Tag: Heartbreak Ridge

A foursome gathered at the clubhouse of Quoccasin Country Club for today’s iteration of Heartbreak Ridge.  Circle up for some tea and crumpets before departing for the workout.  Mosey past the driving range to bypass a typical warmup and start out with something like this:

COP
SSH x20
Helicopters x10
Knee Hugs x10
Don Quixote x10
APDs x15

The Thang
Mosey towards the large grassy field to start the day off with a round of golf.  We played 3 holes.

First hole was a 400yd Par 4.  Run the length of a football field (100yds or so) and complete 20 merkins, run back 100yds and complete 20 squats, 100 yards more for 20 mountain climbers, 100 yards more for 10 burpees.  Plank until the PAX completes.

Second hole was a long 200yd Par 3, slightly into the wind.  Run 100yds for 20 merkins then 100 more yards for 10 squats.  Plank until the PAX completes.

Third hole was a challenging 500yd Par 5.  100 yards, 20 merkins, 100 yards, 20 squats, 100 yards, 20 mountain climbers, 100 yards, 10 burpees, 100 yards, 20 LBCs.  LBCs until the PAX completes.

Saunter towards the tennis courts for an afternoon doubles match. Line up on sideline and complete suicide, touching each doubles alley and stopping at the sideline after each leg for an exercise.  Progressively increase exercise count from 15/30/40 with each leg.  Exercises were:

Set 1 – 15 shoulder tap merkins, 30 lunges, 40 flutter kicks
Set 2 – 15 hand release merkins, 30 donkey kicks, 40 LBCs
Set 3 – 15 wide grip merkins, 30 jump squats, 40 american hammers
Set 4 – 15 carolina dry docks, 30 calf raises, 40 LBCs
Set 5 – 15 diamond merkins, 30 line hops, 40 flutter kicks

Variations of plank, al gore, peoples chair, 6 inches until the PAX completes between sets.

Quick jaunt back to the flag for 2 rounds of ring of fire.  Ten merkins per round.

Number-rama, name-a-rama, YHC took us out.

Moleskin
YHC was expecting a somewhat larger crowd for HBR considering the recent trend.  We ended up with 4 which was a perfect fit for the theme of the day.  Things you do at a country club.  YHC was the only participant that would have been allowed on the course today, sporting a collared shirt and golf shorts.

Kudos to Atilla and Mr Holland who crushed the 3 hole circuit.  Those 100yd sprints didn’t get any easier as we did more of them and you guys crushed them.

YHC can only assume the rest of the regular PAX were visiting other venues on Theme Tuesday.

Announcements
– Convergence Saturday @ 6&7 @ Gridiron.  No dogpile Saturday.
– If you want breakfast after convergence see here to order breakfast.  No order, no food.
– Prayers continue for EF Hutton and his family.

Splinter out

A hardy group of 9 showed on a beautiful day at Heartbreak Ridge.  We were joined by our F3 brother, Tater Hole, from Granite Falls, NC, near Hickory.  When questioned about his F3 name, Tater Hole responded “it’s a place, not an event.”  With those perplexing, yet somehow enlightening words, we set off into the gloom.  Here’s what went down:

We started with a black snake run (like an Aboriginal run, except the last man in line weaves his way through the PAX on the way to the front) around the school for the COP.

20 SSH, 10 Don Quixotes, 10 big 5 small arm circles – then reverso, 20 imperial walkers, 10 merkins and 40 lbcs on your own.

Mosey to the running track for a 4×100.  25 exercises at each corner, 4 laps total.   Merkins; jump squats; WWII sit ups; and flutter kicks.

Mosey to the bleachers for 3 sets of 20 dips and 20 partner leg tosses.

Then over to the concession stand for wall sits and balls to the wall.  After the last set, sprint back to the flag.

Numberama, nameorama and COT.  Attila took us out.

10 strong came out on the first day back to school. The AO was buzzing with activity as HCPS staff were getting QMS ready. Here is what we did:

Mosey to Pemberton ES front for COP. SSH, Merkins, Flutterkicks, DQs, Imperial Walkers. Partner up in front atpes, wheelbarrow up steps with merkin each step, 5 at the top. 2 times through each man. Then 10 Burpees

Mosey to Honeysuckle hill. Bear Crawl up, 20 LBCS at top, 20 Squats at bottom. Repeato. Mosey to track for Benchkicks and Dips. 2 times through of 50& 30 respectively.

Over to Jerkin Gym. Start at 8 Jerkins, then decrease by 1 each switch, down to 1. Then 2 times up Heartbreak hill and Merkins at the top.

Back to flag for Mary to finish.

