Category: Richmond, VA

  • So, so cold

    Three heroes braved the elements on a very cold morning. Wise people said that parking deck is warmer, so this is where we went. First round we did 5 Burpies on every turn and went all the way up. But the outside level was icy, so on the next round we decided to stay inside. On other rounds we did 25 Merkins, 25 Squats and 25 American Hammers. Back to the Flag got us to 3.5 miles. It is good to know that it will get warmer… eventually.

    P.S. My usual apologies for being late with Backblast. White Snake: Thank you for motivation!

  • Can I see your baby?

    10 Beasts showed up at The Old Hundred for some college memories and a little kettle bell workout. Here is how it went down…

    Warmarama- a quick loop around the parking lot and then followed by SSH, Helicopters, Cherry Pickers, Merkins, LBCs and Flutter kicks

    The group took our kettlebells and YHC lead us to the bus parking lot…

    Started off with 11’s – kettlebells on one side doing thrusters and other side incline merkins

    one to some circuit training ( 10 mins) 10 american hammers , 20 squats, 30 curls repeat for 10 mins- completely silent pax and YHC was wondering is the plan was too long or boring

    short mosey to bus and back

    round two ( 10 mins) 10 swings, 20 big boy sit ups, 30 skull crushers repeat for 10 mins- mumble chatter picked up with stories of a dead possum wrapped as a baby and other college stories. after the fire alarm went off at the school we saw it as our time to exit… back to the front for a short round of Mary and TIME.

    Thanks to all that came out today. always grateful for the opportunity to lead. special thanks to Nancy for the laughs. Make today awesome!

  • December 30 Birthday Q at Gridiron (Late Post!

    Eleven of the faithful and one FNG (White Beaver) posted at GridIron early on a Saturday morning. Both the undersigned and Tater claimed to have reserved the Q, but Tater yielded to the undersigned. That decision would prove to be tragic.

    The undersigned took the Q and started the PAX out with a typical warmup COP (merkins, don quiotes, LBCs, etc.) The undersigned then declared that there would some Frank’s ball (kickball), confident that Polly’s injury at the prior round of Frank’s ball was just a fluke.

    It was requested that Frank’s ball be played on the Astro Turf field at Striker Park. The PAX made its way over and a makeshift field was constructed using hats and gloves as bases.

    The teams were allocated randomly. That turned out to be a mistake since Piglet, it turns out, is a professional quality kickball player and proved himself capable of covering the entire infield and outfield, along with covering all bases and along with hitting runners with the ball form 80 yards away. It was a route, and team Piglet won easily.

    Tater was injured almost immediately, I believe during the first “at bat”. He was out for the remainder of the battle (and day). The following was overheard around the table at Starbucks.

    In the realm of valor, a warrior stood tall,
    With a heart of courage, ready for the brawl.
    He allowed his comrade to lead the charge that day
    Into the chaos of battle, they made their way.

    With armor gleaming, and resolve so strong,
    He watched as his friend marched forward, headlong.
    “To lead the way,” he selflessly decreed,
    His trust in his comrade, a warrior indeed.

    But in the midst of the clash, a cruel twist,
    His own leg, a weakness, in pain it did exist.
    The great warrior stumbled, his strength gave way,
    His life extinguished in the heat of the fray.

    In this tale of valor, we mourn the loss,
    A leader’s sacrifice, at such a cost.
    His memory lives on, in the annals of time,
    A noble warrior’s end, in a battle’s prime.

    We called the game with roughly 25 minutes remaining in the workout and spent the remainder of the hour doing four corners on the astro turf field.

    At the COT, Liam was named White Beaver in order to conform to a GridIron convention.

    Frank’s Ball is hereby retired at GridIron on account of it’s tendency to cause unfettered mayhem.

