Category: Richmond, VA

  • Happy 248th birthday Marines

    4 men posted on a crisp November morning to celebrate the 248th Marine Corps birthday the right way.

    COP

    Pull-up/Merkins pyramid – 1 pull-up+1 merkin, 1 pull up + 2 merkins…all the way to 10 merkins.

    Mosey to parking lot for ascending squats with lunges in between parking lot lines and reverse back.

    Dora – 100x Carolina dry docks, 200x Don Qs, 300x flutter kicks

    4 corners – C1 10x burpees, C2 20x seal claps, C3 20x T claps, C4 20x arm circles and 20x reverse.

    Mosey back to flag for some stretching.

    Names, numbers, Spit took us out.

  • Running Hot Potato?

    3 running public school teachers and 3 rucking non-public school teachers posted on this perfect Thursday morning for the Tomato Run/Ruck. This is what occurred.

    The Routes

    Runners – About 4.9 minutes doing the Bojangles loop, run through Rutland, Knollwood, and then the modified Bojangles loop.

    Ruckers – About 4 minutes through various locations.

    COT – Numberarama, Name-O-Rama, Announcements, Opus took us out.

    NMS

    Weather was close to perfect this morning. The route decisions were shared this morning. For the runners, conversation seemed to focus on teacher topics, Europe, and the EU. From what I was told about the rucker’s conversation, one topic of interest was finding the perfect one-level home for Corned Beef.

    Announcements

    • 10K Ruck this weekend in DaVille
    • On Tuesday, November 21, some DaVillians might converge upon Spider Run for the F3 Pre-Turkey Trot 10K. If you are trying to complete it by 6:15 AM, get there early enough to run the 6.2 miles. Ruckers are invited and might do less miles but equal time.

    Gotta Run!

    Phonics

  • Talkin’ Shop

    At 0525 YHC said screw it, there will be no hot potato, despite Handshake’s burning desire.

    Mosey to the front yard

    COP

    • Don Quixotes
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Helicopters
    • Copperhead Squats
    • Ukranian Soldiers
    • Hand Release Merkins
    • Plank-o-rama
    • Inverted Scorpion Kicks
    • Flutter Kicks

    Mosey to the picnic tables

    • Dips x 3×20
    • Step-ups x 3×20

    Mosey to Grove and Westmoreland

    Mega Accumulating 4 Corners

    • Around perimeter of entire Munford Block
      • 20 Merkins,
      • 20 Merkins, 20 Squats,
      • 20 Merkins, 20 Squats, 20 2ct Mountain Climbers
      • 20 Merkins, 20 Squats, 20 2ct Mountain Climbers, 20 WWIIs
      • 20 Merkins, 20 Squats, 20 2ct Mountain Climbers, 20 WWIIs, 20 SSHs
      • Reverso dropping last exercise

    Mosey back to front yard

    Mary

    • American Hammers x 20
    • LBC-o-rama (Multiple variations x 15)
    • Reverse Crunches x 15

    Mosey back to parking lot and VSF

    Numberama, Nameorama, COT

    MOLESKIN

    YHC checked upon arrival to find an empty Q sheet.  Handshake planned to toss the potato, but YHC seized it.  Throughout the Mega 4 Corners Swirl-Y and our esteemed unofficial weasel shaker solved Woodfin’s problems with its TPS reports.  TYA and Saab walked in search of tomatoes to scare off.  Hitch may have appeared but made a lackadaisical effort to find the PAX.  Should have been 190 merkins if anyone was counting.

    ANNOUNCEMENTS

    Shoe Drive

    Competing Rucks

  • Rifle carry

    Turns out, the worst part of the 11s was the Rifle carry between the exercises.

    Classical music was provided. Standard Disclaimer given. No one almost passed out today. Or according to Friedrich Nietzsche: “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”

    Warmup

    • SSHs, Ukrainian Soldiers, Don Quixote, stretch arms, stretch hamstrings.

    Deep Mountain Climber countdown

    • 20 Swings (single count)/20 Deep Mountain Climbers (Single count);
    • 18 Hammer Curls/Deep Mountain Climbers,
    • 16 Upright Rows/Deep Mountain Climbers,
    • 14 Triceps/Deep Mountain Climbers,
    • 12 Sit & Press/Deep Mountain Climbers,
    • 10 Press/Deep Mountain Climbers,
    • 8 Squats/Deep Mountain Climbers,
    • 6 Swings/6 Deep Mountain Climbers,
    • 4 Hammer Curls/Deep Mountain climbers,
    • 2 Upright Rows/Deep Mountain climbers.
    • Run around island:

    11s. We walked back and forth across the courtyard area to the Propane Tank and the door.

    • Renegade Rows, Rifle carry, Bench Press
    • Run around island

    Variation on 11s

    • Do 10 Merkins, Farmer’s carry one direction and waiter’s carry the other direction. We did the Countdown from 10 to 1 on Overhead pulls. Except we didn’t quite finish. I think we were down to about 3 overhead pulls to finish up the set.

    Back to the flag for numberama, namearama

    Announcements:

    Tuesday noon: 2nd F at Firehouse Subs on Tuesday (in 5 days)

    Convergence for Thanksgiving at Mary Mumford Elementary

    Take out by YHC. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle

  • Blocks, Frisbees, & #WeLoveSaab

    17 eager beavers appeared in the gloom for a Fudd FW beatdown.

    The Thang:

    COP in the parking lot – arm circles, merkins, yoga, SSH’s, flutter kicks, rosalitas, DQ’s, and maybe something else

    Mosey to corner of Westham & River – 2 burpees OYO

    Mosey to Saab’s house – 5 burpees OYO

    Mosey around the front hedge to the meat of Saab’s front yard, line up in a row, face the street and do Monkey Humpers in cadence until Saab appeared, quite unexpectedly, on his front porch and sat down to put his running shoes on.

    Mosey to College and down to the corner of Glen Pkwy to retrieve 6 blocks. Mosey to the disc golf course for some fun with discs and blocks. It Pays to be a Winner! Form teams of 3, one frisbee and one block per team. Take turns throwing disc towards basket/hole. Rotate exercises with blocks (murder bunnies, overhead carry, walking curls, & lunges), 2 other PAX bear crawl or lunge, progressing to where the disc landed. Lowest score per hole = fewest # of burpees. Burpees OYO completed after each hole (only had time for 3 holes).

    Mosey back to the corner of Glen to stash blocks, run to top of hill at Westham for 5 burpees OYO. Mosey back to the flag for some mary.

    Numberama, Namerama, YHC took us out.

    Announcements: Tuck-a-Ruck for canned food taking place at 7pm on 11/17. Meet at Hoedown at 6:45. Contact Lockjaw if you plan to donate canned food either at the start or to be picked up on the ruck. Estimated time to finish 3 hours followed by a fire and beer at some as yet undisclosed location (Splinter’s house?)

    Naked Mole Skin:

    Welcome to Jockey from downrange in NC….the name of his hometown escapes me. Great having him at FW! Also great to have Swirly and NTB in attendance, as they are not FW regulars. The highlight of YHC’s morning was definitely Saab’s sudden appearance on his porch as we were completing the monkey humpers. YHC’s first thought was, how did he get dressed that fast? Maybe he sleeps in his running shorts. YHC’s second thought was one of alarm as he was carrying something in his hand….YHC had a slight moment of panic thinking it might be a weapon and he was there to confront the trespassers in his yard. Thankfully, it was his running shoes and he casually sat down and started to tie them on. YHC wasn’t sure, but thought he could see a wide Cheshire grin on the face of our esteemed colleague. I hope we made your morning sir because you certainly made ours!

    Blocks and discs were a welcome change to the usual drudgery of the parking lot behind the church. YHC would have like to have played more holes but 45 minutes doesn’t give us much time.

    Coffeeteria at Starbucks was great as always. Thanks for letting me lead today fellas. It was great to see so many familiar faces in the gloom.

    Never stop chasing the wabbit. 🙂

    Fudd

  • No good way to go

    10 runners started out excited that the route included going down Manders. Somehow it was lost that going down that hill also meant up Grove Hill and Honeymooon hill.

    Good pick up of speed through the middle mile to stretch out the legs. The half-marathon runners are ready for a couple rest days before heading downtown to the starting line. We’re all ready to go, the journey is the destination, the training has been fun now let’s log the time our watches expect us to finish, sit back, and enjoy.

    Starbucks afterwards was excellent. Next week YHC will have the Q on the Bootcamp side of this AO.

    Saturday 11/11 – Ruck with Food – 6 am at TwinTeam – see slack or OC for details

    Next Friday 11/17 – Ruckahoe canned food drive. See slack or Lockjaw for details

    A pleasure to lead this group of fine gentlemen through the streets of Midlo.

  • Dora Manndate

    2 men posted today for some kb action.

    Dora – 100x halos, 200x kb swings, 300x WWIIs

    11s – squats, lawn mowers

    Boat canoes to close out

    Numbers, names, Yardsale took us out

  • Still time to vote??

    Pocahontas middle school was still open for eight late voters today.

    Blue Moon voted to do some track work as he comes back from knee surgery.

    Pigskin voted to do laps around the school with 200 merkins, 200 dips and then four stops with 20 reps of different ab exercises.

    The rest of us (6, including guest Cappuccino) ran away from the pollsters and went to Short Pump Park. They did whatever I asked including warmups of DQ, Hillbillys, Cherry Pickers, Merkins and Freddies. I then used my platform of “the government is running in circles” to get 80 merkins in (4 sets of 20 with 4 laps in-between). I then promised a triple check and the team fulfilled the promise with a running timer, dips and step ups. The power was going to my head so we ran to the Nissan dealer and we did 5 burpees at every red car. There were 8 red cars in total. BTW, there was only one blue car (and a hundred + white or grey cars). We know what that means: car colors are boring. If elected, I promise more cool car colors!!

    We ran back to the flag and did a run of the bus loop to get to 3 miles. While we voted differently to start the morning, we circled up as one brotherhood for some announcements and prayers.

    Thanks for letting me lead.

  • VQ=Done

    11 PAX gathered at the Old Hundred Racetrack to help keep me on track for my VQ.   Missed a few counts and the order of closing, but after 8 month, VQ=Done.  First time in 8-months I have seen a warm up that had no mosey or SSH- Hope they don’t kick me out :).  

    Warm Up:  Imperial Walkers, Cherry Pickers, Arm Stretches x 2 way, Don Quyotes, Merkins, LBC-

    COP 1: Kettlebell carry around the racetrack and stopped at each light pole.  Stop1-10 Kettlebell Curls, Stop2- 20 Kettlebell Squats, Stop3- 30 Kettlebell Skull crushers, Stop4- 40 Kettlebell Lunge, Stop5-40 Kettlebell Curls, Stop6- 30 Kettlebell Squats, Stop7- 20 Kettlebell Skull crushers, Stop8- 10 Kettlebell Lunge

    COP2. 11’s- Kettlebell Plank pull-throughs with Kettlebell Bench Press

    COP3. Triple Check- Kettlebell Swings, Kettlebell side bends, and runner went between light poles. 

    COP4. Another Kettlebell carry around the racetrack and stopped at each light pole.  Stop1-10 Kettlebell Swings, Stop2- 20 Kettlebell Alen Iversons, Stop3- 30 Kettlebell Lawnmowers, Stop4- 40 Kettlebell Overhead press, Stop5-40 Kettlebell Swings, Stop6- 30 Kettlebell Alen Iversons, Stop7- 20 Kettlebell Lawnmowers, Stop8- 10 Kettlebell Overhead press

    Numbers, Names, Announcements & Prayers to include Vagabond and his family as they start the next chapter in their life and everyone during this election day.   

    Thank you everyone for this opportunity and allowing me to lead us out in a prayer my M and I say with our kids EVERYDAY.  Teach them young to pray and communicate with other- we all need help others from time to time-set that good example.    

    Stark Family Morning Prayer:

    Jesus, we want to thank you for all these great gifts you have given us, especially the gift of life.

    We pray that as we journey today that you journey with us; as we walk you walk by our side to help guide me us and lead us. 

    We pray that you help us to find our words so that we know what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. 

    We pray that you help us to treat others with kindness and respect, the way we want to be treated. 

    We pray that if something happens today that you give us the strength and courage to tell mommy or daddy or the teachers. 

    We pray that you help us to grow happy, healthy, gentle, and kind, and to be good listeners and to do your will. 

    Amen. 

    God is good. God is great. Let us have an Awesome day. 

  • We Vote For Breakfast

    Runners and ruckers elected to start their day the best way on a warm November morning. Running pax members were presented with a series of ballot measures to set the route. On Ballot Measure #1, voter turnout was low, but runners voting unanimously voted for “Not the Track” over “The Flat Route.” It appears logical deduction is possible at 5:00 in the morning. The balloting for appropriately named Ballot Measure #2 was somewhat more controversial. It seems some Pax members were unaware that due to quirks of the electoral college some votes counted more than others, leading to the long hill loop as opposed to the short hill loop. Thems the breaks. After 4-4.5 miles at varying paces, the runners and ruckers circled up and Opus efficiently took us out to allow us to meet Mustang and reconvene at Rise and Shine for some enjoyable 2nd F time.

    The only announcement besides the impending breakfast was YHC’s proposal that runners, and potentially ruckers, who want to post on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving post at Spider Run for the annual 10k to participate in that tradition. Perhaps this time YHC will find the parking lot before launch time.