LEGACY

On my way to coach the 6am WOD this morning, I had the radio tuned into 88.3 The Wind. During a commercial break there was an announcement that the station's manager, Ben Birdsong, recently passed away. From what it sounded like, his death was sudden and unexpected. I did not know Mr. Birdsong, but I was moved as the narrator of the broadcast discussed the type of man he was. He was described as the type of person who would engage everyone he met with gentle warmth and kindness. It was said that his life-verse was Philippians 2:3 which states, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

It made me think about my life and the daily interactions I have with both those whom I know and love, and those who are complete strangers. If I were to suddenly pass, what would be the lasting impression I left them with? What would be my legacy? Even though I never knew this man named Ben Birdsong, I pray for the same character and conviction that he lived each day of his life with: To rejoice in every moment that I am given the breath to encourage, the opportunity to uplift, and the resources to help others.

Whew! Onward and Upward. As for my training today, it was a strength day. I did 7 x 3 Front Squat & 7 x 5 Shoulder to Overhead. My best 3 rep FS lift was 265lb. My best 5 rep Shldr to OH lift was 215. I got 225lb 4 times and failed on the 5th. After the shoulder to overhead progression I did a 2 min AMRAP of 135lb Push Press and got 43 reps. Forcing myself to rotate through these "strength days" has reminded me that they will absolutely crush you when you when you go at them 110%. Thanks to Grant and Seabiscuit for hitting this one with me. More importantly, thanks to Grant for not sharding on me during your last front squat set of 305lb- which, by the way, is exactly what I was talking about yesterday, dang it! I'd have gotten a million pound front squat if I was willing to dookie myself...Way to push the limits of turdload capacity, G money. I'm just sayin'.

"M" Day

Chubby Fran

21-15-9

115lb Thrusters
CTB Pull Ups

5:20. I managed to only break a set once on the thrusters during the round of 15. However, I was slow on my CTB in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. It felt great to push to the point of almost pissing myself. I haven't felt the feeling for at least a couple of weeks. I know it sounds weird but it's really the best way I know how to gauge whether or not I'm going as hard as I can. Maybe if I almost crapped myself I could go to the CrossFit Games. Hmmm...you know these two ain't scared...

Sweet Soreness, How I Love Thee

It feels so good to feel so wrecked. It's true. You know you've thought it. Deep down in the basement of your brain; you've thought it. Sure, to everyone else you'll say "Oh this sucks. I'm SOOO sore I just can't stand it!"....but...you LOVE it. And you wouldn't have it any other way. With a couple of days back training under my belt, that's where I'm at; embracing the suck.

Yesterday (Monday), I started what I've loveingly dubbed the "S.E.M Project" whereby I'll be rotating through strength, endurance, and metcon WODs every 3 days. Yesterday, being strength, I did Backsquat 7 x 3 & Bench Press 7 x 7. I got up to 315lb on backsquat and 255lb on Bench Press. After the backsquat WOD, I played a little max effort game as a grand finale' and did 1 AMRAP set of 135lb backsquat and got 60 reps unbroken (thanks to Steve for the counting/coaching). Doing it after the 7 x 3 probably changes what I may be able to get if I was fresh- but, either way- it provided me with a great deal of pain. You know I love pain. In the afternoon I got the sudden urge to try 100 TTB for time and did it in 7:29. Hit a HUGE wall at around 50 and started nickle and diming my way to the finish. Needless to say, I have a very sore tummy today.

Today: "E" for endurance (cue booing). 5k row for time. 19:47. Not a great time- but no worries- I'm pleased just to have started the process of reconditioning myself a bit.

Back From The Dead

After a week of being away from CFS for some wonderful R & R 'm ready to be back in the saddle. I have thoroughly enjoyed the break from training myself, training clients, and answering or responding to any form of digital communication (I just checked my email today to find I have 275 unread messages in my inbox...it made me giggle a little, then laugh histerically, and then cry like a schoolgirl for 30 minutes). I really didn't do much during my vacation. I managed to lay by the pool, get some new ink done, eat like a pig, me and Jenny went to the moon before hitting the Branson Landing, took a nostalgic trip to Silver Dollar City where we met a gypsyboy on the "Fire in the Hole" ride who looked strangly like our son, and also managed to connect the 2010 CrossFit Games HD livefeed to my TV screen for 48" of HiDef GLORY from the comfort of my sofa. Friggin' Awesome. Yes, I meant to capitalize the "A" in "Awesome".

