Category: Richmond, VA

  • 4 18 1936, 80

    70 and sunny at the start.  Many were overdressed for the weather, but that happens in December.

    The Thang:

    Mosey to COP, 1 burpee, 18 SSH, 9 burpees, 18 Don Quixotes’s, 6 burpees, 18 Imperial Walkers, 3 burpees, 18 LBC’s.  Mosey to long field in from to the carillon.  Northeast Beast.  19 of given exercise to start, then 6 at each beast point.  Exercises, not in order, were Freddy Mercury, Lt. Dans, Mountain Climbers, Merkins, Squat jumps, and box cutters.  Mosey to amphitheater 4 dips at each step and 8 extra at the bottom (total of 80, unless your Wedding singer and then the number is 84), Incline merkins to the top with 4 at each step and 8 more at the bottom. Mosey to shovel flag.  40 2 count LBC’s.

    Moleskin:

    The Q was totally lost in the AO this morning. It was as if I had never been to dogwood dell this morning.  I took us across the parking lot to avoid our normal initial mosey and almost ran into a fence.  From there, I took us to the big field in front of the carillon, but I ran by the field and had to be redirected by the PAX.  Finally, on my way to the amphitheater, I missed the entrance gate. Again, the PAX routed me in the proper direction.  On the way back to the VSF, Circle K noted that despite my many miscues this morning, the PAX was still following me.  Luckily, the last mosey went well and we made it back to the flag without incident.

    Lots of mumble chatter this morning.  Apparently Flipper had quite the view during the Don Quixote’s this morning.  It was suggested that he might want to hit it really hard at HDHH this afternoon to kill any braincells that saw that awful sight. Lab Rat, as usual was jawing with Saab, throughout the Northeast Beast.  I was right next to them the whole exercise, but honestly have no idea what they were talking about (except maybe Saab’s salty nuts and other treats he can provide for Lab Rat’s children.  Honestly, I stopped listening because the whole thing was getting creepy).  YHC’s now perfect SSH form garnered some talk, but honestly, my form is now perfect (as long as I can control the cadence and not look at someone who is out of sync).

    Toga and BT were planning a post workout breakfast with each other.  (The PAX wishes to thank the two for the invitation to join in…oh, forget it, they did not extend that invitation).  Toga suggested ET to begin with, but when told they were not open asked “what kind of communists are they”. When someone suggested going to Moore St Cafe, they declined quickly, because it was not on a direct path from Dogwood Dell to Casa TOGA and BT.  Given the criteria, not sure where they ended up?

    Today was tribute to my mom, Ruth Salvucci, who was born on 4/18/1936 and is currently 80 years old.  Mom has lived a long, good life and was a great mother (as evidenced by how wonderful I am) As most of you know, Ruth is in a nursing home in Richmond.  Her main activity while there has been to constantly walk the halls.  Mom loves to move and be active, as such, I tried to keep us moving today.  Moms journey with us is nearly over, so before she moves on, I wanted to do something in tribute that I could share with her.  Thinking through and executing on this workout was cathartic for me and I appreciate the Pax letting me lead and indulging my bizarre fascination with numbers.

    Announcments

    HDHH today at brewery on Foushee

    CSAUP event on January 21st of January

    LBC challenge set for January, 10000 is the goal. Splinter to set up the spreadsheet (although Splinter has not volunteered to do this yet)

    Flashdance is organizing training runs for Belmonte race.  Let him know what dates work for you.

  • Preblast: 2.0 Friendly Workout 0700 12/24

    We will host a 2.0 friendly workout on Christmas Eve at #GridIron. Mrs. Earthworm is supplying us with candy canes, and there may be other special treats for the PAX, such as mercans, cupcakes, bear crawls, and squats Merry Christmas! Jville

  • Reindeer Games Part 1

    13 faithful put on their antlers and came out for part 1 of the 2016 Reindeer Games!!

