Category: Richmond, VA

  • It’s This, or MABA

    Nine rational, analytical, thinking men challenged themselves to improve in a non-compulsory, burpee-free fashion. Temperatures hovered at 70 and sunny. According to the lone computer worker taking a ten person table at Starbucks’s, the following might have happened.

    Mosey to the basketball courts for the COP.

    SSHs – 4 count x50
    Dead Man Hang
    Fudd’s Wife
    Left leg high, right leg high, right leg + left hand, left leg + right hand, Wilson’s wife, pigeon right, pigeon left
    Roll over for Freddie Mercury
    Flutter kicks
    Inverted Scorpion kicks

    Mosey to the school wall for a triple check.
    Partner 1: run to the fence, Bernie Sanders back x2
    Partner 2: fire hydrants
    Partner 3: V-ups

    Kudos to Circle K (not present) for the exercises.

    Mosey to the picnic tables for Elevens. YHC likes to provide options, so here goes. PAX choice – elevens of pick-your-choice merkins and WWIIs, or 100 burpees, for those who want to Make America Burpee Again (advice to Qs – if there is a monthly challenge that you want to do, then do that challenge, but little sense in making someone else do your challenge). FWIW, 3 men, one injured, chose the challenge…and did 50 burpees. 6 did Elevens.

    Mosey to the parking lot. Line up along the first parking space for 1-2-3’s. Gracias to Senor Frog (not pictured). Pick 3 exercises for the first parking space. Do 1 rep of 1, 2 reps of the second, and 3 reps of the third. Move to the second parking space by a method of your choice. Pick 3 DIFFERENT exercises (no repeats). Continue to the third, fourth, fifth parking spaces, and so forth. The PAX covered about 10 parking spaces.

    Numbers, names, and Lockjaw took the cold call to take us out.

    NMS: Nice to have Pull Out at Mary today. Great to see an old face again. In other news, 52 was enough to take the War Daddy title at Mary today. Has to be the youngest War Daddy at Mary for a while…YHC guesses maybe the youngest WD title for the year. Only 51 Mary’s to go…

    Announcements: VMI grad and solid, long-term PAX member Fudd has the Q at The Bridge on January 25. Jump in the Clown Car with him and head out to help some men grow and get their lives on track.

    Also, not mentioned, but at least one of the guys who graduated last month has a job maintaining equipment at a golf course. Let’s support these guys on their journey.

    Breaking Bread is the last weekend of each month. For those guys who are new-ish, Breaking Bread has been F3RVA’s unofficial, but somewhat official, volunteer activity for roughly 9 years. This is part of our DNA in the community. Over the years, a different PAX member has taken the lead recruiting PAX members to attend (Hardywood, Lab Rat, YHC, and now Oyster have all taken turn owning this over the years). Simple process: PAX member signs up on the Q sheet, then the PAX member(s) make dinner for the guests, usually 8-12 people, at the Southside Medical Respite Clinic. It’s great to stick around, meet a few people, maybe play a board game, watch some TV, or just chat with the guests. This is a super way to have your family help out in the community. Oyster leads our efforts these days. We do this 2x per month, always the fourth weekend, and, if everyone takes a turn, we have a few years of Qs ready to go! Sign up on the Q sheet!

  • Welcome to 20-25

    A strong turnout for the 1st KB workout of the 2025 calendar year.  11 men of iron assembled in the gloom to greet 2025.  Here is how it went down:

    • COP
      • SSH
      • IW
      • DQ
      • Helicopters
      • Arm circles
      • DMH
      • Jazzercise
      • Merkins
      • LBC
      • APD
    • Mosey to the picnic tables
      • 10 step-ups each leg; 20 sit ‘n presses; 10 step-ups each leg
      • 10 step-ups each leg; 25 sit ‘n presses; 15 step-ups each leg
    • Mosey to the bus loop
      • 20 overhead pulls
      • 20 presses
      • 20 lawnmower pulls, each arm
      • Run the bus loop
      • 25 overhead pulls
      • 25 presses
      • 25 lawnmower pulls, each arm
      • Run the bus loop
    • Mosey back to the grass
      • 20 high pulls
      • 20 PLT
      • 20 curls
      • 20 2x FK
      • 20 tricep press
      • 20 2x LBC
      • 25 high pulls
      • 25 PLT
      • 25 curls
      • 25 2x FK
      • 25 tricep press
      • 25 2x LBC
    • COT with YHC taking us out

