F3 Knoxville

Tag: Pele

AMRAP-O-RAMA

THE SCENE: Warm, but beautiful, low 80s, partly sunny, less humidity than normal
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Check!
WARM-O-RAMA:

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

– 10 Windmills (4-ct), in cadence

– 10 Reverse tempo squats (all the way down, then stopping at intervals on the way up)

– 40 Moroccan Nightclubs

– 10 Plank Jacks (4-ct), in Cadence

THA-THANG:

Mosey to Stop Sign to northeast of admin building.  Do 30 seconds of the following 4 exercises, AMRAP.  (and yes, a car drove by RIGHT when we were doing the pickle pounders!)

  1. Plank Jacks
  2. Pickle Pounders
  3. Mountain Climbers
  4. Shoulder Taps

Mosey to CMU pile.  Get a CMU.  Do 30 seconds of the following exercises. AMRAP.  Rinse and Repeat.

  1. Overhead Press
  2. Curls
  3. Rows
  4. Squats

Mosey to Bathrooms.  Do 30 seconds of the following 4 exercises, AMRAP

  1. Froggie Jumps
  2. Lunges
  3. Bobby Hurleys
  4. Smurf Jacks

Mosey to Open Field.

RING OF FIRE!

  • 8 cones are placed in a big circle in the shade of a tree down by the outdoor chapel. Divide up among the cones. Bear Crawl or Lunge between stations. Do 60 seconds of the listed exercise at each cone, then rotate counterclockwise
    • LBCs
    • Squat Jumps
    • Run to the tree about 70 yards away and back.
    • Flutter kicks
    • Carolina Dry Docks
    • Half Burpees (stay in plank, no jump).
    • Hello Dollies
    • Iron Mikes

 

  • Mosey to the new cul-de-sac by the Coliseum. Do 30 seconds of the following 4 exercises.  (we ran out of time before the E2Ks).
  1. Big Boy Situps
  2. American Hammers
  3. E2K Left Side
  4. E2K Right Side

Jail break to the AO.

MARY:
No Time.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
12 HIMs present and accounted for, including two FNGs, C-6 and Octomom. Virginia Slims needs a tag. Plus two doggies.  They were nice and didn’t bite anyone.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

The following is an excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s letter from the Birmingham jail on June 12, 1963. His closing remarks are worth remembering today, almost exactly 57 years later.

“Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”

As HIMs, I feel we need to be an active part of making the “deep fog of misunderstanding” disperse from the general conversations about the virus, race, and other challenging issues that our society is currently facing.  How can we do that?  I’ve been trying to work on these suggestions.

  1. Hit the mental pause button. The easiest way to fall into a web of misunderstanding is to let emotions get the best of you.  Try to relax, calm down, and really listen.
  2. Use your head. Put yourself into the other’s person’s shoes.  If you’re not sure how to do that, ask them questions that get to the root of why they feel the way they do.
  3. Use your heart. Try to tap into the emotions underlying their point of view.  And be patient when discussing volatile topics.  Really trying to understand where someone is coming from is a unique form of love and caring.  It means that you value them as individuals and aren’t just dismissing their viewpoints, but are rather seeking a depth of understanding that is really connecting with them.

This has to be a two way street.  Try to encourage the other person to meet you in the middle. Otherwise, you’ll just become frustrated that the efforts you are going through aren’t being reciprocated.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Lillydipper’s wife as she continues to go through chemo treatments, and praise that they’ve found a surgeon that they both like.  Prayers for Title IX as he prepares for a bit life-changing trip to Oregon to continue schooling in the coming months.  Happy birthday Hooker!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Morristown clown car leaving Sat. morning at 5:30 am from the REI off of Papermill.

Patience of Unanswered Prayer

THE SCENE: Sunny, temp about 90 degrees
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Plank Jacks, Plank Stretches, 10 Rockettes, 10 Windmills, Little of This and That
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Stop Sign at Southeastern Corner of Admin Bldg.  We will do 20 American Hammers.

Mosey to grassy area that is south of Area 51.  There will be four cones set up in a square pattern.  We will be going in a counter-clockwise route around the square four times, stopping to do an exercise at each cone.  By the end we will have done four exercises at each cone.  Following are the exercises at each cone and the method by which to get to the next cone:

  • Cone 1:  1. 20 Side Straddle Hops (4 ct)  2. 15 Mountain Climbers (4 ct)  3. 20 Star Jumps  4.  20 Iron Mikes (both legs = 1)  (After exercise, Sprint to Cone 2)
  • Cone 2:  1. 20 Merkins  2. 15 Shoulder Taps  3. 10 Hand Release Merkins  4. 20 Carolina Dry Docks  (After exercise, Skip to Cone 3)
  • Cone 3.  1. 20 Big Boy Sit-ups.  2. 20 Hello Dollies (4 ct).  3.  20 Flutter Kicks (4 ct.)  4. 20 Bicycle Kicks (4 ct)  (After exercise, Bernie Sanders to Cone 4)
  • Cone 4.  1. 10 Burpees  2. 15 Imperial Walkers (both legs = 1)  3. 20 Bobby Hurleys  4. 20 Squat Jumps  (High Knees to Cone 1).

