Category: Richmond, VA

  • Re-colonizing the Slide

    A solid six PAX got the week started right with a beatdown at The Punisher that went something like this:

    The THANG:

    Mosey to the front of the school for COP: Hammer Dance IC x20, Imperial Walker IC x20, Don Quixote IC x10, Walk-Out Merkin x10, M.C. American Hammer IC x10, American Hammer IC x10

    Mosey to northeast corner for plerkins x20.  Mosey to northwest corner for another set of plerkins x20.

    Mosey to the playground for AMRAP:  5 pull-ups, 10 WWII situps, 15 squats, then traverse the playground and plank for the six.  PAX completed 8 sets in 20 minutes, with some plank jacks, mountain climbers, and shoulder taps sprinkled in.

    Mosey to the bus loop for catch-me-if-you-can.  One partner performs 15 dips then runs to catch the other partner, who is traversing the bus loop doing polar bears.  Mosey back to the flag for COT.

    NMM:
    YHC figured that with school out and the hot temperatures, the playground equipment may not have its usual bacterial flora.  The PAX took care of that with dozens of trips through the tube during the AMRAP.  Maybe still not the usual flora, but flora nonetheless.

    It was great to have Scrappy back out for his second post.  Look out, though, Dear Ol’ Dad is catching up.  Great job to all the PAX who pushed through the pull-ups and sit-ups, and even offered some self-critiques on form.

    Toucan taught the PAX about heavy machine guns and automatic grenade launchers and advised that once you pull the trigger, just keep shooting.  It reminds me of his approach to a workout.

    Announcements:

    HDHH this Wednesday at The Answer

    Golf tournament August 7th (see Upchuck)

    Sign up for Reese Strong (see Phonics)

     

  • Traditional Tarrington Run

    11 strong posted at River Run this morning with no Q to lead the way.  YHC’s morning began with a text from Wilson that the New Market clown car was running late, so maybe by default, YHC picked up the Q and lead the PAX out of the Bettie Weaver parking lot and into Tarrington for the traditional River Run loop through Tarrington, including the long, steady Ashwell hill.  Always a crowd-pleaser.

    https://goo.gl/CXgU5H

    Strong work by all the PAX today.  I believe it may have been the virgin River Run posting for a few folks (Doogie, Wedding Singer, Honeydo, EF Hutton?).  And, of course, always great to have an FNG and 2.0 with us.  Great work Styx.

    Announcements:

    • NoToll is NOT at NoToll tomorrow.  AO change – we will post at Huguenot Little League just behind Robious Elementary School (2801 Robious Crossing Drive, Midlothian, VA 23113).
    • HDHH this Wednesday at The Answer Brew Pub to raise a toast to Toga before he hits the road for Music City.

    Great job today crew!

    No more Gumbo for you!

  • Iron sharpens iron but gravel sharpens what?

    Eleven experienced PAX posted for Gridiron on a sunny, humid Saturday morning.  YHC arrived a little early and planted the ShovelFlag.  In contrast to other times of the year, the parking lot already contained a few cars – those of some other guys getting some sweat going somewhere else on the AO.

    The Thang:  After an abbreviated disclaimer, including an explanation that while we’d discussed one day taking on an all Burpee Beast at Gridiron, YHC had not planned one for the morning.  We did start with some Burpees (only 5) followed by 20 each of SSHs, Don Quixotes, Imperial Walkers, and Helicopters, 15 Arm Circles (each way of differing diameters), and 10 Alternating Arm Hugs.

    Jog to the northern edge of the parking lot.  Knock out 5 Burpees then Lunge Walk the length of the nearby footbridge.  Alternate 5 Burpees and Lunge Walking or a Light Jog three more times completing the jog at the edge of the Strikers Park parking lot.

    Using the seven columns of parking spaces in this parking lot, complete exercises in each space one column at a time.  Per column, from Pouncey Tract Road and working east, complete Burpees, Squats, Hello Dollys, Carolina Dry Docks, Side Lunges, Flutter Kicks, and Merkins.  Complete 1 Burpee per parking space, 2 of each arm and leg exercise, and 3 of each abdominal exercise – resulting in 25 Burpees, 60 Squats, 90 Hello Dollys, 64 Carolina Dry Docks, 64 Side Lunges, 96 Flutter Kicks, and 64 Merkins.  The PAX split up and completed columns in whatever order desired.  Time check before 8 AM followed by mosey back to the ShovelFlag.

    Several PAX left kettlebells near the flag.  Completed 15 Curls and 15 Pullovers OYO to complete the workout.  COT and Attila took us out.