    Great work from the PAX today.  Happy 20-25, it only took 45 minutes for Byproduct to see the pattern.  Welcome back Gaudi after his M had boy #2!  Great time being with the PAX, which started with a lot of mumble-chatter, and eventually died down as the reps picked up.  2025 is off to a great start!

    Fudd has the Q on the bridge this month.  Reach out if you want to join him.

    God is good all of the time!

    Attila

  • Rockin out MABA Tabata

    A 12-pack of Bud on ice? No. A perfect bakers dozen of jelly-filled donuts? No. This morning the Forge locked and loaded a magazine of 12 full metal jacket heroes and Rambo blazed the start of MABA Day 2 with the following badassery:

    The THANG: 

    ***1 minute prior to start, PAX given the game plan for 100 BURPEE TABATA = 1 minute to complete x10 Burpees, timer going off every 5min during the 45min beatdown for a total of 100 burpees. Classic Rock ON, Let’s GO!!!

    0530 Strikes —> 1st set of 10 Burpees

    WARMERAMA: 

    • Mosey loop and circle up
    • Welcome & Disclaimer
    • Some usual IC Reps

    COP #1: 

    • LIGHT POLE ALLEY
    • Partner up, with buddy reps at each light pole to the cul de sac (x14 poles)
    • Rotate between x5 Booyah Merkins, x5 Buddy WWII’s, and x10 PLT’s (each)

    COP #2:

    • PLANKORAMA REVIEW
    • F3 Mission, Credo, 5CP’s
    • CIRCLE OF FIRE – Merkin Variety led by individual PAX all around the circle

    COP #3:

    • CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
    • Partner 1 Bernie’s while P2 completes x10 Monkey Humpers then sprints to switch, end at the handicap ramp

    COP #4:

    • THE HANDICAPPING RAMP 
    • Bear Crawl half way
    • Lunge walk the other half to the gate

    Mosey BTTF via Bernie Love Hill

    COT:

    • Counterama # 12
    • Namerama
    • Announcerama (see Below)
    • BOM Prayer

    Prayer Requests:

    • DTH requested prayer for some folks in his Church small group taking a stand this month against the darkness – addiction, suicide, homelessness, anger, etc.
    • Also requested prayer for upcoming missions trip to PNG

    NMS:  After the Convergence MABA Day 1, YHC felt completely wiped out, and was a little surprised yesterday to see “DTH” signed up for the Forge. This, my brothers, is the power of accountability at work. Sign up ahead of time, and no matter how much you’re temped to fartsack, guys are depending on you to lead. All the PAX were encouraged this morning to sign up on the Q sheet. AWESOME work put in by the PAX to conquer Day 2 of “Make America Burpee Again.” It is truly SO much easier to get back up when you have awesome brothers on either side of you. Speaking of awesome brothers, WELCOME BACK to Fresh Prince!!! New year, new you! Excited to see what 2025 brings to this awesome group of men. Yours AYE! ~DTH

    Announcements (SEE SLACK!)

    • MABA JANUARY CHALLENGE = 100 Burpees per Day x31 days! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q8mbKXzRZw
    • DRY JANUARY – abstain from your usual indulgences this month! 
    • 1/7 – SOJ SLT 7pm, followed by 2nd F
    • 1/11 at Dogpile – SPIT 40th Bday + 500th Q
    • Ongoing opportunities (details on Slack): Breaking Bread, The Bridge, SOJ OTB monthly Ruck
    • FEB CSAUP – Frozen Triangle

  • HAPPY NEW YEAR!

