Posted November 13th, 2011, by Jennie | 
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If I had to give a nickname to yesterday's WOD, it would be "encouragement Saturday". Bill made some pretty awesome teams of 2 and every single team was positive, encouraging and having a blast! Everywhere I turned I could hear "great job, just 2 more!" and "keep it up, you're doing great!" It brought a smile to my face then and even now as I'm typing this.
In teams of 2, complete 5 Rounds for time of:
40 Box Jumps (24/20)
40 Steps OH Walking Lunges (20/10)
40 Double-unders
40 Toes to Bar
200m Team Run
Neil and Drew were our winners! When it came time to pose for the picture it looked like they had something super duper up their sleeves. When I mentioned this, somebody pointed out, "well it's because they had 10 minutes to think this through while the rest of us finished".
Great job everyone!
I want to send a big welcome out to Jennifer! She jumped into our Team Saturday as her first WOD at the Fort and she did amazing! Welcome to the Fort Family!
Posted November 12th, 2011, by Jennie | Comments Off
Awh, has it been a hard week? Yeah, I hear ya. Sam had me cracking up. He told Bill that the only way he was going to come workout on Friday was if he was promised that his heart rate wouldn't get above 140. Well, it just so happens that he got his wish!
4 sets of:
5 Deadlifts (65-70% of 1RM)
2:00 Rest
4 sets of:
Snatch + Overhead Squat (65-70% of Snatch 1RM)
2:00 Rest
We have members with all kinds of goals. CrossForters are here because they want to get bigger, smaller, faster, stronger, leaner or just simply to have fun and stay healthy. Alex has been coming for almost exactly 1 year. Matter of fact, his 1 year anniversary at the Fort is Thursday of this week! Yesterday Alex shared with Bill that this was the first time EVER in his life that he has been able to keep weight on and stay over 170lbs. In addition to being a beefy, manly 170lbs, Alex also set an amazing 12kg PR on his overhead squat!
The other news to celebrate from yesterday was that Dean got his first muscle-up ever in the history of the world! If it wasn't enough to just do one, he then got 4 more after that one! Great work Dean!
Just because it’s literally FREEZING outside doesn’t mean we’re going to hang up our running shoes. Us tough CrossFitters don’t hibernate for the winter. We’re going to grin and bear this cold weather and keep on truckin’...right guys? 
Last night the evening classes ran in temperatures in the low 30’s. And still, we saw some amazing fast 400m run times. I think everyone was just in a hurry to get back inside and warm-up! I stuck around for the 7pm class and had the pleasure of welcoming back Craig S! He and Mark Ritchie had a blast pushing each other through the dark cold runs with a glow stick in hand. (Safety first people!) And, I have to give props to Mark because his last round was the fastest out of all five rounds! Now, that’s what I call perseverance.
This WOD was a doosey! So much in fact we skipped the strength solely to focus on this METCON.
5 rounds of:
With a 5:00 clock:
10 thrusters (40/30)
10 burpees
400m run
Rest the remainder of the 5:00.
Now that the colder months are upon us be sure to dress in layers when you come to the fort. You never know when the WOD Father is going to unleash some winter running on us! You don’t want to be “that guy” reading the words “400m run” from the whiteboard in your shorts and cut off tee in the middle of December. Be prepared!
Reminder: Ladies, don’t forget about our ‘Girls’ Night In’ Saturday night. We’ll be gathering at Kinsy’s house around 6pm. Be sure to bring a drink to share and if you’re feeling motivated a dish to pass as well! If you haven’t already RSVP’d please do so. Hope to see you all there!
Posted November 10th, 2011, by Jennie | Comments Off
Who knew what "Farmer's Walks" were before yesterday? Anyone? How many of you looked at the workout and thought "that's it??"
Here's what was on the board yesterday:
Strength
6 sets of:
Power Clean + Hang Power Clean + 2 Front Squats
:20 Rest
10 Box Jumps (go tall - mid thigh)
3:00 Rest
After all those squats and box jumps your legs were bound to be a little jello-y. That complicated things a little bit when it came time for this:
WOD
400m Farmer’s Walk
*pick any 2 items, going as heavy as you can and stopping as few times as possible
Who felt a little silly walking down the road carrying heavy objects? Did anyone get beeped at? I know I would have beeped if I saw that!
Nick just got started with us, but I have to say that he's shaping up to be a terrific CrossFitter! I forgot about it yesterday, but the other day he did his handstand push-ups against the wall and they were LEGIT. Head to the floor, body totally straight...Drew better watch out because he might have some competition for handstand push-ups king!
More than twice in the last 2 weeks people have been nearly maimed by the assistance bands during ring dips. We are either breaking bands, or having them slip out from under our knees - either of which is kind of scary. When you're using a band for ring dips, one side should be looped through the ring, and the other side will be held onto by your hand. No more than 4" of band should be fed through the other ring. If you're using a purple band and there's more band sticking out the sides of the rings than between them....then my friend you need a bigger band. I'd rather see you bump up to a red than to use only 6 inches of the purple. Make sense??
Our WOD yesterday was:
10 to 1 reps of Ring Dips
1 to 10 reps of Pull-ups
Fun stuff! This was actually much harder than it originally looked. I have to give props to EJ for going through this one RX'd. He did amazing! Our buddy Shaffer also went through RX'd. It's safe to say that the Shaffers pretty much dominated this workout! I think both finished in under 7:00. Chris looked at José's time on the board and said something to the effect of "suck it! I beat you!" (not in quite that many words) It broke Chris's heart when I had to point out that José did RX+ by completing all his pull-ups chest to bar.
Posted November 8th, 2011, by Jennie | Comments Off
I think I jinx'd us by saying our running WODs were winding down for the year. Yesterday the WODFather put us through this little workout:
40 KB Swings (24/16)
400m Run
30 KB Swings
400m Run
20 KB Swings
400m Run
10 KB Swings
400m Run
We have a stash of red and blue flashlight sticks that everyone should be taking with them on their runs when it's dark. They live in the cabinet in the bathroom and I can't stress enough how important they are. Garth can tell you how crazy people drive on Wegner Road. Any minute now, Penelope is going to be doing her makeup, drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette and she's going to mow somebody down!
Drew had me laughing last night during this workout. He actually said he wanted to run without his flashlight so somebody would hit him and put him out of his misery.
Our November ramp-up started last night and we're having a ton of fun! We have 7 new people all working hard so they can join our regular classes. Welcome to the Fort!
Reminder: This Sunday is our first Hero WOD. If you'd like to participate, there are heat times in MindBodyOnline. Just register for your desired heat time just like you would for any other class. This event is free and open to everyone. Hope to see you there!
Who has never played the Fish Game before Saturday night? You didn't know what you were missing, did ya!? Fish Game is the most fun 4 minute warm up on the planet in case you're wondering. Do it 5 times in one night and it quickly catches up to you!
A HUGE thank you to everyone who came out and fished, tumbled, ate or drank with us. My almost world famous chili was gone in a nano second...note to self - make more chili next time! Everyone's kids went home with sweaty heads and red faces, so that means they all probably slept like angels Saturday night! Even my 13 year old slept like a rock and woke up sore the next morning. Julia liked it so much that Sunday morning she was asking if she could play the fish game!
A big thanks to our friends at CrossFit Barrington for coming out and showing your support! We raised enough money for Nicole's ticket (both ways, tee hee) and hotel room. Don't worry, when she's a world famous rower she won't forget the "little people" who made it happen.
Garth was our champion for the evening! He won a 1 hour massage with Heather and bragging rights for a full year!
John and Scott showed us how graceful and nimble they are at the Open Gym. The videos are definitely worth watching!
John and his amazing dive
If I had to give a nickname to yesterday's WOD, it would be "encouragement Saturday". Bill made some pretty awesome teams of 2 and every single team was positive, encouraging and having a blast! Everywhere I turned I could hear "great job, just 2 more!" and "keep it up, you're doing great!" It brought a smile to my face then and even now as I'm typing this.
