There really is no other way to describe yesterday than to say it was AWESOME. We had amazing weather yet again, and a great turnout. Spending my Saturday morning with 30 of my CrossForters is a perfect way to start ANY weekend. I love youz guyz.

The workout Bill threw together was super fun. There was lots of running, lots of push-ups, lots of squats, and lots of sit-ups. Yeah, there was kind of lots of everything. You guys did great though! It was really amazing to look around and see everyone pushing so hard to help their teams! Great job everyone!

Memorial Day is a special day, and we have a shortened class schedule. I have a few private clients and an evening ramp-up, but other than those things, the only group class will be a 9AM class. Come one, come all....there will be no limit to the number of people who can come. Hope to see you all there!

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And just when you thought there couldn't possibly be ANOTHER reason to work out at the Fort, we are now offering free sun tanning during every single one of your runs! Hooray for nice weather!

The strength work yesterday was press, and we worked our way up to a single rep max. I'm happy to report that our record board got shuffled around quite a bit! We had new PR's from Dad, Pete, Jelli, Carrie, Earl, Hugo, Ivy, Ryan Z., Brandon H., Morgan, Bethy, Steph L., Jessica, Season and hero Mike. It was a BIG PR day! Congratulations to all of you!

The metcon included some of that free tanning mentioned earlier. We did 3 rounds of 400m run, sumo deadlift high pulls, and pull-ups. Turns out that's a pretty tricky combination! Our "ladies only" 6PM class handled it just fine. We had a group of 3 lovelies gutting out the workout before the big holiday weekend. Hannah, Alyson and Mary had the place all to themselves, and they did GREAT! Mary is finally back after having her beautiful baby 10 weeks ago, and she's already kicking some serious BUTT!

Hope you all have a GREAT weekend!

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Snatch balance again??? Yep. Snatch Balance. Again. Yesterday we worked our way up to a single rep max. Is this movement starting to feel good to you guys? From the coaching angle, things are starting to look good, but I always like to get some feedback. How do you feel about the snatch balance? It's relatively new to the Fort, but it definitely seems to be well received....or IS IT....

The metcon yesterday looked fun and amazing. I wish I could say that I got to do this one, but alas, my back is still giving me grief. The workout was a combined total of 6:00 of work, and 6:00 of rest. Much to the dismay of our new ramp-up graduates, we were using a movement that wasn't covered....the CLUSTER. It's exactly what it sounds like - a combination of a clean and a thruster. After "clustering" for a minute, everyone headed upstairs to row for a minute with a minute of rest in between.

Speaking of ramp-up graduates, is everyone introducing themselves to our new members? You can expect a pop quiz during mobility drills, and if you haven't introduced yourself to the newcomer, there will be some burpees involved.

Our GNH clusters in unison...

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That's right folks...yesterday was single rep max front squat day. Woo Hoo! We saw a bunch of really amazing PR's. Not surprisingly, Mark Ritchie had our 2nd highest squat of the day. He was 2nd only to Pete. Congrats Pete on squatting 150kg's, and to Mark for 142kg's. You two = strong.

They weren't the only ones that got to ride the PR train....Dad, Heath, Earl, Audra, Kinsy, Morgan, Season, Deb, Bret, Tommy Mo, Shaffer, Charlie, Bethy, Brian A., Heather and Daniel also bought a ticket for the PR train! Great job you guys!

Single rep max day sure is fun, isn't it? Setting that new PR is like Christmas in May to me!

The metcon allowed you the freedom to break up the work however you deemed fit. You had to do 20 reps of shoulder to overhead (60/40kg's) and 40 burpees. If you wanted to get all 20 shoulder to overheads out of the way and then move onto your burpees, that was fine. If you wanted to split it up, you were more than welcome to. This workout actually came from one of the Regional competitions. It's always fun to see how our CrossFitters stack up to the national competition!

We are going to have a different schedule for this coming Monday - Memorial Day. We are going to do this "Team Saturday Style", and have one big, enormous class at 9:00AM. There will still be the 7PM ramp-up in case you're wondering, but all the other normal class times are cancelled. Hope to see everyone at 9:00AM!

Here's another new face! This is Katie - she's Mark M's sister.

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On my birthday I like to eat steak, drink a Sam Adams and treat myself to a piece of carrot cake. It's a day of relaxing and enjoying being alive. Know what Bret likes to do on his birthday? RUN. He likes to friggin' run!