    Here is how the competition went down:

    COP

    SSH x 25 IC, Don Quixotes x 10 IC, Feddie Mercury x 20 IC, LBC x 15 IC, Merkins x 15 IC, Arm Circles IC

    Mosey to side of the HS

    Dasher’s Triple Check

    Chestnuts to the Wall
    Burpees
    Run across the parking lot and back
    3 Sets each

    Mosey to the soccer field

    Dancer’s Quad Pack

    In teams of 4 (one member at each corner of the field) complete the following:

    • American Hammers
    • Mtn Climbers
    • Jump Squats
    • Box Cutters

    First teammate completes 25 American Hammers then Karaokes to the next corner and tags 2nd teammate. 2nd karaokes to 3rd teammate and so on. 4th teammate completes 25 American Hammers then karaoke to tag 1st teammate. Continue until 1st teammate returns to American Hammers and go back to grab the rest of the PAX.

    Mosey to the basketball court

    Prancer’s Suicides

    Teams of 3. First member complete bear crawl suicides at foul line, half court, foul line, endline (opposite in). Other teammates are in elbow plank position with either left or right leg high. Continue till all have completed suicides.

    Mosey back to the flag

    Numberama/Namorama

    Emoji took us out

    Moleskin

    YHC had been up throughout the night fighting the cold bug but nothing was going to stop him from Qing today.

    Showing up early the flag was planted and a return to warmth of the clown car was needed. The rest of the PAX waited in their’s  as well until YHC got out for good.

    YHC explain to the PAX that this was only part 1 of a three part series. Leaving them in suspense of what is to come.

    It was asked “Who can name all of Santa’s reindeer?”, Opus spoke up in song and answered correct. The PAX was impressed with his vocal skills.

    Chatter was to a minimum except for Abacus who made it very clear he was not a fan of Santa’s reindeer.

    It was good to see Saab and Lockjaw. Thanks guys for making the trip up north!

    During Namorama, Spike who must have exhausted himself during the workout, said he was “Spit” the PAX quickly yelled out “IMPOSTER”

    Announcements

    • Third F AO “The Shining” this Thursday 6:30am at Rise and Shine diner in Ashland.
    • Reindeer game to continue at The Creek on Friday and Dogpile on Saturday

    SPIT ON THAT!

  • McFalcon Crest’s Christmas

    Ten veterans and 1 FNG, who will not be named until later in this post, joined forces to a gloomy workout at No Toll.

    The thang:

    Warmup – 20 SSH, 10 Don Q, 20 Flutter kicks

    Mosey to left field. Twelve corners of Christmas. First lap – 1 burpee, 2 merkins, 3 WWII situps, 4 jumps squats. Plank until PAX finishes. Second lap – 5 burpees, 6 merkins, 7 WWII situps, 8 jump squats, plank. Third round – 9 burpees, 10 mekrins, 11 WWII situps, 12 jump squats. Plank. There were some pickle pounders in there during plank.

    Line up on end line of field, Christmas blimp – 5 burpee broad jumps, 10 lunges, 15 bear crawls and 20 crab walks. run to other side, plank. Heals to heaven during plank. Repeat, circle back to  the PAX six, and complete their blimp.

    Mosey to parking lot.

    Light the Mini-dora (Menorah) 80 Merkins, 80 two-count ball dippers, 80 poll smokers. Mountain climbers and additional poll smokers until PAX completed.

    Christmas Check – jump ups on bleachers, step up on bleachers, run, triple check.

    Backwards run to flag.

    Moleskin:

    Great work as always PAX, good to see so many out on a brisk Tuesday morning. YHC might as well talk about the elephant in the room, the title to this workout. It very well may have been the longest naming ceremony in the history of F3RVA. The PAX just couldn’t put a pulse on our new FNG, YHC decided on Big Bear until the next topic of discussion arose concerning the Happy Hour event tomorrow at Triple Crossing Brewery. For those of you who don’t know, Triple Crossing’s flagship beer is called Falcon Smash, a delicious three hop IPA. Fortunately our good man Hardywood made a valiant effort to provide the name details of this IPA as McFalcon Crest. The rest is history, welcome McFalcon Crest.

