Category: Richmond, VA

  • indumentis non facit hominem

    Dressed in a manner that spawned severe rebuke from the chronic critic among the Pax, four strong posted at CM in a gentle rain and pleasant temperature and demonstrated that “clothing does not make the man” as follows:

    THANG:

    X10 SSHs, X10 DQs, X10 Slow Deep Squats, X10 Curtsey Lunges, and X10 Arm Circles Fwd and Rvs.

    The Inner Circle:

    X12 KB Rvs Lunges – Right
    X12 KB Cleans – Right
    X12 KB Presses – Right
    X10-12 KB Rvs Lunge, Clean, and Press movements – Right
    X12 KB Rvs Lunges – Left
    X10-12 KB Rvs LCPs – Right
    X12 KB Cleans – Left
    X10-12 KB Rvs LCPs – Right
    X12 KB Presses – Left
    X10-12 KB LCPs – Right
    X10-12 KB Rvs Lunge, Clean, and Press movements – Left
    X12 KB Slow Deep Squats
    X10-12 KB Rvs LCPs – Left
    X12 KB High Pulls
    X10-12 KB Rvs LCPs – Left
    X12 KB Overhead Presses
    X10-12 KB Rvs LCPs – Left
    X10-12 KB Squat, High Pull, and Press movements
    X20 KB Halos clockwise
    X10-12 KB SHPPs
    X20 KB Halos counter-clockwise
    X10-12 KB SHPPs
    X20 KB Around the Waist clockwise
    X10-12 KB SHPPs
    X20 KB ATW counter-clockwise

    Curb Appeal:

    X100-125 KB Pullovers
    X25 KB Skull Crushers, rinse and repeat

    Back to The Inner Circle:

    60 seconds of KB Halo clockwise, Tricep Press, KB Halo counter-clockwise, Tricep Press sequence.

    COT:

    Numberama and Namearama

    Announcements: Johnsonville has X2Q at GridIron – Pre-Game at 0640 and 0700 pain game – and Attila has X2Q the following week.

    Closing prayer by YHC.

    MOLESKIN: After the fashion critique there was not much mumble chatter other than some random musings about metric conversion and KB weight upgrades (or downgrades).

    Proverbs 17:22 (NIV) A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

  • Foul Weather Friends

    Wet.  Cold.  A sweet 16 came ready to embrace the suck and workout.

    COP

    • SSH
    • APD (go ahead and get wet)
    • Don Quixotes – Saab speed
    • Arm Circle – The cat burglar did not appear.
    • Russian Soldiers

    Mosey back to the tennis courts for B.O.M.B.S.  Partner up and one runs the inside perimeter of the tennis courts and the other does the following:

    • 50 Burpees
    • 100 SSH
    • 150 Merkins
    • 200 LBCs
    • 250 Squats

    Mosey to the soccer field for an exercise inspired by the video Bleeder attached to a recent backblast.  Bear crawl the width of the soccer field.  Flatline was up front and channeling his Ursa Major skills.  Next time we will think about the entire field.

    Back to the school for a Triple Check

    • BTTW
    • Elbow Plank
    • Run to the fence and 10 Merkins

    Up against the wall for a Line O’ Peckers.  Chicken peckers that is, lighting the fuse from both ends and meeting in the middle.  With the mud, it was a little difficult to not slide or sink.  Needed advanced BTTW skills to anchor in.

    50 Merkins OYO

    Dealers Choice Mary – American Hammers, WWII, Flutter Kicks, Rosalitas, Box Cutters.

    Back to the VSF and YHC took us out.

    NMS:

    Mumble chatter was a minimum today.  Perhaps the oppressive gloom had something to do with it.  It was great to see the Hoedown clown car roll up.  Way to represent!

    For those running the race this weekend, enjoy the run!  All of your training got you to this point and you are ready.  This is something to savor.

    Time to Taper,

    Lockjaw

  • The track has 5 corners

    5 men today for a rainy morning

    Mossy to the front of the track for warm up that went like this….

