Category: Richmond, VA

  • Burpee Hill

    11 regulars sweated out their Friday night libations during a heavy aerobic workout (we traveled over 2.2 miles). For a change, we started with a Mosey to Burpee Hill where we did a bunch of warmups exercises and only one burpee. Piglet was running late and found us. Maybe it was from our Cherry Picker claps?

    Since the Pickle ballers were starting to flood in, I started us with a proper greeting of 11’s: Monkey Humpers and Pickle pounders, running back and forth between the courts. We got a lot of frowns while running. Maybe that was because we picked up all the empty plastic bottles that were left on the ground from yesterday. The “pick” in Pickleball obviously does not stand for picking up after yourself.

    We then went to the soccer fields for a double quarter pounder. Started with 25 Merkins, 50 squats, 75 single count Mountain Climbers and 100 SSH–done at the 25, 50, 75, 100 with Bernie Sanders after each. Second time with 25 HRM, 50 Plank Jacks, 75 LBCs and 100 SSH.

    Tired and wet, we headed back to Burpee Hill for ten minutes of ….Abs. We ended up doing 9 different Ab exercises for 45 seconds each and then a 15 second break. We did WW2, Flutters, Reverse Crunches, Side Crunches (both sides), LBCs, Freddie’s, American Hammers and WWI. We finished with one minute of Burpees (or ten count, whichever you reached first). We left the hill with only 11 burpees for the day. There was some gnashing of teeth and tears of disappointment across the Pax.

    We went back to the flag and had time for some bear crawls up the small hill next to the parking lot. We ran down, bear crawled up, five times.

    After a minute of dead man hangs, we were done. Some were done earlier…

    Announcements:

    7/4 convergence at Forest Hill Park, 7AM.

    Gomer, Hutton and I will be bringing a traveling AO to West End Neighborhoods, Mondays at 6PM. If you are interesting in co-leading with us, please reach out. Hoping to use this to find some more men who need F3.

    Home grown half marathon with 10K and 5K run by SOJ in early August. See Slack for more details on this and more!

    Thanks for letting me lead.

  • A Titanic Run

    One intrepid traveler launched from the banks of the River Lagan in the latest edition of The Clinic. Temperatures were 70 and sunny. According to crew of the HMS Tyne, the following may have happened:

    Depart Donegal Quay, heading north / east along the River Lagan. Weave among the office buildings and former slips to the trucking terminal. Expressed condolences to Frank Sobotka.

    Reverse direction moving one street west weaving eventually back to the banks of the Lagan to the foot bridge. Cross the Lagan and turn left / east, passing the HMS Tyne. A fine Belfast morning to the skeleton crew on deck. Proceeding north / east until arrival at the Titanic Museum, proceeding through the slip where Titanic was built and launched. Continue along the Lagan to the HMS Caroline until fencing ended the available territory. Reverse and head back to the launch point, continuing an extra .15 miles and back to make the full loop a flat 5.0 miles.

    Number, name, and YHC took himself out.

    Announcements (a mixture of up-coming events of YHC’s choosing):

    Westhoe Meeting. Sometime this week. Already happened. Couldn’t make it.

    Convergence July 4. Can’t make it.

    YHC Qing Hoedown and Spider Run Q’s for July 15/16. Took name off Q sheet. Can’t make it. Sorry, Kubota, YHC is not the man you are.

    July 17 Woodsman VQ, The Crossing. Can’t make it.

    July 18 Meatball, Vinny’s Baseball (aka, Wiffleball). Can’t make it.

    July 27, The Bridge. 07:30 a.m. This is a Beat Down in Buckingham. Join me in helping some men transitioning from detention to a free life. Provide a role model. Leave no man where you found him.

    NMS:

    Belfast is not hot. Belfast is not humid. 50, clouds, and 20 MPH wind. But, sea level here remains flat along the docks. The BRR, this was not. This solid training run on a seasonally modest morning provided a nice tour of the Belfast waterfront.

    It was interesting to run through the dock / slipway (the actual space!) where Titanic was built. Far smaller than YHC expected, or perhaps YHC is faster than YHC expected.

