F3 Knoxville

A Rainy VQ @ the EQ

THE SCENE: 40 & Rainy — Refreshingly Gloomy
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • SSHx20 IC
  • Baby Arm Circlesx30 IC
  • This & That
  • Michael Phelps

THA-THANG:

We took a page out of Choir Boy’s playbook and did a tabata workout this morning. We did eight 20-second sets of each exercise with 10 seconds of rest in between and a short, rainy jog between exercises.

  • Dips
  • Squats
  • BBS
  • Hand-release Merkins
  • Lunges
  • Freddie Mercury
  • Grady Corns

MARY:
Snuck in some American Hammers before 6:15

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

6 HIMs made it out this morning

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

My biggest temptation is to coast: in my fitness, in my marriage, my parenting, and my career. It’s so easy for me to put out fires, get to a comfortable place, and plateau. My F3 brothers do a great job of pushing me.

The challenge today is to identify where you’ve been coasting, give that extra effort, and go to bed tired— knowing you gave your full effort. We set the tone for the day by showing up this morning; now just keep it going.

MOLESKIN:

I really appreciate all my F3 brothers for pushing me and not leaving me where they found me.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Make sure to read the F3 weekly email.

Where Is Your Sting?

THE SCENE: Cloudy, mid thirties.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

25 Side Straddle Hops.  10 Burpees. 10 Iron Mikes.  10 Windmills.  10 Cherry Pickers.  7 Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backward.  7 Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Stop Sign at Northeastern Corner of Admin Bldg.  We will have cones posted along the road that semicircles around the Admin Bldg.  Each cone will give directions regarding exercises and how to get to the next cone.

  • Cone 1:  20 Big Boy Sit-ups.  Bernie Sanders to Cone 2.
  • Cone 2:  20 Diamond Merkins.  Hop to Cone 3.
  • Cone 3.  20 Shoulder Taps (both shoulders = 1).  Gravevine with left foot in lead to Cone 4.
  • Cone 4:  20 Star Jumps.  Grapevine with right foot in lead to Cone 5.
  • Cone 5:  20 Squat Jumps.  Sprint to Cone 6.
  • Cone 6:  20 Flutter Kicks (four count).  Bear Crawl to Cone 7.
  • Cone 7.  20 Smurf Jacks.  Bernie Sanders to Cone 8
  • Cone 8.  20 Merkins, 40 Baby Crunches, 20 Hello Dollies (four count), 20 American Hammers (four count), 20 Bicycle Kicks (four count), 20 Bottle Openers (both hands = 1).

Mosey back to stop sign at Northeastern Corner of Admin Bldg., picking up cones and signs along the way.  We will squat for one minute to quietly contemplate the beauty of the scenery toward the lake.

Mosey to CMU pile.  Men will split into pairs.  One partner from each pair will grab a CMU.  We will do Doras with partner one sprinting to other end of parking lot, doing 10 shin lifts, and sprinting back while partner two starts working on the exercises.  Partners will then switch positions.  These are the exercises that each pair will accomplish:

  • 100 Overhead Presses
  • 100 Curls
  • 100 Rows
  • 100 Bell Ringers
  • 100 Merkins with feet on CMU

Mosey through entrance way gate to northern ball fields.  We will go the ball field that is closest to the entryway and congregate at one end of the marked soccer field in the outfield.  We will throw frisbee three times and race to the frisbee.  We will then race to end of the soccer field and back.  Those men who got the frisbee on the three prior throws will be competing to see who gets a free breakfast from the Q leader. Next, we will split into two teams.  Men will split up to play frisbee football.  Every time the frisbee hits the ground, not only does the possession of the frisbee change to the other team but all team members must do five burpees.  I must give my brother, Waffle House, credit for being the originator of this frisbee/burpee rule.

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
20 Flutter Kicks, Boat Canoe.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Seventeen men with one FNG, a friend of Toto’s named Marty Mason.  His F3 name is now Tinder.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55)

Edward Abbey was a park ranger and writer.  As a park ranger for the National Park Service he worked in scarcely populated desert areas of Utah, including the Arches National Park and Canyonlands of Southeastern Utah.  In his book Desert Solitaire, he speaks in one chapter about being alone in a very rocky canyon area in Utah.  Although an experienced ranger, he got lost and was stuck on a rock precipice.  He could make a jump across the precipice to a cliff similar in height but which was in the direction he knew would get him home.  He didn’t know how to get back the way he came even though he had tried to track it.  He was running out of water.  His choice was to either die of thirst where he was or make a huge leap from the precipice to the cliff.  The fall if he failed to reach the cliff would be hundreds of feet and would certainly bring him to his death.  He made the choice to jump and, for some good minutes, started thinking about his life before he made the jump.

What would you think about if you were faced with such a situation?  You are about to make the jump that will either continue or end your life?  What thoughts run through your mind.  Would you think about family?  About things that brought you joy?  Actions or lack of action that you regretted?  Would you wish you could say or do some things you had not yet done in life?  Would you have faith that God would follow you through death if death were to occur?  And, on the chance that you might make the jump, would you see life in a different way afterwards?  Would there be things that you would want to accomplish or do that you had yet to attempt?

