F3 Knoxville

Tag: Guppy

Wondering Where The Lions Are

THE SCENE: Sunny and warm, temp in low eighties.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

THA-THANG:
20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Burpees, 10 Twisties, 10 Rockettes, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Little Baby to Big Wide Arm Circles Forward and 10 Backward

We will mosey past the stop sign at the northeast corner of the Admin Bldg and go to the grassy area by the perimeter trail.  We will do 20 Flutter Kicks in the grass.  Next, will run west on the perimeter trail, stopping every ten lights to do ten of each of the following exercises.  Those arriving to the tenth light first will rinse and repeat until the six has done ten of each exercise.  Here are the exercises for each tenth light:

  • Merkins, Big Boys
  • Squat Jumps, Lunges (each leg = 1)
  • Carolina Dry Docks, Hello Dollies

Next, we will run to Area 51.  Stop at the area by the parking lot on the right.  We will split into teams of two.  While one team member does an exercise, the other runs to the curb at the end of area 51, does 10 jump squats, and runs back.  The partners then switch.  When each partner had done an exercise twice, they shift to the next exercise.  Here are the exercises:

  • Gas pumps
  • Rocky Balboas
  • Diamond Merkins
  • Iron Mikes

Next, we will run up the hill above Area 51 to roadway above the big tree.  Those getting there first will do bench dips until the six arrives.

Mosey to AO by running to gravel parking lot area, walking along the parking lot area, then running to AO.

Next we will do sprints to sign by parking lot and slow job back to where we started.  Repeat sprints three more times.  Then slow jog back to AO.

MARY:

35 Baby Crunches
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
15 showing, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Wondering Where The Lions Are

Have you heard or do you remember the story of Daniel and the Lion’s Den from the Bible?  Daniel was a Jew who was serving Darius, the King of Babylon or Prussia.  Daniel was an excellent administrator and King Darius liked him.  The other administrators and officials of King Darius were jealous of him.  They did know how strongly he worshipped his God.  They planned a scheme where , supposedly to celebrate the king, they convinced King Darius to issue a decree that any person in the kingdom who prayed to or worshipped any God or human for the next 30 days, other than King Darius, should be thrown in a Lion’s Den.  Daniel worshipped his God daily and continued to do so after the decree.  Caught, he was thrown in the Lions Den.  The next morning King Darius rushed to the den to find Darius alive, the ferocious lions acting tamely beside him.  King Darius, who cared for and admired Daniel then proclaimed:

“I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and he endures forever”.

As a psychologist, I see many people who suffer from anxiety.  I recently had my first session with a mid-thirties woman who suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (anxiety that occurs after one suffers from a trauma), Social Anxiety (anxiety about being in social situations), and Agoraphobia (condition where a person panics if they leave their household). Ten years ago, she could hardly leave her home without breaking down. She even had difficulty answering phone calls, too anxious to talk to strangers.  Fortunately, she met a therapist who helped her out. He talked to her about how anxiety can be incredibly crippling but that some anxiety can be gradually overcome through something called exposure therapy.  If people, who have been frightened in the past, can expose themselves to the situation they fear and see that nothing disastrous happens, the anxiety can, over time, decrease.  He used a metaphor with my patient.  He said if we were to open a door and have a ferocious lion attack us, we would be very frightened of ever opening that door again, even if the lion was taken away and people tried to rationally convince us there was no lion there anymore.  We may panic trying to open the door and our hearts might pound like crazy.  But, each day, if we continued to open the door and see that no lion was there, we would gradually be less anxious about doing it.  We might not ever fully wipe out the anxiety but we would be better off.  That is what has happened to this lady.  She still gets nervous when going into public settings but can now do so.  And she wants to continue that process so that in the future, she will be even better at it.

In life, we face difficult and challenging situations.  We get burned sometimes in these situations or we fail at them.  We then fear trying similar situations.  We worry about the consequences.  We worry that we can’t face up to the situation.  But, if we can expose ourselves to the challenging situations and learn from them, we grow.  If we can trust that God is on our side, we can tame the lions we fear.

One of my favorite songwriters, Bruce Cockburn, wrote a song that talks about the ecstasy that comes with belief in God and His eternity.  He also talks about about how fear is diminished with the knowledge of this belief.  I will finish my message with some lines from that song which is entitled, “Wondering Where the Lions Are”:

Sun’s up . . . looks okay
The world survives into another day
And I’m thinking ’bout eternity
Some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me

I had another dream about lions at the door
They weren’t half as frightening as they were before
But I’m thinking ’bout eternity
Some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me.

And I’m wondering where the lions are
I’m wondering where the lions are
I’m wondering where the lions are.

MOLESKIN:

Prayers for safe travels for Pusher and Rusty on their vacation.  Prayers for Thunderstruck and his family after the death of his mother.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP tomorrow night at Haw Ridge, 9 pm.