    Moleskin:  Cru, Flip Phone, and Byproduct pulled in as the flag was being planted.  The White Deer clown car followed – out of which popped White Deer, Hoops, Cletus, and Johnsonville.  Attila, Nightcrawler, and Earthworm arrived minutes later.  White Deer-led mumblechatter started immediately.

    J’ville disclosed that Earthworm had missed Circus Maximus earlier in the week because he’d been confused about the day of the week by the July 4th holiday.  Apparently this disclosure by J’ville may have run afoul of J’ville and Earthworm’s partnership agreement – no really.  White Deer took some joy in giving Earthworm a hard time about this in spite of missing Circus Maximus himself.

    Cletus arrived wearing a UVA sweatshirt and kept it on until the PAX arrived at the Strikers Park parking lot – hardcore long sleeve action rivaling Wilson.  Hoops, White Deer’s kid, and Cletus, Hoops’ buddy, are both 15 years old and at least 30 years younger than the rest of the PAX.   These guys stuck together during the parking lot portion of the workout and seemed to maintain way more capacity for conversation than the rest of us.

    Given the choice of exercise to start with in the parking lot, about half of the PAX started with the Burpees.  The ab exercises proved more challenging – while involving low reps, these involved getting down and up repeatedly from a coarse gravel lot.

    In the mosey back to the ShovelFlag, YHC witnessed the race to the flag involving Johnsonville, Flip Phone, Cletus, and Hoops.  Johnsonville had a slight lead, but not sure who won.

    Nice to have you return to GridIron Cru and Byproduct and good to see Nightcrawler back after some time away.  Good also to have the young guys post.  And of course YHC appreciates the time with the GridIron regulars.

    We spoke about the DogPile workout that finished right as GridIron started.  From all at GridIron, take care Toga and see you soon.

    Announcements:

    July 9th – Central Virginia Orienteering bike-O event at Pocahontas State Park – Google Central Virginia Orienteering Meetup Group for info – more Orienteering events throughout the year.

    July 12th – HDHH / Toga send-off at The Answer Brewpub – check website(s) for earlier Preblast

    August 7th – Charity golf tournament in Stafford – see Upchuck for details.

    September 16th – Reese Strong 5K –Signs ups will open soon. Join the F3 team.

     

     

  • Not Goodbye

    30 with a COT plus one posted for yet another beautiful morning in RVA.  Fudd widely publicized YHC’s final Dogpile Q, and it went something like this:

    Fudd took the Q and had the PAX mosey to field near the side of the VITA trail for warmup COP:  SSH (molasses slow), merkins, box cutters, arm circles, Don Quixote, Imperial Walkers.., and maybe something else.

    Mosey to the lake for another edition of “Burpee Lake”: Alternate exercises at each light pole around the lake with the exercises being two burpees and leg raise alphabet spelling “TOGA”.

    Hand Q to YHC for mosey to the rusty cage.  Ladder the following exercises up to 7: pull-ups, squats and merkins

    Mosey to Carillon field for EMOM ascending shuttle run and merkins.  The PAX started with 3 ~15 yd runs with 3 merkins at the end of the last run.  Rest till minute 2 began and go up to 4 runs with 4 merkins at the end.  Keep going up by one till nobody can complete the runs and merkins within the minute.

    Lineup in rows for ye’ old football ground drills.  Chop feet, execute rolls right or left and do a forward roll and sprint to the line after the “go” call.

    COT, Saab joined us, and Fudd took us out.

    NMM:  It was extremely thoughtful that Fudd reached out to YHC to help Q this workout.  To YHC’s amazement, Fudd showed up on time and with a flag #AAF.  We also discussed his plans for the workout, and YHC was led to believe that burpee lake would be the doom of the entire PAX.  It seemed like the PAX had lots of mumble chatter and was just fine through that evolution.  We’ve come a long way!

    The EMOM run/merk was meant to be a bit of a mashup from something YHC has used at other Qs lately, and it’s always a joy to see people wonder what the big deal is during the first few reps.  Reality tends to set in after a few reps and the mumble chatter completely stops the last few reps.  Congrats to Phonics and Hardywood for almost completing 11!  Fun times…

    Re the title and everything else, YHC’s M has family in RVA, and Toga will return from time-to-time.., whether you like that or not.  One of YHC’s go to thoughts during prayer is that God will show us the path, help us stay true to the teachings of his son, and help those that are put in our path.  This PAX has (and always will) meant a lot to me, it has been there for me in the best and worst of times, your words and actions have helped keep me on the path that I so often have trouble seeing, and it will never be forgotten.

