Blog Archive

Guys, you have to check out this article about Cliff  Young. In an age of doping and steroids this guy is the real deal!
Enjoy.

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FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS: The first week of Madlab is going to be postponed one week. We want to get more people to sign up first. We need 24 evening people and at least 15 morning people to sign-up and commit to make it worth everyone’s time.

I did my first Madlab when I arrived at CrossFit Vancouver in 2009. It’s still one of my best memories of this place.

Pup was our team captain. He took a risk and chose two new people in the community – myself and Pete ‘Big Baby’ to be on his team. I didn’t know anyone in the community yet, and by the end of the four weeks I felt way more comfortable at my new home. I still believe our team won the banner that fall because of the team chemistry we managed to develop during the course of those few weeks. I distinctly remember the pork chops Pup cooked us the night before we won the competition.

The point: Sign up for Madlab! You’ll get to know people, you’ll have a ton of fun, and you’ll push yourself harder than you normally do in the process. Personal bests run rampant during Madlab tournaments.

Sign-up sheet is on the White Board at the front of the facility. You have ONE week. It begins next Thursday.

Here’s a video from that Madlab back in 2009. It also happens to be the last time Andy Nutts came to CF Van before his deployment to Afghanistan.

SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS:  Due to popular demand and a sold out rowing seminar, Kane is offering a second hour to accommodate more people. The current rowing seminar continues THIS Saturday at 2 pm until 3 pm. If you’re interested in signing up, send him an email at kanemorgan@mail.com and you can join the newly forming 1 pm rowing crew. If you’re interested in switching from 2 pm to the 1 pm time slot, that’s also possible. E-mail Kane: kanemorgan@mail.com

The dates are as follows:

Saturday, November 3rd (1 pm – 2pm and 2 pm – 3 pm)
Saturday, November 10th
Saturday, November 17th
Saturday, November 24th – 2 km Indoor Regatta!

*Stay tuned for more details about our KIDS 500 meter rowing regatta followed by our 2 km indoor regatta on November 24th!

Price for this late addition seminar is $90, and this includes your entry into the regatta on the 24th.

THURSDAY: LADDERBOARD

Set the clock at five minutes after the hour.

Allocate the first 20 minutes to warm-up, the second 20 minutes to the workout, and the final 15 minutes to stretching and rolling out sore muscles. Mondays and Tuesdays workouts had a ton of volume, so take the time to relax and stretch a bit today.

Warm-up: (20 minutes)

3 ROUNDS:

6 Wall Angels
10 Shoulder Dislocates, 10 OHS, 10 Sotts Press all with a dowel
10 Push ups

Then with the remainder of the 20 minutes, do some shoulder mobility with bands.

WOD: (20 minutes) 15 Rep Max. OHS – Can anyone do 15 reps at their bodyweight???

If your shoulder flexibility etc prevents you from being able to OHS more than just a 35 or 45 lb. bar, then take these 20 minutes to do light sets of 10 OHS with an empty bar. Do one set every 2 minutes.

STRETCHING/ROLLING OUT (15 minutes) – Coaches – Find out where people are the most sore and stretch them out.

EUNICE and KERM

Some of you may have noticed we have five brand new rowing machines – beautiful shiny black ones – around the school (we have another five coming soon too).

Kane (aka Pleasantville or Hannibal Lector) has some wise words about taking care of the new rowing machines.

He says:

“Don’t scare this poor little fella’ when you are using the erg!”

Kane also says:

Some of you may be thinking to yourselves, “What in the world is an erg?” That is a fair question. An erg (short for ergometer) is a rowing machine, and if any of you have seen most of ours lately, they are in a very sorry state indeed.

Why?

I’m glad you asked.

The main reason is that people can push themselves to the point of total exhaustion on the erg (if you’ve done a 2km piece for time lately you’ll understand what I’m getting at) and at the end of their work they let the handle slam back towards the front of the machine.

This is a big no no. Due to the erg being made up of multiple delicate working parts, it means that they can be broken very easily. Furthermore, they are incredibly difficult to fix/absurdly expensive to replace (roughly $1,000 per machine).

So, next time you have the urge to let go on the oar handle, or drop the machine, or smash the computer back towards the flywheel, stop, think, and above all be gentle.

New rule: Dropping, smashing, or abusing either the old or new machines in any way will be met with a thorough flogging! Oh, and wipe the machines down when you’re done!!

So, to repeat: don’t scare the baby, he loves ergs.

