F3 Knoxville

Category: The Project

IPC 2024 (Week Zero)

AO: the-project
Q: Ocho
PAX: Mathlete, Flying Dutchman, Munge, Tom Tom, Hoorayus, OBrother
FNGs: None
COUNT: 7
It was a beautiful, gloomy morning. We met 15 minutes ahead of the regular schedule to ensure we had time to finish.

WARMUP:
On our own, all PAX were encouraged to stretch like they were going to hurt from Burpees and Thrusters later.

THE THANG:
– Kalsu WOD – 100 thrusters
– Start the 1-minute EMOM timer
– Perform 5 burpees
– As soon as you finish the burpees, start doing thrusters
– Every time the timer goes off, do 5 burpees
– Keep repeating this until you finish 100 thrusters
– After 100 thrusters, run 400 meters
– Reverse Kalsu – 100 burpees
– Start your 100 burpees as soon as you get back
– Each time the EMOM timer goes off, 5 thrusters
– Perform burpees in between until you get to 100 burpees
– Workout ends after your 100 burpees
– Record your total time

MARY:
We had time for Mathlete to push us with LBCs, Freddies, & Flutterkicks

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

COT:
Historical Quote: “The harder the conflict, the greater the triumph.” — Thomas Paine (wrongly attributed to George Washington)

Men, the men of the American Revolution knew something about facing hard things. Leading an outnumbered army, enduring brutal winters, and standing against overwhelming odds wasn’t easy. But they understood that true victory comes only after a hard-fought battle. In the same way, we as men are called to push through our struggles—physically, mentally, and spiritually.

James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

When we choose to do hard things, we aren’t just building stronger bodies; we’re forging character. Trials refine us into men who can stand firm, lead well, and support others. So, when you face pain or hardship in this workout or in life, remember: the greater the conflict, the greater the triumph.

Let’s commit to pressing into the hard things today—both here and beyond—because that’s where real growth happens.

the path to eagle

AO: the-project
Q: Mathlete
PAX: Ocho, Tuba (Dylan Cox), Munge, Tom Tom, Hoorayus, Icey Hot, Mathlete
FNGs: None
COUNT: 7
WARMUP: tempo squats, LBACs, Grady corn, cherry pickers

THE THANG:
Cubs – on the way to the recruiting center: Bell – step ups, Parallel bars- inverse rows, Playground – merkins and pull ups, Creek Hill – bear crawl
At the recruiting center get some weight
Tenderfoot/2nd/1st – 20 Rocky Balboas, 25 second plank, 10 merkins, repeat til we’ve earned it
Dan beard inst. – a round of Mary
Star – 4 burpees, heavy hammers, moving lunges
Dan beard – a round of Mary
Life – 6 burpees, Aiken legs with al gores between, lawn mowers both sides
Dan Beard – a round of Mary, but let one of my Counselors in training lead
Eagle – 21 burpees then we ran out of time, but planned to:
choose your own project – 100 reps of any of the following: derkins, pull ups, heavy Bulgarian split squats, WWIII situps, airplanes, thrusters
MARY:
Box cutters!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
IPC is coming next week, so expect to start early on Thursday.
COT:
Of all the benefits I received from scouts, one of the most impactful was the system of virtue it embedded in my person. The tenets of the scout oath and law provided a good working standard for my young life by which I could usefully evaluate a situation and choose a course of action. While my faith was still developing, they gave me something I understood well enough to use, and they still provide good guideposts.

I have often reflected on how F3 in many ways gives me as an adult similar benefits that scouting gave me as a youth. Likewise, in the area of leadership, F3 provides a set of virtues that can serve as useful guideposts. These are:
Candor, commitment, consistency, contentment and courage.
If you have never read these five articles in the Q source, I would encourage you to, because, when understood, I think they do a good job of going deeper than the surface level virtue we often settle for.

Get Sharp!

AO: the-project
Q: Ocho
PAX: Flying Dutchman, Munge, Tuba (Dylan Cox), Tom Tom, Hoorayus, Icey Hot
FNGs: None
COUNT: 7
WARMUP:
It was a crisp morning at The Project. Though many PAX were either slumbering or downrange, the faithful and magnificent seven arrived on time and ready to get sharper.

We began with some actual stretching of our legs via Willie Mays Hayes and come Cherry Pickers. We moved to shoulder stretches and Michael Phelps. But we didn’t wait long before we Moseyed to Ocho’s House of Pain (the back porch of the Senior Center).

THE THANG:
The Thang is a Tabata. It’s 40 seconds of exercise followed by 20 seconds of rest.

We used these 9 exercises as our implements of torture:
1. High Knees
2. Squats
3. Plank Jacks
4. Merkins
5. Mountain Climbers
6. Apollo Onos
7. American Hammer
8. Pickle Pointer (Glute/Back Bridge)
9. Hello Dolly

One entire set of all nine exercises takes 9 minutes. We did four sets of the 9.

MARY:
We did not leave any time for Mary.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
We noted that Munge has Thursday’s workout.

COT:
For the Word, I drew from Prov 27:17 “As Iron sharpens Iron, so one man sharpens another.”

We need each other if we at the Project are going to get sharper.

We need to do what we can to be a sharpener for each other. There were two primary areas that we challenged:

1. Being mindful and willing to give good MumbleChatter to help other men be encouraged.
2. Signing up for opportunities to lead a Q. Other men need you to lead.

Playtime

AO: the-project
Q: Mathlete
PAX: Ocho, Munge, Biohack, OBrother, Hoorayus, Flying Dutchman, Mathlete, Nerf
FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
WARMUP:
Tempo squats, imperial walkers, tempo merkins, cherry pickers

THE THANG:
Mosey to recruiting center
Work through stations at own pace, upgrade your level each time you finish a full circuit.
Jump rope – 25/50/100
Agility drill – 5/10/20
Plank extended rows – each side 10/20/40
Thrusters – 10/20/40
Pull ups – 3/5/7
Tire flips – 3/6/10
Airplane flutters – 10/20/40
Ascending derkins – 3/6/9
A break for some Mary about halfway through.
Cleanup and head back to the flag
MARY:
No time
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Iron pax coming at ya!
COT:
Games and Rules
Is a game defined by its rules? I don’t think so, but I think we commonly fall into the trap of behaving as though it is. A game is defined by its activity. I think we play games because there are things we want to do, like run jump throw catch chase problem solve overcome double down, that we just don’t get to do in our daily life. While we could do some of these things on their own, we thrive on purpose, so we arrange a game to make our activity less arbitrary. As we play the game, it becomes clear that some constraints or boundaries will help keep the game alive. Ideally the players see their use and keep to them such that the game thrives.

However, things go awry when the activity ceases to be the focus of the game. With children, this looks like a slow descent into chaos, but with adults this often comes in the form of a focus instead on victory. You can tell this is happening when the rules start to get really detailed, and carefully leveraging rules becomes just as important as the true activity. Sadly, this is the state of most high level competitions, whether they are professional sports or spelling bees. The game loses its joy and just becomes one more means by which the oppressors oppress.

The Bible shows us how this pattern is a transposition of the history of humanity. In the beginning, God gave humanity an activity, to be fruitful and multiply and to work and keep the garden, then he gave a single rule, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. At root, this is the truly fundamental rule, to choose not to focus on the good and bad of each thing but rather to focus on the activity of God. But humanity, desiring to elevate the self rather than submit to God, began a cycle of oppression that continues today.

Jesus saw this pattern in the treatment the Pharisees gave to the Mosaic law, using it as a way to elevate themselves above their fellow Israelites. But Jesus did not come to abolish this law, which is truly designed for human flourishing, but rather to reclaim its prime directive, to fulfill it by example and to fill us up with His spirit so we might become truly obedient.

ULA

AO: the-project
Q: Haggis
PAX: slappy, Tom Tom, Ocho, Mathlete, Hoorayus, Flying Dutchman, Nerf
FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
Lord’s Prayer
Mission of F3
Core Principles
Disclaimer- modify if you have an injury or feel an injury coming on. Do not modify if it is hard.
WARMUP:
SSH X 20
IW X 15
Ranger Merkin x 10
Don Quixote x 10

THE THANG:
Mosey to Brickyard and stop halfway for 2 burpees

Upright row x 15 with CINDY
Aiken legs (15 squats, 15 step ups, 15 lunges, 15 calf raises x 3 modes)
Flutters x 15 F3 count with CINDY raised

Kraken Burpee (3 hand release merkins at bottom of burpee) x 5
Lt Dan 1-5 with coupon, 6-9 without coupon, 10 with coupon
Hello Dolly x 15

Colt 45 curls (10 bottom half of movement, 10 top half of movement, 10 regular movement, followed by 5 of each to reach the full 45)
Bonnie Blairs x 15
E2K x 10 each leg
Burpees x 10
Overhead Press x 15
V ups x 15

Overhead press walk to Staples
Complete 15 Hello Dollys
OHP walk back to Brickyard with 15 curls half way
Something else and then rack the bricks and head back to flag
Half way complete 8 more burpees

MARY: No time

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

COT: Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

With everything you do, remember that you are not just serving a client, a patient, your wife, your family, but it is the Lord who receives all that we do.

Also when thinking about your WHY for coming to F3 in the morning, what is your purpose and goal. Think back to your first Q and the joy/difficulty that it brought to know that you are making a difference for yourself. The challenge is to focus on 3S2T (Strength, Stamina, Speed and Toughness: Mental and Physical). Some days you may be able to focus on 1 or 2 and others your can strive for all 5, but whatever you do, just get 1% better.

Prayers for all in attendance and those who couldn’t make it. Prayer requests for Haggis closing on home in 45 minutes.
Pledge of Allegiance