Category: Richmond, VA

  • TYA – 0, Splinter – 2

    Seven + 2 + 1 RAMMers + RAMMGearsers + massively LIFO Bodos, gathered under the moonlight for this morning’s iteration of RAMM. No one signed up so YHC came up with a quick route while “preparing” for the run this AM. Gumbo attempted to suggest a repeat of Sippy’s 50th run from last week so we could see the route this time. YHC suggested a flatter route. Everyone rejoiced.

    The Route

    • East on Grove to North on Hamilton
    • Turn left (see below)
    • Left on Lafayette, right on Grove
    • Right on Antrim, turn left
    • Left on Sauer, right on Grove
    • Right on Commonwealth, turn left
    • Left on Westmoreland BTTVSF

    4s were supposed to turn left at W Franklin. 5s turned at monument. No 6s today.

    Numbers, names, announcements, Chippendale took us out.

    Moleskine

    Time for a little history lesson. Back in the early years of F3RVA lore, there existed a man, brimming with confidence at every turn. Some may say it was overconfidence, some would simply say it was his Massachusetts shining through. Regardless, confidence erupted on every opportunity to demonstrate his skill and knowledge.

    Until that fateful day in November 2019, during the perennial stupidity challenge that was Merkin November. YHC had educated the PAX on Carl Guass’ famous formula a few years back. In fact, it was YHCs second week as a PAX member when that golden nugget was shared with DK on the instant messaging platform for Dominion Energy.

    That wonderful day in November, there was a legendary exchange between TYA and YHC. YHC had the Q, and proceeded to run up a bunch of merkins in a pattern that was conducive to young Carl Guass + a few extras. As we gathered for COP, the confident gentleman from the north proclaimed to the PAX that he knew how many merkins were performed that day. YHC, trying not to call out a fellow PAX member when they may be at their weakest point, simply offered that TYA rethink his calculation. After his recognition of his mistake, TYA acknowledged and slowly walked away. The backblast has it all.

    That leads us to today. While driving east on Cary towards RAMM this morning, YHC couldn’t help but notice the crescent moon and a vibrant bright star directly beside the moon. Upon TYAs arrival to the AO, YHC suggested that it was likely Venus up by the moon. TYA quickly replied, “Saturn. The radio said Saturn is the closest it has been, so it’s bright in the sky.” Hmmm, YHC expressed.

    Meanwhile, the second of today’s RAMMGear heads arrived with his normal jovial self. No Tools wheeled up as we were talking and immediately declared, “Venus!” Once again, TYA quietly but confidently suggested it was Saturn. Not even after No Tools suggested “Venus is the bright morning star” did TYA back down.

    So, YHC went along his way and described the routes above and off we went.

    Every time we went north on a road today, YHC gazed up at the moon and couldn’t help but wonder who was right? YHC is no astronomer but does spend a lot of time looking at the stars. Could TYA be right this time? If only there were a way to tell…

    Post run, YHC was walking to his car and saw the crescent moon, and that silly planet once again. YHC whipped out his cell phone from the car, popped open the SkyView app (free version), and pointed it at the night sky.

    To my surprise, what did my trusty free celestial app tell me? Why it told me it was Venus, of course!

    Splinter 2. TYA 0.

  • Satan’s Hill (Quad Killing Edition)

    As I watched Tua hand the game to Buffalo, I pondered what today’s beatdown should be. Help Matlock run 8 miles? Break out the cornhole boards? YHC landed somewhere in-between…however waking up and recovering from yesterday’s IPC, my quads were feeling the pain. Too bad, the show must go on!

    12 HIMs began to mosey, then Hermey showed up in a SmartCar and we took off for an indian run to a cul-de-sac hidden in darkness so we could admire the stars. Quick count showed 12 HIMs made it, so Nancy and Mudslide launched a Saving Private Hermey rescue mission while we warmed up.

    Indian run BTTF

    Triple Check #1
    P1 – Run up the hill with a sandbag
    P2 – burpees
    P3 – J-Lo’s

    Triple Check #2
    P1 – Run from pool to top of hill and back
    P2 – hold the resistance band
    P3 – run shuttles L C R called out by P2
    Kudos to those who bear crawled this

    Quick mosey around the parking lot to kill 20 seconds so Nancy wouldn’t be disappointed in me.

    Announcements – Convergence Saturday, CSAUP Friday, Daddy Daughter Dance, TBD Chili Cookoff, Athletic Gear for Kenya (See Nancy’s post on Slack)

    Stretch those quads!

    FNG – Oops
    John D. (Dunningham, Dunnington!?) is Wildcat’s neighbor and came out for the first of many F3 posts today! Glad to have you out there. He has lived in Midlothian for 15+ years but is new to New Market and will soon find out what type of riff-raff he has surrounded himself with. He is a lawyer and Matlock immediately went in for the bromance. I assume John D. spends most of his day sending harassing/dad-tone emails about coin appraisals…but I digress. Searching for ideas, we asked about first concert and the PAX got excited to learn that in the second grade he went to see Britney Spears. Great options were thrown out, but as a John who is an Eagles fan, one rose above the rest.

    Welcome, Oops!

  • Be on the lookout for a hot Aunt.

    6 regular HIM’s and 1 Downrange joined YHC for a little Lounge action at Twin Team today. Was it loungy? Sort of.

    Warmarama: Various exercises called, all completed in conversation.

    Thang: 4×4 basketball – regular court. The great hoopers that joined YHC today didn’t let a semi-flaccid basketball stand in their way. It was time to hoop! No score was kept and YHC would call out various exercises after a made basket or a particularly bad shot or pass.

    Thang 2: 4×4 basketball – diagonal court. A bit more running on this one.

    YHC’s summary of players:

    Rosie quickly established himself as the basketball player in the group. Ever see one of those 1950’s videos of the white guy with perfect form holding down a solid pivot foot while protecting the ball in 3-point stance? If so, you’ve seen Rosie play basketball. Mad skills on this dude.

    Pad Thai: We’re still trying to identify his range. Couldn’t seem to make a basket if he was one foot from the hoop or 20 feet away. The bottom of the net proved elusive. It’s always a good idea to try and throw the basketball as hard as you can against the backboard…so says Pad Thai.

    Doozey: Ever seen Steph Curry play basketball??? Doozey is the exact opposite.

    Sin bin: This F3 brother just rebounds. Does he score? No. Does he play defense, sort of. He is the Dennis Rodman of Twin Team.

    Last Call: Anyone ever play basketball with an old man, and he just knew where and how to throw elbows to inflict pain? In YHC’s younger days, YHC used to play with basketball with Kelly Jones. Kelly used to elbow YHC in the kidneys on every play. Need a dirty old man trick…Last Call is your man.

    Game Warden: YHC is going to go out on a limb and say that Game Warden has never played basketball before.

    Wedding Singer: YHC couldn’t come up with the proper adjective to describe Singer’s game. Maybe YHC will come up with something clever and update the backblast a later date.

    Mozey Lunge back to the Flag for a quick Circle Up for some Ab exercises.

    During these Ab Exercises, conversation turned to Game Warden’s wedding this weekend. Various unnamed people were trying to get some intel on how good looking the bridesmaids were. Doozey reminded the group that the mother’s and aunts are more in our age range than the bridesmaids and the backblast title was born.

    Name-a-rama / Announcements / YHC took us out in prayer.

    A sneaky Lounge workout today! It was fun.

  • Downrange Motivators

    Backblast below is the electronic Weinke from Alabama Tick from AO Old School in F3 Alliance – Fort Worth

    Welcome to F3  Fitness/Fellowship/Faith  F3’s Mission – “to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership”. 5 Principles: · Free of charge. · Open to all men. · Outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold. · Led by men who participate in the workout in a rotating fashion, with no training or certification necessary. · COT: Ends in Circle of Trust. I am not a professional, please modify as you see fit.  Counterama –  WARMUP:  10 – Good Mornings 10 – Willie Mays Hays IC 25 – SSH 10 – LBRC 10 – Flap Jacks 10 – Motivators  The Thang First PAX to 25 reps yells out done 25 Merkins – Every PAX Mosey passed the bridge and back 25 Overhead Press Every PAX Mosey passed the bridge and back 25 Curls for the Girls Every PAX Mosey passed the bridge and back 25 Goblet Squats Every PAX Mosey passed the bridge and back 15 Burpees Every PAX Mosey passed the bridge and back 25 Bent-Over Rows Every PAX Mosey passed the bridge and back 25 Burpees Every PAX Mosey passed the bridge and back 25 Block Presses Every PAX Mosey passed the bridge and back  MARY:  25 Coupon LBCs (hold coupon overhead) 25 Heavy Freddy’s   CoT: Each PAX discussed an area that they are accelerating in their life and a blind spot they are working on.   1,2,3 LEAD Use the ‘New Backblast’ button to create a new backblast

    Great to be downrange and get a few ideas and thoughts from the F3 Alliance PAX. Doozy would be happy to hear they did motivators but started from a number chosen by the PAX (increased to 10 for LIFOs). Happy to have Bobber come out with me and maybe get back in with F3RVA.

  • Take cover

    On a rainy Wednesday near the nations capital YHC went out to discover what the DC metro area had to offer in form of a beatdown. YHC was not disappointed and remained dry most of the workout? In Arlington apparently there are a lot of parking garages and this AO happened to be right next to one.

    Standard warm up of SSH, DQ’s, Willie Mays Hayes, Merkins, LBC, etc.