I trained very little during my 9 days off. 3 times to be exact. Surprisingly, at least to me, it didn't bother me one bit. Usually on vacation I feel anxiety about needing to keep up with my training. This time, not at all. That's evidence to me that I needed the rest. This past month I've been nursing a thumb sprain, an anterior deltiod strain, and my chronically jacked up hips and SI joint, so I know for sure my body has been pleased with the break from the pounding I typically inflict on myself. Going into this next few months, I'm going to continue to stay in cruise control and not overdo it with overtraining and eating super strict. My goal is to peak in performance by February of next year- not by two months from now. My strategy until around September or October is to follow a 3 day cycle of Strength on day 1, Endurance/Conditioning on day 2, and Metcon on day 3. I'm going to train by myself to avoid getting caught up in the "who beat who?" cluster F. I find it worthless for right now considering I'm in need of programming for my weaknesses- not anyone elses. There'll surely be plenty of time for all that in the months leading into next year's CrossFit Games Qualifying Events.

Speaking of the Games, wow! What a weekend. I've got plenty of thoughts, which I'll of course unload on everyone whether they like them or not. But- First I must say how thankful I was that CrossFit HQ offered the HD livecast for free! It was amazing and you truly felt like you were there for each event. HQ did some great things this year. By moving the event to the Home Depot Center, they found an event center with two separate large spectator seating and athlete performance areas. The flow of the competitions went well all weekend. There were a few things, however, that were lost in translation because of the new 2010 Games digs. #1 That raw mob mentality of the crowd cheering and engaging the athletes. The community, by nature of the set up at the Home Depot Facilities became sort of segmented. #2 I feel there was a huge missed opportunity for someone...Dave Castro, maybe... Greg Glassman, maybe, to speak to the crowd and the crossfit community and address the fact that this weekend was the culmination of a year long journey of sacrifice and effort for all of the athletes who reached the finals. As a sentimentalist, I tend to get all emotionally vested in these ideals but look at what CrossFit has grown to...From the thousands of Affiliates worldwide to the amount of competitors and qualifying rounds you must now trudge through and surpass just to make the Finals. The ho-hum vibe at the closing ceremonies was in stark contrast to the magnitude of what the CrossFit Games Organizers are trying to say that these athletes have accomplished: "Fittest on the Planet"!!! I mean, come on- if you're too tired from running the show all weekend to actually announce the winners with some piss and vinegar- that's your deal- just find someone representing your NEWLY FORMED SPORT who has the energy and congeniality to do it!

As for the actual 2010 CrossFit Games Competition, my thoughts are these:
#1. The 50 fittest male and female athletes were represented this weekend. When you stop and think of all of the thousands of stellar athletes who competed at the sectional and regional levels around the world...to filter that initial number of 5-6,000 athletes down to 50 men and 50 women, you know you've got the cream of the crop.

This year's games showed me one thing in particular- I- as in myself...and many, many other crossfitters around the city, the state, the country, and the world are not nearly as good as they think they are. "Segmented training leads to Segmented Capacity" ~ Greg Glassman

There are so many athletes out there who's egos don't allow them to train their weakness properly. They pick and choose the WODs that they know they'll do well at and then are no where to be found when their weaknesses are programmed. Oftentimes this type of reality is also linked to the aspiration of competing in the CrossFit Games. Unfortunately, the Games have grown to the level of LEGIT SPORT. I can't call myself the worlds greatest golfer just if I own a nice pair of clubs and tend to shoot really well when I play 9 holes every other weekend. Am I practicing on an easy course- Is it the toughest course in the world? Do I have a coach teaching me the proper techniques required to hit the ball well? All of these factors begin to play in. Likewise, in order to be LEGIT as a competitive crossfitter and do well- this year's games proved that you must train for the SPORT OF CROSSFIT. This is more than "I do thrusters, I do burpees, I can butterfy my pull ups" this means understanding the science, mechanics, and the physiology of the body, of workload capacity, of food intake, and of CrossFit movements. Hockey players practice slap shots; crossfitters must practice rope climbing, running with sandbags, scaling walls, and lifting barbells. Why? Because they're all in our SPORT.

The bottom line: and #2. The fittest athletes prevailed. The objective of the games programming is to find the athlete who can suck at less and be the best at the most...mission accomplished. The events were very broad in terms of movements, time domains, modalities, etc- it worked to perfection. Graham Holmberg and Kristan Clever were consistently better than everyone else, and likewise presented us with less suckage. Well done!

More than ever, those who wish to compete at any level next year will have to be well-versed in all aspects of their CrossFit game.

CFS Bootcamp Wrap-Up: Train The Trainer Day...

...cue scary music. Today I completely forgot that we were going to have an informal party/awards ceremony/ train the trainers event @ 7pm. So, this morning after training my clients I decided to do the CFS WOD of Deadlift 3-3-3-3-3-3-3. Nothing too crazy, just pick up heavy weight three times. I got up to 435 successfully for three reps and called it good. Then I saddled up and did "Diane" (21-15-9 Deadlift 225 & HSPU) with the 1pm Group WOD'rs. PR is average at 5:09. Today it was a little slower at 6:28. Not too worried because I knew that the pain train was still to come. We had three teams participate in our latest bootcamp challenge- I coached the 6am, Grant had the 5am, and Jessi took the 6pm group. For 8 weeks we pummeled the life out of them. Tonight it was their turn. Each team was given 10 min to throw anything they wanted at us.

