F3 Knoxville

Tag: Abacus

Step Up

THE SCENE: High 40s and sunny
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
15th day of the month, 135th day of the year – 230 days left in 2021 to make it what you want it to be

SSH, windmills, tempo squats, little baby arm circles forward, little baby arm circles backward, some Michael Phelps, a little bit of this and a little bit of that (x2), and tempo merkins – 15 reps of each (4 count where appropriate).

Pele wanted to do some cherry pickers, but I don’t like cherry pickers so we moseyed instead.  For once, Crawdad agreed with me.

THA-THANG:

Mosey to the bottom of Everest

15 more SSHs (4 ct)

Run up Everest to the top of the Summit

15 more SSHs (4 ct)

Mosey to the Coliseum

Divide up into two teams

Welch Dragons to 10 with one team going one way and the other team going the other way – if you don’t know what a Welch Dragon is, then look it up on the F3 Exicon or ask someone who has done it, he will remember

Meet back in the center for some Hello Flutter Cutters (one 4-ct Hello Dolly, one 4-ct Flutter Kick, one 4-ct Box Cutter – together back-to-back-to-back for one rep) while waiting on the six or at least 15

Ghost-man Baseball

Using the circle of the Coliseum, Team 1 runs to first base, does 15 reps of the exercise, and returns home.  Team 2 does a core exercise of its choice for the entire time it is waiting for Team 1 to return.  Team 1 does a core exercise of its choice while Team 2 runs to first base, does 15 reps of the exercise, and then runs back.  Repeat this process for the other bases but stop at each base on the way and do the exercise there before advancing to the next base (because you have to touch the bag before advancing in baseball) but do not do the exercises at each base on the way back (but do run back the way you came).  For the home run, do not run back, stay at home to do 15 reps of those exercises and then do a core exercise of the team’s choice while the other team finishes its home-run trot.

First Base – Merkins

Second Base – Squats

Third Base – Carolina Dry Docks

Home Run – Burpees

15 SSHs (4 ct)

Mosey to Crawdad’s Yoga Studio

15 SSHs (4 ct)

Hokey Pokeys (merkins with one leg in the air) x 15 each leg

25 SSHs (4 ct)

Mosey to the base of Baby Cardiac

35 SSHs (4 ct) – total of 135 for the entire workout

All you got sprint up Baby Cardiac to the AO

MARY:
Hold a plank for one minute to time

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
18 HIMs

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

It’s time to step up.  Lillydipper usually picks up 2 Qs a month on average, but he has been out with a hip problem and will be out for a while.  It’s going to take all of us to fill that void.  So, it’s time to step up.  Sign up for Qs.  If you’ve not Qed in a while, then it’s time to sign up.  If you’ve never Qed before, then it’s definitely time to sign up.  It’s not hard.  Just pick an exercise you don’t like to do and do it twice as many times as you want to do it.  The PAX will support you.  The Q doesn’t have to be perfect.  It just needs to be.  And, a Q needs to be on the website calendar days in advance so that any sad clowns will know that F3 will be there for them on Saturday morning (remember, the sad clowns don’t have access to Slack).  Step up and sign up.  Do it for your brothers.  Do it for Lilly.  We can’t let this fade in his absence or fall only on a few of us.  He will undoubtedly be back, hopefully sooner rather than later, but we need to make sure that his legacy is still here waiting on him.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers against racism, for the sick and shut in, for the journeys of Cheatsheet, his daughter, and all the F3 brothers, for Lillydipper, for Jinxy, for Doubtfire, for Convoy and his family, and for all of the unspoken prayers on our hearts and minds.  Prayers for the courage in each of us to step up in F3, in our families, and in our communities.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
June 12th – Convergence at Big Ball followed by a work day at Wesley House

July 24th – CSAUP at Dog Pound (was last year’s CSAUP not enough?)

Don’t Widen the Plate!