Mosey to Northshore Entrance to Park.  We will go south then east on the perimeter trail, doing Nickel Dime Quarters with the following exercises:

  • Squats
  • Dead Bugs
  • Diamond Merkins
  • Dive Bombers

We will be near the Southern Ball Fields when we have done the above.  Mosey to the parking lot at the Southern Ball Fields.  We will do 8 count Bear Crawls then 8 Count Lunges, repeating this pattern from one end of the parking lot to the other.  

Mosey to Outdoor Chapel.  Take 15 second breather.  Then mosey up hill all the way to the new built area near the Admin Bldg.  Take 30 second breather.  Mosey to AO.

MARY:
25 Hello Dollies
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
22 men with two FNGs whom we named Whistler (Brett Marshman) and Leo Turcas (Nadia).  Nadia was a Flying EH victim!
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Asking with Patience

Matthew 7: 7-8

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Romans 8:25

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

2 Peter 3:8

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

At last week’s internet streamed worship service at my church, a line struck me from one of the songs we sang.  The song is “Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart” by Croly and Digerness.  The line that struck me is “Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.”  That is certainly a line I need to hear during the time of this coronavirus and national unrest after the death of George Floyd.  I read the bible verse that says, “everyone who asks receives.”  I know that people all over Earth are asking that this coronavirus would end.  I ask, “God, when will you answer our prayer?”  Yet, I need to also ask, “God, teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.”

When I was a boy, my best friend, Neil, who lived next door, was the first family on our block to get a Color TV set.  Seven years later, most people had Color TV sets but I was still praying for our first one.  My mother was a single parent and a teacher – and, just like today, teachers don’t make enough money for all the work they do.  I remember getting excited when we went to a big store that had a television promo.  As part of the promo, people could bring in advertisements they received in the mail.  If your code number on the advertisement was one of the winning code numbers, you could get a free TV set.  My mother, of course, told me the odds were minuscule for us to have a winning number.  We went to the store and there were all these magnificent color television sets, sitting there for a kid like me to gawk at.  Needless to say we didn’t win a set.  “But, mom, can’t we even buy one of the smaller sets?”  I know my mother felt bad for me but with her lack of funds she was also teaching my about life – about limiting oneself to a budget; about not coveting; about appreciating what we have; about patience.

About six or seven months later I came home to find a portable television set sitting on a cabinet in our living room.  It was on, it was playing a television show, and the show was in living color!!!  My mother had saved for quite some time to get that portable but color TV set.  I was so happy!  It may have been small but it was a COLOR SET!

God, teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.  I think of people who have endured wars that last for many years.  Teach me to be grateful for what I do have.  I think of people who endured plagues like the Black Plague where cities of people were wiped out by the disease or indian tribes in America who were practically wiped out by diseases that Europeans brought from another continent.  God, teach me to have trust that you are there for me, for us, no matter what difficulties and even tragedies beset us.  For in You we have something that hardship, suffering, even death cannot take away.  As the famous poet, John Donne, said, in you Death Shall Die.

MOLESKIN:

Prayers for our nation at this time of unrest, prayers for Iceman’s father who will need surgery for his heart again, prayers for Thunderstruck’s mother and grandfather, prayers for Lillydipper’s wife.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
F3 Launch at Morristown this weekend.

The Return of the Big Dipper!

THE SCENE: Awesome evening.  Partly sunny, low 70s, not much breeze
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!  Some additional COVID-19 considerations: keep your distance between you and other members of the PAX and any other folks that we pass during moseys, etc. to 6-10 feet.  We will be splitting up into groups smaller than 10 if necessary.  We need to set good examples and be good neighbors out here at this public park, especially with so many folks out and about.

WARM-O-RAMA:

-20 Side Straddle Hops (4-ct), IC, 10 Cherry Pickers (4-ct), IC, 10 Steve Earles (4-ct), IC, 10 Grady Corns (4-ct), IC.  We also scattered in 30 “Marine Burpees” (burpee minus the Merkin at the bottom) in honor of Mandolin’s 35th b-day.  The Q was getting tired during the dang warmup, so we stopped there but added 5 more during the workout to make 35.

THA-THANG:

We split into two groups to be in compliance with local health guidelines.  Mr. Jinxy was Q2.

  • Mosey to the Grinch’s Hill. Do 3 sets of 7s, going up the hill a different way for each (always run down the hill):
    • First 7s. BERNIE SANDERS up the hill
      • Mountain Climbers (4-ct)
      • Burpees
    • Second 7s. EL CAPITAN up the hill
      • Star Jumps
      • Smurf Jacks
    • Third 7s. BEAR CRAWL up the hill
      • BBS
      • American Hammer (4-ct)
  • Mosey to Perimeter Trail near Area 51. Nickel-dime-quarters (run 1 light, do 5 of the exercise, run 2 lights do 10, run 5 lights do 25), with Carolina Dry Docks as the exercise.
  • Mosey a little ways up the base of EVEREST to get off the trail and out of people’s way. Do 10 of each exercise, run up 1/3 of hill and back down, then 20 of each exercise, run up 2/3 of hill, then 30 of each exercise, then run to base of summit.
    • Exercises: Big Boy Situps, LBCs, Flutter Kicks (4-ct; switched to 2-ct for the last set)
  • At BASE OF SUMMIT do 10 of each exercise, and then TAKE THE HILL!
    • 10 x Burpees, Bobby Hurleys, and SSH

MARY:
Q1 did X’s and O’s and Homer/Marge until Q2 finally decided to show up at the shovel flag.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
18 HIMs, including Clooney (couldn’t tag) and FNG Duck Hunt, who is Mandolin’s 2.0.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Jesus said that following his death, “You will know the Holy Spirit. It will be in you, and I will be in you, and you will never be alone.”  The Bible also says that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve wondered what the Holy Spirit looks like, and I’m still not 100% sure.  I thought it might look like a benevolent ghost, or a sparkling cloud with rainbows and unicorns or something that would fill you with wonder if you were to look upon it.

But these days, when it may appear that God is keeping His distance from us, I think the Holy Spirit looks a whole lot like the doctors that hold the hands of patients dying from the COVID-19 virus, who can’t have family members be with them during their final hours.  I think it looks like volunteers and loved ones who drive by and wave and hold pictures up at the windows to cheer up the residents of nursing homes.  Or parents who tirelessly help their children learn at home. Or people who contribute money or time to food pantries.  Or communities who gather outside and bang on pots at a certain time to congratulate the graduating high school class, like they did in my home town.  Or the local baker who baked a thousand cookies for the first responders at Beth Israel hospital in NYC.  At first glance, God and the Holy Spirit may seem to be distant from us these days.  But in truth, I think they are closer than ever.

“God will be with us, if we follow his commandment to love each other as Jesus loved us.” (John 13:34).

MOLESKIN:
It was just awesome to have our fearless leader Lilydipper join us again.  We prayed for him and his wife, who is undergoing treatment for cancer.  Prayers also for 3 classmates of Abscess who passed away last week.  Prayers of thanks for Pusher’s anniversary, and Thunderstruck’s mother, who is ill but felt well enough to do a short hike to a waterfall on Mother’s Day. And Happy 35th, Manilow!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Some PAX are going to Morristown to assist with their launch on Saturday.  They will be leaving around 5:30 am. Contact Abscess or Steam for more details.

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

This One’s for Jinxy

One comment

THE SCENE: Sunny, slight breeze, mid 60s… not bad.  Not bad at all.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

My BACKBLAST disclaimer is that I’m writing this for Mr. Jinxy, who was crying about doing one.  “I don’t know how to do it… the line spacing is all messed up… do I need to do it?  Wah wah wah…” So I’m just doing it for him this time.  THIS time.

I think he got through the welcome and disclaimer without too many screw ups.  I was Q2 for the beatdown, due to having more than 10 people show up (#covidsucks), and was frantically scanning the workout he printed out and handed me, oh, five whole minutes before starting.  Gave me PLENTY of time to try to figure out what the <radio edit> he had in mind.


WARM-O-RAMA:
We did some warm up stuff.  I recall SSH, Cherry Pickers, Tempo Squats, BACs… again, I was trying to kind of stretch and decipher his workout at the same time.
THA-THANG:
Mosey down Roadshow Run.  Nickle/Dime/Quarters along the perimeter trail (run 1 light, do 5 reps of exercise, then 2 lights do 10 reps, then 5 lights, do 25 reps).  Exercises: American Hammers, Burpees, Merkins, CDDs, Bobby Hurley’s, BBSs.

Mosey to Field of Dreams.  Bernie up the hill at the side of the field 3 times, doing 20x jump squats, deep squats, star jumps.

Four corners around Field of Dreams.  Run one long side, Bernie the other.  Bear Crawl on the short sides.  At the corners to 10x BBS, Flutter Kicks, Hello Dolly’s, Elbow to Hand Planks.

Mosey to the bench on the hill near the Admin Building.  This was a long uphill mosey, and the suck factor was pretty high.  Brick almost lost it, but he held on like a champ. Abscess: “I would NEVER do this all by myself.” I heartily agree.

MARY:
Capain Thors, Leg Lifts, maybe one other thing?  I was kind of making stuff up at this point.  Jinxy’s group was late (sooo typical), so it was just us doing the Mary.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
15 Strong, including two FNGs (one of whom was Pluto’s 2.0), who we named Utah and Crank Bait.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Jinxy had a bad day and told us all about it. We were super sympathetic.  He said something really awesome about getting joy out of setbacks.  I’m getting a #&%^-ton of joy out of the setback of having to write his backblast.  That’s for DANG sure.
MOLESKIN:
Impressed with the strength of Brick’s stomach, but was a bit disappointed about not witnessing merlot spillage.  Nice to see a good crowd out in the Fake Gloom.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
None