F3 Knoxville

The StairMaster*

THE SCENE: Foggy but nice.  A hint of super moon left for us
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 SSH on 4ct, 10 tie fighters R and L, some Wayne Dunn’s, a joggle to the curb for some windmills, butt kickers to the other end of the parking lot.  10 4ct plank jacks on the far end and butt kickers back down.  Short stroll to the bottom of baby Everest for a lunge up half way, 10 squats, mosey up the rest and 10 squats at the cross walk.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to front part of the Asylum.  Found the first set of double stairs.  Idea was to do sets of 20,15,10, and 5 reps at the bottom and running up and back down steps after every set.  We did sets of Merkins here

 

Mosey’d up to Asylum building for reps of 20,15,10, and 5 of dips while running to the top of space needle after each set

Mosey’d to Overlook. Reps of 20,15,10 and 5 as we ran the outside of the eye up stairs to touch the front doors of the Asylum.  Did 4 count flutters here.

Lastly, we mosey’d to steps on far side of Overlook for 20,15,10 and 5 reps of squat jumps with trips up those stairs.

 

Mosey’d back

MARY:

Nope
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Talked about the grace of God and how he loves us just like he loves his son.  Stop worrying about messing up and holding ourselves to the standards of the world.

Rockin’ Dora and Cardiac Attack

THE SCENE: Mostly cloudy, 73 degrees, 90% humidityTo
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

(25) 4 ct. SSH; Baby arm circles forward; backers; (10) 4ct. plank jacks; lunge stretch

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to base of Everest
  • (1) sprint up Everest to rock pile
  • Selected rock and partner for Rockin’ Doras
  • Partner 1: Run west along road, with rock, to first tree and back
  • Partner 2: Curls (up to 200); Squats with rock (up to 200); BBS or flutter kicks (4 ct.), rock optional (200)
  • Mosey cross country to base of Cardiac Hill
  • (5) 4 ct. American Hammers; Bernie Sanders to first bend; (5) 4 ct. Hello Dollies; bear crawl to next bend; (5) squat jumps; sprint to benches; (5) tricep dips;
  • Rinse and repeat, add (5) to each exercise

MARY:
Ab work, 2 rounds ending with 4 ct. flutter kicks.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
II Timothy 1:7 – This is my Father’s favorite verse, and I had not really connected with it. I never felt that I approached life with timidity or fear. I termed it as humility. But, there is a fine line between timidity and humility.  To my shame, I have been doing F3 for a year and a half, and this is my VQ.  To be a real HIM, we need to approach life boldly. We need to lead when we are called to lead and not be timid. We also need to remember that God gives us power, but also love and self discipline.

Cash Songs and Kids’ Games

THE SCENE: High 80s, humid as all get out.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

– 20 SSH (IC), 10 Windmills (4 ct, IC) 20 baby to big arm circles, forward and backward (IC), 20 Imperial Squat Walkers (4-ct, IC).  Almost had to repeat this last exercise because the PAX forgot how to count.

THA-THANG:
Moseyed to the new field below the Admin Building where the Ring of Fire was set up.  The 8 stations were as follows:

  • Little Baby Crunches
  • Bobby Hurleys
  • Captain Thors
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Diamond Merkins
  • Iron Mikes
  • E2Ks
  • Hand-release Merkins

Break up into pairs, start at different stations.  60 seconds at each station with 20 second break in between.  The twist was that we also played Duck Duck Goose around the ring.  Each pair, in turns, would run up the hill to a set of trees and return back to the circle, counting off “Duck Duck GOOSE” to designate the next pair to run.  (There was a burpee penalty for not doing this that was poorly enforced.) After all groups ran the hill, brief recovery, then rinse and repeat.  We planned for a third circuit but ran out of time.

MARY:
Moseyed to AO and did the following exercises.

– Homer/Marge, pickle pounders, box cutters, Hello Dollies, Squats

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
9 strong!

