Category: Richmond, VA

  • Breakin Bread & Pullin Pork

    It was a lovely Saturday with great weather to Q some Breaking Bread. YHC even multi tasked by taking the fam to Chesterfield Berry Farm while the meat cooked. Here’s the 411 :

    Warmarama :

    obtain the following ingredients –

    3/4 cup ketchup

    2 tsp onion powder 

    3 tbsp tomato paste

    1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

    1 tsp paprika

    1 tsp garlic powder

    1 tsp mustard powder 

    1 tsp cumin 

    1 (3 to 4 lb) pork shoulder 

    Salt

    Pepper

    THE THANG :

    Combine all the sauces and seasonings into the slower cooker then stir them together 

    Put pork shoulder into slow cooker and season it all over with salt and pepper then roll it around in the seasoning mix

    Cook on Low temp for 8 to 10 hours

    Remove from slow cooker and shred meat with forks

    Serve with buns, potato salad and macaroni salad 

    Mosey to Southside Health Center

    Partner up with Barbara to load food on cart

    Take selfie with Barbara 

    DONE

    NMMS : Always a blessing to serve others and work with great people like Barbara. T Claps to Upchuck for organizing this continual serving opportunity. YHC encourages any PAX who haven’t Q’ed Breaking Bread to sign up for the future. You’ll love it. For the time being, the meals are drop off only due to COVID but maybe sometime in the near future it will return to sitting down with the residents for a meal together 

  • All Hail the A Team

    COP:
    Arm circles, Cherry Pickers, DQs, SSHs, Mt Climbers, WWIIs, & Merkins.

    The Thang:

    Bermuda Triangle –
    Bear crawl, run (past a dead squirrel), 5 Burpees, Burnie Sanders, 20 LBCs.

    7 of Diamonds –
    Handshake pointed out, quite expertly, that it appeared that I wanted everyone to get into 2 groups, instead of groups of 2. It was an appreciated point. At each corner we did 7 Merkins, then 14 Mt Climbers, 21 American Hammers, 28 Side Straddle Hops, 21 American Hammers ,14 Mt Climbers, & lastly 7 Merkins. We ran the length of the field and moved across the width in any manner conceivable with the exception of walking or running. This one looked shorter on paper. I think the new name for this exercise is The Clock Burner.

    Coupon Fun –
    Plank and Pass – Everyone grabbed a coupon. As a bunch of coupons lay scattered about, we used exactly 2 of them. With little time remaining, we broke into Team A and Team B. We planked shoulder to shoulder. P1, at the 1st position, passed a coupon to P2, and so on. The man at the end of the line picked up the coupon and ran to the 1st position. We Rinsed and Repeated until P1 was back in the 1st position. Team A won.

    We kept our team and lines, all stood and faced the same direction. P1 passed the coupon over their head to P2, who was behind them. P2 passed it behind them, but b/w their legs. P3 did an overhead pass to P4, and so on. The final man ran to the 1st position. We Rinsed and Repeated until P1 returned to the starting position. Team A won again. YHC was not on Team A.

    Native American Run BTTF.

    COT: Numbers, names, announcements (the shoe drive is still on), prayer requests for a couple of the gents’ mother-in-laws regarding physical and mental health concerns. YHC took us out in prayer.

    I’m truly grateful to be given the opportunity to lead this group of men in the strengthening of our bodies and spirits. May we all continue to push each other to grow and to develop into the men we are intended to become.

  • Comin In Boiling Hot

    The four most regular BC Pax put in some extra credit. Route was Early Bird to DogPile and back, 3 miles and some change. Discussion on the return trip focused on the extensive new fencing around the Vita course. UpChuck always be EH’in. Look for Joe in the weeks to come. YHC thinks Big Pun might make a solid nickname.

  • Gut punch protection

    8 hardy men sweated and pushed each other in the gloom, here is what went down.

    Mosey to basketball court for COP: SSH, helicopters, hillbillies, DQ’s, LBC’s, merkins. Mosey to middle of school parking lot for first exercise. Partner up for Dora, partner runs to touch a tree, other does exercises as follows: 100 WW2’s, 200 boxcutters, and 300 LBC’s.

    Mosey to baseball diamond at back of field, partner up. Partner runs the bases, other does following exercises along the base paths: broad jump burpees, lunges, bear crawl, crab walk, and finish it off with SSH. Switch occurred when running partner caught up.

    Mosey back to flag, numberama, namerama, Corn Beef took us out. He has the Q on Monday at the Anvil, it’s his 55th birthday, so let’s show up to help him celebrate!

    NMS

    YHC sent the call out last night, looking for more numbers at the Creek, and the PAX responded. Great mumblechatter this morning, which certainly helped YHC keep moving when I felt like stopping. A couple of the PAX remarked that The Carpenter would have appreciated doing SSH’s around the base paths, so will send that idea up to NJ for him to use! YHC dropped some historical facts about October 22nd, including in 1797 the first parachute jump took place, in 1884 times zones were created and first World Series was placed, and in 1927 Harry Houdini was punched in the stomach (with permission) which probably ruptured his appendix, causing his death. Some of the PAX thought this occurred in 1827, sorry to burst your bubble, guys! 😉

    As usual, I have No Idea what I”m doing….