NMS – With YHC the only BRR runner in attendance the Taper Friendly tag had a little less meaning. Good to have Fudd at HBR for the first time. Glad to see Mr Holland make it out as well, he put in solid work. YHC was generous as only 2 pax wore gloves, next time we’ll crawl the parking lot for sure.

Several pax complained about lack of sleep with kids not sleeping well with school looming this am. YHC told Loose Goose this is just good BRR driver training.

Silent Assassin signing off.

New job, so I am a little slow with the BB.  However, 6 redwoods and 1 FNG braved the gloomy humidity for my virgin Q at the Heartbreak Ridge AO. Here is how it went down:

• COP
  • 25 SSH
  • 25 Imperial Walkers
  • 10 merkins
  • 20 Freddy Mercuries
  • 25 Crab Cakes
  • Parking lot tracers
• Burpee March x3
  • 15 burpees across 15 parking spots
  • 30 WWII sit-ups
  • 30 APDs
• 5 Burpees to make it an even 50
• Mosey around the track (300 meters) to the jerkin gym
  • 23 PLT/7 jerkins x3
• Mosey to the Heartbreak Ridge hill for a fully loaded “Toga” – run up the big hill 10x
• Ring of fire – 10 merkins
• Mosey around the track (300 meters) to the short hill – backwards run up the hill for COT
• COT with YHC taking us out

There was very little mumblechatter today. It might have been the combination of burpees and hill runs. The hill runs were an ode to our departed comrade, Toga. We have not taken on this long, steep incline since he departed for Nashvegas. It was long overdue. Normally we would pour some out for our lost homey, but thankfully no one blew chunks on the hill as a homage to Toga.  Garbage Plate channeled his inner-Toga and attacked the hill with a vengeance.

YHC was thankful for Ronnie’s constant encouragement of the PAX. Plus, welcome to Mr. Holland (he is a music teacher at Moody Middle School). The first workout is always the hardest. Come back! Iron sharpens iron. Hope to see you soon, even with the start of the school year.

Announcements:

•  Convergence on September 30th – 6 am and 7 am workouts; bring the numbers

It was a privilege to lead these men this morning. Nothing better than the fellowship that comes from a good beatdown.

Attilla

7 RVA regulars and 1 from Hickory, NC came out to Heartbreak Ridge on a muggy morning. We had 7 to start and picked up Conspiracy running into the AO on our way to the COP

COP- SSH, Merkins,Flutterkicks, DQs

Mosey to benches down hill- 3 Sets of 15 Derkins & 20 Dips. Mosey to metal benches on far side- 2 rounds of 40 Bench kicks, 10 Box Jumps, then run a lap around track.

Head to Jerkin Gym- 2 sets of 6 Jerkins each, run up Heartbreak hill, then repeato. Head to Donkey Kick Wall for namesake exercise. Start at 15 DKs, bear crawl to mid court, 10 WWII situps. Increase DKs by 5 each time, 4 rounds.

Mosey back to flag for some mary- Cross leg lifts, APDs, Box Cutters, then finish with Ring of Fire.

NMS- Good to have Tater Hole from Hickory out this morning. HBR must be getting a good reputation as a lot of out of towers make their way to this AO. Good to have Sabotage back in the gloom. He looks back in fine form and should be ready for his VQ any day now.

YHC had to create his own mumblechatter as the PAX is too nice and focused at Heartbreak Ridge. Garbage plate continues to beg for more Bench kicks so YHC had to deliver.

During the Donkey kicks Gomer Pyle won the Ron Burgundy award for taking YHC’s literal instructions of crawl out to the mid court basketball hoop and went over to touch the hoop. On a side note Gomer looks ready for BRR despite what he says.

Tater hole put in solid work, especially as the War Daddy. You’re welcome back any time. Feel free to take Jerkins and Donkey Kicks back to Hickory with you. As we were leaving this morning our visitor offered a clarification that his F3 name is for an actual place in Hickory.

Announcements – Lots of stuff in September going on.

Silent Assassin signing off.

COP — Don Quixotes and other stuff
Exercises — Some other namby pamby stuff that doesn’t matter
Viral finally arrives!
Dora 1-2-3 — Partner up. 100 Merkins, 200 LBCs, 300 Copperhead Squats – pace set running from 20 yards out to up to the top of the terrace of the top field and back.
(Redneck) Tunnel of Love
Myrtle Beach Tabata — Partner up. People’s Chair <-> Crabcakes 3x repeato
SOJerkin Gym (Attila with the Q) — 10 Jerkins, 20 PLTs 2x repeato
Quick Ring of Fire, then 1MOM (20 American Hammers OYO, Flutter Kicks, Homer-to-Marge)

Mosey back to Goose’s flag. Numberama. Name-a-rama. EF Hutton took us out.

NMS

This morning, of one of the worst fears of life as an F3 Q actually happened to YHC. There is nothing SO BLINDLY TERRIFYING as knowing one has a Q and then missing one’s alarm, waking up and doing the math & realizing that outside of bending the time-space continuum, there is no chance one will make it on time.

And one needs to get dressed.
And one needs a water bottle, filled with water preferably.
And one notices it is pouring so “don’t forget to bring a towel!”
And WHERE THE F ARE MY KEYS?!?!?!?!

As YHC drove at a breakneck pace up Chippenham/Parham (contrary to popular myth, Henrico County doesn’t wall off the West End Fancyboys from SOJers after dark) he felt like Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar — trapped in a fourth dimension just beyond the communication of anyone . Text after text with no response.

Right now they are wondering who’s Q.
Right now they are moseying away from the flag.
Right now they are proclaiming a pox on all of SOJ!

Once YHC finally arrived on the scene. The PAX was gracious to yield the Q back to YHC. For as terrible as YHC felt about his late arrival, the PAX jumped right in behind. Gotta love this group!

In a move that might have strained YHC’s already tenuous endearment to the PAX, after repeatedly jumping over a looong deeeep puddle right at the base of the terrace of the soccer field during Dora, the PAX lined up along the soccer field sloptrough for a quick trip or two through the Tunnel of Love.

While YHC is prone to tall tales, YHC is not exaggerating in that the water was: 1) at least six inches deep, 2) probably full of goose crap and fertilizer run off, and 3) COLD.  YHC normally comes home with a goodly sum of grass clippings carried in his trousers, but today was a whole other level of muddy grossness.  Hope everyone enjoyed it as much as YHC. 😉

Thanks to the PAX for letting us SOJers take over this week!

Thanks to Flipper for humbly suggesting that 300 Lt. Dans wasn’t such a good idea.

Thanks to Pucker for pinch hitting. YHC has dubbed thee an honorary SOJ Redneck of the Roundtable. Find your nearest Walmart or Cabelas to pick out your first Realtree camo shirt free of charge. Tell store security Viral sent you!

Let’s get viral!

In the absence of our usual leader Loose Goose, YHC took the Q for HBR (Heartbreak Ridge not Harvard Business Review).  Five braved the unseasonably cool conditions this morning for a good start to their day.

SSH X25 (some initial difficulty counting for your YHC), Imperial Walkers X20, Don Quixote X15, Flutter Kicks X15, Hello Dolly X15

Mosey to the hill at the end of the football field to make good use of this slope.  Paired up, with one running up hill to fence and back while teammate performed an exercise – 3 rounds for each exercise.  LBCs, Deep Squats, Merkins, Lunges, Alabama Prom Dates.

After having enough of the hill work, mosey to the basketball courts.  OYO 10 Merkins/1 WWII situp, run to far end 9 Merkins/2 WWII situps and continued until we got to 1 Merkin/10 WWII situps.

Mosey to the wall of the school by the parking lot for a Triple Check.  Wall sit, box cutters and run to the far curb and back.  We finished three rounds before moseying back to the flag for two rounds of ring of fire with Merkins.  Then finished with Merkin Hammers, Freddie Mercuries, Heels to the sky and flutter kicks.  Solid start to the day!

Not to be deterred by low numbers, 3 of the baddest men on the planet took to Heartbreak Ridge like they owned it. The weather was perfect, somewhat cool and humidity seemed lower than it has been in awhile.  The Greatest Beatdown ever performed went something like this:

Mosey around the track 1 1/2 times to the corner near the jerkins bar for COP:

20 SSH IC, 15 Don Quixotes IC, 20 Imperial Walkers IC, 20 Hillbillies IC, Arm Circles small 10 forward 5 large Reverso.  20 Freddie Mercuries IC, 10 Merkins IC

Start at 1 corner of the Track run around the track and stop at the 50, endzone corner, endzone corner, 50, endzone corner, and back to the start.  First time around do 20 Merkins at each stop, 2nd do 20 jump squats, and 3rd time around do 5 burpees at each stop.

Move to Heartbreak Ridge

Bear Crawl up the Hill…..Crawl Bear Down the Hill.  (not that great so we moved on)

Toga’s House of Pain for a Triple Check

Runs up and around the shovel flag.  2. Freddie Mercuries 3. Balls to the Wall  X 3.

