Category: Richmond, VA

  • WaThoHuk Audit (part 1)

    With Q1 complete, an Backblast audit was needed to ensure we could file the WaThoHuk 10-Q. A couple discrepancies were found.
    This one involved a T.A.C.O. workout at the opening day of Torchy’s Tacos. We first ran to the Torchy parking lot across Broad. Some teenage kids were already in line for free Queso and joined us for a bit. We did four corners with four exercises that spelled TACO. You’ll have to ask Roger Roger what they were.

    We then ran to the West Broad Village pond and met up with Pigskin. I took us up on a hill and we did sevens of some sort and got damp.

    We then ran back to the flag. 3.3 miles total.

  • The Merkin Wave!

    14 Hard chargers (including an FNG) met at Rockwood Park to test their limits and do the Merkin wave.

    Mosey to the Basketball court. The Warm-Up:
    Side Straddle-Hops, Ukrainian Soldiers, Don Quixotes, Imperial Soldiers, Cherry Pickers, Super Mario Jumps, Karaoke.

    THE MERKIN WAVE!

    What is a Merkin wave? Good question; here goes my best: It starts with the group getting into a circle and setting up in a good Merkin position.
    Starting from the down position of the Merkin, with your chest 1 to 2 inches off the ground, the First Hard Charger pushes up, and holds the position, and the person to the immediate left does a Merkin and holds, and it continues in a circl…… Have you either seen the wave done while watching a sporting event, and/or performed the wave while you were at a live sporting event? Well, that’s what we did. Imagine instead of people doing the wave around the stadium, we were doing Merkins in lieu of the wave. I don’t have a number of Merkins we did, but it was an amount that is making it difficult to type right now.

    Next up, Mosey to the baseball fields. Partner up in twos. Everyone does the wall sit, while the first two run down steps, complete 10 Bo-Ya (spelling) Merkins, run back up the steps, and begin doing tri-cep dips. While first two are doing tri-cep dips, next two come off the wall, go down the steps and complete 10 high-five Merkins, run back up the steps, and begin doing dips. The two that were doing dips return to wall sit. Rinse and repeat until everyone had a chance to gets some more Merkins in.

    Next up, indigenous line, everyone in the line doing American Hammers. Hard Charger in the back runs down and around the steps, comes back up, sets up in the front of the indigenous line, begins doing American Hammers, and person in back runs. Rinse and repeat until the everyone had the opportunity to run two laps. An Audible was called halfway through to transition from American Hammers to Word War 2s.

    Last, and certainly not least, Blackjack. Two workouts with a run in the middle, both workouts equaling 21. The first exercise, 1 hand release Merkin, run 40 yards, 20 jump squats, run 40 yards back, 2 hand release Merkins, run 40 yards, 19 jump squats, etc. etc. in total, 210 hand release Merkins and 210 jump squats.

    Mosey back to the parking lot.

    COT: There were no announcements or prayer requests. We welcomed the Friendly New Guy, and he received the name of Gaston.

    Note: This was my first time being the Q for a big group/an area that wasn’t Bermuda Triangle, and I have to say it is a blast. I came in confident that I had everything I needed to get the job done. I found out, like many sound plans, that a few audibles needed to be called, and some prior plans sound much better in your head/on paper than they do in action. I look forward to being the Q again someday in the future and encourage anyone that has never been a Q before to sign up!

  • And the Skies Opened…

    12 men descended upon the windy and somewhat wet confines of Northern Short Pump. Since Fireman Ed was Q, rain had to be a factor and thankfully was only a factor at 7:57. But the rain was enough to drive out the partial geriatrics but not before we got a beatdown going.

    COP: DMH, mosey most of the way around the track and then rest of COP at soccer field. Merkins, MCs, FMs and ACs. Mosey to tennis court for Andre Aggasi beast.

    Beast on tennis court including burpees, WWIIs (get the back moist), jump squats, HRMs, heels to heaven, squats. Mosey to basketball court.

    4 corners with 14 burpees (gets the burpee count to 50), 20 2 count flutter kicks, 30 2 count MCs and 50 SSHs. Mosey to field near home base.

    Parter wheelbarrow across the field, run back. Bear crawl to center of field, run to other end, Bernie back. Same with bunny hops. Mosey to little pavilion.

    Elevens with derkins and 2 count step ups. Mosey to soft surface and do AHs and then 50 APDs. With Pigskin counting in a Germanic language and the number being above PAX’s expectations, confusion ensued. At the point this exercise concluded, it started pouring so we went back to the little pavilion and did counterama and prayer.

    There is a CSOP at Currahee in a couple weeks. Other than that, the PAX wanted their Starbucks and I wasn’t about to tell them no. It was good to see everyone and to be able to lead.

