Category: Richmond, VA

  • Restrictor Plates and Cindy Laps

    5 Bermuda regulars and 1 Cousin Eddie posted for what we hope is the last chilly morning in the gloom for awhile at Bermuda Triangle. YHC, Posh, and State Farm were already pretty smoked from another morning wood pull up session just a few minutes prior. Little did our Downrange friend, (Unibrow) who’s joining while working at Fort Gregg-Adams, know that we would be doing this post with restrictor plates (Rucks, weighted vests) Luckily State Farm just got himself a brand new shiny one and brought his old one. Here’s what he got to experience.

    Mosey to the basketball court for the warmarama.

    All performed in cadence.

    SSH, Don Quyotes, Ukrainian Soldiers, Crunchy Frogs, Merkins, Arm Circles

    Mosey to the playground to pick up Cindy. PAX will take turns doing laps around the track carrying Cindy as other PAX performs exercises almost the duration of the workout.

    First set of exercises Merkin/Mountain Climber burnout

    AMRAP Merkins at the bottom of the hill, Bernie to the top and do 50 Double count Mountain Climbers, then Crawl Bear down and Repeato 2 times

    Back over to the playground for the next 3 sets

    PAX will rotate between

    Switch grip Jerkins 10 reps or walking Jerkins and Stiletto Squats 20 reps

    Next PAX would partner up for a Dora. 1 PAX runs to the light near the basketball court while other performs exercise.

    100 hanging leg raises

    100 incline merkins

    Mosey back to the flag with Cindy for 5 minutes of Mary.

    Each performed In Cadence

    LBCs

    Seated Bicycles (Forward and Reverse)

    Heels to Heaven

    Finish off with a few Ric Flairs to allow Florence to show off his best Nature Boy!

    Names and Numbers

    Unibrow could be posting with us more in the coming weeks. Give him a warm F3Rva welcome.

    Prayer Requests

    State Farm’s M having sleep issues. Florence’s MIL, and Wildcat with upcoming cancer scans. Broadway’s daughter’s migraines. Pray that all these get swift resolution in the best way possible.

    Also pray for all those affected by the Key Bridge collapse this morning near Baltimore.

    Thanks for letting me lead today. It was a pleasure and a blessing!

  • The Least Popular of Spider Run

    Fifteen humans and one dog collected in the commons basin to this fabulous Tuesday edition of Spider Run. No complaints from anyone so off we went.

    The Route

    • Loop in front of the commons then up the stairs and beside the chapel
    • Make another left then back to the bat cave direction before heading up Ridgeway
    • Collect ourselves at the bottom of Ridgeway while letting the other gaggle of runners go by
    • 2 intervals up Ridgeway, continuing on the second to a left on Roselawn
    • Stop halfway down Roselawn for 2 more intervals, continuing on the second to a left on Campus
    • Collect at the bottom of Old Mill for 2 more intervals, then continue down Campus
    • Collect at the bottom of Bostwick for 2 more intervals. Actually, we had time for 3.
    • Easy mosey back to the VSF via the most direct path

    Numbers, names, YHC took us out.

    Moleskin

    Even though the hype almost skipped Spider Run, the energy level was high. Pretty much everyone knew what was going on, Anthrax being the least surprised of the bunch. We may not have confused the dog, but we certainly confused all those runners we passed on Ridgeway.

    There were various comments from the PAX that they figured something was up when I put out the poll a few weeks ago. Turns out there were no clear and decisive victors. So what does a strong leader do when there are no clear winners? Dictate of course. So we chose 4 hills that received no votes and did intervals on them. While we may have reached the top of two of them, it was still a great combination of hill repeats.

    Anytime someone wants to surprise me one day and plan some intervals, feel free. Seems unfortunate I am the only one able to give out this much joy on a regular basis.

    Two highlights of the day for me, both on Bostwick. While running beside Chippendale, we made the first turn and his expression said it all. No words, simply a grunt and a groan. Yes, Bostwick sucks.

    Second highlight was on the second interval on Bostwick. Faceplant didn’t break story for the entire 1 minute interval. YHC made sure to indirectly call him out by reminding the PAX that if you can tell stories on Bostwick, you aren’t doing it right.

    Enjoy the day fellas.

  • The Westhoe Fault Line

    A Dirty Dozen descended upon the HBR parking lot awaiting YHC to take us to the normal COP spot. According to the Shadowboxer on the track we instead did:

    COP at end of the track: Invisible Jump rope, Imperial Walkers, Don Qs, Ukrainian Solders, Merkins, LBCs, Scorpion kicks. Head over to school exit for Curb Crawls. Up to 5 Merkins and back down.

    Mosey to the benches after a thwarted attempt to get on to the field. Triple check consisting of: Benchkicks, Squats, run to Heartbreak hill, up & back. Mosey over to Jerkin Gym: 4 rounds of 7 Jerkins. Head up to the top field for 2nd installment of Touch-a-Pole. 3 rounds.

    Mosey back to main lot & partner up. Wheelbarrow across entire lot. Head back to flag for 2 min of Mary. Prayers for Bocelli’s Mom (and family) and for Handshake’s cousin. YHC took us out.

    NMS: While the world struggles with borders and conflict in the middle east, F3RVA deals with their own border definitions. The only certainty, amongst all this chaos, is Heartbreak Ridge sits in the center of the Westhoe region, straddling the line of Tuckahoe and West End, and always draws a good mix of PAX from all over the area. The only other given is it isn’t a beatdown at HBR if you leave with dry shoes.

    Good to have Bocelli in from Greensboro and Mr Holland back out at HBR for the morning. Touch-a-pole was such a success last week that YHC brought it back out. Hopefully Atilla burned those shorts he had on after soiling himself in the COP.

  • Why don’t Pullups have a cool F3 name?

    You know how you kind of feel weak doing pull-ups? Well we decided to add our weight vests/rucks to the 5am pull-up session… #humbled. 3 HIM’s worked on their 2 rep max for weighted pull-ups with the following circuit. Note – we could not figure out why the Lexicon hasn’t coined something neat for pull-ups… we have Merkins, why not Perkins? I dunno…

    • 5 minute warm-up
    • EMOM – 5 sets
      • 3 perfect pull-ups
      • Plank Position rest
    • V-legged pull-ups (Legs straight in a V perpendicular to body while you pull-up)
      • 10 rotating sets, 1 rep each time
    • Assisted Pull-ups
      • 5 sets, 6 reps each
      • The partner assist really helped us add some reps as our back and bis were failing
    • Burnout/Finisher
      • Burpee into Jump Pull-up
      • 15 Reps

    Props to Big Rig for motivating YHC and Posh to do this Morning Wood most weeks. I think we’re getting stronger? LFGO!

    -State Farm

  • Heist’s last year of h8.

    Wooweeeee! LFG! What a day guys! Thanks everyone for coming and helping start out my last year of hate out right!

    Mosey to the Basketball court. 1985 playlist blaring. 

    F3 Speech/Disclaimers. Warmorama: 39 SSH, 15 CHS, deadman hang (C/L/R), 20 LBCs, 20 Susan Summer (L/R), 15x flutters, 15x APD, 10x Merkins, Wilson’s wife and then “push into Fudd’s wife.” That was akward…

    COP 1: Quick set of 11s on the court with LBCs and squats. Theme song may have been this. 

    COP 2: Mosey towards the fields, but a little pit stop on the bridge for descending/rotating sets of incline/decline merkins. 10/9/8/7, etc. 

    COP 3: Beast (entire field). Switched to some better 80s hairband music, including this gem. Exercises were: 

    1. LBCs
    2. Merkins
    3. SSH 
    4. Ball dippers
    5. Arm circles
    6. Last but not beast (ha) burpees

    Indian run back to the flag (not many ran up front, but it was just to kill time anyway). 

    COP 4: Quick eye of the storm. 1 burpee in middle. 10 reps in each corner doing SSH, drydocks, merkins and something else (I forgot). 

    Stretched for a few minutes to a little Journey. BTW, the song faded out right at 6:15, I was so proud (*pats self on back*)

    Announcements:

    1. DTH wants you to come out and get sloppy with some GTE training tomorrow led by Machismo.
    2. Heist wants you to sign up for the GTE #47 event.
    3. Oyster – Sign up for breaking bread (it’s on the Q sheet). It’s easy. Breaking Bread supports medical respite here in Richmond.
    4. Oyster’s not paying for lunch, but come join us this Friday at Rusty Taco in Westchester.

