Category: Richmond, VA

  • 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

  • Turkeybell

    4 Davillians and one lost boy showed on a rainy but warm Wednesday morning to enjoy their pre-Thanksgiving meal.

    This is how it went down:

    COP (ALL IC)

    • SSH
    • Merkins
    • Slingshots
    • Helicopters
    • Sit up Press
    • Arm Circles

    THANG

    The Feast (4 course meal)

    1st Course (5 rounds with a short mosey to one side of the parking lot and back)

    • 10 KB Rack Squats
    • 10 KB Swings
    • 5 KB Burpees

    2nd Course (10 mins AMRAP)

    • 10 KB Ground to Overhead
    • 10 KB Lunges (Per Leg)
    • 10 KB Snatches (5 Per Arm)

    3rd Course (5 rounds with a short mosey to one side of the parking lot and back)

    • 5 KB Squat Thrusters
    • 10 KB Swings
    • 10 KB Rows (5 per Arm)

    4th Course (10 mins AMRAP)

    • 10 KB Burpees
    • 10 KB Alternating Swings
    • 10 KB Sit Up Presses
    • 10 SSH’s

    Numberama, Namerama, Helix took us out. 

    MOLESKIN

    It felt great for YHC to get back out to MANNDate Qing. It had been 6 months since his last. YHC also had overslept his alarm but luckily since he only lives 2 minutes from the AO, he arrived with 4 minutes to spear.

    Up Chuck showed up with a 10lb pink KB and ask if this would work. The PAX had a good laugh while he pulled out his real KB. Glad to have you join us this morning Up Chuck, congrats on only have one AO remaining on your quest to post at every AO.

    Mumble Chatter was low at first, but with Emoji around that wouldn’t last for long. Chatter was centered around UpChuck leading the PAX in Adam Sandler’s Thanksgiving Song (which YHC was very impressed how well he sounded just like Adam Sandler) and 80’s rock music. Emoji had noted that his 2.0 daughters only listen to 80’s music now thanks to Stranger Things.

    ANNOUNCEMENTS

    • Special 60 minutes of 45 MOM TOMORROW (Thanksgiving) starting at 6 am. Coffeeteria in the parking lot afterwards

    SPIT ON THAT!!

  • Milk Run

    9 peered out on this rainy school holiday morning for a special edition of Hoedown.  One Hoedown a week just isn’t enough.

    Ronnie took lead of the mosey to the front of the school for the COP:

    • SSH
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Merkins
    • Arm Circles
    • Russian Soldiers (or is it Rushing Shoulders?)

    Hand off Q to Splinter for mosey to the sea of blacktop.  Partner up – parent and 2.0 – for the following:

    • Round 1 – Partner 1 runs the length of the blacktop and back while partner 2 does Merkins; flip and repeat
    • Round 2 – Partner 1 backward runs the length of the blacktop and back while partner 2 does WWII; flip and repeat
    • Round 3 – Partner 1 karaokes the length of the blacktop and back while partner 2 does squats; flip and repeat

    Hand off Q to Lockjaw  for PLT: 25 count three times through for everyone.  Mosey to the back playground field for Triple Check.

    • BTTW
    • Lt Dans
    • Run a lap of the track

    Bear crawl across the field and hand off Q to Honey Do.  Mosey back to the school for some People’s Chair.

    Circle up for Mary – Flutter Kicks, American Hammers.

    Finish with the Burpee Shuffle.

    Da Vinci and Lockjaw took us out.

    NMS:

    The rain cleared for a perfect workout this morning.  I am proud of these 2.0s for rising early and ready to go full of excitement and giving it all.  They had tremendous speed, but the form police would have written a few violations today.  In the end, the 2.0s enjoyed themselves as much as their Pax dads.

    The title is from a strange half gallon of milk nested in the branches of a tree.  Very odd and the 2.0s confirmed it as smelly.  Science experiment?

    Coffee at Shore Dog was awesome; as much for the camaraderie as it is the coffee.  2.0s enjoyed the hot chocolate.

    Announcements:

    • Special Mary tomorrow – 6:00 am start.  Come hear about Virginia’s Thanksgiving history or TYA’s revisionist history of the event.

    Time to Taper,

    Lockjaw

  • Everyday is Leg Day

    7 men prepared themselves and took on the morning by storm. The morning fun began like this:

    Warmup

    • 10 four count side straddle hops
    • 10 body weight squats
    • 10 calf raises

    Mosey on over to the track

    Repeat 3 times and start halfway across a straightaway on the track

    • run to the first curve and duck walk the curve
    • run halfway to the next straightaway and do 20 iron mikes
    • run to the second curve and lunge around the curve
    • run to the starting point and do 20 body weight squats

    Quick Rest

    PAX buddied up and prepared for the next event of the morning.

