F3 Knoxville

Mini Seabiscuit at Asylum

THE SCENE: Mostly sunny ,slight breeze, low 80’s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH 33 IC

Cherry Pickers 20 IC

Michael Phelps  OYO

Baby Arm Circles – Up 10 IC

Baby Arm Circles – Down 10 IC

Merkins – 10 OYO

THA-THANG:

Partner Up, Grab your CMU

Mosey to south stop sign at “Y

Do 33 CMU curls

Mosey to Lower Gravel Loop

Each Team of 2 selects 1 or 2 exercises from following list:

SSH

Iron Mike

Merkins

CMU Overhead Press

CMU Curl

CMU Row

Squat

Jump Squat

BBS

4 ct American Hammers

Hello Dolly

Grady Corn

Bobby Hurley

Squat Jack

The Combined count of reps between the one or two exercise must add up to 33

For example, each person on the team does 33 reps. of chosen 1 exercise, or they each do 16 of one and 17 of another. Or 30 of one and 3 of another, etc. Must add up to 33

Do set of exercise, then run as follows:

1 lap, exercise, 2 laps, exercise, 3 Laps, exercise, 4 laps, exercise, 3 laps, exercise, 2 laps, exercise, 2 laps (goal is to complete 18 laps)

Mosey Back to stop sign at “Y”, do whatever set of 33 exercises you were doing at seabiscuit

Mosy Back to AO

MARY:
Insert information about any additional post-THANG work (if applicable).
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
19 HIMs total
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Life is tough and full of unexpected challenges. We can be better prepared to face life’s challenges if we take control (the best we can) and make a plan. Of course, situations change and we may not follow our plan, but we are certainly better prepared when we do have a plan. Tonight my plan seemed simple (I had planned 18 laps plus mosey distance for everyone at a reasonable pace) to end up at 3.3 miles. I chose 33 because my late son Grady’s (F3 Quikrete) 33rd birthday was 10/17. We didn’t quite hit 3.3 miles but we got close. Situations usually never go as planned, but plans are invaluable.

MOLESKIN:
Insert any personal comments, notes, devotion content, etc.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Insert information about upcoming events, 2nd or 3rd F opportunities, and any other announcements.

Repeat It ’til You Believe It

THE SCENE: Very cloudy, temp in high 60s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Plank Jacks, 15 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Imperial Walkers, 10 Windmills, Leg Stretches, Michael Phelps, Little of This and That
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Stop Sign at Northeastern Corner of Admin Bldg.  Do 20 Hello Dollies.

Next we will go from Cone to Cone along the road that semi-circles around the Admin Bldg.  We will do the following at each Cone:

  • Cone 1.  Do 20 Squat Jumps.  Then, Bernie Sanders to Cone 2.
  • Cone 2.  Do 20 Merkins. Then, Skip to Cone 3.
  • Cone 3.  Do 20 Big Boy Sit-ups.  Then, Bear Crawl to Cone 4.
  • Cone 4.  Do 20 Star Jumps.  Then, Sprint to Cone 5.
  • Cone 5.  Do 20 Squats.  Then Lunge to Cone 6.
  • Cone 6.  Do 20 Bobby Hurleys.  Then run to Cone 7.
  • Cone 7.  Do 20 Dive Bombers, 30 Calf Raises, 40 LBC’s, 30 Bicycle Kicks, 20 Iron Mikes (2 count), 20 Shoulder Taps (2 Count), Rinse and Repeat.

Mosey to main roadway and approach Lyon’s Bend Gate.  Turn left on little road that is close to Power Bldg.  We will do split into teams of two and do Doras.  While partner runs to end of roadway, does one burpee and runs back the other partner does exercise.  Each team will complete the following exercises:

  • 100 Merkins
  • 100 Big Boy Sit-ups
  • 100 American Hammers (2 count)
  • 300 Baby Crunches

Mosey to Area 51.  Then, we will run up hill to roadway where it turns toward Admin Bldg.  First arriving do Baby Crunches until everyone is there.

Mosey to Bat Feeder. Line up on street and sprint back to parking lot. Then go to AO.

