Tag: Heartbreak Ridge

  • Magic School Bus!

    4 hungry warriors came to conquer the morning at HR. SF planted and here’s the short version of how it went…

    Mosey to small parking lot in front of school. COP: Invisible Jump Rope, Merkins, IW, DQ, Freddie Ms

    Mosey to hill on east side of school for “fun on the hill”
    – up the hill, 5 Lieutenant Dans, down the hill 5 LDs
    – up the hill, 6 Lieutenant Dans, down the hill 6 LDs
    – up the hill, 6 Lieutenant Dans, down the hill 6 LDs

    Mosey to tennis basketball courts
    – run forward to the wall, merkins, run back
    – side shuffle R, WWII situps
    – side shuffle L, CDD
    – run backward, ???
    – karaoke R, ???
    – karaoke L, ???

    Intermittently plank, one-legged balance toe touch each side, bridge/back plank between rounds

    Mosey to Heartbreak Hill, repeato “fun on the hill” with modification of doing LDs only at the top, 5 iterations

    Mosey to the SF
    COP – each PAX choose a core exercise, finish with ring of fire

    NMS
    – Upon returning to the start, the PAX found note left on shovel flag by “556” – presumably a school bus with writing abilities. Glad to hear we’re encouraging someone. Maybe we should EH said school bus?
    – Today was planned to be something completely different, but maybe next week with more PAX. Apparently plenty showed up at Lab Rat’s Ultimate party in DaVille

  • 6 Pax and 6 Billion Gnats

    six studs took off without a named Q to tour Heartbreak Ridge. Here is what transpired:

    COP – SSH, Don Qs, Merkins, Scorpion Kicks, LBCs. COP was ed by Mr Holland.

    Q to YHC. 3 Trips up Honeysuckle hill via Bear Crawl. 5 WWII situps at top, run down then 20 Jump Squats. Head to tennis courts: Sprints across & 15 Merkins. 2 more times then Crab Walk across.

    Q passed to Flipper- down to concession stand for Triple check – B2W, Flutterkicks, run to flag & back.  Handshake took Q over to Jerkin Gym. Descending Jerkins from 7-1. Then 30 WWII situps. Garbage Plate took us home with Triple check again of Inchworm, Dips, and Star Jumps .

    Back to flag for Mary, 10 HR Merkins and COT closed out by Handshake.

    NMS – Great to have Tubbs out for 1st time at HBR. He posted as FNG at Circus Maximus last week. Way to hang in on a humid hot potato Q.

    Mr Holland started us off but could not recall a historic event from 5/29 date to muster a theme so we passed the Q along. As we made our way to the concession stand the gnats hit us full force. It only got worse when we hit the Jerkin Gym. YHC has worked out in some terrible conditions in these last 3 years but the gnats at the Jerkin Gym were unbearable. A few pax almost gagged up onto their partner while holding their legs on the Jerkins.

    Garbage Plate and Handshake handled their Q part fine and are both ready for a full Heartbreak Ridge VQ soon.

    Silent Assassin signing off.

     

  • F3 RVA Summer Tour – Starts Saturday, May 26

    F3 RVA Summer Tour – Starts Saturday, May 26

    https://youtu.be/Xf3mRZ7SHu0

    According to Phineas and Ferb, there are 104 days of summer.  What a better way to spend the summer than challenging yourself to visit all 24 F3 RVA AOs.  Although procrastinators can wait as late as August 6 to start, it would be best to spread this challenge out over the entire summer.  Once you complete the tour, you will have done the following:

    • 14 bootcamps
    • 7 runs including a trail run and evening run
    • 2 Kettle Bell workouts
    • 1 bike ride

    Don’t let not having a kettle bell or bike prevent you from participating in this challenge.  Borrow them if necessary.

    The challenge starts starts on Saturday, May 26 and ends on Labor Day.

    To sign up, click here.  

    To print the F3 RVA Summer Tour flyer, click here.

    See you all this summer!

