Blog Archive

Watching this video amazes me – Usain Bolt is such a dominant sprinter. If you stop being amazed for just a minute though and just watch his technique then you will see many of the things we’ve been talking about the past 6 weeks. The lean, the hamstring pull, the speed at which be pulls his feet off the ground. It’s textbook and beautiful.

I took some video this past weekend and I’m planning to bring it in on Saturday so that we can have a look and break down some technique. Be there or be square!

Post up your results from this week!

Week 6 is here and the homework has been emailed out. Keep working hard and focus on your technique. Post up here the results from your 1 mile time trial and the two interval workouts that were sent out for this week!

Also a heads up, there is a Crossfit Level 1 Certification at the gym this weekend so we’ll be meeting up in the parking lot outside the gym gates and heading off-site for a workout. Please do not enter the gym for any reason, even to drop off your bag or use the bathroom. We’ll have have access to a bathroom off site, if need be.

For a Crossfit athlete doing workouts 4-6 times per week, we typically recommend some variation of the paleo diet concept. However, for athletes who are also interesting in adding other sport specific training and in particular endurance sport training – it is increasingly necessary to focus on your nutrition and how it affects recovery. To this end, a book called Paleo Diet for Athletes was co-written by Loren Cordain, a paleo diet guru, and Joe Friel, a very well respected endurance coach. The book discusses the 5 stages of recovery – (1) Before Exercise, (2) During Exercise, (3) Immediately after Exercise, (4) Extended Recovery, and (5) Long Term Daily.

I found you a quick guide to read HERE.

I had amazing success by experimenting with the recovery methods discussed in this book while training for Ironman. It continued to surprise me that I could hit a Crossfit workout full out and feel completely drained for the day. Then I would immediately take a recovery smoothie and head home for a full meal within the same hour. Within 3 hours my body would respond and be ready to take on my afternoon endurance workout.

I also had amazing failures by skipping my post workout nutrition, forsaking it for a few post workout beverages. Just that lapse in nutrition would put me into a 2-3 day all out recovery with no training.

To succeed in endurance training – become a RECOVERY SPECIALIST! But you’ll have to experiment and find out what works for you for different types of training… just use these stages of recovery as a guide and go from there.

And now a little discussion (linked in from Flo Track) on proper nutrition from legendary track coach, Jack Daniels (no – not the booze!). He’s old school and I like his attitude.

Watch more video of Saucony Thirsty Thursdays with Jack Daniels on flotrack.org

Cheers – See you Saturday!

Dan

THIS WEEKEND SCHOOL IS IN SESSION – THE CROSSFIT ENDURANCE TEAM WILL BE IN TOWN HOSTING A CERTIFICATION AND WE WILL NOT BE RUNNING CLASSES SATURDAY OR SUNDAY.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING.

YOU CAN CHECK OUT A MEET UP WORKOUT WITH LUMBER AT 10:30AM AT CHINA CREEK PARK, IF YOU’RE SO INCLINED.

Cheers, Dan

WEEKEND SCHEDULE UPDATE: THERE IS AN EXECUTIVE TRAINING COURSE THIS WEEKEND – THE ONLY CLASSES WILL BE SATURDAY AT 9AM AND SUNDAY AT 1PM. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO VOLUNTEER YOUR TIME AND RECEIVE SOME FREE COACHING, THERE WILL BE TECHNIQUE SESSIONS AS PART OF THE SEMINAR ON SATURDAY FROM 2PM-3:45PM AND SUNDAY FROM 11AM-1PM. STUDENTS ARE WELCOME TO DROP IN AND GET SOME INSTRUCTION FROM OUR COACHES DURING THESE TIMES. EMAIL [email protected] FOR MORE DETAILS. THE GYM IS CLOSED OTHER THAN THESE TIMES.

Coming up next weekend, the Crossfit Endurance team is coming to town to offer their Endurance Certification course. It’s great, check it out!