Crooked Wooden bleachers: 8 dips on the way down on each bench first 4 then 20 dips on last bench.  Back up 10 incline merkins on first 4 then 20 merkins on last.

Back to Flag for a Steamy Triangle( not enough people for a ring of fire)

20 APD’s IC, Hold 6 inches for final minute.

Numberama/Namearama……Garbage Plate took us out.

MoleSkin

YHC would Q more but is often afraid his 5:33 start time would not endear him to the PAX, but at the request of Loose Goose, I took the Q.  I arrived early to an empty lot and darkness, oh the time is changing fellas.  I had big plans to lay the most epic beatdown in F3 history.  However at about 5:25 my loan friend Ronnie rolled in and with about 30 seconds to spare Garbage plate rolled in to at least give us enough for a triple check.  The Pax killed it. Always up to the task.  At one point we saw a possible EH running the track but according to Ronnie maybe we should wait when its not such a lame Q.  Thanks Ronnie for the props.  We proceeded to follow thru with the plan and at the end, we all agreed that this was probably the most incredible feat of human endeavor.  It may have been the greatest Q followed up with the greatest individual efforts by a Pax in RVA history.  It was the Greatest beatdown in the World,  but this wasn’t really what happened at the greatest beatdown of the world this is only a “Tribute”   Tenacious D fans will get the joke.  If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?  If only 3 pax show up for the greatest beatdown in the world,  was it really the greatest?  Not sure but I will roll anywhere with Ronnie and Garbage Plate.

No announcement.. there were 3 of us.

10 stalwart men gathered for some hard work in the gloom this morning at Heartbreak Ridge. Just as the last PAX arrived ON FOOT AND ON TIME, they proceeded to carry the flag around the AO in honor of Circle K’s father, who passed away yesterday. They left some shovel marks and maybe even a few trenches along the way as they sucked in the humidity on this fantastic July morning. Here’s how it went down:

THE THANG
— Mosey to northwest corner field outside of the track.
— Warmup: Invisible Jump Rope x20 IC, LBCs x20 IC, QUALITY Merkins x5 IC, Imperial Walkers x20 IC, Don Quixote x10 IC, Russian Soldiers IC

— Mosey to Jerkin Gym
— With partner, 10 QUALITY Jerkins, 10 QUALITY Merkins, 2 sets
— Plank-o-Rama
— Take a lap around the track, do another set of 10 QUALITY Jerkins, 10 QUALITY Merkins with your partner

— Mosey to upper field.
— Ark Loader:
. Lunge 1/2 of the field, sprint the rest. Lunges should touch knee to the ground as long as you’re able.
. Bear Crawl 1/3 of the field, sprint the rest
. Plank-o-Rama
. Bunny Hop 1/3 of the field, sprint the rest
. Army Crawl (aka “drag your pickle on the ground” per Gomer Pile) 1/3 of the field, sprint the rest

— Mosey to west school wall adjoining the parking lot
— Triple check: Wall Sits/Planks/Sprint to other side of parking lot & back. Any PAX who have not carried the flag get their opportunity here

— Mosey to start point with the flag
— COP: Ring of Fire (10 QUALITY Merkins), Freddie Mercurys x20 IC, APD (slow down & feel it in your back) x20 IC, Hello Dolly x20 IC

— COT

MOLESKIN
First things first – all PAX offer our condolences to Circle K and the Thurman family. Per Swirly, Mr. Thurman was a Marine, and thus in honor of him and in thanks for his service to our great country, we each took a turn carrying the flag during our workout this morning. Our prayer was and is for comfort in your grieving and for His grace in remembering & celebrating the life of your father. We are with you. You’re an important member of the F3RVA PAX, and we’re privileged to be able to support you during this time.

The emphasis of today’s exercises (YHC said it many times) was quality & maximum benefit over speed. The Q’s original options list included B.O.M.B.S. but with the volume of reps there it would have been much easier to let our focus falter. Maximum Benefit. Well done, PAX for rising to YHC’s challenge and executing.

Thanks Flipper and Pucker for stepping up to Q over the next two weeks. Take care of that shovel flag. The PAX is grateful that we’re not all still staring at each other wondering which non-HoneyDo/non-Loose Goose Q will take the reins.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Arrangements for Circle K’s father: Visitation will be Wed 7/19 @ Blileys Funeral Home on Augusta 6-9pm. Funeral will be @ 3pm Thursday at Our Lady of Lordes.

ReeseStrong 5K on Sep 16 – sign up now to be part of the largest, BEST team in the race. Crab picking, good fellowship, and good beer at Circle K’s afterward (all of this is family-friendly) http://www.reesestrong.org/reesestrong-5k/

Honk.