Two intrepid warriors of the gloom went to set a baseline on the 5k today. At different points in our training journey , both choosing to try and get a little better each day, we hit the Swift Creek Elementary track. Goal was to see where we are at with the running specific training we’ve been doing. One mile warm up, 5k all out, one mile cool down. We were both pleased with our times, hitting PRs with Big Rig just coming off of running the Roanoke Marathon, and YHC running the Century in a week, and then the RiverRock trail half a few weeks after. Great conversation during warm up and cool down. We went beyond conversational pace for the 5k. Shout out to Big Rig for pushing YHC to be better.
Category: Richmond, VA
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You’re Still Here.
Dreams of a Birdman VQ were squashed by flu like symptoms……..But your boy Chaplain was here to pick up the slack. Here is a brief summary for your viewing pleasure.
One Mile Run
10 burpees
100 LBC’s w/medicine ball
50 Hand release merkins
50 Grow Ruck Sit-ups
1/2 Mile Run
10 burpees
50 Heels to Heaven
75 Carolina Dry Docks
50 American Hammers w/medicine ball
1/2 Mile Run
10 burpees
50 leg lifts
50 Merkins
50 WWII’s w/Medicine Ball
One man COT and that is a wrap
Final Thoughts: The asphalt at the Crossing is starting to heat up – looking forward to some more brutal workouts this summer. Meatball stopped by and offered some encouraging words during one of the sets…….including the backblast title. Praying for a speedy recovery for Birdman and everyone else struggling with illness and/or injuries.
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Screws, nuts and bolts; it’s what’s for breakfast
Blank Q sheet this morning, yet six adventure-seeking studs answered the call of the wild. Because I had personal guilt for avoiding the Q at Ruckhenge many times, despite it being a regular weekly post of mine, I was the first to cave at 5:30 and led the group on a hot potato to the trailhead by Trader Joe’s. I hiked us halfway in and NTB got us back out (shared Q, thank you NTB!). Great conversation abounded as it always does.
We covered just over 3 miles. Lots of altitude variance. A great discussion afterward on raising children, an ancient and confounding balancing act.
Thanks everyone, and until next time!
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Widowmaker be gone
Eleven men emerged from the gloom at the Carillon in search of truth and some pointy boots, and maybe a few snack crackers. According to the camels walking around the grounds of Maymont, this is what they found.
COP: SSH, Helicopters, DQ’s, DMH, IW, CHS, Merkin, LBC, APD, stretching, all IC
Mosey to the end of the field – 3 merkins at each light post from Garrett down to Condie, 2 burpees at each lightpost returning to the Garret at the end of the field.
Slide down to the middle of the field for 11’s across the field – American Hammers and LBC’s
Take the show to the amphitheater – do 5 dips on each step to the bottom
Meander to the Ha’ Penny stage for Touch a Tree – Pair up – Exercises hand release merkins, monkey humpers, wwII’s
Wander over to the rusty cage, stopping on the way to relocate the widowmaker out of the fairway – OYO – do 3 (or more) pull-ups then run to a nearby tree and back, repeat 5 times
Traverse the fairway back to the amphitheater – do 5 incline merkins on each step to the top
Back to the flag for Mary – Freddie Mercury, APD in cadence, short savasana
Numbers and names. Announcements – CSAUP Century Classic Revisitied 5/2 – 5/3 – join a team to run or support; F3RVA contingents are going to the Bridge in Charlottesville 4/26 (Corned Beef) and 5/10 (Hermes).
Congratulations to Pigskin on the arrival of another grand baby!
It was fantastic to be joined by some irregulars to shake up the mumble chatter. Glad to see everybody. Thank you for the opportunity to lead.
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Pain Tolerance Disguised As Genius
Most people mistake discomfort as a signal to stop; the great ones see it as evidence they’re on the right track. Excellence is just pain tolerance disguised as genius, the real advantage isn’t talent, but cultivating a perverse appreciation for the discomfort others distinctly avoid. – Shane Parrish
7 warriors stepped up to the challenge to greet the dawn of a new day. According to ancient scribes it went a little something like this.
Wamerama: SSH, Kalahari SSH, Arm Circles, LBC, WWII, Flutter, IW
The Thang: 5 Round Fiasco
5 rounds of the following 5 exercises for one minute all out efforts. Each round concludes with a one minute active recovery / mosey. Exercises:
-Strict merkins, Bonnie Blair, Donkey Kick, Squat, Plank
With the 5th round complete we made our way back to the flag. Numberama, namerama, news, prayer requests. Our brother Dr. Scholl’s led us out.
Moleskin: A light night opening for the Green Mile Q came up and YHC grabbed it. The above quote was the overriding theme for today. How often have we felt the tinges of discomfort and backed away? How many opportunities did we miss because we believed our own pain tolerance wasn’t enough to get from comfortable and unfulfilling place we were, through the valley of temporary darkness to the more desirable light? As I’ve reflected over the past few months it’s become clear there are two routinely avoided ingredients for transformation: A) Dicomfort B) Time. Leaving your comfortable fart sack well before the sun comes up is uncomfortable. Seeing some real physical change after working out takes time. The shortcut is that there are no shortcuts.
It was an honor to have the privilege to lead today and our boy Dr. Scholl’s had some powerful insights he gained in this recent season of challenge. This will be a workout or words YHC won’t soon forget.
-Hardywood
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That’s a lot of snot dude!
Knocked out a lot of stretching this morning and taking it a little easier than normal. Beaver is feeling a little under the weather and I was feeling beat down all over. But we had to carry on!
Warmarama
- A lot of OYO stretching for 10 minutes
The Thang
- Mosey to the football field
- 100 yard Bernie
- 100 yard Karaoke
- 100 yard Lieutenant Dan
- 5 Lunges then 5 Merkins for 100 yards.
Field Goal Sits
- 1 minute goal post sit
- 10 SSH
- 10 Merkins
- 5 Rounds
Ended with some more stretching. A lot of chatter this morning about our sons and life. Pretty sure we spotted a UFO at one point. I kept getting dizzy from the sheer volume of snot Beaver was cranking out.
OUT!
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NCOs Rock!
Three amigos were unafraid to see if today was the day…
for a 45 min CoP. According to the cyclist that passed by us as we were wrapping up here is how it went down, more or less.Welcome, Mission, disclaimer. 5 burpee start. Mosey to the patio, All in cadence.
- 54 squats: 30x squats, 24x sumo squats
- 10 Helicopter, 10 Turn & Bounce; neck rotations; pec stretch.
- 54 mer’cans: 20x 4 count regular, 10x HRM, 4 Shazam!.
- 54 WW2s;
- 54 Little Baby Crunches: 10x regular, 10x Left Leg straight, 10x Right leg straight, 10x legs to the sky, 14x both legs straight (actually 108).
- 10x brick angels, 10x aussie brick angels, Superman.
- 54 leg lifts: 10x flutter, 10x dollys, 10x rosalita, 20x box cutters, 4x flutters.
- 10x APD, 10x Tuscaloosa Trailer park twisters
- 30x monkey humpers, 24x gorilla humpers
- Arm and shoulder blaster: Arm circles: 20x forward, 20x backward, overhead clap seal clap 10x 4 count mer’cans, 54x mountain climbers (that 108) , 5x on my command mer’cans. 5x more, 5x 4 count mer’cans, 5x more, one more mer’cans for the Ranger in the sky.
- Balance exercises: touch the clock on the ground 11, 12, 1 with one leg in the air. Deep hamstring stretch. Deadman hang.
Mosey to the flag. 0.19 miles 45 min
Atilla took us out. Prayers for Kubota, Roger Roger, Fireman Ed, healing for PAX
NMS – The threat of a 45 min COP likely kept some away, but this was challenging and glad that the PAX were game. YHC was talking to an Army buddy yesterday and that conjured up thoughts of all the NCOs that helped me become an officer and leader, from Basic training Drill Sergeants SSG Henderson and SFC Eggleston to my last Sergeant Major SGM Jeff Price. These NCO studs could crush you with PT all in the same spot. Here’s to you brothers! Major Gomer Pyle.
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Spring Loops at Goose Lake
Seven showed up on a beautiful spring morning, ready to put in some work. After a quick warm-up, we ran to Goose Lake and did loops around the water. At the end of each loop, we did 20 Dips, 20 Heels to Heaven, and 20 Jump Squats. Rinse and repeat. By the end, we covered about 3.5 miles. Strong effort all around—great job, fellas!
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Thrift Store Underwear
4 men posted on a nice spring day to throw some iron around.
Mosey around parking lot then COP.
Since we had a mix of kb’s, sand bags and clubs the PAX decided to do rotating workout stations with a timer running around parking lot.
Exercises were:
Deadlifts, club swings, goblet squats, flutter kicks w/ pump, club lateral swings, calf raises.
A few sets of curls, boat canoes and stretching to close it out.
Numbers, names, Boo Boo took us out.
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Go Solo, Go Slow…No Rollers
After some ample time on the IR and on travel the past two weeks, YHC is trying to ramp back up. Walking then running and now Boot Camp! A beautiful morning but at 5:30 it appeared I’d be solo. Which was fine as I knew I’d be slow.
Warmup by the Carillon – dead man’s hang, Don Quixote’s, arm circles, IWs
Mosey to the field in front of the Carillon for some 11s – copperhead squats and merkins.
Mosey to Carillon – 20 LBCs, then a lap up the steps and around the Carillon. Repeat 5 times.
At this point, a Richmond City Police car rolled up slowly with the blue lights on in the circle. Not sure if they were there to check out the Carillon and the report of some crazed individual running around it. In any case I gave them a wave and carried on.
Mosey to Pavillion – starting at the bottom and alternating at each step doing 5 incline Merkins then 10 Step Ups all the way to the top. Rollers were still in their car in the circle so I moved on.
Mosey’d to the shelter to do some lunges, karoake and then some ab work (flutters and APDs) before finishing up
Looking forward to getting back out to boot camps and runs – see you in the gloom!