Rest Day.
Congrats to Lyndi who ran the Newcastle 5k race yesterday and kicked some serious butt! She beat her time from the Snoqualmie Railroad Days just last weekend and clocked in at the 34:34 minute mark. We are proud of ya!
Racer X
Category: WOD
Floored!
That’s pretty much how we feel after getting the mats in this afternoon. We had quite a late start but Michelle and I were able to get the mats down this afternoon. For time! Thanks to all of you who offered to help and don’t worry we will call you on it next week when we hopefully are moving equipment. That way the two of us don’t kill one another!
Notes:
Tomorrow we will be test subjects (AKA guinea pigs) for the CrossFit Level 2 Certification at Rainier CrossFit. We will be helping as some of the people that other coaches will be using as “clients” to teach the foundational movements to pass their test. These are the same movements that you all learned in Elements.
Check out a short video previewing the comeback of 2008 CF Games champion Jason Khalipa in this year’s Games. After finishing close to dead last in the 1st WOD (72nd place after a 7.2km trail run from Hell), he battled back to finish in 5th place!
Video:
King Plank and our Friends at King CF
Alternate the following for time:
10, 9, 8, 7, 6… down to 1 of Overhead Squat (95#/65#)
200m Run (every round)
Results
Curtis is the king of planks (from yesterday). He held his for 3:32 the other day outlasting all others (including Sherry who was hanging in there at 3 min.).
Speaking of King’s, we attended King CrossFit’s pre-Grand opening get together tonight. We had a great time meeting up with other affiliate owners and seeing their new box. If anyone is interested go to their open house tomorrow which is from 10-4 in Renton. Address is on their website.
Group picture:
Pictured (L to R) Us, Ron, Arvin, Glen, Allen (all King CF), and Andrew (Foundation CF)
The Box:
2K Row
For TIme:
Row 2000m
Results
Lyndi happily discovers her new thing, rowing:
Jim and Curtis go boat to boat:
We’ll make rowers out of everyone somehow. Congrats to all of you for some great row times. Lyndi and Sherry took 1st and 3rd place respectively on our leaderboard for women’s times (Michelle 2nd). Curtis retained 3rd place on the leaderboard for men over Jim by only 2 seconds. Everyone rowed sub 11 minutes today and really went after it. This WOD is a crusher. At least for some of you. Lyndi felt so good after her 2k that she rowed about 1500m more with Fran so she wouldn’t be alone! That’s hardcore.
Mats were delivered today to the new space:
"Elbows Up"
Strength Focus: Squat Clean
3/3/3
The Goal:
After warming up, work up to three consecutive sets of your three rep max of the Squat clean. Each round attempt to increase and reach your max weight while maintaining good form and technique. Failed rep means failed round. Post PR’s and record weight used to results.
After completion of strength WOD complete the following:
As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) in 12 minutes of:
3 Squat Clean (95#/65#)
5 Push-up
7 Knees to Elbows
Results
Jim D. showing good body awareness.
(As Michelle told him and Curtis likes to razz him about):
Note that in the picture above Jim has explosively jumped, shrugged and opened his hips before he has bent his arms. He is generating power through his middle to “float” the bar up and then quickly rotate the elbows and body around the bar underneath to receive it in the front squat.
Fight Gone Bad fundraiser workout:
We will be participating as a gym in this fundraiser on September 26th. Click on the link above for rules, get registered and go get some pledges for two good causes (A few of us have already created our own pledge pages). We are working to make this a good event by hopefully partnering with CrossFit Redmond. We would host in the new box and they would join us. Also several friends and CF’ers from the Dupont area will be joining us.
"Jump Up, Jump Up, and Get Down"
3 Rounds for Time:
50 Box Jumps (24″/20″)
40 Kettlebell Swing (53#/35#)
30 AbMat Sit-ups
400m Run
Results:
No we weren’t mad at you! Oh and it wasn’t just my idea to do this WOD. Despite Michelle telling you all it was my idea. Seriously this WOD was designed purposefully to train at high intensity in a longer time zone. They can’t all focus in that short sub 15 min. range. Think constantly varied. The other interesting thing we found is each of you had a different answer today on what was the toughest part of this WOD.
The 2:57 Fran video of Heather Keenan yesterday was pretty inspiring. It also helped one of you better visualize the kip. Well how about kipping 100 in a row? Sound insane? Impossible? Think again.
Watch Chris Spealler in the video: The Quest for 100 Pull-ups
Notes:
Zach and Eli completed Elements this week and will be joining you all for classes. Make sure you welcome them and avoid the burpee penalty…
LuLuLemon Athletica Classes!
We will be the CrossFit “studio of the month” gym that will be holding free introductory CF workouts each Sunday in September for the Bellevue Square lululemon location! WOD’s will be on Sunday 9:30am every Sunday for September only and free to all. Please come support us! (Location will be the park across the street from the mall). We will post more details.
Mats and more equipment are on order! We will be outfitting the new space starting this weekend and next week to get ready for the big move.
"Fran"
For time:
21-15-9 reps of the following
Thrusters (95#/65#)
Pull-ups
Results
Fran does her namesake (whose picture did you think I would use):
The dreaded “Fran”. This is the WOD that for some reason since it was created oh so long ago by Coach has sparked the most butterflies, competition, debate, comparison, you name it. Most CrossFitters invariably ask “what’s your Fran time?”. It’s the one benchmark on a leaderboard that is always there and gets the most looks. For examples just look at the Exercises and Videos section on the CrossFit main site and there are 15 video demos of regular Fran, 1 Firefighter Fran, 1 kids Fran, 1 Flying Fran, 2 Heavy Fran’s, and even a “Frelen” which is a combo of Fran and Helen. Gyms have Fran challenges, and post videos of their own. To say nothing more it has a place in CrossFit that draws a lot of interest and scrutiny on form.
Why? Well it is a very effective WOD that appears quite simple. Push and pull. Full body functional movements. Done very fast it is devastating. Scaled or not the faster you go the harder this gets and the worse you feel. Afterwards many get the “Fran cough” which feels like a cross between bronchitis and smoker’s cough. Usually about the set of 15 you simply lose all energy in the body. Going to the pull-up bar becomes a struggle. Mentally it becomes pretty tough to keep going.
If you didn’t feel this way today that is okay! We will do it again sometime, giving you all a shot at that cough…
I’ll leave you with a video of one incredibly fast and legit “Fran” time. Note the form and technique is spot on. Click below to watch. It will only take 2:57. It’s worth it, she kicks some serious tail.
Run Forrest, Run!
Today was the Snoqualmie Railroad Days 5k/10k and kids 1k race. We represented well with the following group of runners. Results haven’t been posted so will share when they are up.
5k Race:
Deb L. (with Porter in the stroller), Deb S., Jim M., Jim D., Jorge, Jana, Lyndi, Amanda, Lucy, Leigh, Michelle, Tom
10k Race:
Sherry, Travis, Jenna
Kids 1k:
Max (and his cousin), Skye, Ashley, Finn, Grace, Jenna
One of these kids is doing his own thing:
PR’s were set, first races were run and many had their family members running so there was a big turnout for a really fun, fast, and scenic course. We especially want to thank Rob and Curtis who watched kids, handled photographer duties and cheered everyone to the finish.
Afterwards we headed back to the gym and our house for a great BBQ with not only the SnoRidge crew but also many friends from around the Puget Sound. Thanks for everyone who stopped by including the gang from King CrossFit, CrossFit Olympia, and many of our close friends from the Dupont area.
Next year’s is already on the books for Sat. August 21st. Plan on running it again!
Rest Day, Make-up Day
Today was a make-up day for “The Re-Test” WOD from yesterday. Just about everyone else took a rest day for the 5k/10k race tomorrow.
Results
If you haven’t registered you can register at the race. Details on the right hand side (Click on the Snoqualmie Railroad Days 5k/10k picture). Race is 9 am. Get there early and pick up your race packet. Don’t forget to wear your SnoRidge CF shirt!
Max is ready for the race. Are you?
I mentioned Bridget in a previous post recently completed and set a PR in the Seattle Danskin Women’s Triathlon. Here’s two pictures from the event of her in action.
Re-Test
“The Re-Test”
2 Rounds for time:
400m Run or 500m Row
40 Squats
30 Sit-ups
20 Push-ups
10 Pull-ups
Results
Remember this one? This is our introductory WOD. That one you did the very first time you came for Elements. It’s the WOD that likely left you a little shell-shocked at how something that looks so easy can be a pretty hard workout.
Well today we did this to use as a measuring stick. Eleven of you took the re-test today and came away with straight “A’s”. Whether this was WOD number 5 or WOD number 40 you all aced this thing. Everyone improved! Many improved dramatically. Check the results.
Notes:
Two days from the Snoqualmie Railroad Days 5k and BBQ. Respond to the Evite and register if you haven’t already!
Oh and our good friends that we just vacationed with in Cabo made the CrossFit Affiliate blog page today! Click here to see the picture of Kelly getting her first muscle-up.
Eli and Zach knocking out Elements WOD #2 doing Tabata Push Press:
