Category: Richmond, VA

  • A Festivus for the rest of us

    Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my daughter. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way. What happened to the doll? It was destroyed. But out of that a new holiday was born. A Festivus for the rest of us.

    Nine great men joined together a couple days early to celebrate. Before I went over the 5 key parts to F3, I mean Festivus, we did some warmups in honor of my favorite Seinfeld episode that featured opposite George. Because if every instinct I have is wrong, the opposite would have to be right. We did some reverse arm circles (10 big then 5 small), then some forward, then some Mercury Freddies followed by reverse scorpion kicks. We flipped over on our belly and did some reverse flutters and finished with the bell and some reverse merkins (presses).

    We reviewed as a group the 5 principles of Festivus. 1) There is an aluminum pole with no decorations (I find tinsel distracting). The pole was proudly displayed on the sidewalk 2) It begins with the airing of grievances 3) Their is a meal 4) It ends with the Feats of Strength and 5) Be on the lookout for a Festivus miracle(s).

    The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I got a lot of problems with some exercises and now you’re gonna hear about it. We went around the circle and announced what exercise we had a problem with and then we all did 20 of such exercise. I started. I have a problem with sit and presses on pavement as it gives me a tramp stamp. So we did 20. While likely not 100% accurate, I think we then went with Fireman Ed having a problem with Halos, Byproduct having a big dislike for Overhead Pulls, Offshore had a problem with American Hammers, Pigskin with Bearcrawling with the bell, Fudd has a problem with Merkins using the bell with one hand and alternating each hand with each merkin, Attila and his back have a problem with swinging (that’s what she said), White Deer dislikes plank rows and Johnsonville has a problem with overhead presses. 180 counts later, we were done. We bonded as a family telling these 9 exercises how they disappointed us over the past year.

    We then had an AMRAP meal. One member of the pax ran to the pole, did 3 burpees and ran back while the group did an exercise. We did 3 rounds of curls, lawnmower pulls, WWII, bear crawl/crawl bear, rifle carry, squats, OH press and flutters with bell. Between rounds we ran around the bus loop.

    All right, everyone. It’s time for the Festivus feats of strength. I used cones to create a small square field for the competition. Each member would duck walk with hands behind our back and try to knock over each pax. Using your hands is illegal and you must stay inbounds. Last man “standing” wins. Let’s rumble!! Nine went down to four as Attila, Offshore, Fireman Ed, Fudd and Pigskin all were eliminated. The final four of Byproduct, White Deer, Johnsonville and YHC faced off. Johnsonville eliminated Byproduct while YHC found White Deer distracted by the lights and knocked him down in an upset. Johnsonville and YHC then faced off.

    Fireman Ed: I think you can take him, Whitesnake
    Whitesnake: Hey, come on. Be sensible.
    Johnsonville: Stop crying and fight!
    Whitesnake: Oh, oh I give. I give! (Johnsonville charged and forced me to go out of bounds)
    Johnsonville: This is the best Festivus ever!

    There were a few Festivus miracles identified. Johnsonville at Circus was definitely one. Attila not making any jokes about the “pole” was another. I think the biggest was having nine pax. There were nine seasons of Seinfeld! And we did 180 reps during our grievances and there were 180 episodes!

    Following the COT, many of us went to Starbucks to celebrate Johnsonville’s victory. I awarded him a certificate showing a donation made in his name to the Human Fund! Congrats!!

    I hope Festivus scratched you right where it itches. I put the pole back in the crawl space and it will be back next year.

  • The 12 Bells of Christmas

    Twas the Wednesday before Christmas when all through the parking lot
    Only 3 Davillians were stirring, that tried to stay hot;
    The kettlebells were brought by care with care,
    In preparation for YHC’s Q that is rare;

    This is how the story continued:

    Warm Up – Some stretching followed by SSH’s, Helicopters, and Arm Circles

    THANG

    The 12 Bells of Christmas

    Starting with 1 rep for the 1st exercise then a short lap around the parking lot then back for round 2 for 1 rep 1st and 2 reps 2nd. Rinse and repeat until we hit 12. This is how it went:

    1 – Turkish get up
    2 – Cleans
    3 – Sit up + Press
    4 – Good Mornings
    5 – Goblet Squats
    6 – Deadlifts
    7 – Overhead Press
    8 – Round The Worlds
    9 – Thrusters
    10 – Halos
    11 – Swings
    12 – Rows

    Numberrama, Namerama, Announcements, YHC took us out

    MOLESKIN

    Great to be back at MannDate, its been a while. Temp was in the 20’s so YHC made sure we got a little cardio to keep the blood flowing.