    Remember PAX we are an all-inclusive workout group, YHC felt with all the Christmas themes in the workout he should include some other holiday celebrations, such as lighting the menorah (mini-dora). Lots of mumble chatter this morning, spirits are high for holidays draw near. So much chatter YHC had to continually add exercises while planking, starting off with ‘putting your wee wee in the grass’ pickle pounders to thwart the chatterboxes.

    -Singer

  • The Granite Games

    6 Veterans gathered for a brisk and windy Batteau beatdown.  Here’s how things went down, more or less.

    COP

    20x SSH, 10x Merkins, Arm circles one-legged, Burpees (5x).

    Mosey to the rock pile, where each Pax chose a slab of granite.

    Mosey to tennis courts for partner rock planks/suicides.  One partner planks with rock on back while other partner runs 25, 50, 75, 100 suicides on the courts.  Alternate. Elbow planks first and then regular planks.

    Mosey with rock to lighted grassy area next to tennis courts for some Highland games.  Exercises with the rocks included: Squat presses (10x), Overhead slams (20x), Underhand tosses (20x), Crossover merkins alternating hands on rock and ground(20x), Rock burpees (10x).

    Mosey with rock to the stone pit.  One partner box jumps while other partner runs with rock up 2 sets of staircases. Switch roles.

    Mosey with rock to the paved downhill.  Zobmbie walk with rock down hill.  Alligator crawl and crippled bear (one-leg up) back to starting spot (without rocks). Mosey back to bottom.  Crab walk back up with rock on stomach back followed by walking with rock overhead.

    Mosey with rock back to stone pit for a Box Jump/Merkin ladder (without rocks).  1-7x.

    Mosey with rock back to the tennis court grassy area.  For 10x overhead slams, 20x crossover merkins, 15x goblet squats in cadence, and 10x woodchoppers (5 each arm).

    Mosey back to tennis court for one more round of partner elbow rock planks/suicides.

    Return rock to its resting place and mosey back to flag.

    COT

    YHC took us out.

    Moleskin.

    Random thoughts:  One key to making this a good workout is the goldilocks principle—get a rock that is just right.  As we were selecting rocks, YHC’s initial rock was too heavy, and looking around for someone stronger, he traded with Swirly—a good decision as Swirly’s original rock was just right for him.  Swirly looked pretty smoked, so I think the trade was a good one for both of us.    YHC also gained a new appreciation for those with taller frames and correspondingly more weight to carry around.

    Exercise notes:  As far as exercises go, we could have handled a larger # on the slams and tosses, but the burpees and crossover pushups were just right (for YHC at least). In the future we should bring some more rocks up to our makeshift pile to give folks more options.  Rock plank suicides are a good way to push each other towards good plank form and fast suicides!  The crippled bear was a crowd pleaser and will make an appearance on YHC’s next Q for sure.

    Rocks vs. kettlebells, a comparison:  Rocks–free, sharp edges, awkward angles, and of unknown mass, unpredictable. Kettlebells–expensive, convenient handles, smooth curvy surfaces, of known mass.  I thinks it’s obvious which is the manly way to go.

    Noted:  YHC at last found a Merkin version that smoked Swirly (and the rest of the pax).  The rock crossover merkins were really brutal as they lie somewhere between a one handed and regular merkin.  Flipper is a crab walk beast and motored up the hill even with the rock on his belly.  Wheelbarrow lived up to his namesake and motored up too.  EF Hutton tossed his rock high into the trees on more than one occasion with the underhanded tosses.  Wedding Singer was efficient this morning and was typically the first done with the tosses.  Flipper wandered around the AO looking for us and got a good run in before finding us by courts–wheelbarrow joined us soon afterwards. And where is Hardywood lately? All showed good form on the planks today too.   Great job, men.

