Category: Richmond, VA

  • You wont get this in a gym

    You wont get this in a gym

    3rd F: (Faith) The last will be 1st

    • T-Clap for Mudface taking us out in prayer this morning.
    • TAP for all those parents that are striving to maintain a sense of normalcy as their children are attempting to navigate the waters of virtual schooling.
    • Mr. Holland nailed it this morning as we were wrapping up and the sunrise was painted above our heads….
      “You wont get that inside a gym“
      Well said sir.. the natural beauty of this morning’s sunrise is something only the Great Sky Q could paint for us. YHC likes to consider those wonderful acts of nature as a gentle reminder from him to us that he is: all powerful, all loving, and all forgiving.
    • Next 3rd F virtual meet-up is 9/1 at 8pm. See slack 3rd F channel for Zoom meeting URL.

    2nd F: (Fellowship)
    Lots of opportunities in RVA for fellowship and just like the 1st F in the morning.. you just have to show up.

    • Friday HH is moving around the region and it does not always have to mean having drinks. Top Golf, new Restaurants, chips and salsa at Honeydo’s (Hint Hint), etc. lets keep them moving around so all pax have an opportunity to join in. This week it is at Ardent Craft Beer at 6ish.
      • Next week we are moving the show out to Midlothian with Florence to try out Steam Bell Beer Works
    • YHC is working with Disaster Ops to set up a trip down to the Gulf coast for helping our F3 PAX in that region that have been crushed by the recent hurricane. DM me if you are interested in going.
    • October 3rd is the Fellowship retreat. Sign up for the Cornhole tournament

    1st F: (Fitness)

    The Thang:

    • Easy warm up lap around the bus parking lot as we did some butt kickers and high knees to get us into the teacher parking lot for some COP.
    • COP: 1 round of BLIMPS
      • 5 Burpees
      • 10 Lunges
      • 15 Imperial walkers
      • 20 Merkins
      • 25 Plank Jacks
      • 30 Squats
    • 4-Corners (always a staple at YHC workouts)
      • Start in the center: 2 burpess then run to one of 4 corners and perform called exercise to a 15 count then return to center for 2 burpees.. rinse and repeat until all 4 corners are completed.
        • Round one: Merkins, Diamond Merkins, Wide-arm Merkins, Carolina Dry-dock
          Took the time after completing this round to talk over the F3 Foundation and Disaster Ops
        • Round two: WW2 situps, LBCs, Dolly’s, Flutter kicks
          Took the time after completing this round to talk over the Mission of: Speed For Need and tell a 1st hand story that changed my life forever with a SFN track commander
        • Round three: Squats, Wojo Squat, Sister Mary Catharine’s, reverse lunge.
          Took the time after completing this round to talk over the two F3 supported Missions in Peru and Africa.
        • Round four: Merkins, WW2, Squats, Burpee
          Took the time after completing this round to talk over the importance of following through with the 2nd and 3rd F in F3.. to make sure its not “Just Another Workout”.
    • Burn Out: Nonstop workout rotating who the timer pax is
      • Each location is assigned an exercise then one pax takes that position. One pax runs to a designated location and back (the timer) as the remaining pax continues to do the exercise at his location until the timer returns; then everyone moves down one exercise position.
        We had 4 pax this morning so we had 3 assigned exercises and 1 timer.
        • Exercises:
          Station 1 Plank (Hold in high plank until timer returns)
          Station 2 Donkey kicks to the wall.
          Station 3 People’s chair air presses.
          Station 4 was the timer.
      • Rinse and repeat.
    • Return to the AO for a cool down:
      • you cool down like you warm up. One round of BLIMPS.

    MoleSkin:
    1st and foremost, thank you to the men this morning for allowing me the opportunity to lead. I look forward to seeing you all in the gloom again very soon.
    Lots of good mubblechatter this morning. I am pretty sure we have convivence Mudface to sign up for the 1/2 marathon beer tour. Need the Da-Ville guys to keep on him for that. 🙂
    Best of luck to Mr. Holland as he not only takes on the adventure of being a teacher during this new learning environment. but also having two 2.0’s of his own at home that are also going through this from a student perspective. If you need to get away for coffee or lunch or to hide.. just give me a call and I will be on my way.
    Cornbeef is laying down the gauntlet this morning with regard to the upcoming team relay race. Sounds like his team is stacked and I might just have to put a wager on them taking the 1st place position on this one.