    Perform 1 round of 5 burpees, 10 Merkins, 15 WWII’s, 20 squats. Run up parking garages to 3 level out onto road and down hill back to starting point. Round 2 perform 2 rounds of exercises above, same run, Round 3, 3 rounds of exercises, same run, and repeato for round 4. At 610 time was called.

  • Frogs and Hoes

    9 strong at the latest edition of the FORGE! Here a brief summary for your viewing pleasure:

    Mosey to the lower circle for Warm Ups: Ski Jumps, Ukrainian Soldiers, Overhead Claps, Shoulder Taps, Double Tap HR Merkins, Alabama Prom Dates, Freddy Mercuries, Knee Pulls, Karaoke, Mummy Kicks.

    To the Tennis Courts for Exercise One: 4 Corners: Big Pimpin’ Edition. Basically, a double 4 corners prostitute. When you get to the last corner, you return to that corner on the second half – or something to that effect.
    Exercises included 10 Merkins, 20 Bobby Hurley’s, 30 Plank Jacks, 40 double ct. Flutter Kicks.

    Exercise Two: Elbow Plank Ladder. Everyone lines up and gets in elbow plank. Man in the back hurdles each PAX, then planks up at the front of the line. Made our way up the hill.
    Note to self: Use the sidewalk or grass next time.

    Mosey to the base of Mt. Chaplain for exercise 3:
    Deconstructed 11’s. 10 HR Merkins, 1 Crab Cake. Normal 11’s pattern, but no running. Upon completion – 11 hill repeats. We ran out of time and ending up finishing 4 or 5. Big Rig and I had discussed trying this on Saturday. BTTF.

    YHC took us out

    Final Thoughts: Excellent effort by all of the PAX on this misty morning! Lots of cool events coming up, including the Convergence and SOS Ruck event. As always, check Slack for details.

    SYITG

  • Mind The Chickpeas

    A dirty dozen descended upon Mary to partake in a geriatric-led workout.  A variation of Bodos’ old hundred was administered with only a one-quarter of the running distance applied (imagine that).  Subsequent activities involved a cross-court-crawls and a triple check.

    Good to see Noodles sticking with it and dropping is “Kotters” designation.  Dad jokes appeared to win out over the NSFW anecdotes administered by YHC.

    Convergence this weekend marking 11 years of mayhem.  The gratitude I have for being part of this organization for over 10 of these years is immeasurable. 

    Saab abides

  • Wrap it up b!

    9 warriors of the gloom hit the moist fields of Timberwolf for Week 2 of the ironPAX challenge. This week came from F3 Cleveland. According to the lunch ladies circling the parking lot, this is more or less how it went down:

    8 Track

    • Format
      • For time workout
    • Equipment
      • 400 meters measured out (1 lap on a normal track)
      • 33.3 yards (100 feet) measured out in a straight line
        • This is the distance from a football field sideline to the far hash.
      • Standard coupon

    The Thang

    • Workout consists of 8 rounds with each round starting with a 400-meter run
      • Odd-numbered rounds: Perform stationary exercises
      • Even-numbered rounds: Perform movement exercises
    • Start the timer
      • Round 1
        • Run 400 meters
        • Perform 20 Cleveland Rocks
          • PAX standing behind coupon with the coupon starting from ground. PAX performs a clean, OH Press, and then reverse lunges (right leg-left leg = 1)
      • Round 2
        • Run 400 meters
        • 200-foot Coupon Lunge Walk
          • Carry the coupon any way you want and lunge walk out 100 feet and back 100 feet
      • Round 3
        • Run 400 meters
        • 30 Manmakers (Blockees)
      • Round 4
        • Run 400 meters
        • 200-foot Redrum bunnies (Reverse Murder Bunnies)
          • 100 feet out and 100 feet back
      • Round 5
        • Run 400 meters
        • 40 Thrusters
      • Round 6
        • Run 400 meters
        • 200-foot Crawl Bears (Reverse Bear Crawls)
          • 100 feet out and 100 feet back
      • Round 7
        • Run 400 meters
        • 50 Kettlebell Swings
      • Round 8
        • Run 400 meters
        • 200-foot Burpee Broad Jump
          • 100 feet out and 100 feet back
    • Stop timer after crossing the finish line after the 100 feet back of Burpee Broad Jumps

    Scoring

    Time it takes to complete.

    All PAX crushed it today! We finished on time and headed back to the invisible shovel flag in the parking lot.

    Numbers, names, announcements , prayers, YHC took us out.

    • 11 year F3RVA anniversary this Saturday at 630am at Dogpile
    • SOJ Ruck CSAUP 8pm next Friday at Alamo. Goes until about midnight. See Crabgrass for details.
    • Timberwolf specifically, we have been asked to leave the parking spot closest to the school and the dumpster empty. The school employee who gets there first by herself feels more safe with that spot.

