Category: Richmond, VA

  • Mosey around the neighborhood

    5 veterans showed up to U of R for this week’s iteration of the Spider Run and were joined by 2 other veterans late in the run.  Here’s how it went down:

    The plan was for the fast runners to run ahead of the rest and turn around at different points of the run to rejoin the slower runners.  Unfortunately YHC was the only PAX that was not in the fast group, which encouraged me to run a little faster this morning.

    Mosey down Lakeview Lane along the lake, cross the lake at the bridges over the island, take a right on the trail through the woods, take a right onto College and then a left on Baldwin to start the tour of Westham.  Right on Wood, left on Baldwin, right on Hollins, right on Woodberry, right on Horsepen, left on Devon, right on Ridge Top, left on Chandler, right on Gardner down the hill to a left on Wheeler and then a right on the path through the woods over to the intersection of Boatwright and Campus Drive.  Take Campus Drive over to a right on Gateway Rd. to re-enter U of R campus.  Left at the bottom of the hill to the path that leads to Roselawn.  Up Roselawn to a right on Ridgeway, back down the hill to campus.  Take Westhampton Way up the hill to Keller and then up and through the old “Westhampton” campus.  Take a right onto the path through the woods and disc golf course to return to the lake.  Run around the south end of the lake where we ran into Sippy Cup and Copernicus.  Back to the Virtual Shovel Flag for COT.

     

    Moleskin:

    We missed seeing some of the Spider Run regulars today, but understand that there was an effort to represent properly for Gumbo’s VQ at NoToll.  I’m sure Gumbo delivered a proper beatdown worthy of a Keydet.

    When asked at the beginning of the run what we were doing today, YHC replied that we were going to run some hills.  Saab commented at the end of the run that he did not remember running anything flat……we were either going up or down hills for almost all of the run.

    Early in the run it was noted that Lockjaw was not present.  This was a bit disconcerting as he had pontificated in the past that he was the “glue keeping the Spider run together”.  Thankfully we didn’t fall to pieces without the presence of “Captain Hook”, although I did miss having someone to run a “moderate” pace with me.

    Toga mentioned at one point that Offshore’s wife was upset about the fact that Offshore’s rear end was not as big as it used to be.  And she blames F3 for this.  She seems to be the female version of Sir Mix-A-Lot and likes Big Butts.  What is most troubling is the fact that this conversation took place at church with Toga this past Sunday…..YHC cannot imagine how you got on that subject.

    The PAX was met by Sippy Cup and Copernicus while finishing the run with a lap around the lake.  Sippy informed us that he reached the AO a bit late and even though Sippy glimpsed us running across the lake to start the run, he was not able to find the PAX after we took a right to run through the woods.

    Just after COT one of the groups that pays to work out ran past and I unfortunately did not get any “Hey Roger’s” like I was hoping for.

    YHC took us out.

    Good run.  Enjoyed it fellas.

    Announcements:

    Toga is trying to EH guys to run a Spartan race at Wintergreen on 9/24.  See him for details.

    There are still one or two slots open for the BRR……see TYA for details.

    Fudd out

  • Odd man out

    5 posted for a glorious RVA morning at the Punisher.  It went something like this:

    Mosey to northeast corner for 10 merkins (Note: The PAX was told that merkins and burpees had to be chest to the deck for the entire workout.)  Line up at the soccer field for circuit fun:

    • 50% to other end, 10 merkins, backwards run back, flutters kicks
    • 75%, 20 2 count flutter kicks, backwards run back, toe touches
    • AYG, 10 burpees, backwards run back, LBCs
    • Partner carry down and back, 20 WWII sit-ups
    • Wheelbarrow down, power skip/jump (yeah, I know) back, plank fun
    • Repeato x3

    Mosey to playground for 8 pull-ups and 10 Bulgarian squats per leg, repeato x3, Freddy till all done

    Mosey to flag for American Hammers, Scissors, single leg APDs

    NMM:  There was little mumble chatter throughout this little jaunt around LHE, and that’s always a good sign.  This was not the original workout YHC planned, but they rarely happen the exact way you intend.  Splinter rolled in and gave us an odd number, so the PAX needed to modify.  Splinter unknowingly saved everyone from something that YHC will save for another day.

    Great work today!

