Our Games team was back in full swing yesterday, and we saw 50 CrossForters work out yesterday! Woo Hoo! It's a record breaking week for attendance at the Fort, and we love you guys for it! With the start of the Better Body Challenge III, we are also seeing a lot of old faces return. Welcome back to Robin, Jamie, Jack and Kathy! HUGS! We've missed you dearly. (Just so you know, the count for the BBC3 is up to 25 people!)

Our metcon was an old favorite - Grace. For those of you who don't know, Grace is 30 clean & jerks for time. That's it. (evil laugh) We saw a lot of new PR's yesterday! Stacy took the top spot for the ladies by finishing in 2:26! Woo Hoo! We also saw PR's from Earl, Tommy Mo, Garth, Brandon H., Katie, Maddy, Mark R., and Ryan Z. I have a feeling there were a lot more, but you guys were all just too exhausted to circle your name on the whiteboard.

Has everyone noticed that Fight Gone Bad 5 magically appeared in the events section? We will be hosting FGB5 at our own facility this year, and we have registered ourselves as an official team. It will be taking the place of the regular Team Saturday workout that day. If you are interested in participating and raising money for our team, please feel free to register.

Here's what it looks like right before Bill says "Go!"

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Our Games team had yesterday off as their day of rest, but the rest of us were hard at work! Our strength was hang power snatches. Great work everyone!

Following our snatches, we did a WOD from Wild Bill's lab!

21-15-9
double unders
burpees
ball slams

Wow. He did it. He combined three of people's LEAST FAVORITE movements into one workout. As Mike K would say, "Are we in trouble?" No, you're not in trouble. It's just that doing stuff that's hard makes you a better person.

Has everyone met Parker yet? He is starting football camp next week, and they'll be practicing twice a day. Or is it really just one LONG practice each day??? EITHER WAY. My bet is that Parker blows away his coaches at practice. While his buddies have been in their parent's basements playing Wii all summer, Parker has been busting his butt at the Fort in the heat and humidity. My guess is that Parker is one of the only kids who don't puke the first day of practice, therefore making him a badass.

Every time you tell yourself how much ball slams suck, remember how far Parker has to make the ball travel!

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I am absolutely, 100% impressed with how many of you CrossForters are buckling down and following the Games programming. Thinking back to Regionals this past April, we only had a handful of people who were interested in taking their CrossFitting to the next level, and look how many of you there are now! The whiteboard sign-up list is almost completely full from top to bottom with names of people hoping to compete at the Games next year. It brings tears to my eyes when I see what amazing athletes you are all becoming! I just....have something...in my eye.....sniff, sniff. I'm so proud!

The strength work yesterday was either deadlifting for our Games team, or front squat. The Games hopefuls got to learn about something amazing and magic called the "training max". Ooooh, something shiny! Talk to one of your coaches if you need help figuring out what your training max is for a specific movement.

Our metcon yesterday was absolutely great! It was just the right amount of work with just the right amount of rest. Kudos to Wild Bill for creating another fun WOD!

2 rounds for max rep/calories of:
1:00 deadlift
1:00 rest
1:00 pistols
1:00 rest
1:00 rowing
1:00 rest

We had two visitors from CrossFit Hollywood - Maddy and J.P., and they both CRUSHED this workout! I didn't get to see J.P. work out, but Bill said his pistols were lightning fast! It was great to have you two, please feel free to visit any time.

Speaking of pistols, we had a few hesitant people give pistols a try yesterday, and they did them unassisted. I looked at Ivy before we started and said, "Ivy, we're going to do pistols unassisted for this workout. It doesn't matter if we only get 2 or 3 each round....we just have to do them."

AND WE DID!

Ivy rocked her pistols, and got 20 reps her first round! Our other brave soul was KTUCK. She did GREAT! There are some times when you have to suck it up, let your score suffer, and just go prescribed. And there are other times when you suck it up, go unassisted, and you frigging KILL the workout!

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I don't want to alarm anyone....but in the world of CrossFit, we are in the year 2011. As your coaches, we are looking ahead to the 2011 CrossFit Games and making sure that everyone who wishes to qualify is getting the best coaching possible. As promised, Bill unleashed his latest and greatest programming yesterday, and a few new things appeared on the white board. First things first, you'll notice that there is a separate strength section titled "Games". The "Games" programming can be followed by anyone who comes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday every week. If you have a consistent schedule, follow along with the "Games" people. If you usually alternate days at the Fort, stick with the regular strength programming. Please don't just pick and choose the strength work based on what you "feel like" doing that day. It's like a choose your own adventure, but you have to decide TODAY what you're doing for the rest of the year.

The new "Games" strength work will focus on a few of the core movements, and will be on a 4 week rotating schedule. Bill is thinking way, way, way into the future, so make sure you're following his recommendations. Games hopefuls, you'll need to eat, sleep and breathe Bill's programming. If he says "rest day", friggin' rest. There will be multiple WOD days built into your programming, and if you are NEVER RESTING, you're going to hit a wall and end up in overtraining land. In case you don't remember, overtraining land is a sad, lonely place. Sad like, Bambi's Mom sad.

The other new thing that appeared was something called "straight sets". This means you should use the same weights across all the sets of your strength work. Ask your coaches if you need help figuring out how heavy you should go. Based on the number of reps we're doing, and your single rep max they can steer you in the right direction.

Our metcon yesterday was WAY harder than I thought it was going to be. We did

3 rounds for time:
400m Run
12 HSPU
21 Pull-ups

After our amazing Team Saturday, a few of us were pretty sore in our chest and our shoulders, so the pull-ups were not welcomed with loving arms. Everyone did a great job! I want to give a special shout out to Hannah. She did her first 2 rounds of pull-ups WITHOUT THE BAND! ATTA GIRL!

Apri and Heather working their pull-ups

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I have never had a greater appreciation for the CrossFit Games than I do right now. This was my second trip out to California to watch people battle it out for the title of "Fittest on Earth", and the athletes that were there blew my mind. Not only were they physically strong and fast, they were also mentally durable.

What does it mean to be mentally durable? Quite simply put, it means that you can withstand the pressures that come with any competitive situation. It means that you can tell your body to keep moving when all it wants to do is collapse. It means that you are ready to perform at your best at any given moment. It means that when someone runs past you, you push even harder to catch up again. Mental durability is ESSENTIAL for anyone looking to compete in the CrossFit Games in 2011.

Is it important to be strong? Of course. None of the competitors made it to the Games without being strong. Shit, Chris Spealer dominated the snatch/muscle-ups workout, and he was almost snatching his body weight! STRONG. But would Chris Spealer's physical toughness have meant anything if he went into that workout thinking, "Khalipa is so much stronger than I am....there's no WAY I can do this faster than he can!" No. His physical conditioning wouldn't have meant a hill of beans if he was defeated  before Castro even said "3, 2, 1, GO!"

As you train in 2010, train your mental durability as well. Be willing to let the suck-iness just wash over you and consume you....but keep pushing. Push harder than you thought possible. Close your eyes and ignore the burning in your chest, the pounding in your head, the throbbing in your legs. Be willing to go deeper into the suck than the guy next to you, and you'll beat him every time.

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Is everyone ok? I mean, after Team Saturday was over I realized that a giant chalk bomb went off under the pull-up bar, and I didn't even notice when it happened. There was literally wet chalk shrapnel all over the place. Did anyone lose an eye? A hand? Ok, phew. Glad you all survived.

In addition to the chalk bomb, there was also an equipment bomb. It felt like every piece of gym equipment we have was strewn about! Here was the workout:

In teams of 2
30 Cleans (70/50)
60 Toes to Bar
60 Box Jumps (24)
30 Handstand Push-ups
60 Dumbbell Push Jerks (40/25)
60 Ball Slams (30/20)
30 Thrusters (60/40)
60 Pull-ups
60 Burpees
300 feet (2 times) of Overhead Walking Lunges (20/15)

The workout was a TON of fun! I think everyone agrees that burpees being second to last adds a special kind of suck factor. Pete and Zachamole ultimately took the championship belt with their blazing fast toes to bar! My vote is that these two should be required to wear a weight vest, or strap a small child to their bodies for the duration of any team workout. Anyone care to second that?

We had two brave souls come out for our free intro class. John is a lifelong friend of my brother-in-law, so it was good to finally get him to the Fort and show him what CrossFit is all about! (he still doubts that a 6 minute workout will get in him shape) Kaleigh also stopped in for the free workout after stopping in to chat with me the other day as she rode her bike. Look out for these two newbies - they both finished the intro workout in less than 6:00 rx'd, and are already eyeballing the record boards!

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Yep, you guys are getting STRONG. Not just a little strong either....like, SERIOUSLY strong. Yesterday we did the CrossFit total, which is the sum of your single rep max for back squat, press and deadlift. We had to get classes moving right away, because we would need the full hour to set new single rep max's for these 3 movements.

It's great to see people set PR's, even if they are only by 1 or 2 kg's but there's something so amazing about watching somebody CRUSH their old PR. If you came to the Fort yesterday and touched a barbell, you set a PR. It's as simple as that. Pete and Stephanie must have had a big family pow-wow before coming to the Fort, because they were on FIRE. Pete added 20kg's to his back squat in only 4 months, and 8kg's to his deadlift! Stephanie set a new deadlift PR, and pulled 155kg's which is 10kg's higher than her last PR. GREAT JOB YOU TWO! Pete's CrossFit total is 525.8kg's and Stephanie was our first lady to break 300 with a score of 309kg's! WOO HOO!

Amazing job everyone!

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