The 6am team led off by giving us 10 minutes to complete:

5 Muscle Ups

hold a 2 minute plank

10 Manmakers @ 25lb

hold a 2 min squat

10 Toes to Bar

And with the remaining time...max reps of 135lb Thrusters****Everytime you drop the bar, you have to do 3 burpees. I got 13 Thrusters and did 6 burpees.

The 6pm team gave us a different kind of 10 min time limit WOD called "Jeremy vs Grant": We both had to perform an L-Sit for as long as possible- the loser had to do "Fran". Grant put up a valiant effort and made me work hard to win, but I was able to stay up longer. However, I wasn't about to let him have all the Fran fun w/o me so I did it as well and finished around the Lsit and Fran in about 7-8 minutes.

The nastiness was about to get worse...The 5am team gave us the figurative middle finger by making us lunge 200m with a 25lb bumper plate overhead, perform 10 burpees, run back to the box with the plate and perform 5 Handstand Push Ups. I kept up with Grant on the lunges about halfway and then the HURT started to kick in. Grant pulled away and managed to finish the OH lunges around 30 seconds ahead of me. I made up ground on the burpees and with the run back. When I walked into the gym, Grant was just finishing his 3rd HSPU. I threw myself up against the wall a busted out 5 HSPU reps as fast as I could but finished right around 3-4 seconds after he was done. It has now been around 3 hours since we finished and I'm still feeling shaky from the whole blasted ordeal. I'm going to sleep like a baby tonight (curled up in a fetal position, sucking on a binky, and waking up every two hours crying for my mommy). It was a perfect day to crush myself. It felt awesome...no.

CFS: The Movement Continues

Pictured above on 9/15/09, the CFS box sits quietly and awaits the masses. Pictured below on 7/6/10 at the CFS 6pm Group WOD...the masses have arrived.

The growth of CrossFit Springfield continues to be staggering. It's a direct reflection of the amazing people who train at our facility. These are driven, highly motivated individuals from all walks of life. Elite athletes and beginners alike have found common ground here. That common ground is community, comraderie, shared hardship, encouragement, coaching, and the daily persuit of becoming stronger mentally, physically, and spiritually. It is, undoubtedly, an inspiring place to be right now. As for my recent training, on Monday @ 1pm I did the CFS Daily WOD of 10 MS Ups, 20 225lb Bench Press, 30 Front Squats @ 155lb, 40 2 Pood KB Swings, and 50 Burpees. Finished in 20:05. It hurt about as much as I knew it would being the first day back after the 4th of July weekend festivities. At 2:45pm I did another wod of Row 1000m, 50 Push Press, 95lb; 35 OHS, 95lb; and 20 Hang Power Snatch, 95lb. Finished it in 10:15. I've had a lingering right hand thumb strain since doing 5 x 3 Hang Squat Cleans last week and the OHS gave me fits this afternoon. Felt much better about my game today...again I did the 7/6/10 CFS daily WOD . This was a gasser-and a well put together WOD if must I may say so myself. I did it in 18:04, felt completely wrecked afterward but was jacked to have been able to push consistently throughout the entire WOD.

For A Good OHS Dial: 5,5,5-3,3,3-1,1,1,1

I had hoped to get a both a strength WOD and a conditioning WOD in today but there was no time- SO- I settled for strength and did 3x5 OHS @ 165, 185, 205 then 3x3 OHS @ 205, 225, 225 and then 4x1 OHS @ 235, 245, 255f (got pissed off so I retried), and 255lb. It's 10lb under my PR but I'm good with it after having done a 5x3 Front Squat + a 10minute metcon + the CFS advanced WOD yesterday. It was a great day in the CFS box- I'm pumped for the weekend!

Snot Rockets...

...that's what I've resorted to. My nostrils can take no more blowing. They've been rubbed raw and have recently requested to be fired one barrell at a time.

I've always had pretty bad allergies but this year seems to be worse than normal. Towards the end of last week I started feeling a bit stuffy...by Sunday things had progressed to a full blown sinus infection. I just dealt with one in April right before Regionals- got a ZPack then and it cleared up pretty fast. This one is worse and despite getting another ZPack script, I can tell its gonna linger for a bit. I took off Sunday and Monday and didn't train. Today I did "Angie" (100 Squats, Pull Ups, Push Ups, and Sit Ups) and then did 50 Double KB Front Squats w/ 55lb KBs, 50 Ring Push Ups, 50 Weighted Pull Ups @ 35lb, and 50 Knees to Elbows. I didn't care to keep time on any of it and I'm glad I didn't because it would have surely been depressing (I started prior to the CFS noon WOD and was still going when everyone was leaving at around 12:50). However, it felt great to move around, do a little work, and push hard here and there.