Thank you to everyone for the bajillion birthday wishes yesterday. I was feeling ho-hum about my big day, and you guys definitely made my day amazing!

I know overhead squats are the kryptonite of CrossFit to some of you, but I really enjoy them. If you're struggling with overhead squats, there are a few VERY common errors that you should be working on. First and foremost, is your shoulder mobility where it needs to be? If not, you should start doing some of K-Star's shoulder drills before the WOD. This will help your arm position. The other common error is that knees track too far forward, instead of reaching back with the butt. When you squat, think about keeping the knees back, and the shins as vertical as possible. I was trying to find pictures of bad knee position, but I couldn't find any. I'll be on the lookout though!

5:00 AMRAP:
5 overhead squats (50/35kg)
5 push press
2:30 rest
2:30 AMRAP
10 pull-ups
10 burpees

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Yeehaw! Nothing gets your inner thighs feeling good like high quantities of sumo deadlift high pulls! I'm definitely feeling the aftermath of yesterday'sWOD. As Trish pointed out, "It feels like I rode a horse without a saddle!"

21-15-9
Sumo deadlift high pulls (40/30kg)
knees to elbows
:90 rest
21-15-9
box jumps(24/20")
ball slams (30/20lb)

Congrats to Hero Mike for finishing with the fastest prescribed time of the day - 7:10!!

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The WOD yesterday was "Death by hang power snatch".

With a running clock, you must complete 1 snatch the first minute, 2 snatches the 2nd minute, 3 snatches the 3rd minute, and so forth until you are no longer able to complete the prescribed number of reps within one minute. The weight for the men was 40kg's, and for the ladies it was 30kg's.

I warned our evening classes that the first few minutes of the WOD were going to feel LAME. We do a lot of standing around and staring at each other for about the first 4-6 minutes, but then it slowly creeps up on you!

Great job to everyone for pushing hard and going heavy on this WOD. I'm proud of Alicia for tackling her fear of 25kg's and KILLING this workout! Atta girl!

Don't worry Amie! While you're away, we're taking VERY good care of Brad.

Last night was Warrior Women Wednesday. We had two guest coaches, and they taught us some kickboxing moves. WOO HOO! I owe Melissa and Veronica BIG TIME for their help last night. I think I can speak for the ladies when I say that everyone had a fabulous time. We got to see who has a lot of pent up aggression, and who punches like a girl. Would it surprise anyone that MOM had one of the hardest punches of the night?! WOWZA! Thank you ladies for making the evening so much fun! It's going to be pretty hard to top last night!

I took some video, and I'll piece it together shortly. In my free time. Yeah, this could take a while....

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How many times do you get to CHOOSE which workout you do at the Fort? Not very often, right? Unfortunately, the whiteboard only offered you the following choices:

"Cindy"
or
"Mary"

I mean, is that even really a choice? It would be like if every day at the Fort we let you choose between a normal WOD, or being whipped with Twizzlers for 20 minutes. "Mary" is just in a league of her own with the pistols and handstand push-ups. Not many people can do it RX'd, so everyone at the Fort chose to do Cindy.

Well, then there were the special few of you who couldn't decide so you did BOTH! I would compare this to going to Oberweiss and having to choose between Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream, or peppermint. (my favorites) You can't decide, so you just order a scoop of each. Know what happens though? In the ice cream scenario you end up bent over with horrible stomach cramps, praying for the dairy to run its course so you can get on with your life. In the WOD scenario, you end up sore. Very, very sore.

That story was a little gross. So sorry guys! Know what isn't gross? Watching our entire record board get annihilated and rearranged! The Tranimal took the top spot with 31 rounds, RTL snagged 2nd place with 26 + 25, then we have Drew-the-push-ups-machine with 23 + 5, Tommy with 22 + 12, and Pete L with 22 + 10! On the ladies side we still have Stacy in first with 19 + 12, but now KTUCK is in 2nd with 19 + 7, Steph L 16 + 3, Hannah 15 + 5, and Steph R 14 + 25. Excellent work everyone!

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The workout yesterday was

4 rounds for time:
21 kettlebell swings (24/16kg)
12 burpees

We have a few ambitious members who didn't think the RX'd weight was heavy enough, so they upgraded their bells. Watching them swing those over-sized bells was a little funny. The big 32kg bell looks like something Wiley Coyote would use to bash the Road Runner with! It's surreal to watch people swing that honkin' thing!

The strength work yesterday was single rep max on hang power clean. I am pleased as can be to see that even some of our seasoned athletes are attacking these and setting big PR's! Dan 62.5kg's, Jamie M 36k's, George 73kg's, Tommy Mo 100k's, Tom P 67kg's, Lori 32kg's, Coral 40kg's, Nicole 61kg's, Chris Sutter 71kg's, Kirsten 56k's, Colin 55kg's, Bob 65kg's, Bri 42kg's, Catherine 36k's, and hero Mike 105kg's. KTUCK and Hannah, your numbers weren't on the board, you sneaky WOD ninjas! Didn't you ladies PR?

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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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