  • Run, Arms & Abs, Repeato…

    Three eager beavers crashed the BWES parking lot – 1 stir-crazy gentlemen in recovery mode out for a dark stroll, and 1 down for whatever concoction Gumbo had in store. Today, it was an off campus excursion that went a little something like this:

    Grab a headlamp…you know what that means.

    0530 bell rings and off we go toward the namesake hill. Stop in the cul de sac from a brief COT of DQs, Helicopters, Jazzercisers and Imperial Walkers to loosen up the back and legs. Round 1 of exercises – 21 merkins and 21 LBCs OYO, then, up the hill we go. I’ll call it a run, but YHC ended up more like a mosey. Stop at the top for round 2 – 21 merkins, 21 LBCs, 21 Alternating Shoulder Taps, 21 Flutter Kicks – OYO. Run on Twin Team out to Robious Road and across into Tarrington. Stop at the Gates of Tarrington for round 3 – 21 merkins, 21 LBCs, 21 ASTs, 21 FKs, 21 Carolina Dry Docks, 21 Freddie Mercuries. Run down Ashwell hill to the Tarrington Clubhouse for round 4 – 21 merkins, 21 LBCs, 21 ASTs, 21 FKs, 21 Carolina Dry Docks, 21 Freddie Mercuries, 21 Dips and 21 box cutters. Run around the block heading back toward JRHS – stop at both traffic circles for bonus rounds of 21 Merkins and 21 Mountain Climbers on the curb of the circles. Run to front office door of JRHS for round 5 – 21 merkins, 21 LBCs, 21 ASTs, 21 FKs, 21 Carolina Dry Docks, 21 Freddie Mercuries, 21 Dips and 21 box cutters, 21-count plan hold and 21 American Hammers. Run BTTF, right on time.

    COT, Numbers, Names, Prayer.

    YHC forgot just how bad TT hill is. It sucks. YHC has been wanting to do this off-campus run/workout for a while and with just two of us I thought it was a good way to test out the timing. It was perfect. This will come back again, I promise.

    The “21” count was in honor of YHC’s 21st wedding anniversary with my M yesterday. Can’t believe it. I have been married to this wonderful woman for half of my life. The big man upstairs was smiling on me when he convinced her to say yes!

    Go forth and take your F3 energy and spirit into the day and spread it widely men. SYITG.

    No More Gumbo For You!

  • The Alley Cats Growling Are Only Marv

    A dozen plus additional bikers out on the road arrived for this week’s installment. Trying to find visual relief from the stadium lights, the Pax assembled in the shadows of the trees prior to launch.

    East on Grove and north on Lafayette, and east on Monument. 4s turn right on Sheppard, 5s on Strawberry, and 6s on Lombardy. All pick up Hanover for the western return, jumping over to Grove at Thompson.

    Bodos took us out.

    Congratulations to Pigskin for a successful Fleed to Bleed. Well done!

  • Freed to Pass Out

    All eight of the PAX were able to find their appropriate new parking spots, and met at the new hang out spot for 45 Minutes of Mary! Rumor was one of our own indicated he would lead this morning but he may have given too much blood and bowed out. The potato was ready and waiting and Swirly picked it up to start it off.

    In the light of the 100,000 lumen light fixture the Swirly led us in some stretches. Next the THANG started, everyone found a pole along the perimeter of the parking lot and there was a Native American style pole smoker, with 5x leg lifts and the rest of the pax holding feet up.

    Potato was getting hot so Swirly tossed it to Oyster. Mosey on to the black top, split up into two groups of four, for a triple check. One station is the peoples chair, next YHC forgets, and then run to the fence and back. Oyster then led us over to what I believe is a dirty 4-corners. first corner 10 merkins, next, 20 jump squats, third is 30 WW2s, and YHC forgets the last one. That took a while but it also was a good workout.

    Oyster tossed the potato willingly/unwillingly to YHC. Sticking to the tennis courts, ascending suicides, run to first line, one merkin, run back to start, then run to first line one merkin, run to second line, 2 merkins, then run back, rinse and repeat until all 8 lines are hit, 4 courts two lines each. Then back to the flag for some modified mary, and rounded it all out with a have a nice day stretch.

    Prayers for a swift recovery for Handshake

    Seymour took us out.

  • Wake up the Wolf…Timberwolf that is

    5 STRONG SOJ regulars posted at Timberwolf on a perfect morning to wake up the wolf. The last few weeks, attendance has been light with no one slated to Q, so there’s been a lot of potato’s in the air. After three weeks of tossing it around unprepared, YHC stepped up to take on just his third Q since joining F3 in July. Time to lead! Here’s what went down…then up…then down again

    Warmup: SSH x 30, DQ, Helicopter, Jazzercise (I practiced to try and match Nancy’s perfect form), 3 count butt-kickers, 3 count calf raises, cherry pickers, stretch C/R/L, Merkins, LBC, Flutter Kicks, Hello Dolly, Rosalita, Sitting stretch C/R/L, Butterfly

    Workout: Mosey to the hill in front of the school. Dora to burn the abs. Partner 1 – Bernie up the hill, run down, Partner 2 – 100 WW2, 200 LBC, 300 Freddie Freeman, oh I mean Mercury (Go Braves, Chop on!!!).

