Category: Richmond, VA

  • Slippery when frozen

    3 Veterans and two trail run FNG’s posted on a crisp fall morning.

    The Thang: Cross over Nickel Bridge, Buttermilk trail to Belle Isle. Take outside loop around Belle Isle and back over to the Northbank trail. Northbank trail back to parking lot. 7.1 miles done by 8:20 am, COT and out into the day.

    Naked Moleskin:

    Splinter and Lab Rat posted for their first trail runs with F3. Both had great runs and enjoyed the trail experience. Splinter hung around at the front of the pack with Saab, and Lab Rat spent a good majority of the day with or in front of TYA. No rain on Saturday so the leaves were a little more forgiving. When we hit the Belle Isle bridge from the south side we found the ice/frost. As we took our first several strides on the bridge I look over and Saab was sliding down the new wood. We all quickly moved onto the middle/older section which had a lot more grip. The quick change allowed us to avoid any issues. We met oyster at the start of the buttermilk. He turned around and joined us for the run back along the northbank. Oyster got his usual 20 minute headstart on the run.

    Lab Rat and YHC had quite a bit of time to converse on the buttermilk side. Lab Rat is very knowledgeable on the trails and had many great suggestions for add ons and options. He has spent a good amount of time on the trails in the past. We also caught up with each other and realized that we had a bit in common. Both of us have adopted girls from China, and they both compete at the same gym. It was easy for us to figure out who the others daughter was as they are the only two Chinese girls at the gym. Small world.

    Long discussion after the run about a few subjects. First was Saab’s daily trip to Martin’s to pick up “lunch meat”. Only the northerners used the alternate “cold cuts” designation for deli meat. The other discussion was about preparing live seafood for eating. TYA admitted that he was uncomfortable killing fish/shellfish and is extremely happy not having to hunt and prepare other types of food. Both TYA and Saab admitted that they would probably starve if they had lived in a time that required the hunting and preparing your own food. Saab relayed a story about a friend of his that put live crabs in the oven for cooking. Wow…

    Weather is perfect for trail running. Join us if you can.

  • #GridIron enjoys Slaughter Starter, Ciabatts and Merkin Ladder

    Four of the faithful posted to #GridIron on a cool Saturday morning to take that #RedPill. Johnsonville took the Q, and this is how it went down:

    Mosey to grassy knoll
    Slaughter Starter (10 minutes of burpees)

    Mosey to shelter near grassy knoll
    25x partner leg tosses
    repeat
    ciabatta (alternate between gorilla squats and jump squats

    Mosey to playground
    ciabatta (alternate between Russian twist and ab wheels

    Mosey to lower football field
    Line up on sideline and do merkin ladder from 20 to 1 sprinting from sideline to sideline. 220 merkins in all

    Climb hill between fields
    chibatta (single leg Alabama prom dates, alternating between legs)

    COT

    Moleskin: Great job with a difficult workout. T-Claps to Honey Do, who double-dipped having completed many merkins at #Dogpile. I believe he logged 500 in all.

  • Dora comes to Dogpile

    10 regulars gathered around the shovelflag on a brisk morning at Dogpile.  The PAX was not cold for long as we got right to it:

    THE THANG

    COP:  SSH x25, 10(20) Merkins, 25 Lbc’s, Imperial Walkers x25

    Mosey to the other Roundabout circle and down Rugby hill, pair up for:

    Dora 1,2,3:  100 Burpees ,  200 Merkins , 300 Boxcutters

    1 partner runs up hill to circle and back while other performs exercise.

    Mosey to Amphitheater for:  Escalator (Mary Version) with 20 Merkins thrown in before the start

    Increasing set of Ab exercises going up series of step with 15 reps of exercise for each step:

    Step 1 – Boxjumps x5 , Step 2 – Flutterkicks, #3 Alabama Prom Dates (aka UofL recruting trips) , #4 Freddy Mercurys, #6 Box Cutter, 7 & 8 Cross Leg Lifts -alternating R&L on each step, 9 Russian Twists (4 count)

    Finish with Stairway to Burpen – Start at bottom of Amphitheater and do Burpee for each Stair all the way up (13)

    Mosey back to the Flag for COT and BOM Prayer

    MOLESKIN:

    Glad that we had an even amount of PAX for the Dora 123, credit to DK for giving me this idea at NoToll.  Running up and down the hill and the difficultly of the 3 exercises kept mumblechatter to a minimum besides some occassional “i hate you honeydo” comments along the way, which YHC takes as a sign of pride.  This one was tough for all and YHC was concerned when the truck came up the road that some PAX would not be able to move out of the way, or specifically for Swirly that he’d just keep going until his Boxcutters were done.  YHC was impressed to see Winston put in a strong effort in his 2nd dopgile, this was no easy Dora.  It is somewhat confusing to have Winston & Wilson together during the beatdown with such similar names.  Lab Rat continues to post and YHC is glad to consider him a regular now at Dogpile.