Shedding Skin

THE SCENE: Beautiful late afternoon, temps in upper 60’s.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Motivators starting with seven, 10 Twisties, 10 Windmills, 5 Burpees, 10 Tempo Squats, Little of This and That
THA-THANG:
Mosey to stop sign by northeastern corner of Admin Bldg.  We will stop to do 10 Rocky Balboas and 10 American Hammers.

Mosey on perimeter trail toward Lyons Bend then head right on trail across roadway that goes to park entry gate.  Continue to mosey to cones in the grassy field on the right.  We will split into teams of two to do Doras.  While one partner runs up the hill to the tree by the roadway and back, the other partner does exercises.  Partners then switch.  Here are the exercises the partners do as a team:

  • 100 Big Boy Sit-Ups
  • 100 Jump Squats
  • 100 Merkins
  • 100 Imperial Walkers (both legs = 1)
  • 200 Baby Crunches

Next we will mosey to the bottom of Mount Everest.  We will do 20 Flutter Kicks (4 ct) and 20 Bicycle Kicks (4 ct) in cadence.  We will then run to the top of Everest.  Those at the top will do imaginary skip ropes until the six arrives.

Mosey south to the cone that is across the street from the gravel parking lot.  We will Sprint to cone then Walk to next cone, Sprint to cone, then Walk to next cone, and continue this process until we reach the cone by the stop sign at the southwestern corner of the Admin Bldg.  Those reaching the stop sign first will do imaginary skip ropes until the six arrives.  We will turn around and do the same thing going back but will Bernie and Walk. Those reaching the cone by the gravel parking lot first will do imaginary skip ropes until the six arrives.

Rinse and repeat.

Mosey to AO.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
14 men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Comfortable In My Own Skin

Do you remember those Dove Men Body Wash commercials where famous coaches or athletes like Magic Johnson, John Elway, Tom Izzo and John Thompson III talked about being comfortable in their own skin?  Those commercials had appeal because not only was Dove was supposed to make a man’s skin comfortable; they appealed to viewers because we want to be like the coach or athlete, having reached a certain level of self-satisfaction.  We want to reach a point in our lives where we can sit back and say, “yes sir, I am comfortable in my own skin.”

Yet, if we are to grow as men, we in some ways need to be uncomfortable in our own skin.  Each of us have certain sins, certain vices, that we need to get rid of, to cast off.  God wants us to become ever more like Him.  And, if we are to do that, we must shed old selves and become something new.

The following passage is from Voyage of the Dawn Treader in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicle of Narnia.  In the passage, a boy named Eustace is telling his friend, Edmund, how he became a boy again after he had been transformed into a Dragon. The lion referred to in the passage is Aslan, who represents Jesus.  Eustace has already told Edmund about how he has shed skin about three different times to get rid of his dragon skin.  But he needed to shed even more skin to become human.  Here is what Eustace says about the process:

Then the lion said- but I don’t know if it spoke – “You will have to let me undress you.” . . . “Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt – and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. Then he caught hold of me – I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on – and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious… After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me . . . in new clothes.

There’s a song about baptism by the Christian songwriter, Kyle Matthews.  In it, a young male describes his own baptism.  He says

“I’ve been through the water and I’ve come out clean
Got new clothes to cover me
And you don’t wear your old shoes on your brand new feet
When you’ve been through the water”

What I am trying to say is that God wants us to keep on changing, constantly grow, continually shed old skin.  Am I comfortable in my own skin?  Compared to the man I was 30 years ago, 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, I can say I am.  I know I am closer to God than I used to be.  But, I need to keep shedding that skin.

MOLESKIN:

Prayers for Swimmies whose good friend, Brandon, died one year ago.  Prayers for Thunderstruck and his family after the death of his mother.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP at Haw Ridge!

Superficial Cracks

THE SCENE: Partly cloudy, low 60s, beautiful, but breezy as heck!!
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Check
WARM-O-RAMA:

-SSH x 20 (4-ct, IC)

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

– Hamstring stretches, sky reaches

– 20 Grady Corns (4-ct), in cadence

– Little of this and that

– Tempo Squats, 4-ct, IC

THA-THANG:
MOSEY to Amphitheater.

  • 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: Lunges (single count)
    • Round 3: Imperial Walkers (single count)

MOSEY to FIELD Below Colosseum.

RECTANGLE of DEATH!!

Blue cones on Corners, Orange Cones on sides (one side has blue cone in middle).  Sheets will tell you what to do and how to get to next Blue Cone.  Rinse and Repeat.  First one done yell RECOVER.

Corner 1: Do 20 Iron Mikes (10 each leg). Suicide using orange cones to next blue cone.

Corner 2: Do 20 Plank Jacks, Bear Crawl to next Blue Cone

Corner 3: Do 20 Big Boy Situps, Bernie to Blue Cone ½ way down.

½ Way Cone: Do 10 Burpees, Bernie to next Blue cone

Corner 4: 20 Dive Bombers , EL CAPITAN to next Blue Cone

RINSE AND REPEAT (didn’t quite get 2x around)

Mosey to Area 51. Check for cars with undressed people inside.

Totem Pole.  Start at 10, do all the exercises, then run to CONE, do 10 SSH, and return. Then start at 9, etc.  Only got about 1/2 way done with this.