  • Only one frozen bird and a lost nut…

    10 enthusiastic gentlemen presented themselves for morning calisthenics and a jaunty shuffle around Linwood Elementary…This is what transpired:

    COP:  SSH, Arm Circles (big ones only!), DQ’s, Merkins, LBC’s

    Doras:  Flutter kicks (100), Rosalitas (200), LBC (300).  Partner runs to end of b-ball court and back.

    11’s:  Derkins (off picnic bench) and Burpees. Run to/from bench to wall in between.  B-to-wall when done.

    Lindsays:  Dips off bench (35 to start…descend by 5), WWII’s (5 to start…ascend by 5).  Run across b-ball court in between.

    Polar bear crawl:  (a quickie) Complete 10 merkins once done.  Back to flag

    NMS:

    YHC’s (selfish) approach to cold weather is to maintain as much continued movement as possible.  In the hope this was achieved at some level, he was impressed how well everyone performed.  Not too much mumble chatter heard aside from the soothing din of Lab Rat conversing through the Lindsays, and BT and Toga discussing sports-team stuff…about which Saab had nothing to contribute.  The wind this morning kept us moving and was a continuous reminder not to be downwind from Fudd during an unannounced release.  YHC also enjoys Toga’s continued critique of said-person’s form and follow-through – particularly on any exercise that is named after a global conflict.  Application of Burpees in the 11’s was partially inspired by Toga’s beatdown last week…although not a complete payback, hopefully it placed a dent in Toga’s light fluffy shell.

    It was great to have the folks from the North (Lab Rat and Opus) make the trip.  YHC now has to return the favor now that he has his DaVille shirt.

    Announcements:  HDHH this week, and looking forward to CSAUP next month (along with an LBC challenge perhaps), BT has a new (retro) ride, and Toga is missing a nut (please contact him if you stumble upon it)

    Saab abides

     

     

  • Tacky Light Tour…ERR…Audible

    5 stalwarts escaped the warm fartsack and arrived at Bettie Weaver Elementary School for the penultimate River Run of 2016.  Given the holiday week and YHC’s recent bout with chest cold, YHC planned an easy 3-mile mosey tacky light tour through Tarrington with some decoration-inspired workouts (i.e., 5 burpees for ever inflatable, 10 merkins for each tree/bush with lights, etc.) and some group exercises at the 3 or 4 roundabouts along the rout..  Well, YHC jumped out of the sack early this morning to drive the route and see how this was going to go down….no lights, no inflatables to be found.  Either timers were doing their job or Tarrington folks are not in the spirit…CRAP…OMAHA, OMAHA…Check…Check…Audible…so, instead, River Run 12/19/16 went something like this:

    Mosey to the courts at the back of the school for COP:

    • SSHs x25 IC
    • DQ, super slow-mo, x10 IC
    • Imperial Walkers x20 IC
    • Copperhead Squats x20 IC
    • LBCx x25 IC
    • Flutter Kicks x25 IC
    • Merkins x10 IC

    Mosey to the bus loop and partner up for Dora – 100 Merkins, 200 Box Cutters, 300 Jump Squats while partner runs the bus loop.

    Mosey to the baseball dugout for Triple Nickel – 5 Donkey Kicks on the dugout wall, run to the hill, bear crawl up the hill, perform 5 monkey-humpers at the top of the hill, run back to the dugout and repeat x5

    Mosey to the track/football field for a quick triple check – BTTW, Freddy Mercuries, Lap around the track.  Two rounds. For the second round, run was 100-yard dash and back instead of a full lap.

    Mosey back to the flag for COT number-rama, name-a-rama, and YHC took us out.

    Strong work this morning gentlemen.  It turns out that there is no fast way to complete 200 box cutters…YIKES.  Many thanks to Rosie for pulling the laboring oar on the Dora’s this morning as YHC is building back stamina after almost 2 weeks down.

    Great to have Honeymoon join the crew at River Run. We look forward to you being a regular on Mondays.

    Have a great day men.

    No more Gumbo for you!

