F3 Knoxville

Tag: Red Card

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.

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.

[ The Scene ]

– Apparently this whole “board meeting” idea has caught on with “The Others” = people that don’t do F3. So tonight, The Others were having a board meeting (sort of – sitting around in camp chairs in a circle and talking with/without drinks in hand) – so PAX moved to the Asylum AM spot to circle up

[ Welcome/Disclaimer ]

  • Welcome to F3: Fitness/Fellowship/Faith
  • My name is Steam and I am not Thunderstruck unfortunately but he had a previous engagement so I will be your Q tonight!
  • Couple things:
    • I’m not a professional
    • You’re here on your own volition
    • If you need to modify anything that we do tonight – you know your body better than anyone – so feel free to do so.

[ Warm 0 Rama ]

  • SSH: 30 x 4 IC
  • Rockette: 25 x 4 IC
  • Squat: 20 x 4 IC
  • Merkin: 15 x 4 IC
  • Imperial Walker: 15 x 4 IC
  • Motivators: 4

[ The Thang ]

(mosey to the CMU pile)

25s

  • 5 rounds
    • Round 1: 5 CMU curls —> run to playground: 5 dips
    • Round 2: 5 CMU curls + 5 chest presses: run to playground: 10 dips
    • Round 3: 5 CMU curls + 5 CMU chest presses + 5 CMU rows: run to playground: 15 dips
    • Round 4: 5 CMU curls + 5 CMU chest presses + 5 CMU rows + 5 CMU sit-ups —> run to playground: 20 dips
    • Round 5: 5 CMU sit-ups + 5 CMU rows + 5 CMU chest presses + 5 CMU curls
  • 2 POCs (Points of Contact)
    • CMU pile
    • Playground down from AO
  • 5 Xs
    • @ CMU pile: curls, chest presses, rows, sit-ups
    • @ playground: 5 dips —> +5 —> +5 every round

(Return CMUs and mosey to Pavilion)

All My Benches

  • 4 sides of the bench
    • Short Sides: 25 pull-ups/chin-ups
    • Long Side 1: 25 Incline Merkins
    • Long Side 2: 25 Decline Merkins
  • Wall-Sit when done

(Mosey to playground)

The Final 15

  • 10 at the playground
    • 5 minutes of bench work
      • Alternate between box jumps/step ups + dips
    • 5 minutes of core work (these were some LONG minutes). Have you ever had 5 minutes last 3 hours? Because now we all have.
      • Alternate between flutter kicks and big boy sit-ups
  • 5 back at the AO
    • Mosey back to the AO
    • Light stretching with Steam (not Pusher approved OR denied. OR denied, that’s important)
      • Stretching back and lower legs
      • Borderline yoga stretching legs an chest

[ COT ]

  • # off
  • Name o Rama
  • BOM

”When I”

When I wandered, He led.

When I was thirsty, He supplied water.

When I hungered, He provided nourishment.

When I strayed, He called me back.

When I let my thoughts wander, He re-focused me.

When I was weary, He provided a place to sit and rest.

Think about your own “When I” statements from this year. In addition to the ones I’ve experienced above, some of mine have been “When I wondered if I was going to have a job” or “When I was isolated in my home for days on end during the original quarantine” or “When I didn’t know how this would end” or “When I questioned why all of this is happening” and so on and so forth. So what are your “When I(s)” ?

But the thing about a “When I”statement is just that, the but. But God. So if and when you find yourself wandering – let Him lead. If and when you find yourself thirsting for something (literal liquid or not) – let Him supply it. If and when you hunger (physical hunger or soulful hunger) – let him provide nourishment. If and when you feel yourself straying – let Him call you back gently (or strongly sometimes). If and when you feel your thoughts begin to wander and take control – let Him refocus you. And when and if you find yourself weary – let Him provide you a place to sit and find rest in Him.

Mercy Now

THE SCENE: Clear evening, temps in 50s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Burpees, 10 Mountain Climbers, 10 Windmills, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backward, Little of This and That
THA-THANG:
Mosey on dragon tail and up past Haslam Boulder to street nearby.  We will stop to do 20 American Hammers.

Mosey on trail toward Lyons Bend and stop as it intersects with other trail.  We will do 20 Hello Dollies and 20 Merkins.

Mosey west on trail and then south on trail to foot of Summit.  We will do 20 Flutter Kicks and 10 Hand Release Merkins.

Mosey to grassy area by Utilities Bldg.  We will do 20 Bicycle Kicks and 15 Shoulder Taps.

Mosey to Lane that Semi-Circles by soccer fields.  We will do 20 Box Cutters and 20 Carolina Drydocks.

Mosey on Semi-Circle Lane to Southern Ball Field Parking Lot.  We will bear crawl 10 parking lane lengths, lunge 10 lengths and Bernie the remainder.  We will do the same thing going back to where we started.

Mosey to curbside by street leading back to A0.  We will do 20 Curbside Bench Dips.

Mosey to AO area.  We will do 10 Hand Release Merkins, then Bernie halfway up mini cardiac and run rest of the way up.  Run back down to AO.

MARY:
At AO we will finish with Ring of Fire doing merkins.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
18 men including one FNG, Crawdad’s 11-year-old son, Asher, whom we dubbed Speed Flash.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Hebrews 4:16:   Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

I was listening to Spotify and heard a song with words that made me think of Corona Weight’s brother who is currently in prison.  Corona Weight has asked for prayers for his brother a number of times at our Asylum PM BOM. Corona Weight obviously loves his brother and prays not only for his brother’s health, but his salvation.

The song I was listening to is called Mercy Now and is sung and written by Mary Gauthier (pronounced GOH-shay).  Here are the lines that made me think of Corona Weight and his brother:

My brother could use a little mercy now
He’s a stranger to freedom, he’s shackled to his fear and his doubt
The pain that he lives in it’s almost more than living will allow
I love my brother, he could use some mercy now.

This “brother” in the song may not even be in prison but is a stranger to freedom.  And, from what Corona Weight has told us about his brother, that he loves so much, even out of prison he will be “shackled” unless he can turn his life around.  His brother needs mercy.

Yet, as I listened more to Gauthier’s song, I realized that she was talking about more people than her brother (and her father, whom she described in the first lines of the song).  Our country and even our churches need God’s mercy:

My church and my country could use a little mercy now
As they sink into a poisoned pit it’s going to take forever to climb out
They carry the weight of the faithful who follow them down
I love my church and country, they could use some mercy now.

The true Christian knows that Gauthier is right.  We realize that we, too, are sinners who wear our sin as much as anyone else.  And, we trust in God’s mercy to save us.  For the fact is that we all, no matter how rich or poor, no matter where we live, no matter what church we attend or people we associate with, need mercy.

Some of the last lines of Gauthier’s song read that every living thing could use some mercy now:

Only the hand of grace can end the race towards another mushroom cloud…
I know we don’t deserve it but we need it anyhow
We hang in the balance dangle ‘tween hell and hallowed ground

And every single one of us could use some mercy now.

Lord, have mercy on every single one of us.  We can use it and we need it now.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Corona Weight’s brother, Jared.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Bring coats by next Tuesday for charity drive.

Hey, Let’s Move Swimmies’ Car!

THE SCENE: Unusually Warm, upper 70s, partly sunny but getting dark earlier and earlier…
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Check
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 SSH, 4-ct IC, 10 Cherry Pickers, 4-ct, IC, Twist stretches…

Then Jinxy told us Swimmies (who we thought was just typically late) was actually stuck on the entrance road with a blown clutch.  So… forget the rest of the warmup… MOSEY RUN TO THE RESCUE!

Followed Swimmies to his car, which was on the entrance road from Lyons View, dead in the water, smelling very unpleasantly of fried clutch.  It was HIM’s to the rescue! Pushed it up to a pull off area, then proceeded with warmup.

10 Hillbillies, 4-ct, IC, Little of this and that.

THA-THANG:

[Q crumples up his Weinke and starts just making stuff up, since the original workout was supposed to be on the opposite side of the park from where we moved the car… Crawdad appears out of nowhere.  So does Brick.]

Moseyed to terraced hill on side of Everest.  Start at the bottom, do 5 reps of three exercises , then run up to first terrace and return, do 10 reps of each exercise and run up second terrace and return, then do 15 reps of each exercise and go all the way to the treeline.  EXERCISES: Merkins, Squats, American Hammers (2-ct)

MOSEY to perimeter trail and over to edge of park that looks out at the Veterans Cemetery.  Pause, take a moment to pay respects to the Veterans buried at the cemetery.

NICKEL/DIME/QUARTERS along perimeter trail to top of the Tail of the Dragon.  Run 1 light post, do 5x exercise, run 2 light posts do 10x exercise, run 5 light posts do 25x exercise.

  1. [Can’t remember the first exercise… something awesome]
  2. CDDs
  3. Mountain Climbers (2-ct)

MOSEY to the hill along the Tail of the Dragon that leads up to the monument.  Do 7’s Top: Prisoner Get Ups, Bottom: Prisoner Cell Merkin Burpees.  These were brutal.

MOSEY to AO. DORAS.  Partner 1 works on exercise, Partner 2 runs about 2/3 up Baby Cardiac.  Exercises are 100 Merkins and 100 BBS.  Final Sprint up Baby Cardiac with everyone.

MARY:
Hamstring stretches, 20 American Hammers, 4-ct, IC

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 strong. No FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Veteran’s Day is tomorrow, and it’s had me thinking about those who have served our country, the men and women that have been a part of the armed forces, as well as their families.  We took a moment earlier to pause and remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country.  What does sacrifice entail?

One of the defining traits of human beings is altruism. Altruism is the practice of doing things that benefit others even at the cost of your own happiness, welfare, or (to use a biological term) “fitness”.  It is unusual in the Animal Kingdom because of the principle of “Survival of the Fittest”… if an action benefits someone else rather than you, you might be the one eaten by a cheetah on the Serengeti, or fail to make sweet love with that attractive she-moose over there, or die of thirst in a desert with a limited number of watering holes

What force is it that allows men and women to sacrifice their comfort, families, even their lives in service to others?  To me, it is the gift of Grace from God.

St Francis of Assisi articulated this when he said “Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.”

But there’s more to it than that. Even though we have the ABILITY to sacrifice and be altruistic doesn’t necessarily mean we will USE that gift.  What inspires us to use it?

Bob Hope, who entertained troops overseas for decades, once said, “I saw more courage, more good humor in the face of discomfort, more love in an era of hate, and more devotion to duty than could exist under tyranny.”

And as Ernest Hemmingway said in a FAREWELL TO ARMS, “When you love, you wish to do things for that which you love. You wish to sacrifice. You wish to serve.”

Another saying about veterans is that they don’t fight for what’s in front of them, they fight for what’s behind them.  We are fortunate to live in a country that is free from tyranny, where military service is voluntary, where autocrats and dictators do not hold sway over our democracy.  The veterans that paid the ultimate price didn’t fight for themselves, they fought for what they loved.  America the Beautiful.  The Land of the Free.

The veterans who have served and died for this country overcame self, and is so doing, in my opinion, became one with the Grace of God.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for several PAX and their relatives.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: