F3 Knoxville

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.

Look A Turtle (Press On!)

THE SCENE: 42F and rainy. Things were already going swimmingly.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER– Administered and cell phone check done too. $Free.99, Q was looking like a Turtle and not a professional that’s for sure.

Gazelle Trot (aka Mosey) to overhang outside of CPAC
WARM-O-RAMA:
Donkey Kick x 5
Frog Jump in place x 5
Jumping Spider x 10
Werewolf x 5
Spider Man w/Reach x 5
Flying Squirrels x 5
Copperhead Squat x 5
Monkey Humper x 5

Black Snake 1x each PAX through the line and then continue in formation to the ERC

THA-ANIMAL-THANG:Pyramid Workout – Start with the first exercise and add an exercise each round until you get to all 5 exercises and then drop an exercise until you get to 1 exercise:
10 Monkey Humpers
10 Mountain Goats
10 Frog Jumps
10 Flying Squirrels
10 Jumping Spiders
Choose Your Own Adventure
Duck Walk or Bear Crawl up the ramps at the ERC (alternate at the end of each round) and
Back down the stairs or run 1 lap (~1/8 mile) in the courtyard in the rain

Example Animal Adventure Workout
Round 1  – 10 Monkey Humpers, Bear Crawl
Round 2  – 10 Monkey Humpers, 10 Mountain Goats, Duck Walk
Round 3  – 10 Monkey Humpers, 10 Mountain Goats, 10 Frog Jumps, Bear Crawl, 1 lap around the courtyard in the rain
Round 4  – 10 Monkey Humpers, 10 Mountain Goats, 10 Frog Jumps, 10 Flying Squirrels, Duck Walk, 1 lap around the courtyard in the rain
Round 5  – 10 Monkey Humpers, 10 Mountain Goats, 10 Frog Jumps, 10 Flying Squirrels, 10 Jumping Spiders, Bear Crawl, 1 lap around the courtyard in the rain
Round 6 (drop an exercise)  – 10 Monkey Humpers, 10 Mountain Goats, 10 Frog Jumps, 10 Flying Squirrels, Duck Walk
Round 7 (drop another exercise)  – 10 Monkey Humpers, 10 Mountain Goats, 10 Frog Jumps, Bear Crawl
Round 8 (drop another exercise)  – 10 Monkey Humpers, 10 Mountain Goats, Duck Walk, 1 lap around the courtyard in the rain
Round 9 (drop down to 1 exercise) – 10 Monkey Humpers, 1 lap around the courtyard in the rain,

If time permitted, Round 10 would add an exercise and repeat. I think we had a few PAX finish Round 6. After Round 5 the Q said no more adventures in the courtyard and after another 3 minutes the Q called recover.

MARY (Q had asked Jitters to lead):

20 American Hammers 4 ct OYO
20 LBC’s OYO
20 Flutter Kicks IC (fastest flutters ever I’m pretty sure)
10 Pickle Pounders IC

After calling recover, the Q decided our grand finale would be better done under shelter so “on your 6” was called and the Q asked Waxjob to lead “Row, row, row your boat” as he combined American Hammers + Boat / Canoe and singing all together so that “life is but a dream!”

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
21 PAX including 1FNG, plus 1 Wookie & and 1 Turtle on Q (here’s the ‘picture or it didn’t happen’. Dart Gun had to leave early).

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

For 23 years I thought I was a Christian. There was no fruit, confession, or repentance in my life for over two decades. I was self-absorbed, self-focused, and self-exalting. But God brought me down in my sexual idolatry and humbled me and broke me… and in the process, I believe genuinely saved me. The next steps in my journey are unsure, but the weight of my sin Christ has borne. As Philippians Philippians 3:12-16 says

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Last week my divorce became final. I have confessed, repented, prayed, and begged for the Lord to be pleased with how I walked out the end of my marriage that I destroyed. God is not mocked. But my life is not over. I am called to be a HIM in every sense of the word. Christ died on the cross so I could walk in newness of life. In short, Jesus has called me to PRESS ON. And He has called many HIMs to do the same – in (at least from our perspective) “good” and “bad” circumstances (including rainy 42F F3 workouts):

5k is waiting on Venture Capital funding for his new job.
Mandolin is considering a new job, wife’s job struggles including losing her first patient.
Trolley’s Mom in Cali is recovering from water on the lungs
Judge has a new house, his wife went through post-partum depression (and is now on the other side of it PTL), and has a new mentee who doesn’t like cops or the church.
Anchorman has many Emerald Youth kids he cares for
Guardrail has ongoing heel issues so has to take a break from F3
Snaggletooth is caring for the kids alone this weekend while his wife travels for work
Ginger is moving to Nashville
Mailbox M has heart issues

All of us are called to press on for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. This earth and no one and
no thing, job, salary, pleasure are our prize. Christ is our prize. Remember God’s Word through Paul:

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Press on!

MOLESKIN:

Prayer for:
Hideout’s church plant
Mandolin’s job opportunity
Waxjob’s mother-in-law (signs of Alzheimer’s)
Prais for Survivor (FNG Welcome) over 2 years ago getting through his battle with cancer.

The turtle onesie was harder and the workout was harder than the Q expected .
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Waxjob on Q Monday! Don’t forget to keep signing up for future Q’s as the JUCO Q-calendar fills up quickly. Also don’t hesitate to do a JUCO Bomb or a guest Q to help out and encourage other AO’s!