F3 Knoxville

Tag: Brick

Bare November Days

THE SCENE: Partly cloudy, cool but not cold, mid 40s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Check. Still not a professional.
WARM-O-RAMA:

Motivators (7 reps/level)

– Yoga stretches: legs spread, hang straight down, reach to right and left ankle, touch the ground and reach one arm up twisting torso, reverse hands.  There was much inappropriate mumblechatter about bending over and grabbing ankles at this point.

– 10 Baby Arm Circles Forward/ Backward (4-ct, IC), making them wide arm circles half way through.

– 10 Tempo Merkins

THA-THANG:

Mosey to Chapel parking log, stopping to do a WELSH DRAGON along the way.

In parking lot, cones will be laid out in a rectangle, short/medium/long distance on each side. Pair up.  One partner will get to the cone using various means, does 3 burpees, and returns while partner performs maintenance exercises. Switch.  Do each cone for two minutes. Cones are, counter-clockwise order:

    • Cone 1 (Long): Bear Crawl, partner does Bobby Hurleys
    • Cone 2 (Medium): Broad Jumps, partner does Iron Mikes
    • Cone 3 (Short): Crab Walk, partner does Burpees
    • Cone 4 (Long): Bear Crawl, partner does BBS
    • Cone 5 (Medium): Broad Jump, partner does American Hammers
    • Cone 6 (Short): Crab Walk, partner does Gas Pumps

Mosey to playground, do 7s with dips and bench jumps

Mosey to Baby Cardiac: Bernie to the top.

Mosey to the monument, do a few minutes of BOAT/CANOE.

Mosey back to AO.

MARY:
Out of time.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 strong.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

My November Guest by Robert Frost is a poem that on its surface is about a person embracing the melancholy feeling that comes with the passing of summer and the beginning of the long winter, with “Sorrow” personified as a woman.  For some, the onset of winter is ominous and unsettling, but there is a different kind of beauty in these shortening days.  But there is more to this poem… it’s about more than just natural beauty the author is referring to.  It’s about opening yourself up and embracing your own personal grief and sorrow, and accepting it as an important and enriching facet of the human condition.

My Sorrow, when she’s here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She’s glad the birds are gone away,
She’s glad her simple worsted grey
Is silver now with clinging mist.

The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.

Many times we feel ashamed of our grief and sadness, we try to bury it, and pretend it doesn’t exist. The author is encouraging us to look at that part of us not with shame or trepidation, but to embrace it as part of our humanity, and to appreciate that part of our emotional spectrum.  For me, this time of year brings back memories of my mother’s illness and passing, and for years I dreaded the onset of November.  But I read this poem and it encourages me to use this time as a period of reflecting on her love and the wonderful times we had while she was on this earth.  “Not yesterday I learned to know the love of bare November days”. Try to learn to know the value of your own sources of sadness and grief.  And know that there’s a God in your life that will never be far from your heart, and seek comfort and refuge in the love of our Almighty Father.

PSALM 34:18: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

MOLESKIN:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Third F December 7, with Convergence at the Truck Stop!

Thankful

THE SCENE: Rainy, temp in 50’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
10 Pinto Twists, 20 Side-Straddle Hops, 10 Tempo Merkins, 10 Windmills, 10 Rockettes, Michael Phelps.
THA-THANG:
We met at Pavilion at Northern Ball Fields due to rain.  We stayed at Pavilion after the Warm-O-Rama to do Totem Pole with the following exercises, 30 seconds each exercise, five times each exercise:

  • Burpees
  • Squats
  • Picnic Table Pull-ups
  • Star Jumps
  • Big Boy Sit-ups

Mosey to CMU pile.  Each man gets CMU and puts it by curb on parking lot.  We will do the following exercises, then, after each exercise, bear crawl two parking spaces, lunge two parking spaces, and Bernie the remainder of the parking lot to the curb. Sprint back to other curb and do the next exercise, then repeat the trek across the parking lot.  Here are the exercises with the CMU’s:

  • 25 Overhead Presses
  • 25 Curls
  • 25 Rows
  • 25 Squats with CMU at chest.
  • 25 Incline Merkins with hands on CMU
  • 25 Decline Merkins with feet on CMU

Return CMU’s to pile.  We will then sprint back and forth across the parking lot.  We will go back and forth four times.

Mosey back to Pavilion.

MARY:
2 minute squat with back to wall.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Seven men, no FNG’s.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I Chronicles 16:34 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

As Thanksgiving approaches I want to say how thankful I am to have F3 brothers like you in my life.  As men, we need the bond of other men in our lives.  I have a wonderful wife, wonderful family, wonderful co-workers.  But I need to walk among solid men, men who strive to be HIM’s, men who challenge me, men who push me, men whom I can talk to in confidence, men who I admire, men whom I feel a unique bond with.  F3 has added something to my life.  I feel it each week, feel it in my step, feel it when I get together with you guys, whether for workouts, Coffeeteria, or a beer.  And, my wife sees this change in me.  She loves it that I go to F3.  She loves it that I am in community with such good, spiritual men.

So, I give thanks for you guys.  And, I look forward to giving you Hell at Brolympics!!

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Junk’s wife, Messi’s wife, Thunderstruck’s mother, Chaucer, and Butter’s son.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Brolympics this Saturday, 6:45 am at Asylum.

Lt. Dan & Iron Mike meet Squat for legwork

THE SCENE: Clear, about mid 50s, no wind, normal gloom
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH 20 IC

Cherry Pickers 15 IC

Windmills 15 IC

Candy Corns 31 IC

  • Merkins 5 IC
    THA-THANG:
  • Mosey down street to stop sign – 5 burpees OYO, the mosey to bottom of hill to 4 cones approx 20 yds apart, do exercise at each cone, first lap 5, second 10, third lap 15
      • Cone 1 Squats (Lt Dan to Cone 2 – lung, then squat, 2 lung, 2 squats, 3 lungs, 3 squats etc)
      • Cone 2 BBS – run to cone 3
      • Cone 3 American Hammer (4 ct)
      • Cone 4 Windmills (4 ct)
  • Mosey up hill to monument 5 Merkins OYO, then mosey to CMUs
  • Dora with partner
    • round 1 curls 100x, partner bernies to end of lot does 15 bbs, runs back
    • Round 2 presses, 100x, partner lunges to end of lot, does 15 jump squats, runs back
    • Round 3 Push ups on each side of CMU 70 x, run to end of lot, 15 iron mikes
  • MOsey to monument – 20 Flutter kicks (4 ct) IC
  • Mosey to AO
  • COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

    CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
    Everyone is faced with burdens, some are small, others quite significant. No one is immune.  at Juco last friday @fingerfood mentioned a situation where a patient was diagnosed with MS whereby the patient would certainly end up in a wheel chair. The patient was someone who was full of life replied (something like this), after the news of the diagnosis – “if God wants me in a wheelchair, then I will worship him from a wheelchair”. We all have some sort of wheelchair.  We do not choose these burdens. Rely on God and our communities to help carry the burdens.
    MOLESKIN:
    Pray for brother @Chauncer who was in a severe car crash on Nov 3 and for @crashlab’s work team who is facing some tough times related to various medical issues and pray for his co-worker nurse who was killed by a drunk driver
    ANNOUNCEMENTS:
    Broolympics this saturday

Taking Risks

THE SCENE: Cloudy, temp in 70’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Plank Jacks, Plank Stretches, 10 Imperial Walkers, Little of This and That
THA-THANG:
Mosey to stop sign at northeastern corner of Admin Bldg.  20 American Hammers (for count).  Mosey to perimeter trail and take trail east until we hit roadway that goes toward the parking lot with CMU’s.  Each man grabs CMU.  We will run around the parking lot with CMU’s preferably overhead and stop at each corner to do the following exercises:

  • Corner 1:  20 Overhead Presses
  • Corner 2:  20 Curls
  • Corner 3:  20 Rows
  • Corner 4:  20 Squats with CMU at chest.  20 Incline Merkins with hands on CMU.  20 Big Boys with CMU.

Mosey past pitching cage area to perimeter trail east of the ball fields and stop at Cardiac Hill.  We will run up Cardiac Hill doing the following exercises at each corner:

  • Corner 1:  20 Bicycle Kicks (four count)
  • Corner 2:  20 Flutter Kicks (four count)
  • Corner 3:  20 Decline Merkins
  • Corner 4:  20 Bench Dips

Mosey to the Bro Olympics Field.  We will do sprints from sideline to flags in ground. Then sprint back to sideline.  After that we do 25 Baby Crunches.  Rinse and repeat three more times.

Mosey to stop sign at southeastern corner of Admin Bldg.  We will do 20 American Hammer (four count).

Mosey to Mt. Everest Summit.  We will do 15 Big Boy Sit Ups, then run down the summit to pine tree grove.  Do 10 Burpees.  Then run back up the summit and continue to do Big Boy Sit Ups until all men make it back.

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
Sky lifts with legs, then slow drops Hello Dollie position.  Hold for ten count, then spread legs and hold again.  Rinse and repeat four more times.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Eight men, no FNG’s.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Taking Risks With God

Deuteronomy 31:8 “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

At age 62, I am thankful for the blessings the Lord has given me.  I have sometimes been asked if I would change anything in my life – I am lucky in that nothing hits me drastically concerning what I would change.  Certainly I would want to change some of my sinful actions.  But I think I would also want to have taken more risks at those times I was too cautious or insecure to act.

It is through the courage to act that great things occur for us.  Think of Abraham in the Bible.  God told him to go to a completely new land.  He did it.  Moses did the same.  That took courage and faithfulness.  They trusted that the Lord would be there with them.  Think of when you first came to workout with F3.  You had to get up at some awful hour of the morning to join some weird group of guys doing strange military exercises.  Think of the benefits reaped from taking that risk.  One risk I took in my life was to move my family from a comfortable home in Texas, close to family and friends I had grown up with, to come to Knoxville, Tennessee where we didn’t know anyone.  Because of the move, my kids have grown up in a wonderful setting.  My wife, who had no job when we arrived, now is director of the psychology dept at Children’s Hospital.  And me:  I have this wonderful group of friends in F3 who have become an inspiration for me in my life.  When we take risks, we learn, we grow.  And, God is our shepherd along the way.  He will not abandon us.

But what about those times when we take a risk, make a change, and meet up with misfortune instead of success?  Is God there for us even when we stumble, even when the risk we take does not reap what we hope for?Barbara and Jim were a married couple, each about age 50, who bought a seafood restaurant that I was already working at as a teenager in Dallas, Texas.  I knew their two sons, who were a few years older than me, from our younger school days.  Barbara had already worked as a manager of the restaurant before she and Jim purchased it. They invested a great bit of money to get it.  But to have their own business was a dream for them. They made some nice changes to the restaurant and, at first, the crowds coming to eat and drink there seemed to grow.  But, problems came.  The restaurant was located on Forest Lane in Dallas, a four lane street located between two large high schools.  Forest Lane came to be The American Graffiti street of the area.  Kids drove up and down the strip, revving the engines in their cars, drinking beers and basically having a great time.  Fast food restaurants began to spring up on Forest Lane, all around the seafood restaurant.  Kids would park in the parking lots, drinking their beers in the cars and eating fast food.  The business was great for the fast food chains but not for the more expensive seafood restaurant.  Adult customers began to avoid the seafood restaurant, not wanting to deal with the traffic, the screaming teenagers, and the beer cans.  Barbara and Jim started losing money.  They contacted the city police on numerous occasions, hoping to have them correct the problem.  However, either due to lack of legal means or just because the police didn’t care that much, nothing really happened.  Barbara and Jim’s dream was slipping into the abyss.  On one Saturday evening, Jim reached the breaking point.  He came into the back part of the restaurant (the kitchen area) with a shotgun in his hands.  If the police weren’t going to run the scoundrels off, he was going to go out to the front parking lot and do it himself.  That kind of action, of course, may have been realistic in the Clint Eastwood movie wild west but not in a modern city.  Barbara hysterically pleaded with Jim to get rid of the gun.  He finally came to himself and handed the gun to her.  He was embarrassed and humiliated to have had us employees see him in this state.  He slowly walked out the back door and went on home.

The restaurant continued to lose money as the crowds continued to dwindle.  I remember the night Barbara and Jim decided to give up on the restaurant.  The store had closed and many of us employees were still there to clean up.  Barbara and Jim made their announcement to us.  The side of the restaurant that had a bar also had music speakers placed at various points along the ceiling.  Barbara and Jim put on a song and slow-danced together, right their in the middle of the restaurant.  The song they chose to play was Frank Sinatra’s version of “I Did It My Way.”  The couple had invested in a dream and lost the battle.  But they had the guts to take the risk and had given it all they got – and did it their way.

I went on to college after that senior year of school.  I don’t know what happened to Barbara and Jim as my life took me on to other things.  I hope they sold the store – most likely to some fast food restaurant.  In any case, I chose to believe that God worked with the couple.  And I have some evidence that supports my belief.  The primary evidence is the nature of our God, one who loves and is filled with grace.  But Barbara and Jim also exhibited evidence that supports my belief:  First, they hung together in their marriage through the hard times, despite the anguish and gnashing of teeth.  Second, despite the losses they suffered, they were always good to us employees and paid every cent of our paychecks, never delaying the payments.  And finally, on the night they conceded the restaurant, they danced a dance that stays in my mind more than 40 years later.  I will close with some lines from the song they chose to dance to:

Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way.

MOLESKIN:

Praise:  for Mr. Jinxy’s return post heart catheter.  Prayer:  that God be with Pinto, Hooker, and Mr. Jinxy after the death of Pinto’s mother.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Bring non-perishable canned goods to next workout for 2nd Harvest Food Drive.

Shedding the False Self

THE SCENE: Blue skies and temp about 70 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Bottle Taps, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Rockettes, 10 Tempo Squats
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Light Post by Lower Parking Lot near trail that goes towards Lyons Bend Gate Entrance.  We will do Route 66 with the following exercises:

  • Star Jumps
  • Big Boy Sit-ups
  • Iron Mikes with both legs forward = 1

We next will do 14’s with Bear Crawls (Bear Crawl 1 light and Run 4 lights in sequence) until we reach the road that goes to Lyon’s Bend Entrance Gate.  Next, we will do 14’s with Lunges (Lunge 1 light and Run 4 lights in sequence) until we get to the bottom of Mt. Everest.

At Mt Everest we will do 20 Merkins, 30 Squats and 40 Baby Crunches.  Then we will run to the road above the Summit.

Next, we will Mosey south on the roadway until it we are by the big tree as the road heads east toward the stop sign.  We will run down incline by the roadway.  We will then do sevens starting with one Hello Dolly on bottom of incline and six Burpees on top.

Mosey back to AO.

MARY:
20 Box Cutters
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
9 men, no FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I am a psychologist.  I recently looked back on some literature discussing Eric Erickson’s research and theory regarding identity formation in human beings.  Eric Erickson was a German Developmental psychologist who moved to the United States and taught at Harvard, UC Berkeley and Yale.  In his theory regarding identity formation he stated that we humans go through various stages in life that help form our identity.  One stage, which generally occurs in adolescence, but which extends into adulthood, is what he called the stage of Fidelity.  You may have heard of the term “Identity Crisis.”  Erickson was the first to coin it. The conflict the human deals with in this stage is Identity vs. Role Confusion.  The individual grasps with who they are and what they want to become in their life.  That question of “Who Am I” encompasses vocation, sexual, and religious factors, among others.

Some psychologists and psychiatrists, Donald Winnicott being one of the most prominent, also talk about struggle between the False Self and True Self in terms of identity formation.  Winnicott theorized that we humans often take on the role of a false self in forming our identities – that identity relates more to what parents, teachers, or society wants from us than who we are authentically.  Winnicott felt that we are less spontaneous and real when living up to our false self ideals.  We are also more neurotic and psychological unfit when doing so.

If you look back on your adolescence you may remember your own struggles with identity development.  You may, further, remember trying to fit in with the popular crowd, trying to be the cool guy in high school, not wanting to be considered silly or atypical by others.  I can remember my son, Bennett (aka Puddle in F3) talking about changes that occurred for him during this stage.  He was trying to “fit in” with the way he dressed, with sports he played, even with the music he listened to.  He got to a point where he said “to hell with it”, I am going to be me.  He started wearing socks with his sandals because, well, he liked to when it was colder outside.  He later saw other people doing the same thing as him.  He decided he disliked some of the music that high school kids were listening to.  He found he liked Neil Young, Pink Floyd, stuff his Old Man liked.  But in exploring further, he found Indie music with groups that were influenced by artists like Neil Young and Bob Dylan, and groups like Pink Floyd, but who were creating their own music of a different sort.  He has led his Old Man (yours truly) to find and love some of these artists such as Jason Isbell, The Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Jack White, Raconteurs, and Shins.  Bennett found in exploring what he truly liked that other friends truly loved this kind of music as well.  And these seemed to be the kinds of people who were more passionate about music.  I remember taking a group of his high school friends to see 70+ old Neil Young play in an outdoor concert near downtown Nashville.  The kids were very into Neil Young as was this Old Man.

We continue to form our identities as we go further into adulthood.  We face identity crises at work, in our love lives, and in our search for what makes life truly meaningful.  Hopefully, we shed some of our false self skin in the process and get closer to our true natures that God gifted us with.  We, after all, were created in God’s image.  And, the Bible actually speaks of us shedding our false self skin, which it calls the “old self” , shedding what the world wants of us, and living out a “new self” which is what God created us for in the first place:

Collossians 2: 9-10:  Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

1 John 2:15-17: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Pinto’s mother who is very ill and may be entering the final phase of her life.  Prayer for Pinto as well after injuring his ribs when moving some things for his mother.  Prayers for Messi whose wife has had seizures and may have to be operated on in the hospital.  Prayers for Squirtle’s ex-girlfriend whose 21-year-old daughter recently died of medical issues.