    NMS (Naked Moleskin)
    AS always, I challenge every pax member that has taken the time to read this far down the Backblast to spend the next 30 seconds texting an F3 pax you have not heard from in a while. Reaching out to someone for no reason is hard to do…but we are F3.. we do hard things every day. So just do it. It may be the quick hello your gloom buddy needed for the week.

    Next Challenge: Look at your F3 actions in the last 30 to 60 days. Have you signed up to Q? Why not? Have you come out to a 2nd or 3rd F event? Why not? The reasons and excuses are just as vast as that sad clown you had to convince to get out of the fartsack and post in the gloom (no time, not ready to lead, I get my fellowship somewhere else, etc…).
    F3 is a fellowship of men .. leaders leading and teaching peer leaders.
    Our mission is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership. Our mission is not to be the fastest, most fit, strongest guy out there in the gloom… Don’t fall into the trap of making F3 only about the 1st F.. there are 2 more F’s to explore and for that matter that you can bring FNGs to. There is no F3 rule that says your FNG has to post 1st to a bootcamp. Bring him out to a 2nd F.. or invite him to the virtual 3rd. The workout is just 1 aspect of the thing we call F3.

    V/r
    John (Gypsy) Boles
    SYITG!!

  • Rock N’ Roll

    Lord’s Prayer 

    Warmarama :

    10 F3 count SSH

    10 F3 count merkins

    The Thang :

    Mosey to rock pile and choose your poison (rock does not touch the ground until we’re finished with all exercises and travel)

    Travel with your rock up Satan’s hill to first street block for 4 corners :

    100 squats

    Jog to next corner

    Lay down on back. 100 chest presses while doing flutters

    Jog to next corner 

    100 bicep curls

    Lunges to next corner

    100 bent over rows

    Jog to last corner

    40 overhead presses

    Jog back to rock pile to put rock back in its home habitat

    Switch to ab exercises :

    40 WWII’s on your own

    Circle up As a group, each PAX counts off 5 F3 count flutters 

    40 LBC’s on your own

    Circle up as a group, each PAX counts off 5 F3 count American hammers

    QIC ran out of ideas for exercises so Rosetta came in for a celebrity guest Q :

    3 stations :

    1st station – 15 jerkins on metal railing 

    2nd station – 15 jump squats 

    3rd station – 15 pull ups on playground bars

    Run up Satan’s hill as a group and jog back to home base

    2 minutes of 2 sets of howler monkeys together as a group

    DONE

    COT :

    prayers for Nancy Lopez as he recovers from an injury 

    Prayers for a good friend of Rosetta named Esham. He’s a young guy who passed away from COVID while living in Jordan in the Middle East with his wife and children. Prayers for their family. 

    Last Call reminded us to pray for all those affected by Hurricane Laura, as well as the first responders 

    YHC

    -Florence

  • Dog Park in lights (or headlamp)

    New route today. Old Prescott, Glen Eagles, JRP, Shire, old Pump, Pump, Dog Park trail, JRP, Pump.

    NMS. No mumblechatter, just focus. At dog park YHC saw a ton of cars but nobody actually in the dog park with their four-legged friends. Perplexing. Then on the trail, a stream of seal team pax appeared from the gloom and it all came together. John McGuire is looking good. Meeting a former fellow operator with a white headlamp in the dark is a little embarrassing. But this is from experience: it’s dark running at BMNT, and a broken foot will keep you from running for a while. Regardless as we are growing to know, the best routes at Currahee require headlamps.

    Get some.

  • Let me grab my clipboard…

    A bold octapax of gloom vets posted to TwinTeam to take on the Iron Pax Challenge 2020 Week Zero warm-up routine. Here’s how Iron Sharpened Iron:

    The THANG:

    IPC 2020 Wk 0: 

    https://f3greenwood.com/2020/08/23/2020-ironpax-challenge-week-0-workout/

    Warm-Up:

    • Mosey around the BWE parking lot 
    • Welcome & F3 Disclaimer
    • Variable warm-up exercises 

    2020 IPC Week ZERO (yes, same as 2018 Wk 1 routine Q’d at Forge last week…):

    • Mosey down to the Field
    • Complete FOR TIME, x4 Rounds of…
      1. 50 Squats
      2. 40 WWII’s
      3. 30 Merkins
      4. 20 Ball Dippers
      5. 10 Burpees
      6. Run 400 Meters

    Cool-Down:

    • Variable Mary

    Mosey BTTF for COT:

    • Counterama # 8
    • Namerama
    • Announcerama (see Comments)
    • YHC took us out in Prayer

    NMS:

    • It was simple. It was painful. It went faster than YHC expected. Overall the TwinTeam Iron Pax produced VERY impressive finish times for our group ranging from 21:10 to 26:44. Participants times will be posted today to the IPC 2020 Stats Page. Personal thanks to Don Draper for pushing YHC through to the end, and for the PAX humoring DTH embracing his inner clipboard-carrying drill instructor (…or maybe a tryhard PE teacher). With the week Zero warm-up round complete, we can expect IPC corporate to post a brand new Week 1 routine this Sunday, which YHC will be Q’ing Tuesday at NoToll. Better rest up gents, this one will count! Let’s put F3RVA on the IPC map this year!!! 

  • No Sixes in the Mixes

    Early in the gloom, the few runners we had just stood around looking at each other, so I asked the question: “Who’s Q?” More stares. Somebody threw out Reverse Carrilon, so that’s the route. Bleeder explained the route, which sounded good to me. Bodos said he knew the 5 miler, but Swiper did not have confidence. He came back to me twice with where do we turn questions, so looks like Im running with the 5’s!

    So this begs the question, how do you go from not wanting to get up, to running slow and comfortable, to running faster and farther, to ultimately being the Q?

    a) circumstance

    b) force

    c) willingness

    d) a mix of all the above

    Just like prison sex, its a mix of all the above.

    There were a whole lot more pax at the COT than were at 0530, and only Saab was spotted actually running this morning. What did they do?

    a) actually ran, and launched early to get in more distance

    b) ran to starbucks, shot the breeze for an hour, then came back and dumped water on TYA so it looked like they ran

    c) Ran over to MARV’s house planning on TPing his yard, only to find out that it was so humid, the toilet paper actually stuck to their hands and they couldnt throw it

    d) a mix of all the above

    Well done to those that ACTUALLY did run/bike this morning…..even if you cant prove it.

    Apology of the week goes out to TYA for making fun of how much he sweats, because that HAS TO BE a medical condition and he cant help it.

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • 1k 5k

    13 warriors pulled themselves out of the fart sack for a morning of fun. Weather was 70 and sunny

    The Thang: Mosey to side of school. Don Quixote x 9, Windmill x9. Jog to the track for a 1k 5k. Teams of two, exercises are 100 hand release merkins, 200 Lt. Dan’s, 300 WWII setups and 400 SSH. Other team member run around the 1/4 mile track. Mosey back to circle for Rosalitas and LBC, then one burpee to finish things off (since it Saab’s favorite exercise)

    NMM: This is and old school workout. Not seen in these parts six the 1960’s, but it is a TYA special. Lots of running and and very little break in between. Good tempo workout! Good to have Saab back out for a bootcamp workout, that’s as rare a sighting as Swirly pulling into a workout late. Also a pleasure to see Kubota at Mary. It has been a minute since he has been there, but he is missed every time.

    TYA took us out. His prayer is for some normalcy to come back to our nation. Can we please control this virus, stop shooting each other, and act with just a little bit of courtesy and civility. PLEASE!!! I am not asking for much.

    TYA OUT

  • See Ya Soccer Arms

    Five faithful warriors linked arms in the gloom of Circus Maximus to grow stronger and closer.  A great morning with great men went down as follows:

    • COP
      • 20 invisible jump ropes
      • 10 DQ
      • 15 IW
      • Arm circles – 10 small, 5 big; forwards and backwards
      • 10 helicopters
      • 20 Suzanne Somers, each leg
      • 20 merkins
      • 20 2x flutter kicks
    • KB escalator
      • 10 skull crushers, run the bus lop off lane
      • 15 skull crushers, 10 overhead pulls, run the bus loop
      • 20 skull crushers, 15 overhead pulls, 10 sit ‘n press, run the bus loop
      • 25 skull crushers, 20 overhead pulls, 15 sit ‘n press, 10 KB swings, run the bus loop
      • 25 overhead pulls, 20 sit ‘n press, 15 KB swings, 10 KB squats, run the bus loop
      • 25 sit ‘n press, 20 KB swings, 15 KB squats, 10 halos, run the bus loop
      • 25 KB swings, 20 KB squats, 15 halos, run the bus loop
      • 25 KB squats, 20 halos, run the bus loop
      • 25 halos, run the bus loop
    • 5x check
      • Lawnmower pulls
      • High pulls
      • KB lunges
      • Boxing cockroaches
      • Run
    • COT with your humble correspondent taking us out

    Great work by the PAX today.  High reps, heavy arms on the menu.  Always good to be at Circus with my brothers.  Great to see Chum Bucket back in the Circus gloom.