    Some items of note:

    • Splinter and Swirly took a spill during partner carries.  It looked like someone stepped on a spider with long legs and arms everywhere.
    • YHC learned that the fireman’s carry is not the swiss army knife of partner carries.  Doing more squats would likely help with that.
    • Two more spots open for the BRR
    • Exploratory committee formed for 9/24 Wintergreen Spartan Race, see Toga

     

  • Engelbert Humperdinck

    A PAX of 11 posted for the May 2nd episode of #ThePunisheRVA.  It happened like this:

    Jog across the front lawn of Holton School for the startup COP – 20 x Don Quixotes, Imperial Walkers, and Imaginary Jump Ropes along with 15 x Arm Circles (both small and large, forward and reverse).

    Mosey to the concrete pad in the front parking lot for a try at the 13 Acres Baker’s Dozen.  Thirteen exercises in this order:  Merkins, Box Cutters, Squats, Carolina Dry Docks, LBCs, Back Lunges, Wide Merkins, Hello Dollies, Alternating Lunges, Close Merkins, Flutter Kicks, 180 Jumps, and Crab Cakes.  Start with 13 reps of the first exercise and follow with 7 for each of the remaining exercises.  Round 2 – the 13 reps move to the second exercise with 7 of the other exercises.  Repeat, chasing the 13 reps through the rotation.  Called a couple of audibles, including halting the rotation as we were running out of time.

    Remained at the concrete circle for some stretching – Child’s Pose, Cobra, and Downward Dog along with a little bit of Planking.

    Mosey to ShovelFlag for COT.

    Moleskin:

    Days of rain = wet ground – we stuck to the concrete – you’re welcome.

    May 2nd was Wedding Singer’s birthday – still has years of “hate” left.  Also the birthdate of the singer named above – YHC is betting this reference is unmatched in other F3 posts.

  • She did smell nice didn’t she…

    8 posted for today’s trail run and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. Most took southside to Forest Hill (loop) and then back again…about 7 miles. Lab Rat arrived early and ran what was largely a road-based run that covered about 10 miles. YHC enjoyed conversation with the PAX along the way. Glad Udder brought Tramp Stamp for his first trail run…great to have you there guys.

    During COT, YHC was a bit surprised when a partially clothed man attempted to insert his bare torso into the circle, but soon realized it was Lab Rat coming in from his extended run.

    Best of luck on the half marathon (next weekend) Lab Rat and TYA.

    Still need 1-2 men for the BRR (you know who you are…)

    Saabinator out

  • #41

    18 came out to see the sun – an infrequent sight these days.

    The Thang:

    20 SSH, 20 DQ, 20 Russian Soldiers, 15 copperhead squats

    Mosey over to the field in front of the Carillon for modified triple checks. Pax at one end of the field doing squat jumps, Pax at the other end doing Carolina dry docks, a runner set them in motion. Each pax does 4 runs.

    Head up to the woods for touch a tree. 3 trees with incremental burpees at each tree. 7 new trees with incremental merkins. 11 new trees for speed.

    Head down past the pull up bars, down the trail to the road by the pump house. Modified Dora.

    Partner up and while one runs up the pipeline and back down the trail, the other does the following: 41 burpees, 141 merkins, 241 flutter kicks, 341 LBCs.

    Why 41 you say? Today is YHC’s 41st b-day and its time to celebrate with a little extra effort.

    Head up love hill to the wall next to the bowl. Partner up and one partner does balls to the wall and the other runs the bowl and back – bear crawling the hills. Switch and repeat.

    Two minutes of Mary – APD, American Hammer.

    Swirly took us out.

    NMS:
    There was a seal team wedding going on with technical tuxedo t-shirts and tutus. A sight to see.

    Way to go Saab for running to the workout, pushing hard and then running home for 18 miles distance.

    There is an outstanding ruling on whether Wilson is in attendance for today’s workout despite leaving 26 minutes into it. I think the pairing up with teams of 3 and teams of 2 made him uneasy. Corporate is confirming attendance based on policy.

    2nd F at ET where fun and good times were had by all.

    Announcements: Lockjaw has Q on Wednesday’s BRR training run, if the back allows. There will be a pre-blast with specifics, but I am thinking of of a later start (6:00/6:15 PM) and we will rally at 3 Sports for the Devil’s Pitchfork.

  • Try resetting the ground…

    7 men chose not to succumb to the fartsack this morning and showed up for a run in the cold rain. This is what transpired…

    Ran the carillon route, 6 and 5 mile options in reverse direction from what Lockjaw first introduced. Others ran and out and back along Grove for a 3-4 mile run.

    Moleskin:
    There was a bit of irony in trying to avoid the puddles as we exited MM. By the time we all were at the half-mile mark we were all pretty well saturated from head to toe. YHC was working to keep up with Sippy for the first mile, where he clocked us at a sub-7 minute pace. Sippy in-turn stated he was working to keep up with me, so at that point we dialed it back a bit.