    Mosey to the light poles, partner up again. P1 – run to farthest pole while P2 works their way to the end with various exercises, switch when P1 reaches P2. Exercises – Broad jump burpee, lunge, bear crawl. Repeato back with new exercises – one leg broad jump, lunge, spiderman.

    Mosey to Bus Parking. Parking lot tracers to the end, 50 merkins, repeat the tracers back 50 squats.

    Mosey to the large island for indigenous walk. Pax works their way around the island on their hands while we alternate who runs around the island one at a time.

    Mosey to the flag for a two minute stretch. If you want to know the specifics, talk to Nancy.

    Numberama/Namerama, YHC took us out in prayer. Shout out to those that participated in Freed to Bleed. Well done gents and Ms. Prayers of thanks for the men of F3, for those that didn’t make it into the gloom that they find their way again, and that we can be better men and leaders for each other, our families, and our communities.

    YHC really appreciates the support of the men who came out to support his attempt to become a more consistent leader in his third Q. The goal to bring the same level of growth and participation that we have seen at SH to Timberwolf. Bring the clown cars fellas, and let’s have some fun, we are all freed to lead!

    -Vagabond

  • Sans Legs for the Prince

    The Forge was blessed with 2 HIM’s on IR fighting off the Fartsack to be with their brothers. Doublemint’s hernia surgery went well and he spent the time walking the perimeter listening to a podcast on how to remove hickies, while YHC created a routine for the day that would keep Fresh Prince from any sprints, jumps, or lunges… ie, a massive amount of arms and core. Here’s why the PAX wont be reaching anything overhead today:

    The THANG:

    COP #1:

    • Rapid Fire Slaughter Start with a KNOLL LADDER before Fresh Prince’s predicable 0538 arrival:  Up and down the knoll, each time adding a burpee at the top until you get from 1 to 5, then descend the ladder back to 1. 
    • Total of 9x Up&Down with Leg work completed just as Prince arrived

    COP #2:

    • Mosey down to the culdesac, stopping at each light pole to alternate x10 Merkins with x10 Heels to Heaven
    • Circle up for variable DTH-style IC reps to fully stretch out the frame

    COP #3:

    • Partner up for CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
    • P1 begins bear crawling while P2 completes x20 2-ct Hallelujah Flutters, after which P2 mosey’s to switch with P1
    • Complete x3 rounds of flutters each
    • Mosey to the Handicap rails

    COP #4:

    • INDIGENOUS JERKINS up the ramp
    • PAX line up every other space, hanging jerkin style from the rail (keeping back & core straight)
    • Last man completes x5 Jerkins, mosey’s to the front
    • Painful ascent bottom to top of ramp

    COP #5:

    • TRICEP TRIPLE CHECK:
    • P1 – Dips on the rail
    • P2 – Merkins
    • P3 – Crabs across lot, mosey back

    COP #6:

    • Mosey over to the steps
    • Am.Ham’s OYO at the bottom of the steps, then 2 by 2 the PAX Tooth Fairies the steps, and continues Am.Ham’s at the top for the Six
    • Circle up for variable Mary reps IC

    Mosey BTTF for COT:

    • Counterama # 9
    • Namerama
    • Announcerama (see Comments)
    • FRESH PRINCE took the PAX out in Prayer

    NMS:  Brothers, we are stronger together. YHC believes every effort to encourage and accommodate our brothers, no matter the injury or ailment, is worth the cost. What a pleasure to have Doublemint and Fresh Prince feel comfortable and encouraged enough to post! For those wondering, Doublemint shared he has an alumni reunion this weekend, and was wondering how hickies and being hungover would appear at his premarital counseling on Sunday. Haha. Anyway, some powerful sharing and sage wisdom happened in COT about marriage, and God knows, we’ve all had struggles. YHC encourages you all, lean into your brothers – there is power in coming together to shine light into the darkness. Love you guys, DTH

  • Manndate 10-20-21

    Warmup: SSH, Hand Release Merkins, Heals to Heaven, Arm Circles

    Workout:

    Partner Wilt – One partner runs bus loop while the other does exercises. Switch places after each loop. Together do a total of 100 of each exercise: Sit Up Presses, Demon Crushers, Boat Canoe, Lawn Mowers (each side).

    Partner up. One Partner runs the bus loop while the other does 40 of each: Lunges with 2 kettle bells, single arm curls (each arm), Halos – each direction and Merkins with your KB.

    Numberama, Namarama, No announcements. Prayer by Yardsale. A little mumble chatter and we all headed out. SYITG.