Category: Richmond, VA

  • Celebrating Bryan Adams………………….Forge Style

    6 Forge All-Stars ignored the weather report and showed up ready to put in some work. Don’t tell us its not worth tryin’ for – you would be wrong. Here is a brief summary for your viewing pleasure:

    Mosey to the elementary school for Warm Up:
    Russian Soldiers, Imperial Walkers, Helicopters, Cherry Pickers, Dead Man Hang, Don Quixotes.

    Mosey to the lower parking lot for Exercise One:

    We tried out some potentially off-the-Exicon moves – basically just making crap up.

    Rd 1: Lt. Dan Walks the Plank aka “Angry Lt. Dans”
    Lunge walk, squat, fall forward for 5 plank plank jacks. Move across the parking lot, then jog back.

    Rd. 2 Crab Rolls
    Crab Walk 5 steps, roll over for 5 Merkins, repeat. Jog back

    Rd. 3: WWII Crawl Bears
    Crawl Bear for 5 steps, fall back and do 5 WWII sit ups, then switch back. jog back

    Rd. 4: Jumping Herpees
    Hand release broad jump burpees across the parking lot. Jog back.

    Mosey to the Ampitheater for Exercise 2:

    Triple Check – runner box jumps up the stage, 10 dips, run back down.
    Other 2: Heels to Heaven, Incline Merkins

    Mosey to the side of Huguenot High for Exercise 3:

    Another Triple Check! Runner does Broke Back Railing to light, jogs back.
    Other 2: Hold Plank, LBC’s

    Mosey the flag for numbers/names/announcements

    YHC took us out.

    Final thoughts: A lot to unpack from this workout. Appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm in trying out some new combinations. I think Jumping Herpees are here to stay. For me, the Crab Rolls proved the most challenging. Might have to work on some of the names.

    Not exactly sure what happened, but somehow Garbage Plate getting confused between Incline Merkins and Decline Merkins devolved into various takes on the Bryan Adams classic (Everything I Do) I Do it For You. For example, “every Merkin I do, I do it for you………….” There were many combinations.

    Hot take: Bryan Adams is solid, but this single from the Robin Hood Soundtrack has to be one of the worst and douchiest songs ever recorded. Am I the only one?

  • Back to School

    Three walkers, nine boot campers, and a canine were undeterred by the rain this morning. Pax running the BRR stretched the legs with a walk before departing later today. The rest of us moseyed over to the main field for COP. On the way over, a runner in the neighborhood advised us that she would be our mom and that we should have reflective illumination. We let her know that we were not running (though ironically we were running at the time) and not leaving the compound. Its always good to have a mom looking out for you.

    COP – Helicopters, Deadman Hang, Don Quixote, Russian Soldiers, SSH, Scorpion Kicks (embrace getting wet early on).

    Line up on the Commonwealth side of the field for bro-code 11s. The exercises – WWIIs and American Hammers. To keep it interesting, we moved between the trees with an assortment of bear crawl, crawl bear, lunges, backwards lunges, and broad jump.

    Assemble at the back of the school. Perfect numbers for Triple Check. Wall Jump, Elbow Planks, Karaoke across the blacktop and back with 3 Burpees at the fence.

    Line up on the wall for a round of Chicken Peckers.

    Next up 4 Corners – Corner 1 – 15 Sling Squats; Corner 2 – 20 dips; Corner 3 – 20 leg lift ab crunches; Corner 4 – 20 Box Jumps

    Back over to the wall for Lindsays – Donkey Kicks and Heels to Heaven with a Bear Crawl in between.

    Back to the flag where YHC took us out.

    Moleskin

    Fire Elf – Way to commit in Week 1! Holy Roller, we hope to see you around on your trips to RVA.

  • Oyster’s Fiat

    A lucky 7 gathered in the gloom of Wdog for a midweek beatdown. Upon arriving at 5:28, Oyster informed YHC that that last person to show up was automatically the Q, since no one was on the sheet. Why Oyster could enforce this rule was not questioned, so YHC submitted to this fiat and off we went. Here’s what happened:

    COP : After a mosey to the far circle beyond the carillon, circle up for the COP. Deadman hang // Helicopters // DQs // Cherry Pickers // Imperial Walkers // Russian Soldiers // LBCs // Crabcakes // Merkins // Inverted Crabcakes // Pickle Pounders

    Dora + Coupon: Grab a coupon at the stage. Round 1: 100 Incline Merkins on the block. Round 2: 200 American Hammers with the block. Round 3: 300 Squats with the block. Other partner runs to fence and back, WITH the Coupon.

    After the Dora, COP with the coupon: Bench Press, Curls, Block Burpess.

    Triple Check: in the amphitheater. Round 1: P1- SSHs, P2- Mountain Climbers, P3 – run the rim. Round 2: P1- WW2s, P2- Steps up, P3- run the rim.

    Mosey back to the flag. Numberama, Namerama, YHC took us out.

    NMS: Since First Watch is pirating all the regulars, great to have a new steady group of guys showing up for WDog. Well done Fire Elf for his first bootcamp- he didn’t puke! Prayers today for all the students and teachers starting back, and prayers for the guys getting ready for BRR.

  • Another Tuckahoe convergence?

    10 early risers found their way to First Watch to see if YHC would show up to Q after Week 1 of the IronPax yesterday. We did:

    COP: SSH, Imperial Walkers, Don Qs, Merkins, Reverse Crunches, Scorpion Kicks.

    Partner Up: 1 man HRMs while other runs to big tree & back. 3 times.

    2nd Round: WWIIs while other runs up & back. repeato x3.

    Mosey to RR main lot. 4 corners: 20 HRMS, 20 Jump Squats, 20 WWIIs, 20 Burpees. 2nd round: 20 CDDs, 20 Flutterkicks, 20 Squats, 20 burpees but audible on burpees.

    Wheelbarrow across lot & back then mosey to Coupon depository. grab a CBU.

    60 Block presses & 30 squats, run a lap. 10 SitnPress, 20 thrusters, & run a lap. 40 Swings & run a lap. Finish with some Alabama Softball players while hold at end. Deposit CBUs back then finish with 2 min of Yoga.

    NMS: Even with 2 FW founders EF Hutton and Upchuck tapering for BRR it was great to see 10 out at First watch. Ronnie answered the call parked on the visitors side of the lot when pulling in. Next time we’ll just all pick the Miata up and move it to the right side. Maybe we can make Ronnie a FW regular. YHC had some ideas if our BRR runners did attend to keep it arm heavy with a Lockjaw approved Tapering level but with no BRR’ers there it was more running. YHC did some minor oversharing about his 20th anniversary and then Splinter opened up about two-a-day season, just be sure to include some pre-game stretching…

  • Arm Pretzels? And what the hell is a Tooth Fairy?

    9 Mighty men of valor rose from the fart sack to great the perfect morning temperatures of 70 and sunny at SOT and according to the bus drivers this is what happened

    Boot campers to the left and runners to the right

    Mosey down hill to the track parking lot for COP

    DQ’s, Helicopters, Arm Pretzels, Cherry Pickers, Imperial Walkers, Russian soldiers, Merkins, LBC’s

    Mosey to track by the bleachers

    Triple Check Partner 1 does Dips, Partner 2 does Merkins and Partner 3 does Tooth Fairies up the steps runs across the back of bleachers and down to the PAX

    Lunge to left side stairs – Mosey to front side parking lot

    Four corners – 10 American Hammers (2 Count), 20 Flutter Kicks (2 Count), 30 Scrunchy Frogs, 40 Hello Dollies

    Mosey to far side of bus lot

    Man Killers

    Parking lot tracers run down, Karaoke, Bernie and Karaoke

    Mosey to front of school use the curbs bear crawl across 10 incline merkins, Crawl bear back 10 decline merkins, Crab walk across 10 dips Walk Crab back LBC’s

    BTTF

    Numbers / Names Marmaduke took us out

    NMS

    It is apparent that the New Market crew has not been to a Doozy Q in a while and probably never ventured up to the Forge for a DTH Q. Wilson and Duke had many questions about what Arm Pretzels where and when it came to Tooth Fairies close enough seemed to be the call of the day. A good time was had by all and the bakery has really ramped up their game in the cooler weather, YHC thought he might loose a couple passing by that area.

