Category: Richmond, VA

  • At least your cell is dry

    Seven waterlogged gents posted for the latest episode of #ThePunisheRVA.  We accomplished the following:

    Mosey around the sideyard near the outdoor classroom for initial COP with Imperial Walkers x 25, Russian Soldiers x 25, Don Quixotes x 25, and Snow Angels x 25

    Jog around to the front schoolyard for a second circle.  PAX does High Knees in place while one member runs around the outside of the circle.  Repeat until all have made one lap.  Next, do Butt Kickers in place with each PAX member makes a lap.  One more time with High Knees and once more with Butt Kickers.  Remain in circle and Side Skip in unison old-school wrestling practice-style.  Circle a couple of times one way.  Stop.  Circle a couple of times the other.

    Run to the parking lot for the Prison Cell routine.  Each PAX member picks a parking space and completes several rounds of exercises within that space.

    Round 1 – Windshield Wipers (Plank back and fro with feet in one place) for time followed by Prisoner Squats x 25, Merkins x 25, LBCs x 50, and SSHs x 25.  Touchdown Al Gore when done.

    Round 2 – Bear Crawl (back and forth) for time followed by Side Lunges (each side) x 25, Carolina Dry Docks x 25, Flutter Kicks (two count) x 50, and Jump Squats x 25.  TD Al Gore.

    Round 3 – Side Walk Plank (Plank around the space moving hands and feet) for time followed by Forward Lunges (both legs) x 25, Werkins x 25, Freddy Mercuries (two count) x 50, and High Knees in Place (two count) x 2.  TD Al Gore.  Run a lap around the parking lot.

    Round 4 – Windmills for time followed by Wide Squats x 25, Clerkins x 25, Hello Dollies x 50, and the Hop Forward / Lunge Back medley x 25.  TD Al and run a lap.

    Round 5 – Crab Walk (hither and yon) for time, then 180s x 25, Wide Grip Carolina Dry Docks x 25, Rosalitas x 50, and Mountain Climbers (two count) x 25.  TD Al.

    Finish in place by hitting the ground for Alabama Prom Dates x 25, then some brief stretching.

    Jog to the flag.

    Moleskin:

    Our time in the grass was limited, but the ground had drained well and the parking lot was essentially dry.  We’ll get on our backs in the grass following the next weekend rain, though.

    Announcements –

    As of this posting, the week’s Q slots have been filled – good work.

    There may still be a slot or two open for the Rugged Maniac this weekend – October 10th – contact TYA.

    DK is coordinating F3 Richmond participation and presence at the Bottom to Tap 5K on October 17th.  YHC is participating with his daughter that same day in an Inflatables 5K at Meadow Event Park.  The kid likes bouncy houses.

    Honey Do has encouraged participation in a Richmond Go Ruck event on October 24th.  YHC is expecting to participate.  Don’t think it is too late.

    Swirly is encouraging participation in the Great Pumpkin 5K on Saturday, October 31st.

    Also, the Bear Creek 10 miler will be held on December 6th.  A handful of our folks have signed up.

     

  • Sunday (Not) Trail Run

    3 Determined runners posted at the Pump House for a Sunday Morning trail run.  When YHC entered the parking lot at 659, two pax were patiently awaiting my arrival. Since it has rained straight for the past 5 days, we decided as a group to stay off the trail and hit the roads adjacent to the path.

    The Thang:

    Run over nickel bridge, run past the trail entrance to the top of the hill, left onto Riverside drive.  Follow riverside drive for about 3.75 miles, Cross back over the river at the Manchester Bridge.  Take a left onto Spring Street, follow Spring to end, take a right, go a few blocks, take a left onto Idlewood.  Follow Idlewood all the way to the lake, run around the lake, and back out to Boulevard.  Take a left onto Boulevard and back down to Pump House Road.

    Naked Moleskin

    Perfect weather for a run.  62 degrees, slow rain.  Winds were swirling a little bit but it mostly felt good.  Only time the wind was an issue was coming over the Manchester Bridge.  The wind was directly in our face and blowing hard.  It was brutal.

