F3 Knoxville

Tag: Goober

Perspective

THE SCENE: 83° Sunny and Breezy .
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
You are here on own volition. Please abide by the Covid 19 Phase One Guidelines

WARM-O-RAMA:
Rockets x 15, Imperial Walker x 20, High Knees 3 Burpees x 4, Tempo Merkins x 10, Tempo BBS x 10…Mosey to Coliseum

 

THA-THANG:
The Half Biscuit- 5 Burpees 10 Merkins 15 Squats run 1/2 lap REPEATexercises, 1 Lap REPEAT Ex, 2 Laps Repeat Ex, 1 Lap Repeat, 1/2 Lap Repeat

Mosey to field beside The Dragon- Ab Kraken with Flutters, Hello Dolly, Box Cutters, super Mans, BBS, LBCs, Dead Bug, V-UPS

Route 66 with Dive Bombers up The Dragon

Mosey Back to AO

MARY:
No Time for Mary
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Use the TAGS on right-side to record PAX (BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOURSELF) in attendance. Be sure to select the AO in CATEGORY above TAGS and then delete these notes!
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900. When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20. Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million. When you’re 29, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy. When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet. When you’re 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war and the Holocaust kills six million. At 52, the Korean War starts and five million perish. At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn’t end for many years. Four million people die in that conflict. Approaching your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening. As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that? A kid in 1985 didn’t think their 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great grandparents) survived through everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing art. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through all of this. In the history of the world, there has never been a storm that lasted. This too, shall pass.

Dave Proberts

MOLESKIN:
We have F3 to get thru the trials

Pray for Lily Dipper and Jan
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hike the Smokies this weekend

Rats and Kings

THE SCENE: The rain gods couldn’t figure out what to do.  Intermittent sprinkles, damp, but pretty darn mild! (~60 degrees)
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Welcome to F3, Fitness, Fellowship and Faith. F3 is a free workout program designed to improve fitness, share some camaraderie, and foster male leadership in the community.  I’m Pele and I will be your Q today.  I am not a professional, and I do not know your fitness level or injury history.  Please push yourself, but modify the workout as necessary to avoid making any existing injuries worse.  The goal is to get better together!

Welcome, FNG Shawn, who is a friend of Goober!


WARM-O-RAMA:

  • 20 SSH (4-ct), in cadence
  • 11 Cherry Pickers (4-ct), in cadence
  • High knees 30 sec, butt kickers 30 sec, in place.
  • 10 Steve Earls (4-ct), in cadence
  • 10 Windmills  (4-ct), in cadence
  • Little of this and that

THA-THANG:

MOSEY up Baby Cardiac and veer right towards Cardiac.  Going down Cardiac do Reverse Indian Run.  First in line Bernie Sanders’ back to end of line and yells GO, signaling next PAX to Bernie.  Continue to intersection with trail.

Do “47s” (made up exercise name based on my age.  I’m old… ) up the serpentine trail to the road.

    • Run 4 lights, then do 7 reps of the following 4 exercises: Big Boy Situps (the pavement was very wet… sorry/not sorry), Carolina Dry Docks, Mountain Climbers, and Bobby Hurleys

MOSEY to Pavillion by northern ball fields. More 47s.

    • 7 reps of bench pullups, dips, jump-ups, and decline merkins. RINSE AND REPEAT FOUR TIMES.  The first two sets of reps the Q called on the PAX to lead the cadence.  The second two reps were at your own pace.

MOSEY to parking lot where morning group meets.

CENTURY CLUB: Do 25 reps of four exercises consecutively, without stopping.  Every time you finish a corner, run up baby cardiac and move on to the next corner (counter clockwise) and do the next set of exercises.  One of the trips up the hill (PAX choice; most decided to get it out of the way first) must be a Bernie Sanders.