    10 SSL

    20 Imperial Walkers

    20 Mountain climbers

    10 front and 10 back Arm circles

    The thing:

    4 corners with 5 stations that all brought pain.  Start with 2 burpees and run to corner 1

    • Corner 1 started with 2 burpees
      • Run to corner #2
    • Corner 2 started 10 merkins
      • Run back to corner #1 to perform 2 burpees
      • Repeat corner 1 & 2 as we head to corner #3
    • Corner 3 started with 20 squats
      • Run back to corner #2 to perform 20 merkins
      • Run to corner #1 to perform 2 burpees
      • Repeat corner 1,2&3 as we head to corner #4
    • Corner 4 started with 30 dry docks
      • Run back to corner #3 to perform 20 squats
      • Run back to corner #2 to perform 10 merkins
      • Run to corner #1 to perform 2 burpees
      • Repeat corner 1,2,3 &4 as we head to corner #5
    • Corner 5 started with 50 LBC’s (modify to 100)
      • Run back to corner #4 to perform 30 dry docks
      • Run back to corner #3 to perform 20 squats
      • Run back to corner #2 to perform 10 merkins
      • Run to corner #1 to perform 2 burpees

     

    Mossy to the football field for a little BEAST

    Round 1 merkins

    Round 2 squats

    Round 3 merkins

    Round 4 squats

    Round 5 Halleluiah

    Round 6 Monkey humpers

    After finishing the BEAST run back to the flag with Hallelujah hands all the way!

    COT, Name-a-rama, Number-rama

    Strong work by all 5 that showed for the rainy morning.  Always good to see the new AO holding strong.  Great work by Menzale as he is consistently coming every week for Thursday and getting stronger!

  • Hot Pokettle

    There were 5 PAX members at the Hot Pokettle this morning.  It was a hot workout in the almost bitter cold.

    We started with Helix in the Circle of Pain
    SSH, Helicopters, arm circles, around the world, halos, maybe some others?

    Moved onto No Idea and 11’s
    Kettle Bell Merkins
    Lunge to the Other Side
    KB Swings

    Then it was Mudface’s turn to shine.
    We did a Quintuple check.
    Donkey Kicks on the KB
    Sit Up Presses
    Death Crawl across the lot
    KB Pulls
    Turkish Get ups

    Finally it came to Opus
    for a little Mary (4 minutes)
    Ring of Fire Merkins (10)
    Renegade Rows

    Numbers, Names, Take it out

    NMS
    YHC never realized before that the last person that goes in the HOT POTATO Q has to write the backblast.  Thanks for clearing that up, Mudface!  That means I am the only one who gets credit in big data for Q’ing!    As always, glad I was there!

    Peace!

     

  • The Murph crosses the James

    10 determined men posted on a cool, breezy and a little wet Wednesday morning to see what YHC would bring across the river.  What has become a regular monthly SOJ workout had not made an appearance in “Richmond Proper” for a while.  The Murph was set up before 0530 and we were off on time.

    THANG

    1 Mile – Run to Burpee Road (no burpees this time) turn around at the median and back down Rugby Road to the bottom of the hill, back up the circle, across the front of the Carillon to the other circle and down to the Rusty Cage.

    10 rounds – 10 pull ups, 20 merkins, 30 squats

    Reverse the mile back to the flag.

    A couple minutes left for Mary: LBC, Crunchy Frogs, Heels Up and Over.

    COT Numbers/Names and TYA took us out.

    NMM

    After months of punishment going through the Murph at TwinTeam, YHC decided it was time to cross the river with it.  It’s a simple concept but a beast of a workout.  Even after doing this for a while the pull ups are by far the most difficult part, you will be sore tomorrow and Friday.   Perfect numbers for the Murph today too, the cold and rain seemed to keep a few away, it would have been doable but difficult with 15 or more at the Cage.

    Mumblechatter was low but the highlight of the day was the cadence in a round, initiated by Lab Rat, with everyone participating in calling the last round of squats.  A close second was TYA’s attempt to mimic Sippy Cup’s soothing lullaby cadence.  It sounded more like a creepy old man trying to lure kids into a van.  Bleeder got scared of the impending rain and shortened the last mile to take off early.   It’s a good thing we weren’ t running a little faster or he may have taken us out on his sliding turn and acceleration onto Douglasdale.

    A couple of potential things happening this weekend with the HR 1 year Saturday and Cville Men’s 4 miler Sunday.  Participation is suspect so anyone that is interested in going to either, speak up to see if there are others to join.

    Happy to bring the Murph out for those that don’t get to experience it often.

    Everything is coming up Rosie.

  • A Tribute to DOC Halladay…

    An apropos 9 posted to SOT this morning for a tribute to Roy “Doc” Halladay – a great MLB pitcher (and by all accounts a great guy and one of the hardest working guys in baseball) who died yesterday in small plane crash at 40.  Our small tribute went something like this:

    Mosey to the windy front of the school for COP, including:

    • 2 Burpees OYO for each of Doc’s Cy Young Awards
    • 27 SSHs IC and 49 LBCs for Doc’s 2,749 Innings pitched in the major leagues
    • 16 Merkins for Doc’s 16-year career
    • 21 Imperial Walkers IC and 17 Copperhead Squats IC for Docs 2,117 Strikeouts

    THANG

    9 Innings — Doc was known for his durability and for throwing 67 career complete games

    Each PAX found a bench in front of the school and completed 9 rounds of the following

    • 3 Derkins
    • 3 Merkins
    • Run a Lap around the parking lot

    Mosey to the side of the school for some “Lazy” Triple Checks

    Round 1 – the counter was the Merkins and as a group of 3 we completed 203 merkins – 1 for each of Doc’s wins in the majors.  Other two PAX in the group were planking and doing people’s chair to round out the rotation.  YHC’s group rotated after 20 merkins and then all did the last 23 together.  Counting varied by group.