  • Core 4

    With a last minute, who’s coming to WTH at 9pm? 6 warriors rolled into the parking lot hot ready to find out what’s in store for them from a RR Q. After 4 weeks of absence from sick family to vacation and pushing the reset button YHC was ready to roll minus the hey your “cadence” is rusty as usual it went something like this:

    Warm-A-Rama

    Mosey to the concrete pad about half mile away to engage in a light duty Warm-a-Rama in which the PAX engaged in:

    Dead Man Hang

    25x SSH

    15xArm Circles 

    15xReverso

    15x Suzanne summers (both legs)

    The Thang:

    Core 4- four massive long distance corners to incorporate core exercises throughout. From the concrete pad we mosied to the corner near the beauty parlor of ULTA for our first corner which incorporated 25 WWIIs. The second corner was to get a sammie at JJs freaky fast where we did another 25 WWIIs. A quick glance at Dave and Busters for a failed attempt at a game of ski ball as we mosey to corner 3 at the end of the Village for 25 more WWIIs. The last stop on this large core 4 was the corner of John Rolfe with a scenic view of the retention pond.

    Mosey to the pad for 25 OYO Plank Jacks and off for round 2.

    Same corners= 25 2 count Flutters

    Back to the concrete pad for 25 2 count Mountain climbers OYO and on to RD 3.

    RD 3 we complete 50 LBCs on our 4 corners then a mosey back to the bus loop for 2 laps to complete the tour at WTH.

    The mumble chatter was high with 4 different GPS calculations on the table. Since YHC was Q and Iwatch  was counting we will throw out the 3 other mileage counts and say we did 4 miles on this massive Core 4. In all reality Pigskin held the correct distance at 3.4 miles. 

    YHC will fix cadence and stop the distance counter on exercises! 

    Thanks for the Q gents! SYITG


    Lots of prayer requests/takeaways-

    prayers for Jennifer

    BRR they launch tomorrow

    illness and those grieving

    school starts today (pray for our teachers and students)

  • No Running Games Today

    YHC welcomed 20 harriers to Spider Run today to share in some pre BRR tapering. Unlike past YHC run routes, there were no games to be played, no dice to roll, and no chalk markings. Everyone was sad. But do not worry, the games will be back soon.

    YHC has a propensity for not remembering directions, so YHC had to keep it super simple this morning. The route went like this for 1 milers, 2 milers, 3 milers, 4 milers, 5 milers, and 6 milers, and everything in between.

    Head out the bat cave, run past the future site of the drive through Starbucks, cross the James river on the bridge, head east down Riverside Drive until you hit 22 minutes, turn around and do 23 minutes back. That’s it.

    Everyone made it back safe and sound.

    Numbers, names, and announcements.

    YHC took us out.

    Two and a wake up to BRR!

  • Diamond, Square, or whatever Nancy says

    5 SOJ regulars were graced by the presence of an FNG and 3 New Marketeers that found their way to the lush fields of No Toll this morning to see what YHC had planned to work off the festivities of the long holiday weekend. Iron Pax was threatened but this is what occurred to the best of my knowledge.

    F3 Disclaimer and Warmarama in typical No Toll location that included SSH, Dead Man Hang, Imperial Walkers, Russian Soldiers and Copperhead Squats.

    Mosey to far field for 7 of Diamonds. 4 sets of exercises with 1/2 field mosey between sets. Exercises included 7 Hand Release Merkins, 14 World War II’s, 21 Imperial Squat Walkers, 28 Carolina Dry Docks, 21 Jump Squats, 14 Scrunchy Frogs, 7 Burpees.

    Remain under the Pavilion for Triple Check: Timer runs across the field, Elevated Merkins & Dips on the bench.

    Mosey back to the restrooms for another Triple Check: Timer runs to end of the parking lot, Pole Smokers, Peoples Chair. Time for only 1 round and back to the flag.

    Numbers, Names – Welcome Loogie.
    Announcements –

    – 9/11 Dog Pile & Puppy Pile this Saturday 6 & 7 am.

