Sunday, May 31, 2009

Monday's WOD


AMRAP in 30 minutes of:


Run 800

40 wall balls (men - 20# / women 14#) - http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_Wallball.wmv




No ropes required tomorrow (but feel free to use them for the warm up); we'll try to hit that WOD Wednesday. Remember, GHD sit ups and back extensions as part of the warm up tomorrow, also, row 500 or do 100 double unders (400 singles) since we'll be running for the WOD.


Check it out, cases of people reversing their type two diabetes via proper nutrition and doctors are shocked! It's also sad that they think the cure is temporary and say that when they put weight back on the problems come back - no shit huh? Guess what, their nutrition changed resulting in the health issues resurfacing. Anyway, it's good reading. The take away is: as long as you keep your nutrition in check, you will NEVER have to worry about type II diabetes and if you have elevated blood sugar levels, proper nutrition can fix that and reverse its associated health problems.


Beating diabetes: Some do, but are they cured?



Scientists plan to study patients who control their blood sugar, kick meds


The Associated Press


updated 1:02 p.m. CT, Sun., April 19, 2009


JoAnne Zoller Wagner's diagnosis as prediabetic wasn't enough to compel her to change her habits and lose 30 pounds. Not even with the knowledge her sister had died because of diabetes.


"I didn't have that sense of urgency," said the Pasadena, Md., woman.


But nine months later, doctors told Wagner her condition had worsened. She, too, now had Type 2 diabetes.


That scared her into action.


Now, two years later, the 55-year-old woman has slimmed down. She exercises regularly and her blood sugar levels are back in the healthy, normal range. Thanks to her success, she was able to avoid diabetes medication.


Diabetics like Wagner who manage to turn things around, getting their blood sugar under control — either escaping the need for drugs or improving enough to quit taking them — are drawing keen interest from the medical community.


This summer an American Diabetes Association task force will focus on this group of patients and whether they can be considered "cured." Among the points of interest:


What blood sugar range qualifies as a cure and how long would it have to be maintained?
How might blood pressure and cholesterol, both linked to diabetes, figure into the equation?
And what if a "cured" diabetic's blood sugar soars again?


This seems silly. It's a condition brought on by improper nutrition - you are "cured" as long as your nutrition remains solid. If you allow it to slip, the condition reappears


"For right now, we're not saying they're cured, but the bottom line is ... good glucose control, less infections," said Sue McLaughlin, president of health care and education for the American Diabetes Association. The organization has no estimate of how many people fall into that category.


Most diabetes linked to obesity

Being overweight is the leading risk for Type 2 diabetes. Genetics also plays a role, and blacks, Hispanics and American Indians are at greater risk than whites.


(Here is what the "experts" fail to see here. Type 2 diabetes is not the a result of being overweight, being over weight and Type 2 diabetes, high triglycerides, atherosclerosis are all caused by chronic high blood sugar and the resulting hyperinsulinism. They are all symptoms of the same issue - improper nutrition.)


Nearly 57 million Americans are considered prediabetic. Another 18 million have been diagnosed with diabetes, while the diabetes association estimates almost 6 million more Americans have diabetes and don't know it. About 90 to 95 percent of diabetics have Type 2, the kind linked to obesity.


The future is potentially even gloomier, with one study estimating that one of every three children born in the U.S. in 2000 will eventually develop diabetes.


But the news isn't all bad. Thirty minutes of daily exercise and a 5 to 10 percent loss in body weight can lower the odds of diabetes by nearly 60 percent and is more effective than medicine in delaying its onset, according to a diabetes prevention study.


(Doctors and drug companies don't make any money from this course of treatment though....)


Still, such lifestyle changes are often difficult.


"It sounds like such a nonmedical recommendation, and yet it's the thing people say is the toughest to implement," said McLaughlin, the diabetes association official.


For Wagner, it meant changing not just her diet, but her lifestyle. A teacher, she now cooks most of her meals at home and avoids the sweets in the school lounge. She also tries not to stay late at work, using the extra time to exercise and make healthy meals.


‘It is about willpower’

Alice Stern describes a similar journey back to health since her diabetes diagnosis in 2007. The 50-year-old Boston woman was able to avoid diabetes drugs through diet and exercise, managing to trim 40 pounds off her 5-foot-2 frame.


"It is about willpower. That's how you make the changes," said Stern.


Even diabetics who have resorted to weight loss surgery have seen their blood sugar levels return to normal.


Lucy Cain, 61, of Dallas tried to control her diabetes through diet and exercise after she was diagnosed in 2004. But she found it difficult, and two years later had gastric bypass surgery. The 5-foot-7 Cain, who once weighed over 300 pounds, is down to about 185, still losing weight and is off diabetes medication.


(Be aware that gastric bypass surgery his horrific for you. It also forces huge dietary changes as a result of the surgery so it's incorrect to attribute the results to the sugery itself.)


Whatever the route, weight loss is key, doctors say.


"There is no special diet. You've got to eat fewer calories than your body burns," said Dr. Robert Rizza, a Mayo Clinic endocrinologist and former president of the American Diabetes Association.


(The above is a horrifically uninformed statement.)


Many doctors stop short of calling these successful patients cured.


Dr. Philipp Scherer, director of the diabetes research center at University of Texas Southwestern, describes diabetes as a one-way road. He said it can be stopped in its tracks with diet and exercise, but there's no turning back.


(Again, an uninformed statement. Type 2 diabetes can absolutely be halted with nutrition and exercise.)


Dr. Kevin Niswender, an assistant professor in the department of medicine at Vanderbilt Medical Center, said "technically, you could call somebody cured," but that patient still needs to be followed closely.


Benefits may be only temporary

Doctors caution that, for some diabetics, lowering blood sugar may be only temporary. Stress, weight gain and other factors can push it back to unhealthy levels.


"Blood sugars can come down to normal. Then the issue is how long does that last?" said Dr. Sue Kirkman, vice president of clinical affairs for the diabetes association. "Sometimes people start putting weight back on and their blood sugars come back up."


In other cases, patients are diagnosed so late that blood sugar levels can't be brought back to normal, even with weight loss, she said. As the disease progresses, even those who made diet and lifestyle changes might eventually have to go on medications.


That's one reason Wagner and some other diabetics who've managed their disease through diet and exercise are also reluctant to consider themselves "cured."


"American culture, our environment, is not conducive to having good health," said Wagner. She believes diabetes will always be lurking in the background, waiting for her to slip.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Friday's Results

Hope everyone enjoyed that as much as I did on Monday; that rower will definitely kick your ass in a WOD!

Joel and Reagan move into the neighborhood tomorrow and Joel already hit a WOD from my garage tonight! - it's gonna be fun!

Bring jump ropes for Monday; pick one up if you need one - you can get one at Target or Wal-Mart for under $10. Just don't get one with weights in the handles.

Finally, please use the ICE link on the left side of the web page and thank MWR for the bumper plates (rubber weights), bars and rowers. I really want them to know we appreciate the equipment and love using it. Let them know if you think we need more space or more classes but stay positive and and thank them for their efforts. It's important to use the system to express our satisfaction and appreciation; not just for expressing our displeasure.

Alicia - 29:30 (Rx)
Leslie - 21:00 (Rx)
Jenn - 28:17 (Rx)
Maria - 24:00
Andy - 23:18 (2 rounds)
Valerie - 24:00
Ken - 39:40
Steve - DNF
Jeff - DNF
Javi - 29:37
Chris - 28:27
Shauna - 22:32
Kate - 31:36
Brent - DNF
Ray - 41:21
Andrea - 22:31
Don - 21:46
Mel - 24:35
Joel - 28:??
Dave - 18:06 (subbed heavy front squats)

CrossFit Heroes: Sorry, I missed this on Memorial Day but it's worth watching - http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/MemorialDay_CrossFitHeroes.wmv

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Friday's WOD


For time:


Row 1k, 21 thrusters (men - 85# / women 55#), 15 pull-ups

Rest precisely 2 minutes

Row 750m, 18 thrusters, 12 pull-ups

Rest precisely 2 minutes

Row 500m, 15 thrusters, 9 pull -ups

Thrusters: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_BBThrusters.wmv
  • They are basically a front squat into an push press. We will cover them in class but please watch the video so you are familiar with the mechanics. This will help speed the class along.
We will start the first group and let them finish the row and then start the next group, and so on, and so on....

If you have a watch with a stop watch please bring it and use it for your two minute rest periods. The rest time will be subtracted from your overall WOD time.

We'll break in some of the new bars and bumpers for this WOD.

Also, for Monday, please bring jump ropes if you have one. If not, hey, it's pay day; pick one up this weekend!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Crazy Shoes!



OK, lots of you have seen the shoes Leslie, Mike and I wear. They are called Vibram Five Fingers (http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/).

They are excellent for WODs as they ensure good contact with the ground for oly lifts and they help you run correctly - which is the opposite of how most people run in conventional running shoes. If Five Fingers are too freaky for you, get some Nike Frees (like Reagan) or get some of the light weight shoes Dave uses. The bottom line is the less restrictive your shoes are, the better your biomechanics will be.

Here is a good article regarding Five Fingers:

Tim Ferriss on Vibram Shoes from Kevin Rose on Vimeo.
"The human foot is a work of art and a masterpiece of engineering."--Leonardo Da Vinci

"OK, dude, what's up with the goofy shoes?"










Tim Ferriss on Vibram Shoes from Kevin Rose on Vimeo.
It was the second day of Pavel's RKC kettlebell course, and I'd seen more than a few people wearing what appeared to be gecko feet. The sheer goofiness compelled me to ask Rudy Tapalla, a CrossFit instructor from Chicago, why on earth he would put these ridiculous gloves on his toes. He seemed to have good mojo -- he was shorter than me but had a vertical jump to match Michael Jordan -- so I figured he might have good reasons.

He did, though I didn't realize it at the time.

I remained a skeptic but tested them a month later. Now, I have three pairs and find it hard to wear other shoes. Vibram Five Fingers shoes ("VFFs" to the die-hard fans) are worth a closer look.

After two weeks of wearing them, the lower-back pain I'd had for more than 10 years disappeared and hasn't returned since I started experimentation about 8 weeks ago.

Sound ridiculously implausible?

It doesn't once we look at how feet and posture adapt...

Nasty Pictures and Maladapted Feet

Each human foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, and more than 100 muscles and tendons. It's a surprisingly malleable structure.

From the cached version of the most excellent Nature's Magic Bullet, referred to me by Joseph Mascaro:

Most people, including doctors, have never seen a natural foot, unaltered by footwear. The following images of habitually bare feet are taken from a study performed almost 100 years ago, published 1905 in the American Journal of Orthopedic Surgery, which examined the feet of native barefoot populations in the Philippines and Central Africa. A line can be drawn that runs through the heel, ball, and big toe of a habitually bare foot. The little toes spread naturally and fan out to provide a wide, stable base for walking or standing.





How do our feet compare? The following more common image, also taken from the 1905 study, demonstrates feet that are shaped like the owner's shoes. No such line can be drawn, and the little toes crowd to a point -- a comparatively unstable, narrow base for walking or standing.





The Simple Biomechanics of Bad Posture

Postural compensation is unavoidable while wearing shoes that elevate the heels. It's necessary to maintain balance.





Chronic use of heels can result -- and usually does -- in some degree of kyphosis-lordosis and related pains in the lower back and mid-upper back.

Reversing Degeneration -- Embracing the Barefoot Alternative





Vibram Five Finger models: KSO (blue), Classic (brown), Sprint (gray)

Laboratory studies show that the plantar arch alone returns at least 17 percent of the energy of impact. Running shoes have largely replaced our arches, but they are neither as effective nor as durable. Barefoot runners can clearly do as well as shoed runners, but it takes time to develop the strength in the foot to use our natural arch fully.
(Source: The Barefoot Route)

Ethiopian Abebe Bikila ran a world-record 2:15:17 marathon at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
Barefoot.

The unadorned human foot is built for running. In fact, some researchers have proposed that bipedalism is an evolved trait related to "persistence hunting", which is common among predators like wolves. Don't think a human can run an antelope to death? Think again.
So how do we reclaim our rightful arch strength, our stability, and undo the damage of years of unnatural posture? Not to mention rediscover the joy of feeling the terrain under our feet?
Going barefoot is one option, and one that I enjoy, but there are limits. In the concrete jungle, glass and other dangers make going Bushman a roll of the dice at best. Tetanus or a trip to the ER? I'll pass.

The Vibram Five Fingers shoes, to differing degrees, allow you to both walk without a heel (as would wrestling shoes, the Nike Free, Vivo Barefoot shoes, or thin flip-flops) and condition toe-spread, especially the big toe, for lateral stability.

I first tested the KSO ("keep stuff out") model, which fits most like an aqua sock and has more padding than other models I tested.

I then tested the Classic model, the least complicated of all, and the Sprint model, which is almost a hybrid of the KSO and Classic.

I wear a size 9.5 men's shoe in the US and tested EU 42 for the KSO and Classic, and an EU 43 for the Sprint.

The results, in brief:

My favorite model is, by far, the Classic. It's easiest to get on, even with my worthless nub of a little toe, and it most closely mimics the true barefoot feel. The only downside is that, to get a snug fit and not have the heel come off the foot, you must slide the top slip-tie until it is quite tight. This will feel unusual for the first 24 hours or so. I have used the Classic to go trail running in SF and it is euphoric.

I love the KSO, but it is more of a process to get on, and far more conspicuous. At first, it's fun to get a lot of attention with the shoes (gentlemen, you will not believe the "peacocking" effect of these puppies), but giving each person you meet a 5-minute explanation gets old fast. The Classic blends in more than the KSO or any model with straps. Black will help all models fade into the ground, but I prefer colors.

The Sprint model was so uncomfortable at first that I shelved them, never intending to test them again. It was the only model, and not due to size differences, that oddly pulled my little toe out, causing minor pain but great discomfort after even 10 minutes. I sent an e-mail to their US CEO, who responded back with a suggestion to "seat the heel", particularly with the Sprint model. This means:

Slide your foot back to nestle your heel into the heel pocket. It's important to get your heel deeply seated. Secure the instep strap BEFORE latching the heel straps. This will ensure the foot is positioned properly.

I have since been able to wear the Sprint model for 1-2 days at a time, no more than 1 hour of walking at a stretch, but the velcro strap can still bite into the skin without the KSO-like mesh below it. I find it the least comfortable of the three models.

But what about flat feet?

I had clinically-diagnosed arch problems as a child -- flat feet supreme -- and was prescribed not only custom orthopedic insoles but also exercises for the feet themselves, rolling up towels with the toes, etc.. For those who like random anecdotes, my mom e-mailed me this addition after I published this post:

You didn't mention that you leapt at the orthopedist examining your feet, like Spidey to a wall.
Sounds like me. I was a little hellion. But we digress...

Needless to say, the exercises fell by the wayside, and I took to increasing levels of support through the shoes themselves. VFFs have been nothing short of spectacular for me, despite my history of flat feet.

Barefoot runners are often asked "but what do you use for arch support?", to which they respond: "your arches". I've found that my arches, and foot as a whole, feels better with less support rather than more.

Cautions and Cons

Do not overdo it at first. Chances are that the ligaments and musculature of your feet is underdeveloped. Use them for no more than 1/2 to 1 mile in the first 24 hours, then take a day off. I suggest alternating VFFs with "normal" shoes or flat-soled shoes like Chuck Taylors for the first week. I now use VFFs for no more than three days in a row, as I've had some bruising on the heel with more, and such bruising is slow to heal and massively inconvenient. Asphalt is somewhat forgiving, concrete much less so (The Embarcadero in SF, for example), and marble or stone is brutal (casino floors in Las Vegas, etc.).

Beware the sizing. There are complaints online of the VFF website sizing suggestions being inaccurate for some people. Get sized at a retail location that carries VFFs if possible. If you can't, check the VFF return policy on their site or order through Amazon to ensure swaps are simple.

Be prepared to wash them. VFFs are machine washable and should be air dried. There are five-toed socks like the Injinji brand, but I have found all of them to be incredibly painful between the toes, no matter which model of shoe is worn. I now only wear VFFs barefoot. One nice side-effect of the toe separation? No more athlete's foot or foot skin issues.

In Closing

To embrace barefoot living or the barefoot alternative, you will have to change how you walk and run, avoiding the heel strike we've all used since putting thick Nike padding under our soles. No need to obsess, though, as your gait will adapt naturally -- reverting to a natural state, as it were -- as you avoid the discomfort of doing otherwise.

The fastest runners have a style quite similar to that of a person running without shoes. They absorb shock by landing lightly on their forefeet rather than on their heels, and their landing leg is beneath the torso, with the leg slightly bent to absorb impact.

According to exercise physiologist and Olympic marathoner Pete Pfitzinger, the key to starting out is to go slowly. He advises walking barefoot for a few weeks to toughen up the skin on the bottom of the foot as well as the muscles in the ankles and feet. Once you are ready to run, start with a mere five minutes, increasing slowly and running barefoot every couple of days. From there, build to up to 20 minutes over a month. After a few weeks of this, the feet and ankles will be stronger, thus reducing the risk of injury. Possible places to train include sandy beaches and golf courses.

The barefoot running technique has been described as falling forward. It has also been described as gently kissing the ground with the balls of your feet.
(Source: The Barefoot Route)

For those interested in developing the most efficient and low-impact running gait, I suggest starting with the Chi Running DVD (skip the book, which gets into too much pseudo-Asian chi mumbo jumbo) and moving to the Pose Method of Running book if interested in more specific details.

Experiment with rediscovering your feet and proper biomechanics.

If a few weeks can eradicate 10+ years of lower-back pain for me, it might just do something for you.

At the very least, you get to wear some goofy shoes that encourage you to wiggle your toes.

Wednesday's WOD Results


Welcome to all the new people - awesome effort today. That run in between sets really adds a nice suck factor to the WOD.


Both GHDs are assembled and we will cover their use on Friday. Friday's WOD won't be as long as today's but will take some time so please try to be on time so we can get the warm up knocked out, cover the GHDs and then hit the WOD. We'll be rowing on Friday so run the 400 as part of the warm up. Once we cover the GHD, we'll start using it in the warm up.


Results:


Don - 26:51

Leslie - 35:28 (Rx - 24" box)

Maria - 27:25 (minus last 2 400m runs due to exercise induces asthma)

Jenn - 29:45 (Rx)

Ryan - 24:22

Andy - 31:56

Ramon - 29:37

Alicia - 31:34

Chris - 21:39

Lilla - 36:35

Chric C. - DNF

Andrea - 27:43

Kate - 30:04

Shauna - 27:45

Reagan - 23:54 (Rx)

Megan - DNF

Brent - 30:45

Ken - 34:36

Brandon - 24:10

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Wednesday's WOD


For time:


Run 400, 21 box jumps, 21 kb swings (men - 1.5 pood / women - 1 pood), 21 wall balls (men - 20# / women - 14#)

Run 400, 18 box jumps, 18 kb swings, 18 wall balls

Run 400, 15 box jumps, 15 kb swings, 15 wall balls

Run 400, 12 box jumps, 12 kb swings, 12 wall balls

Run 400, 9 box jumps, 9 kb swings, 9 wall balls


This one takes a while so we will need to get started on time.


Box jumps: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_BoxJumpVariations.wmv

Kettlebell swings: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_KBSwings.wmv

Wall balls: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_Wallball.wmv



For your warm up, please row 500 instead of running the usual 400. If we have time, we will cover some basics on the GHD.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Why no class?


There will be no class tomorrow. Many of you might wonder why and also be disappointed. I am happy that you are disappointed that there will be no class but for me, holidays that honor the formation of our great nation and honor the men and women who have helped us win and maintain our freedoms transcend the importance of CrossFit.

First, understand the reason there is a Centurion CrossFit Fort Hood - it's because we felt a responsibility to try to get CrossFit to Soldiers in order to better prepare them for combat; that was and still is the primary reason for our existence. Numerous studies have demonstrated that the greatest predictor of how someone will perform in combat is physical fitness and the greatest predictor of how one will perform under stress is intelligence. We cannot affect one's intelligence but we can affect one's physical fitness and mental hardness and that is what we strive to do.

Many of you met my father this week. My dad was drafted in WWII and chose to serve in the 82d Airborne, when jumping out of a plane was still somewhat of an ongoing experiment. He was also Glider qualified; arguably one of the worst ways to deliver Soldiers to the battlefield. I learned a lot from him as I grew up and it helped shape and focus me as a Soldier and I credit him with most of the success I have had in my military career. My wife also served in the Army, jumped out of aircraft and led Soldiers in Afghanistan. So for me and my family, Monday's holiday supersedes the WOD. Hit one on your own if you must (I will) but also take time to reflect on, thank and honor all of those who have gone before us and sacrificed everything so that we may live in the greatest nation on earth.

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead" (Source: Duke University's Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920). While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

In 1915, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields," Moina Michael replied with her own poem:


We cherish too, the Poppy redThat grows on fields where valor led,It seems to signal to the skiesThat blood of heroes never dies.

She then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need. Later a Madam Guerin from France was visiting the United States and learned of this new custom started by Ms.Michael and when she returned to France, made artificial red poppies to raise money for war orphaned children and widowed women. This tradition spread to other countries. In 1921, the Franco-American Children's League sold poppies nationally to benefit war orphans of France and Belgium. The League disbanded a year later and Madam Guerin approached the VFW for help. Shortly before Memorial Day in 1922 the VFW became the first veterans' organization to nationally sell poppies. Two years later their "Buddy" Poppy program was selling artificial poppies made by disabled veterans. In 1948 the US Post Office honored Ms Michael for her role in founding the National Poppy movement by issuing a red 3 cent postage stamp with her likeness on it.

Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.

There are a few notable exceptions. Since the late 50's on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing. In 1951, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of St. Louis began placing flags on the 150,000 graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as an annual Good Turn, a practice that continues to this day. More recently, beginning in 1998, on the Saturday before the observed day for Memorial Day, the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts place a candle at each of approximately 15,300 grave sites of soldiers buried at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park on Marye's Heights (the Luminaria Program). And in 2004, Washington D.C. held its first Memorial Day parade in over 60 years.

To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans "To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to 'Taps."

The Moment of Remembrance is a step in the right direction to returning the meaning back to the day. What is needed is a full return to the original day of observance. Set aside one day out of the year for the nation to get together to remember, reflect and honor those who have given their all in service to their country.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Eat Your Lungs Out While Getting Leaner


Remember, your nutrition is the key to improved health and performance. Here is a good interview with Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories about his approach to eating and diet by Josef Brandenburg of T-Nation.




Eat Your Lungs Out While Getting Leaner by Josef Brandenburg


Chances are, you didn't notice the first time Gary Taubes rocked your world. It was 2002. Taubes, an award-winning science journalist, wrote a cover story for The New York Times Magazine called "What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?" The article was a follow-up to one published the previous year in Science magazine, called "The Soft Science of Dietary Fat."
Those two articles were so controversial, and so widely discussed, that they eventually led to a distinct shift in the way the media covered nutrition and weight loss, and the way the public talked about it.


Taubes scored a major book deal, and spent the next five years researching the science behind our commonly held ideas about nutrition, obesity, and public health.


What happened between 2002 and 2007 is instructive: Thanks in part to the new legitimacy bestowed upon low-carb diets by Taubes' articles, Dr. Robert Atkins' books sold by the millions. Some restaurants stopped serving bread with meals, and nobody had to apologize for ordering the juiciest steak on the menu. In 2003, during the same week that Atkins slipped on a patch of ice and suffered a fatal head injury, another low-carb book, The South Beach Diet, arrived in bookstores. That one was soon selling more than 100,000 copies a week.


While Taubes studied nutritional science from every angle, deploying a team of researchers to libraries across the U.S., the low-carb craze came and went. That helps explain why Good Calories, Bad Calories, which came out to mixed reviews in 2007, never got the attention it deserved. The battles over carbs and fat had all been fought, and the media was bored and ready to move on. (It helped that the media had a new star in journalist Michael Pollan, who published The Omnivore's Dilemma in 2006 and In Defense of Food in 2008. The latter book quotes Taubes extensively.)


After my first interview with Gary, I immediately put his advice into action. In 6 weeks I went from 198 to 203 while my waist shrunk by an inch! I didn't change anything in my workouts. (More about what I changed later.) Obviously, Gary was worth a second interview.


I caught up with the 53-year-old Taubes, who started out as a physicist with degrees from Harvard and Stanford before he turned to science writing, for a telephone interview.


Testosterone Muscle: You started out writing on stuff like rocket science. How did you first get interested in obesity and public health?


Gary Taubes: Well, after I finished my first book, Bad Science, on the cold fusion nonsense in Utah, some of my physicist friends said to me, "If you like writing about bad science, you should check out public health. You'll have a field day."


So I started writing about public health, and it turns out the science was pretty universally terrible. I did a story for Science magazine, in which I spent a year on the controversy over whether dietary salt causes high blood pressure. One of the worst scientists I ever interviewed — and I had interviewed some really terrible scientists in my life — took credit for getting Americans not only to eat less salt, but also to eat less fat and less eggs.


I literally put the phone down when I was done with the interview, called up my editor, and said one of the five worst scientists I've ever interviewed took credit for getting Americans to eat less fat and less eggs. I don't know what the story is with fat and eggs, but if this guy was involved in any substantive way, then there's a good story.


After I finished the salt story, I spent a year reporting a story on how we came to believe that low-fat diets are good for us. Again, the science behind it was pretty universally terrible. And that led me to do The New York Times Magazine story.


They wanted me to do a story for the magazine where we try to figure out what caused the obesity epidemic, because you could localize it in time. Basically, some time from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, obesity in America started shooting upward.


There were two hypotheses. One said high-fructose corn syrup was to blame, but that didn't really pan out. Its bad stuff, but it's not the cause of the epidemic.


But this other idea, that the low-fat doctrine was to blame, was interesting because I came upon these five studies that had been done, but not yet published, on the Atkins Diet. They put people on a high-fat Atkins Diet, and compared them to people put on a low-fat, low-calorie, American Heart Association-type diet. And not only did the people on the Atkins diet lose more weight — even though you're not telling them to eat less — they also had better cholesterol profiles.


TM: Let's get to the most controversial point: You say that eating extra calories won't make people fat.


GT: The assumption that fat tissue isn't regulated at all is almost naive beyond belief. Every other part of the human body is well regulated, but fat tissue is just this garbage can that all these empty extra calories get dumped into. And it just happily expands, despite having these deleterious effects all over your body.


The idea of homeostasis, where you want to keep the internal environment stable regardless of what else is happening, was first discussed in the 1860s by a French scientist named Claude Bernard. Are our fat cells somehow exempt from this?


As you get fatter, homeostasis gets thrown out of whack, because among other things, fat is a good insulator. So your body starts getting hotter. Now you have to cool it down in ways you didn't have to before. You start sweating, and when you lose body fluids, the salt content in the blood gets higher. All kinds of things start going awry when you start getting fatter.


It makes absolutely no sense that your fat tissue wouldn't be regulated, and yet these people believe that obesity is all about calories.


If you look at animals, all animals regulate their fat tissue very carefully. You can't just force animals to overeat and make them fat.


TM: Really?


GT: They won't do it. The only animals that will get fat by dietary means are very carefully bred rats in laboratories, and house pets that don't eat the foods they evolved to eat.


If you've ever looked at cat food, it's packed with carbohydrates. And yet cats are carnivores in the wild. Felines don't eat carbohydrates. They eat meat. That's what they do. And yet we take then into our homes, we feed them carbohydrates, and lo and behold, they get fat.


The argument I'm making is that [obesity is] a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not of sloth and gluttony. Overeating is the side effect of the disorder, not the cause. What you want to know is, what regulates fat accumulation?


TM: This sounds like some sort of semantics game. Isn't the problem just that they were overeating?


GT: Yao Ming has been growing for much of his life. Until he got to 7 feet, 6 inches, he was in positive energy balance. He was overeating. Nobody considers his height to have been caused by overeating.


He was secreting growth hormone, and that also prompted the secretion of something called insulin-like growth factor, and those things made his bones extend and his muscles extend. He got heavier and heavier because he was getting bigger, but he didn't get bigger because he was overeating. He was overeating because he was getting bigger. He was getting bigger because he was secreting hormones.


So if you're talking about growth, all you care about are what hormones and enzymes control growth. As soon as you get into fat tissue and horizontal growth instead of vertical growth, suddenly the causality slips. Hormones and regulation go out the window, and now overeating is the problem. Instead of a metabolic defect, which the research clearly points to, we assume that it's a character defect.


TM: So what's regulating the growth of the fat tissue?


GT: The answer, which we've known since the early 1960's, is insulin. Insulin is the hormone that primarily regulates fat accumulation. If you want to get fat out of your fat tissue, you have to lower your insulin levels.


And insulin is regulated for all intents and purposes by the carbohydrates in our diet. That's the simplest possible hypothesis. The physicist would call it "the zero-order approximation."


Other hormones play roles, and most of them work to get fat out of the fat tissue, but they can't do it if insulin levels are elevated. Adrenaline, growth hormones, all these things work to make you leaner, but they don't work if insulin levels are elevated.


And this has never been controversial. That's the weird thing.


TM: That's never been controversial?


GT: No.


TM: That carbohydrates make you fat?


GT: Well, that insulin makes you accumulate fat, and that carbohydrates regulate insulin levels.


TM: People don't just put those two ideas together?


GT: Nobody puts them together because they don't like the conclusions.


Everything that we believe about obesity basically came out of the 1970's. This was a period in which a half a dozen men completely dominated the field. So they controlled what everybody was allowed to think.


They wrote all the textbooks. Every textbook on obesity that isn't about behavioral therapy was written by one of these six men. Well, actually only two guys wrote the textbooks, which were often accumulations of chapters written by different people. So they would invite one of these other six to write the relevant chapters.


In a textbook on obesity, you'd have a chapter on dietary therapy. That chapter would always be written by the same guy: Ted Van Itallie. A very nice guy. I've interviewed him. What he believed became what everyone believed. As these guys started to retire, in the 1980's, their protégés took over.


These guys would also host the conferences, and then they would write up the conference proceedings. So they would take what was presented in the conference and they would filter it into what they believed was true.


For instance, in 1973 the National Institute of Health had its first-ever conference on obesity, and there were two talks on dietary therapy. One was about the effectiveness of fasting, and the other was about the unnatural effectiveness of carbohydrate-restricted diets by Charlotte Young, this very well respected nutritionist from Cornell.


She talked about how weirdly effective these diets are at lowering weight, and doing it without making the subjects hungry. In her own laboratory she tested diets of 1,800 calories [per day] on young, overweight men. She kept the protein content the same, but had progressively lower levels of carbohydrates and higher levels of fat. The less carbohydrates, the greater the weight loss, [even with] the same amount of protein and the same calories.


But the guys who put the conference together, George Bray and George Cahill, believed that obesity was all about gluttony and sloth, and that it didn't matter what kind of calories you ate. So when they wrote the conference proceedings, and specified for the National Institute of Health how money should be spent and what areas should be studied, they said the reason low-carb diets work is because they restrict calories. This was the exact opposite of what Charlotte Young had said.


This went on over and over again.


TM: Everybody reading this knows somebody who has eaten a whole lot less, exercised a whole lot more, and lost a lot of weight. How do you explain that?


GT: There are two ways. One is you can starve people like on The Biggest Loser. You can get them to work out three hours a day. You can force them to lose weight by forcing them to be in negative energy balance. But as soon as they go back to eating they'll regain the weight. And not only that, they'll regain the weight faster than they lost it.


People have done studies of starvation or semi-starvation where they put people on 1,600-calories-a-day diets. They lose weight, but they're hungry all the time. When you go back to overfeeding them — 3,000 or 4,000 calories a day — they're still constantly hungry, even though they're eating two to three times the food they were eating before. They put the weight back incredibly quickly, and it's almost all fat.


TM: So they would end up fatter.


GT: They're fatter after they've been re-fed than they were before they started the semi-starvation diet, and they regain the weight far faster than they lose it. It takes maybe three, four, or six months of semi-starvation to lose 25% of your body fat, but you can gain it back in six weeks. It's like their bodies just inflate, you know, and they're hungry all the time. So even though they go back to eating 3,000 to 4,000 calories a day, they're still hungry.


I've spoken to people who were on The Biggest Loser, and all those people gained the weight back.


TM: All the contestants?


GT: Yeah, because they can't live in a state of constant hunger. Well, some people can do it long-term, but they're rare examples. Their whole life is basically dedicated to living with hunger. And I think eventually what happens is their body changes so they become, in effect, anorexic. But that's speculation.


TM: So what about the other option?


GT: The other people go on a diet, they eat less, they exercise more, they lose weight, and they keep it off. There are people who do that. The point I would make is that when you go on a diet, even if it's Dean Ornish's 10% fat diet, among the things that you give up are sweets, high-glycemic-index carbs, starches, and white flour.


If you drink beer regularly, you either give up the beer, or you switch to light beer. If you drink a lot of Coca-Cola or Pepsi, you drink Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi. So in the process of cutting calories, you also cut out carbohydrates. It's virtually impossible, mathematically, to cut your calories significantly without cutting carbohydrates, because carbohydrates are such a huge part of the diet.


TM: Thanks for your time. How can people get in touch with you?


GT: It's always a pleasure Josef. As you know — and get on me about — I don't have a blog or anything, but if people want more, my book is a good start.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Friday's Results


Good work today! I hope everyone got something out of the rowing work; we will incorporate it into the warm up and WODs. The rower is a fantastic piece of kit and will add a sick dimension to whatever WOD it's incorporated into.


I will work on getting the GHDs put together next week. Once they are assembled, we will cover how to set them for the various exercises and we will drop the KTE during the warm up and begin doing GHD sit-ups and back extensions.


Have a good weekend and remember, no class on Monday.


150 Burpees for time results:


Andy - 21:33

Jenn - 15:23

Maria - 18:15

Alicia - 18:20

Lilla - 20:31

Brent - 13:58

Leslie - 14:41

Brandon - 13:02

Reagan - 13:00

Ryan - 11:57

Ramon - 13:41

Earl - lost count but DEFINITELY did at least 150!

Ken - 16:12

Don - 12:43

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Friday's WOD


For time:


150 Burpees


We will cover some rowing, let everyone pull 500 to 1k on them and then hit this WOD. It's a pretty fast WOD so we should have plenty of time for it.


Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Viewing party anyone?

Just ordered the CrossFit documentary from last year's CrossFit Games - want to set up a viewing party somewhere once it arrives??

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

What the f@#K?


That's right, the f-ing rowers are in!!


I also picked up 5 women's bars, 5 men's bars, all the bumper plates, and 2 GHDs!!!


We will begin training on the rowers on Friday (assuming you guys want to have a WOD on Friday). Then we will begin incorporating them into warm ups and WODs and you will discover just how much fun rowing is....
When not rowing, please return the handle all the way to the front to preserve it.


There will be no WOD on Monday in observance of Memorial Day.


I will not be there tomorrow but Erin and Brandon should be and we will try once again to do push presses.


Push Press


3-3-3-3-3-3-3

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Monday's WOD


BEWARE - our CrossFit style is stronger than your dragon style kung fu!


Push Press

1-1-1-1-1-1-1 http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/cfj-nov-05/push-press.wmv

I won't be there tomorrow but Brandon and Erin will be there to run you guys through the WOD. You should fail between the 5th and 7th set, if not, start a little heavier next time.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Friday's WOD

3 rounds for time of:

400m run
40 squats
30 sit-ups
20 push-ups
10 pull-ups

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Wednesday's Results

Nice work today! It was short but brutal (especially for Leslie's hands)...

Andrew - 8:43
Brandon - 7:13
Don - 7:27
Dave - 5:00
Mike - 6:14
Lilla - 8:16
Renee' - 9:32
Jenn - 9:32
Leslie - 9:18
Reagan - 10:01
Megan - 6:58
Veronica - Sorry, I missed your time!
Dene ' - 9:05
Andrea - 7:17
Dan - 9:48
Garrett - 8:43
Nate - 8:03
Ryan - 5:00
Maria - 6:44
Ken - 8:30
Valerie - 10:44
Erin - 6:25
Jay - 7:32

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Wednesday's WOD



Jeff sporting our t-shirt in Iraq and hitting the pull-ups!

This is a great one from the Southwest Regional Qualifiers!

For time:

50 pull-ups
50 burpees

This is a fast WOD so we will work some pressing movements for the skill tomorrow.

I'll bring in some Paleo kits tomorrow for you guys to look at - I really like them!

Also, sorry for the late post but my laptop is officially dead - thank God for Best Buy and the 3-year extended warranty!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Strength Day


Good work today with the back squats. I didn't think we were going to get everyone run through it but you guys jumped on it and got it knocked out quickly. Hope everyone enjoyed a strength day; we'll begin programming more in.


It's hard to see but Dave Castro from CrossFit HQ is sporting one of our t-shirts in the above picture. He's on the left with his arm around a chick in light blue - well done Dave!
Take care of your hands, as we'll be hitting the pull-ups Wednesday.


Also, I purchased some of the "Paleo Kits" and have been eating them - they're pretty darn good! They come prepackaged in a couple of sizes with the Zone blocks on them. They are a vacuum sealed packet of free range, grass fed beef jerky, macadamias, almonds, pecans, strawberries and cranberries. There is a link on the left side of the blog down past the nutrition info, if you want to check them out. The proceeds go to a charity.


My laptop has crashed so bear with me and my posts as I work around it...

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Friday's Results and Monday's WOD




Check out the kick ass pictures Leslie sent from Hawaii!

Also Brandon and Erin have been added to our "Trainer" page.

Monday's WOD was drawn by Reagan from the Hopper Deck:

Backsquat

5-5-5-5-5

We'll start with a relatively light weight, knock out 5 reps, add weight and continue. We'll grab as many squat racks as we can and rotate people through.

Friday's results from "Hanesen" - good work everyone - that was a tough WOD!

Don - 32:35
Mike - 29:07
Julio - 33:06
Shawn - 17:49 (3 rnds)
Dene' - 18:10 (3 rnds)
Ben - 16:56 (5 rnds at 15 reps)
Brandon - 41:59 Rx
Megan - 18:20 (3 rnds)
Jim - 29:44
Maria - 21:52 (3 rnds)
Veronica - 18:57 (3 rnds)
Reagan - 25:01
Erin - 23:37






Thursday, May 7, 2009

Friday's WOD




Since I am an EOD guy, there was no way we weren't going to hit this one. Try to ensure you are there on time as this one will take a little while.


Also, Dave and I met with MWR today and one of the topics discussed was the status of the remaining equipment they ordered for us. Turns out it's here at Fort Hood in a warehouse! Hopefully next week we'll have three rowers, two GHD, bars and bumper plates to add to the mix.


You guys are going to love WODs with rowing....


"Hansen"

Five rounds for time of:
30 Glute-ham sit-ups (we will substitute frog sit-ups)

Marine Staff Sgt Daniel Hansen died February 14th in Farah Providence, Afghanistan when an IED he was working on detonated. Daniel is survived by his mother Sheryll, his father Delbert, his younger sister Katie, and his twin brother Matthew (also a Marine).

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Great Post

For all of you struggling and worried about your WOD times or if you'll ever gain a certain skill, read the excellent post below from CrossFit Invictus http://www.crossfitinvictus.com/

We All Have Bad Days Written by Ali Incredible (and a post script by C.J. Martin)

I was chatting in the locker room after the WOD and the woman I was talking to was disappointed in her performance. Relatively new to CrossFit, she persisted that she had performed terribly. What I would like to say is this: you showed up. After two years of CrossFit I have had peaks and valleys, been discouraged and elated, but when it comes down to it, crappy performance or PR, I showed up. Usually, I am the last to finish a workout, but sure as shit, when I get in my car after, there is always a little smile. Best or worst, congratulate yourself on coming. You’re among a small group of people that show up knowing you will get your ass kicked. If you’re new, please know that people who have been doing this for years, studs in the gym, do not PR everyday, they don’t set record times every day they come. It’s about effort, and half the battle is showing up. Next time you feel bad about your performance, tell yourself you’ll do better next time, look around you at the amazing folks that show up to sweat next to you, and smile.

Ali posted her comments on Monday, but they are worth repeating here for a the larger audience that doesn’t always read or post comments. Ali is an experienced CrossFit athlete and has been a valuable member of our community for a long time. Her sentiments are shared by all of the CrossFit Invictus coaches, and most likely 99.9% of the athletes that have trained with us for a significant amount of time. The reason is, most of us have been through these “off” days, have suffered feeling as if we took steps backwards, and overcame to achieve new and bigger goals.

CrossFit is humbling. It is humbling regardless of your ability or level of fitness. There will ALWAYS be a new goal to chase - a faster time, a heavier weight, etc…. CrossFit provides a system that allows you to improve and progress regardless of how studly you become. The system keeps you from dreaded plateaus, but it also enables those prone to perfectionism an opportunity to feel as if they aren’t good enough - ever. I don’t believe we will ever completely alter the internal drive to achieve in these individuals. Instead, I suggest that all athletes take a longer view of their fitness goals. Permit yourself a bad day, or even a bad week, with the knowledge and confidence that if you persist you will ultimately achieve all of your goals. Perfection (as near as one can get) will be best achieved through persistence and patience.

Wednesday's WOD Results

Good effort today! I originally did 5 rounds of this but 3 was about right for the amount of people we had to get through it.

Here are the results:

Jenn - 11:43
Reagan - 11:01
Megan - 15:36
Maria - 12:28
Alicia - 13:03
Russ - 11:03
Mike - 9:56 (ring push-ups)
Erin - 8:24
Adam - 12:21
VZ - 10:49
Dave - 6:43 (ring push-ups)
Brandon - 14:10
Frank - 11:58
Matt - 9:05
Jim - 11:43
Dene' - 14:05
Karinia - 15:07
Renee' - 14:20
Ray - 12:27
Ken - 13:37
Andrew - 11:09
Julio - 8:49

I want to congratulate Leslie, Reagan, Jenn and Maria for all getting kipping pull-ups since being with us - AWESOME job ladies!!!!

There will be some restructuring of the class shortly. Exactly what that will look like is still being worked out but we should have an idea by next week. Dave and I are meeting with MWR tomorrow to discuss various items. One point will be the status of the other kit that was supposed to be ordered. Once it's in, we can REALLY ramp up the WODs and cover different skills and at that point, it would be ideal to go to a 5 day a week class structure. There is a significant strength training component currently missing and increasing it will help you speed up your WODs.

Please be on time / early Friday as we're doing "Hansen" a hero WOD and it will take a while, as it's 5 rounds.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Monday's Results and admin notes

Well done today, that was a short one but a smoker! If I did not annotate you being as rx'd, let me know in the comments section. Here are the results:

Ryan - 7:22
Mike - 7:07 (Rx)
Ray - 6:38 (Rx)
Adam - 9:18
Julio - 9:07
Ben - 8:29
Maria - 9:29 (Rx)
Jenn - 10:28 (Rx)
Don - 7:43 (Rx)
Joel - 7:34 (Rx)
Karina - missed your time
Dene' - 10:52
VZ - 9:02 (Rx)
Erin - 7:21 (Rx)
Alicia - 10:33 (Rx)
Megan - 15:21
Reagan - 8:28 (Rx)
Renee' - 8:37
Ken - 10:10
Brandon - 9:52 (Rx)
Matthew - 9:20
Emily - 9:37
Francisco - 10:30
Ben - 13:14

First, a big welcome to the newest trainer helping us out - Erin!

Second, Lumberjack CrossFit here at Fort Hood is hosting a Level I cert July 25-26. Register for it ASAP before it sells out and avoid travel expenses! If you are active duty, there is a $200 discount for the cert. You can reserve your slot at: http://www.crossfit.com/ - look on the right hand side of the page in the Level I Certifications and scroll down until you find it. I am talking to CrossFit HQ about hosting our own Level I cert here and I expect that will occur in the fall - more to follow.

Finally, we are enjoying some growth in attendance lately. the trainers will all convene and discuss how to best provide you quality instruction in a safe environment. We have some space and equipment constraints as well as a limited number of trainers and those constraints limit our ability to train an ever increasing population. We may institute a Foundations class, which new personnel will be required to complete before entering the main class and we may have to set a cap on total number of personnel we can support in a class. We will try to overcome this by looking at offering additional classes. The bottom line is we are committed to providing you quality training and we will work with MWR to achieve a solution.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Monday's WOD


21, 15, and 9 reps of:


Box Jumps (20 inches women / 24 inches men)

KB Swings (1 pood women / 1.5 pood men)

Sumodeadlift Highpull (65lbs women / 95lbs men)


This was today's final WOD at Hell's Half Acre; it's a quick WOD but a smoker and came from the Hopper Deck (nine of spades). The fastest time posted today was 4:10 by a female; Dutch posted an impressive 4:24 and finished in first place for the male competitors.


Judging was an awesome experience and I learned a great deal being mentored by the likes of Kerry Moore and Dave Castro. I also talked to Tucker about us hosting a gymnastics cert so let me know, if you are interested.


Saturday, May 2, 2009

Barbara Results

Don, sorry to post after you. We're jealous of your awesome experience this weekend. Way to represent Centurion and good luck judging the final WOD -- we expect to see you on the HQ website footage!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday's results sooner -- I didn't return from our night gunnery until 0700 this morning.

Barbara was brutal, but she leaves you with a sense of accomplishment after the pain.

I'm listing the times for each of your rounds and then the total work time (total time minus all rest periods). I had to do an excel spreadsheet this morning to make sure I didn't screw up the math.

Name - Round #1/#2/#3/#4/#5 = Total Work Time
Andy - 4.21 / 5.58 / 6.47 / 7.06 / 7.43 = 23.13
Maria - 4.58 / 6.14 / 7.41 / 7.20 / 7.50 = 34.03
Jenn - 4.38 / 5.37 / 6.49 / 6.18 / 5.12 = 28.34
Alicia - 5.10 / 5.15 / 5.54 / 6.26 / 5.50 = 28.35
Valerie - 5.10 / 6.03 / 6.16 / 6.46 / 5.35 = 29.50
Mike - 4.15 / 4.53 / 6.12 / 5.10 / 5.20 = 25.50
Reagan - 4.58 / 5.17 / 4.33 / 6.00 / 5.01 = 27.49
Emily - 5.30 / 6.35 / 7.33 / 8.15 / 7.44 = 35.37
Ken - 4.14 / 4.39 / 6.02 / 5.15 / 6.54 = 29.04
Joel - 4.21 / 5.58 / 6.47 / 7.06 / 7.43 = 31.55
Carla - 9.05 / 7.20 = 16.25
Renee - 8.55 / 9.22 = 19.17
Russ - 4.58 / 5.42 / 6.56 = 17.36

Hell's Half Acre Update




Wow, what a great event GSX and Tucker have organized! The pics are from top to bottom:
  • Tucker and crew laying down the law to the athletes, coaches, judges and spectators regarding the WODs and performance standards.
  • Tucker briefing the coaches - I am on the right hand side of the picture.
  • GSX's wicked outdoor play area, affectionately know as "Hell's Half Acre".
I cannot express what a professional event they have put together. They have vendors providing food, beverages, trigger point therapy; Jon Gilson and his Again Faster film crew is there to capture everything for CrossFit HQ, they have a giant 20 foot by 30 foot jumbo tron screen so everyone in the gallery can see the action on the field, they have a ton of kit for the WODs, they have Angela Hart from Concept 2 rowing there to take care of the 18 rowers on hand, they have medical staff, security - nothing has been forgotten and everything about the event epitomized detailed planning and professionalism.
On top of all of this, there are some of the top CrossFit athletes in the nation participating!
Here are the WODs:
Saturday - WOD 1:
Row 500m
10 Squat Clean & Jerk (105lbs/155lbs)
Row 500m
10 Squat Clean & Jerk
Row 500m
10 Squat Clean & Jerk
WOD 2: (totally sick! - expect to see it...)
50 chest to bar pull-ups
50 burpees
Mel thinks the top times for this will be in the 7-8 minute range - we'll see if she's right.
Sunday's WOD:
Came from the Hopper Deck - how cool is that! I can't tell you yet but it's NOT Murph.
C'mon up and join the fun tomorrow for the final WOD and sport some Centurion colors!