MARY:
20 Flutter Kicks
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
14 men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

James 1:17
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

For those of you who read the bible, have you noticed how many lines, particularly in the Psalms, are repeated again and again.  A fellow in my church, Britton Sharp, who does quite a bit of religious study, informed me that one reason why followers often repeated lines was that they felt they should repeat it until they believed it.  They recognized that humans, unlike God, are fickle creatures, subject to whim and inconsistency.  We may believe something one moment and change the next day.  For us humans, our beliefs, our faith, our love is subject to change.  This can particularly happen during difficult times.

Almost every parent has heard their children say at some time in their life, “I hate you.”  Good parents know that is not the case.  Their child may be upset and angry at them.  In that moment they may hate their parents.  But deep down they still love them.  They still need them.  And, over time, when they have had time to cool off or when things settle down, their faith and belief in their parent is restored.

As a therapist, I have often seen spouses say, “I no longer love my wife” or “I no longer love my husband.”  In some cases that is true.  But in most cases, if that very spouse whom they say they no longer love were to leave them, they would go nuts.  They would ache and yearn for the spouse to come back.

I am a Christian.  But my faith in God, unfortunately, can vary.  This is true for all Christians.  Look at Christ’s disciples.  When Christ was taken to be executed, all of his disciples ran, they lost faith.  Even Peter, who said he would never turn against Christ, denied him three times when he was being hung on the cross.  Knowing that our beliefs are subject to change, knowing the fickle creatures we are, I think it is a good idea to repeat verses again and again.  On some days we will believe them more than others.

I encourage you, this week, to find a bible verse and commit it to memory.  Say it again and again during your days of the week.  A bible verse I want to repeat this week is from Psalm 121:

 From where does my help come?
 My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.

My belief in that verse will likely vary during the week.  But, the idea is to repeat it until I believe it.

MOLESKIN:
Prayer for Junk’s wife who is going for check up one year after cancer treatment. Prayer of praise for Emoji getting his CPA license today and for Pele who was able to workout today after injuring his knee on Monday at softball.

Where you’re supposed to be

THE SCENE: Beautiful, a tad warm, plentiful sunshine, low 80s, no breeze
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Check, with special focus on our FNG, Chris, who is a mentee of Tank’s.
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Motivators (Q butchered these, so we moved on after 6)
  • 7 BAC Forward, Backward  (4 ct, IC)
  • 7 Windmills (4 ct, IC)
  • 7 Rockettes (4 ct, IC)
  • 7 Tempo Merkins
  • 7 Cherry Pickers (4 ct, IC)

We established (not easily, mind you…) that 7 squared = 49. Apropos, as this was a 49th Bday Q, no?
THA-THANG:

MOSEY down to gavel circle across from Area 51 :

  • Birthday Sea Biscuit!
    • ROUND 1: Run a lap, 49 Merkins
    • ROUND 2: Run TWO laps, 49 BBS
    • ROUND 3: Run THREE laps, 49 SSH
    • ROUND 4: Run TWO laps, 49 Squats
    • ROUND 5: Run ONE lap, 49 Seal Claps

Mosey to Big Tree near Pickett’s charge.  Here there be Dragons!!

  • Welsh Dragon (7 count ascending).  Tclaps to F6 who did it without stopping to rest! (Q rested a bunch of times…)

MOSEY to Bottom of Pickett’s Charge.  49s! Do 4 reps of the exercise at the bottom of each of the three hill tiers, and 9 at the top.  The exercises are:

  • 4 Jump Squats, Run up first level, 9 more Jump Squats
  • 4 Lunges (2-ct), Run up second level, 9 more Lunges
  • 4 Burpees, Run up to wall at Coliseum, 9 more Burpees.

