It just dawned on me that you might not hear often enough that you're beautiful. You are. You really, really are. When you look in the mirror I hope you see the same things I see. I see  amazing people who are going against the "norm". I see people who are courageous and giving. I see people who are strong both mentally and physically, and THAT makes you beautiful to me.

Maybe the things I see as beautiful, aren't beautiful to other people. Maybe my definition of beauty doesn't conform with what you see on the cover of a magazine. Don't blame the magazines, it's not their fault. They don't realize that the pictures they're printing aren't always beautiful....they just haven't seen things my way yet. I'd love to see a women's magazine run an article on how to get visible hamstrings instead of their crap about "how to lose 14lbs in 14 days".

It's our responsibility to remind each other what REAL beauty is. It's our duty to ensure that our girls aren't striving to be "magazine beautiful". Real beauty isn't about being skinny. Real beauty isn't about a number on the scale, or about having a collar bone that could double as an M&M dish. Real beauty is CrossFit beauty. It's getting your first pull-up, doing your first WOD as prescribed, pulling a deadlift PR, cheering for someone else even though you want to collapse on the floor. It's accomplishing things you never thought possible, and building up enough self confidence to fill Soldier Field.

Real beauty is YOU GUYS and the things you do each and every day. Thank you for showing me how beautiful you are.

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Tommy Mo made it his personal mission some weeks ago to win a Team Saturday Challenge with Charlie as his partner. After two heart breaking weeks of second place, he and Charlie FINALLY found their place in CrossFit Fire history. It was our 9/11 tribute WOD that finally put the belt in their hands.

:343 seconds AMRAP of
9 deadlifts
11 box jumps
:72 seconds rest
:343 seconds AMRAP of
9 push jerks
11 ball slams
:72 seconds rest
:343 second AMRAP of
9 pull-ups
11 burpees

Not only was the WOD how we started our day on Saturday, it was a way to remember all of the FireFighters and Police Officers who gave their lives on 9/11. They made the ultimate sacrifice on that day. We will never forget!

I think it's safe to say that our Oly skill hour was a smash success! We had a full class of 12 people, and there were even some SICK new PR's! I got to watch Tommy Mo clean 116.6kg's, and Steph L. snatched 40kg's! She FOR SURE has 42.5kg's next time! Poor Christina who recently completed ramp-up looked so overwhelmed. I showed up a few minutes late, and there she was, eyes as big as saucers. Christina, you did WONDERFUL! We're so happy to have you as part of our Fort Family!

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The workout yesterday was basically a wide grip DT, which made it fun and amazing! Our newcomer, Gen, who is fresh out of ramp-up completely crushed this workout! Atta girl!

The workout was 5 rounds of
12 snatch grip deadlifts
9 hang power snatches
6 overhead squats

FUN! I didn't expect my legs to hurt as much as they did in this workout, same with my feet. I actually took my shoes off in round 4 because I thought my feet were suffocating. As Bill said, "You were doing everything BUT moving your weight quickly in that workout." Yeah, yeah....I kinda was.

It was good to see so many of you pushing yourselves, and going heavier than you usually would. We have some GOOD overhead squatters in our group! Have you guys seems Brianna squat lately? HOLY COW!

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Have we worn you guys out on Fight Gone Bad yet? Yesterday we did another variation on this amazing workout to prepare for the BIG DAY! If you were at class last Thursday, you did one round of fight gone bad. Yesterday your mission, should you choose to accept it, was to do 110% of your one round score, and try to finish it in 5:00. Yes, I realize this means getting more work done in the same amount of time...but  hey, that's what this CrossFit stuff is all about, right?

I don't want to say that it was chaotic at the Fort yesterday, but any time you set up for FGB, things inevitably get a little...well....chaotic. Thank you to everyone who helped break down equipment you didn't use, and count for people even if you weren't working out. That's what makes you guys THE BEST!

