F3 Knoxville

Rusty Math

THE SCENE: Couldn’t be prettier
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Choirboy is a lawyer, so I’m going to say we’re covered
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH, Windmills, Crawdad’s arrival (not an exercise, but certainly a ritual), BACs+OHCs, reverse and repeat
THA-THANG:
We took the Moseytown train up to the old Rockpile (RIP), where midnight elves had created Blockhenge. We tore it down and beat our arms and shoulders to death. We crawled like bears, we ran like I guess Bernie Sanders would if he could, we lifted CMUs in every way we could.

Moseyed over to Grinch’s Hill, which honestly is way worse than Hardship Hill. We were raising money for Operation Enduring Oatmeal, which is a charity that tries to get Jinxy’s order right at Panera. Squat and Merkin 11s. Proton swept us to the Cloud.

Rusty is a math genius and just for us, he invented a new way to concieve numbers and counting.

Box Baby Boxes at the cloud, followed by a visit from Jack freaking Webb, whose superpower is changing the density of air. He does not make it lighter I’m afraid.

We took Skunk Alley to Cardiac and by then it was time to take it to the house.

MARY:
There’s no  Marys in Operation Enduring Oatmeal
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
6 dudes with busy Saturdays…Proton, Crawdad, Hawk, Rusty, Choirboy, and YHC
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Excerpt from “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace, in honor of graduation season
MOLESKIN:
Grateful to be out there with these men.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Apparently some other F3 guys are running around somewhere today. Best of luck to you!

Pick your poison

THE SCENE: Equalizer 47 degrees, clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Mosey to flags and do SSHs and Merkins
THA-THANG:
Do following exercises and qty. before completing one lap around track and move to next exercise. You can do them anywhere along track and in any grouping you wish. Total must be 46.

  • Dry docks x46
  • Bobby Hurley’s x46
  • Merkins x46
  • Iron mikes x46
  • shoulder taps x46 each shoulder
  • Bear crawl steps x46
  • Diamond Merkins x46
  • squat jumps x46
  • wide Merkins x46
  • lunges x46 each leg
  • LBCs 4ct x46

REPEAT if  necessary

MARY:
Flutters and stuff
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

9  PAX, toebox, tank, abacus, woodshack, hot tub,  detention, choirboy   bunny, peekaboo

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭7:9‬ ‭
MOLESKIN:

It wasn’t the hardest q in the world, but  that’s OK

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

HHOCR, prayers

God Exists

THE SCENE: Drizzling, temps in high 60’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Side-straddle hops, Plank Stretches, 10 Rockettes, 10 Cherry Pickers, Michael Phelps
THA-THANG:
Mosey to parking lot by entrance way to Northern Ball Fields.  Go to CMU pile.  Split into teams of two men each.  Each team grabs a CMU.  We will be doing Doras.  Partner One does Bernie Sanders to end of parking lot then sprints back while Partner Two does exercise with CMU.  Then partners switch.  These are the exercises:

  • 100 Overhead Presses
  • 100 Curls
  • 100 Rows
  • 100 Squats with CMU at chest.

Mosey to Pavilion at Northern Ball Fields.  We will do Totem Pole.  There will be five exercises.  We will do first exercise for 30 seconds.  We will continue to add an exercise each time until we have done all five exercises.  We will then drop the first exercise and go through the exercises repetitively, dropping one each time until we have done last exercise alone for 30 seconds.  Thus, we will do each exercise five times.  These are the exercises:

  • Burpees
  • Hello Dollies
  • Picnic Table Pull-ups.
  • Decline Merkins with feet on bench of picnic table.
  • Squat Jumps

Nest, each man does squat with back against wall of pavilion.  We will hold the squat for 60 seconds.

Mosey to Dragon Fly just past the parking lot directly across the street from the parking lot by the entrance way to the Northern Ball Fields.  We will do Route 66 up the Dragon Fly with the following exercises:

  • Mountain Climbers (4 count)
  • Dive Bombers

Mosey back to CMU pile in the parking lot by the Northern Ball Field Entrance Way.  Each man grabs a CMU.  We will do the following exercises in cadence:

  • 20 Overhead Presses
  • 20 Curls
  • 20 Rows

Mosey back to AO.

MARY:

We will do stretches of right leg and left, then stretches of each arm.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
10 men, no FNG’s.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
In his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez chronicles the history of a fictional small town in Mexico called Macondo.  At one point in the novel of plague of insomnia infects the little town and the residents go without sleep.  In the process, they lose they begin to lose their memories.  A main character in the novel begins to write on all types of tiems in the town so that people will not forget what they are.  The people join in to help.  Finally, the people in the town place a sign to it’s entrance way that says Macando.  And, they place an even larger sign in the center of the town that says God exists.  

In his book, The Journey of Desire, John Eldredge said that he laughed at the  above story when he first read it.  On his second reading, he began to understand the significance.  He then thought to himself that he should hang a sign above his own bad that says “God exists.”

The significance is that we humans, even us believers, often forget that God exists.  Oh, we may remember He exists at a shallow level but we forget the existence of God at the deeper, most meaningful level.  We forget that He is our Creator, He is the Great Physician, He is the Loving Father, He is the Alpha and the Omega.  The Israelites were constantly forgetting God.  He delivered them through the Red Sea to escape the Egyptians and days later they were complained about water supply.  When he provided water they complained about food.  He sends down bread from the sky and they bemoan the lack of water again.  They later worship false idols.  They must be reminded again and again about the existence of God.