MOSEY to AO

MARY:
No time
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
15 strong.  Welcome FNG Iron Mike, real name Chris, an 11-year old mentee of Tank’s.  He wants to play middle linebacker in football, so we named him Iron Mike, with his approval.  Iron Mike and After Party not tagged.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I recently read the Language of God by Francis Collins, a physician and scientist who spearheaded the Human Genome Project.  He is currently the director of the National Institutes of Health.  The book discusses his struggles as a scientist to accept God, given his rigorous training in the Scientific Method, and his reluctance, at least early on in his life, to be able to rationalize a spiritual Father without being able to identify any actual evidence that He exists.  I’ll touch on some of the revelations and evidence that he lays out that builds his case for the existence of God in another Word, but I wanted to highlight one portion of the book today, because it seems timely.  Dr. Collins volunteered to go on a mission trip to a hospital in a small, impoverished village in Nigeria one summer, and in the book he admits that at the time he had some illusions of being sort of a Savior figure for the people there.  Here he was, a highly educated physician from America, coming to save the day for these poor villagers. But those illusions were quickly dashed.  He became frustrated that most of the illnesses he was called to treat were highly preventable with just some simple sanitary and medical standards.  The shortcomings of the facility where he worked were appalling… there weren’t enough hospital beds, X-ray and other basic hospital resources were lacking, etc.  Frustrated, disillusioned, and overwhelmed, Dr. Collins was losing faith that his efforts could ever make a difference.  And then a young farmer came in with an illness that at first appeared to be tuberculosis, but further testing revealed that he had fluid build-up in the pericardial sac around his heart.  The only cure was to draw out that fluid with a syringe.  In a modern hospital, this would be easily done by a computer guiding the needle.  But here in this hospital, Dr. Collins was forced to do it manually.  The man would die otherwise.  But it was terribly risky. Dr. Collins put the syringe into the man’s sternum, and was able to draw off the liquid without piercing the heart.  The farmer recovered, however, his long-term prognosis was still poor.  A few days later, he came across the farmer again, who said, “I get the sense you are wondering why you came here.”  Dr. Collins was shocked that the farmer had seen so clearly how he was feeling.  “You came here for one reason,” the farmer continued. “You came here for me.”  This was an epiphany for Dr. Collins.  He wasn’t there to be the great white doctor, saving an entire village.  He was there for that man.   As he puts it in his book, “We are each called to reach out to others.  On rare occasions, that can happen on a grandiose scale.  But most of the time, it happens with simple acts of kindness of one person to another.  Those are the events that really matter.”

As Steam said recently in a Word, You are exactly where you are supposed to be.

As another brother who is acting as friend and counselor to some people close to him recently said to me, “I’m exactly where I need to be”.

Maybe those simple acts of kindness will be so much more meaningful to others than you think.  Maybe your belonging to F3 is part of it.  Maybe that meal you deliver to Waxjob’s family will mean more to them than you can imagine.  Maybe the blood you donate on Friday will save someone’s life.  Maybe the Word you deliver at your Q will inspire someone to reach out to someone in need. Look for those opportunities, and then grasp them, even if they seem trivial.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for F6 and his cousin, who is expected to deliver on Wednesday (update that the delivery was successful, and Baby Jasmine and mother are doing well). Prayers for Jetlag and his family.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Blood Drive Friday at Asylum, Hardship hill this Saturday!!

Big Shoes to Fill

THE SCENE: HOT! 90 degrees, mostly sunny, but a slightly coolish breeze kept it from being unbearable.  Pele is going to melt this summer…!
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Check!
WARM-O-RAMA:

– 20 SSH (4ct, IC)

– 20 Moroccan Nightclubs (4 ct, IC)

– 10 Windmills (4 ct, IC)

– Leg/hamstring stretches, left leg over right, then reverse.

– 10 Plank Jacks (4 ct, IC)

THA-THANG:

Warm up Mosey around Admin building.  Picked up Pusher on the way back.

  • EVEREST SUMMIT PYRAMID: Do the exercise, then run up Summit each time. Wait at the top, come down as a group.  Cheer on your fellow PAX!
  • Exercises will be the following (all single count, 15 sec count in between rounds)
    • 20 Iron Mikes
    • 20 Iron Mikes, 20 Jump Squats
    • 20 Iron Mikes, 20 Jump Squats, 20 Merkins
    • 20 Jump Squats, 20 Merkins
    • 20 Merkins
  • MOSEY to grassy area near Roadshow Run. Three cones will be laid out for a BEARMUDA TRIANGLE!
    • Bear crawl to first cone, 1 Burpee, second cone, 2 Burpees, third cone, 3 Burpees.
    • Rinse and repeat x2 (only one Burpee per cone on the second round).
  • MOSEY to Intersection of Trail and Road
    • 20 American Hammers
  • MOSEY to stop sign at northeast corner of Admin building drive.
  • DORAS: Partner 1 Bernie Sanders to end of Guard Rail, then runs to tree, 1 Burpee, then runs back. Partner does the following:
    • 100 Gas Pumps / 100 Pickle Pounders / 100 Froggy Jumps
  • AYG to AO.

MARY:
Random assorted mix of core exercises.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
10 men, no FNGs. Lilydipper and Jinxy met us for the Board Meeting

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

As many of you know, Lilydipper stepped down as our AOQ last week.  He’ll be out for a while because of his hip, and there needs to be someone who’s here at the AO on a pretty regular basis, so he and the leadership team asked me if I’d take on the role.  At first, I was reluctant. As I told them, Lilydipper is the one who first introduced me to F3 and the Fake Gloom PAX, and is one of my closest friends and mentors in the world, and I he’s our AOQ, simple as that.  But, as with the Nan’taan position, it’s a good thing to transition in fresh blood on a regular basis and give more people a chance to take on leadership roles. So I accepted.  But the first thing I want to do is for us all to convey our deep appreciation to Lilydipper.  I wouldn’t have come to my first F3 without his introduction to what it was all about, and after that horror show, I damn sure wouldn’t have come to my second one without his encouragement.

So you Fake Gloomers are stuck with me for a bit.  It’s a pretty hands-off position.  I’ll make sure the Q calendar gets filled up, let everyone know about general stuff going on, but I do want to re-emphasize a few things that I would like us to focus on a bit more going forward.

  1. Community Service: We are here not only to work out, but to become better leaders, and to be a leader you first have to be a servant.  I ask each of you to evaluate how you can better serve your community, families, and churches.  Leaders must lead by example, and by actively participating in helping others, you take that first huge step.
  2. Cheerleaders for each other: We need to be cheerleaders for each other, as well. One of our biggest resources and source of strength and encouragement is each other.  Let’s continue to verbally encourage the man to your left and right during workouts. I know if I hear a “Way to go, Pele!”, or a “Finish it off, don’t quit!” from one of you Bozos it really encourages me, gives me a second wind.  Fist bumps and high fives, are back on the menu, too, now that COVID is relaxing its grip.  Help each other get through the workouts, especially now that the summer heat is upon us.  And this goes for stuff going on OUTSIDE the AO, too.  Personal issues, just a simple question about well-being, etc. can go a long way.
  3. Re-commitment to the values of F3. For some of us that have been in this awhile, there’s a tendency to take it for granted.  To just show up, get in a little exercise, maybe have a cold beverage at the Board Meeting.  But I’m going to try to re-commit myself to the basics again, and I hope you join me.
    1. Form. Not cutting corners. Especially when we’re tired.
    2. Positivity. Open to all men, all religions. F3 is apolitical.  We hear enough of that stuff on the news or in other facets of our lives.  Let’s keep that out of our community.
    3. As Crawdad says, show up, but SHOW UP ON TIME! Let’s recommit to being here by 5:45 pm. We often seem to double our numbers from the time the disclaimer begins to when we mosey, with a few stragglers arriving even later. Being on time shows a commitment and respect for the PAX.

In short, I want us to be the leaders in Knoxville in the way we work out, the way we support our communities, and the way we commit to a common cause of self-betterment through service. I’ve been proud as heck of our contributions to service drives, F3 Knoxville events, and our commitment to embracing the Suck.  But we can always be better.  There is more work to be done.  Let’s GO.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Lily’s wife, who is undergoing a heart test on Thursday.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Big Ball convergence cancelled, sign up for Dog Pound CSAUP ASAP!

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.