    Map My Run says we did 7.44 miles on the route today.  We kept up a pretty steady pace today and all stayed together the whole time.  Thanks to Offshore and Honey Do for the company.  Honey Do was able to join us today because his 1/2 marathon was cancelled because of the weather in Hampton.  After the run, we all talked about the upcoming F3 announced races.  Lots of interest in Bear Creek run and the Colonial 200 next year.   YHC broke out the running tights today.   Great gear for running in the rain…

    See you next week in the Gloom.

  • Respect the AO by Expansion

    53 degrees, nice breezes, and a much better than expected morning greeted 4 of the Faithful who were later joined by 2 of the strong DogPilers who swallowed the DoubleDip Pill. Here’s how it went:

    Parking Lot COP:

    x25 SSH IC
    X25 DQs IC
    x25 IWs IC
    x25 CDDs IC
    x25 Reverse Mountain Climbers IC
    x25 APDs IC

    Mosey to the paved Field Events Venue on upper GridIron for COP:

    x25 Slow Deep Squats IC
    x25 Alternating Reverse Lunges IC
    x25 APDs IC
    Superman Holds

    Mosey to the AO high ground between upper GridIron and Pouncey Tract Road (the “High Ground”):

    Beast – Merkins, CDDs, Merkins, CDDs, Merkins, and CDDs with intervening planks for total 108 Merkins and 108 CDDs

    Still at the High Ground:

    x25 PLTs x2
    Protractor Penmanship ALL CAPS OYO
    x25 Hello Dollies IC
    x25 PLTs x2
    x25 APDs IC
    x26 PLTs (alternating legs) x1
    Merkin ISO Holds to Planks to Pikes (rinse and repeat x3)
    Up position APD with leg extensions and heel walk backs
    Superman
    x25 CDDs IC

    Mosey back to Parking Lot

    COT:

    Announcements: October events including Bottom to Tap 3-Miler, GoRuck, Rugged Manic, and Great Pumpkin Run; The Colonial in April.

    Discussion re Q coverage needs – DK confirming availability to Q next Saturday at GridIron; also need Q at GridIron for 10/17/15.  Signups on Google Sheets under Schedule of F3 website for F3 RVA.

    Prayer concerns – unspoken

    Strong Groh-led prayer concluded the BOM huddle.

    Moleskin:

    The AO expanded this morning with a venture to the High Ground to avoid any turf damage to the football and soccer fields.  Groh, DK, and J’ville – senstive and wise PAX?  Or mud-adverse?  In any event, the High Ground proved to be a solid site for the Beast.

    A Burpee-free workout today (except for DK who self-imposed after he caused a workout disruption by kindly arranging for the gloveless Groh to become gloved).

    It seems that Honey Do and Chum Bucket DoubleDipped because of their affection for PLTs – they were not disappointed (and pushed them out rapidly).

    Coffeteria discussions covered lots of topics but one of the more interesting concerned the variety of dispositions brought by J’Ville to the workouts.  It was observed that J’ville was highly determined today, exhibiting excellent Merkins and CDDs form during the Beast.  There ensued discussion about the “angry J’Ville” (usually reserved for his Qs), the “mellow J’ville” and the intervening degrees of J’villeness.  #JekyllandHyde.

    Colossians 3:23

     

  • To a Mouse*

    8 men of purpose got their day started as the shoveled Stars & Stripes flapped gloriously in the wind. Most of the pre-planning went out the window; the Q made on-the-fly adjustments to still meet the objectives of the day:
    – No rolled ankles from uneven ground in the gloom
    – Get a good workout while not rolling around in the mud
    – Pull-ups somewhere along the way

    THE THANG:

    Mosey past the Carillon to the second turnabout circle.
    COP
    – SSH x25
    – IW x20
    – Alabama Ass Kickers x15
    – Russian Soldiers x20
    – Merkins x10
    Mosey around the reservoir to the tennis courts.
    King of Spades Tennis Court Beast (plank up after each)
    – Suicide
    – Burpees x6 x6
    – Merkins x6 x6
    – Flutter Kicks x6 x6
    – Carolina Dry Docks x6 x6
    – Rosalitas x6 x6
    – Squats x6 x6
    LBCs x25 then mosey to the Vita Course in search of a place to do pull ups.
    @ the monkey bars, each of the PAX do 2 sets of pull-ups. Max # +5 with help
    Mosey back to shovel flag
    Russian Twists x25
    COT – prayer for healing of the Portland community and our country

    MOLESKIN:

    Well done this morning, fellas. As mentioned at the beginning, YHC would typically have not shown up for a cold/rainy workout, but having signed up as Q previously this brotherhood was good accountability to alter that norm. It’s been >1 yr for YHC as part of the Richmond PAX and it is an honor and privilege to be a part of it, and to have made many new friends in that time.
    Good conversation & fellowship at the local Coffeteria afterward. Among other items, the joys of jury duty, speeding tickets, and vendor pricing were discussed.
    *http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-best-laid-schemes-of-mice-and-men.html

  • Magic Legs

    11 faithful arrived in the gloom to challenge the weather today.

    THE THANG

    Starting out toward Three Chopt on Grove Ave, Turn around, making 4, 5, 6 mile loops, respectively, turning at Malvern, Roseneath, and the Boulevard.

    Moleskin

    Continuing in the Forest Gump Genre, “We ran in every type of rain there is: Stinging Rain, Big old Fat Rain, Rain that flew in sideways, and Rain that came straight up from underneath.” Several of the PAX today debated the wardrobe choices with the weather, BT and Toga,both, opted for the stealth mode Black ensemble. Although, Toga’s prison striped reflectors were a nice touch. YHC with the usual bright reflective jacket, and other bright or reflective clothing. Saab with his trademark signature Neon Green Armband, was the subtler choice. Lug Nut opted for the usual F3 apparel, but added the Purple glowing stick hung from his neck. Of course, only TYA could pull of the natural luminesence of his Magic Legs, combined with the vintage 1970’s Pre inspired shorts.

    Announcements:

    Oct 10th – RUgged Maniac
    Oct 17th – 5k Bottom to Tap
    Oct 24th – Go Ruck
    Oct 31st – Great Pumpkin 5k

  • The British are coming!!!

    16 Dry and Driven men emerged from their Fartsack to attack the day (and the british) at 45 MOM.  The weather was nearly perfect.  60 degrees, slight rain, no stars.  YHC was hoping for much worse weather, man do I like it when the gloom gets gloomy!!!!  Despite the lack of driving rain, the PAX left 45MOM drenched and muddy.  A great time was had.  Here is how it went down.

    The Thang

    Mosey to the basketball courts, Paul Revere Starter (1 if by land two if by sea, so everything is either and 11 count or 22 count).  Merkins x 11, SSH x 22, Don Quixote x 22, Burpees OYO x 11, LBC x 22, and Merkins x 11

    The BBC, ascending.  On the tennis court start at the baseline.  Bear crawl to the net, run to other baseline and down the 4 courts, Crab walk to the net, run to the baseline and across the 4 courts, 1 Burpee.  Repeato, adding one  burpee each time, until you reach ten.  Plank for 6, then all mosey to the tree line.

    Pair up for Double Decker 11’s.  Teams alternate piggy back carry to next tree, each team does 20 Merkins, 2 WWII sit ups at tree, piggy back to next tree, 18 merkins and 4 sit ups, repeato until 2 merkins and 20 WWII sit ups.  Mosey back to the shovel flag for COT and inspirational dedication by Fudd.

    Moleskin

    We got to exercise in the basketball court area today.  A rare treat as the Tomatoes are usually hunkered down in that space.  Since they took refuge under the pavilion, it gave us the opportunity to use their area.  Nice place to do a warmup, but we will cede the area back to the tomatoes when it is not raining out.