    YHC had intended to alternate arm and abs for the escalator but for time (and YHCs burning shoulders) sake went with all Abs.  This turned out to be a people’s choice with the PAX making suggestions for each step up the way.  Nice job to Swirly to finish to with Russian Twists at the top, somewhere to the west TYA was smiling.

    Glad to see the PAX enthusiastically agree to finish with Stairway to Burpen at the end.  And lastly although it was in the 30s Swirly did not bring out the infamous Yellow hat.  Will we see it in November or wait until December?

    ANNOUNCEMENTS:

    HHH brewery run Wednesday 11/18 starting at 6:00 at Ardent.  Bear Creek 10 miler spots are filing up, sign up now!  Also YHC is doing the TurkeyTrot 10k at UofR on Thanksgiving if anyone else is interested.  LabRat mentioned Ashland has a 5k as well.

     

     

     

  • PAX clocked on Radar

    10 Strong and 1 FRNG posted this cool November Morning.

    THE THANG

    Mosey to the Corner of Westmorland and Grove to start the 4,5 & 6 mile loops (Malvern, Roseneath, Boulevard to Three Chopt) back to the Shovel Flag.
    COT Marv took us out.

    Moleskin

    Welcome to Little Miss Sunshine(LMS) glad to have you out there! Sip, Marv, thanks for running with him this morning!

    The PAX was officially clocked at 13 MPH on the Police radar check point set up on at Mary Munford on Grove. YHC had no idea if this would actually work, YHC had confidence the PAX would have the speed, but would it actually register on the Radar Display. Mission Accomplished! What’s interesting about this is the fact that if YHC had tried to get a group of guys together a little over a year ago, YHC probable would have talked TYA into it, but unlikely anyone else. Introduce F3 into the mix and you guys make it happen, that was AWESOME, Completely Stupid and Utterly Pointless(CSUP), but AWESOME. The point is; it’s more about accomplishing things that you could not do by yourself. (Yes, YHC did try to run by the Radar but nothing appeared, with a Car seems to work just fine)

    Announcements

    NOV 21 DOGPILE WORKOUT 6AM & 7AM Q by OBT and Dredd—– CANCELLED BACK TO NORMAL WORKOUT SCHEDULE

    PUB Run Next week 11/18 Lock Jaw Qing

  • Preblast: 2nd F Happy Hour on 11/18

    Meet at Ardent Brewery @ 6pm for a 3.75-4.5 mile run. Ardent is located at 3200 W. Leigh St.

    We will start and finish at Ardent so no need to set shuttle. It is recommended to bring a light to help navigate the back streets.

    See you there!

  • 50 makes him the oldest Saab on the road

    saab

    21 Strong came out for a rare Lockjaw Q this fine Fall morning.

    COP in front of the AO (count included, cadence optional):
    25 SSH
    25 Don Quixotes
    25 Copper Head Squats
    25 Scorpions

    Mosey to the corner of Grove and Commonwealth and form 2 columns.  Indian run down Commonwealth to Cary St.

    5 Corners – Across 5 points around the track and soccer field, perform 10 reps of the following running with a partner:
    Lap 1 – Hand Release Merkins
    Lap 2 – Two Count Flutter Kicks
    Lap 3 – Four Count Russian Twist

    From Cary St, partner carry half way to the tennis courts.  Switch roles and head to the tennis courts.

    Line up in plank position for tunnel of love.

    Mosey back to Cary St where a Frisbee was produced.  Frisbee 50 for the birthday party!  Toss the Frisbee and sprint.  When the Frisbee lands, break into named exercise.  Bear crawls, crab walks, burbee broad jumps, lunge walks…..

    Mosey to the tennis courts and circle up for the first ever quadruple ring of fire with Merkins.  Two of the Pax do 10 reps and ignite push ups in both directions, setting in motion four rings of fire.  Ensure everyone gets 50 count.

    Mosey back to the shovel flag.

    Moleskin
    Saab turned 50 today and we responded with a 21 Pax salute.  A bit of running, some abs, some fun, and Merkins.

    YHC noticed a bit of mumble chatter during the COP, but that seemed to quiet as we got down to business.  At one point during the partner carry, YHC thought we had been rejoined by Stifler’s Mom, but it was only J-ville.

    Happy Birthday Saab – Respect!

    Announcements
    – HHH is Wednesday 11/18 for pub run.  Pre-blast forthcoming.
    – Bear Creek 10 Miler is 12/6 – Only 15 spots remaining so sign up now.

     

     

  • Belle Isle Excursion

    4 faithful posted for a sunday morning jog.

    The thang.

    Head East on the northbank trail towards downtown. Cross over to Belle Isle. Head into the trails of Belle Isle for a loop. Head back across the river to the northbank and head back to the parking lot.