    Fireman Ed – newly Respected

  • Rucking and Running

    2 ruckers(walking around with a weighted pack that can be used to train while wearing or as a tool) plus 5 runners came out this morning to Rockwood Park. Last week we had the lights on from all the baseball fields ready for practice. This week, a little breezy but the temps were mid 60s which made things comfortable.

    The ruckers(Florence and Footloose) took off at 6am to venture around the park. The runners(Chaplin, Touchdown, Hardywood, Rosie, and myself) took off at 630 around the trail from one side to the other. On days where the paved trail is wet, shoes with good traction is needed. A little research done on one of my trail running pairs and found out it was ok to do a short run on pavement. The pace was fast today, first mile was 9:39, second 9:30(my average heart rate for the run was 151BPM). We caught up with Florence and Footloose as they came out of the nature area, then headed back to the flag to get a rest, change shoes if needed, and get ready for the main workout.

    Is it easy….no. In time it does start to get easier. Each session, it’s not the big improvements but little ones that over time leads to bigger gains. Be safe with the winds today, have a good one and see you next time

  • F U Wind!

    We ran 5 miles at a 8:37 pace, with 4 miles against the wind. Not sure how that happened. Then Gridiron started with us running against the wind.

    As Catherine the Great said: A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.

    me=headache

  • Blursday Run

    2 Davillans got out before rain and enjoy the warm but windy weather for a run

    The Route included some traditional routes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We started with a loop around the school then turned onto Staple Rd which took us into the cut through Giles. We ran a loop around Giles.

    We then took Giles farms back to Atlee Station and headed over the flyover. After a short break for a walk we crossed over to Rutland Apt and loop around Kroger.

    We wrapped up with a loop around Rutland townhomes and back over the flyover to the Atlee parking lot for 6.5ish miles

    Great morning for a run. Mr Holland and YHC are to get this 10k completed

    Spit On That!

  • Who’s got the Q? April Fools

    1 Mile Run

    Penny Stage: Cindy Check: Short count we only have 12 blocks now.
    Cindy Circle: 10x Curls, 10 Presses, 10 Squats, 10x Block Burpees
    Return Cindys

    Rusty Cage: Partner up
    Round 1: P1: Long run to the fence and back. P2: 5 Merkins, 1 Pull-up repeat until P1 returns. Switch
    Round 2: P1: Long run to the fence and back. P2: 5 Squats, 2 Pull-ups repeat until P1 returns. Switch
    Round 3: P1: long run to the fence and back. P2: 3 Merkins, 3 Pull-ups repeat until P1 returns. Switch

    Amphitheater: Ascending/Descending
    Ascending Merkins up
    Descending Dips down

    WARMARAMA:
    SSH, Helicopters, Arm Circles, Imperial Walkers, Copperhead Squats, Cherry Pickers, Monkey Humpers, Merkins, LBC, Alabama Prom Dates, Flutter Kicks

    Slaughter Start: 10 Burpees

    Numberama: Namerama:

    Announcements: CSAUP/Convergence: May 6th. Ruck / BootCamp / Run see Slack from Gomer for more details.

    NMS: The old April Fools on the Q sheet and reverse Q. What a great morning for that Q energy. A 1 mile start is always a crowd favorite you are just never sure if it’s going to be the full mile or not. Great to have Faceplant back out in the Gloom. Enjoy those little ones now. They grow up way too fast. Hope those boys that went to the Bridge had a great time and made some great connections. Can’t wait to hear about it.

    8 men wondering if the Q sheet was a joke this morning. Wilson reminded everyone that it was April’s Fool. and with that YHC started the Q. Great morning fellas, thanks for letting me lead.

    Oyster

  • Carpe Diem

    10 dudes got swole for another Flex Friday at Satan’s Hill. 

    Warmorama: Up the Hill and Back. CHS (20x), UKS (20x), Merkins (20x), OYO stretch 60 seconds.  Grab the Cindys for some warmup sets of sumo squats, deadlift, push press, etc.

    What we did:

    Part 1: Cindy 11s

    I kind of swore off burpees yesterday…after a solid whooping by the likes of McGruff, OC and Florence this week. Deep down, I knew my inner “B” had gotten the best of me…so tapped into that PAX energy for a nasty set of 11s. Start with 1 burpee cinder block (more like a groiner with a dead-lift…no OH movement) and jog about 25 yards across parking lot for 10x jump squats. Pretty brutal after about 6/7 rounds. Ended with 10x cinder block burpees and 1x squat jump

    Part 2: Cindy work and bands:

    • Transition warmup with some side-shuffles down and back in the parking lot before exercises.
    • Swings: Mudslide provided some solid instruction on proper cinder block swing form. We did several warmup rounds of this. Then, we partnered up with flex bands to add resistance (pulling from behind) while partner performs cindy swings. The flex band resistance requires utilization of core strength and emphasis on proper form. See link below.
    • Cindy Pushups with Bands – A few rounds of pushups on cinderblocks while partner pulls flex band from left and then right side. Requires core strength utilization.
    • Cindy Clean and Press – 2x rounds of OYO cindy clean and press with good form
    3 Unique Uses for Cinder Blocks

    Part 3: Sprints + Band Resistance – With flex band around waist, A man sprints Full Parking Lot while B man holds flex band for resistance. 2x rounds percent.