    34 F3RVA gloom warriors shook off the midnight revelries and launched into 2025 with a beatdown for the ages. Here’s how these HIM’s conquered the DRP:

    The THANG: 

    WARMERAMA: 

    • Mosey to the amphitheater and spread out on the steps
    • YHC provides a brief Welcome & Disclaimer
    • A smattering of usual DTH reps IC, and of course 25 was a theme for this morning given our new year of 2025
    • Count off into groups of 3 – Gomer taking the 1’s, Gypsy the 2’s, and DTH the 3’s

    GOMER PYLE ON Q FOR GROUP #1

    COP #1:

    • Mosey to Rusty cage
    • 11s: Pull-ups & squats at the fire hydrant

    COP #2:

    • Jerkins – 3 sets of 8

    COP #3: 

    • Mosey to Carillon steps
    • Triple check – merkins and WW2’s

    COP #4:

    • Mosey to the Dell
    • Descending dips, Ascending incline merkins, Flutter kicks for the six. 

    COP #5:

    • Mosey back near the flag for Mary in cadence – 15x Dollys, Rosalita, Box cutters

    GYPSY ON Q FOR GROUP #2

    COP #1:

    • Mosey to Pump House, stopping at each light post along the way for 10 Merkins

    COP #2:

    • Triple check at Pump House bike path. Pax ran loop, and the other two did LBCs and Squats. Run to Rugby and Pump House road stopping at each light post for 10 Merkins. 

    COP #3:

    • SEVENS up Pump House road with Squats and WW2

    COP #4:

    • Mosey to Carillon lawn
    • Run out 25% of lawn do 25 Merkins back to start. Out 50% do 25 Merkins. Out 75% do 25 Merkins. Out 100% do 25 Merkins. 

    BTTF:

    • Mary for a few minutes
    • Total of 3 miles distance covered!

    DTH ON Q FOR GROUP #3

    COP #1: 

    • TRIPLE NICKLE in the Amphitheater 
    • x5 Burpees at the bottom
    • Box Jump to the top
    • x5 V-ups at the top
    • Box jump back down
    • x5 Rounds (=25 burpees!)

    COP #2:

    • Mosey to Carillon Field
    • Toss the Q to BEAVER
    • TRIPLE CHECK
    • P1 – runs length of field and back
    • P2 – perfect merkins (no cheat merkins)
    • P3 – American Hammers

    COP #3:

    • DTH back on Q
    • Stay on the C-field for a DIRTY MCDEUCE
    • Run the length of the field, stopping at each quarter to complete x12 reps of the following: Carolina Dry Docks, Lt Dan’s, & WWII’s
    • BONUS – also complete x5 Burpees at the start and at each quarter to the end (=25 burpees!)
    • ABC’s for the SIX

    COP #4:

    • Bernie Sanders to the Carillon Steps
    • TRIPLE NICKLE #2
    • x5 Burpees at the Bottom
    • Bear Crawl to the top of the steps
    • x5 Donkey Kicks at the Top
    • Total of another 25 burpees!
    • Those awaiting the SIX invited to start their last set of 25 burpees

    Mosey BTTF:

    • En Route stop and do a few more reps IC while the last few PAX complete their remaining burpees = TOTAL OF 100 BURPEES FOR THE MORNING! 
    • Rendezvous with the other two groups at the flag, joining some Heels to Heaven led by Gypsy

    COT:

    • Counterama # 34
    • Namerama
    • Announcerama (see Below)
    • BOM Prayer

    Prayer Requests:

    • Please lift up GYPSY today as he was experiencing some heart issues this morning during the workout
    • Keep Gomer, Pigskin, and DTH in prayer as they’re gearing up for international missions work.
    • GP and Pigskin to Honduras – https://secure.qgiv.com/event/2025mmtsupport/team/975676/
    • DTH and his family to Papua New Guinea – www.hendersonsinmissions.blogspot.com 

