F3 Knoxville

Tag: Thunderstruck

Control the Controllables

THE SCENE: The fakest fake gloom possible
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER DONE
WARM-O-RAMA:
32 SSH to celebrate the Vols win, cherry pickers, this and that, rockettes, and stretch to get ready to run.
THA-THANG:

  • BB with crouching tiger merkins and inchworm-merkin-squat
  • BB with Apollo Onos and American Hammers / V-sit OH claps
  • Bear Crawl fun!
  • BB with Criss-Cross Squats and Lunges
  • BB with Butterfly Big Boys and Sprints
  • BB up with some Burpee action

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
A dozen HIMs getting better
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Things at work have gotten chippy.  My office works with 100+ units and we’re always the end of the line, so when others upstream don’t do their part, it’s our problem to fix.  When other’s don’t pull their weight, we have to make up the slack.  With that, resentment can build and things that shouldn’t be said get said.  It’s helpful to remember the wisdom to “control the controllables”.  Attitude.  Action.  Effort.  I can choose to let things upset me, or choose to keep a positive outlook.  I can choose to participate in the negativity, or choose more positive actions.  I can choose to lower my quality of work, or I can choose to perform at my highest level.

You can’t control much of anything that goes on around you.  But, you can control your Attitude, Action, and Effort.

Why do we fall?

THE SCENE: Cloudy and damp, but not too bad, around 60 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER  Check
WARM-O-RAMA:

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

– 10 Cherry Pickers (4-ct), in cadence

– 10 El Capitan Lunges, jog to end of parking lot, same thing back.

– 5 PCMBs (Prisoner Cell Merkin Burpees)

  • LBACs forward, backward

THA-THANG:

MOSEY to Pavillion:

  • AIKEN LEGS! 20 Squats, 20 Box Jumps, 20 Lunges (10 each leg), 20 Split Jacks (10 each leg forward)

 

MOSEY to Caribbean:

  • Catch Me If You Can!
    • Partner #1 Bernie Sanders, Partner #2 does 5 of the exercise then sprints to catch Partner #1. When he does, they reverse rolls.  4 loops. Exercises:
  1. 5 American Hammers (2-ct)
  2. 3 Burpees
  3. 5 Carolina Dry Docks
  4. 5 Bobby Hurleys

MOSEY to Cardiac:

  • Cardiac 25’s:
    • Run to first turn and back. At bottom and turn do 5/20, 10/15, 15/10, 20/5 of:
      • Mountain climber (2-ct)/Merkins
    • Run up the rest of the hill and finish with 30 Mountain Climbers and Merkins.

MOSEY to parking lot across from AO

  • BUCK 25’s!
    • Karaoke to left cone. 10 Pickle Pounders/10 Pickle Pointers
    • Run back to center cone, Karaoke to right cone. 10 Pickle Pounders/10 Pickle Pointers
    • Run back to center cone, Bernie Sanders backwards to the cone. 5 Pickle Pounders/5 Pickle Pointers
    • Sprint forward 100 Side Straddle Hops (single count)
    • Run back to center cone.

 

MARY:
Not this time.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Seven strong
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Quote from the movie BATMAN…

Alfred: “Why do we fall, sir?  So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

Just replace one letter in that quote, and you get FAIL, not FALL.

Something I’m very poor at is dealing with failure.  I want to get it right the first time, and then every time after that. That’s one of the reasons I’m not a great handyman… I get so frustrated if I can’t figure something out immediately, that I just give up, rather than trying it one way, failing, trying it another way, and on and on until I get it right.

I’m very admiring of those who aren’t afraid to fail, who go for something, and if they succeed, great, but if they don’t… they pick themselves up again.  Mikaela Shiffrin, the American skier, was a great example of this in the Olympics.  She is one of the top skiers who ever lived, but she skied out of her first 2 or 3 events, and she didn’t earn a single medal in any of them.  But instead if quitting, she kept going out there.  She picked herself up, and continued.  And to me, she’s much more deserving of being a role model than a skater who has failed a drug test but won gold.

And so often, failure is a key component of success.  If you live in fear of failure, like I sometimes do, you miss out on a lot of opportunities.  It’s kind of like riding a roller coaster.  You put off doing it.  You’re petrified to do it.  Maybe sometimes you NEVER do it.  But then you finally get on the dang thing, and afterwards say, “Hey, that wasn’t so bad”.  And you’re not afraid of it as much the next time, and the next.  Similarly, the more times you fail, and the more times you pick yourself up… the less scary it becomes.

As the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

MOLESKIN:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP this Saturday, be there by 6:15 am to check in

Why Worry

THE SCENE: Clear skies, temp in 50s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
20 Side-Straddle Hops, 10 Plank Jacks, 10 Windmills, 10 Tempo Merkins, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Little Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backward.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the Southern Parking Lot close to the soccer fields.  We will go counterclockwise around the parking lot, stopping at each corner.  The following shows the exercises we do at each corner and how we get to the next corner:

  • Corner 1:  20 Merkins.  Bernie Sanders to Corner 2.
  • Corner 2:  20 Hello Dollies, 4 count.  Run to Corner 3
  • Corner 3:  20 Big Boy Sit-ups.  Bernie Sanders to Corner 4
  • Corner 4:  20 Flutter Kicks, 4 count.  Run to Corner 1.
  • Rinse and Repeat but Skip instead of Bernie.

We will Mosey to the perimeter trail where it goes by the pavilion close to the Southern Parking Lot.  We will run for 10 lights.  Those rabbits getting there first will come back and meet the six.  Then we will do the first of the exercises listed below.  Next we will run another 10 lights.  Those rabbits getting there first will come back and meet the six again.  Then we will do the second of the listed exercises.  We will do this until we hit the serpentine sidewalk.  The exercises are:

  • 20 Dive Bombers
  • 20 Squat Jumps
  • 20 Bicycle Kicks (4 ct)
  • 20 Iron Mikes (2 ct)

At the Serpentine Sidewalk we will hop forward for one light, then run for four lights.  We will repeat the pattern until we hit the end of the Serpentine Sidewalk.  Then we will return back on the Serpentine Sidewalk by lunging forward for one light and running for four lights until we hit the perimeter trail.

Mosey to the base of Cardiac.  We will Bernie for two lights and run for two lights, repeating this pattern until we reach the roadway.

Mosey to the AO.

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

What If?

What if the stock market crashes before I turn 70 and all the savings I have been relying on to retire plummets?

What if I get sued for malpractice and my reputation as a therapist takes a nose dive?

What if there is so much fighting within our country that it reaches a point where it is no longer the pillar of strength and beacon of hope for so many people?

What if my legs start to give out so much that I can no longer work out with my brothers in F3?

What if that lady in charge of the Lakeshore Park Conservancy, who has told us to stop writing on sidewalks and keep out of the ballpark area when teams are playing, somehow forces F3 out of the Asylum?

What if my house falls apart due to some kind of reason that my home insurance policy doesn’t cover?

Here’s two sentences from Philippians 4: 6-7:


Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Let me give you a few more “what if” questions.  Think about these questions, dwell on them a bit.

What if there truly is a God who watches over us and loves us?

What if God takes delight in us, not for the riches we make but for the good we do for others?

What if God will take care of us through the greatest of losses, even our possessions?

What if Jesus really did die for our sins and arose three days later?

What if God truly does hear us when we pray?

What if there is a heaven and God will be with us, even when we die?

I’ll end this message with some verses from the song, We Will Feast in the House of Zion by Sandra McCracken

We will not be burned by the fire
He is the Lord, our God
We are not consumed by the flood
Upheld, protected, gathered up

We will feast in the house of Zion
We will sing with our hearts restored
He has done great things, we will say together
We will feast and weep no more

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Thunderstruck’s mother, who has cancer and for Operation and his wife as they try for pregnancy.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP at the Asylum on February 26, 6:30 am to 9 am.  Chance for F3 men to serve for RAMUSA.org.  This is a clinic that provides medical and dental services for free to people in the community.  The clinic will be in Knoxville on June 24 to 26.  Our brother, Cat Gut, needs to know by March 1 if you can help.  Let him know if you can.

Giving Thanks… and no Beaver Moon!

THE SCENE: Cold, low 40s, fairly calm and clear, but the hallowed Beaver Moon didn’t make an appearance, to everyone’s disappointment.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Check.


WARM-O-RAMA:

– Motivators 7 count decreasing

– 10 Cherry Pickers (4-ct), in cadence (aborted this exercise due to mumblechatter around 6 or so…)

– 10 Rockettes (4-ct), in cadence

– 10 Grady Corns  (4-ct), in cadence

– Calf stretches

THA-THANG:

Mosey to Caribbean Parking Lot

  • NO MERCY MILE (really more like a half mile)
    • Near end: Bear Crawl around turn
    • Run to ½ way point. 25 Merkins. Run to curve
    • Far End: Lunges around turn
    • Sprint to ½ way point. 25 Squats. Run to Curve.
    • Rinse and Repeat.

Mosey to open air Chapel

  • AMRAPS
    • 30 sec dips, rest 10 sec. R&R x4
    • 30 sec incline merkins, rest 10 sec R&R x4
    • 30 sec isometric squats (alternating), rest 10 sec R&R x4

Mosey to east down path towards the bottom of Cardiac.  At intersection, 20 American Hammers (4-ct)

Mosey to bottom of Cardiac.  20 Imperial Walkers (4-ct)

  • Cardiac Crusher
    • Run to first curve and back, 20 flutter kicks (2-ct)
    • Run to second curve and back, 20 flutter kicks (2-ct)
    • Run to top, stop at each turn to do 10 merkins, 10 squats, and 10 BBS

Mosey to AO

MARY:
Homer/Marge leg raises

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
16 strong
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Thanksgiving:

Back in 1620, 102 separatists Christians left Europe and came to America via a little boat called the Mayflower.  The first years in America were very hard, and about half the population died within the first several months.  They likely all would have died without the help of the Native Americans, who provided food and taught them how to grow crops.  They celebrated the harvest the following year, in 1621, with Thanksgiving. The celebration lasted 3 days. Thanksgiving was only sporadically celebrated until 1789 when George Washington called for it to be a recurring celebration.  Even then, it still didn’t totally catch on until 1941, when FDR and Congress declared it a national holiday.  Why is it so tough to celebrate Thanksgiving?  We seem to want to skip over it it and move right from Halloween to Christmas.  If you’re cynical, maybe it’s because there’s no money in Thanksgiving?  Not as many cards, gifts, and promotional events…Except for the Macy’s parade, and for that everyone is just waiting for Santa at the end.

But there is a human need to give Thanks.  One of the first things parents teach their children is to say Thank You (when handing a young child something…: “What do you say? What do you SAY??”).  Giving Thanks is important because it interrupts the Self, recognizes the Other in our life.  We value that other.  We have an imperative and a need to give Thanks to those we have relationships with.  And who or what is the primary relationship in our life?  It’s God, and we need to give Thanks to God.  Giving Thanks reminds us that we are recipients, not creators.  It allows us a moment to pause and count our blessings.  STEAM recently posted a message in Sticky Notes Channel: “GAS PRICES ARE HIGH, THIS SUCKS” VS “I WAS ABLE TO FILL UP MY CAR WITH GAS. THANK YOU JESUS.” What a great perspective for the week of Thanksgiving.

I love the line from the song Signs that was sung by Tesla and written by Five Man Electrical Band… “Thank you Lord, for thinking about me, I’m alive and doing fine.”

Here’s what I think.  I think we need to build a world that strips out the biases and fear of other religions, other cultures, other world views and focuses on the basics.  Love God, Love your Neighbor.  Easy Peasy.  Right?  Wrong.  It’s simple, but it’s not easy.  How do we do that? Giving Thanks can be a great place to start and get beyond the differences.  Seek first the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God is love, generosity, thankfulness, and justice.  That is how we live in that Kingdom.  This is what was in the heart of the Pilgrim’s journey. To be a loving, generous, and thankful community.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Steam’s mom who has COVID, for other friends and family members going through illness or trials.  Prayers for the victims of the Waukesha driving calamity.  Prayers for our nation as tensions rise and the Enemy tries to divide and discourage us.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Christmas party Dec. 11!

Getting Uncomfortable

THE SCENE: Rainy day, but skies cleared by start of Q as temperatures started to drop
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20x Side straddle hops, Cherry Pickers, 15x Moroccan Bightclubs, Tempo Squats and Little of this and that

THA-THANG:
The grass was wet, but we hit it early anyway

  • Straight to the bottom of Pickett’s Charge for a Pickett’s Charge Suicide run.
    • 5 merkins at the bottom each time back, 1st tier 5 Prisoner Get-ups, 2nd tier 5 Imperial Walkers and 3rd trip all the way up to the Coliseum and stayed there
  • Coliseum, under the string lights. A little back and forth.
    • One side under the lights, lunges to each pole and 10 Big Boys at each of the 4 stops, run back to the other side
    • Other side is bear crawls to each pole with 10 squats at each stop then run back to first side and rinse and repeat each side twice to finish up
  • Mosey to the light pole at the base of the Haslam Rock. Route 66 heading towards the rest rooms downhill. 11 light poles adding 1 merkin each stop to 11 lights.
  • After gathering ourselves we wandered to the adjacent parking lot across the street from the Cloud and ran 2 Karaoke runs the full length of the lot switching sides halfway each run and sprinting back to the beginning
  • Slosey to the base of mini-Cardiac hill where we did 5 Burpees before a Bernie to the sign a bit more than halfway up and then sprinted to the top. Followed by a run back to the AO for circle time and a couple minutes of stretching

MARY:
Just a few leg stretches to finish off the last 2 minutes
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Spoke of a retired Marine friend of mine who has spent the last half year getting himself into uncomfortable positions talking to those less fortunate than us on the streets of Tampa and befriending them to know their stories and helping them out as much as he can. He related getting uncomfortable to the November tradition of men growing facial hair and how that can remind those that do that to embrace getting uncomfortable and seeking to find hard truths during the month. That is a great lead in to Thanksgiving week where we then express thanks for what all we have, which then leads to December where you can better target giving and gifts and the great holiday spiritual journey ties up nicely in January where you can then find a way to better yourself with a resolution for the New Year. Don’t coast through the holidays, grow through them.

MOLESKIN:
The Q started tough and didn’t let up, but our 10 hung tough.

We also welcomed an FNG tonight. Welcome to @Moneyball

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Announcement on the upcoming F3 Christmas party on Dec 11