Ok, so I'm being a little dramatic here. Yesterday WAS in fact Bret's birthday, and he asked that we repeat the same workout that he did on his first day back on 10/13/09. Back in October, he scaled to 35 reps each round and finished in just over 17 minutes. Last night he did all 50 reps, and finished in just over 15 minutes. PROGRESS! You mean this CrossFit thing actually works? GASP!

The strength work yesterday was heavy ring dips. It's funny to see how creative people got in terms of where they hold the weights. Sam put the weights in his pocket, and rocked weighted ring dips that way. I'm pretty sure there were small plates in somebody's bra, but that person will remain nameless.

The WOD was as 400m run, 50 squats, 400m run, 50 sit-ups, 400m run, 50 push-ups, 400m run, 50 pull-ups.

It was another hot day, but everyone pushed through the suck and did a great job. We saw some amazingly good ring dips! Pete, Earl, Zachamole, Sam, Kelli, Deb, Jason, Chris T., Garth, Morgan, Daniel, Bethy, Heath, Charlie and Brian S. all set new ring dip PR's. My favorite line of the day was from Charlie:

"I think my eyes were bigger than my triceps."

Sam Rosati...smartest guy at the Fort.

Summer is a beautiful time of year at the Fort. Am I right ladies?

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Yesterday was allllmost hot enough to make Tommy Mo happy. Had we closed the door, and seen triple digits inside the Fort, he would have been ecstatic. In all seriousness though, if it's hot outside, it's going to be hot at the Fort. Please make sure you are drinking plenty of fluids throughout the day to ensure you show up HYDRATED and ready to work out. If you roll out of bed, have 9 cups of coffee and expect to make it through a WOD on a hot day....you're kidding yourself. DRINK. WATER.

The strength work yesterday was hang power snatch. We saw some really cool new PR's. Earl put 90kg's over his head, which is pretty impressive stuff! In addition to Earl, Heather, Hero Mike, Kris, Ivy, Bethy, Steph R., Jessica, KTUCK and StephL. also set new PR's. Great job you guys!

The metcon was double unders and deadlifts. The goal time was 3-5 minutes. Yep, that's right. Only 3-5 minutes is all you'll need. We did NOT allow people to substitute single unders. Aren't we mean? We substituted double unders with attempts. There's really no other way to get better at double unders than to practice. LOTS of people got double unders for the first time yesterday! I know Special J had the world's biggest smile when she finally got that rope to pass under her feet twice.

You'll notice there are about 14 new faces at the Fort this week. Yep - 14! Here's one of the many new faces you'll see!

Everyone, this is Shawn. Shawn, meet EVERYONE

Stacy smiles and catches her breath

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Bill is kind of awesome; am I right? He is quite possibly the most amazing man on the entire planet. I will admit that my opinion is slightly biased, but this is MY BLOG, so  you're forced to see my opinions every day. Yesterday was Bill's 29th birthday. Happy Birthday Wild Bill! In honor of his birthday he put together a Team Saturday of EPIC proportions! We did the following in teams of 9 or 10:

290 wall ball shots
290 burpees
290 sledge hammer hits
290 calories on the rower
290 double unders
One trip around the building flipping the BIG tires.

The movements could be completed in any order, with the exception of the tire flips. Those had to be done once everything else was complete. There were several different team strategies, but it seemed to make the most sense to have someone on the rower at all times. Have you ever tried to row 290 calories? It's a LOT. Sheesh, THAT'LL make you re-think the 290 calorie brownie.

I think it's great that you even planned it perfectly so there were 29 participants in the workout. You guys are so thoughtful!

Winner winner chicken dinner!

If you thought the turnout for the workout was good, you should have seen how many people came for breakfast! Trish was there - she is going to be delivering those twins in a week and a half. Good luck Trish! We miss you! Leslie and Mya also strolled in. Mya has the BEST baby hair in the world. I think I sniffed it 11 times. We got to meet Brandon Harvey's family, and his girls are totally future CrossFitters. They were doing pull-ups! Thanks to everyone for coming and enjoying Bill's birthday breakfast. We plan on scheduling a Paleo Pancake breakfast some time in July. And yes, there will definitely be BACON!

Show us those muscles!

mmm....eggs....

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