Category: Richmond, VA

  • Merry Roll Tide Eve?

    11+1 gathered for a non-football themed #Punisher beatdown. Quick half lap around the AO before circling up for COP. Here’s how it went down:

    COP
    – Arm Circles 10 small, 5 large. Forward and backwards IC
    – Merkin x 10 IC
    – Don Quixote x 15 IC
    – Wide Merkin x 10 IC
    – Side Straddle Squat x 15 IC
    – Close Merkin x 10 IC
    – American Hammer x 20 IC
    – Hand Release Merkin x 10 IC

    The Thang:
    Mosey to the bus loop. No curb crawls this time. Bear crawl indian run. Line up head to toe in plank. Person in the back bear crawls to the front of the line and planks. Cycle continues until the end of the loop is reached.

    Proceed to basketball court to commence escalating 4 corners. Corners are burpees, squat jumps, CDD, LBCs.
    – 1st iteration was around the basketball court with 5/10/20/30 of each exercise. 20 PLTs when complete.
    – 2nd iteration was half-way down the back road, across to the school, to the bus loop, and back to the far corner. 10/15/25/35 of each exercise. Karaoke between stations. 25 PLTs when complete.
    – 3rd iteration was the full loop around the AO. 15, 20, 30, 40 of each exercise. 30 PLTs when complete

    Mosey back to the flag to be reunited with lost PAX member and finish off with a few minutes of mary
    – Flutter kicks x 20 IC
    – Hello dolly x 20 IC
    – 1 count of superman followed by a 20 count

    Moleskin
    YHC is used to seeing Fudd show up as a LIFO; however, today was the first time we have had a LIFO show up during the final minutes of Mary. Apologies to Flipper for not being able to locate us today in a rather contained AO for his 1st boot camp workout.

    Lab Rat attempted to entice the Q to an audible during the second 4 corners by suggesting a backwards run between stations. It was a close call but we stuck with karaoke. A backwards run through the moon craters next to the farm house would have likely been a terrible result to all.

    Nice job to all.

    Announcements
    – There are a few Q spots this week. Sign up.
    – Honey Do has a free pass for the Frost Bite 15k. Ping him if you or anyone else is interested.
    – Congrats to Offshore for finishing the Disney Marathon.

    As I’m typing this Bama just missed wide right. Go Tigers!

    Splinter out.

  • The road to pull-up improvement

    22 faithful piled out of their cars in the gloom. All were certainly hopeful for the opportunity to run the Horseshoe, but were instead treated to a different type of beatdown. Here’s YHC’s best recollection of how it went down:

    Mosey to far corner of school grounds along Grove.

    Warmup COP
    SSH x25
    8-count Merkins (4 down, count, 4 back up) x20
    IW x25
    LBCs x25

    Mosey to the track. Circuit at 4 stations. Break into 4 groups & do the following. Rotate counter clockwise once your group is done with the station. Do each station 2x
    NW corner: 20 dips on parallel bars
    SW corner: 10 burpees
    SE corner: 10 pull-ups (with help as needed)
    NE corner: 10 chin-ups (with help as needed)

    Meet at NW corner. 6 Minutes of Mary
    Hello Dolly x??
    Superman x2
    Alabama Prom date x20

    Mosey to Soccer fields. Line up on north baseline for Ark Loader:
    – Bear Crawls: min halfway, and run the rest. Plank up at other side.
    – Lunges: ”
    – Crab Walks: ”
    – Partner Leap Frog: ”

    Mosey back to starting stations of Circuit. Repeat circuit, but upon completion of each station run 3/4 of the way around track to your next station.

    COT

    Moleskin:
    YHC kept forgetting to post the BB, but it’s here now. Bring on the #mumblechatter.

    This workout was born out of need for improvement on pull-ups. Time to get the pull-up bar out of the attic for 2016 improvement. Are any of you setting a fitness goal for this year? YHC has decided to target ability to do 20 consecutive pull-ups by year end, and strive to do 200 workouts — F3 and otherwise — in 2016. Feel free to post yours below and/or share them with the PAX so we can push each other.

