercises were Freddie Mercury’s, AL Prom Date, Rosalita, gas pump, and 6 inches

    Numberama, Namerama, Chowdah took us out. 

    MOLESKIN

    It was good to change things up a little bit with a hot potato. Gave us the opportunity to see some not so regular Q’s (Emoji and Spike) and a VQ for Rounders. YHC arrived at the AO around 5:16 thinking he would be alone for at least 10 minutes. Most of the PAX seems to be ready to go showing up only a few minutes after YHC

    Around 5:28 The Carpenter was no were to be found. Opus had texted him earlier and share the following response.

    Opus: Are you up?

    The Carpenter: “Yes, puppy”.

    This would explain his LIFO post today showing up around a 1/4 the way through the COP.

    When the PAX was starting Emoji’s Q. All the parking lot lamps decided to go off a the same time. This made bear crawls a little harder and the groons could be heard in the next county.

    Glad to have Rounders get a little VQ today. The PAX got a little taste of a what is to come.

    Glad to have a few our 2.0 back in the PAX after the start of the school year! Hope to see even more next week.

    ANNOUNCEMENTS

    • Reesestrong 5k tomorrow morning – Kid’s run at 8:30 and 5k at 8:55. We are up 63 on the F3 team. You can still register the day of the race.
    • Convergence on 9/30 –  come out at 6:00, stay until 8:00 if you can.  Second workout starts at 7:00 for late risers.  Bring a friend or two.
    • Next week will The Creek’s first anniversary – Start EHing now so we have our largest PAX ever!!

    SPIT ON THAT!!

  • Form Friday

    5 redwoods gathered in the Bettie Weaver parking lot on a sunny and 70 morning for a jump start to their Friday.

    THANG

    Mosey to the court behind the school for a warmup of DQ, SSH, IW, good form merkins, and good form flutter kicks.

    Mosey to the end of the bus loop – merkins, slow lunges in cadence and burpees in 6-count cadence.

    Mosey down the road to the front of the high school.  Squats (touch your ankles), merkins, freddie mercuries.  Run to the bus parking lot, lunges, burpees, find a curb for split squats.  Mosey to the end of the lot, merkins.  Sprint the road across the back and mosey to the turnaround.  More squats and burpees.  Across the hidden bridge that leads behind the football stadium and around to the pull up bars.  4 rounds of 3 dead hang pull ups/10 reverse lunges.  Mosey to the parking lot for merkins, slow Freddie’s, split squats.  Sprint across the parking lot to the poles.  Slow leg raises in cadence.  5 burpees OYO then run up the hill and across the field.

    Mary w/ Crunchy frogs, 1-leg APD, American Hammer.  End with 10 slow and good form merkins.

    NMM

    This was a workout in the mold of Toga and Conspiracy, low on the total reps but high on good form.  All of the PAX crushed the workout, as expected with Valet and Jenny Craig easily following the form recommendations.  The new bridge found behind the school is a good shortcut from the tennis courts to the pull up bars that could come in handy later.  While we didn’t use the lights as torture devices, a la Gumbo, there were plenty of lit locations to use around the school for the various stops in the string of pearls.

    Keeping the PAX together and working on form were the 2 main goals today.  The consensus was that 750 of any given exercise is a beast of a workout, but 75 can be just as beneficial if good form is kept.  After the first round of 6 count burpees Mr. Roper realized that the slow count is much harder than quick OYO version.  Wheelbarrow noted he is working on a personal pull-up challenge.  YHC will be happy to help out with adding some pullups to the Q whenever the opportunity arises.

    Great start to the Friday men, thanks for the opportunity to lead.

  • Haiku III

    Sixteen mighty ran

    Lockjaw called Haiku for all

    Upchuck lights the way

     

    Pair by pair we ran

    To the Spider Run and back

    It’s dark in the woods

     

    Leave your haiku in the post to celebrate the run.

    Ricky Bobby took us out.

    Announcements:

    • Reesestrong on September 16
    • Convergence on September 30

    ABT,

    Lockjaw

     

     

  • Problem solved

    2 F3RVA men went in the gloom that is Green Acres and this is what transpired:

    Mosey to Playground for 11s.  10 pullups and run to swings where you put your feet in swing for 1 decline merkin.  Back to pullups for 9 and and 2 decline merkins.  Repeato until 10 merkins and 1 pullups.

    Mosey to bench at track for 4 corners. Corner 1=dips x 10.  Corner 2=LBCsx10.  Corner 3=Squatsx10.  Corner 4=WWII situps x10.  Repeato x 3.

    Mosey to BBALL courts.  Lunge 1 side, bear crawl side 2, lunge side 3, bear crawl side 4.  Repeato x 3.

    Mosey to school building for 4 minutes of Peoples Chair concentrating on maintaining Helix form.

    5MOM-APDs, Heels to Heaven, American Hammers.

    Mosey back to flag.

    Moleskin-With two guys that have known each other for 10 plus years, YHC decided on a low impact workout in order to catch up.  Scully and YHC solved all the worlds problems as the discussion topics of the morning were very diverse.  It was great to spend some time in the gloom with a fellow F3 brother.  Great work Scully.

    Circle K

     

  • Follow the Light

    Five giants of the gloom posted at Timberwolf on this mildly humid and at times misty morning and YHC had a plan for bringing some light to the gloom – it went something like this:

    Mosey to the front of school near the bus loop for COP, including:

    • SSHs x20 IC
    • Don Quixotes x10 IC
    • Cotton Pickers x15 IC
    • Arm Circles x15 (10 small, 5 big) forward and backward IC
    • Imperial Walkers x15 IC

    THANG:

    Ladder of Light Poles

    There are nicely 10 light poles around the large parking lot and bus loop.  When the PAX toured the AO a couple weeks ago YHC noticed this perfect number for a ladder.  So it shall be done…  1 Burpee at the first light pole, run to next, 2 Burpees, run to next 3 Burpees….and so on for an opening heart-pumper with 55 Burpees.

    Al Gore for the six and then catch our breath with a little Mary – LBCs, Hello Dollies, APDs

    Time to go down the ladder — and right as the groans started with the unfathomable thought of 55 more Burpees…. YHC had buried the lead – we are doing monkey humpers on the way down – 10, 9, 8…1. WHEW!

    No need to plank for the six as all 5 beasts stuck pretty close together…Mosey right to the nearby light pole for the second exercise –

    pause for some more Mary with Rosalitas, Freddy Mercuries and Flutter Kicks.

    Lamp Post Hill

    There are three lamp posts on the entrance hill into the AO and they are separated by a decent space, so let’s do 10 Merkins at the 1st one, lunge to the second one, do 10 box cutters, BEAR CRAWL (just for you Honeymoon!) to the 3rd lamp post and do 10 jump squats.

    More Mary – LBCs and something else?

    Must go back up  — 10 jump squats, bear crawl, 10 box cutters, lunge, 10 merkins

    4 Lamp Post Corners

    Pause for some Mary – American Hammers and something else?

    Mosey over to the parking lot where 4 lamp posts nicely outline  a square for us – how thoughtful.  Exercises were Corner 1 – 10 2-count mountain climbers, Corner 2 – 20 jump squats, Corner 3 – 30 merkins and Corner 4 – 40 crunchy frogs (NOTE: YHC was drawing a blank and asked for an ab exercise and McRib picked this — NEVER AGAIN!).

    Gotta reverse it — except this time replace crunch frogs with 40 Rocky Balboas – switch feet after 20 and run backwards between lamp posts.

    Lighted Mosey Back to the Flag

    Mosey around the parking lot and back to the flag stopping at lamp posts that were lit around the walkway for exercises – Derkins, LBCs, Flutter Kicks and 10 Burpees OYO (because McRib noted a lamp post that we missed)

    Back at the flag – Heels to Heaven and time is up

    COT – number-rama, name-a-rama and YHC took us out.

    Announcements:

    • ReeseStrong 5K and CrabFest at Circle K’s is this Saturday
    • Convergence is 9/30 – get ready and bring friends.  0600 and 0700 workouts – make it for whatever you can just BE THERE!

    NMS:

    YHC has been wanting to test out the light poles/lamp posts at this AO since he first noticed them.  Thanks for indulging me this morning fellas.  The 55 Burpees off the top definitely got the heart pumping and YHC panting…strong start.

    Way to push through and work hard from opening bell to the final bell.  It was a pleasure to lead.

    No more Gumbo for you!

  • Quattuor Fortis

    Pleasant though mildly damp conditions at Circus Maximus with four (4) Gladiators present.

    THANG:

    EW series: assortment of common warmup exercises and stretches, negative pullovers, halos and more with rinse and repeats

    WD series: lawn mower rows, boats/canoes, squat presses, snatches, WWIIs with presses, curls, merkins, and more with rinse and repeats

    Attila series: triple check with high pulls, scissor kicks, and run/weighted carries followed by ring of fire with skull crushers and boats/canoes

    COT:

    Numberama and Namearma

    Announcements: (1) 3 Year GridIron Anniversary September 16; (2) Convergence on September 30 at 0600 and 0700 at GridIron (J’Ville working on assigned Qs and attending to other coordinating activities);  and (3) Pre-Gaming at GridIron under Cecil Q now to commence in October (actual commencement date TBD).

    Closing prayer by YHC.

    MOLESKIN:   The PAX collectively filled the gap of no prior Q commitment. – smooth and efficient.  J’Ville given a Q pass this morning as he recovers from fine BRR effort put forth by the RVA PAX.

  • Bombing Run

    23 Strong Redwoods arrived ready for a beat down.

    COP – Helicopters, Don Quixote, Imperial Walkers, Russian Soldiers

    Partner up and divide into the Commonwealth Squadron and the Westmoreland Squadron.

    Bombing Run!

    The Mission – Perform set exercises on each corner to appropriate count while the other partner runs to the next block and back.  Switch until block is complete and progress to the next block and repeat.

    The Exercises – B.O.M.B.S.

    B – 10 Burpees

    O – 20 Overhead Claps (SSH)

    M – 30 Merkins

    B – 40 Big Boy Sit Ups

    S – 50 Squats

    The Route – Down Westmoreland to Leonard Pkwy and turn right to come back on Commonwealth.  Commonwealth Squadron does the opposite.  10 blocks total.

    Mary Abs Hot Potato – APDs, LBCs, Flutter Kicks

    TYA took us out.

    NMS:

    YHC was eager to get into the workout and probably should have provided more detailed instructions, however, it all worked itself out by the second block or so.  YHC also assumed the Mary crowd was familiar with B.O.M.B.S as a foundation, so breaking it into parts and taking it on the road was a little rocky.  Seems B.O.M.B.S. is a SOJ thing.  Next time we will leverage an ADKAR process for BOMBS to get the squadrons together beforehand if necessary.  Change is hard – something new and going off grounds.

    Bombing run mumblechatter was to a minimum except for DK who was fully conversational to a solo bomber needing a wingman.

    We covered six of so of the intended ten blocks, so we can dial it in for next time.

    ABT,

    Lockjaw