    Phonics

  • Victory Lap x2

    On this beautiful, lucky mid-May morning, 8 determined die-hards gathered at the Ridge. Here’s what went down:

    Mosey to front of parking lot for a warmup COP: Invisible Jump Rope, Russian Kickbacks, Don Quixote, Carolina Dry Docks

    Mosey to south end of track near the road. Intro the Lucky Horseshoe. Set the timer for 33 min, and PAX complete as much of the following as possible during that time:
    Do a lap of the track and do 20 of the marked exercises on laminated card corresponding to that lap number.
    Lap 1 – Merkins
    Lap 2 – Merkins, Storm Squats (to clear up any ongoing confusion, each storm squat rep = [1st leg -> squat -> 2nd leg -> squat])
    Lap 3 – Merkins, Storm Squats, Scorpion Dry Docks
    Lap 4 – Merkins, Storm Squats, Scorpion Dry Docks, WWII Situps
    Lap 5 – Merkins, Storm Squats, Scorpion Dry Docks, WWII Situps, In-place Lunges (to clear up any ongoing confusion, 20 each leg)
    Lap 6 – Storm Squats, Scorpion Dry Docks, WWII Situps, In-place Lunges
    Lap 7 – Scorpion Dry Docks, WWII Situps, In-place Lunges
    Lap 8 – WWII Situps, In-place Lunges
    Lap 9 – In-place Lunges
    Lap 10 – Victory Lap, no exercises at the end

    Mosey to shovel flag for Ring of Fire

    COT

    MOLESKIN:
    Well done this morning, gentlemen! Kudos to Phonics and Offshore for both completing the Victory Lap! You both crushed it and it was great to see.

    Thanks Phonics for making the trek to Heartbreak, we hope to see you again.

  • Go Caps Go (#ALLCAPS)!

    Nine aspiring NHL players posted today in preparation for game three of the Eastern Conference Finals, and to celebrate the Caps finally breaking the 20 year D.C. sports curse (what curse). It went a little something like this:

    5:30 sharp, leave the locker room and mosey to warm-up area beside the rink / bottom of Heartbreak Ridge.

    COPYHC advised the PAX that he needs work on cadence.  Arm Circles (slow – forwards / backwards). Jump Squats. Invisible Jump Ropes. All x 10. The dudes abided with HALT every time, so YHC must have improved slightly overnight.

    THANG: Pre-skate strength and conditioning. Clockwork Merkins on HBR. 5 at 12/ 3/ 6/ 9. Repeato Counterclockwise. Plank walk between slotted times. Crawlbear up HBR  for 20 row boats (there’s a theme here). Crabwalk back downPolar Bear up HBR for 20 WWIIs (still a theme). Polar Bear back down.

    Time to lace up the skates and hit the ice. 1 lap around the rink/track. (Native American Run w/ 3 burpees).  

    Partner up: Defenseman, time to get in on the ice time. Catch me if you can. Skate/run backwards while partner does 5 burpees. (It’s hard to do burpees in skates on ice). 1 lap.

    New partners: Time to work on those upper and lower body injuries. Partner 1 runs a lap while partner 2 completes dips. Repeato x 2. LBCs to wait for PAX. 50 LBCs OYO (more on this in a minute).

    Penalty Box / Rusty Cage. Pax hit with a 5 minute major. Partner up. 11s. Jerkins and Booyah Merkins (2-count).

    Game over. Back to the locker room/flag. Good guys win. YHC took us out.

    NMS: Great time this morning. YHC pulled an accidental Swirly. I woke up at 4:45 got ready and started to head out the door when I realized it was 4:15. Oh well. Arrived at HBR 30 minutes early and was able to get the rink lights turned on, warmed up and ready to go. Six PAX members joined me at the start of practice with two others coming in hot. Considered having them skate extra laps, but decided against it.

    There was a leak in the arena roof, so last night’s rain made pre-skate training a bit slippery. Flipper called an audible on downhill Polar Bears and went with somersaults instead. Good work Brother, YHC/Coach noticed the extra effort!

    Solid mumble chatter during time in the Penalty Box. Solid effort as well.

    YHC didn’t plan this, but as it were, today was my 50th post (hence the 50 LBCs). Special shout out to Hardywood (or blame Hardywood if you’d prefer) for bringing me in to F3. It’s been awesome so far, thanks to all of you. Can’t wait for what lies ahead. Thanks for letting me lead today.