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM

In a recent Sports Illustrated article, Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher of the modern era, feels that every time he fails, he views it as a tiny affront to the God who gave him so much talent. He thinks often of his favorite verse, Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”  The heaviest load he carries isn’t the weight of fans’ expectations, it’s that he believes he has been given a gift that he doesn’t deserve, and that if he doesn’t succeed he is squandering God’s gift. Some other relevant verses include:

PROVERBS 16:3 : Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.

EPHESIANS 6:7 Rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man.

I’ve felt this same way to some degree. If I failed, which I did often, I was letting down my team, myself, and God.  Why do we work hard?  Many times it’s to please someone else.  Yes, we all need to make sure our bosses are happy with our performance, our companions (teammates, family members, etc.) are taken care of and satisfied with us… But we shouldn’t forget that there is virtue in doing something to the best of your ability for the Lord. But what happens when we fail? Are we failing God?  There is nothing in those Bible passages above that mentions failing.  To fail is human, and to accept our imperfections and thank the Lord for the opportunity to succeed through hard work is what is important.  F3 is a good example. We are out here working hard, there are no human masters here judging us or forcing us to go through 45 minutes of hell.  We do it for ourselves, and our brothers, and I believe, for our Lord, to celebrate our life and health and to improve the tool that is our body that was given to us by his loving hand.

MOLESKIN:
The Q lost his phone during the workout, and even though they were told to go on home, every single member of the group stayed late to help him find it, even climbing up and down more hills to the Ring of Fire course.  I’m not sure if they were tears of gratitude or rivulets of sweat on my cheeks at this act of brotherhood, but I’ll go with the latter. Yeah. It was SWEAT, dang it!!  Many thanks s to Swimmies for running ahead and finding it at one of the stations.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
F3 anniversary Olympics coming up!  And Happy Birthday Jinxy!

The Gate

THE SCENE: Cloudy and hot
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Burpees, 10 Windmills, 25 Squats, 10 Cherry Pickers
THA-THANG:
Mosey to big tree by stop sign at northeast corner of admin bldg.  We will do 20 American Hammers.

Mosey to park perimeter trail where it intersects with roadway that heads to admin bldg.  We will do 25 Squats.

Run on perimeter trail as it heads west and north and curves toward the bottom of Mt. Everest.  We will stop at every fifth light to do 10 merkins, then continue.  At bottom of Mt. Everest we will do 25 Squats then run around big tree in middle of Mt. Everest, then come back to perimeter trail.  We will then do 20 Bicycle Kicks (four count).

Run to every fifth light and stop to do 10 Big Boy Situps.  Continue this until we get to roadway that comes in from Northshore gate.  Stop to do 20 Hello Dollies.

Run across roadway, staying on perimeter trail.  Run to every fifth light and stop to do 10 Shoulder taps (ten taps each shoulder).  We will run until we reach soccer fields.  Stop to do 20 Box Cutters.

We will next go across soccer field.  We will lunge to first line, run to next line, lunge to next, run to next in alternate fashion until we reach the end of the soccer field.  We will stop to do 25 Squats.

Mosey to stop sign at southeastern corner of Admin Bldg.  Stop to do 20 pickle pounders (four count).

Run to Boulder Pile.  Pick up appropriate size boulder.  We will do 25 overhead presses, 25 Curls, 25 Rows and 25 Triceps.

MARY:
Plank Stretches.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Seven men present, one FNG, Josh, a good friend and coworker of Hooker.  We named Josh “Hotspur.”
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
This is a poem written by Marie Howe.  It is about her brother who died.  He was sick and knew he would die when the moments this poem describes takes place.  In this poem he points out to the poet the importance of life’s everyday moments – like eating a cheese and mustard sandwich.  Maybe it is these moments that we are really waiting for, not the big successes, the big job, the big whatever.  For what do the big successes gain us?  Only the opportunities to have special moments with others.