    Announcements:
    (Complete by now) @Offshore’s Lego Land & Marathon in FL

    Bring any proposals for new workouts (existing or new AO). New year, growing RVA PAX, time to continue our expansion!

  • Every Mile Was Magic

    1 PAX posted for a running workout in sunny Orlando, Florida.

    The THANG:

    Drink water, drink powerade, stretch, run 1 mile.  Rinse and repeat 26 times.  Consume a goo every 4 iterations or so.  Dodge 25,000 Minnie Mouse skirts along the way.  Then stumblejog 0.2 miles.

    NMM:

    It was 70 degrees and sunny, so employees of Legoland were wearing standard issue long pants and fleeces AND ski jackets.  Legoland is at the former site of Cypress Gardens.  Despite the frigid weather, the waterski show went on.

    YHC, M, and 2.0 discovered Machine Gun America, but did not have a chance to go fire a few rounds because of the trip to Legoland, so it looks like the pull for a return trip to Orlando is as strong as ever.

    There was some discussion on the day before the race about reasonable goals to set.  A guy working the pace info booth suggested shooting to beat Oprah’s best marathon time.  Mission accomplished!  The highlight of the route for YHC was an unexpected lap around the Braves’ spring training field.

    After the race, YHC went for a massage (Disney hadn’t separated him from enough of his money?).  In a crowded room of tables, he was directed towards a rather attractive young woman, then suddenly awakened from his marathon brain, “Sir, you’re over here,” with big-bearded Bubba.  Bubba proceeded to tenderize YHC like he was that night’s Chicken Marsala.  Tomorrow will tell if Bubba knew what he was doing.

    YHC is glad to be done with solo long runs, and anxious to get back working out with the PAX!

     

     

  • Two, Exactly

    2 faithful posted for a morning trail run. Weather was rainy, dark and wet to begin and clear, sunny and wet to end.

    The Thang:

    Cross bridge to South Side of river. Take trail to service road along the trail. Run to and around Belle Isle. Back to the south side service road and across the river to the Pump house parking lot.

    Moleskin:

    Lab Rat and YHC embraced the wetness this morning. Every puddle and patch of mud that we crossed was attacked with vigor. 5 minutes in, our shoes were soaked and legs were muddy. Lots of thoughts going out towards Offshore as he tackles his marathon today. Cannot wait to hear how it went.

    Unseasonably warm weather this morning. I wore shorts and a tshirt and was plenty comfortable the whole way. Lab Rat had a heavy long sleeve shirt on for the first half of the run. As we were approaching Belle Isle, Lab Rat peeled off his shirt and went bare chested the rest of the run. Thankfully he tied the shirt around his waste covering the worst of his 40+ “six pack”. “Oh, the humanity”.

    Met up with Toga’s brother in law at the end of the run. For some reason, I cannot for the life of me remember his first name. I have called him so many things at this point that I really don’t know.

    Announcements

    BRR just around the corner…maybe not, but people are starting to commit. As I mentioned, I am shooting for two teams this year, a 12 and a 9 person team. Let me know if you are interested and I will pencil you in for a spot.

  • Where is TYA?

    7 strong (no TYA) and 1 FNG posted to Gridiron on a relatively warm 44 degree morning and the rain held off.  Here is how it went:

    Mosey to upper field for COP: 30 SSH, 12 Merkins, 25 Flutterkicks, 25 IPs, 20 Richard Kimballs

    Mosey to bus lane for:  Curb Crawls.  1 up to 8 Merkins

    Mosey to main field to bleachers for:  Chiabattas    Alternating – Muscle Ups & Box Jumps

    Grab a bench for: 10 Decline Merkins , 20 Dips.  Repeato x4

    Mosey to front of School for Triple Check – Run , Plank, Wall Sits

    Mosey to lower field for:  PLTs – 25 each partner, Repeato x4.  Finish with 10 slowcount merkins

    Mosey back to front of school for:  Donkey Kick Burpees – 3 Donkey kicks then do a burpee. x10

    Mosey back to flag for some Mary:  100 LBCs, 30 Alabama Prom Dates, 20 Mountain Climbers

    Earthworm led us out in prayer.  Jville tried to rename all the PAX

    NM:

    Good work today men.  YHC arrived early to check the field conditions, which although soggy were not too bad for some field work.  At 45MoM on Thursday TYA told YHC he would be in attendance for a Honeydo Q but alas he apparently fartsacked.  If this continues YHC may develop a complex.

