To all of my friends at CrossFit Fire,

It is with great sadness that I sit here and write this today. As some of you already know, Jennie and I were faced with a very difficult decision recently. You see, long before I had ever even heard of CrossFit, I began chasing the dream of becoming a Federal Law Enforcement Officer (“Special Agent”). In the fall of 2005, I applied for a position with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). After a very long application process, I finally received an offer of employment from the ATF on Friday, December 12th. After a few very long days of going back and forth, Jennie and I decided that we could not pass on this once in a lifetime opportunity.

This means that I have to report to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), in Glynco, Georgia, for training, beginning on Monday, February 2nd. I will spend the better part of six months down there. Upon graduation, I will have to report to the Columbus, Ohio Field Office.

While away at training, I will still be involved on a daily basis, just not in person. If any of you have any questions or just want to stay in contact, please don’t hesitate to call or email. I will miss everyone and the Fort more than I could ever express!

Jennie will be in charge of coaching classes through August. Therefore, we will have to cut our hours back to what they were when Jennie and I were both working full-time jobs outside of teaching CrossFit. In addition to cutting hours, we will also be utilizing Zach’s knowledge and passion to share the training load with Jennie. It is merely a coincidence that Zach was already scheduled to attend the CrossFit Level 1 certification the first weekend in January. I ask all of you to be open minded and patient during the transition period. Jennie and Zach are both excellent coaches, but will have their own unique styles. We have many more members now than when I was first learning how to run classes. That will make it a much more daunting task, but I know that all of you will do your best to help them grow as coaches.

Over the next several months, we will have to begin planning for when Jennie and I have to relocate to Columbus. As soon as we decide on the path to take, we will be sure to let all of you know. Please don’t assume that this is the end!

I want to make it very clear that this was not an easy decision at all. I have grown to absolutely love coaching all of you and watching every single one of you work hard towards your goals. I will truly cherish the countless hours we have all spent training and laughing together at the Fort.

Yours in friendship (and the occasional training),

Bill

[Read more →]

Saturday mornings have become one of our biggest and most popular class times. I'll tell you honestly that getting out of bed early on Saturday mornings is totally worth it when I get to see all my smiling CrossFitters! Unfortunately, the smiling didn't last long once the workout started. We borrowed a workout from CrossFit Boston, and did breathing thruster ladders. Start with one thruster, then take one breath, then do 2 thrusters, take 2 breaths, 3 thrusters, 3 breaths, until you get to 20 thrusters, 20 breaths. THEN work your way back down the ladder to 1 thruster and 1 breath. We got about 12 rounds into the workout and Bill made the decision that 15 was our new target number, not 20. GOOD LORD. I plan on writing to CrossFit Boston and telling them that posting a workout with fake finish times on their website isn't very nice.

[Read more →]

We had a very special team Friday yesterday. And by "special", I think you know what I mean. I mean it was extraordinarily hard and fantastic! The workout was in teams of two, complete the following: 1000m row, 150 ring dips, 250 box jumps, 1000m row. Bill tried something new, and said that he didn't want two women on the same team, since women would have a significant disadvantage on the rowers. Mariah, did you hear that? Bill poo-poo'd on all female teams. Psh. He obviously doesn't remember the 3 week streak that you and Kris had together. I digress...

This workout was tough. In order to make even teams, I jumped in and did the workout with Chris Kelly. OH, and by the way, Chris Kelly's Dad joined us for a workout too! WELCOME! Chris Kelly was a great team member! He kept cheering me on even when I thought I was going to throw up. (stupid box jumps) We came up with a pretty good strategy at the beginning, and it really helped us pace ourselves. In the end, we totally dominated, and became the new team Friday champs! We were nauseous champs....but we were still pretty happy.

Looks like Matt was feeling a little bit of the box jump nausea as well....

[Read more →]

Our Christmas morning class was much smaller than we thought it would be. We had our two Zachs in attendance, and that was it. Since the class was light, we did Linda. AKA, the three bars of death. Me and the Zachs ground through this workout together....it was my first time attempting Linda. Ugh. Linda is 10 rounds of deadlift (1.5 x body weight), Bench press (body weight), and clean (75% body weight). Each round you do one less rep than the last, 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 DONE. Zach R has done this workout before, and he warned me that rounds 10-7 were going to SUCK. Even with his warning, there was no way I could have anticipated how hard those first few rounds were going to be! My new Christmas Lululemons definitely helped get me through the workout.

There are some people in the CrossFit who can finish this workout in as little as 9 minutes....but we are not those people. The three of us all took nearly 30 minutes to finish. I'm sorry Mom....my arms were just too tired to help with the dishes this year. You understand, right?

[Read more →]

Merry Christmas CrossFitters! Yesterday's workout was the 12 days of Christmas. This workout was done in the style of the song, the 12 days of Christmas. You start with 1 burpee, then you do 2 push press and 1 burpee, then you do 3 front squats, 2 push press and 1 burpee....and so on and so on. Here is a list of our "days" of Christmas: 1 burpee, 2 push press, 3 front squats, 4 hang power cleans, 5 deadlifts, 6 box jumps, 7 pull-ups, 8 push-ups, 9 sit-ups, 10 squats, 11 kettlebell swings, and a 500 meter row. Phew!

For the seven of you who were in attendance, I don't need to remind you what a tough workout this was. Brittany managed to beat up her collar bone during the cleans, but she never once complained. She did tell me one time that her bar was "heavy"...yeah....it's weights. (just kidding Brittany. We love ya)

[Read more →]

The weather outside was frightful, so we had to get creative with our workout. Instead of doing normal "Helen" we did "Helen in a boat" and used the rower instead of running. Actually, there were some brave individuals who ran. Can you guess who one of them was? (Hint - his name rhymes with Friss Melly)

The workout was 3 rounds for time of row 500m, 21 kb swings, 12 pull ups. Kelli did an AWESOME job! She did her whole first round of pull ups without a band! Way to go!

It can be pretty intimidating to let go of the "safety" of our assistance bands. Whether you're switching to one with lesser assistance, or eliminating it all together, it can be pretty scary. My advice to anyone using the assistance bands is to always at least TRY the lesser assistance during a workout. Yes, it will be harder, and therefore your time is likely going to increase for the workout....but this totally fine! Try and be less worried about your time than you are about your overall physical performance. If you're currently using the green band, try doing one round with the blue, and then switching back. You'll never get stronger unless you push yourself!

Kelli and Jennie swing their way through Helen

[Read more →]

Hooray for Mondays! In order to make Monday more interesting, we did a little workout called "pull ups on the minute". In this workout, you are given 1 minute to complete a certain number of pull ups. In the first round, you have to do one pull up in a minute, in the second round, you have to do 2 pull ups in a minute....and so it goes until you are not able to do the prescribed amount of pull ups in the minute you are allowed. Some people got as many as 15 rounds! Nice work!

The overall improvement of everyone's pull ups was really highlighted with this workout. We did this back on 7/7/08, and almost everyone improved by 2 rounds and 2 pull ups. I can't explain it...that was just the magic number. Back in July, if you completed 10 rounds, plus 3 pullups, you can expect to bump up to 12 rounds, and about 5 or 6 pull ups within 5 months. Well, at least if you're at our gym you will!

[Read more →]