F3 Knoxville

Two Deion Sanders Equals a Ronnie Lott

THE SCENE: Beautiful East TN morning, not too hot, not too much humidity (we could breathe and weren’t swimming).
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

WARM-O-RAMA:
42 SSH IC, 21 baby arm circles forward IC, 21 baby arm circles backward IC, 42 merkins OYO, 42-second squat

THA-THANG:
Mosey to the weekday A.M. parking lot via the dragon’s tail – pass a light post, do a burpee.

Workout stations in all four corners of the parking lot – CMU curls, CDDs, burpees, and squats.  Do 40 reps of the exercise and run to the center and do 2 round-the-clock merkins.  Run up mini-cardiac/mini-Everest and back down to the next station.  Do 40 reps of the exercise, run to the middle and do 2 RTC merkins, Bernie up the hill, and run back down.  Repeat until all stations are done, alternating between running up the hill and Bernie-ing up the hill.

Bear crawl to the flag pole next to the Pavillon.  Circuit with 4 stations of exercises, 10 reps each, and 2 burpees at the flag pole.  The exercises were: box jumps in the play area (aka the Cloud), pull-me-ups (table rows) in the Pavillon, pull ups in the dugouts (or where ever a pull up could be found, e.g., a tree branch), calf raises on the stairs (10 each leg), plus the aforementioned burpees x 2 at the flagpole.  Ran the circuit until the Q called time.

Bear crawl back to the parking lot to do four more stations of exercises, this time CMU triceps extensions, merkins, lunges, and a PAX choice (hello Dollys).  Due to time, do 20 reps of the exercise, run to the center and do 1 8-count Bodybuilder (basically a burpee with a plank jack added in for good measure), and then run to the next station and repeat.  We left out the runs up the hill in between stations to make sure we had time for Mary.

Cash-out sprint up the hill to get to Mary.

MARY:

The Q was out of breath trying to chase Edit up the hill, so Crawdad led the PAX through 21 box cutters on a 4 count.  Then, the PAX did 42 LBCs OYO.  Ended with a 42-second plank right on time.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
16 total PAX.  High Heels left early to meet the cable guy, but he conveniently reappeared at Panera for Coffeteria.  Veggie was there, but his tag was not in the system.  One FNG who was visiting Goober from Indiana (Goober has brought a lot of his friends to F3, either Goober likes us or hates his friends).  He was named Brown Bag.  Unfortunately, the Q forgot to get his contact info, so hopefully Goober can provide it.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
My birthday was the day before.  Try to guess how old I am.  Talked about Ecclesiastes – my favorite book in the Bible.  Read it for yourself.  Here’s my summary: bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people, but do what is right regardless because that is what God wants.  Talked about time because the most famous part of Ecclesiastes is the passage on time, just ask the Byrds.  Time is my enemy.  There is never enough of it, it goes by too fast, and you can’t get it back once it is gone.  It goes by faster and faster as the milestones of life pile up.  Talked about my dad and him being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when I was in high school and how that affected him physically and me mentally as I watched the disease progress over the years.  He died in 2017 at the age of 79.  I was 40.  No one knows how much they have left or what they have left.  But we all know what we can do today.  When I am tired or want to be lazy, I think of my dad and other people who cannot do what we do in F3.  One day, I won’t be able to do it either, for whatever reason (injury, age, disease, death).  So, I do it now.  I get up and do it for my dad and those who can’t and for the me one day who won’t be able to do it either.  That way, when I can’t, I can at least say and know that I did.  When I could, I did, and I did until I couldn’t.  No waste.  No regrets.  Carpe diem.
MOLESKIN:
Prayed specifically for Junk’s wife, Crawdad’s wife, and Thunderstruck’s mom.  General prayers of thanks for the precious time that we have, for the ability to make the most of it and to build a foundation of better living for our family and friends and to make great memories that last a lifetime even as the time passes, and for the peace to let time go and to accept the next season (as Ecclesiastes calls it) of life when it comes.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence at Big Ball coming up in a couple of weeks followed by the third F at Redeemer.

P.S. Thanks to Sleepover for suggesting all the burpees.

Smile! You’re on Candid Camera!

THE SCENE: Low 70’s, high humidity.  Easy to get the muscles warm.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH x 25 (4 ct); Imperial Squat Walkers x 15; mosey around the circuit for a preview of each station

THA-THANG:
Divide into 5 groups, 1 group per station as follows:

Station 1: Baby Cardiac.

Bernie up the hill.  3 burpees.  Back down.  3 burpees. Sprint up the hill.  3 burpees.  Back down.  Wagon wheel to pick up the 6 and finish together.  Mosey to Station 2 and bump that group on.

Station 2:  Brickyard Bearcrawl:  Bearcrawl across parking lot, 1 derkin with feet on curb.  Bearcrawl back, 2 derkins. Bearcrawl across again, 3 derkins.  Etc till you reach 10 derkins.  Then Flutters x 25 (4 ct).  Repeat till you’ve been bumped.

Station 3:  Doras in the opposite parking lot.  Partner up for 50 man makers, and then as many monkey humpers as you can get before you’re bumped.

Station 4:  The cloud for 11s of Box Jumps/ Dips and then BBS/CDD.  Rinse and repeat till bumped.

Station 5:  CMU station.  With 2 CMUs set up, dips to a sitting position and then back up.  At the highest point, touch head with one hand, then another dip.  Next up, touch head with other hand.  Do 20 of these, then 25 curls.  Rinse and repeat till bumped.

I believe everybody got through one circuit at every station.

MARY:
Boat/Canoe for 4 minutes.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
We focused on Lou Gehrig and the type of character demonstrated over a lifetime to feel like you are “the luckiest man on the face of the Earth” in the face of adversity like being diagnosed with ALS in the prime of your life.  It was inspired by listening to an F3 podcast about Crablegs (from the Raleigh area, not our own Crablegs) who has been diagnosed with ALS and is on a tour of the country visiting F3 AOs and MLB ballparks with his family, all while demonstrating the same strength of character we saw with the “Ironman” and his famous speech at Yankee Stadium.  Gehrig gave his famous speech on July 4, 1939.  He died less than 2 years later, June 2, 1941.  If you want to watch his speech some of his speech and the background , there’s a nice segment here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLoq_st_JEo

MOLESKIN:
Thanks to Filter for following us around to get some great photos and his work on updating our website and social media.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:

No Denial

THE SCENE: Sunny and hot, 95 degrees
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Burpees, Plank Lifts, 10 Rockettes, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Baby Arm Circles Forward and 10 Backward
THA-THANG:
Mosey to parking lot that is across the street from Northern Ball field Entrance Parking Lot.  We will be going to the four corners of each parking lot by the following methods and doing the following exercises

  • Corner 1:  20 Squat Jumps (Round 1), 20 Star Jumps (Round 2) then Bernie Sanders to Corner 2
  • Corner 2:  20 American Hammers four count (Round 1), 20 Bicycle Kicks four count (Round 2) then bear crawl to Corner 3
  • Corner 3:  20 Plank Jacks (Round 1), 20 Iron Mikes four count (Round 2) then sprint to Corner 4.
  • Corner 4:  20 Merkins (Round 1), 20 Carolina Dry Docks (Round 2) then lunge to Corner 1

Mosey to Serpentine Sidewalk.  We will do nickel, dime, quarters to the bottom of Cardiac Hill (run one light and do five of exercise, run two lights and do ten of exercise, run five lights and do 25 of exercise) with the following exercises:

  • Big Boy Sit Ups
  • Diamond Merkins
  • Imperial Walkers

At Cardiac Hill:  We will run up the hill, stopping to do the following exercises at the following locations:

  • Turn 1:  20 Hello Dollies (four count)
  • Turn 2:  20 Flutter Kicks (four count)
  • Turn 3:  20 Decline Merkins
  • Benches:  20 Bench Dips

Mosey on perimeter trail then go south at road that heads towards Admin Bldg.  Stop by stop sign at northeast corner of Admin Bldg.  We will do 20 Behind Back Scissor Kicks

Mosey to AO.

