Tag: Dogpile

64 legs carried 32 of the faithful and four more made the PAX 66 feet strong to celebrate UpChuck Family Birthday Week. Temperatures held steady at 70. Skies were bright and sunny. According to the runner who tried to lure DTH’s dog into the metaphorical van, the PAX did the following:

Mosey to the Near Circle, but (wait for it) Turn LEFT to round the circle clockwise, loop back around the island of trees, and then circle up for:

Circle of Pain:

47 SSHs, By Request, Lawrence Welk-style (Happy birthday to UpChuck)
14 IWs (Happy birthday to UpChuck’s daughter, F3 Vers)
DQs x 10
Hello Dolly (Temporarily renamed Rosalita’s)
Rosalita’s x15 (Renamed Rosalita’s)
LBCs x20
HRMs x10

Mosey to the Outer Ring of the Near Circle for:

Bear crawl to manhole cover; crawl bear back to the outer curb.
Polar bear crawl to manhole cover; crawl bear polar (or crawl polar bear, or bear polar crawl or…just do it backwards already)
Partner up…wheelbarrow to the manhole cover, switch up, wheelbarrow back.

Circle Up for Seven of Diamonds:

Multiples of 7 exercises at each of four points. Increase reps by 7 each round up to 28 per round, then back down by 7 reps per round. 7 rounds total.

Hand-Release Merkins x7
Basic Squats x14
Reverse Crunches x21
Little Baby Crunches x28
Flutter Kicks (4-count) x21
Copperhead Squats x14
(At roughly this point, Bodo’s griped for the first time in his life, and out of pure astonishment, the YHC forgot to have the PAX do Hand Release Burpees in favor of Snow Angels. “The Lord works in mysterious ways.”)
Snow Angels x7 (The PAX subconsciously thanked Bodo’s).

Somewhere in here one PAX member was overheard to say,”At least do half the exercises.” Line of the day.

YHC thanks the PAX who led from the front: Swirly, DTH (YHC loves the No Faking It Merkins – or whatever those are called), and Hardywood (Master of the Arm Circle)…YHC apologizes for forgetting any other PAX who led.

Mosey to the Amphitheater for Stairway to Seven:

At the bottom of the Amphitheater, each PAX performs two exercises (burpees and inclined merkins), then runs to the top of the Amphitheater to perform WWII sit-ups.

1 rep of each exercise in round one. Increase by one rep each round, up to 7 reps in the last round.

Hardywood led enthusiastic flutter kicks, six inches, and 45 degrees for The Six.

Mosey Back to the Flag (BTTF).

Number-am-a, Name-a-ram-a, Circle K took us out with a reminder about the true meaning of the season.

Announcements:

Ghost Flag to the City Dwellers. No place more appropriate. Carry it with Pride.

Christmas Morning Beatdown: 5:30 a.m. at DogPile.

December 30, Punisher, 6:00 p.m. Bring your A-game, and your government issued photo ID (and a few bucks). Linwood Holton Elementary. UpChuck has the Q.

NMS:

Solid performance by the PAX today. Way to push.

Nice to have Flashdance and Fudd back with The PAX today. YHC thought Fudd was on the juice until YHC remembered that Fudd is a) a natural athlete, and b) living at 5,300 feet. That brother has some lung capacity now.

YHC’s travel is done for the year, and he’s ready for a break. Here’s hoping you all have some time free to spend relaxing with family and friends over the holidays.

UpChuck spits the bit.

Thirty-Nine Tom Selleck impersonators posted at Dogpile for an ode to good deeds, our friends at Raise Coffee, and iconic 80’s TV. 06:00 (01:00 Hawaiian time), time to break out the flowery shirts and ‘staches, and usher in the trade winds with a steady mosey to the volcano (amphitheater).

Wakeup Call: DQs (Higgins) x 12. Helicopters (T.C.s) x 12. Magnum Merkins – ‘stache touches the ground x 12. RAISE. R – Rosalitas x 12. A – APDs x 11. I – Imperial Walkers x 19. S – SSHs x 80. E – Eight Burpees. Magnum P.I. first aired on 12/11 1980.

Touch a Palm Tree: Partner up. Touch 8 trees while partner holds coupon straight out at ‘stache level. Six trees while partner holds coupon above the head. Repeato at 4 and 2 trees.

Volcano Beast (at Golden Triangle): S – ‘Stache: SSHs / T – Tempo Merkins IC / A – American Hammers (2-count) / C – Copperhead Squats IC / H – Hello Dollies / E – Eight Burpees.