    NMM

    YHC continues to be impressed by PAX who continue to get out here and push themselves by choosing the hard thing and doing IPC week after week! Extra TCLAPS to Cookie eh hit the track after we were done to get in a run ! 🤯

  • Yoda, Gump and Weird Al in a 3 way

    21 Weird Al fans came to see Weird Snake make his second appearance and do some routines to the following comedy song setlist:

    1. Headline News (Parody of “Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm” by Crash Test Dummies”)
      • Warmups of SSH, Ukrainian Soldiers, Helicopters and APDs–APDs while listening to the John Wayne Bobbit verse.
    2. Ebay (Parody of “I Want it That Way” by the Backstreet Boys”)
      • More warmups including arm circles, merkins, and others
    3. Gump (Parody of “Lump” by President of the United States)
      • Partner up. One runs like Forest and the other does Lt Dans
    4. 3-Way (The Golden Rule) by the Lonely Island
      • Triple check: Swings, Squats and the same run
    5. Lasagna (Parody of “La Bamba”)
      • Sextuple Lasagna party check of Swings, High Pulls and a different run (2 people each)
    6. Couch Potato (Parody of “Lose Yourself” by Eminem)
      • Finished off the Lasagna party routine
    7. Eat it (Parody of “Beat it” by Michael Jackson)
      • Two rival groups split up and lunged to each other and did Jazzercise during the chorus then lunged back and repeat. Only Bedpan is ready for Solid Gold Dancer tryouts
    8. Yoda (Parody of “Lola” by the Kinks)
      • Burpees every time you hear “Yoda”.
      • Don’t remember what kettlebell exercise we did (Single Cleans?) as we did over 25 burpees during the song
    9. 33 by Wolves of Glendale-Dedicated to the Hate (30’s) group
      • Overhead presses and Curls and Halos. Inspiring lyrics such as “When Greta Thunberg was 17, She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, When I was 17 I got shot in the dick playing paintball” and “My mom is ashamed of me because I just turned 33”
    10. Fat (Parody of “Bad” by Michael Jackson)
      • Triceps and Sumo Squats
    11. Pretty Fly for a Rabbi (Parody of “Pretty Fly for a White Guy” by the Offspring)
      • Some Mary of LBCs, Heals to Heaven, some stretching, Hammers with the Bell and then ended with 5 burpees

    We learned today that Lighthouse and others don’t know the John Babbitt story. Someone needs to explain it at the Anniversary convergence this Saturday at 6:30 and Dogpile. Don’t tell that story at the Father Daughters dance on 10/6 and WEAG.

    Weird Al is in concert at the new amphitheater on 9/22. Ask Offshore for the best place to see it for free. I will be out of town and used this morning to scratch that itch. Thanks for letting me lead.

  • Randorama

    5 moist studs of the 6pm mist chose The Crossing over comfort and did whatever came to the Q’s mind, as follows:

    The THANG: 

    WARMERAMA: 

    • HP kicked off the warmup reps while the Q arrived a few minutes delayed due to traffic
    • YHC takes over with IC reps of The Opus, Squat Walkers, and a variety of other fine reps to get the PAX warm
    • Mosey the Annex Lot and circle up on the dewy shovel flag mound – absent the SF as YHC arrived late
    • Elbow Plank for a painfully slow review of the F3 Mission, Credo, and 5 Core Principles 

    MOSEYRAMA:

    • YHC felt like running but with widely variable PAX speeds, we did short distance bursts with front runners holding People’s Chair for the SIX, making it around the to other races end of the church

    RANDO REPS ON CURB COP:

    • The Riverdance (alternative steps on curb) x100 2-count reps OYO
    • Stilettos (squats w heels up on curb) x30 reps OYO

    DORA 1-2-3:

    • Partner up (3 and 2) to complete x100 Merkins, x200 Squats, and x300 LBC’s
    • Moving partner bear crawls the hill and crawl bears back down

    MOSEYRAMA:

    • Again some running intervals, with front runners doing variable reps, or planks, or people’s chair awaiting the SIX

    BTTF for COT:

    • Counterama # 5
    • Namerama
    • Announcerama (see Below)
    • BOM Prayer

    NMS:  Special encouragement awarded to our newer PAX Reacher and Johnny 5 who are pushing hard and getting better every post. Also shared some truth bombs about the simplicity of stepping up to VQ. Appreciated the fine misty rain for today’s Q – really had me in a high spirit to be out in the elements. Thank you guys for permitting me the honor. Yours AYE! ~DTH

    Announcements (SEE SLACK!)

    • Iron Pax at Timberwolf & Lumberyard
    • Monthly: Breaking Bread, Bridge
    • 9/20 F3RVA Convergence, 0630 Dogpile
    • 9/26 Night Ruck CSAUP
    • 10/2 NOS Meeting, 8pm at DTH’s
    • 10/3-5 GrowRuck in Cary NC