With love,

The CrossFit Vancouver Erg Maintenance Team – ie. Kane

WEDNESDAY:

WARM-UP: Coaches choice sprinting warm-up

TECH: TABATA SPRINTING (10 intervals instead of 8)

WOD: AMRAP 12 Minutes

2 Muscle Ups (Progression: 3 Ring Dips per muscle up. No pull ups today. We did plenty on Monday)
6 Pistols (TRY OVERHEAD PISTOLS WITH A 35 or 45 lb. BAR IF YOU’RE REALLY BALSY)
21 Double Unders

EUNICE and KERMIT

This morning was a sad day. We said goodbye to Kathryn and Dean who are moving away to Hamilton where life is apparently more affordable. Hopefully they’ll realize that it’s freezing cold and miserable in Ontario and will hussle back to us.

Good luck with the next chapter of your life, Kathryn and Dean. You will be missed at CrossFit Vancouver.

Kathryn, Nat and Nicola in the early am.

In case you missed it last night, MADLAB BEGINS THIS THURSDAY!!

This year’s MADLAB is revolutionary as we’re pitting the morning crew against the evening crew.

All you have to do is show up this Thursday (7 am for the morning Madlab and 6 pm for the evening Madlab) WITH YOUR FITNESS RATING SCORE, bring $20 cash, and we’ll put you on a team. You will compete with that same team for the next four weeks.

What is your fitness rating, you ask??

Fill out your scores in this FITNESS RATING SPREADSHEET. HPC Fitness Score LOCKED

Knowing your fitness ratings (or at least approximate fitness rating scores if you haven’t completed all the workouts on the spreadsheet) will help us select well-balanced teams

After the four weeks are over, we’ll tally the scores and the TOP team from the morning and the evening will face off against each other in a winner takes all CrossFit competition on Saturday, December 1st with the Madlab Banner on the line.

Even if you’re not participating on December 1st, mark that date on your calendar and whether you’re a morning or an evening athlete, come out and cheer on ‘your’ team.

DO IT!!!!

Tuesday:

Tech:

5 heavy sets of:

3 Front Squats immediately followed by 3 Push Jerks

WOD:

PART A

30 Front Squat (205/125 lbs) – Scale accordingly.

Every time you drop the bar, do 2 rope climbs as a punishment

Ends with 2 rope climbs (so even if you’re a superhero and do all 30 205 lb. front squats in a row, you must end the WOD with 2 rope climbs)

REST 5 MINUTES

PART B

30 Shoulders to overhead (155/105)

Every time you drop the bar, do 20 sit-ups

Again, end this WOD with the sit-ups!

** Time is total elapsed time minus the 5 minutes rest

Eunice and Kerm

THIS Thursday “Bizzaro Mad Lab” BEGINS!

What is Madlab?

Most of you have probably noticed the Madlab Banners hanging on the wall as you climb the ropes to the rafters. These banners are the Legacy of our annual Madlab Tournaments: A 6-week team tournament, where you work with the same team each week, competing head-to-head for pride and the Madlab Banner.

Usually, our Madlab’s draw the best of the best athletes CrossFit Vancouver has to offer. This fall, we’re going a slightly different route – we want people who don’t normally sign up for these events, people who might normally be slightly scared to put themselves out there.

So there’s one rule: if you’re part of the High Performance Center group who trains together on Sundays, you’re not allowed to participate. Everyone else is fair game!

The second component: We’re having an evening and a morning Madlab Tournmanent. The top four teams from the morning and the evening tournaments will face off at the end for the 2012 Madlab Banner.

Dates (Beginning this Thursday):

Morning Madlab: Thursday 7 am (there will still be a regular 7 am class run at the same time)

Evening Madlab: Thursday 6 pm

Couple more details:

-You must be approved by a coach, so ask your coach early this week if you are cut out to join a team on Thursday
-We will choose teams prior to this Thursday’s workout
-Teams will be made up of three people
-Numbers are capped at 30 for the evening and 24 for the morning (10 evening teams and 8 morning teams)
-Everyone will participate in the first four weeks of ‘regular season’ workouts, and then the morning and evening top teams will play-off for the banner!
-Cost: $20 (Bring $20 cash on Thursday)

Monday

Tech:

Turkish Get-ups (3 sets of 5 on each arm with a challenging load)

In between sets of Turkish Get-ups, hold a loaded plank for 1 minute

WOD: Broken up Angie with Box Jumps

10 Rounds:

10 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
10 Sit-ups
10 Box Jumps

– 25 minute time cap

EUNICE AND KERM