  • 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 Bobby Hurleys
  • 2 Squats
  • 1 Star Gazers (10 seconds).  Rabbits R&R

RUN UP HILL.  WATCH FOR BEES. Mosey to AO

MARY:
Steam led the PAX in some ab work while the QIC picked up the Six.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
13 strong.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I hope you all read Judge Judy’s newsletter that came out this week.  Its title was Cracks in the Foundation, and alluded to some situations both in F3 and outside of it that have resulted in fractures within groups and between individuals.  We recently experienced a little bit of that here, at our very own AO.  So for my Word, I just wanted to reiterate what I feel is F3’s absolutely greatest attribute: it’s ability to inspire us all to be better men through SHARING.  Sharing of the Suck from the workout, Sharing in the responsibilities of being Q, etc., and Sharing of life experiences in the Circle that others may learn from or be inspired by.

We often use the term “Lock Shields” in F3.  Think about that for a second.  What does that look like, literally?  I have this image from Lord of the Rings of a bunch of warriors facing a common enemy, and each one of them standing shoulder to shoulder with their shields up.  If it was just one dude, he’d get surrounded, overwhelmed.  But it’s a bunch of bad hombres that are aligned in a common purpose, that being to protect each other and protect what’s behind them by being an integral part of that wall.  If there’s a crack, if there’s a gap in the wall, then everyone is in deep doo doo.  So we have our differences.  We have our differences in Faith, Politics, what kind of workouts we want to do out here, and maybe even differences in how we think F3 should operate.  That’s fine!  If everyone agreed on everything, life would be boring.  And probably those guys in the days of the Roman Empire standing next to each other didn’t see eye to eye during the course of their daily lives.  But the 45 minutes we have out here are not for solving all our differences about those things.  It’s about working hard physically, improving ourselves, supporting our brothers, and being inspired to bring positivity, leadership, and GOODNESS, dagnappit, outside of the Circle.  When we’re out here, we lay our differences aside.  When we’re out here, I’m continually trying to figure out ways to better serve you so that you can serve others.  And I hope that’s all of our mindsets.  But whatever cracks in our foundation we have are superficial, and can be overcome with Grace and empathy and understanding.  And Boys, from the bottom of my heart, it’s an honor and a privilege to come out here and lock shields with each and every one of you.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Steam and his fiancee and their venture down a new path, prayers of thanks that Lillydipper’s daughter got a job that she really wanted, prayers for Pusher and his family as his daughter deals with heartbreak.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Escape from Haw Ridge coming up!

Control the Controllables

THE SCENE: The fakest fake gloom possible
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER DONE
WARM-O-RAMA:
32 SSH to celebrate the Vols win, cherry pickers, this and that, rockettes, and stretch to get ready to run.
THA-THANG:

  • BB with crouching tiger merkins and inchworm-merkin-squat
  • BB with Apollo Onos and American Hammers / V-sit OH claps
  • Bear Crawl fun!
  • BB with Criss-Cross Squats and Lunges
  • BB with Butterfly Big Boys and Sprints
  • BB up with some Burpee action

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
A dozen HIMs getting better
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Things at work have gotten chippy.  My office works with 100+ units and we’re always the end of the line, so when others upstream don’t do their part, it’s our problem to fix.  When other’s don’t pull their weight, we have to make up the slack.  With that, resentment can build and things that shouldn’t be said get said.  It’s helpful to remember the wisdom to “control the controllables”.  Attitude.  Action.  Effort.  I can choose to let things upset me, or choose to keep a positive outlook.  I can choose to participate in the negativity, or choose more positive actions.  I can choose to lower my quality of work, or I can choose to perform at my highest level.

You can’t control much of anything that goes on around you.  But, you can control your Attitude, Action, and Effort.

Parents These Days

THE SCENE: Gloom in the Fake Gloom.  A nasty, rainy, awesome evening.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER  Did it
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, motivator, cherry pickers, twisties, rockettes
THA-THANG:
Insert information about the workout.

  • Triple battle buddies in the Caribbean
    • Jump squats and big boys
    • Merkins and big boys
    • Mountain Climbers and flutter kicks
  • Feel the burn
    • Wall sit
    • Ring of Fire push up
    • Ring of Fire squats
  • Alternating 10x flutter kicks and hello dolly
  • Star gazer in the rain

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 soaking wet PAX

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
In recently reading a book called “10 Rules for Resilience” by Joe DeSena (founder of Spartan Race), he said something obvious, but in a way that punched me in the gut.  He said he was tired of hearing people say “kids these days”.  Kids are born today the same way they’ve been born forever.  He argues we should really be saying “parents these days” because we – as the parents – are the difference in how kids are growing up now compared to in the past.  In large part, kids today are how kids are today because parents today raise kids the way we raise them today.  I know it’s not that simple in every situation, but the point is we as fathers have a lot of responsibility for who our kids are, their values, etc. We have to take ownership of that and we cannot hide behind “kids these days” as an excuse.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP Feb 26