F3 Knoxville

Tag: Drum Major

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!

Step Up

THE SCENE: High 40s and sunny
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
15th day of the month, 135th day of the year – 230 days left in 2021 to make it what you want it to be

SSH, windmills, tempo squats, little baby arm circles forward, little baby arm circles backward, some Michael Phelps, a little bit of this and a little bit of that (x2), and tempo merkins – 15 reps of each (4 count where appropriate).

Pele wanted to do some cherry pickers, but I don’t like cherry pickers so we moseyed instead.  For once, Crawdad agreed with me.

THA-THANG:

Mosey to the bottom of Everest

15 more SSHs (4 ct)

Run up Everest to the top of the Summit

15 more SSHs (4 ct)

Mosey to the Coliseum

Divide up into two teams

Welch Dragons to 10 with one team going one way and the other team going the other way – if you don’t know what a Welch Dragon is, then look it up on the F3 Exicon or ask someone who has done it, he will remember

Meet back in the center for some Hello Flutter Cutters (one 4-ct Hello Dolly, one 4-ct Flutter Kick, one 4-ct Box Cutter – together back-to-back-to-back for one rep) while waiting on the six or at least 15

Ghost-man Baseball

Using the circle of the Coliseum, Team 1 runs to first base, does 15 reps of the exercise, and returns home.  Team 2 does a core exercise of its choice for the entire time it is waiting for Team 1 to return.  Team 1 does a core exercise of its choice while Team 2 runs to first base, does 15 reps of the exercise, and then runs back.  Repeat this process for the other bases but stop at each base on the way and do the exercise there before advancing to the next base (because you have to touch the bag before advancing in baseball) but do not do the exercises at each base on the way back (but do run back the way you came).  For the home run, do not run back, stay at home to do 15 reps of those exercises and then do a core exercise of the team’s choice while the other team finishes its home-run trot.

First Base – Merkins

Second Base – Squats

Third Base – Carolina Dry Docks

Home Run – Burpees

15 SSHs (4 ct)

Mosey to Crawdad’s Yoga Studio

15 SSHs (4 ct)

Hokey Pokeys (merkins with one leg in the air) x 15 each leg

25 SSHs (4 ct)

Mosey to the base of Baby Cardiac

35 SSHs (4 ct) – total of 135 for the entire workout

All you got sprint up Baby Cardiac to the AO

MARY:
Hold a plank for one minute to time

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
18 HIMs

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

It’s time to step up.  Lillydipper usually picks up 2 Qs a month on average, but he has been out with a hip problem and will be out for a while.  It’s going to take all of us to fill that void.  So, it’s time to step up.  Sign up for Qs.  If you’ve not Qed in a while, then it’s time to sign up.  If you’ve never Qed before, then it’s definitely time to sign up.  It’s not hard.  Just pick an exercise you don’t like to do and do it twice as many times as you want to do it.  The PAX will support you.  The Q doesn’t have to be perfect.  It just needs to be.  And, a Q needs to be on the website calendar days in advance so that any sad clowns will know that F3 will be there for them on Saturday morning (remember, the sad clowns don’t have access to Slack).  Step up and sign up.  Do it for your brothers.  Do it for Lilly.  We can’t let this fade in his absence or fall only on a few of us.  He will undoubtedly be back, hopefully sooner rather than later, but we need to make sure that his legacy is still here waiting on him.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers against racism, for the sick and shut in, for the journeys of Cheatsheet, his daughter, and all the F3 brothers, for Lillydipper, for Jinxy, for Doubtfire, for Convoy and his family, and for all of the unspoken prayers on our hearts and minds.  Prayers for the courage in each of us to step up in F3, in our families, and in our communities.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
June 12th – Convergence at Big Ball followed by a work day at Wesley House

July 24th – CSAUP at Dog Pound (was last year’s CSAUP not enough?)

Don’t Widen the Plate!

THE SCENE: Soooo beautiful! Upper 60s, popcorn clouds, nice amount of sunshine.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Check


WARM-O-RAMA:

-30 Split Jacks (4-ct), 15 each leg, in cadence

– 10 Cherry Pickers (4-ct), in cadence

– 10 Rockettes (4-ct), in cadence

– 5 PCMBs, OYO

– 10 Grady Corns (4-ct), in cadence

THA-THANG:

PE EXAM (Hat tip, Erector)

MOSEY to STOP SIGN SOUTH OF ADMIN BUILDING, in a nice shady spot in the grass.

P – 10 Prisoner Cell Merkin Burpees aka PCMBs.  Basically, a burpee with 3 merkins and pulling each knee to your chest between the merkins (see F3 Exicon).

Near same tree, up to nearest hill and back…

E – Elevens – squats at the bottom and BBS at the top.

MOSEY across street to curved road that leads to gravel parking lot.

E – Escalator – BEAR CRAWLING! Fives cones: 1) 10 Burpees, 2) 20 Squat Jumps 3) 30 Imperial Walkers, 4) 40 SSH, 50 lunge-walks back to start.