    Starting at about the beginning of the first curve and repeat 3 times.

    • Buddy carry partner (any carry) to about halfway across the straightaway
    • Do 10 buddy squats
    • Switch
    • Second partner carries to the starting point
    • Do 10 buddy squats

    Mosey to the not so steep hill on the side of the woods. PAX completed 11s doing iron mikes at the bottom, back pedaling up the hill, and doing body weight squats at the top. Upon finishing Opus and Spit broke out into merkins to work on their 5,000 merkin challenge for the month. Boom Boom then asked Spit for a number between 1 and 5. Spit choose 4; thus, determining the fate of the PAX to be 40 (20 four count smurf jacks) once they got back to the starting point which everyone was super excited about.

    Mosey to starting point

    PAX completed their 20 four count smurf jacks and then were asked to pick another number between 1 and 5. The number 4 was picked which foiled Boom Booms trickery of switching the values of the numbers and led the PAX to 20 (10 four count iron mikes). The PAX then completed the iron mikes and were then lead by Spit in some merkins while Boom Boom grabbed his phone to type down some names.

    Energy felt high this morning despite the low numbers. The PAX was ready to move and powered through the workout. Thanks again to Spit for giving YHC the Q while they were back.

    Announcements

    • Special 60 minutes of 45 MOM this Thursday (Thanksgiving) starting at 6 am. Coffeeteria in the parking lot afterwards

    Until next time,

    Boom Boom

  • Is that Mars or Spudnik?

    4 RVA spuds appeared in the gloom this morning to take on Heartbreak Ridge. As of 5:14am today the Q sheet was empty so YHC took the chance to get worked up for 33 lucky minutes of true “you against you” pain – as long as there were a minimum of 5 PAX in attendance. When the requisite number wasn’t achieved, a hot potato audible was called. In it together, with no hesi-tating the PAX took off to start a true beatdown. Here’s how it went…

    Figurative Potato Holder: Loose Goose
    Mosey to the upper field for a table steaks (fries) COP. Lots of mumblechatter and common-tating along the way about the length of the grass in the field
    – Invisible jump rope x20 IC
    – IW x20 IC
    – Russian Soldiers x20 IC
    – WWII situps x20 OYO
    – Imperial Squat walkers x15 IC
    – Merkins x20 IC
    – IP Lunges x20 IC
    – Scorpion Dry Docks x20 OYO

    Mosey to the tennis courts for a vichyssoise King of Hearts. Do the following down and back as Q calls it out. Plank when finished until Q calls start to next itertation.
    – Sprint
    – Backwards run
    – Side shuffle facing school
    – Bear Crawl down, sprint back
    – Karaoke
    – Suicide

    After assessing who was ready to grab the potato by the eyes, pass to Mr. Holland.
    Mosey across the entire AO to the Jerkin Gym. Partner up & do a Jerkin (aka small fry pull-up) Ladder from 6 down to 1
    Mosey to the track. Partner up, do the following:
    – Lap 1: Partner 1 run lap, Partner 2 does 30 Merkins, 50 LBCs, Squats until Partner 1 returns. Switch.
    – Lap 2: Partner 1 run lap, Partner 2 does rotation of 10 Merkins, 10 LBCs, 10 Squats until Partner 1 returns. Switch.

    Inquire who was ready to chip in… Gomer Pyle said, “I yam!” The goal? “I want the Pax’s arms tubern”
    Mosey to the a-peeling pull up bars. Partner up & do 50 pull-ups
    Mosey to the hill near the shovel flag. Partner up and do:
    – Sets of 20, 20, and 10 partner-assisted plank-under-leg(ume)s dips
    – 3 sets of partner-assisted merkins
    Stand at the root of the hill… Proceed up and down a bunch of times – forward run, backward run, polar bear/bear polar, forward run, backward run, forward run
    Back to shovel flag- quick Ring of Fries… er, Fire.

    Announcements:
    – Convergence 6-7am at 45MoM Thursday 11/23
    – Circus Maximus 7:00am same day
    – Normal workouts resume on Fryday

    NMS
    – YHC knows he ruffled some feathers by teasing the Lucky Horseshoe and then not delivering, but that 33 minutes is much better when you have enough PAX to have others around you most of the time. To be revisited soon.
    – We have a lot to be thankful for, and today YHC is grateful for the privilege of being able to take part in the Q this morning, and to have fellow PAX with whom to enjoy the gloom. It’s good to be over the bronchitis and be back to posting regularly. Thanks to all of you for being an important part of my day today.

  • Sol Noctu Adorantes

    Three of the faithful and one FNG posted for an evening edition of the Punisher. Jville took the Q, and this is what went down, more or less”

    COP warmup in the parking lot — ssh, don quiote, merkins, imperial walkers, WWII situps.