Tiki Bar Pub Crawl: 4-corners. First corner: Merkins x 5. Second corner: One :60 elbow plank. Third corner: Freddie Mercuries x 19. Fourth corner: LBCx x 88. Magnum P.I. went off air on 5/8 1988.

‘Stache Dash: Jail Break sprint BTTF.

Announcements: Several of our guys are crushing the Bear Creek 10-miler tomorrow. We raised over $9k for Raise Coffee! T-Claps to all involved. Seriously, incredible effort.

Hairy Chest Moleskin: Today was another awesome example of the power of this brotherhood. As Gumbo said, we issue a challenge and the response is all-out. You men are awesome! When we come together to help others and have a blast doing it, there isn’t much better.

Welcome LinkedIn and Slim Fast. Don’t be strangers. Get back out and see us soon.

-Gumbo/Vinny

The Dogpile gloom welcomed 15 party animals for DTH’s Birthday Q. After we blew out the candles, here’s how 37 years were celebrated:

The THANG:

Mosey to Grassy Area for COP #1:

• SSH x37 IC
• DQ x10 IC
• Hydraulic Squats x10 IC
• Hairy Rockettes x10 IC
• Leg-Up Merkins x10 IC each side
• WWII x10 IC
• DTH’s x10 IC

Mosey to Amphitheater for COP #2:

• Counting down from 37, descend then ascend the steps following the pattern of x37 Monkey Humpers, x36 Merkins, x35 2-count Flutter Kicks, x34 MH’s, x33 M’s, x32 FK’s, etc. Add box jump on the way back up. Early finishers went back to complete the set with the SIX.

Mosey to the Rusty Cage for COP #3:

• x6 Rounds of the following: x5 Pullups, x5 Merkins, x5 Jerkins or Dips
• 7th Round with 7 Reps each for a total of #37 for each Exercise

Mosey to Carillon Field for COP #4:

• Beast-mode BLIMPS:
• 25 yard line – x5 Burpees
• 50 yard line – x10 Lunges (ea leg)
• 75 yard line – x15 2-ct Imp Walkers
• Run to end line & turn back
• 75 yard line – x20 Merkins
• 50 yard line – x25 Plank Jacks
• 25 yard line – x30 Squats
• … x3 Rounds completed

Mosey BTTF:

• x37 Merkins IC to close

COT:

• Counterama # 15
• Namerama
• Announcerama (see Comments)
• YHC took us out in Prayer

NMS:

• Couldn’t imagine a better way to start a new year than with this band of faithful brothers. YHC especially enjoyed having birth brother “Flint” join us today …right up until after the COT when he led the PAX in the Birthday song… YHC apologizes to Corporate who surely has some form of ban on this kind of boisterous behavior. Apparently Flint still has the uncanny ability to embarrass YHC no matter the age or setting. Some may have thought there would be well over 1000 Merkins today, in order to complete YHC’s grand goal of 9000 for the month…but after a few days of merkin-free Thanksgiving bliss, it just wasn’t in the cards. Oh well, today’s routine still rocked out just over 400 Merkins. And lets not forget YHC’s shovel flag now bears the inimitable Most Merkins battle streamer (+tassles)… so there’s that. 🙂

21 of RVA’s finest came out and humored YHC is his efforts to try something new at Dogpile.

This is how it went down

Circle up around the SF for the disclaimer and the plan for the day

COP replaced with the Cotton-eyed Joe – Cotton Eyed Joe by Rednex (3:14) Start with SSH to music when singing starts. When Banjo (as well as the fiddle) solo starts switch to Hillbillies, then music changes and woman sings, switch to merkins, Then switch back to Side Straddle Hops when man sings again. Rinse & Repeat: Man singing: SSH / Banjo solo: Hillbillies/ Woman singing: Merkins

THANG

The PAX counted off into fours and formed groups. YHC gave instructions on the fact that there are 4 stations set up throughout Dogpile (YHC should have given additional details but more on that later).

