No, really. This is the 1,000th blog post on the CrossFit Fire blog. It's really amazing when I think about it. When we affiliated back in 2008, there was only 1 other active CrossFit affiliate in Illinois. Today there are more than 40! I better make this a good one, huh?

If I had to summarize all 999 blog posts that came before this one, the overwhelming theme would be: perseverance. Nobody comes out of the womb with an instinctual knowledge of how to eat well and exercise. It's something that has to be learned. As an adult, we are asking you to do the unthinkable; re-learn how to exercise and eat! I'm pretty sure your Mom thought you mastered the art of eating when you were 16 months old, and could pick up cheerios off your high chair tray and succefully land them somewhere near your mouth. Boy was she wrong! We're asking you to do something incredibly hard, and I see success and perseverance all around me.

Failure isn't a single event that just happens.

"Oops! Crap, I failed."

You only fail if you STOP TRYING. I might not have deadlifted 100k's today, but I only truly fail if I don't keep working at it. You might have failed to avoid eating pizza and drinking pina coladas this weekend, but you only failed if you are going to throw in the towel. The only failure is when you QUIT.

Are you a quitter? No. You're a CrossForter full of fight and determination. You might have a rough week, month, or half a year, but you know how to put your train back on the tracks if you want to. We have shown you the path, you just need to trust that it leads to where you want to go.

The secret you probably don't know about the path, is that it doesn't lead to the same place all the time. Some of you are on a path to supreme athletic accomplishments. You want to compete for the title of "Fittest on Earth", or break world records in rowing. Others just want to get strong and flexible again so they can play golf this summer. Either way, we're all on this path together.

If you happen to lose sight of the path, don't panic. Remember that big changes take big amounts of time, and if you lose the path for a little while, it's not too hard to find your way back. There are flashing arrows, signs, and help desks that can get you where you need to go. You just need to once again decide that the path is where you need to be. We'll be here for you when you're ready.

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Even though the door to the Fort was locked on Saturday morning, we definitely still had a big Team Saturday turnout! Instead of showing up at the Fort though, we took our bad-ass-ness down to Chicago to compete in the Chicago Indoor Rowing Championships.

First of all, thank you to all 22 participants - I couldn't be more proud! Just about every single one of you set amazing PR's!

Second, thank you for being good sports and showing your support of Fire. You all looked GREAT in your matching red shirts and tall socks.

We brought home some medals, but that wasn't even the best part of the day. The best part was the fun and bonding we all got to experience as a result of this trip. On our ride home, Bill and I talked about how unified we were as a group, and how amazing it was to have all those people cheering for each other. Thank you guys so much!

I do owe one person an apology, and that's KTUCK. She is light enough to compete in the Coxswain division of the rowing meet, but the score sheets listed her as a "lightweight". When I asked the scoring table to update her weight class they informed me that the Coxswain division only rows 1,000 m's. Would she like to row again? Um, no. Thank you very much. Sigh....sorry KTUCK. You still did amazing even though you rowed twice as far as you needed to.

Know what's better than rowing 2,000m's? Rowing it with 21 of your closest CrossFit friends there to cheer you on!

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Know what happens when the WODFather is trying to "save your legs"? Any guesses? He makes your arms complete jello! Just keep telling yourself, "this is how we get sexy shoulders in our tank tops!"

4 rounds for max reps of:
:60 push press (40/30kg)
:60 rest
:60 pull-ups
:60 rest

Did anyone else have to look at their bar in the 2nd round to make sure that a leprechaun didn't come add 5kg's? I know I was looking. Sometimes that sneaky bastard gets me.

Everyone, meet Dan. He's new to the Fort, and he's REAL strong! He has a passion for the Oly lifts, and likes long walks on the beach. (Ok, I made up that 2nd part) What I'm NOT making up is that he has my "beast radar" going at full blast, especially since he can move serious weight, and rock some amazing kipping pull-ups! Welcome to the Fort!

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We welcomed back a full Fort on Thursday with some heavy cleans.

AMRAP in 6:00 of
3 Cleans (can be power cleans) (85/55kg)
7 clapping push-ups
6:00 rest
2:00 Wall Ball shots (20/14lb)

Wow, 85/55kg's on the cleans? That tells me Bill wanted those to be HEAVY. For those of you who have been with us for a while, and are comfortable with the movement, I challenged you to go heavier than you originally wanted to. Fortunately, you all survived, and you did a fantastic job!

Gabe has liked some of the workouts this week so much that he came back in the evening to try it for a second time. I told him yesterday that he is becoming a Crushthewodapotamus.

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How's everyone feeling after Barbara? I wouldn't be surprised to hear that some of you have sore abs, legs, and possibly...well...sore everything. That's a monster of a WOD that you kids tackled, and again, I'm super proud of you guys!

The workout yesterday was a treat for those of you who weren't taking a much needed rest day.

3 rounds of:

30 walking lunges
30 sit-ups
300m row

I know, I know....your abs are sore. But sometimes we have to just suck it up and push through even if it hurts a little. What most people find is that if you have a sore spot, it sometimes helps NOT to baby it. Sore legs? Grab a few squats. Sore arms? Maybe a few push-ups will fix you right up.

IMPORTANT: We have the Chicago Indoor Rowing Championships this Saturday, therefore we will not have any of our regularly scheduled classes. Your CrossFit Fire rowing team will be heading downtown to check in at 7:10 AM (YAWN). We are hoping to make you kids proud, and maybe even bring home a medal or two! We have 22 competitors, wish them all luck!

Ben shows us his Jedi mind trick squats

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So I guess if Zach forgets to log out of the google document, the WHOLE FORT finds out what the WOD is going to be, right? I mean, there were people asking about yesterday's WOD before I even knew what it was. Sheesh! Good news travels fast.

Barbara
5 rounds for time:
20 pull-ups
30 push-ups
40 sit-ups
50 squats
3:00 rest

This workout is a DOOZEY. It could only be done on a mega metcon Tuesday because it takes so long. Again, despite the fact that the whole gym knew that this was on the whiteboard, you all came anyways. I was especially glad to see our maiden voyage of the Tuesday 4PM class was a success! Full class!

Now, let's talk about some of the performances from yesterday. Prior to yesterday, the only girl's name on the whiteboard was mine...and that's a shame. It just goes to show how far our little Fort has come! KTUCK smashed this workout. We should actually just consider naming it "KTUCK". Her time was so fast that she beat the old top spot on the MEN'S side of the board! ATTA GIRL! Our old top men's spot was just over 23 minutes, and now our top spot is 16:55 (Tranimal). Sitting at #2 we have RTL and Ryan Z tied at 17:29, then we have Jeremy at 19:06, and Chris T at 22:26. On the ladies side we have KTUCK 22:35, Hannah 26:29, Kinsy 30:19, Steph 30:23, and Jennie 36:37.

I'm proud of every single CrossForter for tackling this super hard WOD yesterday. Some of you feel like you over-scaled, but that's ok. You'll kill it next time.

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For those of you who knew what the WOD was yesterday, but you came anyways, BRAVO! I know that the thought of burpee box jumps sends people scattering like cockroaches when the lights come on. But not you guys! NO WAY. You're too tough for that.

3:00 burpee box jumps (24/20")
2:00 rest
2:00 burpee box jumps
2:00 rest
1:00 burpee box jumps

Yeehaw! Nothing like BBJ's on a Monday to start the week off right! For our strength work, we worked our way up to a new one rep max on hang power cleans. We saw some pretty darn impressive numbers! Dan, who is fresh out of ramp-up HPC'd 115kg's! WOWZA! Great, great job everyone. There were so many amazing PR's, you should all be proud!

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