Category: Richmond, VA

  • Rattlesnake Creek (No Rattlesnakes)

    A lucky 13 showed up for a November 1 run.  Yes, It’s November already.

    Take the batcave exit to River Rd and cross the bridge.  Hop on Riverside Dr and head downstream.  4 milers turn around at Rattlesnake Creek, 5 milers a little further down the river, and 6 milers closer to Pony Pasture after the z dam.

    YHC took us out.

    NMS

    YHC came in hot to the AO on foot today with two minutes to spare.  Quite a few Pax out today and perhaps a new Spider Run record.  The Pax looked strong today en route.

    Riverside Drive was pitch dark with very little light, which could make it difficult to find landmarks such as turnaround spots.  Alas, the Pax all made it back.  Perhaps my favorite aspect of the run is the subtext associated with the Rattlesnake Creek sign providing assurance of (no rattlesnakes).  Good to know for sure.  Copperheads, yes.  Rattlesnakes, no.

    It was great getting to know Taxi Cab today on the run.  Swirly led the charge on crushing some merkins to kick the month of merks off right.

     

  • What would Honeydo?

    A solid six gathered for a Halloween edition of The Punisher.  All treat and no tricks as we went at it like this – startup COP with 20 x SSHs, Don Quixotes, and Hillbillies, then 15 Arm Circles, small then big, forward then reversed.

    Mosey to the sideyard for a shot at the 13 Acres Baker’s Dozen.  13 exercises, completing 13 of the first exercise then 7 of the remaining exercises during the first round.  The 13 reps moves down the exercise chain in each ensuing round continuing 7 reps of the other exercises.  The exercise stack was Carolina Dry Docks, Alternating Lunges, Box Cutters, Merkins, Squats, LBCs, Wide Grip Dry Docks, Side Lunges, Flutter Kicks, Close Grip Merkins, Jump Squats, American Hammers, and Ghost Burpees (Sprawls – without the leg thrust).  Zombie Walks around the sideyard between rounds.

    Jog back to the parking lot.

    Moleskin –

    The assembled PAX wondered what Honeydo had planned for that morning’s Southside workout – Merkins for every bird in Bird, perhaps or a Burpee for each of Jason’s victims in the Friday the 13th series?  YHC is preparing this backblast prior to reading Honeydo’s backblast – I wanna know.

    We didn’t finish the Baker’s Dozen – ran out of time.  Will give it another go in 2017 sometime.

    Discussion of the Hampton Roads F3 rollout – clown cars leaving at 4:30 AM for some.  There’s still time to circulate contacts.

  • Do Burpees Count?

    The 9 redwoods that showed up for the Día de Los Muertos beatdown at NoToll that turned into a día de los brazos muertos.  Those that were there have no reason not to join the challenge since they got such a good jump on the first day of the month.

    THANG

    Warmup

    SSHx20, IWx20, DQx10 (Swirly style), merkins x 10, Box Cutters x 10

    Mosey to the sideline of the soccer field for…Honeydo guessed it, Merkin Ladder.  Start with 20, run across the field, 19…down to 1

    Mosey to the soccer field fence for a triple check. P1-Peoples Chair, P2-American Hammer, P3-Run length of the field.

    Four Corners – Round 1 – 10 Diamond Merkins, 20 Jump Squats, 30 Merkins, 40 Flutter Kicks (2count)

    Round 2 – 10 Burpees, 20 Merkins, 30 Mtn Climbers (2count), 40 LBC

    Mosey to the Basketball Court for Mary – Single leg Dollies/FlutterKicks while holding other leg at six inches 5 IC each.  Heels to Heaven x 10

    Close it out with 10 merkins OYO.

    COT and Wilson took us out.

    NM

    YHC had yet to put his name up for the merkin challenge but had every intention of participating.  Gumbo signed up for the Q but gracefully handed it off to YHC when he heard that YHC had the same idea to get the merkin challenge started off right.  Not every Q YHC does this month will include that many merkins and it still did not reach the Lugnut level of 385 at SOT

    No mumble chatter during the merkin ladder but McRib and Wilson stayed out in front of the PAX for the duration.  Mumblechatter kicked up during the triple check and four corners with the topic of Wilson’s dinner and staying out of the tailstream.  Good to see Offshore on the Southside. We packed a lot in and Flashdance said it felt like an hour, YHC is just trying to make every minute count and get the day started right.

    The final question is – Do Burpees count in the merkin challenge?  I’ll leave it to the PAX to chime in.

    The total for today was 300, 310 if you include the burpees.

