If you had 3 wishes for the Fort, what would they be?

Your wishes can be anything from physical objects, services, class times or even equipment. What would you wish for? What would you change about the Fort? Do the Fort a favor and post your wishes to comments. Help me help YOU!

The metcon was super fun!

15:00 AMRAP
5 handstand push-ups
10 body rows
15 box jumps (24")

Body rows really suck, don't they? I know we use them as a substitution for pull-ups, but they seem exponentially harder. Last night I tried working on this funny kipping motion, but it just wasn't the same. Whenever I do body rows, I wish I was doing pull-ups!

Speaking of pull-ups, Steph R knocked out 16 big ones in a row the other day! Atta girl!

SCHEDULE ANNOUNCEMENT: There will be no classes this Saturday, March 20th. We are hosting an Olympic lifting certification, and we just can't squeeze in a team Saturday. Can everyone do me a favor and start doing your "good weather dances" for this weekend? We REALLY need it to be at least 55 degrees and sunny. Thanks.

One of the unspoken questions that seems to hang in the air revolves around serving your guests when they come for dinner.

"But my parents are coming for dinner, and they LOVE dinner rolls."
"If I don't serve mashed potatoes, my friends will FLIP!"
"We always have corn bread on Thanksgiving, and I don't want to disappoint anyone."

Along with these questions, there comes the subtle concern about people thinking you're "weird". You don't want to be THAT PERSON. That...weirdo who doesn't eat grains! But you know what? If you didn't say anything to your dinner guests, nobody would ever question the absence of dinner rolls!

A couple weekends ago, we had a small dinner party for some of our friends. Check out the spread!

Do you know anyone who wouldn't be ECSTATIC to see that dinner laid out for them? Here's what we served:

Salad: Curried pecans, goat cheese, baby spinach, sliced apples (I think. Carrie made the salad! BEST SALAD EVER)
Main Course: Chili Crusted Flank Steak with Homemade mango salsa
Roasted Asparagus with lemon, pepper and fresh garlic
Dessert: (not pictured) homemade Dark Chocolate covered strawberries

Um...can you say, YUM!? It was without a doubt a fabulous dinner that anyone (paleo or not) would enjoy. If you don't make a big deal out of your new primal lifestyle, nobody will ever know the difference.

So get out there, find some paleo recipes, and start entertaining!

I hate to say that I was right....but I was ALMOST right. We had 16 people come out for Team Saturday, which is a relatively light crowd for us. The workout was done in teams of 4, and was as follows:

Complete in any order:
4000m row
300 box jumps (24")
200 wall ball shots (20/14lb)
100 barrier hop burpees

*Three team members could be working at a time.
**Each team could only use one piece of equipment at a time (one wall ball target, one rower, etc.)

Before the workout started Bill announced that he was dividing up teams so that everyone would finish within 10 seconds of each other. What he meant to say was that he wanted everyone to be within 3 minutes of each other.

Our winning team finished this doozey of a workout in 16:33. They had a different strategy than most of our other teams. They got the burpees out of the way immediately, and completely ignored wall ball shots until they were more than half way through their box jumps. Whatever their strategy, it totally worked! Congrats you guys!

Ryan Z, Sarah, Ivy and Brian S are our champions!

By the way, has everyone found us on Facebook? We have a fan page set up so that when we have events scheduled, we can send invitations. I also post updates, pictures, and lots of cool stuff on there! FIND US! FAN US! Otherwise you're doomed to be out of the loop FOREVER.

The strength work yesterday was pull-ups 5-5-5-5-5. Treat these like you would any regular strength movement. Rest 2-3 minutes between sets, and try to go heavier with each set. If you cannot do unassisted pull-ups, then work your way up to a thinner band. If you CAN do pull-ups, then strap on a weight belt, and grab some weighted pull-ups.

The metcon was another doozey from Wild Bill's laboratory.

10:00 AMRAP of:
5 hang power cleans (50/35kg's)
5 front squats
5 push jerks

What a great workout! Bill wanted everyone to scale so that they could get at least 5 rounds, and everyone did great! Congrats to our newcomers, Sam and Kinsy on their fantastic performance yesterday! Sam's squats are looking mighty fine these days, and Kinsy has a FIERCE determination that is going to make her a strong CrossFitter!

Our strength work yesterday was back squat 5-5-5+ at 65, 75, and 85% of your single rep max. It's great to see people making so much progress with their squats. I like all the driving through the heels, straight bar paths, bars over the middle of feet...it truly makes me weep with happiness!

Our metcon was this little number:

5-10-15-10-5
burpee box jumps (24")
Overhead squats (50/35kg)

Yeah! No pull-ups! We had a HUGE 5PM class last night, and things got a little tight. Is everyone registering for classes? We're inching closer to having to enforce our 12 person max. Only 3 or 4 people are registering for classes on a regular basis....right now they are my favorite people in the world. REGISTER FOR CLASSES!

I have some exciting news! Ivy got her first pull-up last night! Woo Hoo!

Have you guys laid eyes on our better body participants these last few days? They are looking SMOKIN' HOT! Belts are being pulled a few notches tighter...friends and family are asking about this "new diet". I'm so proud of you guys for all your hard work! Deciding the winner of this challenge is going to be very hard!

The strength work yesterday was hang power snatch 3-3-3-1-1-1. Garth, Craig T., Sam, Daniel, Hero Mike, Kris, Ryan Z., Ginny, Kristen and Bethy all got to ride the PR train yesterday. Congratulations! In fact, the ENTIRE 4PM class set PR's on their snatches. I think it was the magic of having the door open!

I know there are some mixed feelings about Angie. Yes, again, this workout is so evil its name has to be italicized. At some point, I might not even refer to it by its name, like in Harry Potter....

I DIGRESS.

The comments from everyone were SO FUNNY. Here are a few things I heard:

"my abs are so swollen my pants don't fit right!"
"my wife just walks around the house going OUCH."
"I think I need new hands."

The abs comment was my favorite of the day.

Our metcon yesterday was:

50-40-30-20-10 of Double unders
25-20-15-10-5 of Toes to Bar

You would rotate back and forth between double unders and toes to bar until you have worked your way through the whole series.  Ryan Z CRUSHED this workout! He had this awesome kipping motion on his toes to bar which allowed him to go lightning fast. Great job!