    Mosey counterclockwise around school to open field. FNG Schirra joined PAX. COP – slow squats, box cutters, hillbillies, arm circles, crab cakes, flutter kicks.

    Mosey back to bus loop. Ascending curb crawls 1-4.

    Mosey back to soccer fields. Mini Dora with 50x merkins, 100 squats or squat jumps, and 150 LBCs.

    Mosey back to jungle gym for negative pullups as slow as possible.

    Continue moseying counterclockwise to pavillion. 20 dips, 24 stepups.

    Mosey to Chum’s zen garden for 3 slow sun salutations.

    COT with YHC taking us out.

    Thank you for giving me the chance to lead. It was great to meet Ghost Rider and FNG Schirra. This is Ghost Rider 2nd workout and Schirra’s first. I look forward to seeing both grow stronger over the weeks and months to come. We opted not to name FNG Schirra since his sponsor, Chum Bucket was unable to attend. He should be named at the next posting.

    We will be holding 0700 kettlebells at Circus Maximus on Thursday for those who desire that style of workout before bellying up to the feeding trough.

    Blessings and Happy Thanksgiving! Jville

  • Leftover Gumbo Served at NoToll Again…

    And this stuff was ripe.  Or was that Wilson? In any event, 11 SOJers were subjected to another serving of Gumbo at NoToll for the 3rd straight week (one more to go next week – with turkey leftovers…) and this is how it went (after Rosie awoke Gumbo from his pre-mosey stupor and last few minutes of warmth in the vehicle):

    Mosey to the back parking lot, leaving Mr. Roper to lace up the kicks and catch up, for COP, all IC including:

    • SSHs x20
    • Merkins x10
    • DQs x10
    • Imperial Walkers x15
    • Copperhead Squats x10
    • LBCs x20
    • Flutter Kicks x20

    THE THANG:

    Four Corners – Australian Style for Malcolm Young…Backwards and with repeats:

    Round 1 –

    • Corner 4 – 40 SSHs, run to Corner 3
    • Corner 3 – 40 SSHs and 30 merkins, run to Corner 2
    • Corner 2 – 40 SSHs, 30 merkins and 20 jump squats, run to corner 1
    • Corner 1 – 40 SSHs, 30 merkins, 20 jump squats and 10 two-count mountain climbers, run to corner 4 and plank for the six

    Round 2 – same as Round 1, except exercises were 40 LBCs, 30 jump squats, 20 merkins and 10 two-count crab cakes

    The Beast – mosey over to field 1 and line up for the Beast, including:

    • Merkins
    • WWII
    • Jump Squats
    • Werkins
    • 2-count American Hammers
    • Burpees

    Sprint Back to the Flag for COT, Number-rama, Name-a-rama and YHC took us out.

    Announcements:

    • 60 MOM for Thanksgiving at Mary Munford – starts at 0600 and coffeeteria in the parking lot at 0700.  Come start your turkey day correctly.  TYA promises all historical references will be substantiated and accurate.
    • For those late risers on Turkey Day (or those double-dippers who aren’t heading from 60MOM to a waddle or trot of some sort) – Circus Maximus will start at 0700.
    • Breaking Bread is this Sunday, 11/26.  Hardywood has the Q and I believe Fudd has signed on as well.  If anyone else can help out, contact Hardywood.

    NMS:

    The month of Gumbo taking over NoToll and SOT is rolling into its fourth week and I think the Natives may be restless.  Nonetheless, they followed Gumbo’s aimless lead this morning and for that YHC is grateful.  As YHC confessed to Rosie, Gumbo had no real plan for this morning – other than the reverse 4 Corners for AC/DC tribute, but when is the Beast not a great idea to close the last 18 minutes of the beatdown?  Also, we managed to disguise 222 merkins in our workout today for those of you keeping count at home for the monthly challenge.  Stick with it – 9 days to go.

    YHC thanks Malcolm Young and the rest of AC/DC for The Razor’s Edge album.  A CLASSIC! and especially for Thunderstruck and Back in Black – that were on YHC’s football and baseball pre-game playlists all through high school and VMI.  Never failed to raise the hairs on my neck and get the juices flowing.

    Mublechatter was strong today and the PAX almost hid from Flashdance’s LIFO appearance successfully in the darkest corner of the field, but some grunting and heavy breathing clued him in to our location.  Better late than never, brother – way to jump in and get right to work.

    Rosie and Hardywood lead the way as usual today, but I saw some strong efforts out there by all – especially Ollivander kicking into high gear on the Burpee leg of the Beast.  Great also to have Posh back out.

    Hope to see many of you at SOT tomorrow or 60MOM on Thursday, but for those I don’t see – have a Happy Thanksgiving.  Lots to be thankful for in this group!

    No more Gumbo for you…until tomorrow!