F3 Knoxville

Tag: Lillydipper

Ironies of Our Life Journey

THE SCENE: Cloudy, temp in high 50’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Burpees, 10 Cherry Pickers, 5 Burpees, 10 Windmills, Seven Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backward, Seven Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward
THA-THANG:

Mosey to the landscaped island parking lot located south of the Northern Baseball Fields.  Bricks will be located at the entrance of the parking lot.  Each man will pick up two bricks.  We will do a Modified Route 66 around the parking lot.  Each man runs five parking spaces, does one Mini-Man-Maker, then runs five more parking spaces, does two Mini-Man-Makers, etc until he finally does 11 mini-makers.

Mosey to roadside start of the Serpentine Sidewalk.  We will do a Route 66 on this sidewalk as it heads to the Park Perimeter Trail running along the waterway.  We will start with one Dive Bomber at the first light and end with eleven Dive Bombers at the eleventh light.

Mosey to the end of the Serpentine Sidewalk where it meets the Park Perimeter Trail.  We will do 10 Imperial Walkers as a group.

Mosey to the beginning of Cardiac Hill.  We will run up hill stopping to do the following exercises at each turn:

  • Turn 1:  20 Carolina Drydocks
  • Turn 2:  20 Diamond Merkins
  • Turn 3:  20 Decline Merkins
  • Turn 4:  20 Bench Dips

Mosey to Parking Lot that is by the entrance gate to the Northern Ball Fields.  Each man grabs a CMU.  We will do the following in cadence:

  • 20 Overhead Presses
  • 20 Curls
  • Drop CMU and sprint to end of parking lot and back
  • 20 Rows
  • Drop CMU and sprint to end of parking lot and back
  • 20 Chest Pushes
  • Drop CMU and sprint to end of parking lot and back
  • 20 Squats with CMU at Chest

Drop off CMU’s and mosey to Pavilion.  We will do 25 Picnic Table Pull-ups

Mosey toward parking lot with landscaped islands that we were at for the mini man makers.  Stop at grassy area by ball field.

Football challenge:  Lilydipper throws ball down field.  First to catch it and bring it back wins.  If you are tagged by anyone you must drop the ball immediately.

Mosey to landscaped parking lot to pick up bricks we had left off.

Mosey back to AO.

MARY:
15 Boxcutters.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Ten men with one FNG, a friend of Goober’s who was visiting from Indiana.  His name is Daniel and we gave him the F3 name of Shrinkwrap.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I have been reading lately about Identity Formation because I have talked about that subject in a Sunday School Class at my church and to a group I met with in my work as a psychologist.  Eric Erickson’s theory regarding the states of Identity Formation is quite influential among psychologists.  You can Google either Identity Formation or Eric Erickson to read about the subject.  A very good book that talks about our growth in identify formation and as human beings is by a Catholic Priest named Richard Rohr.  It is called Falling Upward:  A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life.  Rohr talks about some important ironies for those who grow successfully as human beings (growing in the HIM type of way, not in the way the world might identify as successful such as in power, wealth or fame).

  1. The supposed achievements of the first half of life, we find, fall short.
  2. In our life journey we find that what we originally thought we were searching for is not truly what we are searching for.
  3. The way up, we find, is often the way down.
  4. We must sacrifice something to achieve something greater. Illustration:  the journey in literature.  (The Odyssey, Lords of the Ring, Harry Potter)
  5. Losing, failing, falling, suffering, and encounters with sin are a necessary part of the journey.
  6. It is often when the ego is most deconstructed that we can hear things anew.
  7. The demand for perfect is the greatest enemy of the good. (Rules and getting it right are more important in first half of life).
  8. Higher stages of development are often misunderstood and attacked by those in lower stages (think of how Jesus was attacked by leaders of “organized religion”).

MOLESKIN:

Prayer for Pinto whose mother passed away earlier this week.  Prayer for Hooker, her grandson, and Mr. Jinxy, her son-in-law.  Prayer for Goober’s friend, Bruce, whose mother and daughter died earlier this week.  Praise for the F3 brothers who were at Goliath last week and who did well there.  They also had a great bit of fun there.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Coffeeteria!