    Great 2nd F during the workout today

    SPIT ON THAT!!

  • Costa Rica

    No Lighthouse. He’s in Costa Rica. So Whitesnake and YHC more or less recycled last week’s workout. We run to the Dave and Buster’s parking deck. We went out the school to the left and cut thru West Broad Village. Once we got to the parking deck, we went up the stairs, across the top level, down the stairway, did 20 merkins and came back to the start. I think we did this 7x. Then we returned to Pocahontas the same way we came and had about 5 minutes left for some ab exercises.

    No announcements

    Matthew 6: Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

    Lighthouse feeding a crocodile
    LIghthouse feeding a crocodile

  • Light Duty

    With most of the Davillians seemingly injured, sick themselves, or with sick family members, the PAX did some running, which is purportedly better than no running. As YHC was pondering whether to get his sore back out the car for what appeared to be a solo run, Spit came in a few minutes late expecting to do a brief, light effort as he returns to health. The brief, light effort, just over three miles, was perfect for both, and there was plenty of pleasant mumblechatter about Disney despite our ailments.

  • Double Trouble

    Facing an empty Q sheet, two HIMs eschewed the fart sack for a hot potato beat down, and they didn’t go easy on themselves:

    Warmaramma:

    Mosey around the school. Shawshank stretch, deadman hang straight down left and right, helicopters, merkins, Freddie Mercurys, squats

    The Thang:

    Light post burpees – one burpee at the first light post, two burpees at the second light post, proceed until reaching ten burpees at the tenth light post

    Parking spaces – now in the parking lot of the midlothian station shopping center, we moved across ten parking spaces doing the following:

    Round 1: bear crawl across one parking space, one merkin on the line, bear crawl across the next parking space, two merkins on the line, continue until crossing ten spaces working up to ten merkins

    Round 2: following the same pattern as before, lunges across spaces and squats on the line crossing ten spaces and working up to ten squats

    Round 3: broad jump across spaces with SSHs on the line

    Round 4: sprint across one space, bernie back to start, sprint across two spaces, bernie back to start, continue across ten spaces

    Bleacher feature: 20 dips and 20 single count step ups

    Dora: runner up the hill and back, 100 squats, 200 LBCs, 300 SSHs

    Time called and BTTF.

    Numbers, names, announcements, COT

    Had a great time crushing it with Wedding Singer and enjoyed coffee afterward with the MoT crew. COT prayer focused on finding peace during the bustle of the season and being a light to our families and community.

  • SZN of GVN Birthday Edition

    A Festive and Fearless Fourteen faithful posted to First Watch to find out what YHC had planned. No plan but a request for a “light on running” beatdown meant Coupons and Murder Bunnies were called for. We did:

    COP: SSH, Don Qs, Ukrainian Soldiers, Merkins, Flutterkicks, Scorpion kicks. Back to get Coupons, partner up: 1 PAX lunges with block while other does 10 HRMs and the flapjack. Keep going to the mini-park. Switch partners for a Dora 123: 100 Block Thrusters, 200 Block Swings, 300 Block Bench press.

    Switch partners then time for 3 rounds of Block the Plank. Keep that partner then Murder Bunny length of park then back while partner does 10 Merkins. Back to flag for 2 min of Mary and Broga. YHC took us out

    Annoucements: GrowRuck coming to RVA in May. Sign up and get Rucking.

    NMS: YHC was glad to serve up some Coupon time for Kubota so blame him for the Dora. The theme of the morning was ample partner switching to keep things fresh, Hornydo approves. With all the partner rotations the Recovery pack after seemed the appropriate gift for the PAX. YHC would love to hear stories from Ms as PAX arrived home with their presents this morning.

    Good times as always at Coffeteria after as we got to watch Upchuck in his element- Assessing a car accident.