Click here to register for this amazing weekend.

If you have any questions about the above seminar feel free to contact Dan: [email protected]

This legendary track coach (Jack Daniels!) seems to get it. I like to hear him say that we now understand that children can and perhaps should do resistance training.

Watch more video of Saucony Thirsty Thursdays with Jack Daniels on flotrack.org

And finally, without further adieu, the plan for classes this weekend!

Saturday

“Team Badger”
5 Rounds for time of:
30 Squat Cleans (95/65 lbs.)
30 Pullups
800 m run

Split it up however you want, only one person works at a time. No leaderboard today.

Sunday

“Crossfit Football Total”
3 tries of each to establish:
1RM Power Clean
1RM Backsquat
1RM Bench Press
1RM Deadlift

You must finish this all in one hour. Show up and warmup outside the gym and get ready to go. Warmup movements as necessary, but you only get 3 attempts at maximal lifts. Leaderboard is the sum of your 1RM for all 4 movements.

Hope you all enjoyed the week! No one but Bus has cursed me out to my knowledge yet, so I’m hoping that’s a good thing. Enjoy the weekend!

Dan / Afghan / Tiny Dancer / occasionally Private Dancer =)

WEEKEND SCHEDULE UPDATE: THERE IS AN EXECUTIVE TRAINING COURSE THIS WEEKEND – THE ONLY CLASSES WILL BE SATURDAY AT 9AM AND SUNDAY AT 1PM. THE GYM IS CLOSED OTHER THAN THESE TIMES.

I think the video says it all, break out your vodka and parkas – today we’re all going Rooski!

Tech: Shoulder Press 3, 3, 3, 3

Workout: “Tabata Rasputin Mashup”

Complete 16 rounds of 20 s work, 10 s rest while alternating between:
Russian KB Swings
Russian KB Twists

Men use the black KB, women the red KB. Scale if you need to. Leaderboard is TOTAL REPS completed in all 16 rounds.

Finally, big Congrats to Lars and Anna for birthing a black haired baby girl! One less ginger never hurts…

Dan

And if you don’t get it click here to find out about Rasputin…

Got time after class today? Mobilize those heel cords like THIS!

Big question of the day is for Lars and Anna… haven’t seen you in a while. Where is that second born? Hurrrrrry up!

Today we’re going to give the shoulders a break, and do a workout that is a modification of one of the Games Open workouts. Before that though, we’re going to pull out a whole mess of boxes and other obstacles and have some fun. Coaches get the class warmed up with your choice, and then get them doing some things to warmup their legs for some plyometric box jumping described in the videos below.

Tech:
First up are some warmup movements to get your legs ready for the tech. Then move on to Parts 1 and 2 of the tech and have some fun! Coaches start the class with sequences of maybe 4 obstacles and work your way up to 8-10.

Next up is Part 1 of the Tech for today – “Over the box jump sequences” Check it out below:

Then Part 2 of the Tech – “Top to top box jump sequences” Check it out below:

Workout:

AMRAP 15 minutes of:
15 Box Jumps (24/20)
12 Deadlifts (155/105)
9 Hollow Rocks

Leaderboard is rounds and reps!

Dan

I hope yesterday went well for everyone. Maybe some new personal bests out there or some lessons learned?

Today we’re going to take the typical gymnastics Wednesday and give it a little twist. Today is a two part workout. Coaches should split the class up into two groups and start one group on Workout A and one group on Workout B – halfway through class have the groups switch. And the workouts are…

Workout A: Muscle Up 3,3,3,3,3
Workout B: 2K Row

No time component to the muscle ups. Goal is a strength session, so the expectation is 5 sets of 3 reps at the greatest progression you can do where 3 reps would be difficult (strict, kipping, no false grip, band assisted, bar-ups etc.). If you don’t have muscle ups, we’re trying to train the transition so stay away from the pullup/dip progression and try something else.