    Tclaps to Wilson for the double dip, while Chum Bucket tried a new option – the half dip as he arrived 20 min in.  Upon seeing Chum arrive there was some quick calculations by the PAX on how he could DD so quickly, alas he was a LIFO. Better to LIFO than fartsack!

    The derkins/dips after the Chiabattas smoked the PAX, including YHC.  The PAX were challenged with the donkey burpees, those will have to make an appearance at Dogpile soon.

    Good work by White Deer (renamed from Pre per JVille) on his 2nd post and by Exile on his first post.  Jville insisted on the renaming Groh to Atilla the Hun.  YHC will leave it up to the Gridiron regulars to enforce the name change or keep it to Groh.

    Afterwards at Coffee YHC learned that White Deer has some great stories and that Earthworm does not know how to comment on a Backblast, even though he has authored many a BB.  When YHC left Wilson was providing a tutorial to Earthworm.  We’ll see if it worked. Coffee after Gridiron is always a great start to the weekend.

    Go Redskins!

     

  • Find a Tree !

    14 strong showed up in the foggy gloom to take on Dogpile.

    COT :  20 SSH, 20 Imperial Walkers, 20 Windmills, 20 LBC’s, 5 burpee’s

    Shuffle steps – run up steps touching each one – 10 merkins at the top run down steps touching each one 10 WW2 sit ups – repeat 3 times.

    Find a tree : Circle up – sprint to find a tree in the dark – sprint back to the circle and plank. 1st set find 4 trees, 2nd find 6, 3rd find 8, 4th find 10.

    Pull up station : 5 overhand 5 underhand 5 hanging crunches 5 dips – 3 sets

    Amp Theater steps : Incline merkin ladder going up the ladder add 1 merkin  each step finish at the top with 18 and touchdown Al Gore at the top. Decline merkin back down 1 decline merkin on each step going down. Bear crawl back up the steps and plank.

    Triple Check : Partner 1 runs up and back the length of the Carillon  field, partner 2 slow bending squats, partner 3 leg lifts. 3 times…

    Mary : 20 LBC’s 20 cross legged lifts 10 each leg, 10 APD’s

    Ring of Fire : 10 Merkins run around the circle – finish up with superman.

    Great work today fella’s way to bring it I love the effort!

    At first YHC thought there would only be 13 of us today – I just couldn’t believe that BT hadn’t shown up yet but thankfully he slid in just in time to not miss another  Swirly Q – Atta baby BT!

    Thankfully there were no injuries while the pax sprinted to find trees in the dark.. Props to Bleeder for sprinting to those trees on his Bike and not wrecking – there was a bit of a traffic jam out there in the dark…

    Proud of everyone for banging out those pull ups – ( BT and I were talking at the end – that was 3 times this week we had some pull ups in the work outs) Love it!

    I’m not sure what the deal is with Fudd and following freaken directions but at least he did go back and correct his error with more merkins during the merkin ladder.  Pay attention Fudd!!

    The pax pushed hard on the triple check – Aisle 5 mentioned to YHC that he heard YHC Q’s are sure to be mostly upper body – as the pax can see from the last 2 Q’s YHC like to mix in a little running too… Yeah never know with a Swirly Q..

    Solid overall workout guys – great way to start the weekend.

