F3 Knoxville

Tag: Thunderstruck

The Bell Lap

THE SCENE: Perfect, upper 50s, light breeze
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Done, with emphasis on CORONA guidelines.

WARM-O-RAMA:

-20 SSH, (4-ct), in cadence

– 10 Windmills (4-ct), in cadence

– Back stretches. Stay in down position, reach one arm up, hold for 10 s, reverse arms

– 32 Grady Corns, (4-ct), in cadence

– Go to curb, do calf stretches.

THA-THANG:

MOSEY to Serpentine Sidewalk.

2-4-6s.  Run two light poles, do 2×5 (10) of the exercise and run back to starting point.  Run 4 light poles and do 4×5 (20) of the exercise and run back.  Run 6 light poles and do 6×5 (30) of the exercise, then hold a plank. DON’T run back.  Rinse and repeat using a different exercise, continuing down path and to base of Cardiac.  Exercises:

  • Froggy Jumps
  • CDDs
  • American Flutters (Flutter kicks in the American Hammer “V” formation) (2-CT)

MOSEY to Bottom of Cardiac.  Same idea.  Run up to first turn, do 10 reps of ALL THREE EXERCISES, (FROGGY JUMPS, CDDs, AMERICAN FLUTTERS) return to start.  Run to SECOND turn and do 20 Reps of the three exercises and return to first curve.  Run to Top and do 30 reps of the three exercises and stop there.  RESPECT and DOUBLE RESPECT guys can opt out of running one return leg. (to my knowledge, no one took me up on that.  HIMs… *shoulder shrug*)

MOSEY to parking lot across from AO.  Do YULE LOG LAPS (cones laid out in a rectangular log shape):

  • Short-side 1: Bear Crawl
  • Long-side 1: 50/75/100/75/50 (% effort) sprint
  • Short-Side 2: El Capitan
  • Long-side 2: Bernie Sanders
  • 5 Merkins at each corner.
  • Rinse and Repeat until Q uses a special signal (Ringing of a bell) to indicate one more lap from where you are, AYG.  This is the Bell Lap!
  • 15 Burpees in the middle when last lap is finished. (15 days until Christmas)

MOSEY to AO.

MARY:
Static leg raises (on 6, back off ground, one leg bent, other leg held up with ankle above knee) 30 s one leg, 30 s other leg; Captain Thors; Homer/Marge

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Fourteen men and a dog. (Speed Flash, Asher, Crawdad’s 2.0, not tagged)

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

In track, any race that has multiple laps has a “Bell Lap”, that alerts the runners that they are on the last lap and they need to give it all they’ve got to finish the race strong. It’s a signal to the runner to get his or her head right, bear down, and give it everything they have.  As we approach the middle of December, I feel like we are in the Bell Lap of probably the most challenging year any of us has experienced.  But there is Hope!  There is a finish line in sight! Vaccines are on the way.  Our knowledge as to how to keep ourselves safe, and treatment options are evolving and improving all the time.  But just as the last lap in a race is the most difficult, because you are exhausted physically and mentally, so too is this last push of isolation, remote schooling, unemployment, food insecurity, loneliness, etc. the most challenging to bear.

In the Christian faith, this time of year is also the Bell Lap as we anticipate the arrival of Christ.  We are in the Advent season, and “Advent” means Coming, or Arrival.  In just a few short weeks we celebrate the coming of the Lord, the birth of Jesus, who taught us, walked with us, and ultimately paid for our sins with his life.  So my message today is a simple one.  Both with the virus situation and with our Faith, We are in the Bell Lap.  Don’t give up.  Finish strong. Have Hope.  God is Coming. Hallelujah, God is Coming.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for the wives of Curveball and Ribbed as they go through surgeries and recoveries, prayers for Abacus and his family, prayers for a friend of Crawdad’s who’s relatives have had serious COVID scares.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
None

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.

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.

Broken Frisbee Toss and The Vote at Asylum – 2020

THE SCENE: Slightly Overcast, mid 60’s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 SSH IC

Pinto Hops – 15 IC

Cherry Pickers – 15 IC

Grady Corns – 32 IC

Rocketts – 10 IC

Merkins 10 OYO
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the open field near the outdoor field just before the large chapel. Throw the frisbee (broken due to preworkout fracture). The entire group runs to the frisbee position and does the exercise, throw again, do same excercise, repeat:

    • First 15 squats oyo (run back and forth)
    • 25 American Hammers, 4 ct oyo (Bernie back and forth)
    • 20 Hello Dollies (4 ct, LT Dan back and forth (1 lunge, 1 squat, 2 lunge, 2 squat, 3 lunge, 3 squats, etc))
    • 20 LBC, 4 ct, (bear crawl back and forth)
  • Mosey further towards entrance past first stop sign to open field with cones
    • NIckel, Dime, Quarter at each end of field – Merkins 5,5, then 10, 10 then 25, 25 running in between
  • Mosey back half way to CMU parking lot, ring of fire- 1 round x 1 Merkin, 1 round x2 merkin
  • Mosey back to CMU parking lot. Partner up, each grab a CMU
    • . Electorals (aka Doras) 100 Curls, 100 BBS, 70 Overhead presses
      • Partner runs to other side of lot, 20 Sawmills (1 ct) 5 squat jacks, run back

