Category: Richmond, VA

  • A parking crisis at Gridiron

    8 RVA PAX and 1 Charlotte visitor entered the gloom, with storm clouds swirling, to gather around the Shovelflag flying perfectly in the wind.  It went down like:

    COP:  30 SSH, 20 Merkins, 20 Freddy Mercurys, 25 Carolina Dry Docs, 20 Don Qs

    THE THANG:

    Mosey to Upper field for:  The Beast –   Rnd 1 – Burpees ,  Rnd 2 – WWII Situps, Rnd 3 – Tuckjumps, Rnd 4 Carolina Dry Docks, Rnd 5 Flutterkicks, Rnd 6 – Burpees again

    Mosey to school entrance for Triple Check – Run, Elbow plank, & People’s chair

    Mosey to picnic tables for: 30 Dips, 20 Step Ups each leg, 20 Derkins, Repeato x2

    Mosey to center field for:  Ring of Fire – leg hold 6 inches & Rosalitas.  Finish with CDDs AMRAP.

    Back to the Flag for COT, Earthworm took us out.  Prayers go out to Chum Bucket – so sorry for your loss.  All the RVA PAX is keeping you and your family in our prayers.

    NM:  So the PTP parking lot is being completely re-paved, which means the PAX had to find a way to park in the school lot.  Since the next turn in does not lead to a parking lot, rather a big bus loop, the PAX had to choose to hop a 3 inch curb over to the parking lot or go all the way around to the front of the school and back down.  YHC and Jville chose the former while the rest chose the law abiding alternative.  Circle K was finally convinced after much cajoling that his Jeep Cherokee could handle hopping the curb, after which he put it into 4WL and closed his eyes while he drove over.

    The rain held off for the entirety of the Beast and decided to open up during the Triple Check.  TClaps to Jolly Rancher for burning through the Burpees during the beast.  YHC borrowed the 2 rounds of Burpees during the beast from Wedding Singer’s 45MoM this week.  That was rough to bookend the beast with burpees.  The rain really opened up during the ROF, making sure the PAX was extra soaked to finish up.

    Great to have Pigskin join us in the Gloom, congrats on your new addition to the family and strong work today.  Nice to see White Deer so much stronger since when he originally posted in January.  Circle K mentioned to YHC after the beatdown he was surprised at the lack of BearCrawls during this Q,  YHC wasn’t aware that is a calling card but will be sure to include those next time just for you,

    Announcements:  More New AOs launching this week – W Dog on Wednesday at Dogpile & Circus Maximus on Thursday at Godwin HS.  CM at Godwin is a Kettlebell workout, BYOKB.  Rumor has it Earthworm may even post during the week at the new Godwin AO this week.

    April Challenge is 5,000 Carolina Dry Docks.  Not too late to sign up!  CDD count this morning was 125.

    Pleasure to lead this PAX in the gloom this AM.

  • 03 28 19 63

    At least 7 Faithful posted for a monday morning punisher beatdown (since YHC did not post until now, I cannot say for sure how many….if I missed you please let me know). Theme for the day was 03 28 19 63, TYA’S entrance into the world.

    The Thang:

    3 burpees (modified slaughter starter…much easier than 20). Mosey to front corner of the School. 3 more burpees, 28 plank jacks, 19 side straddle hops, and 63 LBC’s. Mosey to next corner of school. Four corners for the rest of the workout. First corner 3 burpees, second corner 28 Lt Dan’s, third corner 19 Merkins, and fourth corner 63 little baby crunches. Repeato until told to stop. Mosey back to shovel flag. 3 more burpees for good luck

    Naked Moleskin

    Great to be able to lead on my 53rd birthday. Truly an honor to be part of this group and quite humbling to be given the opportunity to lead. It is a blessing that after 53 years on this earth that I am alive and able to exercise my mind and body in the gloom when ever I choose with this great group of guys. If I had been born in a different time, I would likely not be able to be out there…I am thankful for every additional day I get to be out there.

    Pretty simple workout today. Only one COP and a four corners. Easy for an old man to remember. Sometimes, however, the simplest workouts are the hardest. Trying to run after 28 LT. Dan’s was a challenge.

    I also picked the workout today because I was behind on my miles for the monthly challenge of 100 miles. We got 3+ miles in today to help with the goal. Sorry to Bleeder for the run heavy workout. Not very accommodating to a great friend.

    See you back out there in the gloom. Hoping to Q on number 54 and forward.