MOSEY to field below Coliseum

**WE INTERRUPT THE PE EXAM DUE TO THE INVASION OF A KRAKEN!**

KRAKEN:` 6 cones in a circle, with Ab exercises in blue, and upper body exercises in red.  Do the blue exercise, then run around clockwise plus one cone and do the next exercise.  Rinse and repeat until back and starting point.  Then do the same thing, in the opposite direction, doing the red exercises.  * Didn’t have enough time, so we just did one circuit, alternating between blue and red exercises at each cone.

  • Blue exercises:
  1. 20 BBS
  2. 20 Gas Pumps
  3. 20 Box Cutters
  4. 20 LBCs
  5. 20 Bicycle kicks (4-ct)
  6. 20 American Hammers (4-ct)
  • Red exercises:
  1. 20 Merkins
  2. 20 Carolina Dry Docks
  3. 20 Shoulder Taps (both shoulders =1)
  4. 20 Diamond Merkins
  5. 20 Bottle Openers
  6. 20 Wide Merkins

MOSEY to small parking lot below Coliseum

X –Xs and Os , on Q’s call

MOSEY to Coliseum (… which had food trucks on it, and was being used by some people, so we went to the roundabout and did “A” there, substituting Bobby Hurleys for Bench Jumps)

A – Aiken legs – Done in succession with no rest — 20 Squats, 20 Box Jumps, 20 Lunges (10 each leg), 20 Split Jacks (10 each leg forward).

RINSE AND REPEAT

JAIL BREAK back to AO for the last letter.

M – Mary

MARY:
Captain Thors
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 dudes
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

An old coach named John Scolinos, who had begun coaching in the 1940s, once spoke at a Baseball coaching conference in Nashville, Tennesse in the 1960s. His talk was called, 17 INCHES.

He walked in with a home plate hung around his neck.

He said, “You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck.

“Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?”

After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches?”

“That’s right,” he said. “How about in Babe Ruth’s day?”

Another long pause. “Seventeen inches?” a guess from another reluctant coach.

He repeated the same question for high school coaches.  Minor league coaches.  And those who had any experience in the big leagues.  The answer was always the same.  17 inches.  “That’s right,” he said.  “And what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?” Pause. “The press calls him a bum and they send him down to the minors!”

“What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. If you can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.’”

Pause. “Coaches… what do we do when your best player shows up late to practice? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate? ”

“What do we do when our kids misbehave, break the rules, and tell lies?  Do we widen home plate?”

“What do we do when our politicians lie to us, fail to live up to the moral standards that we expect out of our elected leaders, and stop doing what’s best for us and the country?  Do we widen home plate and say, “Well, that’s ok, the other side does it too”.  Or do we hold them to their actions, even if we consider ourselves in the same party as them?

We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We just widen the plate!”

“If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos concluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: “If we fail to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; We have dark days ahead!.”

Coaches, keep your players—no matter how good they are—your own children, your government, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches.  Don’t widen the plate.”

MOLESKIN:
Jinxy and Lilydipper joined us for the Board Meeting!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Kickball tournament this weekend.

Saturday Morning BOGO

Clear, cool, and Qless was the forecast Friday afternoon. In a perfect world, that Q would have belonged to Lilydipper, but an uncooperative hip has other ideas. Crawdad won’t stand for an open Saturday Q. He made some decisions. He placed some calls. Continue reading if you’d like the details, but the summary is that it takes two men to do what one Lily does.
WARM-O-RAMA:
We took em to 100. Tie Fighters, The Junk Science, some stretching, and 10 burpees for Snitch, who I’ve never seen come in late, ever, so he must have had some serious business to do this morning. I didn’t ask but I’m betting Cheet Sheet was similarly relieved when he arrived.
THA-THANG:
The first part of this BOGO was to discover that our Non Privately Owned Naturally Occurring Mineral Formations (NOPO-NOMIFs) were just laying there beneath the trees, as nature presumably left them. Partner AMRAPs as some stragglers caught up, curls, presses, rows, more curls. All I know is that a lot of you have way more reps in you than I do.

Catch Me If You Can w/5 burpees up baby Everest and down the Dragon. Deposit the NOPOs and begin the second part of the BOGO.

We built pyramids on the Cloud, with Crawdad bringing out his famous Louisiana Whistle. Box Jumps, Irkins, Dips, Derkins, Merkins. Unless you cut your reps, your arms were jelly.

Recovering on our feet, we made our way to the dustbowl and some Doras. 200 reps and then another 100 of whatever you wanted.

Back to AO for Mary AND a visit to the ATM.

Welcome Scott W, Billy Goat!

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Your F3 friends are a deep and wide pool of help and challenge. You’d be nuts not to lean on them when you need to. It would be a waste to not be challenged by them. You’d be foolish not to step in and try to lead.

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.