    Round 2 – the counter was Squats and as a group of 3 we completed 390 squats – 1 for each of Doc’s starts as a MLB pitcher.  Other two planked and people’s chair again.

    Round 3 – as a group of 3 complete 67 Burpees – 1 for each of Doc’s complete games.

    Mosey back to the flag for COT, including 20 Freddie Mercuries (for each of Doc’s shutouts) and 20 Hello Dollies.  Finish with 16 more Merkins OYO and 1 minute of Superman for good measure.

    Number-rama; Nama-a-rama and YHC took us out.

    Announcements:

    • HR 1-year convergence Saturday
    • C-ville 4-miler Sunday
    • SOJ area HDHH in the works for November – look for pre-Blast from the Emerging Nano Region of New Market soon.  Chatter was about somewhere out in Westchester.

    NMS:

    YHC has a general dis-like for pitchers (no offense Marv or McRib – or other pitchers among us), but they tend to be attitudinal, moody and sometimes soft (kinda like a teenage girl).  It appeared, however, that Doc was none of those things.  I loved watching him pitch, and I feared for any manager to went to take him out of the game.  LOVE THAT!

    My favorite memory that I saw yesterday was from Chase Utley who said the first time he met Doc was the first day of Spring Training one year and he met in at breakfast at 0545 and doc’s shirt was soaking wet.  He asked him if it was raining when he came in and Doc laughed at him and said No – I just finished my workout….that is our kind of guy!  RIP Doc.

    Great effort today from the SOT guys.  Also, great to see Aisle 5, Goose and Cerrano back out.  Always great to have Roscoe and his “that’s 5” counting.  Solid effort per usual from McRib, Wilson, Honeymoon and Marmaduke.  A pleasure to lead such a fine group!

    No more Gumbo for you!

  • Patriotic Pants

    Thirteen fine gentlemen circled up to discuss the various applications of WD40 and Formula 401/409 before embarking on today’s Spider Run.  Since Saab was so excited with last week’s rendition, YHC took the opportunity to throw out a Saab tribute run.  Goal was 5 fingers but we only accomplished 4.  It went something like below:

    Route
    We ran up and down hills.  Those that made it to the top first went back to gather the six.  Back and forth 4 times for a total of 400 ft of elevation gain.  Well done gentlemen.

    Moleskin
    Patriotism was strong today.  Two can demonstrating he can work both sides of the aisle by swiping right and swiping left.  If only our elected officials demonstrated such flexibility.

    Saab didn’t get enough running and decided to run to his polling place instead of circling up for BOM.  What he didn’t realize is that he missed a significant expression of enthusiasm for the American political system.  American flag yoga pants.  Enough said.

    The real question of the day is whether WD40 can actually cure joint pain.  There are members of the PAX that legitimately believe so.

    Enjoy the rest of the day fellas.

    Splinter out.

  • A great year.

    A hearty PAX of 8, including a F3 brother from Charlotte, enjoyed a balmy morning at Heartbreak Ridge.  Here’s what went down:

    Mosey around the school for a tour of HBR.

    COP

    SSH

    Don Quixote – I tried my best to emulate Saab’s form.

    Imperial walkers.

    Arm circles

    Russian soldiers

    10 merkins

     

    Mosey to the race track.  Complete 20 merkins at each end with 10 burpees in the middle.

    Then to the bleachers for two sets of 20 dips.   Partner up for 2 sets of 10 jerkins in between the dips.

    Back to the race track for another lap, this time merkins on the ends and monkey humpers in the middle.

    Partner up again for Dora – 100 merkins 200 WWII (audible – make that LBCs) 300 squats.  Partner runs up HBR in between sets.

    Numberama, nameorama and COT.

    Announcements: there was talk of trying to organize a HDHH for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

    Moleskin:

    This was my one year anniversary with F3.  TCLAPS to Lockjaw for his slow burn EH and to the rest of the F3RVA PAX for welcoming me into this group and making me stronger, both physically and mentally.  It has been a great year and I look forward to many more.

    Ronnie out.