MARY:

Rocky Balboas

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

Take The Time to Process Pain

As a psychologist, I see many people refuse to examine painful events in their lives.  Something painful has occurred in their lives that created trauma for them.  They try to AVOID thinking of the situation at all costs.  For example, the person may have lost a loved one and they try not to think of the death of that loved one or even the life of the loved one because it leads to sorrow and tears.  A person may avoid thinking of a past dangerous situation (e.g, surviving an automobile or plane accident) because it brings up fear, worry, or pain in terms of seeing someone injured or killed).  A person may avoid thinking of past abuse because to think of it is so painful and they rather put the abuse off in a closet.  For a little while, the strategy may work.  But for most of us, the painfulness of the past event seeps through the cracks and continues to impact us.  We want to hide from the pain but the pain comes back to haunt us in nightmares, flashbacks, nervousness, jumpiness, and general unrest.  This is why a major strategy of working with someone who has suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is to get the person to share their past traumatic experience.  The person may feel worse at first but by continuing to talk about the event, by continuing to process it (in psychology we call this working through), the person finally gains some control over the pain.  They realize that life can hand us some terrible stuff but that the terrible stuff we experienced is over and it probably won’t occur again, especially if we take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen.  The abused child is no longer a child, the auto accident victim realizes he can drive his car with a pretty high degree of safety, the war veteran is no longer at war.

Life is not a fully rosy picture.  Bad things happen.  Some people want to look at the world through rose colored glasses.  They may not see the pain going on around them until it hits them straight in the face.  But life also has much to offer and be awed by, much beauty, despite the ugliness.  If we see and process both, we are generally going to be better off for it.  And, we are in a better position to help our fellow human beings.  We can laugh with them but can also cry with them, join them when they are hurting, and give them a loving hand to reach out to.

Peter Gabriel wrote a beautiful song (called “Red Rain”) that deals with the issue of pain.  At the start of this largely metaphysical and symbolic song, the protagonist can’t see or hear the pain that others experience and denies the pain.  It is later, when he lets his defenses down, that the “Red Rain” surrounds him.  Putting his trust in something higher than himself, he can no longer deny the pain around him.  And through this, as if in an epiphany, he is bathed by the rain as if in a pool or red wine, as if in a red sea.

Red rain is coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
Pouring down all over me
 
I am standing up at the water's edge in my dream
I cannot make a single sound as you scream
It can't be that cold, the ground is still warm to touch
We touch, this place is so quiet, sensing that storm
 
Red rain is coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
Pouring down all over me
 
Well I've seen them buried in a sheltered place in this town
They tell you that this rain can sting, and look down
There is no blood around, see no sign of pain
Hay ay ay no pain
Seeing no red at all, see no rain
 
Red rain is coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
Pouring down all over me
 
Red rain
Ohhhh
Putting the pressure on much harder now
To return again and again
Just let the red rain splash you
Let the rain fall on your skin
I come to you defenses down
With the trust of a child
 
Red rain is coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
Pouring down all over me

And I can't watch any more
No more denial
It's so hard to lay down in all of this

Red rain coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
I'm bathing in
Red rain coming down
Red rain is falling down
Red rain is coming down all over me
I'm begging you

Red rain coming down
Red rain coming down
Red rain coming down
Red rain coming down

Over me in the red red sea
Over me
Over me
Red rain

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Junk’s mother, for Crawdad’s wife, for Thunderstruck’s mother and for High-Heel’s mother.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
3rd F upcoming on August 10.

47 Problems…

Warm-o-rama

  • Side Straddle hop X 47
  • Imperial Walkers x 20
  • Little baby arm circles Front x 25 and back x 15, overhead 20
  • Burpees x 5

47 Problems

2 Sets 47 each exercise and take the hill between

  • Merkins
  • Get-ups
  • Curls w/ CMU
  • Squats (sit on CMU)
  • 4-count Mountain Climbers
  • Triceps extensions w CMU

Burpees

  • 4 x and 7x Burpees

Aborama

  • Flutter Kick x 25
  • Box Cutter x 10
  • Peter Parker x 10

Expectations

Expectations can rob you of your Joy.    At some point in life you are going to be let down by the things that the world holds on to so tightly.  A job, a spouse, a child, a parent, money,….you fill in the blank.  We are designed by the creator in such a manner that none of these things will ever fill the need we have for Christ.  If we are looking for Joy and expecting to get fulfillment in life from any of these things we will be let down.   Christ is the only thing that we can rely on to fulfill and sustain us through good times and bad.   It is easy to fall into the trap of setting our hope and expectations on things of this world both big and small.   I pray that we would all have our foundations in Christ and Christ alone and that he would help us to right size our expectations on the things that we hold on to the tightest

Be a Sheep, Not a Goat

THE SCENE: Sunny and give-me-a-breeze-because-it’s-90-degrees-oh please oh please Hot, around 90 degrees
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER  Check.  I may not have clarified I’m not a professional. But I am not.
WARM-O-RAMA:

30 Side Straddle Hops (4-ct), in cadence, 10 Cherry Pickers (4-ct), in cadence, 20 Imperial Walkers (4-ct), in Cadence, 10 Baby arm circles forward/backward, Little of This and That, 10 plank jacks (4-ct) in cadence (had to add these on waiting for Hooker to dress himself… insert eye roll here)

THA-THANG:

Mosey to random shady area south of Admin Building before Chapel

  • Mucho Chesto #1: 10 x Merkin / 10 x Wide Merkin / 10 x Diamonds / 10 Stagger Merkin Left / 10 Stagger Merkin Right.

Mosey to Chapel

  • CHAPEL 7’s
    • Part 1: Mountain Climbers (4-ct)/Bench Dips
    • Part 2: Froggie Squat Jumps/Decline Merkins

Mosey to big tree outside of chapel that had a sort of circular shade pattern.

  • Catch Me if You Can!
    • Partner up. One partner Burpee Broad Jumps around perimeter of shade.  Other partner does 10 LBCs and then GORILLA RUNS to catch up.  Then partners switch. 3 minutes.  Rinse and repeat, except with Lunges and Bear Crawls.

Mosey to CMU pile.

  • DORAS
    • Use same partners as before. One partner DUCK WALKS ½ way then sprints to end of parking lot, does 3 merkins, then sprints and switches.
      • 100 curls (Q pulled up lame with a tight calf here.  Dang!!)
      • 100 overhead press (RIP to the CMU that Tank dropped.  We all pitched in on the punishment burpees)
      • 100 triceps (didn’t have time for these last two)
      • 100 squats

Mosey to start of Dragon Tail

  • Mucho Chesto #2, 1/2 reps: 5 x Merkin / 5 x Wide Merkin / 5 x Diamonds / 5 Stagger Merkin Left /5 Stagger Merkin Right.Mosey to monument up the Dragon’s tail
      • 20 American Hammers

Mosey to AO

MARY:
No Time
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
10 HIMs, J-Lo not tagged
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Certain current events in the news have been disturbing to me, and I felt the urge to recite this Bible verse that contains some sentiments that I feel we need to be reminded of collectively as a society.

Matthew 25 verses 1-13, Parable of the Sheep and Goats

“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?’

“The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’

“Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’

“Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for several PAX who have family members who are going through health issues, and praise for some news of recovery for several as well.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Fourth of July F3/FiA parade news (check Cap’n Crunch’s email) and Goliath at the Gorge mud run/obstacle course near Johnson City in late October.  F3 Knoxville is coordinating with other F3 groups and the organizers to get an F3 discout, arrange some fellowship options, and perhaps volunteer.