F3 Knoxville

Author: Mathlete

Egypt Coming and Going

THE SCENE: Wet and still a bit windy, perfect 60s gloom.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Running warm-up – lap around the lot
    • High knees, butt kicks
    • Shuffle
    • Karaoke
  • Tempo squats
  • Moroccan night club
  • Tempo squats, I mean merkins
  • Right arm up/ left arm up

THA-THANG:

I suppose you could think of this as a string of pearls.

  • Mosey to pool wall, 5 wall-pees
  • Mosey to playground, 5-7 pull-ups
  • Mosey to amphitheater, 10 box jumps
  • Up past the police station to badger, sprint up 12-day hill
  • At the top, 30 merkins
  • Mosey to the bottom, 30 merkins
  • Mosey to ORAU loop
    • Quick DORA – 150 squats, 100 heels to heaven, partner runs the loop
  • Mosey to the old peace bell, 30 merkins
  • Mosey to the new peace bell, 35 merkins, 10 box jumps
  • Mosey to the parallel bars
    • 20 inverse rows
    • 20 2-ct flutter kicks
    • Repeat
  • Dash to the pool wall, 5 wall-ups
  • Mosey to playground, 5-7 pull ups
  • Mosey to amphitheater, 2:10 plank
  • Quick back to the flag

MARY:
No time
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Genesis 47:5-6

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen, and if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.”

Genesis 47:27 – Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen. And they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly.

Exodus 1:7-12

But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.

When we have a good experience, it’s easy to associate that with a place or person or activity, etc. Then I have a tendency to expect that good experience to be a fixed reality, and I keep coming back to recreate the magic. But this is a trick. This is shown in the early narratives of the Torah. When Joseph finds himself in Egypt, God turns that place into a refuge from death and famine. Through Joseph’s obedience, God leads his chosen family out of the land where they will die, down into a land of blessing, where they can be fruitful and multiply, just as he promised Abraham they would. But time goes on and things change. Under Joseph’s guidance, the famine works to concentrate all the wealth of Egypt with the Pharaoh until all the people of Egypt sell themselves into servitude (see Genesis 47:13-25). It shouldn’t come as a surprise that this concentration of power eventually produces in Egypt rulers who are fearful and jealous. Soon the environment in Egypt is distinctly oppressive for the Israelites, and God, hearing them cry out, leads them out.

But for the remainder of the Torah, there is this recurring theme of the Israelites looking back at how good things used to be in Egypt. We’re thirsty, we always had water to drink in Egypt. We’re hungry, we always had meat in our pots in Egypt. The worst form of nostalgia.

Things change. The place/practice/work/whatever that worked last year or last week might not be what works today. We have to resist the desire to constantly seek novelty, but we must also avoid clinging to the past, dreaming of how things “used to be”. This has been beaten into my awareness by raising kids. No year is ever the same. This three-year-old is not the same as the last three-year-old and the fourth three-year-old is still, somehow, different from all three of her predecessors. The best I can do is to keep my eyes open, pay attention to the real situation, and use my past experiences as a source of ideas, not solutions.

What are you holding on to that you need to let go? What is the Egypt that you need to Exodus?

MOLESKIN:
I thought since Booster gave us a legit heavy beatdown Tuesday, I would circle back and do a proper boot camp. Plus, you should have checked all three boxes of the Kickflip challenge.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Camping tomorrow, hiking Saturday, Rampart next Saturday, Family Q the next Saturday, CSAUP coming up May 6. Also, Equalizer on April 15th.

What do you think you’re doing?

THE SCENE: Perfect 47, crisp, waxing gibbous, still a bit damp from the snow
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

High Knees, stretch left, stretch right, Moroccan night clubs, tempo squats, tempo merkins

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to pool wall
    • Spurinna warns Julius of his doom coming by the Ides of March.
    • 7s, wall ups and dry docks
  • Mosey to amphitheater
    • Cassius is looking Pale, Caesar suspects something
    • 7s, box jumps and dips
  • Mosey to Friendship Bell
    • The last 3 straws
      • Caesar rejects the honors of the Senate
      • “I am not Rex, but Caesar” – Caesar removes the tribunes
      • Mark Antony crowning stunt
    • 3 sets of 25 decline merkins with a lap in between for each straw (1,2,3)
  • Gathering conspirators
    • 4 corners of the rectangle, sprint between them
    • 60 reps at each corner
      • Flutter kicks
      • LBCs
      • American hammers
      • Big boys
  • Back at the Friendship Bell
  • Julius’s wife, Calpurnia, receives a warning dream, tells him not to go to the Senate meeting
    • 5x (10 Bonnie Blair’s, then a burpee)
  • Conspirators come to his house and persuade him to ignore his wife
    • 3x (10 bobby hurleys, then 5 dry docks)
  • Mosey to pool wall – Passing Spurinna on the way to the Senate
    • 1 wall up, 1 dry dock
  • Mosey to amphitheater – Caesar is stabbed 23 times by his conspirators
    • 23 burpees

MARY:
23 heels-to-heaven and LBCs to time
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Cassius and Brutus started down the path of conspiracy and murder because they feared that Julius would seize power, dissolve the Senate, and set himself up as king of Rome. They saw preservation of the Republic as being more important than the life of one man, even a man as great as Julius Caesar. Ironically, history shows that the assassination of Julius Caesar was the pivotal event that ultimately led to the dissolution of the Senate and the establishment of the first Emperor of Rome, Augustus Caesar, Julius Caesar’s heir.

