F3 Knoxville

Author: Choir Boy

This Is 2020 (Without Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters)

THE SCENE: Rainy, low to mid 50s

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH x 20, baby arm circles forward x 20, baby arm circles backward x 20, 20-second plank, Pilates push-ups x 20 (10 each leg – merkins with left leg raised up x 10 followed by merkins with right leg raised up x 10), tempo squats x 20

THA-THANG:
Mosey to CMU pile via the Dragon’s Tail stopping at each light pole to do an exercise x 20 reps – alternating between merkins and squats

Pickup a CMU and mosey to the pavilon

CMU curls x 20 followed by 20-second recovery, rinse and repeat for 4 rounds (80 total reps)

Mosey to Crawdad’s Yoga Studio

Carolina dry docks x 20 followed by 20-second recovery, rinse and repeat for 4 rounds (80 total reps)

Mosey back to pavilon for table rows using the same reps and recovery as before

Mosey back to the yoga studio for flutter kicks, same schedule

Mosey back to the pavilon for CMU overhead presses, same schedule

Mosey back to the yoga studio for more Pilates push-ups, same schedule – Cheatsheet and Crawdad started singing the Hokey Pokey Song and dubbed the Pilates push-ups the “Hokey Pokeys”

Mosey back to the pavilon, pick up the CMUs and mosey to the CMU pile to return them

Mosey to Cardiac with just a few minutes to spare, so we only had time for one run up Cardiac and to the AO without stopping for any exercises

MARY:
We ran out of time for Mary, but we did get some ab work in during the workout

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
13 HIMs getting better in the rain on the first Saturday workout at the Asylum in 2020

Veggie was here, but he is not in the group, so I couldn’t tag him.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
It is a new year and a new decade and no one knows what it holds.  It could be the year that someone is added to your life, or it could be the year that someone is taken away.  It could be the year of the promotion, or it could be the year of the demotion.  It could be the year of kindergarten, or it could be the year of graduation.  It could be the year of the big win, or it could be the year of the big loss.  Regardless, you don’t need a resolution, you need a constitution, a foundation.  On a big scale, it should be God, your family, your friends, etc.  But, it can be anything that grounds you.  It can even be as simple as the F3 workouts.  The asphalt, concrete, and grass do not change, and they are always there waiting for you whether you have a good day/week or a bad day/week.  They are checkpoints after good times or bad and before whatever lies ahead.  If nothing else, start there and build.  Have a good new year but not just for what good fortunes may come your way during the year but based on what you keep your eye on and focus on while the year goes by

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Pinto, Flashback 2, Lady Tank, Cheatsheet’s family, Lady Junk, and Veggie going back for another semester of college
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Party at Tank’s house on 1/10

Still need money for pull up bars for the Dog Pound

Tomato, Tabata

THE SCENE: 40ish.  Not wet.  Not bad.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH x 20 on a 4 count

Baby arm circles forward x 10 on a 4 count

Baby arm circles backward x 10 on a 4 count

Some Michael Phelps

A little bit of this and that

Cherry pickers x 5 on a 4 count

THA-THANG:
Mosey to Assault Alley to pick up the CMUs

We survived that, so we moseyed to the flag pole with our CMUs

Tabata workout – 20 seconds of an exercise (as many reps as possible) followed by 10 seconds of rest.  Rinse and repeat for 8 rounds of each exercise.  After the last round of each exercise, run a lap around the track.  Wait for the six (didn’t take long) so that we are all together and start another 8 rounds of the next exercise.  We had time for these exercises:

Merkins

Curls

Rows

Overhead presses

We ran 4 laps, which should be about a mile.

We returned our CMUs to Assault Alley and survived again, so we moseyed back to the AO for Mary.

MARY:
We arrived at the AO right at 6:15, so no time for Mary, unfortunately.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
5 PAX strong today.  In addition to the 4 tagged, Stripped was also there to make 5, but his name did not show up in the tags.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I have been doing tabata workouts lately because I hate them, so I’m doing them to get better and hopefully hate them less (that part is definitely not working).  They are also good mental lessons for life.  They force you to focus on the task immediately in front of you as it comes to you, one round at a time.  If you think about the whole circuit of 8 rounds, then it is daunting and you may not finish.  But, if you focus on each step at a time, then it gets easier, relatively speaking.  Such is life.  Focus on what is in front you.  See Matthew 6:34 (“Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”).
MOLESKIN:
Happy Veterans’ Day to all who have served and are serving.  Thank you all.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Nothing mentioned, probably because it was the Monday after Brolympics.  I was still sore from Saturday.  And now, I’m sore from today, too.

Be There

THE SCENE:

Cloudy with a chance of burpees.  No rain.  Around 70ish degrees or so.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

I’m still not an expert, so it’s still free and the usual disclaimers.


WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH x 20, baby arm circles forward x 20, baby arm circles backward x 20, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, tempo squats x 10, tempo merkins x 10, cherry pickers x 5.

That was going to be it as I had just mentioned to Preacher (who was back from AZ) that we would not do burpees because they are not a warm-up, but Cheat Sheet arrived at that time, so we did 5 burpees OYO.

PAX counted off – 24 HIMS, so, when we do reps, we will do 24 of them.

THA-THANG:

Mosey to Everest via the long, windy path with all of the light posts (not sure if it has a name).  Pass a light post, do a burpee.

Carolina dry docks x 24 at the bottom of Everest

Run up to the first tree, do 24 squats

Run back to the bottom of Everest, do 24 merkins and then hold plank until the six arrives and finishes the merkins

Rinse and repeat, this time running to the second tree up Everest and back

Rinse and repeat, this time running to the tree at the top of Everest and back

Back at the bottom of Everest, we were on the wrong side of Everest, so we had to run all the way to the top of Everest to the area formerly-known-as the rock pile (we skipped the exercises on this trip)

Mosey to the monument for some family that gave a lot of money where the normally-wonderful view of the sunrise was dampened by clouds, but it did not affect the 24 American hammers that we did on a 4-count

Mosey to the CMU pile and battle-buddied up

One person runs across the parking lot, down the hill, around the Pavilon (counter-clockwise), stops at the picnic tables in the Pavilon, does 24 pull-me-up rows on the tables, and returns to the CMU pile

The other person does Mr. Spectaculars using the CMU until his battle buddy returns

Switch out and repeat – each person ended up doing each exercise at least twice

Mosey to the Cloud and find a bench

Derkins x 24

Dips x 24

Box jumps (or step ups) x 24

Only had time for one round of those before holding a plank until the six finished

While planking, right arm up, right leg up, down, left arm up, left leg up, down

Mosey to the AO

MARY:

Proton led the PAX through some flutter kicks while the Q grabbed his phone, and Proton didn’t stop until 30 (on the 4-count) for some reason (after all of those reps of 24, you would think he would have gotten it, but Proton loves exercise so much, he probably just wanted to do those extra 6 reps)

Q returned and led the PAX through box cutters x 30 and hello Dollys x 30 (both on the 4-count) since Proton went to 30

Finished out with boat/canoes until time expired (some PAX mumbled that the workout went over, but it was 8:00 by the Q’s watch, which is the only time that matters – and it matched the time on the Q’s cell phone, for what it’s worth)

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

We started with 24 and ended with 25.  Assfault completed a Flyin EH on someone he knew along the way, so we were able to welcome Real Chill.  Another FNG started with us and ended with us – welcome Caitlyn.  Tank, the dog, also joined us.

Nacho and Jumbo were also there, but they did not have tags that showed up, so there are only 23 tags, but there were 25 HIMs.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Caedmon’s Call had a song out in the 90s called Center Aisle that was about the writer’s first experience at a funeral, which happened to be the funeral of his friend’s sister who had committed suicide.  It is a good song, check it out if you haven’t already.  This line from the song has always stuck with me: “There aren’t words to say/Words aren’t remembered/But presence is.”

Show up.  Hopefully, we can also say the right things and do the right things, too, but we can’t if we don’t show up first.  And, if we can’t say and do the right thing that will make everything better, then at least we can be there, which is important, both in bad times and good times.  There are moments in people’s lives that they will remember who was there and who was not, e.g., funerals and weddings, and often times we would rather not be there because it makes us uncomfortable or it is too much of a hassle or whatever.  But that doesn’t matter.  What matters is this: should we be there for that person for that moment in his/her life?  (I’m not talking about the times that you cannot because of work, family, or other commitments – I’m not suggesting that we, as humans, can be everywhere and do everything.  I’m talking about the times that you can, but you just don’t.)

The Bible has a lot of references to God’s presence in our lives, e.g., Matthew 18:20, Matthew 28:20, and John 14:18, and Jesus is the manifestation of God’s presence.  Let God be present in your life and then be there for your wives/girlfriends (as long as you don’t have both at the same time), be there for your kids, be there for your parents, be there for your other family members, and be there for your friends.

Your presence will be remembered.  Your absence may not be forgotten.

MOLESKIN:

Props to Archie for posting after being up since Friday morning.  And, he took the message to heart and attended a wedding the same day that he thought about missing.  How about that?  That is either good timing or bad timing.  Part of me wants to apologize to Archie since he probably needed to sleep.  

Good to see Preacher again as always. 

Abscess took a lot of photos and videos. 

Still praying for Junk’s wife. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Someone said something about something that was coming up, but I can’t remember what it was now.  It might have been about the IronPax Challenge and/or Truckin to the Pound on 9/14.  I do know that there is a 2.0 event coming up on 9/22, but I did not say that then.

Two Deion Sanders Equals a Ronnie Lott

THE SCENE: Beautiful East TN morning, not too hot, not too much humidity (we could breathe and weren’t swimming).
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

WARM-O-RAMA:
42 SSH IC, 21 baby arm circles forward IC, 21 baby arm circles backward IC, 42 merkins OYO, 42-second squat

THA-THANG:
Mosey to the weekday A.M. parking lot via the dragon’s tail – pass a light post, do a burpee.

Workout stations in all four corners of the parking lot – CMU curls, CDDs, burpees, and squats.  Do 40 reps of the exercise and run to the center and do 2 round-the-clock merkins.  Run up mini-cardiac/mini-Everest and back down to the next station.  Do 40 reps of the exercise, run to the middle and do 2 RTC merkins, Bernie up the hill, and run back down.  Repeat until all stations are done, alternating between running up the hill and Bernie-ing up the hill.

Bear crawl to the flag pole next to the Pavillon.  Circuit with 4 stations of exercises, 10 reps each, and 2 burpees at the flag pole.  The exercises were: box jumps in the play area (aka the Cloud), pull-me-ups (table rows) in the Pavillon, pull ups in the dugouts (or where ever a pull up could be found, e.g., a tree branch), calf raises on the stairs (10 each leg), plus the aforementioned burpees x 2 at the flagpole.  Ran the circuit until the Q called time.

Bear crawl back to the parking lot to do four more stations of exercises, this time CMU triceps extensions, merkins, lunges, and a PAX choice (hello Dollys).  Due to time, do 20 reps of the exercise, run to the center and do 1 8-count Bodybuilder (basically a burpee with a plank jack added in for good measure), and then run to the next station and repeat.  We left out the runs up the hill in between stations to make sure we had time for Mary.

Cash-out sprint up the hill to get to Mary.

MARY:

The Q was out of breath trying to chase Edit up the hill, so Crawdad led the PAX through 21 box cutters on a 4 count.  Then, the PAX did 42 LBCs OYO.  Ended with a 42-second plank right on time.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
16 total PAX.  High Heels left early to meet the cable guy, but he conveniently reappeared at Panera for Coffeteria.  Veggie was there, but his tag was not in the system.  One FNG who was visiting Goober from Indiana (Goober has brought a lot of his friends to F3, either Goober likes us or hates his friends).  He was named Brown Bag.  Unfortunately, the Q forgot to get his contact info, so hopefully Goober can provide it.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
My birthday was the day before.  Try to guess how old I am.  Talked about Ecclesiastes – my favorite book in the Bible.  Read it for yourself.  Here’s my summary: bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people, but do what is right regardless because that is what God wants.  Talked about time because the most famous part of Ecclesiastes is the passage on time, just ask the Byrds.  Time is my enemy.  There is never enough of it, it goes by too fast, and you can’t get it back once it is gone.  It goes by faster and faster as the milestones of life pile up.  Talked about my dad and him being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when I was in high school and how that affected him physically and me mentally as I watched the disease progress over the years.  He died in 2017 at the age of 79.  I was 40.  No one knows how much they have left or what they have left.  But we all know what we can do today.  When I am tired or want to be lazy, I think of my dad and other people who cannot do what we do in F3.  One day, I won’t be able to do it either, for whatever reason (injury, age, disease, death).  So, I do it now.  I get up and do it for my dad and those who can’t and for the me one day who won’t be able to do it either.  That way, when I can’t, I can at least say and know that I did.  When I could, I did, and I did until I couldn’t.  No waste.  No regrets.  Carpe diem.
MOLESKIN:
Prayed specifically for Junk’s wife, Crawdad’s wife, and Thunderstruck’s mom.  General prayers of thanks for the precious time that we have, for the ability to make the most of it and to build a foundation of better living for our family and friends and to make great memories that last a lifetime even as the time passes, and for the peace to let time go and to accept the next season (as Ecclesiastes calls it) of life when it comes.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence at Big Ball coming up in a couple of weeks followed by the third F at Redeemer.

P.S. Thanks to Sleepover for suggesting all the burpees.