  • CORNER 1:
    • 25 x MERKINS/CAROLINA DRY DOCKS/DIVE BOMBERS/SHOULDER TAPS (4-ct)
  • CORNER 2:
    • 25 x BBS/AMERICAN HAMMER (4-ct)/LBCs/DEAD BUG (4-ct)
  • CORNER 3 (CMUs):
    • 25 x OVERHEAD PRESS/CURLS/ROWS/SQUATS
  • CORNER 4
    • 25 x ROCKY BALBOA (4-ct)/LUNGES/FROGGIE JUMPS/STAR JUMPS

When finished, run to center of parking lot and do 100 SSHs.

(Spoiler alert… we didn’t finish.  Most PAX got through 3 of the 4 corners.  Q called Recover, then we wrapped up the workout with a final run up baby cardiac together.)
MARY:
No time, and we were too out of breath to call out an exercise anyway.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
10 strong, including one FNG, Shawn, who we named Saguaro based on the fact that he hails from Arizona.  FUN FACT! “Saguaro” can be pronounced with a hard or silent/soft “g”! Who knew??  Goober.  Goober knew.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

As discussed in the book Wild at Heart by John Eldridge, Jesus gave us a simple test for taking the measure of something, when he says in MATTHEW Chapter 7 when he’s warning his disciples about false prophets.  He says, “They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.  By their fruit you will recognize them.  Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?  Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”

I wanted to build on Lillydipper’s Word a few weeks ago about spreading seeds.  What fruit will you bear on this earth?  I’m not talking specifically about children, although they are included in this concept, but what will your legacy be?  Will it spread and multiply? Will it be good?

I’m a biologist and ecologist by training, so I started thinking about seeds.  What kind of seeds are we talking about here?  There are two reproductive strategies commonly found in nature that are known as R and K Strategists.

    • R Strategists (“Rodents”):  Organisms that are “R” strategists produce many seeds (plants) or offspring (animals).  They don’t invest much in their creation, they just fling them out in the world and hope that a few survive (e.g., milkweed, dandelion; rats). Good luck my weak little babies and seeds! Adios!  See you on the other side!
    • K Strategists (“Kings”): Organisms that are “K” strategists produce fewer seeds or offspring that are of higher quality, i.e., more resources are invested in a smaller number in the hopes of improving the survival rate to adulthood.  Plants that are K strategists have seeds with protective coatings and nutrients to help the seed establish and survive (e.g., oaks), while animals produce more complex and better developed offspring, and also spend energy and resources protecting them and nurturing them when they’re young and vulnerable (e.g., whales, humans).

I believe we can try to be BOTH when we “spread our seeds”.  We obviously can’t follow up and develop strong relationships with each and every person we give a smile to or hold the door for throughout the course of our lives.  But these acts of kindness can spread in the world.  And to ensure that the seeds closest to us grow and flourish, we CAN and SHOULD invest more into the seeds of kindness will that we sow with those we are close to, our friends, family, F3 brothers, etc.  The more we invest, the more likely those efforts will be to bear fruit.  Good fruit.  Not bad, ugly, prickly fruit.  Like those weird things you see in the grocery store with spikes on them.  Who eats that??

MOLESKIN:
Congrats to Hooker on the birth of his daughter! Very happy for the proud grandparents, Pinto and Mr. Jinxy.  Prayers that she remains healthy and gains strength (there is an interesting synergy here with the seed/fruit topic in the Word…). Prayers for some long-time employees that Sparkler had to lay off this week due to economic downturns. Appreciation to our FNG, Shawn “Saguaro”, who powered through a tough workout all the way to the end.  Merlot was disgorged. :-/

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Board meeting to discuss Hardship Hill obstacle construction immediately after the workout (the fact that there will be beer there is purely coincidental).  Hardship Hill is May 2.  F3 Convergence at JUCO is March 28, with breakfast and third F to follow.  Wesley House food drive ends this Wednesday.

