F3 Knoxville

How do you spell B*E*A*T*D*O*W*N?

THE SCENE: Cool, low humidity, most beautiful sunrise in Knoxville
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

25-4ct. SSH, Cherry pickers, Moroccan nightclubs, Baby arm circles forward and back.

THA-THANG:
Mosey to trail

B: Burpees – Route 66 style

E: Everest on Everest up to stump (see Exicon for description of exercises), run up rest of Everest to road.

Mosey to Pier behind KUB substation

A: ATM – 1 round

T: Tammy Wynette

D: Dying cockroach (2 sets, 10-4 ct.)

O: Obama (8 rounds for 8 years)

Mosey to main lawn.

W: Wilt Chamberlain

Mosey to parking by restrooms

N: Newtons Cradle (10 – 4 ct., 3 rounds)

Run up small hill to AO

MARY:
Crawdad led box cutters, Gus led shoulder blasters until time.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Remember that God is greater than our fears, insecurities, and what we understand.  Too often we put Him in a box that we comprehend, but He is so much more.  The relationship is similar to what we have with children where they have a very limited and sometimes skewed perspective of the world.  That is how we are to God.

MOLESKIN:
Isaiah 55:8-9

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
None

It’s High Heels in the End Zone

THE SCENE: If there was a nicer Saturday morning to work out in, I don’t want to know about it
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Cap’n was there, so I think that covers us
WARM-O-RAMA:

Archie and Cap’n were in cooldown mode after 3 rucking miles…Pusher and Crawdad were pulling in…

10 Windmills IC while waiting for Crawdad and Pusher

25 SSH, but only 5 IC. The other 20 we were supposed to do in our heads. We did not all end at the same time. Could’ve been Q’s fault. 10 Burpees OYO.

BAC forward and reverse, OHCs in between

THA-THANG:

Little Mosey over to the base of Spaceship Hill. Catch Me If You Can with 10 LBCs to the stop sign on the far side.

Another mosey down to Area 51, which has missed us, and which also had an unidentified structure. We took it apart and did some CMU Doras. Pusher found a hole that was hiding, but recovered on the mosey like the badass that he is. 

Indian run over to the FiA parking lot, where Abcess had already delivered baloons. We presented them with a birthday present, candle, and we sang Happy Birthday. Q started us off about two octaves too high but he is not paid for his beautiful singing voice.

Down to the soccer fields to meet Jack Webb! Back in college we used to play Ultimate Frisbee, so we played in Jack’s honor. 2 burpees for everyone if the frisbee touches the ground, 5 merkins for a team that gets scored on. High Heels got the Golden Glove Award.

MARY:
Mary Schmary

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.”
― Wendell Berry

MOLESKIN:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Rusty Math

THE SCENE: Couldn’t be prettier
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Choirboy is a lawyer, so I’m going to say we’re covered
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH, Windmills, Crawdad’s arrival (not an exercise, but certainly a ritual), BACs+OHCs, reverse and repeat
THA-THANG:
We took the Moseytown train up to the old Rockpile (RIP), where midnight elves had created Blockhenge. We tore it down and beat our arms and shoulders to death. We crawled like bears, we ran like I guess Bernie Sanders would if he could, we lifted CMUs in every way we could.

Moseyed over to Grinch’s Hill, which honestly is way worse than Hardship Hill. We were raising money for Operation Enduring Oatmeal, which is a charity that tries to get Jinxy’s order right at Panera. Squat and Merkin 11s. Proton swept us to the Cloud.

Rusty is a math genius and just for us, he invented a new way to concieve numbers and counting.

Box Baby Boxes at the cloud, followed by a visit from Jack freaking Webb, whose superpower is changing the density of air. He does not make it lighter I’m afraid.

We took Skunk Alley to Cardiac and by then it was time to take it to the house.

MARY:
There’s no  Marys in Operation Enduring Oatmeal
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
6 dudes with busy Saturdays…Proton, Crawdad, Hawk, Rusty, Choirboy, and YHC
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Excerpt from “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace, in honor of graduation season
MOLESKIN:
Grateful to be out there with these men.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Apparently some other F3 guys are running around somewhere today. Best of luck to you!

Honor Over Status

THE SCENE: Clear, temps in 30’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Side-straddle Hops, 10 Rockettes, Right and Left Leg Stretch, 10 Windmills, 7 Baby Arm Circles forward and backward, 7 Wide Arm Circles forward and backward
THA-THANG:
Mosey to sidewalk trail that leads off of northernmost parking lot.  We will do 14’s all the way to where the trail intersects with the entry road near the northern gate of the park.  For the 14’s we will bear crawl on light, run four lights, then lunge one light and run four lights the entire trail to the roadway.

We will next do 20 Hello Dollies as a group.

Go across street and we will start Nickel, Dime Quarters on the trail, going past Mt. Everest and until the trail hits the road going out the western gate of the park.  For the Nickel, Dime, Quarters we run one light and stop to do 5 of an exercise.  We next run two lights and stop to do ten of the exercise.  We then run five lights and stop to do 25 of the exercise.  We repeat the pattern with the other listed exercises.  The exercises are as follows:

  • Squat jumps
  • Merkins
  • Big Boy Sit-ups

Mosey up roadway from west entrance, heading east.  Stop by hill near stop sign.  We will do sevens from the bottom of the hill up.  We will start with one Shoulder Tap (each shoulder) on bottom of the hill and six Burpees on top of the hill.

Mosey to grassy area across road from outdoor chapel.  As group we will do 20 American Hammers.

Mosey to ball field closest to entryway of the Northern Ballpark.  We will break into two teams and relay around the ball field, each man running once around the bases.

Mosey to CMUs at northern ball park parking lot.  We will do following exercises with CMUs then Bernie Sanders to other curb of parking lot and sprint back between each listed exercise.

  • 20 Overhead presses
  • 20 Curls
  • 20 Rows
  • 20 Bench Presses
  • 20 Curls while sitting
  • 20 Triceps while lying on back

Next, we will lunge with CMU’s across parking lot stopping at every other parking space to do 5 incline merkins with hands on CMU.  We will then mosey back, stopping at every other parking space to do 5 dips with hands on CMU.

Mosey back to AO

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Seven men, no FNG’s.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Jesus is speaking in the following verses from Matthew 23: 5-12.  He starts out talking about the Pharisses:

They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi[b] by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.[c] And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

I thought of these verses in light of the recent news about the college admission scandals.  You have probably heard the news.  Investigators have been investigating and are planning on prosecuting many people across the nation, mainly parents of students, who have used all kinds of means to fraudulently get their children into elite universities.  The fraud has come in all kinds of forms such as:  paying off proctors to change the answers on ACT or SAT tests students took so that they would have higher scores or paying off coaches to have students admitted as a certain kind of athlete (e.g., volley ball player) when the student was not actually a ball player.  In many of the cases, the students weren’t even aware their parents were paying others off to get them into the school.

The reasons for the fraud varied but often seem to relate to status.  These students were usually not dumb people.  They could have made it into a large number of colleges.  But their parents wanted them to be in ELITE colleges.

We live in a society where status has become an Idol for too many people.  In the process, people forget what true dignity is all about.  Men in our nation need to understand, to become ensconced in, to be fed on honor, valor, respect, and dignity.  They need to be surrounded by men who reflect those virtues.  That is one of the things I love about F3.  I am surrounded by brothers who are working hard to become models of those concepts.  The F3 philosophy, the F3 lingo reflects those virtues and although we admit to falling short of being perfect, our brothers strive to achieve those virtues.  Let us keep striving.  Let us be role models and leaders in a society that needs, that aches to have those virtues lived out by its leaders.

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

Broken Leaders

THE SCENE:  Cloudy, temp in upper 30’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Side-straddle-hops, 15 second squat, 10 Plank Jacks, 30 Second Squat, 10 Cherry Pickers, 45 Second Squat, 10 Windmills, 60 Second Squat, Little of This and That
THA-THANG:
Mosey to South Ball Fields Parking Lot

Suicides to cones but with variations vs running.  Also, each time back we will do 25 Baby Crunches.  The following shows how we will go to each cone.  We will always sprint back from each cone.

  • Bear Crawl to Cone 1
  • Sprint to Cone 2
  • Lunge to Cone 3
  • Sprint to Cone 4
  • Hop to Cone 5
  • Sprint to Cone 6
  • Bernie Sanders to Cone 7
  • Rinse and repeat but do 20 Merkins each time back.

Mosey to perimeter trail just past ball park pavilion.  We will be doing nickel dime quarters east and then north on the perimeter trail all the way up cardiac hill and to where the trail hits roadway near the AO.  We run for one light and do 5 of exercise, run two lights and do 10 of exercise, then run five lights and do 25 of exercise.  The following will be the exercises:

  • Jump squats
  • Big Boy Sit-ups
  • Dive Bombers
  • Star Jumps
  • American Hammers (four count)
  • Imperial Walkers (four count)
  • Box Cutters
  • Smurf Jacks

Mosey to parking lot near entrance of northern ball park.  We will be split into four groups with each group starting at a corner.  We will circle the parking lot counter clockwise going to each corner of the lot.  There will be exercises listed at each corner.  We will circle the lot three times doing the first listed exercise first, next exercise the second time around, and last exercise the third time around.

  • Corner 1:  20 Hello Dollies (four count), 20 Flutter Kicks (four count), 20 Bicycle Kicks (four count)
  • Corner 2:  20 Diamond Merkins, 20 Bottle Openers from regular plank position, 20 Hands down merkins
  • Corner 3:  (using CMU’s)  25 Overhead Lifts, 25 Curls, 25 Rows
  • Corner 4:  15 Mountain Climbers (four count), 10 Burpees, 15 Plank Jacks (four count)

Mosey to AO

MARY:

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

From 2 Corinthians 4:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

Cap’n Crunch has been having us read excellent excerpts from the F3 Leadership Manual, the Q Source, in the weekly newsletters we are receiving by email.  As men of F3 we are called to lead others.  Does that mean that we are supposed to be perfect?  NO WAY!  Does that mean we have to be better than those we lead?  NO SIR!

Consider the “heroes” of the bible.  The bible is littered with flawed leaders.  Jonah constantly complained about what God wanted him to do and ran from God before God used him to save the City of Ninevah.  Jacob purposefully tricked his blind father to try to inherit his brother’s birthright.  Moses fumbled around with his people in the desert for 40 years before they finally entered the promised land.  David slew Goliath but had to run from King Saul to stay in a cave, sometimes crying in anguish that God had forsaken him.  He later committed adultery with a woman and purposefully sent her husband off to war to be killed.  Peter was an emotional roller coaster disciple of Jesus who denied him at his death, yet later led thousands to believe in Him.

We are broken people who, like Pauls says in 2 Corinthians, are afflicted in every way but not destroyed.  God has a wonderful way of using broken people to be the vessels, the jars of clay, that carry out His purposes.  Quoting from the book I Am a Follower by Leonard Sweet, “We bless others naturally through our strengths.  But we bless others supernaturally through our weaknesses . . . and Scripture makes this clear:  God’s power is made perfect in weakness.

What kind of man do you want to turn to at your time of doubt?  Would you really want to turn to someone who has always been on top?  First of all, good luck at ever finding such a person. Second, those men who have not examined their failures, who have not learned from their challenges, struggles, and defeats, would not be ones that would understand your struggles very well.  It is through our struggle and brokenness that we become wiser.  It is through are failures that we can learn to empathize with others who fail and need our help.

The great pastor and religious writer, Charles Spurgeon said this about leaders:

Such mature men as some elderly preachers are, could scarcely have been produced if they had not been emptied from vessel to vessel, and made to see their own emptiness and the vanity of all things round about them.

Your brokenness is what you can use to help you be a great leader.  As a HIM, you are a vessel of God, leading others not for your glory but for God’s glory.  Lead on brothers and fear not – God will use your imperfection.