    -BRR starts this week. Good luck boys.

    -Doozy planning 9/11 road trip to D.C. on Saturday to climb the Lincoln Memorial. Reach out if you want ride with.

    -Blood Drive looks to be popping up on Slack led by Pigskin.

    – Field Day coming up 9/18. Let the trash talking commence.

    YHC took us out.

    NMS: Great to see the New Market folks arrive early this morning. It has been a while since YHC has seen them after the growth at Satans Hill. Open discussion between Nancy and the PAX during the 7 of Diamonds on the location of the set of exercises in a literal diamond or square. You vs. You. Good work today gentlemen. Hope to see Loogie out again soon and YHC is thankful Doozy was not around during his naming ceremony.

  • And I thought regular Murder Bunnies sucked

    Eight strong took on the Week 1 IronPax challenge on a beautiful morning. Some PAX were fully aware of the awfulness to ensue, several HBR regulars hid in their Fartsack, others jumped right in. No real COP, brief instructions, and review then start.

    Round 1: 800 m, 25m Murder Bunny, 10 Shoulder Tap merkins, Reverse MB back, 20 block burpee thrusters, MB back for 10 STM, then Reverse MB back.

    Round 2: 800 m, 25m Murder Bunny, 10 Shoulder Tap merkins, Reverse MB back, 20 Burpee horizontal jumps, MB back for 10 STM, then Reverse MB back.

    Round 3: 800 m, 25m Murder Bunny, 10 Shoulder Tap merkins, Reverse MB back, 20 Burpee Vertical jumps , MB back for 10 STM, then Reverse MB back. Done

    5 PAX finished under 40. 3 more got through 2+ rounds as we called for time. All put in solid work.

    NMS: Don’t know whether it is better to post and have no idea what we are in for or know this is coming. Pax are familiar with Murder Bunnies which are tough but somehow the Reverse Murder Bunnies are far worse.

    Gypsy & Roger Roger set the pace with Offshore right behind. YHC would like to see anyone do the Vertical burpee jumps correctly as everyone’s quads were done by the 3rd round. Respect to the Greenwood PAX for a strong start with this Week 1.

  • Just Grab Hold

    Twenty five well dressed gentlemen met in the parking lot of Hoedown for this year’s Labor Day Convergence. There was ample poking and prodding at PAX members pre-launch; one can only assume it was due to the extra hour and a half of sleep. Or it was the anticipation of free coffee and croissants. Regardless, 0700 clicked and off we went. Short mosey around the drop off loop then up to the blacktop sea for:

    The Thang
    SSH x20
    Burpee x1 (Pattern detected by TYA, incorrectly)
    Russian Soldiers x10
    Burpee x2
    WWII x10
    Burpee x3
    Merkin x10
    Burpee x4
    Arm Circles x15
    Burpee x5
    Copperhead Squats x10
    Burpee x6
    LBC x20
    Burpee x7
    Monkey Humpers x10
    Burpee x8
    This or That x10
    Burpee x9
    That or This x10
    Burpee x10

    Mosey up to the field for Dora. Partner up for 100 HRMs, 200 squats, 300 LBCs.

    Saunter over to Bodo’s parking lot for traveling 4 corners. Corners were CDDs, Jump Squats, WWIIs, American Hammers.

    Slither back to the drop off loop for triple check. People’s Chair, Plank, run around the loop.

    Huddle up for a few minutes of Mary including the prescribed APD, box cutters, american hammers.

    YHC called enough is enough and back to the parking lot for Numbers, names, FNG naming, coffee, and socializing.

    Thanks to Marmaduke for taking us out.

    Moleskin
    Thanks to those that traveled far and to convene on relatively short notice. Great to see men from all over attend. Special thanks to Wilson for giving his sage wisdom for how to avoid human trafficking at 2am in the mountains of NC.

    Welcome to FNGs Whitesnake and Fire Elf. YHC took the liberty of modifying Fire Elf’s name per suggestion post workout. Hope to see you guys out there soon.

    Thanks to all and hope everyone had a great ending to summer.

    Splinter