    Announcements:

    • See Phonics re Reese Strong 5k
    • See Upchuck for charity golf outing
    • HDHH at The Answer Weds. this week

    Stay Classy,

    Toga

  • Well I guess we are Qing this thing

    11 Davillians including 5 2.0’s showed up for a last minute decision for the Q today at the creek. Mudface and YHC lost to LabRat and Abacus at Ulimate frisbee yesterday so we were left to Q.

    This is how it went down:

    Spit’s Q

    Mosey around the church then circle up for COP. Emoji seemed tired this morning so 5 burpees OYO was needed to wake him up

    COP (All IC)

    • SSH
    • Helicopters
    • LBC
    • Freddie Mercury
    • Arm Circles

    THANG

    Mosey to the field

    Black Jack

    Stand on one side of the field and complete 1 Merkin run to other sideline – perform 20 LBCs. Run back and do 2 Merkins. Run back for 19 LBCs. Repeat and Repeat till YHC calls time (around 11/12 Merkins and 10/9 LBC’s)

    Frisbee catch me if you can

    One PAX members throws the Frisbee across the field and calls out an exercise. One completed PAX bear crawls to the Frisbee. First PAX member to reach the Frisbee gets to call out the next exercise. Exercise were as follows:

    • 10 (2 count) Mtn Climbers
    • 10 Boat/Canoes
    • 10 Crunchy Frogs
    • 10 SSH
    • 10 Big Arm Circles

    MudFace’s Q

    Mosey back to the parking lot

    Polar Bear Triple Check

    In groups of  three. 1st person completes Copperhead Squat while 2nd person polar bears across the parking lot to the three person who is completing Burpees then 3rd person polar bears back to the 1st person. Continue until each person polar bears across at least 3 times.

    Mosey back to the field

    Freeze Tag

    One PAX member is the “It person” while rest of the PAX tries to not be tagged by them. If you are tag you most complete an exercise until someone “Un-freezes” you by complete 5 reps of that exercise with you. Two rounds were completed with exercises being LBC’s and American Hammers

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

    MOLESKIN

    As of yesterday no one had sided up to Q The Creek. YHC send a message out to the Mechanicsville PAX to see if anyone was interested. Abacus was the only one to respond stating that the losing ultimate Frisbee team during First Thursday should be responsible with choosing the Q. Since Mudface and YHC were the only two non 2.0s on the losing team, a plan was put into place at B-Dubs following the game.

    Once again The Creek has been taken over by 2.0’s all of which crushed it today. They seem to really enjoy throwing the Frisbee and playing tag.

    Great to have Psycho back out. It took YHC calling him at 5:15 get up but you have to EH any way you can!

    ANNOUNCEMENTS

    SPIT ON THAT!!

  • 2nd Annual F3RVA Home Run Derby Workout — AO CHANGE FOR NOTOLL

    As mentioned in previous backblast announcements, YHC will be leading the 2nd Annual F3RVA Home Run Derby Workout this coming Tuesday, July 11, at Huguenot Little League – behind Robious Elementary School, located at 2801 Robious Crossing Drive, Midlothian, VA 23113.

    https://www.google.com/maps/@37.5317304,-77.613134,235m/data=!3m1!1e3

    Formation and COP will take place in the parking lot right next to Robious Elementary School and then we will head to fields for the HR Derby portion of the workout.

    There will be no workout at NoToll!

     

     

  • Super Sevens or Sweaty Sevens?

    7 showed on 7/7 for a Rosie beatdown, including a 2.0 FNG. Here is what we did:

    COP- SSH (just in time for McRib to do last 2), Imperial Walkers, LBCs, Merkins?

    Mosey to field, start with Bear & Snake to get blood flowing, then on to the main event- Super 7s: 7 Burpees on one end of field, 7 Merkins & 7 Squats at other end of field. Repeato 7x’s.

    Mosey to playground for 3 sets of: 7 Pull-ups and 7 Flutterkicks. Mosey to bus loop for Triple check of Box Jumps, Freddy Mercurys.

    Mosey back to flag for some Mary, Ring of Fire, Honeydo took us out.

    NMS – Solid Q from Rosie. Carabiner is YHC’S daughter, she enjoyed it although she said the Super 7s smoked her. The rest of the PAX agreed. Again the PAX could not have been nicer to her.

    The Bear & Snake seems to be a knock off of the Human Centipede but you can never go with Bear Crawl. Mumblechatter focused mainly on the 2nd annual Home Run Derby.  Will Wedding Singer repeat? Will there be a Trophy this year?

    Announcements – Home Run Derby is Tuesday at NoToll, but not at NoToll, see Pre-blast from Gumbo.