    YHC had been wanting to bring back the BBC exercise again so I decided on a British theme for the workout.  It seemed even more appropriate given the weather that we had yesterday.  I was going to try to pull out my best british accent while counting cadence, but given that it would most likely sound like an indian accent, I decided to spare the PAX.

    Sippy slayed the field during the BBC exercise, lapping YHC twice during exercises.  Fudd and I had an epic battle with Swirly and ?? during the Double Decker 11’s.  Lot of fun trying to catch them.  Thanks to Fudd for pounding out a majority of the merkins at an amazing clip.

    Announcments

    Rugged Maniac next Saturday, a couple of spots still left see TYA

    10/17, Bottom to Tap.  F3 will have a booth.  Thanks DK

    10/31 Great Pumpkin Run.  F3 will have a booth.  Thanks Abacus

    Pre blast for colonial 200 is up on the site.  Commit early.  Should be a great time.

     

  • Bryce Harper Should Have Run This Out

    Three strong gathered at the Source of Truth for an upper body beatdown.  For the record, the temp was a cool (sic) 71 degrees with a nice crisp 100% humidity.  Perfect weather for the final day of September.

    Here’s how it went down:

    COP
    20 – Don Quixote’s
    10 – Merkins
    20 – Imperial Walkers
    10 – Werkins
    20 – LBCs
    10 – Travolta Merkins
    20 – Copperhead Squats
    10 – Staggered Merkins (right high, left low)
    20 – Side Lunges
    10 – Staggered Merkins (left high, right low)

    Mosey to the well lit baseball field for a Diamond Circuit. Start at home plate in plank. One person does exercise on the way to first base. When he reaches first base the second person comes out of plank and exercises his way to first. While second person is working his way to first base, first person does exercise on the base. When the second person reaches first the first person moves to second. Third person follows in sequence. Exercises were as follows:

    – Lunge to first base
    – Carolina Dry Docks at first
    – Crab crawl to second
    – Squats at second
    – Bear crawl to third
    – Diamond Merkins (naturally) at 3rd
    – Crawl bear home
    – Burpees at home

    Repeato x3. If you don’t understand I created some ASCII-art to help the visualize the pain.

                                Squats @ 2nd
                                /\
                               /\/\
                              /    \
                             /      \
        Bear Crawl to 3rd - /        \ - Crab Walk to 2nd
                           /          \
                          /            \
                         /              \
                        /      ____      \
Diamond Merkins @ 3rd  / \    |____|    / \ - Carolina Dry Docks @1st
                       \ /              \ /
                        \                /
                         \              /
                          \            /
         Crawl Bear Home - \          / - Lunge to 1st
                            \        /
                             \      /
                              \ __ /
                               \  /
                                \/
                         Burpees @ Home

    Mosey to benches for a quick round of double tabata (bench merkins & dips)

    Mosey to SF for 4.5MOM
    20 – LBCs
    20 – Freddy Mercuries
    10 (2 count) – Pickle Pounders
    20 (2 count) – Russian Twists

    Moleskin
    Light turnout but strong effort from the PAX. YHC took the liberty of formulating a baseball themed workout given this is the final week of the regular season. After the Punisher and No Toll this week YHC couldn’t handle too many leg exercises so the focus was above the waist. Lug Nut and Two Can impressed me with their dedication during the crawling exercises between bases of the Diamond Circuit. It may have been a mirage, but those bases seemed to get farther apart each inning.

    YHC learned some new things about the two dedicated PAX members that showed up at SoT. Lug Nut disclosed that his favorite exercise is none other than the burpee and he can do it better than anyone else in the PAX. YHC thought of obliging and throwing in 4.5 minutes of burpees instead of mary but stuck with the original plan. Pickle Pounder was too interesting of an exercise not to try out.

    Two Can came out with a vengeance. However, at some point during the third inning YHC think Two Can swallowed a SodaStreamTM as there were volumes of carbonation erupting from Two Can.

    Nice work guys.  SOT is a great AO for a sports themed workout.