    Johnsonville

  • Rush to Sally

    Nine modern-day warriors took on a DTH beatdown in mean mean stride, as follows:

    The THANG:

    WARMERAMA: 

    • Mosey onto the BBall Court and circle up
    • Welcome & Disclaimer
    • RUSH-ERAMA – Play the song “Tom Sawyer” with Nancy Kerrigans for the instrumental parts, and Burpees for the lyrical parts
    • A few IC Reps to finish the warm-up

    COP #1: 

    • Mosey to the Playground and Partner up
    • COUNTDOWN LOOPS – P1 bearcawls loop, P2 does x10 WWII’s at the Entrance then runs to take over Bear crawls, P1 runs rest of loop and does x9 WWII’s at Entrance, then runs to switch. Continue to complete countdown. 

    COP #2:

    • Mosey over to pay the BRIDGE TOLL, but there’s been some inflation…
    • Alternate x10 Dips with x10 Incline Mericans until x100 reps total completed

    COP #3:

    • Mosey to the Tennis Court
    • CHAIN GANG – PAX line up on the chainlink fence for IC reps of the following
    • Chain Climbers – planking in front, walk hands up to standing then walk hands back down to plank and do a Merican
    • People’s Chain – Hoedowns
    • Chain Smokers
    • Run a lap
    • Donkey Chain Kicks
    • Alabama Chain Dates
    • Balls to the Chain – Hip Slappers

    COP #4:

    • Mosey out to the soccer parking lot with random movement drills
    • VARIABLE SPRINTS

    Mosey BTTF:

    • Circle up for SALLY UP SALLY DOWN
    • Complete Boat/Canoe until unable to continue then switch to Arm/Leg Raises
    • Finish time with Squats to the beat of DANCE MONKEY

    COT:

    • Counterama # 9
    • Namerama
    • Announcerama (see Below)
    • YHC took the PAX out in Prayer

    NMS:  Solid work this morning brothers. YHC has been missing a musical beatdown for a while so it was time to welcome back the beatdown beats, and as usual they didn’t disappoint. YHC will be transparent here – there’s a significantly higher level of personal push felt when sitting in the Q seat, so ongoing deep gratitude for permitting me the opportunity to lead. Yours, DTH

    Announcements (SEE SLACK!)

    Prayer Requests:

    • Machismo leaving today for a few days work trip – prayers for safe travels and impactful HIMfluence on a coworker he’s traveling with
    • Prayers for DTH’s M facing a few added stressors this season

  • Southside 6 Feels the Bern

    The 6 hardest men south of Ironbridge eschewed the fart sack for a State Farm beat down! As my favorite Vermont Senator would say “Either every PAX receives a fair share of burnout Merkins, or none do!” In that spirit – everyone got a little taste this morning 🙂 I’ve noticed when doing numbered reps, PAX can tend to tailor their form, effort, or cadence to finish whatever reps are issued. Today’s XO’s focused on complete failure – “berning” out each muscle group in tandem via reps to failure or tabata style circuits. The Southside 6 was rewarded with some State Farm Coffee Fellowship after they conquered the following…

    • Waramarama
      • Start Slow – 10 Tempo Merkins
      • Mosy
      • Speed Drills around Cones
      • Ukrainian Soldiers, Disclaimer
      • Other various I.C. Warm-ups
      • Partner Stretch (@Shaw-Shank and @Posh seemed quite comfortable with each others’ touch)
    • THE THANG
    • COP 1 – Burn-out Merkins
      • Partner Up
      • Pax 1 (timer) – Merkins with excellent form – GO TO FAILURE
      • Pax2 – Runs around bball court
      • (3 Rounds)
    • COP 2 – Burn-out Kicks
      • Swap Partners
      • Pax 1 (timer) – Donkey Kicks – GO TO FAILURE
      • Pax 2 – bernie the bball court
    • COP 3 – Burnout Pull-up Circuit
      • Here we did pull-ups IN CADENCE – did the following as a group…
      • 5 I.C. Pull-ups
      • Run 200m (to other playground)
      • 4 I.C. Pull-ups
      • Run 200m (and back)
      • 3 I.C. Pull-ups
      • Run 200m
      • 2 I.C. Pull-ups
      • Run 200m
      • 1 I.C. Pull-up – ADD 30 SECOND HOLD
    • MBTTF
    • COP 4 – Finisher Calisthenics Burn Out
      • Group does burpees
      • 2 Pax sprint to dumpster and back
      • Repeato through the gang
      • Group does Mtn Climbers
      • 2 Pax Sprint to dumpster and back
      • Repeato through the gang
    • Numbers, Names, YHC Took us out
    • NMS

