F3 Knoxville

Author: Abort

Rockstar!

keep it simple and keep moving

THE SCENE: 32* – a heat wave compared to the last few days
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Merkins 4-ct x10
Mountain climbers x15
Shoulder taps x15
Prisoner squats 4-ct x10
Tempo lunge to sides x10
SSH x20
THA-THANG:
Run a warm up lap around the World’s Fair lawn and back past the fountains over to the war memorial.  15 minute AMRAP session of the following exercises:

  • Dips x10
  • Box jumps x10
  • WWII situps x10
  • Burpees x5
  • Four count merkins (hand release Army standard) x10
  • Sprint towards parking lot, up stairs, touch the wall and return

Quick 10 count after timer goes off.  Run back to fountains and complete another lap around the World’s Fair lawn, stopping just short of the fountains along the straight section of the sidewalk for worst DORA ever (debatable I suppose, but I wanted it to suck).  Partner up, partner A does exercises until Partner B returns.  Partner B bear crawls one light pole distance, then sprints two light pole distances before turning around and sprinting back to Partner A.  Exercises for Partner A:

  • Sit up ups x50
  • 8-count bodybuilders x50
  • Star jumps x50

This killed the remaining time, quick hop over to the fountains for BOM.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
6 Strong: Duggar, G6, Huffy, Swanson, Walrus, Abort (Jenner started the workout but left shortly after warm up)
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”   – C.S. Lewis

Two things that stuck out to me about this.  I strive to keep my Q’s fresh or original, and in doing so generally end up in the same “style” that I always do.  I kept it simple for today, and in doing so got a great workout in and realized I’d probably avoided Dora’s for so long because I was afraid to use them.  The bigger takeaway for me, is what this quote says about truth.  Someone being truthful will be original nine times out of ten.  This made me reflect on how truthful I am, both in words but also in deed and to remain true to those who have placed themselves in my life and to myself as well.

Morristown Launch

HIMs of F3 Knoxville, mark you calendars.  The launch of F3 Morristown has been scheduled for Saturday April 4th.  Clown car, fly solo, ruck run or however you need to get there, just get there.

 

Battle of the Big Ball Sea

THE SCENE: A chilly 32* this morning, perfect weather to set sail.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Five men showed up in the gloom of the early morning.  Standing around would have been uncomfortably cold, so we decided some calisthenics would be a great way to keep warm.  Like proper sailors, we rowed through the exercises in cadence:
Angle grinders x12
Standing shoulder taps x15
Reverse lunges x10
Imperial walkers x15
SSH x20
THA-THANG:
After getting acclimated to the morning, we set sail away from the fountains.  It was quick and short voyage, finding troubled waters just into the Big Ball Sea.  We came full stop and the captain allowed the men to pick their own way to pass the time while he climbed to look from the observation deck.  The men decided to put their heels to heaven, chanting merrily as they went.  It didn’t take long before the waters darkened and a Kraken appeared.  Being only a crew of five, we knew we were in trouble.  Our only chance was to deprive the beast of his only food source, goo.  The goo must be burned, but we had to continue moving constantly to avoid being trapped.  Each goo igniting ritual had to be followed by quick movements around a circle to keep the men out of the grasp of the tentacles.

  • Diamond merkins x25
  • Burpees x15
  • Bear crawl 15 yards and back
  • Side lunges x15 each leg
  • Carolina dry docks x30
  • Pull ups x20
  • Jane Fonda x10 each leg (4 count)
  • Side straddle hops x50 (4 count)

The Kraken finally relented, and swam away.  The men were winded, but remained in great spirits.  I returned to the observation deck to keep an eye out, and again let the men decide how to pass the time.  Like true salty sailors, they mocked the beast with flutter kicks while I scanned the horizon.  To my surprise, the Kraken was already steaming back towards us, spraying a dark ink in the water the whole way.  The ink coated the goo, and kept us from setting it ablaze.  The men jumped into quick action, and again ran the goo burning gauntlet in the waters, this time changing the rituals to finally dispel the beast once and for all.

  • Diamond merkins x25
  • Burpees x15
  • Bear crawl 15 yards and back
  • Side lunges x15 each leg
  • Carolina dry docks x30
  • Pull ups x20
  • Jane Fonda x10 each leg (4 count)
  • Side straddle hops x50 (4 count)

Without the goo, the beast was forced to finally retreat for good.  The men, proud of their actions, pointed the ship back to port.  We sailed hard and fast into port, eager to share the tale of the day.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
5 salty sailors: Huffy, G6, Swanson, 2×2, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
In keeping with the nautical theme, a quick quote: “The entire water of the sea can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, negativity of the world can’t put you down unless you allow it to get inside you.”  You can be the type of man who is constantly filing buckets and dumping them in the ship, or you can be the man plugging holes and keeping the ship afloat.  At times, we want to act like we can’t control this or that, but the truth is we all have more control over things than we want to believe.  Be the man who sees the opportunity, not the obstacle.

Special thanks to Bartman for basically planning my Q, even though he didn’t know it and to Drifter for the literary inspiration .
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for G6’s M Bev, who will be undergoing surgery today; praise and prayers for Huffy’s 2.0, as he starts his new job; Prayers for 2×2 and other students as they return to classes
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
2nd F Event at Tank’s house tomorrow

leg day lollygag

THE SCENE: 43 or 44 but felt cooler with the wind
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Grady Corns
  • Squat and reach
  • Angle grinders
  • Imperial walkers
  • SSH

THA-THANG:

Mosey over to Big Ball, 12 minute AMRAP
  • 30 squats
  • 15 Carolina dry docks
  • 10 pull ups
  • 15 side lunges (each leg)
  • 20 Jane Fonda’s (10 each leg, 4 count)
  • 20 American hammers

I gave everyone the option of moving on to the next planned thing, or to repeat the AMRAP listed above for another 6 minutes, cutting the reps in half each exercise. They opted to repeat the AMRAP (I think they made the right call).

Mosey back to light poles for Route 66. Lunge between light poles, merkins at poles. 1:11 merkins. Had we stopped our AMRAP at just the 12 minutes, we would have repeated Route 66 with crawl bears and squat jumps. Yuck.

MARY:

Flutter kicks and pickle pounders

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
5 Strong: Magic Mic, Reverb, G6, Swanson, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I just thanked everyone for showing up, not just today and not just in the gloom but every day and throughout the community. Pray for a safe holiday for our community and for everyone to be back out tomorrow or Thursday.

MARSOC Monday

THE SCENE: 47* – in that window where you don’t know what to wear.  But no rain so good to go
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Windmills x10 IC
Tempo lunge x10 IC
4 count merkins x10 IC
Tempo merkins x10 IC
SSH x20 IC
THA-THANG:
Pretty simple routine today, I know it’s probably done at every AO including Big Ball, but I hadn’t seen it come up in a bit so I decided it was time for the Marine Corps Short Card.  We moseyed out of the fountain area and over to the Big Ball.  Perform an exercise for the indicated number of reps, then sprint the stairs at BB to the top and back down before moving on to the next exercise.  I did not deviate from the prescribed exercises:

  • 30 merkins
  • 30 squats
  • 30 crunches (4 count)
  • 10 burpees
  • 10 windmills
  • 30 merkins
  • 30 mountain climbers (4 count)
  • 30 flutter kicks (4 count)
  • 10 burpees
  • 10 cherry pickers
  • 30 merkins
  • 30 star jumps
  • 30 supermans
  • 10 burpees
  • 10 chain breakers
  • 30 merkins
  • 30 lunges
  • 30 hello Dolly’s (4 count)
  • 10 burpees
  • 10 trunk twists
  • 3 sets of max dead hang pull ups, 10 second break in between each set

About halfway through the list, I called an audible and eliminated the stair runs in between exercises to allow everyone the chance to complete.  Those that finished earlier moved to the side and knocked out ab exercises, people joined in as they completed the short card:

Oblique crunches led by Butterfly
Flutter kicks
V Ups led by Ariel
American hammers
Heels to heaven
Boat/canoe

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Nine strong including one FNG: Half Caff, Orkin, Ariel, Huffy (FNG), Driftwood, G6, Butterfly, Swanson, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“It is not work that kills men, it is worry.  Work is healthy; you can hardly put more on a man than he can bear.  But worry is rust on the blade.  It is not movement that destroys machinery, but friction.”  –

Like usual, what I share is something that I need to hear and listen to more than I’m providing for anyone else.  I just hope that I can listen and that it can help anyone else needing to hear it.  I make things worse nearly always by worrying, worrying before I can even do anything about it.  Worry does nothing to improve a situation.  The best thing I can do is turn worry into action, find something to work on.  If I can actually work on the problem at hand, it rarely is as bad as I worried about it being.  If I can’t yet work towards that, I need to find something else to occupy and improve until the time comes.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Lady Junk, Magic Mic’s grandfather Ed, Passport and his M, Ariel’s grandmother, and Orkin as he travels oversees