I sat down tonight on the couch and starting thinking about what I was going to write. There are several topics that have been rolling around in my mind that I wanted to address like, Kevin Daigle’s condescending article, how the Open is going so far, focus during a WOD, etc….. What I am choosing to write about instead is Family Day. Maybe it sounds kind of cheesy but this has turned out to be the best idea I have had in a long time and my most looked forward to day of the week. Family day is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, we just hang out and do stuff as a family. About 3 months ago I decided that we were going to choose one day a week that was going to be family day and find some activity to do or place to go. Then I started putting together a list of all the different ideas I had about things we could do and we have just been ploughing through it and adding more as we think of them. The reason why I think these days are so great is because on most days we are so busy with work, going to the box, doctors appointments, e-mail, Facebook, yard work, and every day life that we are not always fully engaged for long periods of time with our kids. But on family day the focus is on the family and carving out that time to bond and connect on that fully engaged level. At the end of these days I always think about what a great day it was and when I go to work on Monday I feel like I had a fantastic weekend that was packed full of awesomeness. Over the past few months Sunday has turned into our usual family day and this is an example of what we did today. First we took our time getting up and out of bed and then had a little breakfast together. Next we headed out to cheer on an Open competitor and in the process of that we got to watch our 3-year-old son demonstrate how to do a burpee box jump, so awesome. Then we went to go see the movie Hop and the best part about this was how my 6-year-old daughter wanted to hold my hand almost the entire time. It also just brought back a flood of memories from the first couple of movies my parents took me out to. Then I started thinking about how this silly sounding activity could be a memory they have for life. It really helped me put into perspective how important the little things are. After the kids did a great job at the movies we headed over to Whole Foods to have lunch, this gave us an opportunity to have a tasty and healthy lunch which brought up the topic of nutrition. And not by me or my wife, but my daughter. After lunch we hit Lululemon for a quick shopping trip and then started the trek home. Once we arrived it was time for everyone to have a little quiet time. Everyone choose their own thing to do for an hour to recharge. Next we were feeling a bit lazy, so we decided to go out to eat for dinner too. We all enjoyed a good meal and then headed home to watch America’s Funniest Home Videos together (one of the rare not cartoon shows we can all enjoy). Lastly it was time for the bed, which includes one on one time with each of the kids reading and snuggling in bed. Don’t get me wrong, this was a busy day and once the kids were in bed I was ready to just crash on the couch but it was fantastic. Our family days aren’t always this aggressive, sometimes it might mean just hanging out together at home and do stuff like making crafts, watching movies, art, or cooking together. That is part of the greatness, you can do whatever you want as long as you are all spending time together. I know these day are not only important to me because I have started getting questions from the kids on when the next one is and what we are going to do. It is crazy how different I feel if we have to miss a family day for some reason, it is like my weekend was just two more days of work and I did not get a break. If this is not something you already do, just start putting together a list of fun things you can do and start scheduling away to make sure you don’t forget or over book. I am already looking forward to next weekend 
Tonight I completed WOD 11.4. I am exhausted and my back is a wreck right now, but I couldn’t head up to bed without getting something off my chest. I am happy with my performance overall because I know I gave it my all and I knew going into it that the Over Head Squats would be really heavy for me. So there I was in the box tonight standing with my bar laying in front of me, my coach to the left of me, and a gang of people all around ready to watch the WOD go down. Next I hear, “Coaches ready, athletes ready, 3-2-1-GO!” I start knocking out the burpees at a good pace and at one point I was thinking, when the heck are these going to be done. They felt pretty easy and I was anxious to get to the OHS. Finally the 60 burpees were done at about 4 minutes and it was time to try to knock out these OHS and hopefully make it to the Muscle-Ups. I gripped the bar, took a deep breath and cleaned it up, the pushed it up over my head to rest on my back, positioned my hands wider and jerked it up overhead. Great, arms locked, felt heavy but doable. I lowered down and push back up hard and then did it again. I dropped the bar and thought, wow that is really heavy, but I still had like 5 minutes and change left. Then I went for number 3 and that is when things get a bit foggy, can’t remember if I failed that one or got it up right away, but at some point around completing rep 4 or 5 I hear the most important words I heard all week, “Do Not Hang Your Head.” and then it was repeated again. That completely changed my attitude at that point, I didn’t even realize I was doing it. It was heavy, I was struggling, and whether I knew it or not I failed a couple reps and leaned over hands on knees and just hung my head. WTF I thought, I am no quitter, I am not going to give up, I can get one more, and I immediately grabbed that bar and went for another rep. To be honest I am not positive if that was the last rep I got, but either way I went down swinging. I have to thank my coach Tom for reminding me mid WOD that I don’t quit. Sometimes sh%t just gets hard and you can start feeling a little defeated, but that is your time to shine. How are you going to handle those rough spots, that is what counts. My kids where there tonight and I hear my son was cheering for me while I was at it and the last thing I want them seeing me do it quit. I haven’t got to where I am at today by quitting. What was it that I got from the words, do not hang your head? What I took from that was, you have no reason to hang your head, you should be proud of what you have done, and you got what it takes to get one more. Mikko Salo has SISU and now I have, Do not hang your head.
Am I excited for WOD 11.3? Good question. I am always excited about the Reebok Open WOD’s even if I don’t think I am going to do well. Why, just because it is a challenge. I love the competition. Does that mean I am super stoked if I don’t do well, heck no. But once the initial disappointment wears off I at least know that I gave it my all and have other people on my team that killed it. Then I can live through them and their achievements. That is the great thing about CrossFit in general and having teams for the Open, even if you don’t do well you really want others to do awesome and cheer them on like it was the Games or something.
Just incase you don’t know what the 11.3 WOD is yet, here it is:
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 5 minutes of:
Squat clean (165lb / 75kg) Women’s weight is 110lb
Jerk (165lb / 75kg) Women’s weight is 110lb
Now this is more than my bodyweight, so it is going to be rough going but I like the fact that it is only 5 minutes. The reason I like that is, I feel like I can sustain a good amount of energy output for 5 minutes and since that clock is going to go quick I think I will constantly have that extra adrenaline rush like you get in the last 60 seconds of most WODs. This should be a very interesting (read painful) WOD for me because I am having a hard time estimating how many rounds I will be able to get. My last clean and jerk max was 185lbs, but maybe I have improved since that time??? What I am really going to focus on is form, form, and more form. I feel like if I can be efficient with my form, more than I have been in the past, I will be able to put out a number I am happy with. For those of you out there that are nervous about this WOD because this would be a PR for you, my recommendation is to work on your form every day this week. I firmly believe that if you are within 30 lbs of this weight with your last max, then you can knock out one full round to stay in the Open just by making sure you are utilizing the best form you can. Seek out your Box’s resident Oly stud and get some tips and have them watch you and get some good cues. Want it, visualize it, believe it, you can do this. And for you big mo fo’s out there, I can’t wait until we have to do pull-ups and handstand push-ups 
3-2-1-GO!
The Reebok CrossFit Open WOD 11.2 is closing today and we are already 1/3 of the way through the competition. It has been a real eye opener for me. The first two WODs appeared to be very appealing with such light weights, however they were both much harder than expected. After finishing 11.1 I realized that it was a big guy WOD disguised as a little guy WOD. Now I know that is a real generalization because I have seen some guys that are in the small guy category that killed that WOD, but in general a big dude can toss around 75 lbs with not a whole lot of effort. In the end I wasn’t super stoked with my score, but I know I laid it all out there by just the way I felt at the end of both attempts. Then 11.2 came along and once again I was stoked, deadlifts, push-ups, and box jumps, right up my alley. I was excited, couldn’t wait to tackle this one, so I hit this one Wednesday. Well, I was the first person to go at our box and I didn’t have any strategy besides hitting it hard and fast. Ummmmmm, that did not go so well. Going into round 4 I had already hit a wall and it was rough to get to the end. It made WOD 11.1 not seem so bad. On top of that I was frustrated as heck because I should have done really well at this and I was not pleased with my score once again. So I watched other people go and talked to several people about what their strategy was and then made sure my diet was on point. I was focused and decided to give it another go yesterday. Right before the WOD started one of my Coaches (Michelle) reviewed my strategy and remind me that I need to breathe deep and not let the guys next to me get in my head. On top of that one of my other coaches (Tom) said a lot of the right things to keep me moving, like telling me when I was close to beating someone else. This all paid off in spades. I was able to improve my score by a full round and 2 reps. Ahhhhh, the feeling of victory. This was just what I needed to re-energize me. I am already starting to feel butterflies when thinking about what 11.3 is going to be.
What will WOD 11.3 look like? No one but HQ knows for sure, but a lot of people are thinking it might be something heavy like a 1 rep max of some lift. Personally I don’t think we are going to see this in 11.3. My reasoning behind this is, HQ made it pretty clear that they wanted the Open to be very inclusive, so you weren’t going to see things like muscle ups because that eliminates way too many people from being able to complete the WOD Rx. Along that same philosophy when you do a max effort lift you may need to have a lot of weights to complete this and the average garage competitor many not have the poundage in weights to make this happen. On the other hand olympic lifting is a big part of CrossFit, so it makes complete sense to include something that tests some of your technical lifting abilities. But I am going to stick to my guns and say, there may be some heavy lift at some point, but probably not until the end to help spread the field out more. I think there is a strong possibility in seeing something more like Helen for WOD 11.3 where you might have a little running, kettlebells, and pull-ups. The gymnastics aspect of CrossFit should be rearing its head soon, maybe in the form of chest to bar pull-ups or handstand push-ups. Sorry heavy lifters, it may be a little while longer until you get your wish.
Well the CrossFit Open is under way and we have WOD 11. 1 under our belts. On one hand I am relieved because part of the unknown is now known and my results are in and on the other hand I am thinking I hope the WODs to come will be more in my wheelhouse. Now having a 10 minute AMRAP with 30 Double Unders and then 15 Snatches (ground to overhead) at 75 lbs didn’t sound that bad to me at first. I thought, only 75 lbs that great, I can do that. However, this was one nasty couplet because since the weight was light you were moving fast the whole time which means no time for rest. I remember thinking at the end of my second round that I couldn’t believe how gassed I was already. In my opinion what looked like might be a good little guy WOD was actually a great big guy WOD. This is because some of these big dudes out there can throw 75 lbs around like nothing, so they were not gassing out so badly. My first go at the WOD I did all snatches and I was hoping to do better than I did, so I decided to give it another shot. The second time I did it I went all clean and jerks because the snatch is one of my weak points, but that did not pan out, I did not even do as well as I did my first go round. For me, even though the snatch is not my cup of tea it is still a much quicker movement. Since we ended up having an extra week I thought about doing it a third time, but made the decision not too and to really focus my energy on future WODs were I think I can really make up a lot more reps or time. I am wondering what everyone thought of that first WOD, easy, hard, surprising???? Let me know what you thought.
Now I am awaiting WOD 11.2 to be posted and I sure hope that it is posted on time this week. It is bad enough that the first year I am competing in the Sectionals (now the Open) the structure has changed, but having to put up with a pretty poor web experience really sucks. Hopefully they have been working the web development company like dogs to deliver what they promised, so that the rest of the Open can go smoothly and on time. I am starting to hear speculation about what the next WOD will be, but we all know that it could be anything. Most people just hope it is their favorite stuff, me being one of them One person had a theory that maybe looking at the main site WODs over the last week might give us a hint, so it will be interesting if that turns out to be the case. Well, whatever it turns out to be I will tackle it with as much heart as I have and just do my best. One thing I do know is, I will be competing with some great people and there will be some serious firebreathing.
Another thing I wanted to bring up is the feeling this new format is giving off. Now, I don’t think my mind is going to change about how the old format of the Sectionals is something I would rather do. But I do understand why the new format is hear and how much more difficult it would become if the old Sectionals format was still in place. That being said, it does build a certain amount of excitement waiting each week to see what the next WOD will be, but after the WOD is complete it is feeling a little lack luster. You just don’t get the same feeling as you would if you were surrounded by lots of other people from lots of different boxes and laying it out all on the line in front of a much larger audience for a weekend of seeing what is in everyone’s heart. Another odd feeling I got was that is was over and time to celebrate, which I am not saying you shouldn’t celebrate after each WOD as long as you aren’t celebrating will a bunch of beers and donuts. This new format is really going to test people’s commitment to their nutrition over a much longer period of time. It is one thing dialing in your diet for a month or two before a hard weekend and then being able to have a big celebration cheat and it is another thing to dial it in for a month or two and then keep it rolling for an additional 7 weeks. Just something interesting I was thinking about and am going to try to use as one of my strategies to do well. Overall I am stoked to be competing in the Open and hope to compete at Regionals with my team.
Hello All, recently Rogue Fitness had a great idea to have people post Paleo recipes to their Facebook page. They were just looking for something they wanted to make for dinner that night. I posted my Paleo Sloppy Joe recipe and you will be happy to know that is what they chose for that night. Anyway, there were tons of great recipes and I thought this was a great source for some new ideas for meals. I have compiled all of them into a Word doc you can download it right here:
I hope you enjoy making some new dishes and yes the Sloppy Joe recipe is included. Let me know what you think of what you make and if you have any recipes you would like to add to the list.
Well it has been a rough couple of days for the family, everyone has been sick with a stomach flu. It started with me and within 24 hours of when I started feeling horrible, my wife and kids came down with it too. Once I finally started feeling like I wanted to eat something the only things I could think of that sounded good were not paleo. I struggled with this because I am right in the middle of my CrossFit Box’s Stop the Slop challenge and I couldn’t decide whether it was better to just eat anything rather than nothing. Especially since it was the stomach flu and when you are just getting over being really sick to your stomach you gotta be careful about what you are going to try to eat or you may be making another pukie trip. In any case I chose to stay paleo and finally thought of something that sounded good to me, a Larabar. Now I get that Larabars are not the best paleo food in the world, but they are paleo non the less. That finally got my stomach moving a little and fruit sounded good so I had some cantaloupe. That also did well and I worked my way up to some eggs and bacon. Well today I am feeling pretty good, mostly just tired, but proteins just are not sounding good to me for some reason. I am referring to meats really, I don’t know why but they are making me feel a little sick just thinking about them. I am sure I will be good to go in the next 24 hours or so, but this is something I will need to explore a little more to figure out how I will tackle being sick and eating paleo next time it happens. As for my kids, I am just going with what I know and what they are willing to eat. An example is some unsalted saltine crackers and water to get their bellys to start feeling better again. It seems to be working ok, but I am not going to go to the trouble to try to talk them into eating something paleo that is not sounding good to them when their stomachs are feeling so horrible. Any suggestions you have for what you eat when you are sick? Any info you have on this topic would be great to post up. Thanks!
