Thursday, January 12, 2023 | 5:15 AM | Stone Creek AO | The Berm | 21 Degrees and very windy [feels like 12]

PAX: Chiclets, Vandelay, Schnitzel, Green House, Turbine, Nailed It, House Party, Motor Boat, Flowers, Al Borland, LPC and Wait Time.
QIC: Wait Time

YHC welcomed the PAX to a very windy Berm beatdown. We covered the mission, principles, disclaimer [including for the next 45 minutes, I am not your friend]. Today’s workout is focused on the “Man in the Arena,” the famous writing from President Teddy Roosevelt. YHC acknowledged that we would stay away from the Stone Creek Apartments. The last time I Q’d at the site, we woke up a very angry neighbor in the apartments who demanded to see our “Commanding Officer.” Thanks to Toto for smoothing over the Q’s mistake. At that point the PAX moseyed to the Stone Creek Tee Box for Warm-A-Rama.

WARM-A-RAMA:
Anytime YHC steps onto a tee box, everyone is in danger to his right side, so an additional disclaimer was made about my tendency to push everything right – even possibly during warm-a-rama.

SSH x 12 IC | Hillbillies x 12 IC | Reverse Plank and Shoulder Stretch | Half Pigeon | Downward Dog | Half Pigeon | Hamstring Stretch | Garland Pose

When Broga was wrapped up the PAX moseyed back to the shovel flag for the PRE-THANG.

PRE-THANG: THE STEINL

Plank x 30 | Chilcutt Plank x 30 | Merkins x 10 | Amazing Spiderman x 10 IC | Merkins x 10 | Plank x 30 | Chilcutt Plank x 30 | Merkins x 10 | Amazing Spiderman x 10 IC | Merkins x 10

PAX counted off and found a partner. Each pair grabbed a sand bag or cinder block and walked it to the grassy knoll for the THANG.

THANG: ARENA ROCK

The Thang was a basic two-man grinder. One partner did a movement up the grassy knoll while the other partner did 20 reps of 4-5 exercises. One small twist – the push group was those PAX completing the four exercises, therefore the movement was continued until the exercises were completed.

ROUND ONE: LUNGES UP THE KNOLL
20 Reps of: Shoulder Press | Curls | Big Boy Sit-Up | Goblet Squat
ROUND TWO: BEAR CRAWL UP THE KNOLL
20 Reps of: Kettle Bell Swing | Dips | V-Ups | Cusack Squat
ROUND THREE: BERNIE SANDERS UP THE KNOLL
20 Reps of: Uneven Merkins | Curls | American Hammer | Lunge with Twist

PAX gathered the sand bags and returned to the shovel flag.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP on Jan. 28. Please sign up for the event. It does challenge the PAX to bring canned goods.
HEARTLAND HOPE EVENT. Third F event coming up at Heartland Hope. 2.0s who are 12 and over are welcome to attend.

PRAYERS: Prayer of Praise for Schnitzel’s brother in law who successfully completed treatment for pancreatic cancer. He is cancer-free and recently “rang the bell.” He hopes to post at F3 as he regains strength. Prayers for F3Knoxville and the family of PAX member in that region, “CARDINAL.” Yesterday, Cardinal experienced a tragic health event during a workout in which he was doing his VQ. Cardinal was a pastor and was married with small children. A GoFundMe Page has been created to support his family. Please send support to Cardinal’s family here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/in-memory-of-taylor-phelps-f3-cardinal

COT: “THE MAN IN THE ARENA”

During today’s TNT discussion after the workout, we will be focusing on the 8-Block Personal Plan. The 8-Block requires that you choose a theme or word for the year. In 2023, my theme is FIERCE. I chose that word after Slick delivered an inspiring COT in which he spoke of the difference between fear and fierce. It spoke to me because I wasn’t feeling fierce in much of 2022. Last year, my theme was TRUTH. I honored my theme last year and confronted many truths in my life. The more painful truths took a long time to reckon with, and when I was toiling in that space, I did not feel FIERCE.

We are only 12 days in to 2023. Life has knocked me on my ass already, and I need to be reminded of my 2023 theme, FIERCE. Therefore, I wanted to revisit Teddy Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena.” This came from Roosevelt’s famous speech “Citizenship in a Republic.” Rather than me reading it to the PAX and because I actually needed to hear the message being delivered, I handed out excerpts of the speech and asked nine PAX members to read a segment:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

We awake every morning and walk into the gloom – the arena. Somedays, we get knocked on our asses. I’ve literally had blood on my face during a workout at the Berm when I hit myself in the face with a cinder block. We do hard shit in the gloom. I am challenging myself and the PAX to bring that same fierceness from the gloom into their everyday lives.

We ended in a prayer – special prayers for Schnitzel’s Brother In Law and Cardinal from F3Knoxville.

TNT DISCUSSION – The Eight Block Planning Tool.

Group had a very robust discussion on the 8-Block during Coffeeteria. We spent time reviewing each of the 8 Blocks and sharing how the tool supports SHIELDLOCKS. PAX can find the tool here: https://f3omaha.com/2022/12/26/get-right-in-2023-resources-to-guide-pax/


Grace & Peace,

Wait Time

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