    Prayers:

    1. Pray for DTH’s father-in-law who has lung cancer
    2. Pray for Handshake’s relative, Charlotte (9-years old), who has bone cancner
    3. Pray for NTB and his wife as they hope to welcome a new child into the world
    4. Pray for our brother Wildcat, he is living with Stage IV lung cancer. He has his quarterly scans today to check on the prognosis. Special prayers as his wife is also pregnant with #3.
    5. Pray for our brother Benny. For those that don’t remember, Benny came out strong last spring, but has fallen out of the Gloom on account of his new work schedule. His wife recently lost a child…he lost his mother a few weeks ago as well.
    6. Pray for healing for Rosie’s knee. I didn’t do it! Seriously though, Rosie jacked up his knee at Dog Pile in sort of a freak accident during a triple check at dog pile (stepped on his shoe lace and twisted his knee). He goes to orthopedic specialist today for an opinion. Let’s hope nothing serious, so he can get back out in the gloom soon.

    YHC took us out in prayer.

    Last thoughts: Many many thanks for coming out today. All the birthday love was great and I enjoyed having some fun!

    P.S.: 1985 was a remarkable year with many interesting events and cultural moments. Here are some fun facts from 1985:

    1. Live Aid Concerts: One of the most significant music events in history, the Live Aid concerts, were held in July 1985. These simultaneous concerts in London and Philadelphia raised funds for famine relief in Ethiopia and featured performances by some of the biggest names in music, including Queen, U2, and Madonna.
    2. The Debut of Classic Movies: 1985 saw the release of several iconic films, including “Back to the Future,” “The Breakfast Club,” and “The Goonies.” These movies have become cultural touchstones and continue to be beloved by audiences around the world.
    3. New Coke: In a controversial move, Coca-Cola introduced New Coke in April 1985, changing the formula of its flagship soda. The public reaction was overwhelmingly negative, leading the company to bring back the original formula as “Coca-Cola Classic” just three months later.
    4. The Discovery of the Titanic Wreckage: The wreck of the RMS Titanic, which sank in 1912, was finally discovered in September 1985 at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean by a joint American-French expedition led by Robert Ballard.
    5. Super Mario Bros. Released: Nintendo released the iconic video game “Super Mario Bros.” in September 1985, featuring the plumber brothers, Mario and Luigi. This game became one of the best-selling video games of all time and a cornerstone of video game culture.
    6. Windows 1.0: Microsoft released its first version of Windows, Windows 1.0, in November 1985. This graphical user interface marked the beginning of Microsoft’s dominance in the personal computer operating system market.

  • Speed Humpers

    15 beast (including 1 FNG) showed up this morning to start off the week right.

    Warmarama- Slow mozey followed by SSH, Arm Circles, dead man hang, merkins, lbcs, stretching

    The THANG

    11’s Run one side of the parking lot to the other and exercises were incline merkins and Squats

    Off to the tennis CAGE for some pain – Increasing exercises by 5 starting with a bear crawl across the tennis courts in between each one with 5 burpees , 10 freddie’s, 15 monkey humpers, 20 squats, 25 plank jacks…pax loved it so much we brought the exercises back off in the same order while lunging in between exercises

    indigenous laps around the court while last runner did 5 merkins ( 2 rounds)

    YHC was looking through the exicon and found ” speed humpers” on sunday and thought this would be the perfect spot for some laughs on a monday morning. 1 minute timer … as many money humpers as possible

    Triple check – Decline merkins, plank and runner to the dumpster

    closed it out with some stretching….

    Welcome to Jumper . great job today!

    ANNOUNCEMENTS- HEIST BDAY Q @ NO TOLL TOMORROW, Oyster lunch friday , dont forget about breaking bread

    Prayers for Wildcat this week as he has his scans and also Handshake’s relative Charlotte and her family and she fights cancer

  • Five dark thirty

    12 studs gathered at a cool Hoedown morning to kick off another week. Here’s how it went:

    Short mosey to the top of Lindsey for a COP – 15xSSH, DMH, 10xCP, 15xLBC, 10xMerkins. Quick start into Lindsey – partner up to head to the bottom, alternating side shuffles & 10x MH’s. New partners for the climb back out; timer runs to the top & back while partner bear crawl, lunge, burpee broad jump and crab walks.

    Head to the upper parking lot for a triple check of WWII, box cutters and 10x box jumps on the little wall. Intermission planks with a classic Swirly invitational to hold it. Triple check #2 commenced on the super dark upper field of HRM, squats and a timer run to 5x pull ups.

    The school lights finally came on. Handshake was relieved to be through the longest 30 minutes ever.

    We stopped for 2×12 jerkins at the handrail on the way back down and knocked out a curb crawl up to 5 and back down at the drop off loop. 5 min of Mary wrapped up our time with APDs, FKs, H2Hs, HD’s, WW1s and a plank. YHC botched a dad joke and we moved to Numberama, Namerama, Announcements (prayers for Handshake’s 2nd cousin 9yr old; bone scan situation)

    YHC took us out. I’m super thankful to be able to gather with such a fine group to stay active and grow. Enjoy the day gents & until next time, GP.

  • Prodigal Prostitution

    9 Prodigal sons including 7 FNGs spent 2 mornings (8 Saturday, 4 Sunday) of their Men’s retreat prostrate and visiting darkened corners multiple times. The statement was made “To plant, grow, and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership.” Our core values were shared: Free of Charge, Open to All Men, Outdoors (rain or shine), Guys lead in a rotating fashion, and ends in the circle of trust. A disclaimer was given if not believed.

    Warmerama: YHC led the pax through various renamed and demonstrated exercises including SSH, UKS, Copperhead Squats, Lunges (why doesn’t this have a name?), WWIIs, Merkins, Heels to Heaven, LBCs.

    Q1 (Saturday) Thing one: 8 Pax Ran to the Elders lodge in the pouring rain and led a four corners prostitute workout with American Hammers, SSH, WWIIs, and Merkins. Various fart sackers heard the herd rumble past their rooms and one sleep walker came to see what the commotion entailed.

    Q2 (Sunday) Thing one: 4 Pax led a prostitution ring moseying to the four corners of the tennis court with 5 Burpees, 10 Merkins, 15 Squats, and 20 WWIIs.

    Q1 Thing 2: Pax moseyed weaving around the four corners of the remaining two lodges with lunges, bernie sanders, high knees, reverse lunges, and Karaokes alternating as they passed rooms of sleeping men.

    Q2 Thing 2: Pax moseyed to the dining hall for 11s with UKs and SSH.

    Q1 Thing 3: Pax moseyed through the rain to the picnic shelter and did a dora. 50 dips, 100 squats, 150 monkey humpers.

    Q2 Thing 3: Pax greeted the sun with a trip for a triple check including incline merkins, and squats.

    Q1 Pax finished with 5 minutes of merry.

    YHC had the pleasure of introducing F3 to 7 FNGs this weekend including 2 repeat customers. Multiple Middle Eastern Patriarchs who, unlike Luke 15s father, decided not to run to greet the sun; expressed a desire to engage. Gentlemen Richmond needs more pax. The call from Flight Nurse was put out, we want pax in the gloom we want pax at grow school, we want pax at grow ruck. If you don’t believe you are prepared we will carry you! Let’s get the GrowRuck up to 47 let’s start maxing out AOs. Let’s continue sharing the mission!

  • there is no plateau

    2 dudes in search met this morning in search of a few easy miles. What they found was 5.5 brisk miles and some invigorating conversation on life and leadership. There is no plateau , you are only accelerating or decelerating. Let’s get after it!

  • It’s a beautiful day

    7 guys! came out to enjoy the gorgeousness of a new day

    First challenge — run around a mile in the gorgeous weather — so much fun.

    made it to a shelter inside of a neighborhood that Phonics knew about

    COP — lots of exercises I don’t remember

    Mr Holland —
    Partner up and bear crawl up and back the length of the shelter while partners did step ups on the benches

    Helix —
    Triple check — one partner does a lunge all the way down the length of the shelter
    second partner does dips
    third partner does am hams

    Run back to the flag in the amazing weather.

    SYITG!