Cat Gut (Mike Davis) – Page 5

The Return

December 15, 2025 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-am
Q: Hands
PAX: Cat Gut (Mike Davis), Tropicana, Waffle House (Brady Greene), Matlock (Bill Maddox), Hands, Aquafina, Cinco (Scott McGuire), P3, Rainbow, Fabio (Joe Hamilton)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 10
WARMUP: SSH, froggy squats, inch worm merkins

THE THANG: Jogged up and over Baby E. On the trail, did 10 Merkins, 10 2 count American Hammers, 10 jump squats then started to run after 4 good lunges. Skipped 2 light poles and repeated the exercises. Finished at the road. Wandered around until we got to the Overlook. Partnered up and one partner ran the loop while the other did inch worm Merkins – repeat x 1. The one partner ran down the walkway and back while the other did Captain Thors. Repeat x 1. Moseyed to the pav-a-lon for table rows, calf raises and tricep dips x 2 rounds. 1 minute of walk sit.

MARY: Planks with arm raise up and under 4 x.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Code Brown is coordinating the Winter Solstice hike. Sounds like all the details are super ironed out, just like the Donner Party.
Shovel Flag passing this Wednesday.

COT: Things I learned during the marathon process.

The Longest Mile

December 10, 2025 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-am
Q: Swanson
PAX: P3, Coco (Sam Duzan), Matlock (Bill Maddox), Cinco (Scott McGuire), Tropicana, Cosmo 2, Gibbler, Cat Gut (Mike Davis), Waffle House (Brady Greene), Rainbow, Dung Beetle, Techno (I think)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 12
WARMUP:
SSH – 25
Baby Arm Circles – 10ea way
Squat & Reach – 10
Hill Billy – 10

THE THANG:
Longest mile

Inchworm merkins or Peter Parker Merkins/25
100m run
Bobby Hurly’s or Bonnie Blair’s/25
100m run
LCRC or triple V-up/25
100m run
8 Ct Body Builder or deconstructed burpee/25
100m run

Rinse & Repeat x3

Wild Card – Flip or Keep
– if you flip, the new exercise stays unless all agree and pay a penalty:
– 1 – 100 SSH
– 2 – 100 LBC
– 3 – 100 Squats
– 4 – 100 OH Claps

MARY:

No time

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Knoxville Region is star fishing in to two regions.
– Need a name for “east” (Asylum, Big Ball, Quaken, and future AO’s
– Volunteers for leadership positions she

COT:

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Tour de Parking Lots

November 29, 2025 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-daybreak
Q: Pele (Jon Lindberg)
PAX: Lilydipper, Crawdad (Robbi Dickens), High Heels, Pusher, Lizzy, Cat Gut (Mike Davis), Jumbo(Carter Dickens), CRISPR, Dain Bramage, Waffle House (Brady Greene), Serpentine (Jason Pierce), Pele (Jon Lindberg), Inconceivable, MegaWatt
FNGs: None
COUNT: 14
WARMUP:
-5-ct Motivators
– 10 Windmills (4-ct IC)
-10 Grady Corns (4-ct IC)
– 10 Bolt 45s (15 top ½ squats, 15 bottom ½ squats, 15 full squats)
– 10 Mountain Climbers (4-ct IC)
– Orphan Annies
THE THANG:
MOSEY up Baby Cardiac to parking lot on the left. WELSH DRAGON (4-ct Bear crawl + 1 Merkin, rinse and repeat w/ same # of bear crawls but adding 1 merkin until you get to 10.)

MOSEY to parking lot across street.
– EVOLUTION OF MAN: 10-ct BEAR CRAWL, 20-CT LUNGE, then run to end.
MOSEY TO PARKING LOT across street. AIKEN LEGS: 20 Split Jacks (10 right/left), 20 squats, 20 Jump Squats, 20 lunges R&R
MOSEY through the small parking lot where we park. Just a fly by to check it off the list. 10 SSH.
MOSEY to nice parking lot by bathrooms.
– TOTEM POLE. Do all the exercises, run to cone, do 10 SSH, and run back. Do all the exercises minus the first one, R&R until done.
10x Prisoner Get Ups
9x Dive Bombers
8x American Hammers (4-ct)
7x Carolina Dry Docks
6x Imperial SQUAT Walkers (4-ct)
5x Mountain Climbers (4-ct)
4x Froggy Jumps
3x Overhead Claps
2x Bobby Hurleys
1x NAMASTE
MOSEY back to AO parking lot
FOUR CORNERS ESCALATOR (UP AND DOWN), all single ct
1st corner (RUN): 10 SMURF JACKS
2nd corner (KARAOLE LEFT): 10 SMURF JACKS, 20 PLANK JACKS (single count)
3rd Corner (BERNIE): 10 SMURF JACKS, 20 PLANK JACKS, 30 Seal Claps
4th corner (KARAOKE RIGHT): 10 SMURF JACKS, 20 PLANK JACKS, 30 Seal Claps, 40 ROCKY BALBOAS
1st corner (RUN): 40 ROCKY BALBOAS, 30 Seal Claps, 20 PLANK JACKS, 10 SMURF JACKS
2nd corner (KARAOKE LEFT): 30 Seal Claps, 20 PLANK JACKS, 10 SMURF JACKS
3rd corner (BERNIE): 20 PLANK JACKS, 10 SMURF JACKS
4th corner (KARAOKE RIGHT): 10 SMURF JACKS
MARY:
A quick set of American hammers and Boat/Canoe to honor Catgut
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Polar Bear Plunge coming up Jan 1!