  • Pi tasting

    Ten gathered on the well-groomed grounds of Linwood Holton Elementary School for the last September ’15 edition of #ThePunisheRVA.  It went down like this:

    Mosey around the western edge of the school and around to the back for the initial COP with Imperial Walkers x 25, LBCs x 25, SSH x 25, and Planks with Rotation x 25.

    Jog around the eastern side to the front lawn for brief speedwork along the width of the gym with High Knees down and back, Butt Kickers down and back, 50% Sprints down and back, 75% Sprints down and back and down and back again, and 100% Sprints down.

    Jog back around to the western schoolyard for a Taste of Pi.  Using the first 51 digits of the Pi constant, the PAX alternated Burpees, Merkins, Two Count Flutterkicks, and Squats – 3 Burpees to start, 1 Merkin, 4 Flutterkicks, 1 Squat, and back to Burpees again to complete 5 as per the next Pi digit.  And so on.

    Lunge walk to the outdoor classroom for Lindsays (40s) – alternating between Dips and Rosalitas.

    Quick mosey around the garden for one last COP mixing in Up Downs, more LBCs, and Alabama Prom Dates.

    Return to the ShovelFlag.

    Moleskin –

    The PAX insisted on doing 10 reps when the zero digit came up in Pi – or at least TYA insisted on it.  Need to thank Mrs. TYA for providing Mr. TYA with the wake up call.

    Toga wore a crimson Alabama shirt to the workout surely hoping for the Prom Date call later in the workout.

    Announcements – regular workouts this week.  Rugged Maniac mid-October and Go Ruck in late October.  Ask TYA about Rugged Maniac and Honey Do about Go Ruck.  On 10/17, there is a run from downtown to Church Hill and back again – there will be an F3 tent – check with Donor Kebab.  Correct me in the comments fellas.

  • Helter Skelter Elevens

    Fourteen of the faithful posted in the humid dark at #NoToll. The lush fields had been saturated by several days of rain, and YHC (Johnsonville) elected to keep things mostly on asphalt in order to avoid harming the AO.  This is how it went down, more or less:

    COP:
    50x SSH
    25x slow squats
    10x merkins
    25x LBC

    Mosey to back parking area.

    Helter Skelter Elevens — Pax split in halves, each starting in a separate corner of the parking lot. Half #1 did elevens starting with 10 burpees, then a run counter-clockwise to the opposite corner of parking lot, then 1 bicycle, then a run counter-clockwise to starting corner for 9 burpees, etc. Half #1 did the same, but on the other pair of corners and with clockwise runs.

    Mosey to grass between field by shelter.

    COP:
    Plyometric Lindsays (i.e. fortys) alternating between tuck-jumps and butt-kickers.

    Mary:
    25x WWI situps
    10x dolly
    10x rosalita

    Mosey to SF.
    COT.

    Moleskin:

    Sippy Cup clearly dominated the Helter Skelter Elevens. DK also had a very strong showing in the other group, lapping YHC. The remainder of the PAX finished fairly close together.

    There was no mumble-chatter at all during the set of Plyometric Lindsays, hopefully suggesting that YHC provided the Pax with a sufficient challenge. YHC may have missed something, however, since YHC had slipped well past the point of seeing black spots.

    Great job getting through a challenging workout! The schedule this week is:

    WED: Source of Truth featuring Splinter
    THU: 45 Minutes of Mary featuring TYA
    FRI: RAMM featuring Bleeder
    SAT: DogPile featuring Loose Goose and GridIron featuring Earthworm

    Respectfully, J-ville

  • Preblast – Colonial 200

    Ok, the BRR was awesome.  It was a great challenge physically and mentally and a hell of a good time.  Given that I wanted to keep my fitness level up and better prepare for next year’s BRR, I searched far and wide to find another relay in the Spring.  The good news is that I found one.  The Colonial 200, from Charlottesville to Williamsburg.  Not quite the elevation changes that we experienced in NC, but still a good challenge and should be a great run.  I am hoping that we have enough interest to get one or two teams together for this years race.  Let me know if you are interested.

    TYA

    http://www.colonial200.com/