Coach’s Blog

Morning WODers,
Due to minimal interest, the 7-8am class on Monday/Wednesday/Friday is now cancelled.  It has been replaced with a 10-11am class on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, beginning this Friday (June 28th).
Thanks,
Ryan

It’s the day after the 5th Eastern Shore Affiliate Challenge, and I am SO PROUD!
First, the obvious:  for the third straight time, we have athletes standing on the podium at the end as individual placers in their division (continuing Alyssa Stookey’s legacy!).  Lori McClelland was the top overall female athlete in the Scaled division, and Claire Leocha was the 2nd place female athlete in the Scaled division!  It had been a long day and by the time the awards were being presented, Lori and Josh had gotten packed up and were a mile down the road when I called them to tell them, “Turn around, YOU WON!”  Claire represented Lori well on the podium, and when Lori got back we all celebrated their awesome accomplishment.
– Lori’s strength was her endurance, completing 63 burpee bar jumpovers in 4 minutes (1st place WOD #1), and 176 reps in the 7-minute AMRAP (2nd place WOD 2), and then she shot her performance over the top by snatching 85 lbs in WOD #3 (7th place).
– Claire knew that she would score well in the strength portion of the comp, but maybe surprised herself with her “engine”, blasting through 51 burpee bar jumpovers (15th place), thrusting/pushing/jumping into 157 reps in WOD #2 (7th place), and then finishing STRONG with 15 Snatches in WOD #3, 2nd only to our own Patricia Twitty!  Talk about improving over the course of the day!
But there were so many other awesome stories coming out of this hard-fought competition that I want to make everyone aware of, because they represent our individual passion for ultimate fitness and also our collective commitment to our TEAM:
– Patricia Twitty, in her first competition, really in any sport, was a top-three finisher for CFKI and went on to the team event.  The first team event was a 300M relay swim in which each teammate has to swim 50M.  Twitty took swimming lessons last summer (I’m guessing because she somehow saw this coming?) and was our first in the pool.  Twitty really didn’t want to swim, we all could see it in her eyes, but she didn’t waver and got the job done with grace.  I’m so proud of you, Twitty!
WOD Highlights:  Twitty placed FIRST in WOD #3:  Snatch Ladder, completing 5 reps at 45 lbs, 5 reps at 65 lbs, and 5 reps at 85 lbs in 2:41!  That’s 975 lbs lifted overall!
– Dana Bradshaw, a second-time competitor, had been practicing for the 6-foot wall jumpover earlier in the week when her dumbass coach put a plate in front of it to jump off of.  The jump-off went great; the landing produced a nasty ankle sprain that could have bumped her out of the competition if she didn’t have the heart of a lion and the tenacity of a freaking bull shark.  Dana competed and did so well, icing her ankle in between her heats and then putting her gameface on and representing CFKI amazingly!
WOD Highlights:  Dana placed 4th in WOD #3: Snatch Ladder, completing 5 reps at 45 lbs, 5 reps at 65 lbs, and 3 reps at 85 lbs!
– Ryan Grantham, in his first CrossFit competition, placed 6th overall in the Men’s Rx division.  It’s been a real blessing to have Grantham in the gym as one more firey competitor to push all of us, and with his great technique and internal drive, he is going to win one of these things, and soon.
WOD Highlights:  Grantham placed 4th in WOD #2:  7 min AMRAP of Thrusters, Pushups and Box Jumps.  His 180 reps was 10 more than his closest competitor in the event.
– Ryan Matis, a second-time competitor, is starting to climb up the leaderboard.  This time he took 7th overall in the Men’s Rx division!  I could tell Matis was disappointed in his WODs 2 and 3, knowing that he could have done even better, which to me is encouraging!  It’s a “silver lining” to know that you placed well in an event (7th out of 39) but could have pushed even more.  That’s easy to work on for next time!
WOD Highlights:  Matis picked up 3rd on WOD #1:  Burpee Wall Jumpovers, completing 38 reps in 4 minutes!
– Ashleigh Beck, another first-timer that needed some convincing to jump into the fire, finished 14th out of 32!  Ashleigh has come such a long way from her CrossFit start just a few months ago, yesterday performing ultra-consistently with her WOD finishes of 16th (WOD 1), 17th (WOD 2), and a strong 10th (WOD 3).  We’re so glad you joined us, Ashleigh, and can’t wait to see your progress continue!
– Rx Dudes:  Our entire Men’s team entered as “Rx”, meaning that they did not scale any of the workouts.  Our 6 Men’s Rx competitors were second only to CF Lewes’ 7 athletes in representing our gym, and we were so strong.  MP Parker, Ryan Malvey and Jimmy Bradshaw all stepped up into their first competition, and there was no quit on that wall, in jumping up on that box, or in grueling through those heavy snatches with, let’s face it, no rest.
Our participation in the team competition in the afternoon ended after the swimming event when the bottom 4 gyms were knocked out, but after that we cracked open some beers (thanks, Josh and Lori!), and had a great time watching the remaining teams sweat through some tough ones while we got a chance to relax and enjoy the sunshine.
On Monday, the training begins for ESAC #6.  Hope you’re having a great weekend and a happy Dad’s Day.  See you back in the gym soon!

Friends of CFKI –
For the next two Saturday’s we will have no 9am regular WOD and no Open Gym.  And here’s why:
June 15th – We will be closed all day, travelling to Seaford, DE to bring home a trophy at the Eastern Shore Affiliate Challenge!
June 22nd – We will have one WOD at 6am, which will consist of a long hike and PT session, with a weighted ruck optional.  We will leave the gym at 6am and travel as far as possible, arriving back at the gym sometime between 10am and 11am, so that we can get cleaned up for our One-Year Anniversary party!
The next couple weeks should be some fun ones!  Hope you’re all having a great summer so far!
Ryan

So that we can all get out there and enjoy some (hopefully) nice weather or at least the warmth of our family and friends, the gym will be closed on Monday, May 27th for Memorial Day.  Enjoy the long weekend!
Ryan

All you strength-building, endurance-blasting athletes of CFKI – are you interested in learning more about mobility?  Becoming more “mobile” means better range of motion through your joints (especially the major hip and shoulder joints), and will make for bigger lifts and better performance in the gym – and in life!
Evan Eichler of Athlete, Inc. is an expert in the field of human body movement and has put together mobility programs for athletes of all levels, including NHL hockey players.  Athlete, Inc. and CrossFit Kent Island would like to offer a 90-minute seminar on Saturday, June 1st that will focus primarily on getting your body ready for a workout, or “pre-generation” as Evan puts it.  Evan will bring take-home materials and equipment to use during the seminar.  If you would like to purchase mobility equipment from him he will have some packages available as well.  The cost of the seminar is $30, and it will be limited to 10 athletes.  There will be a signup sheet at the gym so that you can reserve your spot.  If there is more demand we will offer additional introductory seminars, as well as seminars on recovery (or “re-generation”).
Again, here are the details on the “Pre-Gen” Mobility Seminar:
– Location:  CrossFit Kent Island
– Date/Time:  Saturday, June 1st (tentative time 11am)
– Duration:  90 minutes
– Cost:  $30 per athlete  (covers instruction and take-home reference materials)

Hey all – it’s been a while since I wrote about something not workout-related, but unfortunately this one is just a quick reminder that I feel is necessary since we have turned the wrong corner on our class sign-up trend.  At this point, only about 70% of our athletes are signing up for class.  If you’ve been coming to the evening classes, you know that we’re starting to get pretty busy, and many times are at or even above our class capacity of 10 athletes.  Having too many people in class makes me nervous because of safety issues in throwing too many barbells around at one time, and also because my effectiveness as a coach is reduced.
I think it’s a combination of a couple things:  regular attendees who assume that I know that they are coming (which I have been planning for by reducing the class capacity by 1, but then if you’re not there that is a lost space in class), and people that are not sure if they are coming or not.
Luckily, I have a couple ideas that I think will help in both circumstances:
1. “Plan your Dive, Dive your Plan” – this is a saying in the diving community (obviously), and I think it relates to understanding what your week of CrossFit will look like.  Plan out in the beginning of the week when you are going to attend class, and then sign up for those days all at once.  Done!  Then execute on that plan.  We all have things that come up, and it’s fine if you need to cancel.  But adding yourself to the schedule ahead of time may be the trigger that gets you in the door instead of deciding to stay home.
2.  Burpees!  The rule has been on the board for a while, and we’ve danced around enforcing it but I think we’ve only really gotten Athena to do Burpees for not signing up.  Come to think of it, I think Athena does Burpees every day for other minor or imaginary infractions… thanks for being such a good sport, Athena!  From now on we’ll spread the love a bit.
If you do not sign up for class (at least 10 minutes before it begins), you’ll do 10 Burpees before starting your workout, as soon as the clock starts (if it’s a timed WOD).  If you’re not around a computer all day but you’d like to come to class, just give me a call at 443-988-2145, and I’ll add you to the schedule if there’s still space.
Thanks for helping out with this seemingly unimportant part of managing the gym – it really does help me out and I appreciate it!
Ryan

Hey there –
This Wednesday evening the final Open WOD (13.5) will be announced, so this is your last chance to win that free month’s membership!  We have seen alot of variation in the events up to this point, with the following movements being tested so far:
– Weighlifting:  Snatch, Shoulder-to-Overhead, Deadlift, Wallball, Clean & Jerk
– Gymnastics:  Burpee, Box Jump, Muscle-up, Toes-to-Bar
– Conditioning:  Double-Under
Your best bet would be to think about what has not yet been tested, and muddle those together for what you think would be the nastiest workout yet!
Here are the rules of the game again:
– Each person can submit one guess (you do not have to be a current member at CFKI to compete)
– A guess can include as many movements as you would like
– A winning guess will be characterized as follows:
1.  At least 50% of the guessed movements are actually in workout 13.5 (so, you are incentivized to not guess too many movements – you have to be accurate!)
2. At least 50% of the movements actually in workout 13.5 were present in the guess (so, you are incentivized to guess ALL of the movements you think will be in the workout)
– More than one person can win
– Guesses must be submitted either by posting a comment to this blog post, or posting a comment to this linked post on Facebook
– Winners will be announced on Wednesday, April 3rd after workout 13.5 is announced!

Alright, time to take another crack at guessing the next Open workout!  Once again any winners will get a free month membership, transferrable to a friend if you’d like!
Remember the rules of the road:
– Each person can submit one guess (you do not have to be a current member at CFKI to compete)
– A guess can include as many movements as you would like
– A winning guess will be characterized as follows:
1.  At least 50% of the guessed movements are actually in workout 13.4 (so, you are incentivized to not guess too many movements – you have to be accurate!)
2. At least 50% of the movements actually in workout 13.4 were present in the guess (so, you are incentivized to guess ALL of the movements you think will be in the workout)
– More than one person can win
– Guesses must be submitted either by posting a comment to this blog post, or posting a comment to this linked post on Facebook
– Winners will be announced on Wednesday, March 27th after workout 13.4 is announced!
Let’s see if anyone can unseat Dustin as our resident soothsayer of CrossFit programming!

I was messing around with this idea with a few of you on Friday night, now here it is for real.  Submit a guess of what the movements in the next CF Games Open workout (13.3) will be, and you could win a free month membership!
Here are the rules:
– Each person can submit one guess (you do not have to be a current member at CFKI to compete)
– A guess can include as many movements as you would like
– A winning guess will be characterized as follows:
1.  At least 50% of the guessed movements are actually in workout 13.3
(so, you are incentivized to not guess too many movements – you have to be accurate!)
2. At least 50% of the movements actually in workout 13.3 were present in the guess
(so, you are incentivized to guess ALL of the movements you think will be in the workout)
– More than one person can win
– Guesses must be submitted either by posting a comment to this blog post, or posting a comment to this linked post on Facebook
– Winners will be announced on Wednesday, March 20th after workout 13.3 is announced!
A good place to start would be to review workouts 13.1 and 13.2 to see what has already been programmed.  Then consult your inner CrossFit coach – what would you test next?
Good luck!
Ryan

If there is anything that you want to get better at, be it eating more veggies, getting that pullup, improving your grades or quality of work, now is the time to set that goal and see it through.  Mark Divine of SEALFIT.com says that in order to make it stick we must “resolve positively”, that is, frame your resolution in a positive way.  Here’s an excerpt from his blog:
Resolve Positively!
On New Year’s Day, I attended a very good yoga clinic near the SEALFIT Training Center.  The seasoned teacher, Michael Fukumara, talked about resolutions, a fitting subject for the day.  His insight hit home and is worth sharing. Michael said that whenever he sets a New Year resolution that comes from a place of fear (substitute any negative energy here) the resolution won’t stick.  It will fail due to lack of a positive drive with which to power momentum for the desired change.  A good example of this is the resolution to quit eating sweets or to quit drinking after the excesses of the holidays – The motivation for this resolution being your disgust with your lack of discipline and how you feel physically, mentally and emotionally.
The Hero’s Journey
Like the Hero on his epic journey, you will be challenged soon after resolving to a worthy goal such as this.  A few weeks later the Super Bowl will be upon you.  What should you do?  Your mind says “no” but your inner voice says “what the heck, you deserve it after a month of clean living.  Go ahead and let your hair down for the party.  Just this once won’t matter much…you will get back on track the next week.”  Guess what?  Game over dude.  The negative driver for the resolution – that of a lack of discipline or disgust over your waistline – is not powerful enough to keep you on track. The hero is defeated…temporarily.  Now it is time to get serious.
Drive on!
How can we resolve to an important change and make it enduring?  Try stating and feeling your desired outcome from the most authentic of positive energies – that of love for yourself.  Commit to improve your health and vitality in 2013 because you desire to love and connect more fully, starting with yourself!  Then tie this positive state to specific goals of reducing the consumption of sugar or alcohol…coming back to your powerful “why” whenever you are challenged by the “enemy” of desire. The positive motivation of love will outperform the negative motivation of fear each time, and you will be on your way to a healthier, more energetic and vibrant year. Good luck with this – and we wish you an amazing 2013!

So, what is your New Year’s Resolution?  And why?  Remember to stay positive!