I find myself doing the same thing.  I may go to church and hear a sermon or sing a hymn that stirs my heart, that reminds me of God’s love for me, that motivates me to climb mountains, to forget my fears, to live for my fellow man.  On Monday morning I awake before going to work and find that I have forgotten everything I learned the day before.

In his book The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, the main character falls from an airplane at the beginning of the book.  No parachute, he just plummets from the sky – and lives!  It is a miracle and he claims that he will always remember the miracle, always be thankful for it.  Yet, as time goes on, he forgets the miracle.

What is it about humankind that leads us to forget the existence of God?  We have these moments where we feel loved by God, saved by Him, grateful and thankful.  Then we forget.  Things happen to us that are miracles and we are amazed by them.  But we forget!  That is why it is so important to make the great HC toward God.  We must keep reading our bibles.  We must keep going to worship.  We must keep meeting with others who are forgetful believers like us and talk about the wonder of God, share in his Glory, so that we remember, so we don’t forget that – GOD EXISTS.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for guys at Neyland Stadium today and for Crawdad’s father.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:  Hardship Hill on May 18

Audible Dice

THE SCENE: Not sure about the temperature, but it was a little cool and dark.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH, Merkins and rockettes
THA-THANG:
There were three days, one for the exercise and two for the quantity. Roll one dice and do the corresponding exercise at each cone along the roughly 1/5 mile path. Total of five cones. Roll the second set of dice for the qty.  about halfway through we decided to only roll one dice

  • 1) burpees
  • 2) Merkins
  • 3) inch worms
  • 4) squat jumps
  • 5) LBCs
  • 6) diamond Merkins

MARY:
32 flutters, 22 American hammers, shoulder burner routine and some boat canoes
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
4
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
We talked about the importance of motivating each other in a positive manner and keeping the other person in mind and not yourself.

MOLESKIN:
Dice games can be easy and they can be hard. We had to  Audible or else we would’ve been doing 20 Burpee‘s times five.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Prayers for friends with MS , Families and children of Knoxville and the HHOCR

Cogs in the Wheel

THE SCENE: Misty, in 40’s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Side Straddle Hops, 15 Plank Jacks, 10 Windmills, 10 Rockettes, 10 Cherry Pickers
THA-THANG:
Mosey to parking lot near entry to northern ball fields.  We will split into partners of two men each to do Doras.  One partner will Bernie Sanders to cone, then sprint to end of parking lot.  At end of parking lot he does two burpees.  He then does Bernie Sanders to cone and sprints back.  Meanwhile, the other partner is working on exercises with CMU’s.  The exercises are the following

  • 100 Overhead Presses
  • 100 Curls
  • 100 Rows
  • 100 Squats with CMU at chest area

Mosey to beginning of Serpentine Sidewalk located between north ball fields and outdoor chapel.  We will do 14’s (do listed exercise for one light then run for four lights) to where sidewalk hits perimeter trail or from perimeter trail back to roadway if it is next exercise on list).  We will do three exercises and, therefore, will end at perimeter trail.  All men who finish first on any exercise and run will do baby crunches until last man arrives.  Here are the exercises:

  • Bear Crawl
  • Hops
  • Lunges

When we are through with above we will do 20 Hello Dollies (four count) as a group.

Mosey on perimeter trail to cardiac hill.  At cardiac hill we will run up hill doing the following exercises at each turn:

  • Turn 1:  20 American Hammer
  • Turn 2:  20 Big Boy Sit Ups
  • Turn 3:  20 Decline Merkins
  • Turn 4:  20 Bench Raises

Rinse and Repeat

Mosey to bottom of mini-cardiac.

We will do 20 Merkins at bottom of mini-cardiac, then run up and do 20 Carolina Dry Docks by gate.  Rinse and repeat.

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
20 Flutter Kicks (four count); 15 Shoulder Taps (both shoulders = 1); stretch of each leg and slow toe touches, slow back bends.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
12 Men, no FNG’s.  Finger Paint was with us but has yet to be tagged for the post.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM

God had created each one of us as special, unique individuals.  As the apostle Paul claims, we each have individual gifts.  But he also remarks that these individual gifts we have serve the whole community.  In this way, we are all part of the body of Christ.

From 1 Corinthians 12:

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves[d] or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts,[e] yet one body.

There is a song by the group Fleet Foxes that I particularly enjoy.  It is called Helplessness Blues.  Here are the lyrics in the beginning of the song:

I was raised up believing I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see
And now after some thinking, I’d say I’d rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me.

We are each of us unique.  Each one of us is different – in body size, strength and endurance levels; in age; in the backgrounds we come from; in the types of jobs we have; in our politics; in our dreams for the future.  But as the great poet John Donne proclaimed, “No man is an island unto himself.”  We have a need for our fellow man.  And when united together, we give service to something that is greater than ourselves.  I often feel that with the men of F3.  It is sometimes difficult to put into words.  But by getting up in the morning to be here with my friends, my brothers, I am not only serving myself but something beyond myself – something that brings me, brings each of us, closer to what God created us for – and, therefore, closer to God.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hardship Hill in May!