    Announcements:

    Happy Birthday Atilla!

    PuppyPile – May 19th. 7:05

    Pay Shakedown lost of money to shave his head.

    See Wilson and Gumbo about golf.

    Memorial Day Convergence at Tredegar/Belle Isle May 28th. 7:00 a.m.

    F3 Arlington is launching Saturday June 2 at 7:00 a.m. YHC plans on being there. Join me if you can. Hit me up for details or check them out on Twitter.

    -Never pick the low hanging fruit!

    Vinny, out!

  • New Rubber or Old A$$

    10 (seemed like 11) veteran F3RVA pax came to tackle the morning the right way at Heartbreak Ridge. SF planted and precisely at 0530 the pax took off for the adventure. Here’s the recap:

    THE THANG

    Mosey a lap around the parking lot to the front side near the street

    Warmup COP
    SSH x20 IC
    Russian Kickbacks x20 IC
    Russian Soldiers x20 IC
    DQ x10 IC very slowly, stretch at every motion
    (Some other exercise) x12 IC

    Mosey to the track for beginning of arms day. Break into two groups; first group head to pullup bars, second group head to jerkin gym
    – @ Jerkin gym: 10 Jerkins, then 20 bench dips. Run on the track to the pullup bars
    – @ Pullup bars: 10 Pullups, then 20 merkins. Run on the track to the Jerkin gym
    – Repeato until each station completed 2x

    Mosey to the near side of the school

    Triple Check: Wall sits, Plank, Run to other side of parking lot & Back

    Mosey to the exit lane from the parking lot

    Curb crawls (as prescribed in F3Nation.com Exercises) – Bear crawl to other side, do 1 Derkin. Bear crawl back, do 2 Derkins, etc. all the way up to 13. Audible to Incline Merkins after 6. Modification options: bear crawl –> lunge walk, Incline Merkins –> Merkins on knees.

    With arms on fire, mosey to track. Each Pax do 2 laps, and head back to shovel flag

    COP
    Ring of Fire: all pax plank while one at a time each does 10 Merkins
    APD slow x20 IC
    Heels to Heaven x20 IC

    MS

    As always, it was a pleasure to lead this morning. After Gumbo’s leg-smoker day at Dogpile on Sat, YHC’s lower extremities were still sore and groaning for the focus to be on arms today. Even more was planned, but those plans will just inform the next time.

    YHC had some trouble counting the PAX, and thought right up until the final COP that we had 11. Probably would have made more sense to split into groups of 4 and 6 for Jerkin/Pullup sequence… expecting maximum mental sharpness is not necessarily a requirement to better yourself with fellow PAX in the gloom, so no apologies offered here.

    The first words Offshore said to YHC today were, “I need to sweat today.” Surely intended to be awkward… and it was indeed. Good luck collecting all of your body fluids for the cyborg study or whatever it is, Offshore. Shortly before or after that interaction (again mental sharpness not necessary here), Attila & HoneyDo’s commentary on YHC’s trunk search for gloves that didn’t stink yielded today’s BB title

    Good to see the warm weather Pax out today, hope to see everyone back!

    ANNOUNCEMENTS

    5/19 7:00am Puppy Pile (2.0-friendly at Dogpile)

    Friday 5/11 – Weekly West End pax lunch at Chipotle on Broad Street BETWEEN GASKINS AND COX ROAD

    5/16 – Hump Day Happy Hour at Independence Golf Club. Speed Golf may or may not be on the agenda.

  • Merkin form on display

    Seven studs slid their way through the morning dew at Heartbreak Ridge to try and answer the eternal question: what is the best way to perform a merkin. We started with:

    COP – Imperial Walkers, Don Qs, Helicopters, Merkins, Scorpion Kicks, Lbcs. 

    Grab a bench- 15 Derkins, 15 Ball Dippers, then run the parking lot. Repeato.

    mosey to hill formerly known as Honeysuckle hil. Polar bear up, down then 20 WWII situps. Backwards run up, 20 Heels2Heaven, Crab Walk up, 20 Freddy Mercurys.

    Mosey to Basketball court. Run length, 25 Donkey Kicks. 5 Burpees on other end. Repeato but increase to 10 Burpees.

    Down to Jerkin Gym- 3 Sets of 8. Grab a bench – 50 Benchkicks, 20 Derkins. 2 more times decreasing Benchkicks by 10. 

    Back to flag for Mary, and close with RoF. Atilla took us out.

    NMS – Mr Holland arrived to make it an uneven 7 on the initial mosey. Vinny suggested some Scorpion Kicks with some modifications. Those will have to be tested in the Corporate R&D lab before dropping on the pax. Handshake and Gomer Pyle both are back to for after nursing their ankle injuries.

    At Honeysuckle Hill a police car pulled in but used his loudspeaker to tell us to carry on. This continues our good relationship with the boys in blue at HBR. The high volume of Benchkicks was appreciated by the pax.

    During the mosey back to the flag Mr Holland asked the pax about preferred Merkin hand placement. Many suggestions ensued with comments of lock your wrists, should blades touching, parallel planes, etc. Somewhere Toga is smiling…

    The Dew was thick this morning with hands and feet soaked. May this be the last long sleeve morning in the gloom for a while, but the legs are always SOP. Silent Assassin signing off.

  • I hate it but I love it

    7 of Richmond’s best beat the fartsack this morning, hoping to not watch the puddles gather rain… Shovel flag planted around 0523, laminated LH card located, and the PAX took off at precisely 0530 to tackle the gloom.

    THE THANG
    Mosey to north end of track near snack pavilion, disclaimer, COP:
    – Russian Soldiers x20 IC
    – Russian Kickbacks x15 IC
    – Helicopters x15 IC
    – IW x15 IC

    Mosey to south end of track near the road. Intro the Lucky Horseshoe. Set the timer for 33 min, and PAX complete as much of the following as possible during that time:
    Do a lap of the track and do 20 of the marked exercises on laminated card corresponding to that lap number.
    Lap 1 – Merkins
    Lap 2 – Merkins, Storm Squats (to clear up any ongoing confusion, each storm squat rep = [1st leg -> squat -> 2nd leg -> squat])
    Lap 3 – Merkins, Storm Squats, Scorpion Dry Docks
    Lap 4 – Merkins, Storm Squats, Scorpion Dry Docks, WWII Situps
    Lap 5 – Merkins, Storm Squats, Scorpion Dry Docks, WWII Situps, In-place Lunges (to clear up any ongoing confusion, 20 each leg)
    Lap 6 – Storm Squats, Scorpion Dry Docks, WWII Situps, In-place Lunges
    Lap 7 – Scorpion Dry Docks, WWII Situps, In-place Lunges
    Lap 8 – WWII Situps, In-place Lunges
    Lap 9 – In-place Lunges
    Lap 10 – Victory Lap, no exercises at the end

    Mosey to shovel flag for COP/Mary:
    Plank
    Back plank
    Freddie Mercury slow IC x20
    Superman

    MOLESKIN
    Kudos to Offshore, who came within about 20s of completing the full menu. Way to kill it! That’s almost 2 full laps of improvement from March – incredible.

    YHC was slightly surprised to see head nods from all after asking the PAX if they want to do this again in May. This workout is easy to have a love/hate relationship with – the laps get longer… and then they get shorter and you think you just might be able to squeeze another in if you push a little harder. YHC likes doing this regularly, but thought the PAX might say – “You don’t like my point of view, you think that I’m insane… Its not sane… It’s not sane.”

    Capture of laps completed as baseline for future LH iterations (please correct if wrong, the iPhone voice memo didn’t work): HoneyDo 8 + part run, Mr. Holland 8 + part run, Seymour 8 + part run, Offshore 9+ most of run, Vinny 7 + part of run, Attila 7 + part of run, Loose Goose 7 + most run, 13 IP lunges short of 8.

    ANNOUNCEMENTS
    F3 RVA shirts (2 designs) available for order between now and 4/30. Lab Rat is closing an order today to combine shipping, so reach out to him ASAP if you’d like to add to it. See https://backblasts.f3rva.org/2018/04/16/dogpile-and-mosey-on-shirts-now-available-for-pre-order/ for details

    WEST END weekly lunch starts back up next Friday 5/4. Location: TBD (HoneyDo?), time: high noon.

  • Watch out for the milk truck

    A group of 5 gentlemen arose to enjoy a crisp morning at Heartbreak Ridge.  Here’s what went down:

    Mosey around the school and then circle up in front.

    COP: SSH, Imperial walkers (with a redo b/c YHC is a bit rusty at Qing), Helicopters, Don Q

    Mosey to the Race track for a 4 x 100: 25 each of Flutter kicks, squats, lbcs, and merkins at the four corners of the track, 4 laps.

    2 sets of dips on each of the grand stands.

    Mosey up to the parking lot for sprints at 50% and 80%.

    Next, mosey to the side of the school and complete a burpee at each post.

    Finally, a Triple check: Donkey kicks, Lt Dans, curb to curb bear crawls  after we dodge the milk truck.

    COT – Atilla took us out.

    Announcements: preorders are setup for Dogpile and mosey on F3 shirts.  Loose Goose volunteered to make a West End order to save on shipping.

    NMS

    OK, I know it’s a lame title but there was next no mumble chatter.  Tclaps to Loose Goose who was killing out there and to Gomer Pyler who is recovering from a foot injury but showed no signs of tapering.  It was a pleasure gentlemen.

    Ronnie out.

  • The Night We Saw Them All

    A PAX eclipsing 40 ditched all common sense for about 18 hours to receive a plentiful helping of each of the three Fs.  This was the F3RVA Century Classic.

    YHC has conversed with a number of individual PAX members about their experience, taking notes during the event and thinking about how to transcribe all of these memories into a backblast.  There is no way YHC could do the stories justice by attempting to capture them for the collective PAX.  Then, after chatting with Lockjaw and the (sober) Ronnie, it became clear.  Treat the backblast as a living backblast.  YHC will make no attempt to capture the essence of this workout, only setting the stage for each and every PAX member to capture it for himself.

    My memories are collected below.  I encourage everyone to add to this list by commenting with your favorite memory.

    Leg 1:  Trying to contain my energy for the CSAUP while stuck in traffic for opening night of the squirrels game
    Leg 2:  Praying for Saab on Meadowbridge and Atlee Rd.  Kudos to all that ran that leg, a true game of frogger
    Leg 3:  All the Mechanicsville PAX member who were not running, companion running with the actual runners.  Kudos!
    Leg 4:  The Creek parking lot is great for fellowship.  This truly felt like a tailgate parking lot.  The energy, games and conversation were all electric.
    Leg 5:  The headlamp on my run reflecting all the pollen flying through the air with me initially thinking it was raining.  30 minutes later realizing all that pollen was being sucked into my lungs at an incredible rate.
    Leg 6:  Hearing of TYA and Swirly questioning if YHC actually marked his legs of the course and me telling them where they can shove it.
    Leg 7:  Realizing how peaceful and quiet the city can be when when you are in it and surrounded by trees.  The new moon highlighted the stars and all their brilliance.
    Leg 8:  Showing up to Hoedown and having Ronnie greet us after his enjoyable evening.
    Leg 9:  Marv almost taking out another animal with his running shoes.
    Leg 10:  Thinking about how comfortable it is to try to sleep on the top of a picnic table.
    Leg 11:  Watching the back and forth between Saab complaining about not being able to sleep and Upchuck for waking him up.
    Leg 12:  Waving to the UR security guard while sitting in a white van with 4 men laying on the ground.  He waved and continued by.
    Leg 13:  Marv learning that Fudd was going to show up only for leg 18 and would still get a tshirt.
    Leg 14:  Seeing Lockjaw drive 20 in a 45 on Charter Colony so he could stay between the lines.
    Leg 15:  Reminding Marv that Fudd was still sleeping.
    Leg 16:  Hearing of a certain individual’s multiple escapades to the bathroom at a singular Wawa.
    Leg 17:  Making the van take a 3 mile detour to Wawa so YHC could get a breakfast hoagie, thus missing the final hand-off.
    Leg 18:  Pulling into Dogpile, realizing it was almost over and thinking the whole experience was too fast.

    This humble correspondent would like to thank everyone involved with making this event successful, especially those listed in the QIC list.  Without it, this would have been a completely stupid and utterly failure of an event.

    Splinter out.