  • How Soon After a Vasectomy is it Safe to Run?

    4 Richmond regulars gathered in the breaking gloom for ….but wait, who’s that?!  Obama coming in hot makes 5!  Now it’s a party:

    The route du jour had us running Buttermilk to the new T. Potter bridge, figuring out how to get down to it, then continuing downstream to the pipeline trail.  Climb the ladder to the canal walk back to Brown’s Island, then North Bank back home.  Splitting the uprights on the  two GPS watches in tow put us covering 8.5 miles.

    Lab Rat was very excited to try out this route today, since he finally discovered where to pick up pipeline trail off Brown’s Island.  For the reading population unfamiliar with said trail, it is actually a pipe with a cat walk on it that extends over the rapids of the James…pretty freaky honestly.  Lab Rat asked TYA if he was claustrophobic before getting on the pipe, and he said no.  He immediately changed his answer afterwards.

    Although bummed that Saab and Offshore made an early day of it, Lab Rat was happy to chat up Obama and get to know him better.  Obama is a solid dude, and YHC would have zero problems sharing a run with him any time.  Luckily for Lab Rat, Obama is recovering from a vasectomy, so he could actually keep up with the usually much faster Obama.  Other fun facts were learned that have no business being in print (ever), so inquiring minds will have to get their butts out to the trail some time if they want all the gory details.

    Afterwards, TYA and Lab Rat solved a couple major world issues over muffins and all you can eat bacon, so you’re welcome.

     

    Lab Rat out.

  • MAN-O-Rama Day/HDHH

    Alright gents it’s that time of the month for some second F-in.  We will meet at Triple Crossing Brewery at 530PM.  Location is 113 S. Foushee St Richmond 23220.  See yall there!!!

     

     

  • Fill in the blank

    A PAX 5 strong ignored sub-freezing temperatures to post for this morning’s GridIron workout.  Approaching the shortest day of the year, light was dim immediately prior to our 7 AM start.  We planted the ShovelFlag and went at it like so:

    Startup COP on the main football field with 5 Burpees, 25 x SSHs, 20 x Imaginary Jumpropes, 20 x Imperial Walkers, 20 x Hillbillies, 20 x Don Quixotes, and 15 x Arm Circles (big and small, forward and reverse).

    Mosey to the sand volleyball court.  Bear Crawl down one side, Zombie Walk the end line, Crab Walk the opposite side, and Side Skip back to the start.  Rinse and repeat.

    Jog to the less-fancy football field for 4 corners including 15 x Plank Jacks, 20 x Carolina Dry Docks, 25 x Alabama Prom Dates, and 30 x Flutter Kicks (two count).  Repeat, adding 5 to each exercise.  Repeat again, adding 5 again.

    Head around back to the baseball field outfield.  Starting at one end of the outfield fence, head out two posts and complete 10 Merkins, go two more posts and complete 10 Squats, move two more and complete 25 LBCs.  Repeat cycle until we reach the opposite end of the outfield fence.  Turn around and complete a similar cycle, but with 10 Wide Grip Merkins, 10 Curtsy Lunges (single count), and 20 Box Cutters.

    Stroll to Pullup Bars for 5 Pullups and head to bleachers for 10 Hyperextensions.  Return to parking lot for 10 Hyperextensions at picnic table.  COT with Earthworm taking us out.

    Moleskin –  Johnsonville doesn’t disappoint with his aerial Hillbillies.  Most PAX hate Crab Walks.  Repeated Box Cutters result in groans.  YHC planned more rounds of Pullups, but we ran out of time.  Coffeeteria at Einstein Brothers was good.  YHC heard Attila had planned to Q, but the Q signup sheet had been blank as of a couple of days ago – sorry Attila – bring the pain next week!

    Announcements – Third F breakfast event on Thursday mornings – Rise and Shine Diner near Atlee.  Hump Day Happy Hour this week (Second F) – at Triple Crossing Brewery on Foushee Street in Downtown Richmond.