Steadfast

THE SCENE: Sunny skies, temp in 60’s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side-Straddle Hops; 10 Mountain Climbers; 10 Windmills; 10 Tempo Merkins; 63 Grady Corns
THA-THANG:

Mosey to large parking lot with islands and that is south of northern ball fields.  We will be going counter-clockwise around the parking lot.  There will be four cones around the parking lot.  Exercises will be displayed at each cone.  At each cone will also be instructions of how maneuver to the next cone:

  • Cone 1:  Do 20 Hello Dollies (four count).  Run to Cone 2.
  • Cone 2:  Do 20 Big Boy Sit-ups.  Bernie Sanders to Cone 3.
  • Cone 3:  Do 20 Flutter Kicks (four count).  Run to Cone 4.
  • Cone 4:  Do 20 Bicycle Kicks (four count).  Bernie Sanders to Cone 1.
  • Rinse and Repeat.

Mosey on sidewalk that goes from parking lot to Pavilion at northern ball fields.  We will do 20 Picnic Table Pull-Ups, then 20 Bench Dips, then 15 of each, then ten of each, then 5 of each.  After that we will do the same pattern as above but with Bench Jumps and Decline Merkins.

Mosey to CMU Pile.  Men divide into teams of two.  Each team grabs one CMU and heads to the entrance of the parking lot.  We will be doing Doras.  One partner does exercises with CMU while the other partner Bernie’s up Cardiac Hill to the Green Park Sign.  The partner then runs back down hill.  Partners switch places.  These will be the exercises that each team does with the CMUs:

  • 100 Overhead Presses
  • 100 Curls
  • 100 Rows
  • 100 Squat Thrusts
  • 100 Decline Merkins (feet on CMU)

Return CMUs to pile.

Mosey to AO.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Sixteen men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Psalm 117:1-2 ESV 

Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!

Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

God’s Love is constant.  It is steadfast.  God does not just love us now and then.  It may feel like that sometimes.  Sometimes God may seem very distant to us.  He is beyond those clouds somewhere and we may not feel his presence.  But don’t allow the way you feel at the moment obscure the truth.  His love for us is steadfast.  We may also feel God loves us less when we do wrong.  We may do something that we regret, that hurts us, hurts someone else, or which God would not like.  Certainly God does not like sin.  And, God loves it when we do good.  But God does not love us more because we do good or less because we sin.  His love is powerful and continuous.  The word “steadfast” is used 219 times in the Bible and in over 200 of those times the word is followed by “love.”  If we believe in the words of the Bible then we must believe that God’s love is steadfast.  This should give us comfort.  Because God offers His great love to us freely, even though we are unworthy.  He loves us even when it doesn’t make sense for Him to do so.  So, take that love in.  Breathe it.  That loves is always there and it ain’t going to go away from you.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for coworker of Crispr whose father is paralyzed after scuba diving in Hawaii; for Woodshack and family after death of his father-in-law; for coworker of Squirtle; for help for Steam at a difficult time; for fathers of Hooker (e.g., Pinto) and Iceman and mother of Thunderstruck; for friend of Jenner.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Board meeting!

The Sea Refuses No River

THE SCENE: Windy, temps in 40s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Plank Jack, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Mountain Climbers, 10 Rockettes, Plank Reaches, 7 Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to parking lot by southern ball fields.  We will suicides, running from curb on south end of parking lot to successive lights in the parking lot.  Each time we return to curb we will do 20 Baby Crunches before running to next light.

Mosey to Pavilion by Outdoor Chapel.  We will do Elevens starting with 1 Bench Dip off and 10 Squat Jumps.  After Squat Jumps, each man runs around the Pavilion and back to the bench he started with to do 2 Bench Dips and 9 Squat Jumps.  This pattern continues until each man has done 10 Bench Dips and 1 Squat Jump.

Mosey to Serpentine Sidewalk.  We will run length of sidewalk until it reaches the perimeter trail but will stop to do ten Big Boy Sit-ups every other light.  Those finishing first we sweep all men back.

