Yesterday was a “choose your own adventure day”! For the strength you had the option to either work your way up to a heavy double on your snatch or clean and jerk. Then, you were faced with an even tougher decision…Grace or Isabel? Grace is 30 clean and jerks (60/40) for time and Isabel is 30 snatches (60/40) for time.

As I was reflecting on the whiteboard after class last night I noticed many of you chose to conquer Grace. Poor Isabel…I hope we didn’t hurt your feelings. Don’t worry; you’ll be back to visit us again soon! I also noticed some amazingly fast times and some HUGE PR’s from you all last night! A big shout out goes to Nicole who completed Grace rx’d in just 1:43. YOWZA…that is blazing! RTL also PR’d by :33 since he did Grace a month ago. Nice work! And Dolores had a BIG PR on her clean and jerk. You are becoming very mighty young lady, way to go!

The 6pm class was pretty fantastic last night. We had a couple of guys (Andy & Scott M) go through Grace rx’d for the first time ever and I was so proud of them for doing so! I am also proud of those of you who choose to motivate and cheer someone through their grunts of pain and exertion during the WOD. You could just see Scott and Andy thriving off of your words of encouragement. Last night was a perfect example of why I LOVE the fort! Thank you all for supporting and inspiring your fellow CrossForters. YOU make the fort the magical place that it is!

Hi ladies! I am putting in an order for the new "rack" t-shirts and long sleeve shirts this Friday. These will only be available by order - so if you want one, you must reply in comments with your name and size. There is a black long sleeve shirt on the ledge at the Fort in a size Large if you are unsure what size to order. Shirts will say "hey buddy my rack is up here" on the front, and "I'm pretty strong for a girl" on the back. These are going to be SWEET and quite possibly the coolest shirts you've ever owned!

I am posting to comments with the ladies who I already have marked down for shirts(got this list from Facebook). If you want a shirt, they both cost $30 due to the small order we will be placing.

Did you notice that we started a Kids program at the Fort? Yep, that's right! It's the CrossFit Fire Little Flames program, and it started yesterday. The cost is $75 for an 8 week session, and only $60 for the session for each additional sibling. Check the schedule for a list of dates. If you missed the first week don't worry - we'll pro-rate you for a 7 week session if you'd like to get started next week.

Our Team Saturday workout was:

Saturday night was also our 3rd annual Fort thanksgiving. We had some great food, lots of bacon wrapped dates and some even more amazing conversation. Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated this very special time of the year with us. I'm thankful for each and every one of you!

I love hearing stories about Black Friday shopping. There's something so funny about people fighting in the aisles at WalMart over animated Elmo dolls.

For some of you, your day started with a 7 hour AMRAP of credit card swipes followed by this little number:

5 rounds for time:
15 kettlebell swings
200m run

Everyone did great on this workout! We managed to get everyone through in one heat, and that always makes it so much fun. KTUCK is still kicking some serious butt despite the fact that her beautiful belly is peeking out from the bottom of her shirt these days! Matt Bean was visiting us and he was surprised to find himself behind KTUCK on the last run. He told her after the WOD, "I was going to make a charge at you right at the end there, but I didn't have the energy". Way to represent, KTUCK!

I don't think it's possible to have more fun than we had on Wednesday night! Thank you to everyone who came out and sang, danced and laughed with us! There were some amazing musical performances and some even more amazing dance moves. We are hoping to make karaoke night a more regular occurrence, maybe once a month? Good times you guys....good times.

In case you're wondering what you missed, here's a quick run down:

Deena and Tiffany sang about 6 duets. I'm pretty sure they bribed the karaoke guy.

Alex and Neil sang some Sir Mix A Lot, and then Neil serenaded us with "You've lost that lovin' feeling". It was his very first time singing karaoke, and he did great!

Bill and Tiffany sang a little "summer lovin"

Ryan amazed all of us with his contest winning vocals!

Sammi took home a gold medal in enthusiasm and stage performance. She also makes amazingly good rock star faces.

Bret Michaels/Axle Rose was there, and so was Steven Segal. It was true karaoke at its finest!

At first glance of the whiteboard you may have thought Wednesday’s WOD was our home-girl ‘Fran.’ Nope, instead it was her NASTY cousin ‘Francesca’ visiting for Thanksgiving!

21-15-9 reps of:
Push Press (50/35)
Pull-ups

I heard the push presses were a touch heavy. I want to give a shout out to Dean for pushing himself through this prescribed. He actually even stepped it up and completed this WOD with chest to bar pullups! Can you say BEAST?!

Drew totally flew through this WOD and finished in just over 3 minutes. It was the fastest time we saw all day. Way to get after it buddy!

Who’s ready for MORE turkey, and yummy paleo side dishes? I know I am! Come join all of your fellow CrossForters at the Old Kitchen Mill in McHenry for our Fort Thanksgiving this Saturday. If you haven’t RSPV’d please do so, right here. See you all there!

Why not celebrate our 45 degree November weather with a little run!? The workout yesterday was:

How'd you like those brisk runs? You guys all did GREAT on this workout. It was great to be back from our getaway and see everyone. A HUGE thanks to Zach, Josh and Steph for holding things down while we were away.

We have some new CrossForters coming out of ramp-up. Congratulations to Cris, JoeAnn, Karri, Doreen, Karen and Matt for finishing ramp-up last night! Rumor has it, Matt is making a run at RTL's pull-up record!

Speaking of records, Drew did 70 push-ups in a minute, and Tiffany did 18! Nice work you guys!

In another piece of exciting news, George got his first muscle-up yesterday! He stayed after class practicing and his persistence paid off!

Reminder - tonight is Karaoke night at Corkscrew Pointe in McHenry. Be there at 8PM for the fun! Also, we will be having 9AM classes both Thanksgiving day and Black Friday. Hope to see you there!