  • The Budget Tacky Light Run

    With two rain delays behind us, the budget friendly Tacky Light Run was finally a go. It was NOT 72 and sunny.

    YHC, the expert route maker, got us lost just once – where we navigated to the darkest cul de sac in the neighborhood. Nonetheless, we trudged on and ended with just over 5 miles of glorious fun. 

    Unfortunately, along the way, many of the neighborhood light-gluttons failed us by turning off their artwork. It may be something about 5:30 am and thousands of lumens beaming into your neighbors windows that doesn’t enhance the holiday spirit. 

    Next year we’ll get back to an evening fun run where we can soak up the LEDs and curse at distracted passersby.  

    Happy Holidays, 

    Your sleep deprived has-been expert route maker , DD

  • Poor Man’s 12 Days

    Four noble warriors held down the HBR fort as the masses converged on No Toll today.  Here is how it went down:

    • COP
      • SSH
      • IW
      • DQ
      • Helicopters
      • Arm circles
      • Jazzercize
      • Suzanne Somers
      • LBC
    • Over to Heartbreak Hill for our own 12 days of Christmas – run of the hill complete the reps, adding a new exercise each time and return down the hill, rinse and repeat until all 12 days are complete:
      • 12 merkins (144)
      • 11 WWII sit-ups (121)
      • 10 2x flutter kicks (100)
      • 9 side crunches – each side (81)
      • 8 squats (64)
      • 7 CDD (49)
      • 6 H2H (36)
      • 5 burpees (25)
      • 4 2x shoulder taps (16)
      • 3 2x crab cakes (9)
      • 2 diamond merkins (4)
      • 1 30 second fence sit
    • Mosey to the jerkin gym for 12 jerkins
    • Mosey around the track and Bernie up the hill to the parking lot
    • COT with YHC taking us out

    To be clear, there was no “patent” or “copyright” violations as a part of this workout.  Sold work from all  of the PAX.  Grateful for good health and the ability to do this injury free.

    God is good all of the time!

    Attila

  • River City – GTE #47 – May 3-5, 2024

    Let’s Go!! F3RVA, as announced at the 12 Days of Christmas workout this morning, the registration is open for the “River City” GTE #47 May 3-5, 2024.  Sign up before the January 7, 2024 price hike and let’s get training. This hometown event is the CSAUP we have been looking for to accelerate F3RVA and each man individually.  Check out the link below for more info and CLICK HERE for registration information.

    The weekend will consist of:

    • Friday Night Rally – A social gathering with a meal, it is open to all men, not just those signed up for the ruck.  This is where we kick off the weekend and learn about what’s in store for us throughout the weekend.  
    • Saturday Morning Convergence King Builder – This is a bootcamp workout that will be held at the premier AO in RVA, Dogpile.  This too is open to all men and may be an excellent opportunity for an EH or motivation for a last minute sign up.
    • Saturday Morning Grow School – This is a leadership training class led by F3 Nation Trainers that is part of your registration fee.  Will be held at a location close to Dogpile immediately after the King Builder.  
    • Saturday Night Crucible Ruck – This is the main event where everything from the previous events is put together and we work as a team of leaders to step out of our comfort zone and do something that will help us all grow.

    More information will follow on specific locations and timing for each of the events.  If you are considering participating and do not have a ruck, reach out to me, there are loaner rucks available that we can get in advance for training and the event but we need to get those requests in soon.

    The important thing is that you sign up now before the price hike, we don’t want to be outnumbered by out-of-towners. 

    Lockjaw and others will be leading ruck training at AOs around the region along with separate ruck centered events in the next few months to prepare us for the GTE. 

    https://growruck.com/event/gte-47/

  • Light the Menorah

    10 regulars arrived in various modes of transportation for a painful but spirited Spider Run. YHC posted the routes on slack, essentially 4s and 5s run up four different hills to Three Chopt and the 6s take one next 4 other hills, add a thumb with the bat cave and you’ve got yourself a Menorah run. Agreed, this makes no sense at all. But we ran a bunch of difficult hills and it was good. Fight me.

    Prayers to our brother Pucker and the Gorman family as they celebrates the life of his mother.

    Merry Christmas! There I said it!

    Seriously though T-claps to the 6s for tackling those hills, praise Jesus.