Mosey to CMU pile.  Divide into teams of three.  Each team grabs three CMUs.  One man carries two CMUs across parking lot to next partner who carries them back to next partner.  On one side of the parking lot men do side-straddle hops while waiting for a partner to return.  On the other side of the parking lot men do curls while waiting for partner to return. Once all partners have carried the CMU to another side, partners will rinse and repeat but do overhead presses as the exercise with the stationary CMU.  When all partners have finished again, we will rinse and repeat one more time but do Rows with the stationary CMU.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Fifteen men and one FNG, Chip Omer, whom we dubbed “Salsa.”

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Where do rivers flow?  To the sea.  My good friend, High-Heels, taught me that our own Tennessee River flows toward Chattanooga, dips into Alabama, heads northwest to the border of Alabama and Mississippi, then, of all things, heads north through Tennessee again to reach the Ohio River at Paducah, Kentucky.  From there, the waters head west to the Mississippi River and south before emptying into the Gulf.  A crazy route but the waters flow to the sea.

As humans, where do our lives naturally flow?  To God.  And, no matter what crazy routes we take, our direction, if we live for what we were created for, should be toward God.  What a beautiful metaphor it is to think of our lives being the rivers that flow to God, who is the Sea.  God created us for this and expects us to journey toward Him, our creator, our Home.

There is a song written by Pete Townsend (yes, the guitar crashing band member and primary song writer for the rock group, the Who) that beautifully depicts this idea of our lives flowing toward God. It was a song written on one of his solo albums.  The song is entitled “The Sea Refuses No River.”

Just as Jesus accepted all humans, whether tax collectors, outlaws, or prostitutes, the Sea, Townsend proclaims, refuses no river.

The sea refuses no river
Whether stinking and rank
Or red from the tank
Whether pure as a spring
There's no damned thing stops this poem.
The sea refuses no river
And this river is homeward flowing.

And it is that idea of God accepting him that helps him, helps the individual human, to live:

There was a fool in a dressing robe
Riding out the twilight hour
Lonely and cold in an empty home
Trying to access his power
But now he's like a stream in flood
Swollen by the storm
He doesn't care if he sheds his blood
Let him be reborn.

The wonderful thing to know is that there is no privilege to the religiously elite here.  The front row of seats is not sealed off to those who live by some code that Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or any type of religious snob claims we must live by,  Jesus informed us of this when he said, “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.:  (Matthew 20:16)

Townsend, recognizing this in his song, is able to celebrate the reborn course of his life toward God:

The sea refuses no river
No pecking code respected for the damned
The sea refuses no river
Whether starving and ill
Or strung on some pill
Just 'cause you own the land
There's no unique hand plugs the dam
The sea refuses no river
And the river is where I am
The river is where I am.

You are on the river.  Take comfort in the direction it flows.  The sea is the end to your journey.  And, the sea will not refuse you.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Iceman’s father, for Pinto, and for Thunderstruck’s mother.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Troubadour Q training at Asylum this Saturday morning, 7 am.

2 For Tuesday feat. Tour de Pavilion

THE SCENE: 55 – 60ish degrees #Amazing

PAX gathering early brought back an old Asylum PM tradition – the ceremonial tossing of a frisbee (or football). There’s something really special about this, it made my heart happy. Grown men, who just got off work, or left their family to come do F3 perhaps, tossing around a frisbee lightheartedly, enjoying The Creator’s magnificent-feeling creation.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Themes: #2ForTuesday, Tour de Pavilion, Quarter Pounder (25th)

[Welcome/Safety/Brief]

  • Welcome to F3: Fitness/Fellowship/Faith
  • My name is Steam and I’m honored to be your Q this evening
  • FNG: Kevin Canfield
  • Couple things before we get started:
    • Contrary to popular belief, I’m not a professional
    • You’re here on your own volition
    • And if you know your body better than anyone so if you need to modify anything we do this evening feel free to do it! But I encourage you to push yourself and the men around you
  • Let’s lock shields and rock these next 45 minutes