Pumpkin Run!

THE SCENE: Perfect.  Near 70 and sunny, with the leaves just starting to change
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Check.
WARM-O-RAMA:

-20 Side Straddle Hops (4-ct), in cadence

– Air Squared w/10 Overhead/ 10 sideways (seal claps)

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

– 10 BAC Forward, Backward

-5 Body builders

THA-THANG:

Mosey to corner of circle drive South of the Admin Building at the stop sign.

Mucho Chesto: 10 x Merkin / 10 x Wide Merkin / 10 x Diamonds / 10 Stagger Merkin Left / 10 Stagger Merkin Right

Hey! What’s That??? A pumpkin is just sitting there.  Now THAT’S weird.  Let’s do F3 things with it!

Indian Run to bottom of Everest.  Pass the Pumpkin to the back of the line.  When it gets there, that person runs to front, carrying it over his head, then passes it backwards.

  • The Pumpkin Says
    • Get in a line. Each member of the PAX does the following exercises, passing the pumpkin along the row, doing a special Pumpkin exercise when it gets to them (in parentheses).
      • Big Boy Situps (10 American Hammers w/ pumpkin)
      • Hold Plank (10 Pumpkin Press Burpees)
      • Tempo Squats (10 Squat Thrusts with Pumpkin)

Indian Run up Everest to base of summit.

  • Push the Pumpkin to the Pumpkin Patch!
    • Bear Crawl to the pumpkin and do 3 standing broad jumps (or three lunges) with the pumpkin. Leave it and bear crawl back to PAX.  Next man up.  Keep doing it until we get the pumpkin where it needs to be.  PAX is doing:
      • 10 LBCs/10 American Hammers/10 Hello Dollies, until it gets to one side
      • 10 Bobby Hurleys/10 mountain climbers/10 Iron Mikes until it returns.
    • Pumpkin Roll!  Each member runs to the summit, then rolls it back down for the next member to carry up.  Other PAX are doing burpees until all have completed the final summit.  (This is where the Q almost got decapitated by the pumpkin, which was traveling WAY faster than he expected).

MARY:
Captain Thors.  X’s and O’s

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Three amigos.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

THE DISEASE OF MORE

I recently read an article about the drive to improve for the sake of improvement. Success is often the first step toward disaster.

The Disease of More is a phrase coined by Pat Riley to describe why championship teams often get dethroned due to internal strife.  The players want more… and when they have the championship, it turns to other things.  Money, endorsements, accolades, attention, etc. They stop paying attention to the details that got them where they are and it becomes more about egos.

Psychologists didn’t used to focus on happiness.  Usually the opposite, they focus on why you are depressed, angry, etc.  But in the 1980s there was a bit of a shift in this pattern. There was a study where they gave everyone buzzers, and they were to write down how happy they were and what they were doing when the buzzer went off randomly, on a scale of 1 to 10.  Everyone always wrote down a 7, no matter what they were doing.  At the grocery store, at a child’s sporting event, making a big sale, etc.  During really bad times, it would dip to 2-5, but quickly go back to 7. And during GREAT times (marriages, dream vacation, lottery winner!) would shoot up for a bit, then dip back to 7 again.  Things always pretty much seem to be fine… but they could always be better.  People thought they could always be “more” happy. Hence, the 7.  The trick is the brain always telling you, if I could just have X, Y, or Z, then I’d be happier and finally reach a 9 or 10.

Hedonic Treadmill: We are always striving for a better life and end up expending a ton of effort just to wind up in the same place. Just because something can be improved doesn’t mean it should be improved.  But it’s not the improvement that’s the problem. It’s the WHY that’s motivating the improvement that’s the problem.  Becomes compulsive and narcissistic, always focusing on yourself.

The idea of progress can become the enemy of actual progress.

What if there is no “next level” to achieve?  By constantly trying to reach that “next level”, maybe it’s keeping you from appreciating where you are now.  Feeling like you always need to improve yourself may actually be a problem.