    Announcements : Do you want to challenge yourself, push yourself, take it to the next level physically and mentally, be a part of a great team and compete?  Well then fella’s  –  be thinking about the BRR it’s around the corner… Any questions get  with TYA. You can bet I’ll be there – Hey Christmas van if your out there – I’m coming – we are coming – F3 Corporate baby – Boom Shakalaka!!

  • Mileage May Vary

    15 faithful and one FNG came out for a run in perfect running weather.

    Today’s routes were encoded in clues provided to the groups covering the respective distances.  This kept folks together for the most part to solve various riddles or just pay attention to street signs.  Overall, the route went down Malvern to TJ, then heading east and weaving to Floyd.  Heading west on Floyd, the 4 and 5 mile options separate with the 4s going back to the shovel flag and the 5s taking a detour through Windsor Farms.

    Marv took us out in the COT.

    NMM

    YHC will print in larger font next time for those reading on the fly and maybe throw in additional challenges.  No one took the 6.2 route, so we have that waiting.

    I was also pleased that everyone made it back to the shovel flag.  Welcome FNG Udder!  We hope to see you post again soon.

    Announcements:

    -Good Luck to Offshore in the weekend’s Disney Marathon!

    -HDHH is coming up on the 20th.  DK had mentioned Post Bellum, so perhaps he will Q that event.

    -TYA is looking to form this year’s Blue Ridge Relay team.  See him for information.

    -Lab Rat has an 8 miler trail race in mind next month.  See him for details.

     

  • Intervals with Exhaust Fumes and Methane

    Ten of the faithful and one FNG posted on this frigid, but clear, January morning to improve their bodies and clear their minds. The temperature was somewhere in the 14F-17F range. Johnsonville planted a VSF and took the Q. This is how it went down, more or less:

    Mosey under large oaks in the center of the bus loop for a COP.
    50x ssh
    50x LBCs (Wilson guest Q)
    15x Scapula Merkins
    25x Long Slow Squats

    Mosey to bus loop.
    3x 300m intervals around bus loop

    Chiabatta (Standing Mountain Climbers / Bunny Hops)
    10 Burpees

    3x 300m intervals around bus loop

    25x Mountain Climbers
    25x Freddie Mercuries
    Elbow Planks
    10x Merkins

    4x 300m intervals around bus loop

    Mosey to VSF.
    25x American Hammers

    MOLESKIN:

    The fact that this would be a run-oriented workout was pre-blasted on the Q signup sheet. YHC was confident that information would chase away all but a handful. Such was not the case, however. It appears that men of F3Richmond are not easily intimidated. Strength and good spirits were on display this morning!

    School buses were warming up in our AO and belching out a carbon footprint that would make Al Gore envious (see this Newsweek Article). One unnamed member of the PAX was also exhausting large quantities of foul methane. Those things, along with dense, Arctic air, was a noxious combination that left a burn in YHC’s lungs.

    The 300m distance for repeats is tough because it draws out speed, yet demands a painful push of stamina during the last 100m. Fudd was consistently in the lead, with a few men pushing fairly closely behind him. Several men are not able to run at the moment, and instead did 600m crit intervals on their mountain bikes while the rest of the PAX ran.

    FNG Antivirus probably psyched himself up for a crossfit-type workout morning and instead was dealt mostly run intervals. He dug deep this morning and pushed through. Great job, Antivirus!

    FEBA! Johnsonville

  • Well that was different

    Cold weather changes things, but not all of it is for the worst.  Alright, YHC can’t think of any reason that it helps except that it is good for pushing yourself.  16 (I think?) posted for a glorious 17 degree morning at NoToll, and here’s most of what happened:

    Pile up the iron in the parking lot before COP: SSH, Mtn Climbers, Russian Soldiers, maybe something else.

    Grab your favorite weight and bear crawl with it down the parking lot.  Lunge back while doing through the legs passes of the weight.

    Circle up for:

    • Goblet squats
    • KB Swings
    • Discus, ea. arm
    • Shopping cart/High to low side press ea. arm
    • King Kongs/clean, curl, press
    • Bear crawl with weight up the parking lot then partner up for farmer’s carry (your weight plus partner’s) back to cars while partner does mtn climbers: repeato x4
    • Bear crawl with weights back to circle
    • AMRAP: 10 swings, 10 goblet squats, 10 shoulder press for 5 minutes
    • Plank for 30 sec and goblet squat for 1 min: repeato x4
    • Hold hip thrust for 1 min and deadlift for 1 min
    • Take the weights back

    COT

    NMM:  Where to begin on this one?  First, I think the workout above is a rough estimate of what we did.  It was pretty much a stream of exercises and on the fly changes based on some notes scribbled on a weinke (Yes Wilson, I had a weinke.) and a desire to keep moving.  Great work by the PAX in what was not the usual F3 workout.

    Notes in no particular order:

    • Everyone is a music critic, and Toga’s music selection got as many positives as negatives.  It’s still better than staring at each other.
    • Damn, that was a lot of goblet squats.
    • Welcome back to TYA, and it was good to see he and DK sharing a special love for all things London.
    • YHC lost the roll call because the iphone froze (not kidding).  YHC also almost didn’t get home when the key fob froze and Mr Durango didn’t think it was there.  The fob was warmed to finally get it to start.  Don’t ask how I warmed it.
    • Great to see Monkey Wrench back after his first post just yesterday!
    • See TYA if interested in the Frostbite 15k
    • Tell your friends and other sad clowns about F3.  Let us know if you have ideas for other AOs or workouts.

  • Tractor Tire brings a couple smaller friends to Punisher

    12 Faithful and 2 FNG posted in the gloom for the first 2016 edition of #The Punisher.  The Pax was greeted with more seasonable winter temps in the low 30s.  We went straight to work and here is how it went down:

    Mosey to area beside school building

    COP

    SSH x 25 IC

    Don Quiote x 20 IC

    Mountain Climbers x 20 IC

    LBCs x 25 OYO

    Mosey to BBALL court

    Suicides followed by 25 LBCs -Repeato x 3

    Mosey to Soccer Field and partner for Progressive Stations:

    Station 1 – Carry tractor tire across soccer field and back

    Station 2 – LBCs until time to switch

    Station 3 – Sprint across soccer field dragging car tire rope around waist

    Station 4 – WWII situps until time to switch

    Station 5 – Sideways run across soccer field and backwards run back

    Repeato X 3

    Mosey to Bus Loop for Indian Bear Crawl from one end of the Bus Loop to the other side.  Complete when one of the PAX touches curb.

    Mosey back to soccer field for Partner Double check:

    One partner run diagonal across soccer field and completes Burpees x 5 / while other partner performs Dips and Derkins on Tractor Tire – Repeato X 2

    Mosey to Virtual Shovel Flag

    COT – YHC took us out with prayer as the 11th Day of Christmas began.

    It was great to see the PAX going after it on the first day back in the regular routine after the Holidays for many of us.  YHC wanted to mix in some LBCs into the beatdown for those of us that have accepted the January Challenge of 10000 LBCs.  Mission Accomplished.  YHC also found some car tires in the crawl space (I do not know why they were there), but they seemed to be a good compliment to the Tractor Tire.  YHC will have to look in the crawl space for some more items that may contribute to a good beatdown.  There was some mumblechatter during the Double Check to close the beatdown and YHC was definitely feeling the burn as we concluded.

    YHC called an audible after the beatdown this morning regarding Slow Learner F3 Name.  Audible called to Darth Vader and he posted to his first F3 workout sporting the Darth Vader shirt.  Always go with your gut and Darth Vader it is.  Welcome Darth Vader.  Welcome also to Monkey Wrench.  Hope to see you both in the gloom for a return beatdown in the near future.

    Good work today fellas – Great way to start the week.

    Announcements – Regular workouts this week/ Toga has Kettlebell workout planned for NoToll.  Bring your Kettlebell/Dumbbell if you have one.

    Good luck to Offshore on his upcoming marathon this weekend.

    Circle K