Category: Richmond, VA

  • 7 or 10 miles on the trail

    7 posted on a crisp morning for a trail run

    The thang:

    Northbank trail Belle Isle, take outside track at Belle Isle and cross bridge to Buttermilk. 4 of the 7 went straight on the Buttermilk and back to the parking lot. 3 of the faithful took a single lap around Forest hill park and then back to the Buttermilk and parking lot.

    Naked Moleskin:

    Good to have Toga and Brain Tumor back out on the trail run. Toga brought his brother in law (?) Craig to the run. They had a church commitment so they went straight through to the end with no turnbacks to catch the back of the pack (TYA). Brain Tumor and Lab Rat skipped the Forest Hill loop and headed back to the parking lot. Not sure if there was a naming ceremony for Toga’s FNG? Base route about 7.1 miles.

    Saab, Offshore and TYA took the Forest Hill loop. YHC was the only one that had run the loop in a long time so I was navigating. I admitted early on that I was a little unclear about the route at the end. We made it most of the way around with no issues. Had to ask directions at the end, but we were able to easily find our way back. With Forest Hill loop, the run is a bit over 10 miles.

    Two weeks til the bear creek 10 miler. Come on out next week for a post Thanksgiving day run.

  • Delusions of Safe Spaces

    34 degrees and sunny at the GridIron this morning where 3 of the PAX gathered for an hour to open a week of Thanksgiving.  With the parking lot rapidly filling for Metro Youth Football playoff games, the Pax ran over to the Pillars behind Shot Pump Middle School for our own kickoff.  Here goes:

    COP: X25 SSHs IC, X25 IWs IC, X25 DQs IC, X25 Squats IC, X25 Mountain Climbers IC, X25 APDs IC, Superman holds w arm rotations, and X25 CDDs IC.

    Chop Step Slalom run to end of Pillars

    X25 Heels to Heaven OYO
    People’s Chair

    Mosey to tennis courts:

    12 traverses across 4 court battery as follows:

    Broad jump and X25 Squats OYO
    Forward lunge and X25 Squats OYO
    Backward lunge and X25 Merkins OYO
    Alternating Lateral lunge and X25 Merkins OYO
    Karaoke (r) and X25 Merkins OYO
    Karaoke (l) and X25 Merkins OYO
    Power skip and X25 Merkins OYO
    Power skip and X25 Merkins OYO
    Karaoke (r) and X25 Merkins OYO
    Karaoke (l) and X25 Merkins OYO
    Forward lunge and X25 Squats OYO
    Broad jump w X25 Squats at each sideline OYO

    Mosey back to Pillars for X25 PLTs

    Regular Slalom run to start of Pillars, continue run to GridIron end zone (pause for National Anthem), and sprint back to parking lot.

    COT: Acknowledgment of answered prayers and expression of prayer concerns, including travel safety blessings and US leadership culminating take out prayer by YHC centered on gratitude and thanksgiving.

    Moleskin: Lots of MumbleChatter involving MicroAgressions – Aye, good work.  Missed the DoubleDippers – hopefully the use of the AO hinterlands doesn’t require special recon skills.  Groh demonstrating really fine form; J’ville played MicroAggressor in Chief and taunted from the front most of the morning (though he was crushed on the final sprint by YHC who timed his jump expertly to the conclusion of the National Anthem).

    Coffeeteria at the Daily Grind – excellent fellowship.

    1 Chronicles 16:34 — Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

  • Forwards and Backwards

    Usain Bolt

    12 eager men gathered at Dogpile to start the weekend off with a bang.

    Here’s how it went down:

    COP
    25 – Seal jacks
    20 – Merkins
    20 – Don Quixotes
    20 – Clerkins
    20 – Imperial Walkers
    20 – Werkins
    10 – Good Mornings OYO

    Mosey to field for forward and back. Run forward the length of the field, complete 20 2-count russian twists, run backward the length of the field, complete 20 more russian twists, forward the length of the field and a final 20 russian twists.

    Mosey to VITA loop. Complete 1 lap clockwise, stopping at each station to complete exercise. Alternate between squats and WWII situps.

    Mosey back to field for forward/back/forward. 20 2-count flutter kicks between each sprint.

    Mosey to Carrilon for unnamed exercise. Bunny hop up right stairs, 20 dips at top, run down left stairs, 20 mountain climbers at the bottom. Repeato x2.

    Reverse direction. Run backwards up left stairs, 20 CDD, run down right stairs, 20 lunges. Repeato x2.

    Mosey to bottom of amphitheater for 11s with merkins & LBCs. Run up 11 stairs complete 10/1. Run down 11 stairs 9/2, etc until 1/10.

    Mosey to SF for pickle pounders. As many as it takes.

    Moleskin
    Strong turnout for a cool morning at #dogpile. It was YHCs first Q there and thoroughly enjoyed it. There are many options available to mix in plenty of variety. As DK suggested, YHC had planned for a second lap around VITA backwards; however, the first lap toasted most individuals and consumed enough time to move on. Maybe next time.

    Wilson, aye sensei.

    The forwards and backwards were challenging for the PAX. Bleeder found his inner Usain Bolt and powered through the sprints. Unfortunately no lightning bolt pose. Someone thought there he heard Fudd during the second forward/backward, alas it was just a member of the pax expressing himself.

    Pickle Pounders were a crowd pleaser at the end. Many juvenile comments ensued. Aisle 5 suggested December should be the pickle pounder challenge.

    115 total merkins + any extra from the PAX.

    Announcements
    – 45MOM 7:00 on Thanksgiving
    – Lots of turkey trot options. Check with Fudd for UR, TYA for Salisbury.

    Splinter

  • Porsche or Mr. Woodfin? Gingivitis of the Eye?

    10 strong and fast posted for a morning jog at RAMM. Weather was fantastic, clear, 45 degrees and little wind.

    The Thang:

    Right onto Grove, 4 milers turn at Malvern, 5 milers turn at Roseneath, 6 milers turn at The Boulevard. All the way to Three Chopt then run back to the shovel flag.

    Naked Moleskin:

    We have been parking in the staff parking lot on Thursday and Friday for the past three months. Usually during the morning we are the only ones in the parking lot at 530 and there may be a new car or two that arrives during our workouts. Plenty of room in the parking lot, so no problem at all for anyone….well maybe not.

    This morning a women turns in at 5:28 just before our departure, pulls her car to the side, leaves it running and gets out of the car. Very nice and polite women with a reasonable request. She has been working at the school for 21 + years and parks in the same parking spot everyday. If she does not park in that spot, it throws her whole flow and that of the entire school into chaos. Would it be possible for us to not park in her spot from now on so harmony can return to the school (we of course honored her request and Swirly moved his truck so she could have her rightful spot back). She noticed that the two cars that parked there were “a Porsche and Mr. Woodfin”. This comment led Swirly and Bleeder to spend half of their run trying to figure out how she knew that Mr. Woodfin owned the Porsche. Pax cleared things up for Swirly and Bleeder at the end explaining that the car other than the Porsche was Swirly’s old Woodfin logo wrapped vehicle.

    Pax has been nursing its way through many aches and pains over the past several months. Some big injuries and some minor aches and pains. Swirly, who will work his way through any issue small or large, declared he would never work out if he didn’t work through pain or injury of some kind. He was in fact today dealing with a bad case of “Gingivitis of the Eye”, which did not slow him down one bit.

    Rat pack finally posted on time today. He has tried to post two straight weeks to the Friday morning run. First day he made it to the AO about a minute after the Pax took off for the run and did not know the route so he ran a randomly selected route and then met us back at the shovel flag for the COT. Last week, determined to make it on time, he posted at 5:45, what he thought was 15 minutes early for the 530am run (he usually posts on Saturday so assumed start time was the same as Saturday’s 6am start). Unfortunately he missed us again, so he went home and ran that afternoon. Great to have you out there with us today. Third time is a charm.

    BT recapped Fudds neat “vision quest” outfit from the previous day. TYA announced the 5k Turkey Waddle in Salisbury on Thanksgiving morning, but forgot to mention Fudd’s favorite race that he is thankful for that I think is in Richmond somewhere, maybe on Thanksgiving morning? Fudd?

    Kotters to The Scream, he was back for the run for the first time in a few months. Good to have you out there. BT and he had a nice run and some good fellowship together this morning.

    Sippy is back to his old form. He started a few minutes late, ran six versus YHC’s 5 miler and caught me before I hit three chopt. Great work brother, fantastic to see you almost back to full strength

    Announcements

    Special time for Thanksgiving day workout, 7am.

    Several races after the workout that you can easily make for a great double dip. Waddle 5k in Salisbury at 9, a race in Ashland, and the Turkey Trot 10k at the UofR. See Fudd for details of the UofR run. Plenty of parking at Fudd’s house for those attending that event.

    Safe travels to all and a great Thanksgiving week.

  • 167

    10 Faithful PAX showed up to sharpen each other this morning. 8 were well aware of the rainy conditions they would encounter upon exiting their car, and the remaining two arrived having already acclimated themselves with the soppy conditions. The PAX quickly embraced the wet skies, tennis courts, and fields and set off to a quickly-paced workout.

    THE THANG

    Mosey along Commonwealth to the tennis courts

    COP
    SSH x 20
    Merkins x20
    Monkey Humpers x20
    IW x20
    Lieutenant Dans x10 OYO
    Morning Wood OYO x5 (see F3’s Exercises page for explanation if you think this is something different than an exercise)
    LBFCs x 10
    Rosalita x20

    Mosey to Soccer fields & line up on the baseline along Commonwealth Ave.

    The Beast
    Merkins
    Freddie Mercurys
    Merkins
    Rosalitas
    Squats
    Merkins

    Line up on Commonwealth – facing South! – for Indian Run around the school. End on Commonwealth and head to the school wall next to the roundball courts.

    Triple Check – get in groups of 3 (one group of 4) and do the below 3x
    One PAX run to fence & back
    One PAX do 10 Merkins & Plank until run is done
    One PAX hold up the wall with People’s Chair

    Mosey back to the parking lot

    COP – 6 Minutes of Mary
    LBCs x30
    Superman x2
    Merkins x9 OYO
    Alabama Prom Dates x20
    Hello Dolly x20
    Russian Twists OYO for 30″

    COT

    MOLESKIN

    Thanks to @Brain Tumor for keeping count on the Merkins as we progressed, to help ensure that we got to a full 167

    If you didn’t notice, the largest set of Merkins we did this morning was 20 at the beginning. Pretty amazing how many you can do when you keep small #s in your sets so you don’t get burned out quickly. We’ll all feel this one tomorrow, great job to all for enduring and completing them all. For those of us who are doing the #MerkVember challenge with a goal of 5K for the month, we’re done for the day already. For those who aren’t doing it, thanks for doing them with us!

    Apparently @Bleeder had some warm-up yesterday for leading today’s Superman rendition. YHC thinks perhaps more practice for the PAX on this one is needed – the PAX was WAY off key.

    T-Claps to @Honey Do for being the only one to fully complete the HDHH route (and beverages along the way) yesterday evening while also showing up this morning in the gloom for some pain. YHC had one beer and no running last night, and is quite sure that another beer would have made today’s workout much more difficult.

    T-Claps to @Marv for your effort today as well. Quiet & steady as usual, kicking tail and taking names. Keep up the solid work.

    This morning’s COT closing prayer was a request for help in pushing each other to be better men. YHC is grateful today to have this group to help do that. OYO makes for stagnant, non-growing men. Thanks, men, for your fellowship.

    ANNOUNCEMENTS

    Thanksgiving workout 11/26 is at 7AM, NOT 5:30AM. Same place as usual.

    Various turkey trots discussed, @TYA and @Fudd can insert details in the comments.

  • Hot Potato!

    22 faithful turned out on yet another glorious autumn morning for a potluck beatdown at what has become one of our most popular AOs.  Multiple Q’s took part “Hot Potato-style” which spiced up the party and had everyone on their toes. Here is loosely how it went down:

    THE THANG:

    COP:  Led by Bleeder

    SSH x 25, Don Quixote x 25, 2 count Merkins x 15, LBC x 40, something else maybe?

    Pass Q to Toga:

    Bear Crawl Circus:  line up on endline and do alternating bear crawl exercises out to about the 20yd line.  Crawl for one minute and run back to endline.  Exercises were:  Bear Crawl, straight-legged Bear Crawl (on toes), Side Bear Crawls, Whirlybird Bear Crawls, Mountain Climber Crunch Bear Crawls (?)

    Pass Q to Circle K:

    Ab-o-rama:  WWII situps, Alabama Prom Dates, Freddy Mercury, LBC til Q says stop.

    Pass Q to Loose Goose:

    “Drop and Gimme 20” merkins at edge of soccer field.  Proceed to near soccer field and line up on sideline for sprints the width of the field.  Plank when done and wait for 6.

    75% sprint to other sideline and back

    Karoake facing right and back

    Backwards sprint, forward sprint back

    Maybe another one?

    Pass Q to Rosie, and back to other field for Modified 4 Corners, 1 lap:  10 burpees, 20 merkins, 30 jump squats, 40 2-ct flutter kicks.

    Pass Q to BT for Super 7’s:  stay on same soccer field, line up on sideline.  7 Burpees, sprint to far sideline, 7 merkins/7squats, sprint back.  Repeat 7x

    Pass to DK on way back to Shovel Flag.

    COT:  DK took us out in no-nonsense fashion.

    MOLESKIN (or RuangTong):

    Quite a nice change to have multiple Q’s bringing some variety to the PAX this morning.  YHC is pleased that he came up with the format all by himself, with no help or input from anyone. In truth, YHC has struggled writing this BB because he was so focused the entire workout on what exercise he would lead in the event that his name was called that certain parts remain fuzzy.  Thanks to Bleeder and Toga for their creativity.

    This was a great way to get VQ’s involved in leading.  YHC believes that if you see Rosie’s name on the list in the future, get plenty of rest the night before.  Nice work, men!  Also, it’s great to see some of our relatively new PAX coming back to post.

    The Bear Crawl Circus was literally that.  Fudd, who misread the weather report and showed up in his Vision Quest gear, began to experience dizziness during the Whirlybird Bears and commented that we should never do those again.  I along with many in the PAX agreed.

    YHC has been holding on to the Super 7’s for a few weeks.  Turns out that 12 minutes is not enough time to finish that series.  Duly noted, and will add that to the beginning of a workout soon.  That said, most all of the PAX had many pleasant things to say about it and were energized to start their day.  It should also be noted that YHC passed the Q to DK for COT, knowing that the backblast responsibilities went with it.  Somehow, that didn’t work, and YHC received the name-o-rama back on a RuangTong Thai Cuisine takeout menu with instructions that YHC would need it while writing the BB.  Will need to check the F3 by-laws to confirm procedural accuracy.  That said, DK’s vision combined with poor penmanship and pre-dawn darkness provided for an interesting list of the PAX on the RuoangTong, so YHC decided to give you a brain teaser to take your mind off of work (or in the case that you are a loyal Woodfin employee take your attention away from the latest online edition of Road and Track or Car and Driver).  I’ve taken what was written and challenge you to come up with the actual name of the PAX member.  At the very least, it provided some good names for FNG’s to come.

    Fleshbone, Twirly (a layup, but it has a nice ring), Cheesy, Crocker (or Cracker or Crockett), Zicam, Spiffy, Heavy D, Scooter

    Announcements (copy and pasted from J’ville’s BB written for this morning’s workout.  WTH?!?!)
    – 2nd F Hump Day Happy Hour TODAY
    Meet at Ardent Brewery @ 6pm for a 3.75-4.5 mile run. Ardent is located at 3200 W. Leigh St.
    We will start and finish at Ardent so no need to set shuttle. It is recommended to bring a light to help navigate the back streets.
    – Normal workouts this week (NO Q SCHOOL THIS WEEKEND)
    – Possible change in time/duration of Thursday workout on Thanksgiving. Stay posted …

    See you in the Gloom…

    -BT

     

     

     

     

  • #SOT and The Beast in Near-Total Darkness

    Seven of the faithful posted on a dry and comfortable mid-autumn morning to work their bodies and quiet their minds. Johnsonville planted a shovel flag and took the Q. This is what went down, more or less:

    Mosey to greenspace under large white oaks for COP:
    25x SSHs
    25x Don Quiotes
    10x Carolina Drydocks
    25c LBCs

    Mosey to side entrance of school:
    triple play with wall sits, planks (or merkins for those enjoying the #merkinchallenge, including YHC), and run to end of bus loop and back

    Mosey to top of bus loop:
    20x burpees OYO
    100x LBCs OYO
    plank sequence
    2x superman

    Mosey back to football field for a Beast, including:
    Round 1: merkins
    Round 2: Freddie Mercury
    Round 3: mountain climbers
    Round 4: Alabama prom dates
    Interlude: 1 min elbow plank
    Round 5: penmanship
    Interlude: 1 min elbow plank
    Round 6: merkins
    Interlude: 1 min elbow plank

    COT

    Moleskin:

    Although it was nearly completely dark, it looked like Swirley led most or all of the Beast legs, putting in a strong #redpill performance. The rest of the PAX seemed to drag a bit more than usual for some reason, and several even suggested that I cut the Beast short under several questionable pretexts (e.g., the field was “muddy”; and 20 minutes is not long enough to complete a beast). In the end, the PAX embraced the #gloom and pushed through.

    Pele (a HATEx3) teamed up with Swirley on the triple play and appeared to push Swirley’s run pace significantly.

    Wilson has been unable to post for some time due to his work schedule. It was good to see him out and to catch up with him this morning. Wilson suggested that his wife is pressing him to post, and we are grateful for that.

    Keep up the hard work! Johnsonville

    Announcements:
    – 2nd F Hump Day Happy Hour TODAY
    Meet at Ardent Brewery @ 6pm for a 3.75-4.5 mile run. Ardent is located at 3200 W. Leigh St.
    We will start and finish at Ardent so no need to set shuttle. It is recommended to bring a light to help navigate the back streets.
    – Normal workouts this week (NO Q SCHOOL THIS WEEKEND)
    – Possible change in time/duration of Thursday workout on Thanksgiving. Stay posted …

  • Slippery when frozen

    3 Veterans and two trail run FNG’s posted on a crisp fall morning.

    The Thang: Cross over Nickel Bridge, Buttermilk trail to Belle Isle. Take outside loop around Belle Isle and back over to the Northbank trail. Northbank trail back to parking lot. 7.1 miles done by 8:20 am, COT and out into the day.

    Naked Moleskin:

    Splinter and Lab Rat posted for their first trail runs with F3. Both had great runs and enjoyed the trail experience. Splinter hung around at the front of the pack with Saab, and Lab Rat spent a good majority of the day with or in front of TYA. No rain on Saturday so the leaves were a little more forgiving. When we hit the Belle Isle bridge from the south side we found the ice/frost. As we took our first several strides on the bridge I look over and Saab was sliding down the new wood. We all quickly moved onto the middle/older section which had a lot more grip. The quick change allowed us to avoid any issues. We met oyster at the start of the buttermilk. He turned around and joined us for the run back along the northbank. Oyster got his usual 20 minute headstart on the run.

    Lab Rat and YHC had quite a bit of time to converse on the buttermilk side. Lab Rat is very knowledgeable on the trails and had many great suggestions for add ons and options. He has spent a good amount of time on the trails in the past. We also caught up with each other and realized that we had a bit in common. Both of us have adopted girls from China, and they both compete at the same gym. It was easy for us to figure out who the others daughter was as they are the only two Chinese girls at the gym. Small world.

    Long discussion after the run about a few subjects. First was Saab’s daily trip to Martin’s to pick up “lunch meat”. Only the northerners used the alternate “cold cuts” designation for deli meat. The other discussion was about preparing live seafood for eating. TYA admitted that he was uncomfortable killing fish/shellfish and is extremely happy not having to hunt and prepare other types of food. Both TYA and Saab admitted that they would probably starve if they had lived in a time that required the hunting and preparing your own food. Saab relayed a story about a friend of his that put live crabs in the oven for cooking. Wow…

    Weather is perfect for trail running. Join us if you can.

  • #GridIron enjoys Slaughter Starter, Ciabatts and Merkin Ladder

    Four of the faithful posted to #GridIron on a cool Saturday morning to take that #RedPill. Johnsonville took the Q, and this is how it went down:

    Mosey to grassy knoll
    Slaughter Starter (10 minutes of burpees)

    Mosey to shelter near grassy knoll
    25x partner leg tosses
    repeat
    ciabatta (alternate between gorilla squats and jump squats

    Mosey to playground
    ciabatta (alternate between Russian twist and ab wheels

    Mosey to lower football field
    Line up on sideline and do merkin ladder from 20 to 1 sprinting from sideline to sideline. 220 merkins in all

    Climb hill between fields
    chibatta (single leg Alabama prom dates, alternating between legs)

    COT

    Moleskin: Great job with a difficult workout. T-Claps to Honey Do, who double-dipped having completed many merkins at #Dogpile. I believe he logged 500 in all.

  • Dora comes to Dogpile

    10 regulars gathered around the shovelflag on a brisk morning at Dogpile.  The PAX was not cold for long as we got right to it:

    THE THANG

    COP:  SSH x25, 10(20) Merkins, 25 Lbc’s, Imperial Walkers x25

    Mosey to the other Roundabout circle and down Rugby hill, pair up for:

    Dora 1,2,3:  100 Burpees ,  200 Merkins , 300 Boxcutters

    1 partner runs up hill to circle and back while other performs exercise.

    Mosey to Amphitheater for:  Escalator (Mary Version) with 20 Merkins thrown in before the start

    Increasing set of Ab exercises going up series of step with 15 reps of exercise for each step:

    Step 1 – Boxjumps x5 , Step 2 – Flutterkicks, #3 Alabama Prom Dates (aka UofL recruting trips) , #4 Freddy Mercurys, #6 Box Cutter, 7 & 8 Cross Leg Lifts -alternating R&L on each step, 9 Russian Twists (4 count)

    Finish with Stairway to Burpen – Start at bottom of Amphitheater and do Burpee for each Stair all the way up (13)

    Mosey back to the Flag for COT and BOM Prayer

    MOLESKIN:

    Glad that we had an even amount of PAX for the Dora 123, credit to DK for giving me this idea at NoToll.  Running up and down the hill and the difficultly of the 3 exercises kept mumblechatter to a minimum besides some occassional “i hate you honeydo” comments along the way, which YHC takes as a sign of pride.  This one was tough for all and YHC was concerned when the truck came up the road that some PAX would not be able to move out of the way, or specifically for Swirly that he’d just keep going until his Boxcutters were done.  YHC was impressed to see Winston put in a strong effort in his 2nd dopgile, this was no easy Dora.  It is somewhat confusing to have Winston & Wilson together during the beatdown with such similar names.  Lab Rat continues to post and YHC is glad to consider him a regular now at Dogpile.

    YHC had intended to alternate arm and abs for the escalator but for time (and YHCs burning shoulders) sake went with all Abs.  This turned out to be a people’s choice with the PAX making suggestions for each step up the way.  Nice job to Swirly to finish to with Russian Twists at the top, somewhere to the west TYA was smiling.

    Glad to see the PAX enthusiastically agree to finish with Stairway to Burpen at the end.  And lastly although it was in the 30s Swirly did not bring out the infamous Yellow hat.  Will we see it in November or wait until December?

    ANNOUNCEMENTS:

    HHH brewery run Wednesday 11/18 starting at 6:00 at Ardent.  Bear Creek 10 miler spots are filing up, sign up now!  Also YHC is doing the TurkeyTrot 10k at UofR on Thanksgiving if anyone else is interested.  LabRat mentioned Ashland has a 5k as well.