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
20 strong
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
October is a tough month for our family. Oct 17 is Grady’s (my son’s) birthday- he would have been 32 this year. Grady died 2 years ago this Dec 13 of an accidental overdose. Sharing the fact that your son was an addict is not an easy thing to do. You just don’t talk about it. I just wanted to share a little bit about our story. Grady was a straight A student and an outstanding athlete. He played on the top Arizona soccer teams until he was about 17. He excelled at pretty much everything he tried. He worked hard to be the best. His issues started when he was a Jr in high school. He struggled with his addiction and our family struggled along with him for the last 13 years of his life. He was clean for about a year before he moved to Knoxville in October.  I was proud of him, especially when he was able to join the Asylum PM group- we finally had something in common and it was healthy. I think he came to 4 or 5 workouts and he Q’d after about 3 or 4 I think. His life ended on Dec 13. Having gone through the addiction cycles with Grady, I can attest how devastating it is to the addict and the family. Progress and setbacks… It dominates and controls every aspect of life. It’s chemical and mental but treated as criminal in our society. Substance abuse and addition is all around us- so if you know someone (or observe it in someone you don’t know) , pray for them and reach out to help in any way you can. In Knoxville in 2017 there were 293 drug related overdoes , in 2018- 295, 2019-257 and in 2020 year to date- there were 299.

MOLESKIN:
Insert any personal comments, notes, devotion content, etc.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence Oct 7

Moving Refrigerators

THE SCENE: Beautiful evening, temps in low 60s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Tempo Merkins, 10 Mountain Climbers, 32 Grady Corns, 10 Windmills, Little of This and That.

THA-THANG:

Mosey to “the Caribbean” parking lot.  We will journey a candy cane route around the parking lot (starting up south side of parking lot then rounding to go about half-way down north side of parking lot) but stopping at each cone planted along the way.  The cones will be spaces at about every other island in the parking lot. Once the final cone is reached we will sweep back to the beginning of the candy cane.  We will run the candy cane 6 times, journeying by the following methods and doing the following exercises.  We will always run back once the cane is finished.

  • Sprint and do 10 Merkins at each cone.
  • Bernie and do 10 Big Boy Sit-ups at each cone
  • Grapevine left and do 10 Star Jumps at each cone
  • Grapevine right and do 10 Smurf Jacks at each cone
  • High knees and do 10 Hello Dollies (4 ct) at each cone.
  • Butt kick and do 10 Iron Mikes (both legs = 1) at each cone.

Mosey to start of Serpentine Sidewalk.  We will do 14s along sidewalk by bear crawling for one light and running for four lights until we reach the perimeter trail.  Then we will do 20 American Hammers.

Mosey to start of Cardiac.  We will run up Cardiac stopping at each of the following to do the listed exercises:

  • First Curve:  20 Flutter Kicks (4 ct)
  • Second Curve:  20 Hello Dollies (4 ct)
  • Third Curve:  20 Decline Merkins
  • Benches:  20 Bench Dips

Mosey to AO

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
14 men, no FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

One of my good friends in my doctorate program in psychology was a guy named Jim Dupree.  He was about ten years older than me and had already practiced as a therapist but with a master’s degree and was going back to school to get his doctorate.  He sweat like a pig on those hot days in Texas and smoked cigarettes like a bandit, but he was wise, honest, and an excellent friend and counselor.  I remember him and me working on painting a room in his house one time and him saying, “You know John, talk is good but if you really want to get close to a guy you need to do something like move a refrigerator across town with him.”

You know, I think he’s right.  We brothers are close.  Our talks at board meetings are part of the reason but I think a bigger reason is that we work hard and sweat together to accomplish something good.  I have also enjoyed “moving fridges” type moments with some of you guys that drew us closer.  Recently, I enjoyed working with Sparkler, Abscess, Pele, Steam and Curveball to both put up and break down obstacles at Hardship Hill.  I acquired a bit of poison ivy in the process but it was definitely worth it.  I remember a big group of us, including Mr. Jinxy, Hooker, Doubtfire, Pele, and Abscess, sawing and pruning branches in Pinto’s backyard and enjoying the reward of his swimming pool and some brewskis thereafter.  There is something about working together, sweating together, that brings us close.  We face the same challenge and it unites us.  Gents, I enjoy our fellowship and appreciate your willingness to help each other through the grind.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Rooney’s coworker who is currently on ventilator after contracting Covid 19; for Pinto who is recovering from stem cell transplant; for Jared, brother of Corona Weight, who is in prison but had to go to hospital after accidentally cutting off top of finger – may he recover and find God to help him change his life; and, for our country, that we may be united and at peace no matter who ends up winning the presidential election.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
F3 Knoxville 5th Anniversary and Convergence this Saturday