WARM-O-RAMA:

  • SSH: 25 (1-count)

(#2FT)

  • SSH: 25 (1-count)
  • Frankenstein: 10 (1-count)

(#2FT)

  • Frankenstein: 10 (1-count)
  • Squat-Bender: 10 (1-count)

(#2FT)

  • Squat-Bender: 10 (1-count)
  • Merkin: 10 (1-count)

(#2FT)

  • Merkin: 10 (1-count)


THA-THANG:

.

Tour de Pavilion commences!

Lay out the roadmap: Tour around the pavilions – each pavilion will encompass a Quarter Pounder (since today is the 25th) and keep in mind, it is in fact 2FT – so let’s celebrate accordingly! Think of it like leveling up in a game – once we pass level 1 – we go to level 2 (Pavilion 2)

(Mosey to Pav1 – baseball fields)

[Quarter Pounder 1]

  • 5 battle buddy sit-ups each
  • 5 lunges Right leg (1 count)
  • 5 lunges Left leg (1 count)
  • 5 squats (1 count)
  • 5 iron mikes (1 count)

(Mosey to Pav2 – Small overhang behind baseball fields facing the river)

[Quarter Pounder 2]

  • 5 incline merkins (1 count)
  • 5 decline merkins (1 count)
  • 5 box jumps (1 count)
  • 5  R leg squats (1 count)
  • 5 L leg squats (1 count)

(Mosey to Pav3 – small chapel)

[Quarter Pounder 3]

  • 5 half burpees
  • 5 mountain climbers (1 count)
  • 5 real burpees
  • 5 plank press-ups (4 count)
  • 5 boat drivers (4 count)
    • Wall-sit and drive the boat

(Mosey to Pav4 – small Pav to the left)

[Quarter Pounder 4]

(this one sucked the most/was the hardest/most character building)

  • 25×4 Side/skater lunges (quick)
  • 25×4 incline merkins
  • 25×4 line hops (quick)
  • 25×4 dips

(Mosey to Pav5 – Pav by fields)

[Quarter Pounder 5]

  • 25 SSHs (1 count)
  • 25 merkins (1 count)
  • 25 Imperial Walkers (1 count)
  • 25 cockroaches (1 count)

(Mosey to Pav6 – Chapel) **Chapel was occupied, stayed in small Pav next to it**

[Quarter Pounder 6]

  • 25 x 4 SSHs (all together)
  • Take a lap around
  • 25×4 Squats (all together)
  • Take a lap around
  • 25×4 Army Merkins (all together)
  • Take a lap around
  • 25×4 SSHs (all together)

(Mosey back to AO)

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

(Watch the video until the end – worth it)

IMG_0196

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

“Nothing Worth Having Comes Without a Fight”

The past couple of weeks have felt like a fight. A fight with God, a fight with myself, a fight with reality, a fight with my decisions. Different kind of fight maybe, but still a fight. When you show up for F3 whether it’s in the morning or evening, you know you’re going to fight to the finish. But you (hopefully) know that there’s going to be a brother on your left and a brother on your right that are ready to go toe to toe with you for the next 45 minutes.

Take this outside of F3. What have you had to fight for in your life // what are you currently fighting for? Your marriage, relationship, your kids, your job, your family, your friends, to not go back to a dark place, for the heart of men and women to know Jesus?

Our fights as men come in many different shapes and sizes, whether as a young man or a man with some more notches on his belt. What makes keeping the faith and fighting the good fight worth it during those times? Just like in F3 – you don’t do it alone. F3 is just the huddle – the game is outside the COT. Call a brother out – pull a brother in.

Keep the Faith & Fight the Good Fight brothers – it’s worth it.