THE GATE BY MARIE HOWE

I had no idea that the gate I would step through
to finally enter this world
would be the space my brother’s body made. He was
a little taller than me: a young man
but grown, himself by then,
done at twenty-eight, having folded every sheet,
rinsed every glass he would ever rinse under the cold
and running water.
This is what you have been waiting for, he used to say to me.
And I’d say, What?
And he’d say, This—holding up my cheese and mustard sandwich.
And I’d say, What?
And he’d say, This, sort of looking around.
We spend much of our loves working towards something, trying to achieve whatever version of success we or others have implanted in our minds.  We often fail to take notice of the simple events of daily life, the simple things around us, such as the folding of sheets after laundry, the walls and pictures in the residences we live in, the simple conversations with loved ones and friends, the beauty around us, whether it be the mountains in the distance or a simple weed growing on the ground in front of us.  Marie Howe’s brother points out that these are the moments and things we are waiting for.
Let us savior these days, these things, these moments that God has given us.  Van Morrison speaks of this in his song, These Are The Days.  He says in the poem that we must savor these days as if there is no past, no future, only now.  He goes on to say:

These are the days by the sparkling river
And His timely grace and the treasured find
This is the love of the one great magician
Turned the water into wine

These are the days now that we must savor
And we must enjoy as we can
These are the days that will last forever
You’ve got to hold them in your heart.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Beer run to Union Jacks directly after this workout.

Kicking It

THE SCENE:  Partly cloudy, mid to upper 80’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

25 Squats, 20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Bottle Openers, 10 Windmills
THA-THANG:
Mosey to other side of Admin Bldg.  We will do 25 Squats by steps up to Admin Bldg.  Then we will run up steps to top.  We will do 20 Merkins on porch.  Run back down stairs.  Bernie Sanders to street.  Lunge across street and run down stairs to grassy area.  10 Burpees.  Run back up stairs.  Lunge back across street.  Run back to stairs of admin bldg.  Rinse and repeat.  Those who finish first do baby crunches at top of stairs.

Mosey to northeast corner of admin bldg.  20 American Hammers in cadence.

Mosey to northern parking lot and trail leading north of that that gradually turns towards park entrance on Lyons Bend Road.  We will do Route 66 with the following exercises.  Whoever finishes first sweeps others back to start.

  • Big Boy Situps
  • Star Jumps
  • Dive Bombers

We will do 14’s to where trail hits roadway coming from Lyons Bend gateway entrance.  We will bear crawl to first light, sprint the next four lights, bear crawl one more light, sprint another four, etc. until roadway.

Mosey to Bottom of Roadshow Run.  Do 25 Squats in cadence.  Run to top of Roadshow Run.  Those who get to street first do plank until everyone arrives.

Mosey to AO.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Eleven men, one who was a Flying EH, a great guy named Sam Harward whom we have given the F3 name of Samsung.  Samsung is a competitor of the group he works for.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM 

John Donne’s poem, A Hymn to God the Father is a powerful and beautiful reminder of how much God loves us, despite are continuing sin.  In the first stanza, Donne asks God whether he will love him despite the fact that he continues to commit the same sins again and again, despite the fact that he himself deplores those very sins.  How could a just God continue to love him despite the fact that, given so many chances, he doesn’t ever get it right?  And yet, God still loves him.

In the second stanza Donne admits to being even worse.  He asks if God will forgive and love him despite the fact that he wins others to the very sins he has committed.  He asks whether God will love him despite the fact that he escapes from some sins, only to commit them years later – and may even wallow in those sins.  How could God forgive him.  And yet, God does.

In the final stanza, Donne, a great man of faith, admits the sin of his own lack of faith.  He fears that when he dies that he shall perish alone, devoid of anything – that death is only the end.  So he asks for God’s promise that at his death, God’s son shall shine as he shines now.  And, realizing Jesus’ love for us, he sees God, he sees his love, and in that he fears no more.

A Hymn to God the Father

Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,
         Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run,
         And do run still, though still I do deplore?
                When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
                        For I have more.
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won
         Others to sin, and made my sin their door?
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun
         A year or two, but wallow’d in, a score?
                When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
                        For I have more.
I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun
         My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
But swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son
         Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore;
                And, having done that, thou hast done;
                        I fear no more.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Kickball tournament this Saturday!