Category: Richmond, VA

  • SOJ Takeover: Slogging Spider Miles

    Thirteen men posted for a humid run during the infamous SOJ takeover week. Details:

    Everyone: bat cave, across bridge, head east.

    4 miles – take trail entrance to Huguenot Flatwater Park, loop back under bridge and out the parking area on Riverside. Take the bridge and bat cave back to the point of beginning.

    5 miles – continue downriver to Shirley, stop and return to trail entrance, take trail and then back to point of beginning.

    6 miles – continue downriver past Rock Falls Rd around bend to mansion overlooking lake. Return to trail entrance, take trail and return to point of beginning.

    Good run this morning, very sticky. Forgot to ask how the 6 mile route fared, if anyone wishes to comment below. Thanks to Rosie and Gumbo for showing some true SOJ support. Yes Hitch, one can be both SOJ and City of Richmond, but YHC understands most northsiders don’t spend their time worrying about trivial matters south of the James.

    Prayers and healing to Splinters ‘step-aunt’, as corrected, families of the women who passed Memorial Day in the James, Saab and Mr. Rat.

    -Singer

  • YHC needs a tour guide

    7 regulars, 1 FNG and a wanderer from SOJ went in search of a hill to run near Atlee HS but found gentle rollers rather than one big one

    YHC will not pretend like he knew where we where headed nor remembers where we went but some made it close to 5 miles, some cut off the edges and did 3 or 4 miles. There was supposed to be a fairly big hill involved but Hash and Marco Pollo lead YHC through the woods to get some extra miles in and we ended up by passing the hill. There where many rolling hills through the Giles Community which is a route that YHC hasn’t been down yet so I was glad to see a different side of the Atlee area.

    BTTF Numbers / Names Corned Beef took us out

    NMS:

    Welcome aboard Dew Point congratulations on your first post being one of the muggiest days of the year this far.

    Thanks to Hash and Marco Pollo for being YHC’s tour guides this morning. YHC had a direction in mind but Google maps didn’t show the little paths to get from one neighborhood street to another to complete the loop. It’s always good to have a local with you.

    YHC will try to get out a little more and away from his normal stops. You sometimes forget the brothers you have met and there are a bunch out there in the Gloom that you haven’t met yet.

    “If your presence doesn’t make a difference to those around you, your absence won’t make a difference.”

    Go out there and make a difference

  • Chumba One-on-One

    Perhaps thinking it was Grandparents Day at the school, two senior citizens meandered around the campus of Linwood Holton ES for a while in the 97* heat. According to the search party from Westminster Canterbury, here’s how it went – more or less:

    Mosey to a shady spot with a cooler full of ice and bottled water.

    Warmarama: Imperial Walkers x 10, Don Quixotes x 10, Ukranian Soldiers x 10, Freddie Mercuries x 20, Hello Dollies x 10, Flutter Kicks x 10, Crunchy Frogs x 10

    Mosey to the shady side of the school with the cooler; hydrate then:

    11s: 1x Lt. Dan > bear crawl to blue shipping container > 10x 2 ct. shoulder taps > lunge back

    hydrate

    7 of Diamonds: mosey from the cooler to three trees and back, stopping at each for the called rep count and exercises:

    • 7 x Carolina Dry Docks x 4
    • 14 x American Hammers x 4
    • 21 x SSHs x 4
    • 28 x LBCs x 4
    • 21 x Heels to Heaven x 4
    • 14 x Hand Release Merkins x 4
    • 7 x Squat Jumps x 4

    Hydrate, numbers, names and YHC took us out.

    NMMS: It was great to have some 1-on-1 time with Chum Bucket. If Dot’s Back Inn were open on Mondays, this would’ve been a whole different thing —-

  • First Slack F3RVA discussion; next one Monday 6/20 at 7p

    Seven met virtually for the initial leadership discussion topics including. All are invited.

    • Intentionality; what does it mean to expand leadership opportunities; site Qs; different leadership styles and opportunities
    • 3rd F inclusion of other faiths
    • What will it take to fill the Q sheet? A model / template to help VQs get started. Commz strategy for VQ? Q school.
    • Float more copies of Freed to Lead amongst the PAX. Re-read if you have not for a while. 1 week reading challenge.

    NMS – There is a balance YHC is seeking… both ready to come out of the gate with direction, but want to provide the opportunity for the PAX to provide opinions and thoughts on where F3RVA should go. Feel free to text or post topics on Slack. Come to the the next discussion 7p on Monday. Think about what you want for F3 and lets discuss.

    Actions

    • Q – publish an agenda to drive thoughts about topics
    • PAX – Encourage folks to use Slack
    • PAX – Respond to Slack leadership channel with topics for next meeting
    • PAX – Read Freed to Lead as the basis for our common vocabulary
    • PAX – provide ideas for what you want to see F3RVA become

    Get Some!

  • Humidity has entered the chat

    5 heard some rumbling, felt a little rain but as always OTB was 70 and sunny. 3 runners and 2 walkers took off for another edition of Off the Books. Gumbo’s watch clocked 6 miles. Well done boys!

    2nd F at Starbucks. Great way to start the day!

    Oyster

  • Lady of the Night goes North

    A weekend text to Phonics gave the DaVille PAX a warning and a chance to curb their weekend plans in favor of rest to prepare for the Rosie Q that awaited them on a humid 70 and sunny morning at Atlee HS. Corned Beef was the first to show and let me know that the trend at DaVille is arrivals in the last few minutes. He nailed it as 4 faces familiar to YHC plus one new regular showed up to see what the beginning of the SOJ takeover was all about. A perfect prime number to eliminate possibilities of partner work or trios.

    The Q had the PAX running into each other as he twisted and turned from one location to the next to find a good spot to take on the each round of exercises. No real plan for the day except no Scorpion Kicks and enjoy some time with the fine gentlemen of Mechanicsville.

    COP on the basketball courts. SSH, DQ, IW, AST, Merkins, LBC with some discussion of the varying counting style of Daville, also it’s been a while but this court was repaved since the last time and was much easier on the hands. We found a nearby field that wasn’t too wet and ran through some 11s with merkins on one side and WWII on the other. Nearby, the middle school tennis courts were calling out to be used. Why not bring Honeymoon’s Lady of the Night (Prostitute) – 1 burpee at the start, and 10 CDD, 20 MH, 30 AH, 40 MC always rolling back to the start and repeating exercises as you pass each corner. If you have read this far and can figure out all of the exercise abbreviations I’ll buy you a beer at the next HDHH. Zig zag across the AO while the pax try to figure out what is next and circle up for some random exercises in cadence, including some ISW which did not go well and YHC recalled it was also a fail by the Q, DK, at my first post 7 years and 11 days ago. Finish up with some Mary at the flag to close out the 45 minutes.

    The SOJ takeover officially started yesterday so post and support your guest Q this week, you won’t regret it. It was a pleasure to make it back out to DaVille after a long gap in posts. Thanks for letting me lead this morning. Many things in the works, no specific announcements today, watch slack or BBs for details.

  • Hoedowns Are A Southern Tradition

    15 Tuckahoe Aristocrats, 1 FNG, and 2 SOJ Jorts Wearing Hill Billies kicked off the work week portion of SOJ Takeover. Here’s how this Hoedown went :

    Definition of F3 and 5 Core Principles for the FNG.

    Warmarama : 20 SSH IC, 10 Don Q’s IC, 10 Cherry Pickers IC, 10 Ukrainian Soldiers IC, 10 Imperial Walkers IC, 10 Merkins IC


    Mosey to YHC’s truck

    YHC grabs Cindy from back of the truck. Perform an Indigenous Run to Trinity Church with Cindy. PAX in front runs with Cindy until the PAX in back relieves him of his duty. Repeato until we reach the Church. Lay Cindy down ever so gently on the pavement.


