Category: Richmond, VA

  • Victory Lap x2

    On this beautiful, lucky mid-May morning, 8 determined die-hards gathered at the Ridge. Here’s what went down:

    Mosey to front of parking lot for a warmup COP: Invisible Jump Rope, Russian Kickbacks, Don Quixote, Carolina Dry Docks

    Mosey to south end of track near the road. Intro the Lucky Horseshoe. Set the timer for 33 min, and PAX complete as much of the following as possible during that time:
    Do a lap of the track and do 20 of the marked exercises on laminated card corresponding to that lap number.
    Lap 1 – Merkins
    Lap 2 – Merkins, Storm Squats (to clear up any ongoing confusion, each storm squat rep = [1st leg -> squat -> 2nd leg -> squat])
    Lap 3 – Merkins, Storm Squats, Scorpion Dry Docks
    Lap 4 – Merkins, Storm Squats, Scorpion Dry Docks, WWII Situps
    Lap 5 – Merkins, Storm Squats, Scorpion Dry Docks, WWII Situps, In-place Lunges (to clear up any ongoing confusion, 20 each leg)
    Lap 6 – Storm Squats, Scorpion Dry Docks, WWII Situps, In-place Lunges
    Lap 7 – Scorpion Dry Docks, WWII Situps, In-place Lunges
    Lap 8 – WWII Situps, In-place Lunges
    Lap 9 – In-place Lunges
    Lap 10 – Victory Lap, no exercises at the end

    Mosey to shovel flag for Ring of Fire

    COT

    MOLESKIN:
    Well done this morning, gentlemen! Kudos to Phonics and Offshore for both completing the Victory Lap! You both crushed it and it was great to see.

    Thanks Phonics for making the trek to Heartbreak, we hope to see you again.

  • Husky’s VQ!

    Kubota writing on behalf of Husky.  YHC=Husky

    Two veteran hill runners, one hill runner that needs improvement, and one rookie hill runner took on the Hillcrest loops on a gorgeous afternoon.

    Swirly and TYA completed two extra long loops for about 4.5 miles

    Kubota and YHC completed two short loops for about 1.5 miles.

    YHC took us out with a prayer that went something like this: “Dear Lord, thank you for helping us come out here and run this afternoon.  Thank you for my Daddy bringing me out here to run with him this afternoon.  Also, thank you for Swirly and thank you for TYA.  We love you God.  Amen!

    YHC thinks Kubota had a tear in his eye.

    NMS:

    YHC had his 6 year well visit with his pediatrician this afternoon and received a clean bill of health!  Afterward, YHC told Kubota that he wanted to go run the hills with the guys this afternoon.  Kubota and YHC went to Hillcrest early to wait for the guys and saw TYA’s car already parked on the side of the street and Swirly pulled in a few minutes after.  Kubota told YHC how he finally beat Swirly to an AO!  YHC was curious about TYA’s age so TYA told YHC to guess his age.  YHC guessed 70!  TYA did not get mad!  YHC came closer to guessing Swirly’s age (50’s).  YHC loved running down the hills and liked running up the hills.  Waterfalls in the creek, fast cars and trucks, and lots of squirrels were the highlights of YHC’s run.  The guys took pictures with YHC by the Shovel Flag and TYA gave YHC a Gatorade.  YHC had a lot of fun and can’t wait to do it again!  Thanks to Swirly and TYA for letting me Q Roller Coaster!

    Husky

     

  • It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity

    85 degrees and 50% humidity greeted us today as three of set out for a (approximate) 3 mile lunchtime downtown run. We, being gloom warriors, are more used to pre-dawn conditions and we aren’t quite used to seeing the sun since it’s been hiding recently. Nevertheless we set off for a fairly standard run, though a little slow considering our attempts to acclimate and since Lab Rat isn’t feeling quite himself.

    No speed records were set but it was nice to have Swiper along and to see Sugar Sock on the bridge.

    The more the merrier so if you can, come join us next week.