THE SCENE: Soooo beautiful! Upper 60s, popcorn clouds, nice amount of sunshine.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Check


WARM-O-RAMA:

-30 Split Jacks (4-ct), 15 each leg, in cadence

– 10 Cherry Pickers (4-ct), in cadence

– 10 Rockettes (4-ct), in cadence

– 5 PCMBs, OYO

– 10 Grady Corns (4-ct), in cadence

THA-THANG:

PE EXAM (Hat tip, Erector)

MOSEY to STOP SIGN SOUTH OF ADMIN BUILDING, in a nice shady spot in the grass.

P – 10 Prisoner Cell Merkin Burpees aka PCMBs.  Basically, a burpee with 3 merkins and pulling each knee to your chest between the merkins (see F3 Exicon).

Near same tree, up to nearest hill and back…

E – Elevens – squats at the bottom and BBS at the top.

MOSEY across street to curved road that leads to gravel parking lot.

E – Escalator – BEAR CRAWLING! Fives cones: 1) 10 Burpees, 2) 20 Squat Jumps 3) 30 Imperial Walkers, 4) 40 SSH, 50 lunge-walks back to start.

MOSEY to field below Coliseum

**WE INTERRUPT THE PE EXAM DUE TO THE INVASION OF A KRAKEN!**

KRAKEN:` 6 cones in a circle, with Ab exercises in blue, and upper body exercises in red.  Do the blue exercise, then run around clockwise plus one cone and do the next exercise.  Rinse and repeat until back and starting point.  Then do the same thing, in the opposite direction, doing the red exercises.  * Didn’t have enough time, so we just did one circuit, alternating between blue and red exercises at each cone.

  • Blue exercises:
  1. 20 BBS
  2. 20 Gas Pumps
  3. 20 Box Cutters
  4. 20 LBCs
  5. 20 Bicycle kicks (4-ct)
  6. 20 American Hammers (4-ct)
  • Red exercises:
  1. 20 Merkins
  2. 20 Carolina Dry Docks
  3. 20 Shoulder Taps (both shoulders =1)
  4. 20 Diamond Merkins
  5. 20 Bottle Openers
  6. 20 Wide Merkins

MOSEY to small parking lot below Coliseum

X –Xs and Os , on Q’s call

MOSEY to Coliseum (… which had food trucks on it, and was being used by some people, so we went to the roundabout and did “A” there, substituting Bobby Hurleys for Bench Jumps)

A – Aiken legs – Done in succession with no rest — 20 Squats, 20 Box Jumps, 20 Lunges (10 each leg), 20 Split Jacks (10 each leg forward).

RINSE AND REPEAT

JAIL BREAK back to AO for the last letter.

M – Mary

MARY:
Captain Thors
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 dudes
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

An old coach named John Scolinos, who had begun coaching in the 1940s, once spoke at a Baseball coaching conference in Nashville, Tennesse in the 1960s. His talk was called, 17 INCHES.

He walked in with a home plate hung around his neck.

He said, “You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck.

“Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?”

After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches?”

“That’s right,” he said. “How about in Babe Ruth’s day?”

Another long pause. “Seventeen inches?” a guess from another reluctant coach.

He repeated the same question for high school coaches.  Minor league coaches.  And those who had any experience in the big leagues.  The answer was always the same.  17 inches.  “That’s right,” he said.  “And what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?” Pause. “The press calls him a bum and they send him down to the minors!”

“What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. If you can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.’”

Pause. “Coaches… what do we do when your best player shows up late to practice? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate? ”

“What do we do when our kids misbehave, break the rules, and tell lies?  Do we widen home plate?”

“What do we do when our politicians lie to us, fail to live up to the moral standards that we expect out of our elected leaders, and stop doing what’s best for us and the country?  Do we widen home plate and say, “Well, that’s ok, the other side does it too”.  Or do we hold them to their actions, even if we consider ourselves in the same party as them?

We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We just widen the plate!”

“If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos concluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: “If we fail to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; We have dark days ahead!.”

Coaches, keep your players—no matter how good they are—your own children, your government, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches.  Don’t widen the plate.”

MOLESKIN:
Jinxy and Lilydipper joined us for the Board Meeting!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Kickball tournament this weekend.

Saturday Morning BOGO

Clear, cool, and Qless was the forecast Friday afternoon. In a perfect world, that Q would have belonged to Lilydipper, but an uncooperative hip has other ideas. Crawdad won’t stand for an open Saturday Q. He made some decisions. He placed some calls. Continue reading if you’d like the details, but the summary is that it takes two men to do what one Lily does.
WARM-O-RAMA:
We took em to 100. Tie Fighters, The Junk Science, some stretching, and 10 burpees for Snitch, who I’ve never seen come in late, ever, so he must have had some serious business to do this morning. I didn’t ask but I’m betting Cheet Sheet was similarly relieved when he arrived.
THA-THANG:
The first part of this BOGO was to discover that our Non Privately Owned Naturally Occurring Mineral Formations (NOPO-NOMIFs) were just laying there beneath the trees, as nature presumably left them. Partner AMRAPs as some stragglers caught up, curls, presses, rows, more curls. All I know is that a lot of you have way more reps in you than I do.

Catch Me If You Can w/5 burpees up baby Everest and down the Dragon. Deposit the NOPOs and begin the second part of the BOGO.

We built pyramids on the Cloud, with Crawdad bringing out his famous Louisiana Whistle. Box Jumps, Irkins, Dips, Derkins, Merkins. Unless you cut your reps, your arms were jelly.

Recovering on our feet, we made our way to the dustbowl and some Doras. 200 reps and then another 100 of whatever you wanted.

Back to AO for Mary AND a visit to the ATM.

Welcome Scott W, Billy Goat!

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Your F3 friends are a deep and wide pool of help and challenge. You’d be nuts not to lean on them when you need to. It would be a waste to not be challenged by them. You’d be foolish not to step in and try to lead.

Next Right Thing

THE SCENE: 70 and Sunny in the Fake Gloom
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Did it
WARM-O-RAMA:
Little of this, that, and the other.  SHH, Cherry Pickers, and Rockettes of course
THA-THANG:

Rounds of:  Squat Jumps, Lunges, Iron Mikes, Tempo Squat, Apollo Ono, Bridges, CLIMB THE HILL and then 4-ct Box Cutters, Big Boys, 4-ct Freddy Mercury, LBCs, 4-ct American Twist, 4-ct Flutter Kicks

Battle Buddies: 250 Side Straddle Hops, 200 Calf Raises, 150 Squats, 100 Push Ups, 50 Burpees

Rounds of: Diamond Push Ups, 4-ct Mountain Climbers, Carolina Dry Docks, Wide Push Ups, 8-ct Man Makers, Motivators (Starting at 5), RUN ACROSS THE FIELD then, 4-ct Box Cutters, Big Boys, 4-ct Freddy Mercury, LBCs, 4-ct American Twist, 4-ct Flutter Kicks

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Recently I’ve been pretty overwhelmed with life.  Some good problems to have, just a lot of stuff.  My wife told me, “You know what Ana says – just do the next right thing.”  It made sense to just take one step at a time.  I can’t tackle everything at once.  Chip away at it and everything will be OK.  A few days later I was complaining again about all that’s going on and my wife says again, “You know what Ana says – just do the next right thing.”  At that point I asked, “Who is Ana?”.  My wife replies, “You know.  Ana.  From Frozen II.”

Sometimes wisdom comes from the strangest places.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Charity kick ball tournament coming up.  Pele will post details in Slack.

With One Eye Squinted…

THE SCENE: Partly cloudy, very pretty clouds, low 70s, quite breezy.  Good kite-flying weather.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Check.

WARM-O-RAMA:

-Motivators (7-ct)

– 10 Cherry Pickers (4-ct), in cadence, maintain position…

– Hamstring stretches, sky reaches

– 20 Grady Corns (4-ct), in cadence

– Little of this and that

THA-THANG:

MOSEY to stop sign at northeast corner of circle drive.

  • ARM STATION: MUCHO CHESTO
    • 10x Merkin
    • 10x Wide Merkin
    • 10x Stagger Left Merkin
    • 10x Stagger Right Merkin
    • RINSE AND REPEAT

MOSEY to Center of Coliseum.

  • LEG STATION: AIKEN LEGS
    • 20 squats
    • 20 Box Jumps (on wall)
    • 20 Lunges (10 each leg… but we did 20 each leg for extra credit)
    • 20 Split Jacks (10 each leg forward… but we did 20 each leg forward for extra credit)
    • RINSE AND REPEAT

MOSEY to lower parking lot under Coliseum

  • 5/10/15s. Get a Battle Buddy.  Partner 1 runs up to stop sign and does 5x reps of two exercises, then comes down and switches with Partner 2, who is running in place or doing SSH.  R&R with 10x, then 15x exercises.  The exercises are:
    • Round 1: Mountain Climbers and Peter Parkers (both 2-ct)
    • Round 2: Smurf Jacks and Froggy Jumps

Mosey to stop sign at southern corner of circle drive.  20 American hammers (4-ct, IC), 10 BBS.

Bernie Sanders to no parking sign.  20 American hammers (4-ct, IC), 10 BBS.

MOSEY TO AO.

CMU Catch Me If You Can!

  • Partner 1 Lunges away, Partner 2 does 20x of an exercise, then runs with CMU (overhead carry) to catch Partner 1.   Keep going, changing the exercises.  Partners must agree on exercise.
    • OPTIONS: Overhead Press, Curls, CMU Press, Situps, Rows, Triceps, Squats

MARY:
LBCs until 6 caught up.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
19 strong!  Plus one doggy.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Those of us in the Christian faith have just emerged from a special part of year, the Easter season.  Part of what makes Easter so extraordinary is that it is about moving on, emerging from the darkness, and having faith that God will make all things new again.  As the seasons change, winter turns to spring, and the Easter season arrives, we move ahead slowly, deliberately, with great love, and great hope.  But the true meaning of Easter is not without some darker elements as well.  Before we reach the time of great renewal and hope there can be much fear, hesitation, and confusion, similar to what Mary Magdalene felt initially when she saw the empty tomb.

(Mary) Flannery O’Connor is a well-known southern author who wrote strange and often violent short stories.  She was diagnosed with Lupus at a relatively young age.  Her stories were often influenced by her struggles with her disease, and were often sardonic and dark, but she was a devout Christian that also incorporated messages of faith in her writings.  Her faith-based outlook on life are on full display in a book called THE HABIT OF BEING, which is a collection of letters she wrote in the latter half of her life. And she writes that being a person of faith is not all sunshine and rainbows….

She writes, “All Human Nature rigorously resists grace. Grace changes us, and change is painful.  We don’t run towards Grace, sometimes we are dragged fighting it all the way.”  Faith calls us out of complacency, and into places of uncertainty. It’s risky. Uncomfortable.  It’s transformative.  She writes, “What people don’t realize is how much religion costs…” “It seems to be a fact that you have to suffer as much from the Church as for it, but if you believe in the divinity of Christ, you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it.”  Fear. Uncertainty. Transformation. And only then, Exultation! That’s Easter in a nutshell.

Flannery O’Connor died of her illness at age 39.  Despite the struggles and challenges, she wrote of her life, “I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing.”  As we move through the darkness of the past year, hopefully we can acknowledge our blessings and faith in the journey, and, with one eye squinted, find some grace, some miracles in the year behind us, and recognize and act on the ways we were all called to be changed.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for the return home of Corona Weight’s brother, prayers for Ribbed, Jinxy, La-Z-Boy and Lillydipper, as they recover from injury and illness, prayers for Steam’s friend Shawn.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
April service challenge! Details TBA.