John 11:45-50
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”

Turns out the mistake of Cassius and Brutus wasn’t unique, as you would expect. We see the Jewish leadership make the same mistake in the Gospel. Jesus tells them that he is the one path that will free them from Roman oppression, but instead, thinking they are preserving their relationship with Rome, execute him. Less than 50 years later, Jerusalem is ransacked and the temple thrown to the ground. In attempting to save themselves from Rome, they brought about their own destruction. Fast forward 250 years, the Roman emperor converts to Christianity. Jesus accomplished a feat that the Jewish leaders would have thought impossible, bringing the power of Rome under the authority of the one true God.

What do you think you are doing? What are you ACTUALLY doing? When I seek to force the world to abide by my will, it usually blows up in my face. But when I surrender my will, the thing that I want often comes to me in unexpected ways or the error of my desire is revealed to me. Either way, the world is drawn together rather than being torn apart.

MOLESKIN:
Awesome to see Three-peat back out in the gloom!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Nothing new, see Slack for details on camping, hiking, family Q, shield lock, etc.

Agility training to unify the body

THE SCENE: Perfect spring weather, high 40s, clear, no moon
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Projectivators
  • Tempo Squats
  • Lunges
  • LBACs
  • Tempo Merkins
  • Mountain Climbers

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to recruiting center with agility warm up on the way
    • Borg-style lunge stretch
    • High knees
    • Butt kicks
    • Lateral
    • Karaoke
  • At the recruiting center, everybody get a block.
  • Remember, the goal is to feel soft and light. If it isn’t soft and light, slow down, ease up.
  • Dora – 300 heavy LBCs while your partner does toe taps, swap every 25 LBCs, at 150 swap to side taps
  • Dora – 200 heavy squats while your partner practices silent box jumps, swap every 25
  • Dora – 300 heavy freddies while partner does a cycle of ladder agility, swap each ladder cycle
    • High knees forward
    • One foot forward, each side
    • High knees lateral
    • One foot lateral, each side
  • Dora – 100 rows each arm while partner does a sprint from the belly, swap once he moseys back
  • One round of max pull ups
  • High tail it back

MARY:
No time
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Speed is the lack of hesitation

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast

Decision making is an enormous mental burden. Just watch someone who is doing it. They look into the distance or close their eyes. They can’t focus on other things, they seem distracted. Mentally evaluating possibilities and variations in outcomes occupies the entirety of cognitive processes.

Thus, if you want to be fast, if you want to be efficient, you need to eliminate all unnecessary decision making that you can. This is a major value of training, in general. It is the deliberate effort of pre-deciding on the details of action, then working to upload them into your routine memory so that you can respond quickly to a situation without the hesitation and burden of thought. This doesn’t mean you are thoughtless, on the contrary it effectively increases the volume of thought per time available to you by desynchronizing the process. By eliminating the need to think about the basics of your action, you can be freed to consider the situation from a tactical and strategic perspective. Our individual bodies are stunningly capable when executing a rehearsed action. What is more, our communal bodies are downright incomprehensible to watch when operating in coordination.

All this power rests essentially on layers of pre-decision. Today, when you are calm, thoughtful, patient, make some decisions. Decide what your priorities are, what you value, and what you would sacrifice for them. Take those values and start meticulously applying them to the real things that you do. Don’t do it in one day or one week. This is the process of bricklaying. Find one thing at a time, make a decision, and then start living that decision out. This will train you to make that decision regularly. Once that decision is trained, pick another. Don’t get high level, bring it down to discreet, actionable things.
MOLESKIN:
Steam punk candy canes
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Family workout Saturday at 9 am. Bobbit is working on planting an AO at Fort Southwest Point in Kingston. OTB workouts during April, join the slack channel #Rampart for info. Family camping trip April 1-3 at Cove Lake State Park, Family hike at 1pm April 2, meet at the Cove Lake parking lot. Contact Kickflip for details and to see if you can get one of his extra campsite reservations.

Joining Body and Spirit

THE SCENE: Wet, drippy, but not too cold for February
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • High knees
  • Projectivators
  • Tempo squats
  • Little baby arm circles
  • Tempo merkins
  • Fence steppers
  • Cherry pickers

THA-THANG:

  • Tabata with a Disney Princess Soundtrack
  • Tabata round 1 (45/15)
    • Curls
    • Heavy flutters
    • Heavy squats
    • CMU Swings
    • Row right
    • Row left
  • Mosey to play ground for max pull ups
  • Tabata round 2 (45/15)
    • Heavy LBCs
    • Block Jump overs
    • Gore Curls
    • Heavy freddy’s
    • Heavy heel raises
    • Walking CMU Merkins
  • Mosey to playground for max pull-ups
  • Tabata round 3 (45/15)
    • Heavy Lunges
    • Heel taps
    • Good mornings
    • Heavy Big Boys
    • Heavy Hammers
    • Blockees
  • Heavy squat ring of fire up to 5

MARY:
Enough time for a full round of dealer’s choice.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Matthew 6:16-18

16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,18so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

fasting, Schmemann argues, “rather than weakening us makes us light, concentrated, sober, joyful, pure.

true “Christian asceticism is a fight, not against but for the body.”

In Taft’s words, penance is “not a turning in on self, not a concentration on self-discipline as some sort of spiritual athletics, but an openness to new life, and through it openness to others, the end to which it is all supposed to lead.”

Schmemann counsels a fast to “control our speech”19 so that we can recover a measure of silence in our spiritual life without which we cannot hear the voice of the Lord.

fasting, like all forms of discipline, “is not a pitting of the spirit against the flesh, but rather body and soul united together against sin, body and soul converted together to the Lord.

The body is valuable and a precious gift of the Creator—who Himself of course took on human flesh—but its value is only recognizable paradoxically when it is not pampered but denied, as in fasting: “fasting in Christianity is only truly itself when it realizes the sacredness of the body.

fasting as a physical effort is totally meaningless, and potentially even dangerous, without its spiritual counterpart: ‘by fasting and prayer.

Prospective lent practices: Say the lord’s prayer twice a day, replace one meal a day with something nutritious but bland, Warm-up every morning

MOLESKIN:
This was a close approximation of a Q from last February, but the need for self discipline, both physical and spiritual, never stops.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Donations still ongoing to Wesley House – see Slack, CSAUP this Saturday, Family Q March 5 with Biohack and Chicken Lady co-Q.

I am trying to pull together a Shield Lock / Discipleship Band program for the AO. If you want to participate, let me know what times you could genuinely commit. I will try to line up groups of 3-4 based on common availability.

Spiraling Up

THE SCENE: Balmy 34, clear and still
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Squats
  • Gradey Corns (OH+Seal claps)
  • Merkins
  • Mountain climbers
  • Hairy Rockettes

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to the pool wall – 10 wall ups
  • Mosey to the playground – max pull ups
  • Mosey to amphitheater – 10 box jumps
  • Mosey to recruiting center
    • Stations – 1 minute, then rotate, 2 full cycles
      • Black Betty – Dead lift and Rows
      • Dumb Bells – curl and overhead press
      • Dumb bells – chest and lunges
      • Tire flip
      • Sledge tire
      • Tire throw
      • Slam ball – Slam and High throw
      • Plank makers (man makers without merkin)
      • Heavy Big Boys
      • Heavy Flutter Kicks

MARY:
Made it back to the flag at 6:15 sharp
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
As part of Kickflip’s challenge, we are reading through the Q source week by week. This week we read about Getting Right. As I reflected on the reading, it seemed to me that the process it describes seems too linear. Rather than getting yourself totally right, then solving the fitness problem, then the fellowship problem, and finally the faith problem, my experience has been that this is the right order, but they repeat. By seeking God, I see that I am not right, so I work on getting right. As I progress in this, it bears fruit in my fitness, fellowship and faith. But then, as my relationship with God improves, further un-rightness is revealed, and I have no choice but to begin the cycle again. So, rather than thinking of a linear process of incrementally getting myself all worked out and perfect, it seems more like a spiral upward, with circuits of getting right, and working on my fitness, fellowship, and faith. Each cycle translates me further onward, but while some aspect of my life might appear to be in good shape at this moment, further growth will be demanded.

Matthew 12:43-45 – 43 “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

I heard an interpretation of this parable that seemed to fit with this idea. If you go through the effort of getting yourself right (getting an impure spirit out, you might say), you have to be careful not to leave that space empty, but you need to fill it with a family. Otherwise, that unclean spirit will move back in with a few extra friends, and you’ll find yourself worse off than you were. That’s why we need the full cycle, we begin by putting out the unclean spirit, but then we need to immediately begin refilling that space through fitness, fellowship, and faith.
MOLESKIN:
Next time I will pull together a princess playlist!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Family workout is GO for Saturday, 9 am at the normal AO. Check out the opportunity for giving that Judge posted on the main page in Slack (also linked on the project page).