F3 Knoxville

Tag: Pusher

Infamy and Unity

THE SCENE: 40s and damp but no rain
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

79 years ago (12/7/41), Pearl Harbor was bombed.  The attack began at 7:55 a.m. and lasted for almost 2 hours.

12 SSH (4 ct)

7 Burpees

41 Squats

THA-THANG:

Mosey to the flag pole

19 American ships were destroyed or damaged.

19 boat/canoes

188 American aircraft were destroyed or damaged.

188 tie fighters (single count)

2,403 American lives were lost – 2,008 from the Navy, 218 from the Army, 109 Marines, and 68 civilians.

2,403 merkins as a group in honor of everyone who died at Pearl Harbor (regular, inclined, declined, hand-release, WWII, etc., or a combination – PAX choice – but try to mix it up).  There were 12 PAX, so each PAX did 200 merkins.  After the first 100, we all ran a lap around the track.  After the next 50, we ran another lap.  After the final 50, we ran another lap.  We did the last 3 merkins together, in cadence, in the form of WWII merkins.  After completing the 2,403 merkins as a group, we ran a fourth lap to complete the mile.

Back at the flag pole, we honored the 15 members of the Navy who received the Medal of Honor for their actions at Pearl Harbor by doing 15 American Hammers (4 ct).

Minute of silence under the flag for everyone who has fought and died for our country followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, which broke out spontaneously from one of the PAX.

We had some extra time and hadn’t done enough merkins, so we cashed out with some ATMs (15 shoulder taps (4 ct), 10 tempo merkins, and 10 merkins (OYO)).

Mosey back to the AO

MARY:

Hello Dollys x 20 (4 ct)

Flutter Kicks x 20 (4 ct)

Hold plank for about a minute until time

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
12 HIMs, including FNG Floater and last week’s FNG Jetlag whose tag is not in the system.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Our workout lasted 45 minutes.  79 years ago, Pearl Harbor had another hour or so of hell to fight through by the time that we were done.  What we did was nothing compared to what the people at Pearl Harbor did and went through.

The USS Arizona still rests under the water at Pearl Harbor.  Its fallen crew members still rest there, too.  Among them, 23 sets of brothers died on that ship on that day.  Former crew members who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor can have their ashes placed under one of the sunken gun turrets.  44 have done so with the last one occurring in 2019.  Former crew members from other ships who survived can have their ashes scattered where their ship was located during the attack.

There are lots of interesting stats and facts about Pearl Harbor.  Here is one that jumped out to me – after Pearl Harbor, 97% of Americans approved of entering WWII.  Sadly, it is hard to think of the last time 97% of Americans agreed on anything.

FDR said that 12/7/41 was a day that would live in infamy, which means being well known for some bad quality or deed.  He was right.  It was, and it has.

It also led to unity.

Let’s pray for the same bravery and unity that defined the Greatest Generation.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for unity (hopefully without the infamy).  Prayers for everyone struggling with addiction (spoiler alert: we all do over something to some degree) and praises for those who overcome addiction and find better ways and better days.  Prayers for Ribbed’s wife.  Prayers for Curveball’s wife.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Polar plunge coming soon

No Measure

THE SCENE: Clear sky with temp at about 33 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Run around parking lot, 25 Side-Straddle Hops, 20 Plank Jacks, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Rockettes, 7 Twists, 7 Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward
THA-THANG:
Mosey to start of Serpentine Sidewalk.  We will do 14’s on the sidewalk until it hits the perimeter trail.  We will Bear Crawl for one light, then run for four and continue this pattern until the perimeter trail.

Next, we will do 20 American Hammers.

Then we will head south on the Perimeter Tail doing nickel, dime, quarters with the following exercises until we get to the southern ball field pavilion:

  • Jump Squats
  • Merkins
  • Smurf Jacks

Mosey to large parking lot by the southern ball fields.  We will Bernie from one end of the parking lot to the other stopping at each large lamppost to do 20 Big Boys Sit-ups.  We will Skip back stopping at each light to do 10 Hand Release Merkins

Mosey to roadway that heads back to A0.  Stop to do 20 Squats.

Mosey to Caribbean.  We will alternate between Karaoke Right and Karaoke Left stopping at every fourth island to do 10 Iron Mikes (both legs = 1)

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
25 Baby Crunches (4 ct)
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
21 Men with no FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I was listening to a sermon by Shawn Slate, the pastor at my church, and he quoted a line from a book called When God Interrupts by M. Craig James.  The line, which really struck me, is: “There is no better way to lose your life than to constantly measure it.”

We get into trouble when we start measuring our life against the successes of others or against the “shoulds” that we create for ourselves.  I do not mean that goals are unimportant.  Goals give us something to strive for.  But, they can lead to the loss of a relationship with God.  They can keep us from truly seeing the virtue, the struggle, and the stories in other people.  If we are continually measuring our own lives we are probably ignoring the lives of others.  Our lives become one more item to mark off our checklist in our path to greatness.  And we end up playing the game the world wants us to play:  to have the nicest car, to get the best job, to move into the richest neighborhood.  We climb up the latter to success and ignore God’s world around us.

In God’s kingdom, our worldly measures of success don’t matter.  Jesus said, “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.”  And what did Jesus, the messiah, the king, do before his death?  What did he do to show the disciples what it is to be great in heaven?  He got on his knees and washed the feet of each one of them.  He served them.

In the same service that my pastor preached, our congregation sang a communion hymn called Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken.  One of the lines in the song is “With thy favor, loss is gain.”

Perhaps part of being a High Impact Man is giving up the ways I measure myself as successful and giving up the ways I compare myself to others.  Rather, I should focus more on serving others, on washing the feet of fellow sinners, be willing to sit at the end of the row versus the front of it.  It is there that I am apparently much more likely to find God’s favor.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Corona Weight’s brother, Jared, whose parole hearing was extended from November to March.  He remains in prison.  After having an amputated thumb replaced he must have it removed again and, hopefully, replaced later.  Prayers for Curve Ball’s wife who is having surgery in Florida; for Goober’s step-grandmother who was recently diagnosed with Covid-19; and for Ribbed’s wife who will have surgery to remove a tumor at her spine on December 14.  Prayers for the vaccines for the coronavirus, that they may be effective and that they reach the world’s population quickly.

Getting Misty at the Splash Pad

THE SCENE: Windy. Wet. Wonderful.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Cherry Pickers | Baby Arm Circles IC
  • SSH IC
  • Rockettes IC 

THA-THANG:

Tabata workout: eight 20-second rounds of an exercise with a 10-second rest between rounds. Short mosey between exercises as rain allows.

Exercises:

  • Pull-ups (Four rounds instead of eight)
  • Step-ups with Leg Raise
  • LBCs
  • Squats
  • BBS
  • Dips
  • Lunges
  • Flutter Kicks
  • Incline Merkins

MARY:

  • Didn’t neglect her during the workout, don’t have to make it up to her now.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

7 including an FNG: Jet Lag

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

1Pet1:13-16 – So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

Reading about holiness this week and came across this passage. Part that spoke to me especially was “Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.” 

Once we know better, we have to do better. I experience this as a parent: when your 18mo takes a toy, they don’t know better. When your 5yo takes a toy, you know better than that. Once we know better, we have to do better.

For the men in this circle, we have all experienced some level of growth, whether that’s in our maturity & leadership, in our nutrition, in our fitness, but this is a time of year that it seems especially easy to slip back into our old ways: we’re around friends and family we haven’t been around, there’s food appearing that hasn’t been around in awhile, it’s cold and we don’t want to get out of bed. But coasting and satisfying our own desires in the moment will not help us grow, it won’t get us to where we want to go, and it won’t make us feel any better about ourselves at the end of the day.

Today, God is choosing you; he’s calling you to be holy as he is holy. Keep your foot on the gas; keep accelerating.

The Hills Are Alive With The Sounds of F3

THE SCENE: Nice Day! Chilly at 7:00 am start mid 40s. Clear sky
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Follow the Covid recommendation’s …. I am worse than any amateur, modify as necessary. We are going to do some hills today.

WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH X 15 , Butterfly Stretch ( Coach Dunn’s advice always appreciated), IT Band/Hip band stretch, quad stretch, arm circles, 5 Burpees. ( Pluto has no rhythm so the counting is always off a little )

THA-THANG:

The goal for this workout was to hit each of the primary hills in the Asylum AO. While planning the workout Pluto realized that an appropriate theme was the movie the Sound of Music. At multiple points in the workout the Pax sang the “The Hills are alive with the sound of F3” The singing was high spirited, but not in tune.

  • Run from AO start to base of Everest. At Everest Base: 20 Beachball  Merkins & 20 LBCs
  • Run up Everest – Al Gore till 6 up then Mosey to Stop sign. At Stop Sign 15 Squats with 5 second hold at bottom. Mosey to bathroom building at base of Picketts Hill.
  • Run up Pickets Hill with 5 Burpees at each plateau ( 5 Plateaus & 25 burpees if the hard side was chosen) Mosey down to Picnic Tables
  • Picnic Tables – 15 Picnic Table Pull Ups, 15 Dips, 20 Merkins in parking lot. Rinse & Repeat 2x. Did a few yoga stretches and core at  flagpole then mosey between ballfields to base of Cardiac Hill.
  • Run up Cardiac Hill with 10 Imperial walkers at every second light ( We sang the Hills Are alive at Base and put a headlock on a passing walker )
  • Mosey to CMUs… 20 Curls, 20 Overheads, 20 rows with CMUs Rinse & Repeat x 2 then mosey to base of Baby Cardiac Hill.
  • Up & Down Baby Cardiac Hill 3 x with LBCs or Ankle touch core work at base x 20.
  • Finished together running up final hill to AO start point while singing “Climb Every Mountain”

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
24 Pax got better this fine morning! Pele, Drum Major, Waffle House, Lillydipper, Hot Tub, Hooker, Jumbo, Mickey, G String, Convoy, Choir Boy, Matlock, Dung Beatle, Gilligan, Abacus, Gobbler, Swimmies, High Heels, Crawldad,
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Pluto shared how one of his favorite movies to watch during the Christmas season was the Sound of Music. As we hit the four hills of the Asylum AO this morning the song the Hills are alive with the sound of F3 was an appropriate theme. It is a rare that we do all four of these hills in a workout. Only have time to do so on a 1 hour Saturday. As we finished the workout the song ” Climb Every Mountain” was a closing song and finished  the Sound of Music workout  theme nicely. Pluto then shared 10 points of Trivia related to the Sound of Music and a tie in to leadership lessons from the Sounds of Music that were in a Forbes Magazine article a few years ago.

Sound of Music Trivia:

The Von Trapps did escape Austria as the Nazis came to power, but they didn’t flee over the Alps, they got on a train to Italy and then traveled to America, where they had a concert tour scheduled. The day after they left, Hitler ordered the Austrian borders shut.

When they left Austria, Baron von Trapp and Maria had already been married for years and had two children of their own, with another on the way.

When the von Trapps came to America they settled in Stowe, Vermont. They opened the Trapp Family Lodge, which is operational to this day.

The Sound of Music was the eighth and final musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein, but Hammerstein never saw the movie. He died of stomach cancer nine months after the Broadway premiere.

“Edelweiss” was the last song Oscar Hammerstein ever wrote, the production of the movie had to stop for two hours to teach all of the extras the words to the song for that scene.

When it came to the movie, Julie Andrews wasn’t the first choice for Maria! Producers wanted Grace Kelly or Doris Day to replace her.

Sean Connery, Richard Burton and Bing Crosby were in the running to play Captain von Trapp, before the role went to relative newcomer Christopher Plummer.

Kurt Russell and Richard Dreyfuss also auditioned to be von Trapp children.

While filming the iconic opening scene, twirling in the hills of Austria, Andrews kept getting knocked down in the mud by the gusts from the helicopter carrying the camera.

Adjusted for inflation, it’s one of the highest grossing films ever made, right behind Gone With the Wind and Star Wars.

It had the longest first run in U.S. cinemas ever at four and a half years.

Forbes Magazine: Four Leadership Lessons from Maria Von Trapp 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffloftus/2016/05/28/four-leadership-lessons-from-maria-von-trapp-julie-andrews/?sh=3c7d0e4210c6

MOLESKIN:

As we prayed together we as HIMS so often pray for our significant others and others in the Pax undergoing spoken challenges. Please remember that each of us has our own challenges each day & that all of us are going through something. Remember to pray for all the unspoken needs of our Pax and fellow f3’ers
ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The workout was followed by a well attended and enjoyed coffee time at Panera.

Giving in Thanks

THE SCENE: Beautiful and sunny day, temps in low 60s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Plank Jacks, 10 Pinto Twists, 10 Windmills, Gobble Trot around the parking lot, 7 Baby Arm Circles forward and backward, 5 Wide Arm Circles forward and backward.
THA-THANG:
Mosey on trail toward Mt. Everest but stop halfway for 20 American Hammers.

Continue mosey to base of Mt. Everest.  We will do 10 Tempo Merkins and 10 Tempo Squats.  We will then run to top of Everest.  At top we will do 30 Baby Crunches, 20 Hello Dollies and 10 Shoulder Taps.

Mosey to Shaded Parking Lot across street from Northern Ball Park Entrance Parking Lot.  We will do 20 Flutter Kicks.

Mosey to Caribbean Parking Lot.  We will run a U shape around parking lot stopping at every 3 islands to do exercises.  Those getting to end of U first will sweep men back.  Here are the exercises:

  • 20 Smurf Jacks
  • 10 Hand Release Merkins
  • 20 Bicycle Kicks (4 ct)

Mosey go grassy area by first ballpark off of Northern Ball Fields entrance.  We will play a game of 10 second huddle football (no more than a ten second huddle between plays).  The game will be touch with one blitz allowed per four down and only mid field being a first down mark.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
29 men/boys with one FNG, 5-year-old Jack, son of Lunch Money.  Jack now has the F3 name of Turkey Gobbler!
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I had the opportunity to look at some quotes from Presidents that each made on Thanksgiving Day.  I was struck by how many, in giving gratitude for the way our nation has prospered, also gave attention to the need to give to others, particularly the less fortunate.  I will quote from two of those presidents:

Calvin Coolidge 1925:

 “As we have grown and prospered in material things, so also should we progress in moral and spiritual things. We are a God-fearing people who should set ourselves against evil and strive for righteousness in living, and observing the Golden Rule we should from our abundance help and serve those less fortunately placed. We should bow in gratitude to God for His many favors.”

Ronald Reagan 1981:

“In this spirit, Thanksgiving has become a day when Americans extend a helping hand to the less fortunate. Long before there was a government welfare program, this spirit of voluntary giving was ingrained in the American character. Americans have always understood that, truly, one must give in order to receive. This should be a day of giving as well as a day of thanks.”

To give to others is an American call and certainly a call for F3.  I am proud of F3 for the principal we attempt to follow of giving to the community and those in need.  I have been struck by the way are N’antans, currently Judge Judy and formerly Abscess and Cap’n Crunch have made that a mission of F3 Knoxville.  Let us keep the spirit of giving in our hearts as we give thanks for our blessings.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Pinto, for Ribbed’s wife as she goes through surgery for removal of tumor by spine on Dec 14, for Curveball and his wife as they head to Florida on Saturday for surgery she will have there early next week, for the wonderful woman that F3 helped clean shelves in her garage last week, and for the lonely and isolated in our country on this Thanksgiving Day.