F3 Knoxville

Author: Abort

Rockstar!

Must be nice

THE SCENE: Temperature disputed during pre ruck, anywhere from 29-34.  Felt great though regardless
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Pro tip, going at SSH with great form moves blood into your fingers to keep them warm…
SSH
OH claps Postman style holding a squat
SSH
Hillbilly’s
Patty-cake merkins COVID style (don’t actually clap with anyone)
SSH
THA-THANG:
Quick mosey over to the coupon pile at L&N.  Three station AMRAP with station one there (AMRAP lasts duration of the workout).

Station 1 at L&N: Start with 10 reps of each exercise, then leave rock on the ground and run up the stairs between L&N and the convention center

  • Monkey humpers
  • Upright rows
  • Shoulder press
  • Tricep extensions

Station 2 the top of L&N near Henley St: Start with 7 reps of burpees for first round and increase by one rep each round, elbow plank remains the same at 30 seconds every round.  Once complete, run around to the front of L&N academy above where we park.

  • Burpees
  • Elbow planks

Station 3 in front of L&N near cars: Again start with 10 reps of every exercise and add two reps each round.  Run down the parking lot and back to station 1.

  • Never cross Dolly (4-count)
  • Imperial walkers (4-count)
  • Crab cakes (4-count)
  • Explosive merkins (push up and hands leave the ground at the top)

We ended up getting through rounds of 18 reps and 11 burpees.  Returned rocks to their homes and mosey back to the AO where time was up.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
13 Strong: Postman, Wedding Singer, Drive Thru, Huffy (welcome back!!), Slim Shady, Swanson, Triple A, Magic Mic, Livestrong, Amazon, G6, Bulldog, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I overheard a conversation between two friends that really got on my nerves and made me consider if I say these things or think this way.  Friend one has a college degree, has had family support his whole life, and while he all hit bumps in the road he generally has had it pretty easy.  Friend two has no degree and works tons of hours every week, has had struggles with addiction and various other things.  During this conversation, Friend one tells the struggling guy it “must be nice” when hearing about how his job was going.

And that really aggravated me, but also got me thinking about how we view our choices and try to absolve ourselves from things we deem are outside our control.  That is the cowardly way out, and I hope that I am not guilty of that very often.  Things will absolutely happen that we can’t control, its inevitable.  But our reaction to those trials determines whether they’re actually positive or negative.  We all need to be aware that we have much much more control over our lives than we want to admit.  We control it, if things are not going well then we need to look internally to fix them rather than place blame elsewhere.

Chilly day at Big Ball

THE SCENE: 36* at the start according to Steve Jobs
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • BAC reverse then forward
  • Imperial squat walker
  • Cobra merkins
  • Tempo lunge

THA-THANG:
Quick mosey to the L&N parking lot just passed the war memorial for Kraken.  Eight cones set up around the middle parking lot island.  Split up for COVID purposes and start at different cones, perform the exercise then run a circle around the Kraken and move to next exercise.  Plank up in the middle when finished, exercises as follows:

  • 30 merkins
  • 20 jump squats
  • 25 BBSUs
  • 20 four count merkins (T-merkins)
  • 25 smurf jacks
  • 15 Freddy Mercury (four count)
  • 10 burpees
  • 15 lunges (15 each leg)

Everyone finished pretty close together, slowsey over to the coupon pile and grab a rock for a 12 minute AMRAP:

  • 10 curls
  • 10 Lion Kings
  • 10 front raises
  • Put rock on ground and spring the straight around the war memorial

Return coupons to the pile and mosey back to start point and find a bench.  OYO, two rounds through the following:

  • 10 dips
  • 10 derkins
  • 10 Bulgarian split squats (10 each leg)
  • 10 box jumps

MARY:
Laid back leg lifts
Leg scissors
20 seconds of stargazers
G6 requested some bus drivers, so we did sitting leg elevated bus drivers (a lot more difficult that way)
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
6 strong braved the cold: Drive Thru, G6, Livestrong, Passport, Postman, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I noticed before coming out that evidently multiple countries have the US on a travel warning for at least this month, due to possible civil unrest following the election.  It is surprising and disappointing that our country has become so divided that one of the most basic things our country is founded on has caused fear of violence regardless of the outcome.  To us (myself most of all), what can we do to correct this issue?  Be understanding, be patient, and take a little extra time to react.  We owe it to our community and our neighbors to let them have their opinion (even if we disagree) and respect their choices.  Try to be conscious that we don’t know what’s going on in people’s lives, and that if we can give them just a little more patience and empathy that it could totally change a reaction.  A little bit truly can go a long way.

Prayers up for Passport with his back and also for his parents and his dad, for Swanson as he deals with some issues at his house, central Alabama from where Livestrong is from and the storm that rolled through, and for our community and nation this week.

Terror Tabatas

THE SCENE: 60* and rainy, but not a total washout
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Quick jog to the bridge at 5:30 to get out of the rain
Squat and reach
Hillbilly’s
Shoulder taps
Tempo merkins 5x each diamond, ranger, wide
This and that
THA-THANG:
Simple today.  Jog to the amphitheater, hop on stage for tabatas.  Ascending and descending in rounds, 40 seconds of work with 20 second break.  After each exercise is finished with the noted number of rounds, run a stair circuit.  Starting at stage right, run up the stairs and snake down and up until you reach stage left.  Move on to next exercise and increase/decrease the rounds.

  • Burpees – 2 rounds
  • Lunges – 3 rounds
  • Merkins – 4 rounds (can alternate incline/decline/hand release/whatever you want)
  • Flutter kicks – 5 rounds
  • Inverted rows on rails – 6 rounds (sucked)
  • LBCs – 3 rounds
  • Last round we only had three minutes, so we did one round each of squats, 8-count bodybuilders, and finished with jump squats

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
8 braved the rain: Livestrong, Java, Walrus, Postman, Swanson, Trowel, Magic Mic, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“Open your mouth only if what you’re about to say is more beautiful than the silence.” This was directed internally much more than externally, had a quick listen to the rain and sounds of downtown (mostly nice, also a dumptruck)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hardship Hill build day this Saturday at Swanson’s house.  OCR the following Saturday, some talk about teams and rucking.

Burbs 9-11

THE SCENE: 76* and muggy again
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
THA-THANG:
Warm up lap: take off through the park and head towards West Hills Elementary, stop in the lot for 11 reps each of merkins, squats, curls.  Continue ruck, make a left on Vanosdale, left onto Bennington, left onto Corteland, and left onto N Winston.  At every road intersection, stop for another round of 11 reps each of merkins, squats, and curls.  Total of 9 rounds by the time we make it back to parking lot.

Meaning: The breakdown of the first responders killed on September 11th as follows: 37 Port Authority officers, 23 NYPD, 8 EMTs, and 343 firefighters.
The Work: Farmer carry ruck in one hand and sandbag in the other hand the length of the parking lot and back to simulate first responders carrying gear into the fray.  Once back to start, pay homage to the first responders with the following exercises (carry down and back, do one exercise; down and back, move to next exercise):

  • 37 brickyard manmakers
  • 23 eight-count bodybuilders
  • 8 bear complex with sandbag
  • 343 flutter kicks

Flutters were done as a group ring of fire style until we reached 343.  Back to your feet, ruck and sandbags over to the base of the N Winston hill.

Meaning: We don’t have stairs, but we have a huge hill.  Also, going over the bridge mirrors FDNY ladder 118 crossing the Brooklyn bridge heading for the towers.  The six giants on that firetruck all perished on the day.
The Work: Carry the sandbags up the hill.  Once everyone makes it to the top and safely into the parking lot, we honor ladder 118 with 11 eight-count bodybuilders.  Sandbags back up and mosey back down the hill.  Quick set of 10 counts for everyone (me) to get their breaths, turn around and do it again for the second tower.  Again, at the top we honor ladder 118 with a set of 19 reps each of merkins, squats, and curls (brings our total of each on the day to 118 reps).  Mosey back down for Mary.

MARY:
20 flutters
20 hammers
15 flutters

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
In NYC last year I visited the 9/11 memorial, and just taking it all in I leaned against the memorial.  After a minute I looked down and noticed the name my hand was on, Abraham Zelmanowitz.  I remembered the name just because of how odd it was at the time.  Later while walking through the museum, I came across this man’s story.  Abraham worked on the 27th floor of tower one of the WTC.  He very easily could have gotten out of the building after the planes hit, but his friend and coworker Ed Beyea was a quadriplegic.  With the elevators out of service, Abraham chose to stay with his friend until help arrived to get Ed down the stairs and out of the building.  Unfortunately that help never came, and they were both killed in the collapse of the tower.  The selflessness and heroism of that day can never be overstated, both in first responders and in stories such as these.  19 years ago we vowed to never forget, and I hope that promise is one that we keep.