COT: The Minister at my church was recently discussing how he often spends time this time of year answering questions from people asking him how they would deal with family members over the holidays, given the deep social and political divides in this county, and he would ask them two questions:

1. Do you want to still have a relationship with these people while whatever is causing the disagreement is going on, and when it is over?
2. Do you feel obligated, or is it a necessity in your life, to attend every fight to which you are invited?

If the answer to #1 is NO, then feel free to attend the fight, but understand that your relationship may be permanently damaged. If the answer is YES, then you might want to DECLINE to attend every fight to which you are invited and preserve that relationship rather than engage in a confrontation that you likely cannot win.

Shortly after I heard this advice, I found myself listening to a wonderful song by Joni Mitchell called BOTH SIDES NOW that gave me a new outlook that could help me avoid attending all the fights I’m invited to. Here is how the first part of it goes:

So the clouds when she looked at them at one time in her life were fanciful images and innocent dreams, but then later in life she looked at them differently. They were a nuisance, a distraction, things to dread and avoid, if possible. At the end of the verse, after looking at clouds all her life, she admits she doesn’t know clouds at all.

The song goes on for two more verses that talk about LOVE and LIFE with a similar pattern; an innocent, optimistic impression of them followed by a more cynical opinion, and ending with an admission that she doesn’t really know what LOVE and LIFE are all about, just like the CLOUDS.

So I’m trying to take this to heart and be more like Joni Mitchell and admit that I don’t know as much about stuff as I think, and that there are many perspectives and points of view of everyday objects like clouds, and most of the time there is no wrong or right answer. It depends on our perspective, life experiences, and simple opinion. And if I recognize those uncertainties, AND the fact that the opinions of others are coming from their own frame of reference that also might evolve and change, as mine have, I feel less obligated to ATTEND THOSE FIGHTS that the pastor spoke of, and choose Harmony over Division. Because, as the Great Joni Mitchell wrote, even after 53 years, maybe I really don’t know everything about these things after all.

Logging our Calories

November 24, 2025 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-am
Q: Code Brown
PAX: Cat Gut (Mike Davis), P3, Bunny, Charmin (John Willis), Cinco (Scott McGuire), Dain Bramage, Hot Tub (John Muller), Matlock (Bill Maddox), Pac-man, Tropicana, Mr. Hiss, PoleDancer
FNGs: 1 PoleDancer
COUNT: 13
WARMUP: tie-fighters and x-wings. Burpees. Upward and downward :dog2:. starfish. Rocky balboa and some shuttle run of various types including the beloved skip.

THE THANG:
Log your calories early :wood: :

This consisted of dragging a seasoned cherry log (with a meticulously engineered harness system and the f3 logo proudly emblazoned on top) up a gradually sloping greenway euphemistically known as as the Dragon. :dragon:.

Fortuna smiled kindly on us as we roled the icosahedron (incorrectly named the dodecahedron during the Q) giving us 20 different random options of making ourselves better at every other (lit) light post. All brave HIMs volunteered to drag the log with a fellow beast of burden while all the other HIMs encouraged them in their endeavor.

Once time was drawing nigh we convened at the AO and were joined by several mallruckers and a few dogs. I think bluebird snuck out early.

MARY:
Hello dolly, Flutter kick. BBS and finally some Freddie Mercury’s to commemorate his death 35years ago on this day… (not that the Q was really paying attention it just popped up in a google search of what happened on this day in history).

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 9am Thanksgiving day workout.
Start shopping for the Christmas gift exchange Q with Coolio (Greg Fox)

COT: the Q shared of his recent conviction to attempt to be truly HUMBLE not a groveling, sniffling self deprecator who humble brags….

>From C. S. Lewis:

(Referring to a humble man…) He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.

If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realise that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.

Galatians 6:14

[14] But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…

Waffle House of Cards

November 19, 2025 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-am
Q: Waffle House (Brady Greene)
PAX: Dain Bramage, P3, TrampStamp, Gibbler, Cinco (Scott McGuire), Cat Gut (Mike Davis), Matlock (Bill Maddox), Waffle House (Brady Greene)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
I never had any dreams other than to serve the Pax, and also to remain humble. Aquafina ‘s recent experience, profound and life-changing as it was, has only strengthened my resolve to serve, and it has made me, according to the focus groups my people ran, 264% more humble.

Shoulder Blasters were always going to happen today, and while blasting I took the opportunity to announce my new book, podcast, memecoin, supplement (every 20 grams has 300 grams of protein), and senate campaign.

I’ve also trademarked Junk Science™ (