  • Evenly Apply Your Sun Screen

    Today’s edition of Currahee called for a bro Code run. Everyone wore yellow except for Doozy. Then everyone ran the bro Code route except for Doozy. But when a HIM takes the lead (for those that don’t know, Doozy runs like the dang wind yall), he pushes everyone to new heights. The entire crew pushed past our turn at Copperas, caught up to Doozy and ran behind Gayton ES, continued on through the mean streets of the FWE (mostly Poplar Forest Dr.), taking a left on Ridgefield and back to the Tamper Flag.

    Pigskin hung back at Godwin HS to walk with kettle bells while throwing in about 200 merkins and 1000 other forms of self flagellation.

    Names, numbers.

    Announcements: July 4th at Forest Hill Park (Batteau/Stone House for Field Day activities), Dry July, Don Draper’s Homegrown Half on Aug 3, and look out for more details about the WE setting up a traveling evening AO. The mission is to get some Sad Clown and turn them into HIMs.

    Prayers for the men of F3 to find men that need what we have so freely been given. If you know a man that could use F3, tell him about it. Don’t just invite him to a workout. Tell him you’ll pick him up. If he says 5:30am is too early – find out about these evening AOs and get him there.

    Missed a lot of regulars today. Hope to see y’all soon!

    Do something good for someone else today. And remember to evenly apply your sun screen. Happy Friday gang!

  • The Murph

    As prescribed, Murph is performed for time. It starts with a 1-mile run, followed by a grueling sequence of 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 air squats. The workout concludes with another 1-mile run. Athletes may partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and air squats as needed.

    Señor Frog and Shiver (3XFNG) ended the work week with the legendary Murph.

    Everyone else decided to do Yacht Rock-Bo.

  • A Wee Bit Humid at the Circus

    9 Creatures gathered in the 70s, somewhat sunny and balmy confines of the Cold War era complex otherwise known as Mills Godwin High School.

    After seeing the bus loop lights go on, the COP started.

    Helicopters, DQs, DMH, HRMs, FMs, Arm circles. Mosey to benches

    Elevens with 2 count step ups and lawnmower pulls. Mosey to other side of bus loop.

    Modified Doras with 75 combined sit and presses, 150 coupon squats, and 225 coupon calf raises. There was some slight mumbling about the calf raises. If I want Saquan Barkley calves, I need to start now even though genetics and lack of muscle mass are going against me.

    Stay where you are and do a Lindsey with bench presses and coupon flutter kicks. Mosey to home base.

    Finished with American Hammers, Curls, Triceps, LBCs and some stretching. Humidity seemed to hit hard at this point.

    Good showing for the Circus even with the mini convergence happening in the fashionable near West End. Praise for healing/stable situations for Wildcat and my father n’ law and for other PAX that have improved from earlier diagnoses. Mumble chatter was on the lighter side with Attila quieter than usual and White Deer critiquing his partner’s contribution to the Dora. Convergence at Batteau on 7/4 and 7 a.m. at the Stone house I believe. Slack would have better details than I can provide.

    Fireman Ed

  • Hide your kids: Shaw-Shank is back!

    YHC received a text from the Bermuda syndicate last night that Shaw-Shank Lewis was free for some Off-The-books fun on Thursday a.m. The PAX could not pass up this opportunity! 5 stallions plowed through the humidity with some great music and mumble chatter. The jacked guy roller blading next to us might have seen…

    Warmarama: Various IC Reps

    • COP 1 – Nickel Escalator
      • 5 reps + 5 Reps at one end of the track – mosy to other end 5 + 5
      • Increase by 5 Reps each circuit
      • 5 dips and 5 pullups
      • Mosy
      • 5 Booyah Merkins and 5 Am Hammers
      • Increased all the way to 20 – ouch on those pullups!
    • COP 2 – Chester Challenge along Polesmoker Alley
      • 10 Werkins
      • Inch worm 20 yards
      • 10 Polesmokers
      • Bear Crawl 20 years
      • 10 ranger merkins
      • Repeato back twice
    • Finisher – 1 minute Body Bag Builders, 1 minute 6″ heel hovering

    Names, Numbers, Announcements, Prayers

    Great to see Poolboy meeting us for some off the books fun and pushing me and shank on the run!. And Posh’s 2.0 Finn is really getting strong! What a great group at my favorite AO as always.

    -State Farm

  • Organic Convergence

    Fifteen gentlemen and scholars arrived at Mary today with no enticement needed other than seeing Splinter on the Q. After the northern peacock strutted his stuff to our visitor and then shielded himself with the wall named Swirly, off we went to the blacktop for today’s 45MoM fun.