    NMS:  Fantastic group of brothers to celebrate the new year with this morning. Missed a lot of the regulars out of town for the holiday but we know you were there with us in spirit! Grateful to Gomer and Gypsy each taking a third so we could provide the PAX with more intimate groups (no DRTF here!), and YHC appreciated Beaver taking a lead in Group 3 for one of our COP’s. TClaps to Group 3 crushing 100 burpees as part of their ground and pound sweatfest. Anytime Sippy Cup compliments a workout you can feel good it was truly brutal. Thx for leading from the front with awesome form Sip! Also shout out to the guys who cane out for Coffeerama at Libby Market. Always good catching up. Yours AYE! ~DTH

    Announcements (SEE SLACK!)

    • MABA JANUARY CHALLENGE = 100 Burpees per Day! (Group #3 today already on track!) Feel free to MODIFY to do this with other kinds of reps, but let’s get after it!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q8mbKXzRZw
    • DRY JANUARY – doesn’t have to be alcohol but take the challenge to abstain from a usual indulgence for the month of exercising self-denial and seeking direction for the new year. 
    • 1/4 at Dogpile – SWIRLY 10-Year?!? (Mentioned in COT but not yet on Q sheet?)
    • 1/11 at Dogpile – SPIT 40th Bday + 500th Q
    • BREAKING BREAD – signup with a brother PAX 
    • CSAUP – Frozen Triangle – ?Feb – TBD
    • Oyster wants you to start training now for the Pickleball Tournament somewhere in the distant future

  • Happy New Year Downrange

    F3 Grandstrand doesn’t hold a New Year’s Convergence and now I see why. These boys must have stayed up all night to party as only 3 HIMs showed up this AM at The Oyster. Started the new year off with a hot potato. According to the female hollering “I hate you. DO NOT FOLLOW ME!” to the apparent ex boyfriend following said female at 5:38 AM this is how it went down:

    Karma started us of with: Warmup with various IC exercises ending in 10 burpees

    Moseyed over to the bridge to cross over the water via bear crawl. 9 burpees. Continue mosey down 6 blocks to the tennis courts. 8 burpees. Karoaked across 2 tennis courts for 10 HRMs and back to the start for 7 burpees. Continued with exercise down until 1 burpee.

    Q tossed to Sarge: Moseyed way back in the direction of the flag and stopped at intersections for various exercises – Squats x 25, Lunges x 20, WWIIs x 25, Flutter Kicks x 20

    Q tossed to YHC with 5 mins left: Mailbox exercises starting with 1 Merkin, run to next mailbox for 1 Merkin + 2 Carolina Dry docks, run to next and add 3 Squats, continue on, add 4 Lieutenant dans and finally 5 LBCs. Running short on time with 1/2 mile back to the flag so picked up the pace and returned to the flag at 6:15 on the dot for a total of 2.4 miles.

    Numbers, Names, Karma took us out in prayer

    Likely heading back to VA later today and I appreciate all of the hospitality from the F3 Grandstrand crew. If you ever travel down this way, definitely check out The Oyster and Blackbeard’s Revenge as well as other AOs they may have in the area. Happy New Year to all and looking forward to continuing to better ourselves in 2025!

  • Last Tomato RunRuck in 2024

    YHC was pumped to see everyone post this morning for Ruckers, Spit was the lone wolf for the runners this morning.

    THANG

    Spit ran around the 3 schools and back down to the bottom of the Trail in Giles where the ruckers met him from the road to up the hill. 2.5 miles for the runners and 2.2 miles for the ruckers.

    COT

    We circled up, namerama, numberama and YardSale took us out in prayer.

    Moleskin

    Spit has his anniversary workout at Dogpile this month, Swirly has his 10-year anniversary workout this Saturday at Dogpile January 4, 2024.

    Always a pleasure to catch up with these men during a ruck and look to see you all in the gloom soon!