    On our return trip we saw Circle K and TYA, but Swirly disappeared. It was only until later we discovered he charted his own route. Still not certain if he got lost or it was his preference to return through Windsor Farms, but kudos to him for getting more distance in.

    When we returned, it was fun standing in the rain shouting instructions to Lugnut on how to jump a car battery. We had to “shout” of course because none of us were going to stand close enough to provide any physical assistance nor endanger ourselves.

    Saab out

  • Seeing Stars

    7 Circus Clown Faithful assembled at Mills Godwin HS for a Kettlebell beatdown that went something like this:

    THANG

    Farmer Carry around the bus loop

    COP: 25 SSH, 10 KB Slingshot/Roundabouts (each direction), 20 KB rows OYO, 10 KB merkin rows (each side) OYO, 20 Flutter Kicks

    Circus Star (4 corners + farmer carry to Star after each set)
    15 Goblet Squat
    15 Halo
    15 Swing
    Lung to Point & back
    Star: 20 LBC

    Repeato: Increase everything by 5, change Star to 5 Burpees

    Mosey to Bus Shelter

    Parade of Elephants
    Circle up facing out on your 6
    pass KB to right on 1, to your chest on 2, press overhead on 3, back to chest on 4
    Just keep passing until Q says stop

    Repeato: in reverse direction

    Partner Curb Crawl (partner up, crawl, 1 set on left side, crawl back, 1 set on right side: share KBs)
    1) 20 KB Lawn Mower Pulls
    2) 15 KB curl
    3) 15 KB Suitcase Row (feet together, back at 45, other hand across belly holding hip, row towards hip do not move shoulder)
    4) 10 KB Clean/Rack/Press

    Triple Check
    – KB Merkin/Row (5 each side) – pacer of the 3
    – Millineum Falcon (People’s Chair w/ KB held out like the controls to the MF)
    – 6-count KB Bridge/Press/Pullover

    Mosey to VSF for COT (Atilla took us out)

    Moleskin:

    YHC thought he’d planned too much…and he did…but just by 2 reps of the Triple Check.  Respect to Atilla and Toga? for the extra KB Merkin/Row.  The first 20 of those in the initial COP wrecked YHC’s shoulders…

    Solid effort by everyone today…lots of reps…lots of variety…not much ground covered.

    Not much mumble chatter…mostly ALL business today with the exception of Toga’s Trump quote of the day regarding Trump’s fight with venereal disease in the 70’s being like his own personal Vietnam.
    Make America Grate Again

    Everyone got a chance to experience Toga’s big balls during the Parade of Elephants.  Impressive girth, Toga.

    Announcements:

    • Keep EHing guys in RVA
    • Gumbo’s VQ @ NoToll next week
    • F3 RVA’s Service Outing @ The Doorways – Monday, May 23 (see backblast or YHC)

     

  • Counting up…is that something new?

    14 showed up for what YHC hopes proved to be a good beatdown. This is what transpired…
    – COT: SSH, DQ’s, Merkins, Squats, (and perhaps something else I can’t recall)
    – 2 burpees at each tree from one end of the school to the other
    – Doras (sort of). Partners complete 100 Derkins and then 100 supine pull ups while other runs out and performs 5 dips…and then 5 incline merkins
    – Ascending reps across tennis court..stop at at midpoint, exercise, run to end, then backwards run to start. Ascending reps at each stop (e.g. 3,6,9,12). Burpees (x1), high knee jumps(x2), squats (x3), merkins (x4), LBCs (x5)…maybe that was the order
    – Everyone lines up holding legs at 6 inches. Person on end jumps over each PAX…repeat (indian pole-smoker arrangement)
    – Ring of fire merkins…once completing 10 reps, bear crawl around circle.
    – Burpee shuffle: Person calls out number 1-3 (HoneyDo special). No consecutive numbers allowed.
    – Indian run/Native American run (what have you) around perimeter back to flag.

    NMS
    Fields were deemed unusable so YHC took the hint this time and moved the “multiplier” to the tennis courts which actually worked out better (easy to locate the mid-point, and less chance of tripping when running backwards). It was about the time that we were counting up by 4’s that Flashdance showed up. It was questioned whether he was truly LIFO, or just extremely early for tomorrow’s RAMM. Anyway, he broke some speed limits to get there so we appreciate his resolve.