Objective – Be the first team to complete all four stations with these simply rules: Must stay as a PAX an the Cinder Block Coupon just go with you to every station

With that the PAX was off

Station #1 (The VITA Trail) – Miles of Merkins – Run the loop, stop 10 times and complete 5 Booyah Merkins and 5 Workins

Station #2 (The Nickel Bridge) – Bridge the Gap – Form a line. Leapfrog over each other down the bridge till you reach the river. Run backwards to the start

Station #3 (The Pipeline) – Triple Check – 1. Run the loop, 2. LBC’s, 3. Coupon Swings. Once completed find a log to carry to the next station

Station #4 (The Rusty Cage) – Team Cage – As a PAX, complete 100 Burp Ups, 100 Jerkins, and 100 Dips

Mosey back to the SF for Numberrama, Namerama, Announcements, YHC took us out

MOLESKIN

Well you win some and you lose some. YHC learned today that sometime even if you want things to be a surprise, its better give more information.

YHC had marked each location starting area with glow sticks but some of the glow sticks were hard to find. The result, the PAX was confused and didn’t finish

YHC does hope that the PAX enjoyed something new and hopefully next time things will go a lot smoother

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Thanksgiving Day Convergence – 6am at 45MOM. Hour long, coffee afterwards
• TYA has the Q at No Toll
• Forest Hill Park Loops start 7 am Black Friday

SPIT ON THAT!!

21 stone masons donned 42 pairs of gloves to build themselves and their brothers into better men. Temps were sunny and 70 with a wind chill of 30. A perfect way to start the day started with…

The COP:

SSHs
Imperial walkers
Invisible Jump Rope (forward AND backward!)
Don Quixote’s
Reverse crunches
Littlest of Baby Crunches
Hand release merkins

Mosey to the Far Circle to:

Collect your coupons. Or, as Hardywood calls them, Cinder Blocks of Success (CBOS). Good ole fashioned blocks. Home Depot’s finest.

11’s from the circle to the Carillon fence…decline merkins on one side, reverse crunches on the other. Carry your coupon with you. Or, if you are a miserly fellow, like Swirly and Hardywood, collect coupons and carry more than one.

Hold at the Carillon Fence for:

Touch-a-tree. One man touches 5 trees while carrying his coupon. Partner performs American Hammers, with or without coupon. YHC takes his hat off to those who did the AH’s while holding the coupon. Well done.

Mosey to the Amphitheater for:

Coupon decline merkins. 3 decline merkins on each step. Use the coupon, at your leisure, to make these double-declines.

Round-the-World Relay:

Stick with YHC on this. Four men, two stations. Station 1: orchestra pit. First Man does donkey kicks (has coupon with him). Second Man runs with his own coupon from orchestra pit to circle at top of amphitheater where he meets Third Man (at Station 2) who is doing WWIIs with his own coupon. Fourth Man started at Station 2 and has run with his own coupon to relieve First Man at Station 1. Much easier than it sounds.

Alternatively, YHC points at people and says “You! (points at first guy) Start up there (points to top). Run around with your coupon. You (points at other man)! When he (points at first guy) gets here (points at ground) then You go THAT (points in the other direction) way. Got it?” Clear as mud.

Line Up for Coupon Run, then YHC conducts a total failure of a Jail Break to return coupons to their new home (under wooden amphitheater). Future Qs, feel free to use.

BTTF for 5 MOM:

Hello Dolly (IC)
Flutter kicks (IC, Lawrence Welk-style).

Number-am-a, Name-a-ram-a, YHC took us out. Let’s all find a person to pull across a personal or professional goal line this holiday season. 12 days to Thanksgiving.

Announcements:

Keep Swiper, LugNut, Circle K and others running this weekend in your thoughts. Crush it, boys.

Thanksgiving…TYA has the Q at 45MOM. 0600 start time for 60 minutes. Coffee to follow. BYO pick-up truck with a tail gate.

December 7: Magnum PI Day, bring your best mustache or caterpillar, dress as your favorite Magnum PI character, and practice saying,”Oh, my, God, Magnum” over and over in a British accent. Double points if you show up with a helicopter, black sunglasses, and an over-the-ear head-set (TC!).

Thursday at The Forge…join your F3 brothers striving to win a tussle and a tassel by performing in excess of whatever number of merkins in 45 minutes.

YHC is a man who enjoys both contests and rules. Good contests have predictable rules. With that, YHC posits that HRMs are the only proper test for a merkin contest. The US Army agrees (t-release merkins, as they call ’em). Start with elbows locked in a plank position. Drop until chest is on ground. Slap belly on ground (shout out to the Hoedown crew). Lift palms off ground for one moment. Place palms back on ground. Extend arms until locked. Count one merkin. Repeat. After 45 minutes, you have set YOUR standard. “It’s you against you.” Strive to beat that standard the next time out. Remember the words of Lazarus Lake, founder of the Barkley Marathons, “If you are going to face a challenge, it has to be a real challenge. You can’t accomplish anything without the possibility of failure.”