     

     

  • First year of many

    18 sunrise samurais cut through the humidity this morning in order to escape the fartsack to gather at WDog for Wednesday morning beatdown and it went a little something like this…

    COP:
    Circle up in front of the Carillon SSH x 25
    Helicopters x 10
    Don Quixote x 10
    Imperial Walkers x 10 Russian Soldiers x 10 Merkins x 10
    LBC x 25

    The Thang:
    Short theatrical mosey to the orchestra pit of the Amphitheater of Pain (most underrated Motley Crue album)
    11’s – burpees at the bottom, V-ups at the top. Thanks for Kubota for the technically exquisite demonstration of a V-up
    Native American Run to the bottom or Love Hill
    11’s at the amphitheater took longer in practice than they did your humble correspondent’s (YHC) imagination so he improvised with everybody’s favorite…. Partner Carry w Booya Merkins to the rim of the Valley of Doubt.
    Dive Bombing the Valley of Doubt – 3 dive-bombers on this side, 4 on that side, 5 on this side – plank. That was fun, repeato. Again – thanks Kubota for the demo.
    Time is short so back to the flag for…

    Mary:
    LBC x 30
    6 inches x 20
    Alabama Prom Dates x 20 Hello Dolly x 20
    All numbers approximate

    Announcements:
    Memorial Day Convergence – 7:00 at Tredegar. Bring a friend. Hot Potato Q for one hour. Second F to follow at ETs
    Summer challenge starts Saturday. Phonics will post a pre-blast soon. Long and the short of it is that you aim to hit every AO this summer. Should be fun. Come to the convergence to get the bonus AO.
    Lab Rat and Shakedown running at 11:30 like every Wednesday. Meeting Behind the Governor’s mansion – Text me if you want to meet en route (8043394365).

    YHC took us out – Sugar Shack donuts and cold waters after

    Ghost Flag: Since I won the GF repping SOJ I decided that WDog is neutral ground  – that being said, Richmond Proper had the numbers though Tuckahoe and SOJ came strong.  Vinny was kind enough to let me Q this morning even though he had his name on the Q sheet – since it was my 1 year he let me switch that out a couple weeks back  Vinny left with the flag today and has some fun planned.  Stay tuned

    Moleskin:
    One year ago today, after being EHd by Viral, I posted for the first time at NoToll. It was raining and nobody seemed to notice. I liked that. I was hooked almost immediately. Over the last year F3 has become such an important part of my life that I can’t believe it took so long to find it to begin with. I wondered early if a freak like me would fit in with you gentleman of distinction and then I realized you are just a bunch of bozos like me (more or less). As I said in my prayer, I wake up every day grateful for another day and F3 is no small part of why I am grateful. Thank you guys for your hard work this morning and for doing what you do. I can be a bit of a cornball but screw it – I gotta be me. This thing we do is a blessing and we need to make sure we share it and keep it going for the next guy that needs it.
    Have a great day guys!! See y’all in the gloom!

  • New Location and Old Favorites

    9 strong posted for a tour of the new SOT AO.  Maneuvering around the morning bus activity, all PAX found each other in the parking lot with a flag planted and a heightened level of excitement.  YHC thought it was for the Rosie Q but more likely to see what the new AO has for beatdown options.

    THANG

    Mosey to the bus loop for the COP.  DQ for Wilson, SSH, Merkins, IW, LBC, FK, Peter Parkers.  Giant parking lot tracers across the lined bus parking spots, Lab Rat would be pleased.  (Now he’s even happier b/c he was mentioned in a backblast of a workout he didn’t attend)  Mosey around the school – find Door #5 – 5 burpees.  Show the pax the potential gauntlet of doors 8-17.  Stop at door #18 for Freddie Mercuries, 18-IC.

    Down the steps to the track and over to the second set of steps for a triple check.  P1-Runs up the stairs, around the bleachers and down the other set of stairs, P2-Squats, P3-Flutter Kicks.

    Fantastic 400’s – Round 1- 10 merkins, run 100m, 10 Monkey Humpers, run 100m, 10 Heels to Heaven, run 100m, 10 2ct Mountain Climbers.  Round 2 – Repeato with 20 of each.

    Love Hill on the hill to the track parking lot- Backward Lunges, Broad Jump Burpees, Polar Bears.  Back down with Hate Hill-Broad Jump Burpees, Russian Soldiers, Lunges

    Mary – 1-leg Alabama Prom Dates, American Hammers, Crunchy Frogs

    Back to the flag for a Ring of Fire – 10 merkins each with 10 together at the end.  5 burpees to close out the last 30 seconds.

    NMM

    Great start to a new AO men.  Lots to do at this AO, the stairs are something that we don’t have at many AOs and Honeymoon is already coming up with a plan to use them more.  Gumbo pointed out what seemed to be an extra large curb that Wilson quickly christened.  It’s not a true SOJ AO until Wilson spreads the salmon and malbec.  It seemed a little forced but it is done.  As we moseyed around the AO everyone seemed to find something else to use, multiple football fields, baseball fields, flying EH’s and hills.  The FNG even got a few civil engineering lessons on grate placement from YHC and Bobber.