     

  • Dirty Dozen

    The high humidity rendered this group of 12 just plain dirty by the end.

    4 Milers – W on Grove to Libbie, to Patterson E, to Malvern S, to Grove W, to SF

    5s and 6s – W on Grove to Henri to St Chris to Patterson.  East on Patterson.  5s turn at Malvern to Grove.  6s turn on Nansemond to Grove.  Grove to SF.

    It was good to see Aisle 5 today and give him a good ribbing.  A disclaimer should be provided for those American Hammers to prevent injury.

    BRR training was in full swing with Aisle 5, Wilson, and Honeymoon.  YHC showed restraint and did not provide guidance on proper taper form.

    Announcements:

    • HDHH Wednesday the 12th @ 6pm – The Answer on Broad St
    • Upchuck has a golf tournament in early August.  The 7th perhaps.

     

  • Thunderstruck and Reporting from Ghana

    As a Sunny and 70 day brewed, 5 brave souls decided to be Thunderstruck by a Wednesday afternoon Storm for a Hill Run on the HillCrest Loops of various shapes and distances.

    NMS

    Shake Down was patiently waiting on the top of of the hill in high Truck, YHC arrived with 2.0’s, Theta and Pele in tow, The run commenced at 5:30 PM, during the first loop UpChuck joined the PAX and proceeded to run with Shake Down and Pele, leaving YHC in the dust, ( more like a wake.) At some point Pele, decided that he no longer wanted to run loops, and made the executive decision that he could run home, which by all accounts was roughly the same distance as YHC and Theta both ran.

    As a side note, it was reported that at 0630, Herbie (TYA’s 2.0) called home to report that she had arrived safely in Ghana and that this was the time the mission workers told the youth they could check in with there Parents. M TYA had to ask, “Your dad is went with you, right?”

    Announcements:
    Reesestrong registration is now open and Phonics has created the F3RVA team: https://runsignup.com/RaceGroups/4045/Groups/386047 .

  • A Polar Bear, A Hurricane, and A Hutton, oh my

    6 Warriors climbed out of their fartsack this morning to take part in another edition of Green Acres.

    This is how it went down:

    Mosey down pole green park ln and up the hill to the playground area

    COP (all IC)

    • Invisible Jump Rope
    • DQ (Swirly Style)
    • American Hammers
    • Annie’s (Planking Arm Circles)
    • LBC’s

    THANG

    Pull Up Special

    Partner up; with your partner complete the following sets:

    • 25 Burp-Ups
      • (Al Gore hands to the front)
    • 25 Pull-Ups
      • (Al Gore hands to the back)
    • 25 Burp-Ups
      • (Touchdown Al Gore)

    Mosey back down the hill to the entrance of the bus loop

    Polar Bear 4 Corners 

    Polar Bear up bus loop hill then run to the 1st corner of the loop complete 25 squats, run to the 2nd corner complete 25 Merkins, run to the 3rd corner complete 25 Heels to Haven, run to the 4th corner complete 25 LBC’s. Finally polar bear back down the bus loop hill. Plank and wait for the 6.

    Mosey over to Polar Green Dr

    4×4’s

    Partner up; First partner runs to the end of the road while 2nd partner complete reps of 4×4’s (Burpee to plank position, 4 Merkins, 4 (2 count) Mtn Climbers, back up). Rinse and Repeat until each partner completes 2 sets

    Mosey back to Polar Green Park Ln

    Burpee Mile

    As a PAX run a mile and stop at every 1/4 mile to complete 12 burpees. Audible due to time only completed 3/4 of a mile and a total of 24 burpees.

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

    MOLESKIN

    It was great to Q once again at Green Acres. YHC wanted to try out some new exercises that he had planned for previous Q’s and wasn’t able to get to. Also since YHC farsacked yesterday, some extra punishment was needed.

    The PAX did a great job of staying together and pushing one another. Hurricane mentioned he still has a lot of work to do in order to keep up. YHC disagrees since he saw him near the front most of the time.

    Definitely could tell Emoji was back with all the off the wall counting during the COP.

    Although no one is participant in this month’s challenge, YHC included polar bears anyways.

    Great to have EF Hutton joins us this morning. Mark that AO off your list. Hope to see you soon at MANNDate!

    Also welcome back Alien and Slimer. Glad to see you guys making Green Acres a regular thing every week.

    ANNOUNCEMENTS

    • First Thursdays tonight at Atlee HS @ 6pm
    • Toga’s last Dogpile this Saturday
    • HDHH at The Answer @ 6pm Wednesday next week

     

    SPIT ON THAT!!