Day after Thanksgiving, Forest Hill Park Loop-a-ram-a. 0700. Run one lap (or bike one lap). Wait until 0800, then run another lap. Wait until 0900. (Check for text from M asking how things are going). Repeato. Wait until 1000. Repeato. Wait until 1100. Repeato. Wait until 1200. (Check for text from M asking what time you think you’ll be home). Repeato. Wait until 1300. Repeato. Wait until 1400. Repeato. Wait until 1500. (Check for text from M reminding you of family event that you are supposed to be home for). Repeato. Wait until 1600. Repeato. Wait until 1700. Repeato. Wait until 1800. Repeato. (Check for text from M asking why you are not home). Wait until 1900. Repeato. Wait until 2000. Repeato. (Check for text from M asking whether you are ok. Ask F3 friends whether they think your M is asking about your mental or physical condition). Repeato. Wait until 2100. Repeato. (Meet police officer in park. Introduce self using F3 name.) Wait until 2200. (Check for text from M asking why police officer who knows your F3 name has called your home). Repeato. Wait until 2300. Repeato. (Check for text from M suggesting you sleep at TYA’s house. Check with TYA and obtain invitation. Text wife saying you are going to stay at TYA’s. Wonder why your M, who likely has never met TYA, somehow trusts him with your well-being more than she trusts you with your well-being).

NMS:

Not two days ago, Swirly said to YHC that it wasn’t cold days that were hard, but cold and windy days. Sure enough, cold with a side dish of windy. Brrr. Good day for gloves, and that made it a good day for coupons.

As with many of his own Q’s, YHC missed much of the mumble-chatter, however, YHC didn’t miss Handshake’s jazz-hands or whatever those were during the American Hammers. Next time, pick up the coupon.

Welcome to Drew, now “Rasputin” (He was renamed at ETs, and then renamed again). Google it, if you aren’t familiar. YHC will be looking for you next Saturday.

YHC came in hot with 30 Seconds to start (Upchuck had the countdown) as we do not mess around with the start time. 23 Fellow F3 Brothers showed up in 26 degree weather to start the day. Here is how it went down this morning.

COP

We moseyed to the lighted Amphiheater for our warm ups by the stage.

20 SSH, 10 DQ(slow with much mumble chatter), 10 Helicopters, 20 Freddie Mercuries, 10 4 count Harry Leg kicks on your back (think a reverse scorpion) and 15 4 count merkins (that is 30). <YHC was politely told by the PAX that YHC must keep track of the merkins.>

The THANG

We moseyed to the bowl for 11’s starting with 10 Donkey kicks run down the hill and stop for 5 merkins, then run up to the top of hill other side by the trees and did 1 squat back down the hill and stop for 5 merkins then run to the wall at the top of hill for 9 DK’s continuing this rotation until one DK and finished with 10 Squats at the top of hill by tree line. We planked for the 6. (Merkin Count was 10 rotations of 5 merkins each way for a total of 100 Merkins). YHC had Bulkhead give a 20 count and 20, 15, 10 and 5 go time!

We moseyed to the cage in awesome daylight (no gloom now on this cold sunny morning). We performed the Cindy for 15 minutes and this consisted of Partners for this work out. Partner 1 ran from the Cage to Fire Hydrant and Back (timer), Partner 2 had this time to perform 5 pullups, 10 merkins and 15 squats. The timers were faster now with nice daylight to see around so there was no real rest between rotations, this worked out to about 7 rotations with me and Bodos (who was crushing the run) great partnering with you Brother. So that works out to 70 more merkins (PAX adjust as necessary with your team)

We then Moseyed to the Triangle for 1 lap of Lunges from crop circle to corner, run down hill 20 LBCs and Bernie Saunders to top of hill and do 20 Merkins (some of the PAX did 30 or 40 Merkins so count your reps accordingly). YHC turned it over to Lab Rat for the next phase.

We moseyed to the front of the War memorial Tower and formed a circle to where we were asked to perform 5 burpees for each Veteran from the PAX (This was 30 burpees and with the push up counts as 30 merkins). Lab Rat then asked for each person to name a Veteran and then the entire group did 5 merkins for this Veteran that was mentioned. The total merkin count for this effort was 23×5 = 115 more merkins. (I totaled 365 merkins for this day math <30+100+70+20+30+115=365>Lab Rat turned it over to Corned Beef and we moseyed to Flag to circle up for Numberama and Namerama.