    TYA

  • Notable presence of law enforcement

    11 gathered on a damp, dark morning for what YHC hoped would be a sufficient beat-down. Here’s what transpired

    COT: DQ, SSH, LBC, Flutterkicks, Merkins with escalating Burpees in between

    Modified Dora: 150 Merkins, 150 Flutterkicks, while partner runs up Carillon stairs and performs a designated exercise before coming back down

    Touch a Tree: 1-3, 4-6, 7-9. Perform stated exercise at each tree. Repetitions correspond with tree number. (Burpees, Merkins, WWII)

    Down and up hill: Perform merkin at base, and Burpee at top. Jacob’s ladder from 1 rep to 6 reps.

    Field: Squats at each yard line (25, 50, etc). Out and back. Return running backwards. Finish at 8 reps.

    Run Loop: Alternate between Merkins (5) and LBC (10) at each marker.

    Finish: Burpee (drop and roll) shuffle.

    Moleskin:
    A number of PAX noted the large police presence as we arrived at the AO. Out of concern there was a fugitive about, we briefly discussed safely securing our car-keys before venturing into the gloom. All pretty much went down as planned with YHC calling some audibles in the interest of time. As we were preparing for the Jacob’s ladder, Sippy demonstrated his PhD-level acumen by quickly deducing which side the PAX would end up. That routine appeared to tire the PAX out a bit which left YHC pleased. Shout out to those who did the entire loop and went back to complete extra stations just everyone could finish together. YHC experienced some insubordination during Burpee shuffle – with some shifting to stop-drop-roll (Swirly-influenced). That said, I commend such initiative…(YHC wondered later if paid Seal Team instructors have to deal with such dissension in the ranks.)

    Anyway, we welcomed an FNG courtesy of Garbage Plate. Discussion regarding his vocation as a physician lead to “Malpractice”. Welcome sir and we hope to see you again. (Note: YHC/Q is still mulling this one over…favoring “Call-J” instead…stay tuned, perhaps we can get some help from DK on this)

    Good chatting and F3-Corporate planning conducted at ET afterwards.

    Saab out

  • April fools run !

    11 faithful showed up in the gloom thinking they were going to run but April fools – Swirly is the Q and we had enough running during the March 100 mile challenge… April Fools – here is how it really  went down…

    Old School : 4 milers – run to Malvern back to Three Chopt and back to Commonwealth. 5 milers run to Roseneath – Three Chopt – Commonwealth 6 milers run to Boulevard – Three Chopt – Commonwealth.

    A beautiful warm morning before the rain…. Glad we got that in fella’s – way to push it ! The hard work you do in the dark will prepare you for both the joys and the challenges of the light! We were missing our RAMM Gears pax this morning – wish them all well as they compete in a race in Daytona.  Thanks for taking us out this morning Sippy Cup – well said buddy. Saab has dogpile in the morning – Honeydo has Gridiron. Reminder : new AO’s start this coming week. Please make sure you tell a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker about F3 and invite him to a workout – plenty to choose from… If you have not Q’d yet and would like to or are thinking about it reach out to one of us we would be happy to assist you. Thanks for joining us this morning Pigskin – come back and join us anytime your back in town..

    See ya’ll in the gloom…..

  • April Monthly Challenge

    Time to get back to upper body for April – 5,000 Carolina Dry Docks.  That is 167 a day.

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-L8e9W24ygnU0suaGyKxzi1PgPqY1CBd57hLrKTZI-g/edit?usp=sharing

     

  • Newton’s Beast

    19 faithful arrived for a good morning workout in the gloom.

    The thang – mosey around school for COT.

    Disclaimer. SSH – 35 count,  Hand release merkin – 10 count,  Don Q – 15 count, Plank dips – 15 count

    Mosey to tennis courts for warm up sprints – 80%, 90% 100%, 100%

    Newton’s Beast – burpees, WWII situps, alternate bear crawls and runs on each section, alternate crawl bears and backwards run in sections, WWII situps, burpees

    Ring of Fire – 20 merkins total, plank

    Superman

    Mosey to school for Triple Check – people’s chair, flutter kicks, run

    Mary – American Hammers, Rosalitas, Freddie Mercury

    Run around track loop back to flag

     

    Good to be back in the saddle again boys after a good 6 month hiatus from Q’ing. Great showing by the PAX at Mary Mumford, always seems to attract the F3 Richmond folks by the masses. Special thanks to Marv for bringing us home with prayer, that guy can really bring the gospel.

    YHC was quite surprised to find out the field was closed from BT, thankful I got a heads up before lining up at the trees. A beast can take place just about anywhere though. This particular modified beast, properly known as Newton’s Beast, was brought to you by Isaac Newton’s famous quote ‘what goes up must come down’. Sometimes knowing what is coming next is worse than not knowing, especially when it involves more burpees.

    Lots of announcements recently of other workout locations being opened – Tuesday runs near UR and Mechanicsville, Wednesday at Dogpile and Thursdays in west end. Let’s get out there and show some support.

    Thanks to YHC’s nephews, Chicken and The Egg, for joining and leading the charge today, and Babyback who joined from North Carolina.

    -Singer

  • Fire Drill

    5 strong escaped the fartsack this morning to brave the cool spring air at Source of Truth.   This is how it went:

    THANG

    Mosey to the front of the school for warm-a-rama.

    25 x SSH IC, 1 burpee

    10 x Arm circles each direction IC, 2 burpees

    10 x DQ IC, 4 burpees

    20 IW IC, 8 burpees

    On the mosey through the parking lot toward the basketball courts stop for a quick Parking Space Tracer.  Continue to the basketball courts for Elevens.  Use the corners of each of the 4 courts for each set, sideline to baseline across the courts.

    Round 1. Merkins/Richard Simmons, lunge on the baselines of the courts.

    Round 2.  Monkey humpers/hello dollies, bear crawl the baselines.

    Mosey to the front of the school and split into 2 groups.   Group 1 does an exercise while Group 2 takes a lap around the lot.  Balls to the wall, box cutters, squat jumps.

    Mosey to the grass in front of the school for what YHC called a Fire Drill.  Circle up.  Fast feet until one pax says “Fire”, all stop, drop, roll to one side,  do a merkin, roll the other way, another merkin, back up to fast feet.  Rotate “Fire” call through PAX twice.

    Back to flag for Mary.

    Flutter kicks, Alabama prom dates, American hammers, LBC.

    COT.

    MOLESKIN

    -Tclaps to Lab Rat for the “corporate challenge” this week, hitting an AO everyday for the past week and completing it this morning with the long hike to SOT.

    -It was good to see that Bleeder’s knee does not affect his bear crawl speed as he left the rest of the PAX in the dust in Round 2 of the elevens.

    -The Fire Drill was a question mark coming in but seemed to be appreciated and according to the PAX we may see that come up again.

    ANNOUNCEMENTS

    -Spring has sprouted multiple new AOs around RVA. Tuesday am – Daville is up and running strong, SpiderRun kicked off yesterday to positive reviews and will apparently be great BRR training.  Wednesday and Thursday next week kick off WDog and CircusMaximus.  Bring your own kettlebell and block each week to CircusMaximus on Thursdays at Godwin unless otherwise instructed.

    Thoughts and prayers with Chum Bucket and his family.

    Burn after reading,

    Rosie

  • Mid Slaughter

    9 RVA Pax & 1 FNG posted for a glorious Tuesday morning @ NoToll.
    It went something like this:

    THANG

    Mosey to tennis court. Disclosure.

    COP: 25 SSH, 15 Don Quixote, 15 Copperhead Squats, 15 Hillbillies, 25 LBCs

    Mosey to NE Soccer field

    Merkin Ladder: 1 up to 10 back down to 1, crossing the field after each set

    COP: 20 Hello Dollies, 15 Alabama Prom Dates, Capital Letters, X’s & O’s

    10 minutes of Burpees

    Modified Ark Loader across width of same field: zombie walk to middle, bear crawl to middle, plank-o-rama (Rosie guest Q), duck walk to middle, crawl bear to middle

    Mosey back to flag

    BT took us out. PAX thoughts go out to Chum Bucket and his family.

    MOLESKIN

    Welcome to Cherry Blossom! Hope to see you out again.

    All respect to Lab Rat who suggested performing the same workout as at DaVille this morning: 2 AO’s, same day, same workout. However, YHC couldn’t bring himself to do anything NCAA tournament related after the sting of Virginia’s collapse vs Syracuse on Sunday. Apologies to Lab Rat, although his Back Blast looks like he amended the workout as well.

    Further respect to BT this morning for being the eldest statesman to post.

    10 minutes of burpees were fun for the first 2 minutes. Lots of mumblechatter regarding the timing of the 10MoB within the 45 minute workout. Mid-Slaughter smoked YHC.

    3 RVA Workouts today: 19 total PAX. Well done, RVA!

    Announcements:

    Richmond AOs are blowing up. We need Q’s. If you haven’t Q’d and are interested in doing so, contact DK. We could also consider another “Hot Potato” workout or splitting Q duties with another member of the PAX.

    HDHH April 20 – See Flashdance

  • Bracket Busted (DaVille)

    5 Pax and 1 FNG met in the gloom on the North Side for 45 minutes of what turned out to be a 2+ hour plan.  Lab Rat planted a shovel flag about the time Circle K pedaled into the parking lot.  After he shed some winter wear for more suitable workout attire, the rest of the pax convened and we got to work:

    COP

    X20 IC SSH

    X20 IC Split Jumps

    X20 IC Don Quixotes

    X10 IC little arm circles, X5 IC Big arm circles, Reverso

    THANG:

    X15 Merkins, run half the track X15 Derkins.  Repeato

    X20 Squat jumps run half the track X20 Low Lateral Skaters.  Repeato

    X20 4-count LBC run half the track X20 Heels to Heaven. Repeato

    X10 2-count Imperial walkers, run half the track, X10 burpees.  Repeato

    Rapid fire:  X20 dips, X20 Monkey Humpers, X20 American Hammer, X10 Dreya Rolls

    Indian Run back to shovel flag with optional burpee before sprint.

    BOM

    YHC took us out with a word of thanks to God.

    NMS:

    YHC planned a big sweet 16 bracket on a white board with regions and everything.  Plan was to do each “game” pick a winner and move on to next match up.  Truth be told, we ran around the track instead of across the closed field and we didnt get near as far as YHC predicted.  Still the beat down must have been solid because there were only a couple of takers on the optional burpees during Indian Run back to the flag

    Since half the Pax were at least a little new, we did a quick F3 101 session to explain some of the abnormal traditions of the cult group.  Hopefully, nobody got too nervous.

    Props to Circle K (mostly) and Baggage Claim for bringing a little mumble chatter that would have normally been supplied by YHC, and keeping the group lively.

    Props to Baggage Claim and The Carpenter for continuing to post up!  Keep coming out!

    Glad to see Abacus becoming a regular at DaVille, and leading the charge during the workout.  Also props for bringing out FNG’s for two consecutive weeks!  Keep on EH’ing!

    Last but not least, welcome to Quarter!  He is a liaison in many of the local schools for FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes), which I am sure many members of the Pax are familiar with, and was also a member of the VCU track team not too many moons ago.  Glad to have you, Quarter!

    I am honored to have the opportunity to lead such a fine group of men, if only but for a morning.

     

    Aye!

    Lab Rat

  • Get Your Spider Hill On

    In what could be a record setting day in the history of the Richmond F3, five guys met up in the new gloom of The University of Richmond campus for what, rumor has it, was the area’s third F3 AO of the morning to go for a 5:30 campus job.

    A plucky couple of homebodies who had no internal desire to cross any rivers or even Broad Street brainstormed about 2 1/2 miles in to the Munford run on Friday that another run on Tuesday might be in order.  Biblically speaking, where there is more than one, God is there too…and the same more or less holds true for an AO, where there is more than one F3 guy, there is a workout.

    Five runners showed up and it was a home meet for Saab as he pulled a Sippy and ran from his house to the starting location.  Off everyone went into the quiet brick laden streets of the school who’s basketball team hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2011 (sorry, I couldn’t resist).  Maybe, just maybe, Chris Mooney should have his guys do more campus jogs as the hills tested the intestinal fortitude of all five us us.  You give Trey Davis or Terry Allen a 5:30 wake up call and then 45 minutes with Richmond’s best 50 year old runner (Saab) and maybe things end differently in his senior year.

    Either way, 45 minutes and 5.2 miles later the group met back by the lake, only to find a gaggle of SEAL Team folks trying to crab walk up a steep embankment.  It took all four guys to restrain Swirly from showing them how to crab walk and to this moment we’re still not sure if Swirly didn’t just take over their workout as the four of us left him there on his own as he stared at both men and Tomatoes alike trying to use all fours to go up the grassy knoll.

    After all is said and done, the group agreed that the Tuesday run at the UofR (pronounced The YOU of R as opposed to “the u of ARE” …again, still needling here) will continue for the forseeable future.

    God Speed Guys and we’ll see you either tomorrow at the all new W Dog or Thursday at Munford.

    Take care,

    MARV