Abbey gave a very poignant description of his fear and grief before making the jump.  As a man who loved nature, he thought with appreciation yet longing about the beauty of the world all around him before making the death jump.  Obviously, he made it to the other side as he later wrote the book.

As a man I would have been very scared, just as Abbey was.  As a Christian, I hope I would take comfort in verses like the one in Corinthians above.  I hope I would appreciate my mortality and the gift that God has given us in our short lives here on Earth.  But, I also hope I would realize that my perishable body has been clothed with the imperishable armor of God, that my mortality has become immortality through Him.  Then, even knowing I might fall to my death, I could say, “Death, where is your victory, where is your sting?”

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Pele’s shoulder as he took a mean fall and hurt it during the frisbee football game.  Pusher, a physical therapist, said he didn’t dislocate.  Prayers for our brother, Pinto, who is suffering through treatment of multiple myeloma cancer.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
New pull up bars that we raised money for will be going up.  We will have an AO launch in Morristown on April 4.

Invictus

THE SCENE: Just less than 40°
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Mosey 1/3 mile loop

THA-THANG:

Everyone has 2 CMUs at Grinder steps.

20-1

Burpee Deadlifts

Block Boys

Thrusters

Do 1 rounds of all 3 exercises then run down to troll bridge and back up.

MARY:

10 4-ct Oblique Tucks per side

10 4-ct Bottle Touches

Repeat

Hold banana for last minute

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 HIMs including FNG Wheelie
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

MOLESKIN:
I think next time we should do 2 rounds of PT then run to try and get it all in. I completed through 6 reps so still had 5 rounds to go.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Breakfast at Drifter’s next Saturday the 1st.

Do or Do Not…There is No Try!

THE SCENE: Mid to high 30s with a less-than-desirable breeze
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Overhead Claps x 50 IC
  • Rockette x 20 IC
  • High Knees Ring of Fire with Burpees

THA-THANG:
PAX moseyed to the path where we began a Route 66 with BBS at each light pole until we reached the bleachers.

At the bleachers we smoked 20 merkins, 40 squats, and 60 dips OYO.

We continued the Route 66 BBS until we reached the playground. We did a set of 11s with derkins at the bottom of the hill and burpees at the top. The catch is that each trip up the hill was a sprint “Pickett’s Charge” style with the whole PAX staying in sequence.

Following the 11s we moseyed on to the MRSA-laden soccer fields where we lined up on the base line. One PAX called out an exercise of choice and then side-shuffled along the boundary line while the stationary PAX performed that exercise. We did everything from side straddle hops to asphalt kissers.

We eased our way back along the Route 66 (with pistol squats this time) and paused at the bleachers for 20 merkins, 40 squats, and 60 dips.

MARY:

  • Plank 30 seconds
  • Hello Dolly x 20 IC
  • Plank 30 seconds
  • Flutter kicks x 20 IC
  • Plank 30 seconds
  • Box Cutters x 20 IC

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“Do or do not. There is no try.” Yoda coined this phrase years and years ago, but I never stopped to think about what it meant until I listened in on F3’s 43 Feet podcast about time management. They suggested removing the word “try” from your vocabulary. It sounds incredibly simple, but I have found that saying “I WILL do something” in lieu of “I’ll try to do something” makes a tremendous difference in how much I promise, how serious I am about that promise, and how efficiently I spend my time.
MOLESKIN:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Mark your calendars for pull-up bar install day at the Dog Pound. Contact La-Z-Boy with any questions. WE WILL DO PULL-UPS IN 2020!

Staying busy

THE SCENE: Cool and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Cherry Pickers

Merkins, Q calls up and down

SSH

THA-THANG:

Each PAX grabs a CMU and mosey to MT. Crumpet, partner up at the base and Dora the following exercises while your partner charges up Crumpet with the CMU and execute 10 each of: Curls, Chest press, Tricep extension.

Time to go to church: Mosey to the church parking lot for CMUicides, tote your CMU to each parking lot island and back. Merkins when you get back. 2 rounds. Mosey back to AO

MARY:
Overhead CMU hold until PAX is up. CMU overhead press till time is up
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Butterfingers, Drifter, Taco, Moses, Snorkel, Mailbox, Steer, Neighbor, Faceplant, Swayze, Espy
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
The standard answer when you get asked “how are you?” is easily “Busy” it feels like busy sometimes equals success and sometimes it does but be aware of staying busy to avoid the bigger issue at heart.

“We want to complexify our lives. We don’t have to, we want to. We want to be harried and hassled and busy. Unconsciously, we want the very things we complain about. For if we had leisure, we would look at ourselves and listen to our hearts and see the great gaping hole in our hearts and be terrified, because that hole is so big that nothing but God can fill it.” — Kreeft.

The lesson here is to acknowledge that great gaping hole and the only one that can fill it. Spend time in the WORD and with people that point out that hole, be there to point it out for others. Stop being busy every once in a while, slow down and realize you are a well loved son of an amazing God.

MOLESKIN:
Great to see a new face and some old friends!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Insert information about upcoming events, 2nd or 3rd F opportunities, and any other announcements.