Moleskin

YHC was truly honored to lead today and it was great seeing some returning faces for this special workout day. I really look forward to Saturday workouts as it gets the weekend off to a good start (857 Active calories / 993 total calories w/recovery burned today). This is the Fitness F. The Fellowship F is after the workout gathering and then to Ellwood Thompsons for Breakfast and it is a great time to get to know each F3 brother better. The Faith F is what grounds us, brings us to a peaceful place and we always close the work out here in the COT, arm in arm where you can feel the brotherhood. Slippin Jimmy took us out in prayer as he learned of some sad news of a close friend who lost their 1 month old son this morning. Thank you SJ, special today and you wrapped this up well (have sweat in my eyes now as I write this).

Finally, I have a special request to help remember the veterans that were mentioned today. Please post a reply with the Name you mentioned with any additional information so we can memorialize this special morning and Thank you Lab Rat for leading this portion of the workout.

I will see you all in the gloom….CB

It’s the beginning of November, and that means the beginning of the Merkin Challenge, and that means a great day to have a shoulders/arms/chest/back beatdown. Here’s how it went down:

COP:SSHx25//Helipcopterx5//DQx10//Emperial Walkersx10//Russian Soldiersx10//LBCsx25// Crabcakesx10//Merkinsx10 (all in cadence)

Carrillon Field: Bearcrawl the width, 10 merkins, Crawlbear back // Polarbear across and back // Wheelbarrow across, 10 merkins, switch and come back

Big Triangle Loop: Run to the bottom, Bernie Sanders back up the hill, American Hammersx10//Squatsx10//Merkinsx10. 3 Loops (audible on 5 loops called after YHC realized we would be there til noon). PAX did 10 werkins and 10 diamonds as we waited for the six

Rusty Cage: partner up, 10 pull ups//10 jerkins x3.

Amphitheater: Start at the top step with 18 V-Ups. Shifted to WW2s at Step 15, shifted to LBCs at step 10. // 5 Box Jump Burpees at the bottom as we waited for the six. // Back up the Steps with Incline Merkins, 1 on Step 1, 2 on Step 2, and so forth, for a total of 170 Incline Merkins.

COP for the six, core exercises.

Sprint back to the flag. Numerama, Namerama. COT

NMS: So great to see Double Bag and Loveseat post today! Also Tadpole from Connecticut. It was an awesome temperature and so fun to be out there with all of you. I’m not entirely sure how many merkins we did, but I believe it was 300 if you count the jerkins (is that allowed?).

SYITG.

Today’s Dog Pile turned out to be a hot potato. Upgrade no showed (hope everything is ok!). YHC feels for him and can’t be hard on him as YHC has done the same. However, you will never live it down……..I promise that.

In order to know what we did, you had to post! Swirly started us and it ended with Wilson. YHC blacked out at some point either during the double triple or the dirty dogs. It was brutal and had a VQ in the mix. Well done men!

A smallish crowd of 19 men showed up this morning to start their day the F3 way. Lab Rat was combining a 4 year F3 Anniversary along with his last day as a 48 year old. Much celebrating happened…..hooray.

Standard COP this morning with the exception of the 49 Side Straddle Hops and 4 burpees for the much celebrating time as mentioned above. Some wore party hats.

We broke in to two groups so that we could get in quality pullup time. One group did 5 sets of 5 pullups while the other group played touch a tree with 5 burpees, 10 squats, and 20 LBC’s. Both groups got a turn at each. We reassembled for a fell run (it’s a thing) across the fields to get to burpee lake. 2 burpees at each light, along with an extra for the city at each burned out light. It’s hard to imagine, but we did more burpees than if we just did the standard Charles Bronson….where we would have capped it at 49. The group handled it well though, and it felt good to run this morning with the cool temps. We finished it off with a little yoga at the flag to bring it all back around.

I switched the COT out a bit from the usual prayer to express how important I believe F3 is to this community. My feeling is that over everything else, it is important that this group remains open to ALL men and that it is a place where men can come and feel welcome. Individual personalities will come and go, but the core value of a group of men that can gather, do something relatively difficult to strengthen bonds, bodies, and minds is important to keep available. To quote George RR Martin from the Game of Thrones, “when the long night comes and the cold winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives”. It kind of applies…..shut up.

That’s probably about the heaviest bb I have ever written, and for that,

Lab Rat Apologizes…