    Walls of Jericho:

    Just as Joshua was instructed to do in the Bible – performed around a building so we used the church building, pick 7 different exercises and complete 7 reps of each then run a lap around the building. Complete for 7 laps. Exercises we did before each lap were : 
    Burpees, Squat Jumps, Freddie Mercuries DOUBLE COUNT, HRM’s, Ball Dippers DOUBLE COUNT, Standard Sit Ups with hands behind your ears, Lt Dan’s DOUBLE COUNT (We completed 5 and a half sets before we needed to head BTTF for time)


    Indigenous Run BTTF with Cindy. (Halfway through the Run we switched to Indigenous Walk with front PAX Rifle Carrying Cindy while last PAX sprints to the front to switch)


    Mary : Not So Lazy Boys (15 seconds Middle, Right, Middle, Left, Middle)

    DONE

    Numbers

    Names

    COT : Ongoing prayers to all PAX on IR and recovering – Lab Rat, Mr. Holland, Don Draper, Ollivander, Soul Train (forgive me if I’m missing anyone). Continue to check in with those PAX.

    *SUNDAY JUNE 26 WE NEED A PAX TO Q FOR BREAKING BREAD*. This is a great opportunity to serve while including your M’s and 2.0’s. Drop off a meal for 10 – 15 people at 5:30 PM to Southside Health Center at 180 E Belt Blvd, Richmond, VA 23224. Contact Upchuck for more details and talk to PAX at all the AO’s for tips.

    T Claps to Offshore for bringing out FNG Zack now named Gold Digger. He’s in the Army and was serving (or still is?) at Fort Knox where all the Gold at.

    YHC took us out in prayer

    NMMS : Upchuck called YHC out for “cutting corners” on the church loop run. Apparently there was a bigger loop YHC was unaware of but I figured it out by the 3rd loop run haha. Gypsy moaned about the sequence of exercises requiring getting up and down too much so we varied up the sequence instead to do the same muscle group exercises together. Not sure that was any easier? Enjoyed this morning thoroughly fellas!

  • Grabbin’ Asphalt

    7 men at 7 o’ clock sharp.

    Walking warmups: Ukranian soldiers, walking Imperial Walkers, arm circles, Quixote broad jumps.

    Improvised 11s: bear crawl up the embankment for incline mirkins, craw bear back down for jump squats.

    Indigenous bar crawl with plank jacks the length of the bar.

    Mosey to the under-construction tennis courts where we picked up where Chesterfield County left off. Grab a big piece of asphalt for some curls, some kettle bell swings, and thrusters. 50 pole smokers OYO. 45 mirkins OYO. Then we moved as many huge pieces of asphalt as we could from one end of the court to the other at a high rate of speed. Once the new pickleball courts are done, we can safely say we helped build them with our bare (gloved) hands.

    Mosey over the baseball field stairs for a triple check: timer runs up, around and down the stairs while partners dip and flutter kick.

    Over to the batting cage: first one to 100 donkey kicks calls it out. Last Call with the 100 by a hair.

    75 WW2s OYO. Mosey the long way back to the flag with a sprint thrown in, and 3 minutes of burpees to round things off to an even hour.

    COT.

    Tis the season of drinking extra fluids. YHC was completely smoked after his own workout and has no one else to blame but himself. Thanks again for coming out and going along with my improvised madness. One of these days I’ll plan something out.

    Peace.

  • Trending at Tomato Run

    We had 7 again post for this run ruck workout this week and 3 started at 5am for a Ruck workout and logged in 4 miles and 4 runners. Thursday was HUMID and sweaty for a 5:30am run. So much so YHC had to walk after 3 miles for about 4 minutes then finish getting in 4.3 miles going the BoJangles loop returning to the Rutland Clubhouse. Speakeasy and Hash stayed out front the entire run, Phonics hung back with YHC and we got this run in the books!

    Numberama, Namerama, YHC took us out in prayer.

    Announcements – Stay tuned as we are planning a HDHH for this Thursday June 16, 2022.

  • Do Altarboys Get A Safeword?

    This question roiled deep in the subconscious of TYA and six other truthseekers as they assembled at the Pump House lot for a pilgrimage along the James. Here’s how it went, more or less:

    North Bank to T Pott (or Belle Isle) to Buttermilk – add quarry loop for extra credit.

    Number, names, YHC took us out.

    NMMS: Great weather for a trail run today, and it was good to run with Hitch as he gears up for his first half marathon. Big thanks to Shakedown for the lead on some new Australian thrash punk, and much gratitude to TYA for helping YHC to get into a suitably reverent frame of mind to serve communion at church this morning . 🙂