    Naked Moleskin

    Good to hit some new terrain today. Belle Isle is full of trails and we have explored just a few. YHC has yet to find a good map of the trails, so we explore and learn as we go. Total loop today was somewhere between 7 and 7.5 miles.

    YHC slowed the guys down a more than a bit on the way back. Not eating before the run is not recommended. Apparantly I had enough energy to do the first half and Belle Isle. My pace was much slower on the way back.

    Honeydo took a small spill along the way. When YHC asked him if he was OK, he quickly waved me off… it was just a small fall and he wanted no attention as a result. Saab and Offshore continue to set the pace on the runs. Great to run with these guys. They always keep me motivated to try to keep pace. Thanks for he inspiration along the way.

  • Did we run last Friday?

    10 Redwoods posted for a morning jog on Grove.

    The Thang:

    Pick your poison.  4, 5, or 6 mile loop.  All head east on Grove, 4 mile turn at Malvern, 5 mile turn at Roseneath, 6 mile at The Boulevard.  Run to Grove and Three Chopt, turn back and run back to the shovel flag.

    Moleskin:

    Been a real long weekend and week!  I have a personal deadline of posting backblasts within 24 hours of the workout.  Let’s just say I missed this one by a mile.  Anticipating the run tomorrow, I had to carve time out today to get the backblast up.

    A few injuries and a couple guys getting back into running created an interesting happening today.  About a mile into the run, 5 of us (Swirly, Pelosi 5-0, Lockjaw, Bleeder, and I) were all in the same pack.  Bleeder yelled out “what the hell is going on?  I am used to running by myself”.  Bleeder and Swirly went on to run 4.5 (not an option the Q gave) while the rest of us posted a nice 4 mile jaunt.

    Saab continues to set the pace and prove that just because you are in your late 40’s doesn’t mean you have to slow down. We will see this week if the early 50’s are as good to him.

    Lab Rat kinda joined us for the run. He showed up a few minutes into the run and being an FRNG, he did not know the normal loops. He caught up with us at the end for a COT.

    See you next week in the gloom

  • Just a little Mosey around the corner.

    4 strong venture into the gloom.

    COP
    25 x SSH
    25 x LBC
    23 x Crab Cakes
    20 x Air Squared

    Mosey 1.7 miles to Southside Speedway ticket booth

    10 x SSH
    10 x sit ups
    6 x slow bending squats = number of laps completed by Bleeder in early racing career at SSS
    1 x sumo squat = lap almost completed by The Sheik

    Mosey 1.7 miles back to the parking lot

    15 x air squared

    COT

    It was a nice change of pace at SOT this morning. YHC has always wanted to run to Southside Speedway and the crew of athletes this morning created an opportunity to make that happen.

    A big SOT welcome to Rosey for joining the pax this morning. He didn’t get to see much of the AO but clearly is a pretty sporty runner. Nice job!

    Swirly and YHC wore gear completely the opposite of what one should wear on a dark 3.4 mile journey down the road. Fortunately Bleeder saved the day by wearing Day-Glo socks. Yep, that’s all the light we had. The good news is most Southsiders on the road this a.m. never saw us so it wasn’t much of an issue.

    Until next time,

    Peace

  • Double Dora Dienstag

    13 faithful of the RVA PAX braved the saturated fields at #NoToll for a Tuesday morning beatdown. It went something like this:

    COP: 20 SSH, 20 Flutter Kicks, 20 Russian Soldiers, 20 Slow Bending Squats

    Mosey to Fields.
    Partner up for Dora 1-2-3: 100 merkins + 200 lbcs + 300 squats as team
    Alternate with partner while 1 partner runs width of soccer field and back.
    TYA & Wedding Singer awarded 8 exercise restrictor plate (per round) to pay for the Patriots’ perfection.

    Mosey to Parking Lot
    COP: 20 Rosalitas, Capital Letters: spell “Kirk Cousins Likes That!”, 20 Louisville Recruiting Trips (aka Alabama Prom Dates)

    Mosey to poles for Lazy Dora 1-2-3: 100 merkins + 200 pole smokers + 300 monkey humpers
    Alternate with partner while 1 partner planks.

    Mosey to Shovel Flag.
    8 Burpees OYO to celebrate Patriots 8-0, Bungles 8-0, Painthers 8-0, or Warriors 8-0.

    Moleskin:
    The pole smoker/monkey humper combo of the 2nd Dora 1-2-3 drew loads of comments and commentary:
    – where to grab the pole while pole smoking: base, tip, top
    – how to grab the pole while pole smoking: 1 hand, 2 hands, golf club grip
    – Splinter’s pole was decorated with hat
    – YHC & TYA shared the same pole on opposite sides (TYA in the grass, YHC on the pavement)

    YHC planned a 3rd Dora 1-2-3. Maybe next time.