    Welcome Cougar Bait, it will likely get shortened to Cougar, but any man in his 20’s that states he is “single and ready to mingle” sounds like Two Can’s prodigy.  Kotters to McRib, good to have him back out, hope this AO fits into his schedule.  Singer wants to get in touch with Marmaduke to discuss how to post with 2 little ones at home, Singer is not up for excuses.  Singer may have been a little salty that Wilson fartsacked yesterday and didn’t deliver his golf tournament winnings.

    Announcements

    Memorial Day Convergence – Monday 7am Tredegar Parking lot – Hot Potato Q

    F3RVA Summer AO Challenge tour begins Tuesday – Hit all or some, you against you.  Bonus AO Monday.

    Fun times today men, looking forward to many more mornings at this AO.

  • Rainy Deck of Death

    Three of the faithful braved buckets of rain to post at GridIron. The rain kindly held out until we kicked off the thang with 25x ssh. As it intensified, we continued to warm up with 25x don quiotes. We moved under the shelter and continued with 20x dips, 20x right leg stepup, 20x dips, 20x left leg stepup.

    Mosey to the front small overhang of the school. Deck of death. Aces and 2s were 10x burpees each. Hearts were merkins; diamonds were crabcakes, spades were 2 count dollies, and spades were WWII situps. For all exercised but burpees, the numbers done turned on the card # from 3 to 13.

    Mosey back to the shelter near the VSF and finish with 20x dips, 20x right leg stepup, 20x dips, 20x left leg stepup.

    COT. Great work men! Jville

  • Up Iris…But Avoid Swirly’s Hole

    13 runners managed to conquer the uphill exit from Spider Run, via Fairway, Robin and Iris, and it appears that all managed to also avoid Swirly’s Hole.

    This was the first time, since Swirly found said hole on a RAMM run, that YHC has been on Iris.  It may not be Hillcrest or Twin Team, but that exit from Spider Run up to Three Chopt via Iris packs a punch, especially right out of the gate.  Nevertheless, the PAX crushed it and crushed the miles that followed today.  Great job everyone.

    Remainder of the route:

    • 4-milers: cross Three Chopt, immediate right on Henri (or the Bridgets parking lot) up to Grove, left on Grove to Libbie, Left on Libbie to Patterson, Left on Patterson to St. Christophers, Left on St. Christophers back to Three Chopt, but take a Right on the little access road that crosses Three Chopt and becomes Towana.  Towana to College, left at the campus entrance and immediate right onto Richmond Way, downhill past the Law School and football stadium and back to the Flag.
    • 5-milers: same as the 4 milers but stay on Grove until Oak.  Left on Oak to Patterson and back.
    • 6-milers: stay on Grove to Westmoreland, Left on Westmoreland to Patterson, Left on Patterson back to St. Christophers.  Instead of returning to the flag via Towana and College, stay straight across Three Chopt and return via Tapoan and Fairway.

    COT, COR, NOR and YHC took us out.

    Announcements:

    • SOT has a new AO – Midlothian Middle School – starting tomorrow.
    • Memorial Day Convergence – 0700 at Tredegar/Browns’ Island parking lot.  One hour, Hot Potato so post and bring an idea…in case Swirly actually passes the Q this time.
    • Ghost Flag will be up for grabs tomorrow at WDog.  Shakedown has the Q and is celebrating his 1-year F3 Anniversary.  Should be good times.
    • By the sounds of it, there is an epic little league battle brewing at Richmond Little League for this afternoon…all situational strategies should be sent to BT and Marv today for use tonight.

    NMS:

    • Bleeder got a head start, TYA got a late start, all returned unscathed…sweaty as hell, but unscathed.
    • Swiper fought with ideas of 6 miles but ultimately compromised by slaying the 5-mile route with a little navigational help from YHC — good thing you stayed vaguely within shouting distance.
    • Saab started on fire and finished on fire.
    • Grunt returned to F3 from a hiatus for that little inconvenience called college, and crushed five miles with his pops.  Great seeing you guys finish strong together.

    A pleasure running with you men this morning.  Have a great day!

    No More Gumbo for You!

  • Hearding Cats…with a Frisbee

    13 regulars posted to NoToll for a beautiful spring morning workout that went something like this:

    THANG

    Mosey to big parking lot
    COP (3 burpees OYO after each exercise): SSHs, DQs, Merkins, Copperhead Squats, Arm Circles (Flashdance, AKA “The Cat Burglar”, on cadence), Flutter Kicks

    Mosey around soccer field

    Partner up for Quadruple Check: Balls to Wall, Protractor on poles, Luggage Carousel, Run Lap
    Repeat 4x

    Mosey to soccer field, lunge half length

    12MUFF – 12 min of Ultimate Frisbee – Black Shirts vs Non-Black Shirts (6 vs 7 or 7 vs 6, depending on which team had Posh, who was wearing a black shirt)

    Mosey back to VSF
    1 min of American Hammers in Cadence

    COT – Hardywood took us out

    Naked Moleskin:
    Great to have our resident Flerkin on Guest Q for the Arm Circles…as said, YHC will miss his melodic cadence after the move to FLA

    Accepting that YHC’s instruction was not totally clear, the Quadruple Check was a challenge, like hearding cats. With 13, YHC figured there’d be 3 groups of 3 and 1 group of 4….halfway through, there were 2 groups of 3, 1 group of 2 and 1 group of 5…whatever…it all adds up to 13

    The Ultimate was great fun, though Roper needs to watch his hands! Posh and Hardywood may have been the MVPs…and Handshake caught a beautiful bomb to end the game.

    Announcements:
    SOT – moves to Midlo Middle School tomorrow!

    Memorial Day Convergence – 7am at Tredegar, just down from VA War Memorial

    Posh is looking for American Flags for a boy scout troop, if anybody has any extras.

  • Just a swingin’

    3 Gregarious guys galloped into the heart of Daville this morning and bravely fought the torrential downpours to make it through another F3 workout.  Oh wait, that was just my sweat.  Sorry for the hyperbole.

    Here is what went down:
    COP — SSH, Tempo Merkins, Arm Circles, DQ, Split Jacks
    10 merkins for a break along the way…
    Longish mosey to the jungle gym for the 1st triple check.

    Partner 1 run to second fence, partner 2 flutterkicks, partner 3 does lean outs on the swing (hands on swing, move swing away from you, hold for 3-5 seconds, repeato)

    2nd Triple Check  (not in the original plans) —
    Partner 1 bear crawls to 1st fence and back, partner 2 does heels to heaven, partner 3 does merkins one hand on each swing

    More running….

    Introduce Pick 2 to the hill behind the stadium
    Partner 1 runs up and down the hill while the other guys do squats.  Rotate through.
    Partner 1 runs up and down hill while the rest of us do SSH.  Rotate through.

    Try to hurry back to the flag — where does the time go?
    Decision to stop and do the numberama, namearama, etc. before we make it back.
    Helix takes off like a bat outta hell back to his car.  Pick Two and YHC saunter back…

    Announcements
    Ghost Flag at WDog…

    NMS —
    1) Summer humidity sucks.
    2) Pick Two got his truck back after $1100 in repairs after hitting a bear way back in November.  Hitting a bear
    3) Sorry for being so late.  I had so much planned we didn’t even get to do….
    4) Thanks for letting YHC lead.  The swing set exercises will be coming back…

    Peace out
    Opus

  • Man’s Search For Rocks

    5 warriors rose to greet the dawn of a new day.  According to legend the hot potato Q went a little something like this.

    Swirly COP: Don Quiote, helicopters, flutter kicks, merkins, copperhead squats

    Lunge and Then Some

    Line up the the bottom of the hill for what seems like an impossible task.  With the trees on your left, lunge between each tree.  When you get to a tree, complete 5 hand release merkins.  Repeato until the top.

    Pass to Upchuck

    Some Kind of Pentagon:  Break into groups of 5 with each man at a station.  Station 1 stairs, Station 2 WWII, Station 3 Incline Merkins, Station 4 Dips.  Run from station 4 to the stairs.  Complete 1 cycle.

    Pass to Hardywood

    Run down the hill to the stairs leading to the duck pond and grab a rock.  Run the loop of success with a rock. Complete the following exercises at each junction.  10 burpees at the bottom of the first set of stairs.  Run along the service road to the other stairs and complete 20 merkins.  Run back up the hill to complete 30 squats with rock.  Complete 2 loops.

    Pass to Sippy Cup

    4 round of 5 pull ups and 20 dips.

    Hold chin up position until Sippy Cup becomes exhausted (which there is no written record of) or bored.  The first round was a normal chin-up.  The second round was a nightmarish invention in which you are “supposed” to pull yourself up and have the bar at the back of your head.

    Mosey back to the flag for a little Ring of Fire.

    Nuberama, namerama, YHC took us out.

    News:

    Upchuck has the Q for Breaking Bread this Sunday, see him if you’d like to participate.

    Upchuck is also working on the next puppy pile with a tentative June date.

    Way to work this morning fellas.  This is the greatest privilege to be a part of this group.  Make it a great week!

    Get it all out, dig a little deeper and be super.

    Hardywood