    Announcements

    November Merkin Challenge – See the backblast for the spreadsheet.

    F3 Hampton Roads – Starts Saturday, get that final EH in.  Toga is heading down this weekend with others on weekends to follow.  Check with Toga, Jville, YHC, Swirly or Hardywood for dates and rides.

    Way to push through today men.

    Rosie

  • 2.5K the Hard Way

    20 F3 RVA men entered the gloom on the first day of November to begin the Merkin Challenge and this is what we accomplished:

    Mosey to front corner of parking lot for plank, Merkins x15 IC.

    Mosey to parking lot entrance for 2.5K the Hard Way.  Run circuit around all three schools stopping at four designated points for Merkins x25 and Squats x25.  Complete loop as fast as you can, collect the six for plank at bus loop.  Merkins x20.  Ascending curb crawls at bus loop.  Bear crawl across, Merkins x1, bear crawl back, Merkin x2.  Repeat x8.

    Mosey to behind AHS for Pole Smoker Indian run.  PAX grabs a pole and holds feet six inches off ground.  First PAX performs pole smokers x5 and runs to end of line.  Repeat until all PAX have completed pole smokers x5.

    Mosey to BBALL courts for interval work.  Sprint 1 side of court. mosey three.  Sprint 2 sides of court, mosey 2.  Repeat until sprint all sides.

    Line up for suicides.  Regular suicide, Reverse suicide.

    Mosey back to Shovel Flag for Mary.  Exercises performed included, Alabama x25 IC, American Hammer x35 IC, Freddie Mercury x20 IC.

    COT, Numerbarma, Namearama, YHC took us out with prayer.

    NMM : As Mr. LabRat was tying his shoes this morning, he mentioned that he was glad he did not have to do any running, as the October Monthly Challenge was complete.  Little did he know that YHC was starting off this morning with a 1.5 mile interrupted by 100 merkins and 100 squats.  The PAX got spread out along the route making the first part of the workout truly you against you.  As always the PAX pushed through as we got straight to business this morning.  Lots of mumble chatter was heard during the ascending bear crawl as we finished our merkins for the first day of the November Monthly Challenge.  186 total for the day. Your welcome.

    Welcome to FNG, Neckbrace.  Hope to see you at many more future workouts.

    Great work by the entire PAX this morning.

    Circle K

    Announcements

    F3 Tidewater expansion begins this weekend.  EH all contacts in Hampton Roads area for first workout this weekend at Mt. Trashmore.  Contact Toga if you want to make the trip.

    November Merkin Challenge.  5000/month or set your own goal.  If you need the spreadsheet shared with you to document your progress, let YHC know and I will get it to you.

  • HalloGloom

    A frightening four came to Batteau on a warm Halloween morning. 58 degrees and breezy, perfect weather to sweat off the extra candy to be consumed later today. it went down like this:

    COP – SSH, IPs, Merkins, Flutterkicks, DQs

    Mosey to other side of stone house. YHC demo’ed the newly dubbed Human Centipede:  pax elbow planks in a line, last man broad jumps up then over pax until reaching front, keep going like Indian Run across field.

    Team up for Dora. 100 Box Jumps, 200 Dups, 300 LBCs. Add instead of running runner bear crawls to tree and back.

    MOSEY to tennis court.  modified beast- 2 stops across court, 8 reps:  Burpees, WWII Situps, Merkins, Flutterkicks, Mtn Climbers ,CDDs.

    MOSEY down the hill. Run up hill 5 burpees at light, jog down. Repeato x3. hit 6 for Box Cutters and Heels 2 Heaven. Mosey down to bottom for Box Jumps and Derkins. 10, 15, then 20.

    Back to the flag, American Hammers to finish.

    Flipper took us out.

    NMS – Although YHC is a horror movie fan he has not seen any of the Human Centipede movies, so some of the PAX were wary of the initial  mention and demo. The exercise itself seemed to work and with more pax than 4 could be even more fun.

    The Dora with bear crawl took a lot of time. The audible from incline Merkins to LBCs was applauded.

    Hardywood was fighting off a sore hip the entire beatdown. Flipper enjoyed his chance to outrun  him during the hills.

    Stay safe tonight, be sure to post tomorrow to burn off the sugar this evening…

     

     

     

     

  • Happy Hallow-Suck…

    6 stalwarts posted to the Swamp at River Run to push themselves on a fantastic Halloween morning, and it went a little something like this:

    Daily mile – The PAX headed out for the last October daily mile with a run to the track at the football field and a 2 laps around the tract.  It was more than a mosey, as YHC’s watch clocked us at just over a 9 minute mile – way to push it men.

    Circle up in the endzone for COP:

    • Imperial Walkers x10 IC
    • SSH x 31 IC (see what I did there?)
    • Copper head squats x10 IC
    • LBCs x31 IC
    • Hillbillies x10 IC
    • Flutter kicks x10 IC

    Line up for three rounds of the modified Suck:

    • PAX 1 on the goal-line – AMRAP LBCs
    • PAX 2 on the 5 yard line – AMRAP SSHs
    • PAX 3 on the 10 yard line – AMRAP Freddy Mercuries
    • PAX 4 on the 15 yard line – AMRAP jump squats
    • PAX 5 on the 20 yard line – AMRAP APDs
    • PAX 6 = Rabbit — sprint to far goal-line and back (round 3 to the 50 yard line and back)
    • When rabbit returns to the goal-line each PAX member bear crawls to the next station and the PAX member on the 20 yard line becomes the rabbit

    Mosey to the poles at the end of the parking lot for a good round of pole-smoker Indian Run with PAX holding 6 inches and completing 10 pole smokers when it is your turn then running to the end.

    Bear crawl up the hill and run back to the shovel flag for Mary.

    Mary:

    • Dolly x20 IC
    • Rosalita x20 IC
    • Box Cutters x10 IC
    • Flutter Kicks x20 IC
    • Freddy Mercuries x20 IC
    • Superman for 1 minute

    COT – name-a-rama, number-rama, and YHC took us out.

    NMS:

    Being Halloween and both the last day of the daily mile challenge and the eve of the merkin challenge, YHC decided it was a merkin/burpee holiday for the PAX and instead we got some running in and punished our abs – tighten up boys!.  The entire PAX pushed it hard right out of the gate with a blazing mile and lightening fast sprints for the modified Suck.  Way to work men.

    Announcements

    • Tomorrow we begin the merkin challenge and start inching closer to some cold mornings (maybe?).  Sign up for the challenge and set your own goal as needed.  The important thing isn’t the total number but the daily commitment – make it happen.
    • The first clown car heads down to Mount Trashmore this weekend.  Toga has the Q.  Keep EH’ing and find a weekend that you can make a road trip for a workout.

    I hope everyone enjoys a safe Halloween with the kids.

    No more Gumbo for you!

     

  • The 50 Plus Club plus a Pigskin

     

    5 – 55 Plus year old men and 3 others  gathered at the Gridiron for 60 minutes of pleasure.

    The Thang:

    25 Side Straddle Hop
    25 Don Quixottes
    25 Seal Jacks
    Arm circles small, large, forward, backwards

    Mosey over to swing set area for
    1,2,3,4,5 and then 10 pull ups on monkey bars

    Mosey to the parking lot for a “Fire drill”
    Johnsonville didn’t like the idea of tarmac under
    his feet so we did a little mosey to the greener side.
    Circle up, chop feet, Pax calls “fire”,  all PAX drop
    and roll- roll right Merkin, back left Merkin,
    back on your feet- Go around the circle so
    everyone gets a chance to call Fire…
    Thanks Rosie for the “Fire Drill” back blast idea.

    The fire drill was quickly extinguished by a few merkins and
    curb crawls to the right and then back left.
    We lunged over to the Pavilion area for (2) sets of 25-dips.

    Since football was in the air and Tuckahoe Tomahawks were
    playing away we took advantage of the field.
    5 squats end zone “run”
    10 squats 25yard marker “run”
    15 squats 50 yard marker “run”
    20 squats opposite 25 yard marker “run”
    25 squats opposite end zone
    Repeat for Alabama prom dates, Merkins, Flutter kick
    Finished  up with Bear Crawl at end zone 10 yards, Lunge 10 yards… bear crawls , lunge until
    reaching the opposite end zone.

    Mosey over to school bus pick up loop for Pole Smoker conveyor belt relay.
    Grab a pole, start the smoker, front of the line bear crawls to rear and yells go for
    the next bear crawler to begin. Rinse and repeat with a run instead of a Bear Crawl.

    Mosey over to school entrance for Modified Triple Check: wall sits, donkey kicks and run (5) burpee run
    Rinse and repeat.

    Counterama and Namearama

    Ceil took us out with a closing pray

    Moleskin

    Our newest EMU was back for more. He did a great job working through a few shoulder issues and finished up strong. Johnsonville had to leave early, not sure if any of the mumble chatter was a valid reason for leaving.  Attila likes start mumble chatter especially with Johnsonville directing the subject line over to White Deer even if White Deer can’t hear the mumble chatter. Pigskin up from Charlotte NC, at 63 this guy is a beast. Night Crawler said his Saturday morning lights were out after the run on the football field.  For some reason the PAX thinks White Deer likes Merkins … sounds like mumble chatter

     

  • It has been 0 days since our last run related injury

    2 guys named Paul met YHC at the trailhead this morning for a beautiful, albeit dark start to the day.  Here is what transpired:

    –Short Run:  No takers

    -Medium run:  1 loop around the main trails, starting on Northbank, downriver side of Belle, back on Buttermilk including the lariat trail for right at 7 miles.

    -Long run:  2 loops of above, second one in reverse.  14 miles total.

    NMS

    YHC was the third pax in the lot this morning, expecting to see more headlights any second, but they never showed.  Oh well, let’s roll….first couple of miles this morning artificial light was required.  TYA and YHC had planned putting some distance on our feet this morning as an early jump start to the 50K training regimen.  YHC is sure that Offshore would have hung with us, but he is battling with some foot issue and 1 lump was enough this morning.

    Somehow, Offshore rolled into the parking lot with dripping blood all down his hand.  YHC was never given a straight answer as to what happened, but YHC knows that he definitely broke our safety streak.

    Some good conversation was had on both loops today.  Good to run with Offshore for a bit, it feels like it has been a while.

    Always awesome to run with TYA, thanks for going long with me today.  Little did TYA know, but that was the longest run ever for YHC.  The company made it a breeze!

    Lab Rat out.

     

  • The Murph meets Dora 123

    19 men and 1 FNG (Friendly New Gal) started the weekend off the right way and this is what we did:

    The Murph – 1 mile run, 50 pullups, 200 merkins, 300 squats, 1 mile run

    Mosey from flag to circle at the top of amphitheater for Dora 123.  Partner up. While one partner runs to Carillon, up steps, around back of Carillon, down steps and back to partner.  Other partner performs exercises.  As a team, perform 100 WWII situps, 200 flutterkicks, 300 LBCs.

    Mosey to hills behind amphitheater for Modified Jacobs Ladder. Run down hill to and up hill to perform merkins x3. Repeat x7.

    Mosey back to flag for Numberama, Namearama, and COT.  YHC took us out with prayer.

    NMM : A couple of months ago, Toga had the Q at Wdog and we did the Murph.  That day we needed more time, so YHC thought this mornings Dogpile hour would be perfect opportunity for the PAX the complete The Murph.  Turns out we completed The Murph in 41 minutes.  Great job by everyone.  Because the PAX kicked The Murph’s ass and Honeydo did not want to miss out some abs exercises, YHC thought Dora 123 would fill the last 19 minutes of the beatdown.  YHC was wrong as the PAX completed an ab heavy Dora with five minutes to spare.  Not wanting to deprive the PAX of a complete 60 minutes, the Jacobs Ladder filled the void.  Whatever YHC threw at the PAX this morning, the PAX cruised through each section with F3 ease.

    Welcome to FNG K2 (YHCs youngest 2.0)(Good job of embarrassing all the old men with the pullups, Dad could not have been prouder)

    Way to work this morning men.

    Circle K

  • 16! Who cares?

    10 people started a bit of a roll your own workout for today’s edition of RAMM.  Here’s how it went down:

    Turn left on grove and run at a leisurely pace for 6 minutes then turn around and meet back at the corner of Westmorland and Grove.  Mosey to the main soccer field for 16 100’ish yd sprints with 45 secs rest in between each.  Line up on Westmorland for indigenous peoples’ run back to the parking lot.  Using the small field by the lot, high knees down and back, butt kickers down and back, Russian soldiers down and back, and one pass at slow, knee to the deck lunges.

    We think TYA ran a lot on his own, and Lab Rat searched for him a little.

    NMM:  YHC had been thinking about the 16 sprints for some time and even asked for the Q from Lab Rat just to give it a go.  The backstory is that the University of Alabama football team does 16 sprints at the end of practice every week, sixteen sprints for sixteen national titles.  YHC thought that was pretty powerful stuff.  Without giving this drop the mic moment some time to sink in, Splinter immediately said, “Who cares?”  Apparently JMU is not impressed.

    On top of this lack of wonder at such an awesome achievement, YHC really didn’t know how hard the sprints would be.  It sounded pretty awful, but the PAX rolled right through and stayed on pace throughout.  You should have seen the wheels on TwoCan!

    Re TYA and Lab Rat, I’ll need them to tell their own stories.

    Stay Classy,

    Toga