F3 Knoxville

Tag: Skid Mark

Gratefully Being Told What to Do

THE SCENE: Not too hot… but so muggy I felt like I might get robbed *ba-dum-tss!*
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER– Administered (Fitness, Fellowship, Faith / Not a Professional / Modify as necessary / $Free.99 / Cell phone for Uber Eats or an emergency)

WARM-O-RAMA:
“Not a warm-up at all”
“The hardest warm-up ever”
“Sounds like a Trolley warm-up to me!”
(all of these were heard or in some variation today during the following warm-up)

This was taken from Trolley’s Q “Slot Cars: The Grateful Grid (and my first F3 workout ever).

1. Plank Destroyer
2. Crabet
3. Freddy Mercuries
4. Mountain Parkers
5. Peter Parkers
6. Squat Walkers
7. Donkey Kicks
8. Iron Mikes
9. Burpees
10. Clap Merkins

THA-THANG:
Mosey to the Cheatsheet parking lot.

Slot Cars… but only back and forth between rows of parking spots. Basically the warmup with a 60 second stretch between called by each PAX (we had exactly 10 today!). I didn’t write down all of the stretches but a few examples I remember:

Saigon Stretch (from our FNG Braden aka Tapas!)
Pickle Pointer aka Glute Bridge Hold
Pretzel Knee stretch
Up dog (S/O to Flintstone for getting my joke on this!)

Mosey to the CMU pile for “Heavy Air”:
Reach for the sky
Let it hang
Down dog
Up dog
Hold a glute bridge with your feet on the CMU
Skull crusher (horizontal reach for the sky)

Repeat without a CMU

Mosey to Shovel Flag -> Jailbreak was called

MARY:
Q gave PAX the choice of Dealer’s Choice or Baseball stretches. PAX (Betty) chose Dealer’s choice. We got about 5 reps into SSH’s (while the Q was doing lunges) when time was called.

 

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
10 Grateful men.

 

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

 

3 years ago I was in the middle  of separation that ended in me losing my marriage. I had been humbled & was the most broken in my life I’ve ever been. I sowed & I reaped:
“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” –‭‭Galatians‬ ‭6:7-8‬ ‭ESV‬‬
Over those following months (which you can read about my journey if you starting here and working your way forward), but rather than focus on the negatives, today I want to focus on ‘the grateful grid’:
“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” – ‭‭Colossians‬ ‭4:6‬ ‭ESV‬‬
I’m going to shoutout men who have shield locked with me- and most of these have been done unofficially but very intentionally- & why I keep coming back. These are several of the men I’m grateful for:
Ribbed– you held my feet to the fire & made sure my faith, hypocritical in the past, was true & refined as more valuable than gold.
Trolley– you showed me what I was capable of when I pushed beyond when I want to give up as well as  such joy & camaraderie. Miss you brother.
Guardrail– you reached out even though you had no idea who I was. You’re a faithful brother who was so surprised ‘are you this open with most people?’, but my confidence in God’s ability to work & heal through a friend like you has been a great source of encouragement.
Jitters– you’ve kept in touch even though our paths don’t cross much. Your steadfast faith encourages me.
Anchorman– you just keep showing up. You’re positive & sacrifice for your family.
Mermaid– you’ve been there pretty much the whole time. You’re beyond consistent- you’re persistent! You don’t give up, you don’t let sad clowns go, & you don’t play disc golf much anymore either! Thankful to have shared 3 years of your 3 years & 2 week journey with you.
Judge Judy– you have showed me what it means to follow, lead, & lead well. Your challenges get me in a way that checks my ego just enough to make me want to get better for the right reason. Soli Deo Gloria.
Baby Boomer– we met at F3 even though we are members of the same church. What nonsense is that & yet what divine Providence to have a friend & brother in Christ like you.
And for the rest of you- your story is still unfolding.
Be the man you want as a friend.
Seek wisdom & counsel from those who you see laying down their lives for others.
Gladly assume sacrificial responsibility & when you do the authority will fall squarely on your shoulders to use it for the good of others and God’s glory alone.
“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭4:6‬ ‭ESV‬‬
Grace be with you, my F3 brothers.
MOLESKIN:
Prayed for the teachers going back to school already/soon.
Hard to believe 3 years has passed! Missed Mermaid a good bit this morning as he’s been a part of the journey and a huge influence at Shamrock. Next time, sir!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Sign up to Q – I’m glad to help or get someone else to co-Q with you!

HubandSpokeandBurpees

The Scene

Sticky and Hot

F3 Welcome and Disclaimer

Fitness, Fellowship, Faith, Free, Modify, Not Professional, Own Volition, Social Distance, Phone

Warm-O-Rama

5 4-count Cherry Pickers

10 4-count BAC Forward

10 4-count BAC Backwards

10 4-count SSH

10  lunges

10 tempo merkins

 

Tha-Thang

Mosey to the start of Shamrock Row and lunged until it was time to do a burpee, then we lunged again and did another burpee, then we bear crawled and did a burpee, then we crab-walked and did a burpee…..PAX was trying to figure out the pattern with no luck. 

We recovered from that when we got to the Merkin Mile and then got into the meat of the workout. We partnered up and proceeded with the following: 

Hub and Spoke Workout 

Hub is 7 burpees

Spoke 1- 50 SSH

Hub 

Spoke 2-50 Shoulder taps

Hub 

Spoke 3-100 Freddy Mercury’s

Hub 

Spoke 4- 25 Imperial Walkers

Hub 

Spoke 5- 20 Lunges (10 each leg)

Hub .

Spoke 6- 25 Merkins

Everyone got 1 round

 

Mosey to the CMU pile and performed double CMU carries to the mouth of the parking lot and back (x2)

Moseyed back to the parking lot with enough time for 4 more burpees (Exactly what everyone wanted to do)

Mary

No time

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

12 men of high impact

COT/BOM

“Hold fast, then, to this sound and wholesome rule of life – that you indulge the body only so far as is needful for good health. The body should be treated more rigorously, that it may not be disobedient to the mind.” – Seneca

MOLESKIN:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

200 Merkins, A Simple Workout

THE SCENE: Mid 60’s and glorious
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Even though Pool Boy was in attendance, we did zero Side Straddle Hops
Tempo Merkins
Tempo Squats
Baby Arm Circles forward and backward
Moroccan Night Club
Cherry Pickers, nice and slow

THA-THANG:
Mosey to to the pull up bars.
Simple workout, just do 200 merkins, and a twist.
The twist is that you do this routine every time you stop doing merkins:
5 Pull ups
10 Big Boy Sit ups
15 Squats
resume merkins and repeat until you hit 200 merkins.

Once over half of the group reached 200, time was called and we ran to the CMU’s.
Each HIM grabbed a CMU and repeated this 3X:
25 Curls
10 Tri ext (after 200 merkins)
25 Bench Press

Mosey back to the AO for the Mary

MARY:
The first exercise called was LBC’s and someone said take us to 100, so we did 50 LBC’s in cadence equaling 100.  Be careful what you ask for.  Then we did 36 flutter kicks only because I failed to stop at 35, finally we all did 10 big boys on our own, and for the last few seconds dumpster dive had us do jumping beans.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
We did have one FNG, named Carter.  We named him Flintstone because he was wearing minimalist running sandals, and was practically barefoot!
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I talked about my struggle to pray when times are good, and my desire to pray when times are tough.  I recently dropped my daughter off at a camp in Palo Alto CA.  She is 15, and we were both struggling at the prospect of her being on her own.  I finally left her, and I was a wreck emotionally.  I took a long walk around the Stanford Campus to clear my head and spent a lot of time in prayer.

My daughter met some people and did great, and I hailed an UBER back to San Francisco.  I encountered the best driver I have ever had.  He had over 28,000 trips and maintained a 4.99 star rating out of 5.  Nasim was a Jordanian immigrant.  He retired from the grocery business, and drives UBER for fun.  He loves people, and was raised as a Christian in Jordan, before immigrating to the US.  We had a delightful conversation, and he was an answer to prayers, and maybe even an angel.  Nasim and I swapped numbers and he texted me the next day (Father’s Day) to see how I was doing.

We need God all of the time, not just when things are rough, the challenge this week is to remember that and spend some time in prayer.  God is real, He is there just waiting for you to have a relationship with Him.
MOLESKIN:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Thank you for the beer

THE SCENE: 59 and cool
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
1 Burpee

5 cherry pickers

some of these some of those
THA-THANG:
mosey over to the rock and we had 5 stations and a list of 5 exercises. you start and the first station and do 1 then run up to station 2 and do two. Run back to the first station and run up to station 3, and do 3. And so on and so forth.

  • merkns
  • air taps
  • V-ups
  • BBS
  • Squats

Everyone completed we mosey to the entrance to the auditorom.

  • 5 incline monkey humpers – audible because it’s a monkey humper

11’s

1 dip and run the long way around the parking lot to the porch and 10 4x plank jacks

 

MARY:
streching and cool down after 3 miles of running

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
remember the 2 greatest commandments

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

MOLESKIN:
Insert any personal comments, notes, devotion content, etc.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence July 2nd Be there!

Bearing Our Burdens

THE SCENE: Warm and steamy mid-70s (great for generating sweat)

WARM-O-RAMA:
A plethora of SSHs, Merkins, Tempo Squats, Tie Fighters, and Grady Corns; A quick meander and mosey to the CMU pile and the pillars of the church

THA-THANG:

Dora-style load bearing… battle-buddies select a pillar of pain and station their CMUs for a sweet sweat sesh; HIM 1 works through reps at pillar while HIM 2 moves 1 or 2 CMUs to the center of the parking lot; After running back to swap, HIM 2 continues the reps while HIM 1 goes to gather the load and returns it to the pillar;  Rinse and repeat while moving through the exercises and reps collectively.

Exercise 1: 300 reps of Wall Sit Grady Corns

Exercise 2: 200 reps of CMU Squat Thrusters

Exercise 3: 100 reps of CMU Alternating Merkins

Exercise 4: 50 Blockees

On the way back to the CMU pile we stopped to load the dock; Each HIM moved their CMU on to the dock, jumped up on the dock, carried their CMU down the steps; Each worked in 2 reps; Waxjob inspired many to Rifle Carry Hold while waiting to load the dock.

MARY:

After dropping off our CMUs and a steady mosey back to the AO; the PAX enjoyed the great tradition of burpees for broken CMUs – fortunately we only had 1 block broken – so we did 10 burpees OYO

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
16 HIMs walked away huffing and sweaty…. no FNGs

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Galations 6:2-3 NLT… “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.  If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself.  You are not that important.”

Expect the unexpected.  Life is full of challenges and burdens that sometimes we create ourselves.  The F3 PAX is here to help and will gladly help carry your burdens as men… but you have to make your need known. I love these men and would do anything to help any one of them.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence coming on July 2nd.