There are always tradeoffs when you “improve”.  Time away from family, money, etc.  Life is not a checklist, it’s more like an economy.  There are tradeoffs.  If you sacrifice too much on your way to seeking your perfect 10, you might end up sacrificing the happiness equity you already own.

So what’s the solution?  The solution is to be motivated in life by something other than our own happiness, something greater than ourselves.

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart

Luke 9:25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

MOLESKIN:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
New Hardship Hill Date set for May 2!!!

Shedding the False Self

THE SCENE: Blue skies and temp about 70 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Bottle Taps, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Rockettes, 10 Tempo Squats
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Light Post by Lower Parking Lot near trail that goes towards Lyons Bend Gate Entrance.  We will do Route 66 with the following exercises:

  • Star Jumps
  • Big Boy Sit-ups
  • Iron Mikes with both legs forward = 1

We next will do 14’s with Bear Crawls (Bear Crawl 1 light and Run 4 lights in sequence) until we reach the road that goes to Lyon’s Bend Entrance Gate.  Next, we will do 14’s with Lunges (Lunge 1 light and Run 4 lights in sequence) until we get to the bottom of Mt. Everest.

At Mt Everest we will do 20 Merkins, 30 Squats and 40 Baby Crunches.  Then we will run to the road above the Summit.

Next, we will Mosey south on the roadway until it we are by the big tree as the road heads east toward the stop sign.  We will run down incline by the roadway.  We will then do sevens starting with one Hello Dolly on bottom of incline and six Burpees on top.

Mosey back to AO.

MARY:
20 Box Cutters
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
9 men, no FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I am a psychologist.  I recently looked back on some literature discussing Eric Erickson’s research and theory regarding identity formation in human beings.  Eric Erickson was a German Developmental psychologist who moved to the United States and taught at Harvard, UC Berkeley and Yale.  In his theory regarding identity formation he stated that we humans go through various stages in life that help form our identity.  One stage, which generally occurs in adolescence, but which extends into adulthood, is what he called the stage of Fidelity.  You may have heard of the term “Identity Crisis.”  Erickson was the first to coin it. The conflict the human deals with in this stage is Identity vs. Role Confusion.  The individual grasps with who they are and what they want to become in their life.  That question of “Who Am I” encompasses vocation, sexual, and religious factors, among others.

Some psychologists and psychiatrists, Donald Winnicott being one of the most prominent, also talk about struggle between the False Self and True Self in terms of identity formation.  Winnicott theorized that we humans often take on the role of a false self in forming our identities – that identity relates more to what parents, teachers, or society wants from us than who we are authentically.  Winnicott felt that we are less spontaneous and real when living up to our false self ideals.  We are also more neurotic and psychological unfit when doing so.

If you look back on your adolescence you may remember your own struggles with identity development.  You may, further, remember trying to fit in with the popular crowd, trying to be the cool guy in high school, not wanting to be considered silly or atypical by others.  I can remember my son, Bennett (aka Puddle in F3) talking about changes that occurred for him during this stage.  He was trying to “fit in” with the way he dressed, with sports he played, even with the music he listened to.  He got to a point where he said “to hell with it”, I am going to be me.  He started wearing socks with his sandals because, well, he liked to when it was colder outside.  He later saw other people doing the same thing as him.  He decided he disliked some of the music that high school kids were listening to.  He found he liked Neil Young, Pink Floyd, stuff his Old Man liked.  But in exploring further, he found Indie music with groups that were influenced by artists like Neil Young and Bob Dylan, and groups like Pink Floyd, but who were creating their own music of a different sort.  He has led his Old Man (yours truly) to find and love some of these artists such as Jason Isbell, The Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Jack White, Raconteurs, and Shins.  Bennett found in exploring what he truly liked that other friends truly loved this kind of music as well.  And these seemed to be the kinds of people who were more passionate about music.  I remember taking a group of his high school friends to see 70+ old Neil Young play in an outdoor concert near downtown Nashville.  The kids were very into Neil Young as was this Old Man.

We continue to form our identities as we go further into adulthood.  We face identity crises at work, in our love lives, and in our search for what makes life truly meaningful.  Hopefully, we shed some of our false self skin in the process and get closer to our true natures that God gifted us with.  We, after all, were created in God’s image.  And, the Bible actually speaks of us shedding our false self skin, which it calls the “old self” , shedding what the world wants of us, and living out a “new self” which is what God created us for in the first place:

Collossians 2: 9-10:  Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

1 John 2:15-17: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Pinto’s mother who is very ill and may be entering the final phase of her life.  Prayer for Pinto as well after injuring his ribs when moving some things for his mother.  Prayers for Messi whose wife has had seizures and may have to be operated on in the hospital.  Prayers for Squirtle’s ex-girlfriend whose 21-year-old daughter recently died of medical issues.

Durn Curmudgeons

THE SCENE: Sunny, temps in low 70s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Plank raises, 20 Plank Jacks, 10 Rockettes, 10 Cherry Pickers, 8 Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward
THA-THANG:
Mosey to stop sign on northeast corner of Admin Bldg.  We will go back on the road that semi-circles around the Admin Bldg stopping at various cones to do exercises.  The exercises at each cone are as follows:

  • Cone 1:  10 Burpees.  Then, Barry Sanders to Cone 2.
  • Cone 2:  20 Big Boys.  Then Bear Crawl to Cone 3.
  • Cone 3.  20 Squat Jumps.  Then Mosey past parking lot to Cone 4.
  • Cone 4:  20 Imperial Walkers (both legs = 1).  Then Sprint to Cone 5.
  • Cone 5.  20 Squats.  Then Hop to Cone 6.
  • Cone 6.  20 Merkins.  Then Mosey to Cone 7
  • Cone 7:  20 Hello Dollies (4 count), 20 Iron Mikes, 20 American Hammers, 20 Dying Bugs, 20 Flutter Kicks

Mosey to Shaded Area near Park Entryway off of Northshore.

40 Baby Crunches

Mosey to Bottom of Mt. Everest.  40 Baby Crunches.  Then run up to top of Mt. Everest.

Rinse and Repeat on the 7 cone run on the road that semicircles around the Admin Bldg.

Mosey to AO.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Ten men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Helping the Curmudgeons of the World

As HIMs we try to help others in our community.  Some folks take our help graciously.  Others do not.  Some people are mighty difficult to help.  I have been giving a number of messages about helping such “hard to help” people.  Helping difficult people, the curmudgeons of the world, is hard.  If we can trust that God is also working with them, it might make it easier for us.  Our efforts may not reap rewards quickly.  Rather, we might be planting a seed that will lead to blossoming that is very slow to come.

Furthermore, we must remember that we are sinners ourselves.  The curmudgeon’s pride, disrespect, and lack of kindness may be sinful but that does not make us somehow superior to the curmudgeon.  In fact, the curmudgeon might be able to offer us something that helps us to grow as humans.

A wonderful illustration of how Curmudgeons can involuntarily be helped by others and help others as well is the book A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.  Ove is a true curmudgeon.  He can be downright rude and cruel to others.  He is 59 years old, has been forced to take retirement, and is pissed about it.  He hates life and wants out of it.  We find out, in the book, that the one person whom he did allow to get close to him was Sonja, his wonderful wife.  She saw beneath his outward stiffness.  But we also learn that Sonja has died of medical causes.

Ove contemplates and tries various ways to kill himself in the book.  But they are foiled by heaven, fate, or crazy people in his life that he just can’t get away from.  Two of those people are Patrick and Parvaneh, new neighbors who back up their U-Hual right over Ove’s mailbox.  Others are an overweight neighbor named Jimmy, a diffident mailman named Adrian, a flamboyantly gay young man named Mirsad, and a crazy cat that keeps on coming around Ove’s house when Ove would like it to go the hell away.  Ove begrudgingly helps each one of these characters (or animals in the book).  He feeds the cat and finally allows it to come into his home.  He helps Jimmy get a job.  He teaches Parvaneh to drive and takes her to the hospital to deliver her baby.  And, these people, also help Ove.  Although he wants out of life, they give him a reason to live.