    Part 4 Moseyed back to flag area and grabbed the bands for some stretches.

    Time…maybe a little over time (but we had time).

    Outro: Numbers and Names. 

    Announcements: Need a Q for Alamo next week. Jump on that.

    Great news and glory to God shared in our COT this morning. Praise shared by Wildcat: He has been kicking the butt of stage IV lung cancer since Summer of 2021. As part of this journey, he gets a quarterly scan at UVA to keep tabs on his condition….recent scan this Tuesday looked stable. Amazing dude….a beast…amazing what our brother Wildcat does in the Gloom.

    Prayers – Mudslide took us out. Thanks to God for Wildcat’s good news. Prayers for all the Pax.

    Have a good weekend everyone. I plan to hit the fart sack this weekend to catch up on sleep!

  • Security Footage Review

    According to the surprised teacher heading into the school early and what could turn out to be some interesting security footage, this is what happened when 6 bootcampers rolled around the JRHS campus. (oh yeah and 2 runners did everything they could to avoid hills).

    A loose idea for a workout avoiding Twin Team and KB brought out a few that don’t normally post to TT. Easy warmup with tight cadence until we tried the Scapula merkins – a Toga? favorite. Poor explanation and cadence led to completing 2 or 27 of these depending on how you were counting. Mosey around to JRHS past the scary dog, don’t worry Bullseye, OC is here to protect you. Stop and do some stuff along the way, HRM, Pull ups, slow Shoulder taps. No one waiting for parking spaces so we flipped a few tires. Behind the school was a mess of traffic so we found a mostly empty parking lot. Some marching APDs, slow APDs – [Redacted] – holding it for that good glute work, form is important, gotta make sure those glutes are tight for the M. To our surprise the one car in the parking lot was not empty and the occupant may or may not have been very confused/offended/disgusted by 6 gentlemen working on their APD form behind his car.

    Some more moseying, mumblechatter, lunges, dips, single leg squats, HRMs and probably some other stuff brought us back to the start. With time still left on the clock we we used a few of the many new benches that have been added to the front of the school. [Redacted] Decline shoulder taps were by far the most popular here, especially when the cadence hit Bullseye aka Ludicrous Speed.

    Great morning to be out in the gloom. Lots of slow cadence HRMs [Redacted] to work on form and some other deliberate exercises to concentrate on form and [Redacted] mumblechatter rather than speed and counts. Too much to do at this AO to be limited to how far a KB can travel. The security footage from JRHS and BWES may be reviewed multiple times for laughs and questions by security guards, probably best if they don’t have audio.

    Prayers for Machismo as he develops his leadership skills with the expansion of his business, Bullseye’s dad, and Gumbo’s friend’s dad and family.

    Upcoming events in SOJ Slack

    May 6 – Next RVA CSAUP, mark your calendar – Gomer has the details but there will be something for everyone

  • Amateur Day @ Ramm Gears

    Beach Cruisers, Road Bikes, Mtn Bikes and a neighbor’s bike ready for Amateur Day at Ramm Gears. According to Fudd who asked when the workout was going to start, this is what went down.

    The Dogwood Dell out and back.
    Commonwealth – Berkshire Rd
    Left on Dover
    Right on Portland Pl
    Left on Douglasdale Rd
    Right on Douglasdale Rd
    Right on Blanton
    Left on Park
    Right on Pump House Dr
    Stay on Pump House all the way around to the Circle.
    Fudd / Honeydo – Burpees for the six.
    Lost Handshake, Lulu and No Tools
    BTTF
    Wilbon St
    Right on Sunset Ave
    Left on Garrett St
    Right on Huxley
    Left on Douglasdale Rd
    Left on Douglasdale
    Right on Portland Pl
    Left on Dover — Found Handshake, Lulu and No Tools
    Right on Berkshire – Commonwealth

    EF Hutton’s challenge for March was to do something different than the usual. What a great way to end the month of March and complete the challenge. Well done boys. I think we had a good time, only lost a couple of folks but they found us. No flats this year, so today was a good day.

    Oyster