    Announcements include:

    • The upcoming F3 retreat on 10/3.  Sign up for cornhole. 
    • Gypsy is looking to start a new running with some boot camp exercises mixed in on Monday mornings at Pocohontas Middle.  The workout will be 1 hour and start at 5:15. 
    • Stay tuned for announcements on a Labor Day convergence at Gridiron.  Walkers, canes and grey hair not required.

    God is good all of the time!

    Attila

  • West End Boys

    4 distinguished gentlemen from the the West End made the arduous journey through the woods and crossed the James River this morning to meet the SOJ PAX on their own terms at the grounds of Timberwolf. All they found was YHC…. This is week 0 of the Iron PAX Challenge. Here is how it went down.

    Mosey down to the track for

    COP

    Don Quixote, Russian Soldiers, Cherry Pickers, Hello Dolly, Rosalita.

    THE THANG

    • 50 Squats
    • 40 WW2s
    • 30 Merkins
    • 20 2 count Ball Dippers
    • 10 Burpees
    • 1 lap around the track
    • x4

    Had a little time left, wanted to make sure everyone got the best bang for their buck, so despite some mublechatter we went to the field for

    COP part deaux

    • Bernie Sanders to the 50, 25 LBCs, “sprint” back
    • Bernie Sanders to the 50, 25 LBCs, Bear Crawl back (in case you were wondering, this is Tater’s super power!)

    Time was nearly us so then we walked (?!?!) BTTF, numbers, names, announcements, (see below), YHC took us out

    NMM

    Great effort today guys, that was very tough! That was the first time YHC has ever been to an “on the books” F3 AO where walking at any point was condoned. Wonder what the next 4 weeks at NO TOLL will be like! Where are the SOJ brothers at? See y’all at Twin Team tomorrow?

    Also, henceforth the “Cherry Picker” shall hereby be called the “Collard Picker” as apparently you’re doing it wrong if you pick the cherries up off of the ground.

  • Slow Bern

    Red sky at morning, sailor take warning. 9 men brought their smoldering intensity to gloom of The Forge, starting with some quiet warmups – side straddle hops, don quixotes, imperial walkers, cherry pickers, reverse scorpion kicks and elbow planks.

    A long bear crawl from the flag to the stairs, down the stairs, and to the rail. Swinging and weaving under the entire length of the rail all the way down to the road. 11s at each light (mirkins and flutter kicks) to the cul de sac.

    BoneThug’s Dirty 30 (30 v-ups, 30 lbcs, 30 core planks, 30 Alabama prom dates). Easy breezy mosey to the bottom of the main hill and a Bernie Sanders up and back to the flag.

    Mirkin ring of fire with an elbow plank hold, mosey down to the stop sign and sprint back to the flag.

    A moment of gratitude to come out and work together, get stronger together and pray. Prayers for Doozy and Greenbow on their journey, prayers And blessings for Roger Roger and his wife as she starts a new job, prayers for all those affected by Hurricane Laura.

    Go in peace.

  • Ascending Suck

    2 ran on their own and 6 followed YHC for a little beat down. Here’s an summary of what went down sans commentary because YHC is blogging on his phone.

    Warmup

    Side straddle hops

    Arm circles

    Don Q’s

    LBC’s

    Merkins

    After warmup, a 3/4 lap jog to the middle of the field for ascending suck (copyright owned by DK)

    50 air squats / 10 burpees

    40 WW2 / 10 burpees

    30 double leg lunges / 10 burpees

    20 merkins/ 10 burpees

    10 double pump Alabama prom dates / 10 burpees

    Repeat ascending

    With time to spare, we made our way to the lower parking lot for two rounds of 5 push ups / 30 second plank / 10 WW2 / 10 push ups / 30 second plank. We ran the hill after round 1. Up the hill and back to the flag after the second.

    This was a tough one but we chipped away at it and completed nearly 100 burpees. YHC is happy to report that his counting was exceptional.

    YHC took us out. Prayers for Rosetta who lost a friend recently to Covid.