     

  • Write-in Candidate at NoToll — Nicole

    15 strong posted in the refreshingly brisk morning at NoToll only to find out that Gumbo had a last-minute write-in candidate to add to the ballot and her name is Nicole, and this Nicole was all about some Merkins, so let’s get down to business… Mosey to the back lot for COP, including:

    • SSHs x20 IC
    • Merkins x10 IC
    • Helicopters x15 IC
    • Hand-release Merkins x10 OYO
    • Arm Circles 15 forward (10 small, 5 big) and 15 backward (10 small, 5 big)
    • Werkins x10 IC
    • LBCx x25

    Mosey to the pavilion and upon cries for no box-jumps YHC called out a modified, ALL-MERKIN Nicole.  The timer was set for 20 minutes and it went like this.  Begin at pavilion with 25 regular merkins, run a lap around the field, then perform 25 Derkins on the benches, run a lap, then 25 incline merkins, run a lap.  Continue in that sequence for 20 minutes and complete as many laps as possible.

    Plank-o-rama for the six and to catch a breather

    Mosey back past the flag to the bathrooms for a classic triple check, including BTTW (Goodbye Dollies optional), Squats and a sprint to touch the entrance of the park and back — and sprint Oyster did…

    Mosey to the basketball courts for a Merkin ROF and 10 Merkins IC all together to top it off.

    COT, number-rama and name-a-rama, then YHC took us out with a quick prayer and off many of us went to stink up your local polling station.

    Same announcements – HR 1-year convergence on Saturday – is anyone going to get the Ghost Flag?  C-ville 4-miler on Sunday.  Good luck to all F3RVAers who are running the Richmond Marathon or Half-Marathon this weekend.  Crush it men!

    NMS:

    YHC has been wanting to bring Nicole back into the fold for a while and an ALL MERKIN Nicole seemed like a great way to make some headway on the monthly challenge.  It was.  YHC completed 9 laps and 10 rounds of merkins for 330 total on the day. I believe Rosie, Hardywood and Honeymoon completed 10 and 11, respectively for 355 on the day.  Way to push the lead men!  Everyone I think completed at least 8 rounds of merkins, which would have been 200 merkins during Nicole + 50 in COP + 30 in ROF for a total of 280 for the day.  Not too shabby.  Regardless, good progress was made and we covered nearly 3 miles running in total today.  Strong work men!

    More Gumbo is on the menu at SOT tomorrow, but until then, No More Gumbo For YOU!

  • The Polls are Open in Merkinville

    11 PAX members showed up for a perfectly brisk morning workout!

    Mosey to back of Atlee.
    10 Merkins IC
    Don Quixotes
    8 Merkins IC
    Helicopters
    6 Merkins IC
    Arm Circles
    4 Merkins IC
    SSH
    2 Merkins IC

    Goin to the Polls
    PAX holds pole and six inches — first PAX member does 5 merkins and runs to the back.  Rinse and repeat until all are done.

    Quickish (for YHC) mosey to the way back of Atlee where there is a small but proud hill.
    Modified Doras
    One person does broad jump burpees up the hill and runs down while the other starts completing:
    100 Heels to Heaven
    150 Merkins
    200 Flutterkicks

    Mini-fartlek
    All jog together — one member calls a spot to sprint to up ahead.  First person there starts doing an exercise and all join in until the Q moves us back to a jog and then another sprint, etc.  YHC thinks we did about 5 of these.  Some exercises were more merkins, burpees, more heels to heaven just to name a few.

    DK wall
    Partner up — one partner does DK’s while the other touches a tree, next partner touches two trees, moving up the ladder until the Q calls time.  Most groups got to 5 or 6.

    YHC wanted to try something new today so we did!  No name for this yet, but we did about 15 IC one legged runs on the wall.  It was kinda like a donkey kick and mountain climber combined so someone mentioned calling it the Mountain Donkey, which YHC likes.  Any other name submissions will be taken into consideration.

    Mosey back to flag.
    5 Pistol Squats each leg.
    Ascending Wheel of Merkins — We made it up to 4.

    Numberama, Nameorama, Bring it in!

    NMS —
    As always, it was a pleasure to lead you all this morning!  This workout was dedicated to Flatline who put us through a grueling 1 hour workout Saturday and included no merkins for those participating in the merkin challenge.  YHC was tired enough Saturday from all the running and then had to do merkins on top of all that later in the day??  Anyhow, we made up for it today.  Total number of merkins will vary depending on how many you did during the DORA’s and at other times as well.  YHC counted 205 for himself, but that is probably a low estimate.
    YHC, Grabber and The Carpenter all mosied over afterwards to Atlee to do their civic duty.  Hope everyone else does the same.  Have a great Tuesday!