    YHC could not hear what the mumble chatter was during the COT…too focused on counting. Certain it was at my expense (sorry I missed it). Otherwise we all tried our best Doner Kebob imitation by throwing out a “Hi Roger” here and there. YHC instructions were vague as usual: A quick ask to Sippy to start a count (of PAX) turned into a simple upward-count. TYA responded by saying he had never heard that method before…live and learn.

    Announcements: RAMM on Friday (Saab will Q). TYA will be sending BB’s regarding Wednesday evening training runs for the BRR. I’m sure there is something else I missed.

    Saab abides…

  • F3 Repels ticks

    Seven redwoods posted for a Wednesday morning beatdown. Weather was a little damp, but otherwise beautiful…Seemed like 70 and sunny to me.

    The Thang:

    Mosey towards nickel bridge. COP, disclaimer, 35x SSH, 30x LBC, 10x arm circles (front and back), 20x mountain climbers. Mosey to first shelter. Bearmuda triangle with Berp and Merks. Bearcrawl to light pole 1 x burp/merk, bear crawl to tree, 2 burp/merks, bear crawl to fireplace 3 burp/merks. Repeato x 3. Mosey towards other shelter, on the way pick up fallen limb and transport to the brush pile. Mosey to other shelter. Elevens with WWII situps and 4 count mountain climbers. Eleven route is down the hill about 100 yards and back up to the shelter. When completed, do hill repeats until all pax are finished. Mosey back to shelter. Tabata dips followed by tabata LBC, followed by ring of fire with 10 push ups. Mosey towards flag. 3.5 minutes of mary with American hammers, LBC, Bay City Scissors.

    COT with Fudd taking us out.

    NMM:

    Awesome to have Bleeder back out there for a workout, for the most part. He put in a good workout, but could not resist messing around with the Q. When YHC started the workout with SSH, I was determined to do as many proper SSH as possible. Having spent the past 1.5 years perfecting my technique, I was all ready…until, I turned towards Bleeder and he was doing his best to imitate my worst SSH form.

    Fudd is a constant feedback machine. He was really happy when I described the Bearmuda triangle. He also loved the Bay City Scissors giving the Q ample feedback. If “feedback is a gift”, Fudd is the biggest present you could ever get. (I know I might get feedback that this is a little hypocritical for me to say…but what the heck).

    I am going to throw out a new corporate challenge for the PAX. It is going to sound easy…but I bet no one can accomplish it. The challenge is simple. Beat Swirly to a workout. Any workout will do, you just have to get to the AO before him. Good luck to all.

    Welcome to Last Time, Keith. He posted for his first workout from a recommendation of a friend who had posted once. He has been doing Seal workout for sometime and was looking for something a little bit different. Hopefully F3 will fit the bill.

    Finally, over my 1.5 plus years as an F3 PAX, I have found many amazing benefits of F3. This morning, I discovered one additional benefit. An F3 workout will eliminate ticks from your body. On the way in, I felt a bump in my underarm and noticed that I had a tick. The tick appeared pretty happy and content in its new abode. That is, until I stared the F3 workout. The beatdown was too much for the tick. When I completed the workout, the tick was gone.

    See you in the gloom

  • 2nd F Pre-Blast: F3 RVA Service Outing @ The Doorways

    RVA Pax,
    2 weeks ago at Circus Maximus I suggested an additional 2nd F outing idea for May: Spending an evening Preparing and Serving a dinner for the guests of The Doorways.  Several folks were interested in participating.

    The Doorways is one of the largest hospital hospitality houses in the country (112 rooms) and THE largest in the country operating on donations alone. Guests include patients and caretakers who are receiving medical attention away from home. (http://www.thedoorways.org/about/the-doorways/)

    One of our own, London, works as the Community Outreach Manager at The Doorways.

    The Doorways has very nice kitchen facilities and food donations of most varieties available for their guests. However, they welcome volunteers willing to prepare meals, serve meals, plan a post-meal event (like calling a few games of Bingo), and mostly spend time with guests.

    I was thinking we could prepare a Taco Bar with all the fixings…I can check with London the week before to earmark some of the donated food for F3’s meal day…and fill-in with whatever produce/perishables we’d need.

    This month, they have scattered meal volunteer needs.
    I was thinking we could offer our services on one of the following:

    • Wed May 11
    • Fri May 20
    • Mon May 23
    • Thu May 26

    Depending on numbers of folks interested, I’d like to extend the invitation to our families to join us. Fridays might be easier for those of us with young families.

    Who is interested…and which of the days above works best for you?