    COP

    COP stands for Circle of Pain. It doesn’t stand for Circle of <insert other ‘p’ word here>. Therefore we did hard things.

    • 10x Hellicopters
    • 1x Burpee
    • 20x SSH
    • 2x Burpees
    • 10x Merkins
    • 3x Burpees
    • 10x Copperhead Squats
    • 4x Burpees
    • 10x Penguins, appropriately stored up from yesterday’s Oyster snubbing. Rosie was offered the opportunity to leave at this point but wisely decided to stay
    • 5x Burpees
    • 10x Don Quixote’s, Abe Vigoda style & approved by Saab with an 👌
    • 6x Burpees
    • 10x High Knees
    • 7x Burpees
    • 10x CDDs
    • 8x Burpees
    • 10x Side Lunges
    • 9x Burpees
    • 10x APDs
    • 10x Burpees
    • 1x Mountain Climbers

    The Thang

    Brief mosey over to the western edge of the field for our next exercise. 11s using trees as the markers. Someone astutely pointed out that one of our trees was gone so how would we do 11s? We figured it out. Run to the first tree then 10 merkins, back to the line for 1 jump squat. Continue along the trees, adding the far sidewalk as the 1/10 set. Various 10 counts offered by Last Call and 1-800. Kubota demonstrated his graduation from Wilson’s school of winning by offering himself a healthy head start after each set.

    Slow, sweaty saunter back to the edge of the school where we tripled up for a check. Air presses, pickle pounders, and karaoke to the fence and back were called. Classic 45MoM variation of this staple.

    Scurry back to the flag where we circled up (with YHC in the circle) for 4 minutes of mary which included 20x each of LBCs, Flutter Kicks, Freddie Mercuries, and American Hammers. Mumblechatter was so high during hammers that we lost count and called time. Kubota advised in advance he needed to leave right on time, which was allowed even though he left a minute early.

    Numbers, names, YHC took us out. Celebrating new life and the strength and power of the human spirit.

    Announcements

    • Homegrown half early August
    • Convergence next Thursday @ Batteau
    • Slack is open 24/7 for jovial banter and mudslinging

    Moleskin

    Thanks to Rosie and Cal Worthington for the extra nudge to show up at 5 for a little bit of pre-work. No extra backblast here, just a few dudes sharing fellowship and getting stronger. Only took 30 seconds before a truck doused us with puddled rain water. There is nothing more refreshing on a 75 degree morning than being pummeled by street water that has been cooking on the hot pavement. Thanks for Cal for ducking so YHC could experience the full onslaught.

    The main event started with ample chatter. Last Call even showed up, likely expecting no hills, to which he was rewarded.

    History lesson, 45 Minutes of Mary was the 2nd workout created in F3RVA, and we had a founding member in our presence today. Great to see 15 strong show up for one of the OG workouts in RVA. Goes to show that even after almost 10 years, you can still introduce variety to a tried and true AO.

    No, no monkeys flew out of anyone’s buttholes, but there may have been a few desires to hurl today. We can only hope that the sight of TYA’s creamy white thighs didn’t make anyone feel kind of funny today, you know like when we used to climb the rope in gym class?

    Thanks for letting me lead today. Splinter out.

  • It Was Hella Hot

    4 men gathered at WEAG for the latest round of The Crossing. In YHC’s estimation, this is now F3 RVA’s hottest AO……But the PAX were ready to roll nonetheless. Here is a brief summary for your viewing pleasure:

    Mosey to the front of the church and circle up for Warm Up:

    Side Straddle Hops, Mummy Kicks, Toe Taps, LBC’s, Pickle Pounders, HR Merkins, Heels to Heaven.

    Across the parking lot: Karaoke, Mario Jumps, Bernie Sanders, Mummy Bernie’s

    To the North side of the Church for Exercise One:

    4 Corners around the perimeter of the parking lot with variable movements between stations:

    Crab Walk – 10 hand release merkins
    Appalachian Lunge Walk – 20 merkins
    Backwards Frog Jumps – 30 Wide Grip Merkins
    Broad Jump – 40 Carolina Dry Docks

    Exercise Two: Ab station
    20 WWII’s, 40 American Hammers (singe ct), 60 LBC’s, 80 Alabama Prom Dates

    Mosey inside the church for WATER STOP

    Exercise 3 – Dora
    100 Donkey Kicks
    200 Squats
    300 Flutter Kicks
    Runner goes across the parking lot and back

    Mosey back towards the flag
    Merkin Ring of Fire
    A couple ab exercises
    Monkey Humpers until time is called

    Numbers/Names/Announcements/Prayer Requests

    YHC took us out

    Final Thoughts: Alexa told me it was 100 degrees when I left my house. Upon arrival, we got some cloud cover and checked in at 95 to start the workout. Ab exercises on the asphalt appeared to be around 200 degrees. Great job by the PAX pushing through! Birdman has begun contemplating a VQ that consists of track style interval training – may have to schedule a vacation for that one. Shout out to Woodsman who has been posting regularly all over the place – well done, sir. Trying to figure out how to get on House Party’s team if we do a tug of war on July 4th.

    SYITG



  • It’s time for Basketball

    9 HIM’s with questionable basketball talent ran out to the Timberwolf blacktop this morning, joining YHC, also of questionable basketball talent, for some exercise. Actual events and shooting percentages will not be discussed to protect the innocent and egos.

    Warmarama: SSH’s, Helicopter, Arm Circles, Dead Man Hangs.

    3 rounds of knockout. Sometimes the loser had to run to the gate, sometimes we did 5 burpees.

    Steal the cones: Divide the teams up evenly (via numbers), place 5 cones in the center. Make a free throw and sprint to the cone, taking it back to your baseline. The first team to capture all 5 cones wins. All YHC will say on this is that one team made a lot of baskets and the other team made zero.

    5 on 5: Wildcat threw out the idea for a little 5 v 5, so we ran up and down the court showing off our basketball prowess. FYI – It’s great to have Wildcat on your team. Crabgrass put the spin move on YHC for the winning point. Props him to for dropping a Hakeem Olajuwon type spin move to close the game.

    Half court shot – if you make it, we head back to the flag. If you miss, everyone does 3 burpees. You can guess the results – 30 burpees for the group.

    Back to the flag for the ‘ol Numberrama / Namearama

    Announcements: Check Slack

    Prayers for Futon’s Mother-in-law and a celebration for Wildcat.

    YHC took us out.

  • Ranking Saturday AO’s

    9 Good Ol’ Boys… Makin’ their way, the only way they know how, that’s just a little bit more than the law will allow. Just a good old boys…

    Warmamara: Phonics tries to steal the Q. YHC promised no eye of the storm, but YHC could not change the sauna like conditions. Let’s gooo!!

    The Thang: From the Clubhouse, Left on Combs, Left on Rutlandshire Drive, go to the end, then run it back. Repeat x 4, 5, or 6.

    BTTF
    Numberama:Namerama
    Announcements: 7/4 convergence 7am at Batteau
    YHC took us out

    NMS: 7 Runners and 2 Ruckers got it done today – well done boys. Was Rutlandshire uphill both ways? Great crew this morning: the route made it possible to keep everyone together or at least in sight.

    Mumblechatter: What’s better Rock n Roll or Dogpile. YHC ranks the Saturday AOs according to the 2nd F (breakfast options). It’s a tight race between Dogpile and RocknRoll.

    DogPile: 9.5/10 Libbie Market: Good – Solid Breakfast options, Eggs, Bacon, breakfast Pizza (Lettuce for Bootleg) and several coffee choices. Bad: Have to get a good seat though or you will be blinded by the sun. Coffee okay. Couple of the locals are not big fans of us studs.

    RocknRoll: 9/10 Latin Market: Good – Several breakfast options but really YHC is there for the Arepas. Bad: No shade, no seating, no covered area. Latin Market is seasonal, so ranking may fall. but…. they do have Pickleball courts on site (+1).

    DaPile: 8/10 The Local Cup: Good – great coffee and breakfast sandwiches, seating indoors and out. Bad: DaPile is a haul. Portion size considerably less than Libbie Market.

    GridIron: 3/10 Starbucks: Good – One long table. Bad: No bacon, no eggs. Coffee bitter. but…. they do have Pickleball courts on site (+1).

    The Iron Bridge: 0/0 eval is pending. Let’s hope they found a good spot.

    See you in gloom
    Oyster