    Cheers….CB!

  • The Pre-Run Part Deaux: The Trail

    Having wrapped up 6ish miles, YHC and Big Rig ventured out to tour the trails of Rockwood Park. Route was to stay to the right and run along the water, following the trail. Unfortunately this proved to be difficult while it was still pitch black outside. We did well, making good time until YHC ran out of gas. YHC needs to a better job listening to the body, pushed a little too hard, getting after it three days in a row.

  • Better Wear a Cup For That

    2 Bermuda Boys hit the jungle gym at Ecoff Elementary for Pull Up, Dip, and Slam Ball?? Session. New to the already unique Off The Books workout, Pool Boy wanted to play with one of his new toys, the 20 lb slam ball. Here’s what went down.

    Start with the normal arm circles, and neck, chest, and shoulder stretches.

    Hollow Rocks and leg raises with Slam Ball

    Banded Pull Up pyramid

    Several Sets of Dips

    Squat and Toss the Slam Ball to each other over the ladder (this was difficult with only YHC’s headlamp on the edge of the ply area for light)
    Kipping Pull-ups

    Sit ups and American Hammers and toss the Slam Ball. Definitely almost had a nut shot attempting these.

    Max reps Banded Pull-ups

    This was officially Pool Boy’s 100th post. It’s really inspiring to see how far he’s come in 7 months. I’m proud to say that I was the one able to EH him to come to that State Farm Tuesday CSAUP back in May, but he should be even more proud of all the hard work he’s put in up to this point. Congrats brother!

  • We Just Passed Some Perfectly Good Hills

    Seven very suspecting gentlemen gathered in Spider Run’s perfect hiding spot for the last hill workout of the year. Given the Q signed up with clear intent for what was in store today, YHC was glad to see 7 show up. 0530 rang and off we went:

    The Route

    Mosey to the end of the bat cave and back, passing the start and heading up through the path towards Towana. Pucker was offered the choice of left or right, he chose left so the first three intervals were up Towana. 1 minute up with a 1:45 recovery back down.

    Next three intervals were up Roselawn. Given YHC is a man of the people, Wedding Singer was offered the choice of left or right when we did our third interval up Roselawn. He was indecisive so we waited for a decision until it was necessary. After pressure, he chose left, so we continued on Roselawn then took a left on Campus.

    This was a slightly longer jaunt than remembered, so by the time we got to our last interval hill, we only had time for 2. We made these our best effort up Bostwick, last one leaving nothing on the table.

    Slow mosey back down Campus to UR Drive then BTTVSF.

    Announcements, no wait, numbers, names, announcements before YHC took us out.

    Moleskine

    The PAX was sincerely confused this morning, passing perfectly good hills to take the flat path through the bat cave. Multiple comments were made before we turned around and headed back towards the fun. These three hills are good ones, with the last being one of the steepest around.

    Props to Doozy who ran 8 yesterday and followed it up with hill repeats today.

    Until next year!

    Splinter out

  • 101 for 2024

    After the usual pull up session no WARMARAMA was needed, got right into. While looking for the headlights off in the distance of the fart packers this is where it started.

    triple set of WW3’s, offset merkins on the slam ball, jump rope. The timer was the runner and we ran between each workout.

    Next up we did calf raises with cindies in hand while time ran a lap. 3 laps and each lap change for position. Straight leg, pigeon toed, duck footed.

    If the calfs weren’t sore heres some SSH’s while timer farmer carries cindies across parking lot and runs back.

    next up 3 rounds of (6)deficit merkins on the parking curbs, (12) ranger merkins, (25) block chest press.

    with a few minutes to kill command or abs. Heels to heaven and alternating stiff leg LBC’s.

    What a way to finish off 2024. 5/21/2024 I started F3 at goyne park, today was 101 posts. My goal was to get 100 posts for 2024 and I just got it. I can’t thank Big Rig enough for getting me out there, and everyone else along the way. I’m looking forward to 2025.