Hey, did you guys forget that there's a 6:30AM class on Tuesday and Thursday? Where are my 6 people that said they were TOTALLY ALL OVER the 6:30AM class if we opened up that time slot? We are only seeing about 2-3 people at this class time on average, and that's not enough to keep this time open. I know Chris Sutter and Chris Tucker want this hour to remain an option, so you guys better help them out! Don't let the 6:30AM class die!

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This is the time of year that makes me want my CrossFit Fire hoodie, and a cozy spot next to the fire place. The days seem shorter as we lose more and more daylight, and that crispness in the air makes me think about pumpkins and haunted houses. Some of you have already started bringing out some of your winter gear so that you're not too chilly at the Fort. Check out this picture of Tommy Mo yesterday. You see, he's SUPER sensitive to the cold weather!

Ok, that's not really Tommy. I DO want you to come to the Fort prepared to be outside, even though the weather is a little cold. This might mean foregoing the booty shorts and sports bra, or just wearing a warm layer on top of them....just for now. Garth, feel free to continue to be shirtless, my friend. We know you don't own any shirts anymore.

The workout yesterday was a 12:00 AMRAP of hang cleans, ring dips and sit-ups. If you were feeling a little sore from Cindy, the mobility drills were probably not your favorite part of the day yesterday. Right Jessica?

Our strength work was single rep max on front squat. We saw a LOT of PR's yesterday! Brian A., EJ, Andy P., Dr. Kathy, Pat, Jeanne, Erin, Kristy M., Morgan, Katie, Cheryl, Brianna and Steph L all set new PR's. Good work!

Hey ladies, did you notice that a new event popped up in the events column? There will be a Girl's Night In party on 9/25, hope to see you all there!

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Without a doubt, Andy was the luckiest guy at the Fort yesterday.

Would you agree? He also looks about 7 feet tall, and like he's sponsored by Under Armour. Damn we're good! Our personal training sessions are going to make a professional athlete out of him!

The workout yesterday was a choose-your-own-adventure-20-minute-amrap. If you can do unassisted handstand push-ups then you could have gone through Mary. Otherwise, everyone else went through Cindy. It was kind of like getting asked to Homecoming REALLY early, but you weren't sure if someone with a cooler car might ask you down the road....so you were afraid to commit.

We saw a LOT of PR's on Cindy yesterday, and we even had a few people go through it as prescribed for the first time. We were VERY strict on our chest to the deck push-up standard, and this resulted in some of the old records getting wiped off. You see, we are LEGIT here at the Fort. We aren't some joe-joes who are going to one-cheek (aka: half-ass) something just for a more spectacular record. We are going to make it count!

This Saturday morning at 8AM is our very first Olympic Lifting Skill session. I wish I could call it the Oly Open Gym, but it isn't really an open gym, you have to be working on your Oly lifts. You can't come in and work on your muscle ups, because those aren't Oly lifts. You also can't come in to make up a WOD you missed earlier in the week. Know why? Cuz that's not Oly lifts. You also can't come in and try to set a new 500m row record. This is going to be shocking...but....because it's not an Oly lift, or a skill transfer exercise. Know what you CAN do? You can come work heavy snatch balances, cleans, jerks, snatches, power snatches, wide grip dead lifts, etc. Hope to see you there!

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Does everyone know Kelli? I think we can all agree that she's the sweetest, nicest person EVER, right? Well there also happens to be a little workout named "Kelly", and it's FAR from sweet and nice. It's actually one of the hardest workouts ever. It's at least the second hardest workout ever. So, just as we can't assume that a workout named "Kelly" is going to be peaches and roses, we can't assume that a WOD named

DEATH BY 10 METERS

is going to be awful, right? Personally, I'm always a little leery of any workout with the words "death by" in the name, but that's just me. This workout has a way of making your legs feel like they're full of sand! Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday for our Labor Day classes - it was so much fun!

I'm proud to say that everyone who came yesterday got at least 11 rounds. Everyone was in double-digits land! Great job! Imagine my double proud-ness when I unsuccessfully ended round 14, and I looked down and saw Lean Jeanne still going! Atta girl!

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