    Enjoyed some coffee time on the tailgate of YHC’s truck. I received a nice carafe/thermos for Xmas and it has motivated me to make 5-6 extra cups in the morning before F3. Nothing like sipping on some hot coffee even for a few minutes after a beat down and actually catching up with the Bermuda squad. I have to say – the 6 PAX who posted today are arguably some of the hardest PAX in the region (you heard me SOJ 🙂 ) – so we sharpen the iron in a serious fashion every Tuesday – it’s an honor to lead them and it makes me smile!

    Shine the light this week – SYITG

    -State Farm

  • Essex is Sneaky

    Fifteen able bodied athletes gathered in the grey moonlight for a great spider run experience. After blazing through instructions, as almost everyone saw the route posted last night, of we went. Routes were heavy so almost everyone was late. Some more than others.

    The Route

    • By the lake, around the baseball field, left on College
    • Right on Lakewood, right on Wood, left on Baldwin, right on Westham, left on Baldwin, left on Rock Creek, left on Forest, right on University
    • 4s, 5s, 6s all do Essex
    • 5s, 6s do Dinwiddie and Nelson
    • 6s do Nalla and Glendale
    • Return on University via the instructions above

    https://onthegomap.com/s/0hlq4ijj

    Numbers, names, YHC took us out.

    Announcements

    • Sign up for Breaking Bread in your birth month

    Moleskin

    We haven’t gone northwest in a while, saving Henrico’s summit for warmer days. Today’s route used Patterson as the iron curtain, knocking a few times but never crossing.

    6s discussion centered around vacations, offshore/nearshore engineering, and how parents are living the retired life. We almost got picked up by someone on College on the way but, but he was just turning into a driveway. Then we almost got picked up by a gaggle of other runners, but they were just being kind and informing us of ice on the bridge. Maybe one day someone will try to pick up Faceplant.

    Enjoy the day fellas.

    Splinter

  • WTH adjacent

    9 men joined for a Handshake makeup Q from 2 weeks ago and this is our offsite adventure

    Start with a mosey to the wind-free courtyard at Quiocassin Middle

    Mosey over to Shane Road and take advantage of the lights at the Henrico Recycling Center and do a Triple Check. P1 HRM’s, P2 Squats, P3 runs down to the corner of Woodcrest and back. 3 Rounds

    Starting at the Recycling Center we moseyed back down to Woodcrest to start a Lindsay with 30 Squats and 10 Carolina Dry Docks. Continue at Holbrook/Elon, then Vassar Road, then Woodcrest Road.

    We’ve got enough time so lets do the run in reverse

    Turn back in reverse and at Elon/Holbrook and do 50 2-Count Flutter Kicks.

    This is where things went downhill, YHC didn’t remember to turn left on Holbrook and continued to Fisk and to Inez and then to Quioccasin and back to QMS. This mistake extended to the run from .46 miles to .91 miles. Pinto clocked us at 2.3 total miles.

    We arrived at the Flag with 2 minutes to spare so a Burpee Ring of Fire was completed.

    Announcements – Frozen Triangle is coming up and so is Grow Ruck

    Prayer Requests – none

    NMS – slightly warmer weather than we’ve seen in the last week made for good running. It was nice to make a off campus trip, not something that is done frequently at Heartbreak Ridge. Thanks to the Pax for their patience during a slight misadventure.

  • This ain’t Nebraska

    4 men started their week right with a cold morning beatdown.

    Mosey to the cafeteria entrance for some COP: SSH, Imp walkers, invisible jump ropes, helicopters, DQs, arm circles etc.

    4 corners – around the bus loop, c1 – 10x merkins, c2 – 10x merkins, 10x squats, c3 – 10x, 10x squats, 10x dips, c4 – 10x merkins, 10x squats, 10x dips, 10x mountain climbers

    Circuit – mosey to basketball court for some circuit training: pull-ups, ww2s, Al Gore and loop around the basketball court. Rinse and repeat 3 times.

    Tennis court – starting at baseline lunge to opposite baseline, Bernie Sanders back, bear crawl to opposite baseline and Bernie Sanders back. 2 rounds.

    Mosey back to flag for some MoM and stretching.

    Numbers, names, Corned Beef took us out.

    Good work put in by all.

  • Pre-Scout the AO?????

    10 Burpee eating machines made their way out of the heated cars to see what was on todays agenda. Just as our COP was ending Face Plant made it 11. According to School administration this is what may or may not have happened.

    Mosey up to the play area for COP

    SSH’s, one Burpee (OYO), DQ’s, two Burpees (OYO), Helicopters, three Burpees (OYO), Imperial Walkers, four Burpees (OYO), WWII, (Oyster made us do 10 Burpees OYO), Rosalitta’s, Hello Dollies and American Hammers

    Mosey to the church parking lot

    Four corners #1 10 – Hand Release Merkins, 20 – Merkins, 30 – Shoulder Taps, 40 – Squats

    Four corners #2 10 – Schrunchy Frogs, 20 – American Hammers, 30 – Sugar Sticks, 40 – Jump squats

    Four corners #3 10 – squats, 20 – Toe Taps, 30 – Jump Squats, 40 – Ball Dippers

    Mosey to the front of the school

    11’s – 1 Incline Merkin run to parking lot 10 Schrunchy Frogs so on and so forth

    BTTF (Face Plant needs to get some Burpees in) 10 Burpees OYO

    Numbers / Names Oyster took us out

    NMS:

    YHC only had half a plan when he got to the AO this morning but one thing he did plan was four corners around the church. Unaware that there was construction going on that prevented safe passage around the church a reroute was in order and a solution was presented. Oyster loves Burpees so much that he didn’t want his friend Face Plant to miss out on his share, so YHC was forced to grant 10 Burpees OYO at the end of the beatdown.

  • Abdominal snowman tripod.

    We kicked off with a jog down the scenic Rountrey modern home stretch, invigorating our spirits in the crisp morning air.

    Circle up for some SSH, Helicopters, Don Quixote.

    DORA: We plunged into the heart of endurance with 100 LBCs, powered through 200 squats, and soared with 300 double-count flutters. The runner charged down Alvecote Terrace, embodying the spirit of perseverance.

    Strength and Balance: We dominated 20 fiery fire hydrants and embraced the tranquility of a 1-minute plank, forging both strength and stability.

    Tribal Trek: In an Indian run, we journeyed together to the Waverton/Endstone Culdesac, each step strengthening our brotherhood.

    Triple Check Trials: One brave soul sprinted to the formidable angry snowman, while the rest of us alternated between SSH’s energy and the explosive power of jump squats.

    Plank Pow-Wow: A 2-minute plank challenge sparked spirited mumble chatter, with some legendary 3rd and 4th leg assists – a moment you just had to witness.

    Endstone Escapade: We charged up Endstone Trail, halting at the hill’s base for two adrenaline-fueled sprint rounds:

    Round 1: Sprint up hill. 10 squats at each ⛄️ (5x). Mosey walk down hill.
    Round 2: Same thing, added 10 ball dippers.

    Final Stretch: With 4 minutes on the clock, we headed back to the flag for some rejuvenating stretches, unwinding our warrior muscles.

    Announcements:

    1. Swoop Q at Old Hundred tomorrow.
    2. GrowRuck
    3. Frozen Triangle
    4. Have you seen Oyster?

    Prayers and Cheers:

    1. Cookie’s friend’s dad has recovered from pneumonia and is our of the hospital.
    2. Pray for Blacktop’s father who is sick.