Warmup the row with some easy rowing and and some short sprints. I’d recommended maybe 3×135 m at an increasing level of effort each time. Say 70, 80, and then 90% and 1 minute rest between efforts. Get that heart pumping good. Then a nice rest and hit it! Emily told me before my first 2K that I should feel like I want to die at the 1K mark, I distinctly remember approaching it like that and not really being able to unstrap myself from the rower afterwards. I’m not sure if this is the best way to approach today – I guess you could pace it, but pssh… no guts, no glory…!

The leaderboard will be your 2K Row time.

And if you have 7 minutes check out the video below. American runner Galen Rupp shattered the American Record in the 10,000 m by over 10 seconds on the weekend, which is a huge margin in this event. He placed 3rd in the heat behind a couple of world class African runners. The final lap is just an impressive battle and an equally impressive double kick by Kenenisa Bekele to take the win. These guys just run so smooth. Anyways, Enjoy!

Cheers, Dan.

Today starts off with a big 1 year Crossfit Anniversary shoutout to Mike Fransblow – so in the words of your coach – “Happy One Year Mike! I didn’t think you’d necessarily make it!”

If you see this guy today, wish him a happy one year! And head on over to Emily’s Blog Wodhog.ca to see what Mike’s coach Emily has to say about him.

Today we’re going to slow things down a little bit and work the overhead squat.

Tuesday
Warmup: 21, 15, 9 of Overhead Squats (45/35 lbs.) and Burpees

Workout: Take the rest of the class to establish your 15RM Overhead Squat (use racks)

Leaderboard is weight completed for all 15 reps. If you attempt but don’t complete all 15 reps, you can post the workout as scaled and list the number of reps completed in the notes. (Thanks for pointing this out Lars)

The Gold Standard for this is 15 reps at your body weight. I think we have a couple people that can take a shot at this one. Post to comments if you take a run at it and tell us how it went! Check out this old school video of Nicole Carroll, an original Crossfit bad girl and her (several) runs at it.

Dan

Fight Gone Bad 6 went down all over the world yesterday.  I know our friends over at Fitness Town hosted the event as part of the world wide fundraiser.  The numbers that I saw posted on the web are saying that approximately 2.2 million dollars was raised this year, by more than 18,000 participants world wide.  That’s pretty bad ass.  This money goes to support a few different foundations – The Special Operations Warrior Foundation and Camp Patriot, which are two foundations setup to help the families of military personnel who are severely wounded or killed in action, and Crossfit Kids via their interaction with a group called Infant Swimming Resources, who are promoting teaching kids to swim to prevent drowning deaths.  Check out some of the details and stories over at the FGB6 website.

Click Here

Today we’re going to do a little tribute to this fundraiser, but we’re going to shake things up a bit.  Same movements, slightly different structure.  Personally I think this is going to be the best hit of the week, hit this hard.  Don’t hold anything back.  This one is called Street Fight, an old school video for you all below!

Monday

Tech: Warmup movements.  We’ll have to run heats, so depending on class size, it would be a great day to work on some heavy push press if you have time.  Coaches figure this out class by class.

Workout: “Street Fight”

Complete 2 Rounds of “Fight Gone Bad” with 5 minutes rest between rounds.  Leaderboard is total reps completed.

1 minute Wall Balls (20/14/12)

1 minute SDLHP (75/55)

1 minute Box Jumps (20″)

1 minute Push Press (75/55)

1 minute Row (calories)

Rest 5 minutes and Repeat.

Dan

Looking to improve your cardiorespiratory endurance?  Want to learn to run right or run better?  Maybe looking for a way to train for the same running or endurance event with less of a time commitment?

Come spend a weekend with a head coach from Crossfit Endurance and learn about how to layer your sport specific training over a strength and conditioning program.  Learn how to train smart, stay healthy and get faster! October 1-2, 2011 at Crossfit Vancouver.

Register Here