F3 Knoxville

Tag: Duggar

St. Francis and the Birds

THE SCENE: Partly Cloudy Skies, about 92 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Plank Jacks, 10 Squat Jumps, 5 Burpees, 10 Twisties, 10 Windmill, 10 Tempo Merkins, Michael Phelps
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the stop sign by the Northeastern Corner of the Admin. Bldg.  We will stop under the shade of the large tree to do 20 Hello Dollies.

Mosey to the perimeter trail and take it as if going to the bottom of Mt. Everest.  We will stop, however, in the shade by Lyon’s Bend to do 20 American Hammers.

Next, we will run up Roadshow Run, stopping to do Ten Calf Raises at each set of the three sets of stairs and 3 Burpees above each set of stairs on up to the top.  At the top, we will do 20 Flutter Kicks and 25 Baby Crunches.

Mosey past the Space Needle to the steps at the Admin Bldg.  There will be a water cooler and cups to stop for one minute to have cold water.

Mosey to the sidewalk that goes underneath the shade to the stop sign at the Northeastern Corner of the Admin Bldg.  There will be 6 cones set up along the sidewalk and along the roadway that comes back to the Coliseum.  We will run in a clockwise motion down the sidewalk and back up the road, stopping at each cone to do 10 Merkins.

Rinse and Repeat with 10 Big-Boy Sit-ups at each cone.  Rinse and repeat with 5 Hand Release Merkins.  Rinse and repeat with 10 Star Jumps.

Mosey back to steps of the Admin Bldg for another one minute drink of water.

Next, we will run in a counterclockwise circle around the loop stopping at each of the following locations to do the following exercises:

  • 12 o’clock:  20 Bench Dips at the steps of the Admin Bldg.
  • 9 o’clock:  20 Carolina Dry Docks
  • 3 o’clock:  20 Box Cutters

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
Boat Canoe.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

God, Nature, St. Francis and the Birds

St Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic Friar, deacon and mystic.  He founded the Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of St. Clare, the Third Order of St. Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land. He was canonized patron saint of Italy by Pope Gregory IX.  He is one of the most venerated religious figures in Christianity.  He was known to be a man of grace and a great lover of God’s creation.  He loved animals.  Legend has it that birds would fly up to him and alight on his shoulder.  On one journey he took with fellow monks, it was told that he stopped to preach to his sisters the birds.  Legend has it the birds became still and silent while he preached.

An Irish Poet, Michael Longley, wrote the following poem about St. Francis which is a beautiful depiction of the patron saint marveling on God’s creation and speaking to birds.  By the way, Michael Longley is not a Christian although he is obviously an admirer of St. Francis.

St. Francis to the Birds by Michael Longley

And, summing up, I think of when
With cloud and cloudburst you confer,
By God’s sheer genius lifted there,
Lighthearted starling, nervous wren.
It is perfection you rehearse –
God placed the limpet on a rock,
He dressed the primrose in its frock upside down with its leg showing
And closed the chestnut in its purse:
Creating one more precedent,
With no less forethought, no less care
He gave you feathers and the air
To migrate to his best intent.
To useful angles well aligned,
At proper heights compelled to tilt,
Across kind landscapes yearly spilt –
Birds, you are always on his mind.
Quick emblems of his long estate,
It’s good to have you overhead
Who understand when all is said,
When all is done, and it is late.
May my sermon, like your customs,
Reach suddenly beyond dispute –
Oh, birds entire and absolute,
Last birds above our broken homes.

Thank you God, for your creation.  Thank you for the birds in the sky that sing to us each day.  Help us to protect the blessings you have bestowed upon us.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Doubtfire who has an ailing back – prayers that he heals quickly; prayers for Dawg Paddle whose wife has told him that he wants to divorce him – prayers for her as well.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
We will have a F3 Knoxville 2nd F gathering after our Asylum PM workout this Thursday.  We will meet at Union Jacks.

FTWS

F3 Q: 7.5.22

Asylum PM

5:45-6:30

“FTWS” = Five Things With Steam

[ The Scene ]

  • 90s
  • Hot
  • Steamy

[ Welcome/Disclaimer ]

  • Welcome to F3: Fitness – Fellowship – Faith
  • My name is Steam and I’ll be your Q this morning
  • A few things before we begin:
    • I’m not a professional
    • You’re here on your own belief
    • You know your injuries if you have any so if you need to modify anything we do today feel free to do so, but push yourselves and the men around you. They deserve it and so do you.
  • FNGs?

[ Warm o Rama ]

  • SSH (10×4)
    • Run down to the tree and back
  • Merkins (10×4)
    • Run down to the tree and back
  • Lunges (10×4)
    • Run down to the tree and back
  • Gas Pedals (10×4)
    • Run down to the tree and back
  • Imperial Walkers (10×4)
    • Run down to the tree and back

[ The Thang ]

— 5 Things, 5 Places —

(Mosey to the top of theColiseum)

[1] 5 Things, Part 1

  • Do one of the 5 things (one at a time) and then run up the space needle and back
  • Rinse and repeat until you complete all 5
  • 5 reps, everything on a 4 count
  • Recover at the rope when done

(Mosey to the tree to the left (towards Haslam Rock)

[2] 5 Things, Part 2

  • Do one of the 5 things, (one at a time) then run to the wall and do another of the 5 things
  • Ping pong style
  • 10 reps, everything on a 4 count
  • Recover at the tree when done

(Mosey to the corner of the road across from Haslam Rock)

[3] 5 Things, Part 3

  • Do one of the 5 things (one at a time), then run down to the large tree down there and do the same thing #2ForTuesday
  • Run back up to this tree and rinse and repeat with the next exercise of the 5 things
  • 15 reps, everything on a 1 count
  • Recover at this tree

(Mosey back up to the top of the coliseum)

[4] 5 Things, Part 4

  • Do 10 reps of one the 5 things (one at a time), then run down to the stairs and do the other 10 reps
  • Run back up here and pick back up with the next exercise
  • 20 reps total, all on a 1 count
  • Recover up here when you’re done

(Mosey to the AO)

[5] 5 Things, Part 5

  • Execute one of the 5 things at each cone
  • 25 reps, all on a 1 count
  • When you finish the last cone, mosey back to the AO

[ Mary ]

SWS — Stretching With Steam

[ COT ]

  • # off — 15
  • Name o Rama
  • FNGs — 0
  • BOM — 5 Things, 15 Minutes, 5 Months
  • 3 points
  • Last Tuesday I shared some of the things I’ve struggled with so far this year.
  • Today during the workout we did the same 5 things over and over, and just increased the intensity a little.

Here’s point #1 — pick 5 things you’ve done over and over so far this year, and re-evaluate.

Here’s Point #2 — These are 5 things that I am going to be focusing in on for the rest of the year and would like to invite you into as well. Maybe some of these will apply to you and maybe some won’t and that’s okay, you can modify as needed.

(1) Pray

  • Go there, faster

(2) Read a chapter a day

  • Doesn’t matter what it is

(3) Write down something you learned

  • Write it down, jot it down in your notes app or on your phone

(4) Intentional silence

  • This year’s been loud so far. Not in a negative way necessarily, but in a lot going on kind of way

(5) HABITs

  • Honesty (It requires honesty)
  • Availability (Are you available?)
  • Becoming (The Becoming process)
  • Intentional (Purposeful)
  • Time (Non-renewable resource)

Here’s Point #3 — 15 minutes is about 1% of your day

  • Out of the 5, what are your core 3 for the rest of the year, that you can dedicate 1% of your day to
  • Or choose your own (5 total —> 3 daily, 2 weekly)

Clear is Kind, Unclear is Unkind

THE SCENE: 40 degrees and beautiful beat down weather
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER done
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, rockettes, cherry pickers, runners stretch, this and this, and twisties just for Lillydipper
THA-THANG:

  • Battle Buddy – one runs the Dragon, other CMU front raise, side rotations, overhead press
  • Battle Buddy – one runs and does flutter squats, or does ankle biters and butterfly sit-ups
  • Battle Buddy – one runs and does CMU rows, dead-lifts, curls, and rows, the other does bear crawl should taps and kneel ups

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
12

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Being very non-confrontational by nature, Candor has been a challenge for me. Q Source 3.8 says about Candor “While there are many Truths, only the hard ones require Candor.  The easy Truths take care of themselves.  Whether a Truth is hard or easy depends upon the effect it has on the person hearing it.  If it has no impact or brings them Happiness, it is an easy Truth.  Easy Truths do not require character to tell because there is no particular Virtue in being the bearer of good news. Hard Truths are different, because hearing them, results in Pain and Disruption.”

I also justified it to myself that sparing that Pain and Disruption was a good thing for the other person, until reading the book “Radical Candor” by Kim Scott.  She describes Candor as a combination of 1) caring personally for the individual you’re interacting with and 2) challenging directly the matter at hand.  She describes those who care a lot, but don’t willing to challenge directly, as demonstrating “Ruinous Empathy”.

RUINOUS EMPATHY.

Especially for the workplace…

“It’s simple but transformative.  Clear is kind.  Unclear is unkind.  Not getting clear with a colleague about your expectations because it feels too hard, yet holding them accountable, or blaming them for not delivering is unkind.” ~Brene Brown

ANNOUNCEMENTS:  CSAUP Feb 26

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!!

Heat Wave

THE SCENE: Sunny, HOTt, humid… typical E TN summer day.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Check
WARM-O-RAMA:

-Motivators (5 count, descending)

– 10 Plank  Jacks (4-ct, IC)

– 15 Moroccan Night Clubs (4-ct, IC)

– 15 Overhead Seal Claps (4-ct, IC)

– 10 Steve Earls (4-ct, IC)

– Little of this and that

THA-THANG:

MOSEY to the Bowl area by the Bermuda Triangle.

  • JINXY’S FOUR AND A QUARTER. Start at bottom of hill, run to top of slope and do 25 reps of an exercise, return to starting position.  R&R 4 times, totaling 100 of the exercise.
    • Round 1: Carolina Dry Docks
    • Round 2: LBCs (single count)
    • Round 3: Lunges (single count)

MOSEY to Grassy Area by Base of Everest.

Totem Pole.  Start at 10, do all the exercises, then run to the bench by the road (or to Summit, dealer’s choice), do 10 SSH, and return. Then start at 9, etc.

  • 10 Burpees
  • 9 Mountain Climbers (4-ct)
  • 8 Diamond Merkins
  • 7 Box Cutters
  • 6 American Hammers (4-ct)
  • 5 Imperial Squat Walkers (4-ct)
  • 4 Hand Release Merkins
  • 3 Prisoner Get Ups
  • 2 Squats
  • 1 Star Gazers (10 seconds).  Rabbits R&R

We got about 75% of the way through this.

Go up Summit twice, once must be Bernie.  Do 25 MERKINS, 25 BBS, 25 SQUATS, and 25 IMPERIAL WALKERS somewhere along the way.  Rabbits rinse and repeat the exercises until 6 catches up.

MOSEY TO AO.

MARY:
Ran out of time.  Did some light stretching.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
22 Strong
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Special WORD by Lilydipper, who has been out with an injury for a few months.  Thought it would be great to have him address the PAX as he recovers from hip surgery.  Here are his words:

Gents, I haven’t been able to work out with you guys since mid-March.  Here we are in August, 5 months later.  Your fellowship lifts me up.  Thank goodness I have been able to come to board meetings.  I get to share a beer with you, see my brothers, commune with you.  Man, I need that fellowship.  I know Jinxy has needed it as well and that is why he was hobbling on crutches to the board meetings before he healed enough to join you guys in workouts.  The well-wishes you shared with us and the prayers you prayed for us have meant more that I think either one of us can say.

But what I want to share with you today is the importance of the workout.  I have been thankful to have fellowship with you brothers at board meetings and Coffeeteria.  Yet, I can’t wait to get back to the workouts.  Of course the workout makes us more physically fit.  I must admit that I have gained about ten pounds since mid-March.  But it is not physical fitness that I want to talk about.  It’s the bond created by going through the gloom, the heat, the sweat, the grime, the gasps for breath, the spilling or merlot, the dizziness, the pain, the questioning of self, the suffering through hell with one’s brothers – that is what I want to talk about.

Jetlag and I were conversing about Coffeeteria the other day.  Both of us agreed that part of what makes it so special is the suffering that precedes it.  Somehow that coffee and bagel just tastes better when you have made it through the torture with your brothers. As Crawdad says, “It’s the reward, baby!”   And, believe me, an ice cold beer at the Board Meeting certainly tastes better after suffering through the heat of the Fake Gloom.

Still, what makes the workout even more special is being able to look at your brother and think, “man we have been through this together.”  Each man in F3 has a respect for the other because we know what the suffering is like.  Yeah, Swimmies may run around the Caribbean three times faster than me.  He respects that pain and he knows I am feeling it too.  We each know that we are pushing to get better.  He respects this old man because I am willing to go through the same ring of pain that he is.  I love that about F3.  I also love how we encourage each other.  Doubtfire is one of the best at doing this. “Hang in there, Lily, you got this.  I’ll run with you, c’mon, let’s get over that hill.”  We cheer for each other, pull each other through.  “Leave No Man Behind.”

Bros, I appreciate you allowing me to join you for fellowship after the workouts.  I see you guys drenched and grass-stained after a difficult beat-down and I almost feel guilty for showing up in my dry clothes.  Just know that when I am fully healed (which the surgeon says should be about mid-October) I will be glad to hook shields with you and battle beside you once more.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Guppy’s sister, who is expecting.  UPDATE, shortly after the workout, she delivered a healthy baby daughter!  Prayers for those affected by the flooding in Tennessee.  Also, we presented Lilydipper with a ruck sack/plate/patch gift to help him with his recovery.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Iron Pax coming up, food drive continuing for a few weeks, Hardship Hill obstacle construction help needed (contact Sparkler).