It isn’t that any of these characters made the choice to help this curmudgeon called Ove or that he sought them out.  Rather, it is through their sloppy, confounding, odd, and downright hilarious interactions and relationships that each character grows – and takes Ove away from the incredible depression that was leading him to try suicide.

So, our interactions with others need not be smooth and on target to derive benefit.  Your attempt to help curmudgeons will be downright difficult and sometimes seem impossible.  But if you can be patient, who knows how God will work in your relationship with the curmudgeon.  You may plant a seed that brings about change.  And, God may work with your relationship in such a way that the doggone curmudgeon actually helps you!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Iceman gets married Saturday and Hooker’s wife, Carly, is due with baby in April!  Prayers for the aforementioned.

Hidden Figures and a Farewell to 90!

THE SCENE: Hot as heck… again… temps in the mid-90s and a blazing sun overhead.  This is OCTOBER??!
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Check.

WARM-O-RAMA:

  • 10 SSH (4-ct, IC)
  • 10 Baby Arm Circles Forward/ Backward (4-ct, IC)
  • 10 Moroccan Nightclub (4-ct, IC)
  • 10 Tempo Squats (4-ct, IC)
  • 10 Cherry Pickers (4-ct, IC)
  • 10 sec high knees/ 10 sec butt kickers
  • 10 merkins (OYO)

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to shady grass field by closest parking lot to Lyons View entrance.   Partner 1 Hops to first cone, Bear Crawl to second Cone, then Duck Walks to third cone and sprints back, and trades off with partner 2, who is working on the following exercises (cumulative reps):
    • 90 BBS
    • 90 LBCs
    • 90 American Hammers (2-ct)
  • Mosey to CMU pile
    • 30 Curls/30 Overhead Presses/30 Rows.  Try to complete in 90 seconds.  Rinse and Repeat x3.
  • Mosey to Cardiac:
    • MODIFIED DORAS:
      • Partner 1 run to first corner do 30 reps, Partner 2 do 30 reps, then run to catch up with Partner. Then do the last 30 together (15 each) “Patty-cake” style. Exercises:
        • 90 Merkins
        • 90 Shoulder Taps (each shoulder = 1)
        • 90 Bottle openers (?) (each arm = 1)

MOSEY TO grassy area at the road intersection: 30 BBS

MOSEY TO shady northeast corner of perimeter drive around admin building: 30 LBCs

MOSEY TO AO: 30 American Hammers (2-ct)

MARY:
90 squats

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
9 strong! 0 FNGs!

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM

I recently watched the movie Hidden Figures, which is about three young women who worked “behind the scenes” at NASA in the early 1960s and did the calculations that enabled John Glenn to launch into space.  It’s pretty obvious that we did a lot of exercises totaling 90 reps. This was to celebrate the last afternoon workout in the 90s. But did you realize:

    • We did 9 exercises and 10 reps per exercise in the Warmup?
    • We did 9 different exercises during Tha Thang?
    • I’ve spoken 90 words so far?

So we had some Hidden Figures in our Workout, and we also have Hidden Figures in our lives. These might be co-workers who do tasks that “keep everything moving”, which for me would be the data analysts that crunch the numbers so I can perform my modeling and write my reports. Maybe it’s a secretary, or dispatcher, or just someone who brings a positive and enthusiastic attitude to work every day. Maybe it’s someone at church who does a lot of unnoticed things that make events special… At my church up in Chicago there’s a woman, Fern, who washes and irons the tablecloths for special events and organizes cabinets, and there’s Anne, who stitches hats out of leftover yarn to pass out to homeless shelters.  Maybe it’s a Friend that you don’t see very often, but is always there when you need them, to offer words of encouragement, a shoulder to cry on, or a hand to help you up. And then there’s our relationship with God, who is Hidden from our earthly eyes, but is always with us in our time of need.

Seek out those Hidden Figures in your lives and thank them.

MOLESKIN:
Thankful that Jinxy’s heart procedure and diagnosis were favorable! Thanks to Sparkler for taking the lead on the Asylum PM obstacle construction for HH.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: