Category: Richmond, VA

  • ‘Tis the Season

    47, yes, you read that right 47 festive carolers rolled into the parking lot of Huguenot Park after Swirly secured the AO for the event. Lots to celebrate in 2023 so the PAX showed up strong for the 12 Days of Christmas.

    0530 let the party begin – Big circle for intro and warm up. 12 SSH, 12 IW – introduce the FNG, 12 Helicopters. Main event – this has not changed from the past couple of years and why would I change a good thing.

    1 – Dozen LBCs, 2 – Field Sprints (jogs), 3 – Diamond merkins, 4 – Imperial Squat Walkers, 5 – Burpees, 6 – Carolina Dry Docks, 7 – Ball Dippers, 8 – Hand Release Merkins, 9 – American Hammers, 10 – Freddie Mercuries, 11 – Crunchy Frogs, 12 – Broad Jump Burpees.

    Extra time on the clock and I want to make sure everyone got the full 45 minutes – 6 Minutes of Mary – Dollies, Rosalitas, Cross leg lifts, Flutter kicks (slow then fast then ludicrous), Heels to heaven, Shoulder taps, Tempo Merkins.

    Numbers – 47! – Names – this is where YHC was trying to record but apparently did not start until I got around to Buddy, let’s blame it on cold fingers. So much for not testing the recall skills today – all 47 accounted for. Thanks to EF Hutton for giving me a 28, 29? DK, person head start with the gift exchange. Excellent idea, well received by all, and with that a new tradition is born. I can’t get over the energy from this morning and how much it has carried over into my day, and likely the rest of the week. There is a normal energy to an F3 workout and then there is 46 brothers posting to let me lead them through some pain and suffering (by suffering I mean listening to us sing). Thank you all for showing up today and every other day to make F3RVA a great place, it doesn’t happen without each of you.

    Announcements

    GrowRuck – GTE #47 River City May 3-5, 2024 – Look for a pre-blast on Slack and the website later but here is a preview link to the registration https://growruck.com/event/gte-47/

    As Hardywood said, LFG, sign up and make this an RVA strong event. We know guys from other areas will show up but this is our chance to show them what we have here.

    Have a great day and a Merry Christmas. apologies to Big Data for throwing off the calculation for the New Year’s convergence – who wants to come back to NoToll (or SOT)?

    Everything is coming up Rosie.

  • Your Mom Fart-sacked

    The four of us looked at each other and asked: “who’s the Q for today”? Someone responded “your mom” signed up as Q. Apparently, she fart-sacked and so we had a ‘hot potato’. The following is approximately correct.

    Wedding Singer started out with a mosey to the 3rd Presbyterian parking lot for:

    • 20 SSHs in cadence
    • 10 Don Quixotes in cadence
    • Stretching
    • 10 Merkins in cadence

    And then we moseyed over to the office building beside the school for

    • 20 WWIIs in cadence
    • 20 Freddy Mercuries in cadence

    Mosey to the parking lot behind building (very short distance) and partnered up for

    • Partner 1 bear crawls across parking lot and jogs back
    • Partner 2 does Merkins
    • Switch with a goal of 100 Merkins

    Last Call took over and we used the cross walk to mosey to the office building between Ziontown, Ridge and Forest. We partnered up and did the following:

    • Partner 1 runs around the building
    • Partner 2 does WWIIs
    • Switch roles

    Second time:

    • Partner 1 runs around the building
    • Partner 2 does Merkins
    • Switch roles

    Last Call took over and we went to the parking lot with the cinder blocks and partnered up for a triple check

    • Partner 1 runs around the parking lot (timer)
    • Partner 2 does called exercise
    • 50 single count windshield wiper merkins
    • 125 curls
    • 200 squats

    YHC took over and we did

    • 30 Flutters in cadence

    Moseyed to the front of the school for

    • 20 Bench Kicks on the stairs in cadence

    Moseyed to the wall for Angry Donkeys.

    • 11s with People’s chair airpress and donkey kicks.

    And in the “courtyard” by the wall we did

    • 20 Pole Smokers (imaginary poles)
    • 20 APDs
    • 5x Pointing Dog (start on all fours, raise right arm and left leg and hold for a count of 10, switch arm/leg)
    • 60 count 6-inch leg lift

    Times up!

    Announcements

    12 Days of Christmas

    Takeout with some additional commentary by YHC:

    The Spanish have a verb “esperar”. This means ‘to hope’ or ‘to expect’. These words, expect and hope, do not mean the same thing. If you expect something, it will almost certainly take place. We expect Christmas in a week. It will certainly happen. But we hope for a season of goodwill and a coming new year better than this fast-expiring old one. (I hope we all had a great 2023 but I know there have been struggles for at least some of us.) Today, the years since the birth of Christ are called CE or the Common Era. But in years previous, this timeframe was Anno Domini or “In the year of the Lord”. The hope was that the presence of Christ in this world would bring us a world of peace and love. May 2024 bring us a bit closer to those ideals.

  • Pre-DoC Alamo long mosey.

    Did a 4 mile run with Wildcat around the neighborhood yesterday and felt a little sore from the extra push. When I got backup Q duty last night I did a little grinch smile. When you Q, you call the shots!

    Thang: 5:30 a.m. Longest warmup jog ever from the clubhouse to the new section of Rountrey….nothing but a barren wasteland of gravel and empty lots. I gave the F3 spiel and double checked with Boberry and Statefarm…btw, working on my F3 flag, so far Harbor Freight seems to be the winner with my $9.99 shovel and $3.99 flag!

    I digress…did some various stretches and carried on down Bellstone. Stopped by Blacktop’s house…Pax owed 10 penalty burpees because he said he was going to come out today.

    Mosey on around the trails behind Swoop’s house. Dodged various muddy puddles. Found a dry spot and did 20x copperhead squats and a 2 minute plank. Popped out on Endstone Trail and headed up the hill.

    • Made up exercise #1 at Endstone Culdesac: S.A.N.T.A.
      • S: SSH (30x)
      • A: APD (30x)
      • N: No cheat merkin (20x)
      • T: “Torso Twist” aka american hammers (20x)
      • A: A Burpee
    • Kicked off the next one to RVa’s one and only Statefarm in Rankin CT for G.R.I.N.C.H.
      • G: Getups(10x) these sucked.
      • R and I: Rows and Incline Merkins. Partner exercise where ankles held for rows and buddy does Merkins. I think the neighbors may have callef the police as it looked illegal.
      • N: No cheat squats (20x)
      • C: Crunchy Frogs (20x)
      • H: Hury up to Alamo….sprint

    Back to Alamo for some stretches. Maybe even some partner stretches, but what happens at the Alamo stays at the Alamo.

    Announcements:

    1. Rosie 12 DOC tmw
    2. Vagabond’s last stand at Satan’s Hill on 1/5/24
    3. Bring shoes tmw for donation to DTH.

    Prayers:

    Keep praying for little Liv and her continued healing. Pray for Wildcat. He has shoulder surgery Wednesday a.m. to clean up old football injuries. Pray for recovery for Swoop’s buddy who is in a medically induced coma in Brazil after a hang gliding accident.

    One last thing men. Put your damn cell phone down and spend good quality time with your family this Christmas. Time with our loved ones is precious. Enjoy it!

    Heist out.

  • Holiday Squares Run

    10 wise men showed up, no one was on the Q, a conversation occurred and off we went. North on Commonwealth, east on Monument returning on Grove (or Hanover, whatever suits your fancy). 4s turn at Arthur Ashe, 5s and 6s turn on something 22 minutes out up to Grove and home.

    As Bodos and YHC were discussing proposed routes over near the antique mobile, the pax started to trickle in and the holiday Monument Ave run was called to order. May need to change this annual tradition that left the ‘tacky light run’ a little to be desired. Monument doesn’t really get good until after Blvd which the 4s cut off, and there was a lot of traffic today. As Marv declared, Hanover is the way to go so we may incorporate that in a future holiday spirit run. Onward and upward men! -Singer

    Should have completed this Friday, I’m missing someone. Contact me to edit if needed. TYA? BT? Shake?

  • Ok. now lift your leg.

    3 runners and 2 bootcampers came out on a beautiful Saturday morning for a workout of supreme greatness.

    3 runners ended up doing 7 miles this morning.

    2 bootcampers did something like this…

    Started in the parking lot with a karate style stretch and limbering routine. Mixed in some helicopters, Don Quixotes, arm circles. Then we moseyed to the first speed bump that Atlee was nice enough to build for us. We then began the Century Mile which goes as follows: 10 LBCs, 10 squats, 10 LBCs, 10 single count lunges, 10 LBCs, 10 merkins, 10 LBCs, 10 calf raises, 10 LBCs followed by a brisk mosey to the next speed bump. Rinse and repeat for a total of 10 speed bump circuits.

    Next we finished off the mile at a steady jog and returned to our starting point in the Atlee parking lot. We proceeded to cool down with some stretches and finished the beatdown with a short gut buster that included 20 full extension crunches, 20 standard Alabama prom dates, 20 single leg extended Alabama prom dates to each side, 20 LBCs, and 20 per side Jane Fonda leg raises. Then you guys arrived. Name-arama, numberama, etc.

  • You Know Where You Are

    i am usually doing this on a desktop, but my iPad can handle this(looking for a more current one plus keyboard where I can be at Starbucks or mobile and knock this out). 15 came out this Saturday morning ready to go(when it’s a Mudslide Q, it doesn’t matter the weather the intensity is there). After a warm-up(SSHs, Helicopters, Don Quixote, Ukrainian Soldiers, Copperhead Squats, Imperial Walkers, Merkins and LBCs) time to venture out.

    Part 1: Dora(flipped it with 300 Squats, 200 LBCs, and 100 Merkins). I could tell with this that everyone was ready

    Part 2: Foul pole to Foul pole (a take on the hardest mile instead on concrete, grass makes things easier). 20 walking lunges, 20 bear crawls, 5 burpees). I was getting good plus helping others bring it home a plus.

    Part 3: a four corners considering of: 25 2-count mountain climbers, 50 2-count ski hops, 75 SSHs, 100 2-count toe taps. A little mosey back to the courts for the final thing

    Part 4: murder bunnies to the half court(called an audible of reverse lunges at half way). The other end a 11 combo of punches and front kicks. A little music to help out

    A final little hip and leg stretching, numbers, call outs and prayer led by YHC to close out

    Welcome Jesse(FNG) L Woods to the group brought out with Florence did a great job hanging in there for the entire time. Thanks to Florence and House Party for the contribution to my son’s 4H fundraiser I added some more a good amount about 1/3 full all told. See Slack for all upcoming items the big one 12/19 we all know where and what now just needs to happen. One more big announcement at that time will come out so stand by.

    Still time left to get the site you want to host NYD convergence but you have to come out. The time is almost up I am sure we will hear soon who gets it. Today far as the distance probably the longest one I have lead(4 miles total), I have a few more Qs to lead to end 2023 don’t think even though you see less of me due to working nights that I am slacking, not a chance. I move at night a lot (5-7 miles on an average) that I keep up, see everyone Tuesday have a great rest of the weekend

  • DogPile VQ – 5 Years in the Making

    It has been five years in the making to get to this point, and YHC was so honored to see the 14 studs turnout, even a few that read the weather report wrong. We had everything from full pants to no pants, and everything in between. The deal still stood – if you bring a FNG YHC will take you and your FNG out to breakfast at Libbie Market – no FNGs were spotted today.

    Warmup

    We started with a reminder about the mission of F3 then it was off to do some much overlooked and needed stretching. Then 25 SSHs, progressively getting faster, followed by a 10 merkin wave. Handshake said that YHC stole this idea but YHC really was just doing an homage to YHC’s pal.

    Thang

    Following the warmup, it was off for a tour of the sites. YHC reminded everyone to mentally mark the flashing crosswalk because it would come into play later. Mosey to a new triangle near the pond for a triple check. Slight modification to the triple check, every time the timer/runner comes back the three of you do 3 burpees in unison. So timer runs while the other two do merkins for the first round and airsquats, second and third round goes from merkins to WW2s.

    Finish up then its off to do an homage to EF Hutton, run down the road of pretty houses and at every SUV/Truck 5 merkins, car 5 WW2s, and convertibles 10 air-presses, but there were no convertibles. And for every Woodfin truck it was 20 burpees – no Woodfin trucks today.

    At the end of the road take a left down the tunnel street for lunges, crabwalk, and bear crawls. At the end of the tunnel look what we have here but two Frisbees!

    YHC reminded everyone to remember the flashing cross walk – the game is this, get the frisbee all the way to the flashing cross walk in under 5 minutes. If the frisbee touches the ground its 5 merkins for everyone. If we don’t get to the flashing crosswalk in 5 minutes its 20 burpees for everyone – race was on. soon everyone stopped catching and just threw the Frisbee as far as one could. We may need to do some ultimate practice. All arrived safely at the flashing cross walk.

    Mosey to the valley behind the stage. Count off by 1-2-1-2, and for Upchucks case count off 1-2-1-2-1-2. He certainly followed directions. Once we were all into two teams, we paired up with an opponent for a game of Rock Paper Scissors. You and your partner play 10 rounds in the bottom of the valley, between each round you run back up the hill and meet back down in the middle of the valley. Winner of each game goes into plank and the looser of each game does 3 burpees. Rinse and repeat 10 times. After that the ultimate winner so the person with the most games won on team 1 and team 2 meets in the middle for the ultimate showdown – rest of the PAX is in plank and the Mr. Rogers and YHC faced off in a squat for best 2 out of three rounds. YHC was victorious, and the losing team had to do 25 merkins.

    Mosey back to the flag for some stretching. This group means so much and are a great part of my day, thank you all for the opportunity to lead today.

    Announcements: Rosie’s 12 days of Christmas on Tuesday, and don’t forget your present!

    YHC took us out!

  • Who Let the Dogs Out!

    Two early risers decided to hit Rockwood Park for some early morning miles. YHC did some rucking while Big Rig did some running. While YHC was solo, Big Rig had his four legged companion with him to join in on his run. I’m sure even with 4 legs, he had a hard time keeping up with Big Rig.

    House Party

  • Skip the frozen tundra of Grid Iron

    15 men posted this cold Dec morning for a little bit of cardio, abs, and arms…but we skipped the frozen tundra of Grid Iron for the comfortable turf field.

    Started off with one partner doing Lunges across the 120 yard field, while the other partner jogs to the end and back and meets original partner doing lunges. Switch partner and complete until you reach the end. On the way back it was partner Marching Ukrainian Soldiers across the field. Then partner Bear Crawls to end of the field, followed by partner Crawl Bear and Bernie Sanders. Break.

    Then 10 Merkins every 10 yards…pause at mid field for 100 abs (4 sets of 25 Crunchy Frogs, WW II, Heals to Heaven, LBCs)…finish the next 50 yards with 10 Merkins every 10 yards. Turn around and complete a Burpee Ladder (1-5, 5-1) and 50 yards of 5 sets of 10 Staggered Arm Merkins…with a pause at midfield for another 100 abs (2 sets of 25 Side Crunches, and 50 American Hammers). Break

    To the picnic benches for 3 sets of 20 Step Ups, 20 Dips and 20 Durkins. Then to playground for some Pinto Specials (20 APD, 20 Pickle Pounders), 100 more abs (50 American Hammers, 25 WW I, and 25 Flutters). Break. Circle up, and go to coffee.

  • Manndate Tabata Time

    YHC arrived early to an empty lot…thinking solo broke out the Tabata app and in roll two more for the morning beatdown and here is what went down:

    Start with a warm up of 20 SSH, 10 Helicopters,10 DQ and 15 Arm Circles 10 small 5 big reverso.

    THANG

    Open up the Tabata app and we perform 8ea 4 minute sets of 20 second exercise 10 seconds rest (8 reps or this for each set) and the exercises were

    1 – KB merkin – push up with KB on one hand other hand on ground – slide KB to other hand in plan position then push up repeat until 20 seconds is up.

    2 – KB Squats, 3 – KB fluter kicks while benching KB. 4 – KB curls, 5 – KB alternating lunges, 6 – KB LBC’s, 7 – KB tricep extensions 8 – KB calf Raises.

    Run Lap for a cool down.

    Numberama, Namerama – Yardsale took us out in prayer.