CrossFit Carson Valley Blog

Last Day of June

And the Dutch Lowy challenge. So far we are in the lead but being a pessimist I wonder who's got one more average thruster than CFCV. Bottom line is y'all are awesome. There were some seriously improved numbers of which I am proud. Dutch has not announced the new challenge but has thrown the gauntlet down to us the owner/trainers of the participating affiliates. I guess we'll see if I am worthy over the next 30 days or so.

So I found my copy of Every Second Counts and would like to schedule another weekend day to have a viewing/barbecue. I am open to suggestions and know there are several who have not seen it. Norcal margaritas, some kind of healthy fare and a good movie anyone?

I am hoping that the moving of air will suffice for the cooling of the gym this year. I have purchased a couple of more fans and don't plan on using an air conditioner or swamp cooler this summer. The swamp cooler sucked last year and I can't afford to air condition the whole gym.

Scored another Concept 2 rower today for $45.00. It's an original and not pretty but seems to work the same as the newer ones. Two of the ones we have are about a year old and the other is 3 or so years. It is amazing how the one I bought today resembles the mechanics of the other 3 and is 22 years old. Still $45.00 vs. $950.00 is a good score.

More fun coming for the balance of the week....

June 29

Wasn't able to post yesterday due to lack of access at work. I wanted to point out that I have uploaded a few of the members doing the thruster challenge. They can be accessed in youtube from my boatsk8 video list.

I have also tabulated the scores and posted them on the competition page of Dutch Lowy's blog. We'll see where we stand. I think the remarkable thing is the effectiveness of CrossFit. We haven't done thrusters since the first day back at the beginning of the month yet almost every single person who participated in the challenge improved, some dramatically. The original and final scores will be posted in the gym this week.

I wanted to bring you attention to a new movie that has been released. As you can imagine, I can't find it playing  anywhere near here but when and if it does I'll let you know. The trailer can be seen here.

Brian and Sean did their first workout Friday since finishing their foundations sessions. Whaddya think boys? Gayle also finished foundations and is now ready for the full Monty.

I reckon that's enough for today except the new Douglas track is dynamite. And Ryan does a great job of taking care of it. C-shift station 14 mile o death fo;;owing a good day of wild land training O-Yeah!

Reece Makes the Big Time

Even though regular visitors of CFCV have no doubt seen the picture of Reece's squat on our blog, check out the CrossFit Kids website. Them same picture appears on their front page today and thanks to the Martin's for posting it. You can review the CFK site here.

We are almost done with the Dutch Lowy thruster challenge and will post the original and final numbers this evening, along with some links to Youtube videos of some of the efforts. Thanks for you participation and I think you'll agree that this stuff works!

Young and Old

Workin the basics at CFCV. The adults worked Sprints, cleans and KTE during the wods.

All did really well working on the "real" clean (aka squat clean) especially William and Tami. It will get easier as the mechanics improve.

Then the kids got their shot at sprints and squats. They have come a long way and today we really saw great improvement in their squat technique. Its still a work in progress but I was proud of their effort. Marcus did a great job-especially for his first day.

Hannah in the background and Reece in the foreground:

It often helps having a legit CrossFitter counting reps and looking for the bad ones like Kara counting for Reece. Of course Reece is sporting a CrossFit Kids t-shirt.

Today's box jumps, snatches and presses (kb) workout was really well attended at 9:00. In fact there were 15 which made it a little crowded. Alright alot crowded. Remember its nice to have advance warning of big classes. I knew we had 11 signed up already so I could program something we could accomplish. So please, let us know if you're coming. Thanks to Denny for keeping an eye on things and locking up while I had to go see a man about a mule.

Several folks are either finishing up their foundations or getting close. Welcome!

Next Installment

Saw this video on CrossFit LA's blog and had forgotten that I intended to share it some time. So here it is:

More New Faces

As we start another year of CFCV we continue to see new faces at the gym. Gayle has completed an intro session and one foundation session. Brian and Sean the same and Leslie was in to check us out at 9 am today. They all will be back for more, but Leslie is kind of a special case. Her purpose is to "learn" what we do so as she can offer a Yoga workshop some Saturday in the near future. I'm not really a Yoga kind of guy but hey, I'm a 70's, no new millenium kinda guy, so we'll see where it goes. I'm curious to see if just learning what we do is enough or will Leslie become one of us?

Dana and Susie are integrating well into the classes. There are still many new things to learn and some concepts that may not be consistent with their earlier knowledge, but CrossFit and our contemporary concepts some times conflict with other teachings. I guess that's why we're controversial but effective.

One more week of building up to the final thruster challenge workout. I'm seeing some significant improvements in strength by many of our members, it will be interesting to quantify those via the thruster challenge.

With summer comes alot of folks missing classes for a variety of reasons. I sure hope we see all of the regulars and some of the newbies back that have been missing.

Another Virtuosity Article

From time to time I run across good content that I like to link to. Awhile back I linked up part 1 of this series on Coaching and this recently arrived. Its amazing how timely some of these things are and I'll leave it at that. Please review part 2 if you're interested here.

So we should be at full tilt again starting tomorrow. Thanks for the slack you've given us while we got some much needed time off. But, be ready to go tomorrow, I know you will be.

I also recommend the latest on CrossFit One World, may sound familiar.

Back in the Valley

We got back early this afternoon after a nice ride to Lake Wenatchee and back. Ended up wearing our rain gear for damn near the whole trip. But it was good.

About 30 mins prior to our arrival home, Ethan crashed at the skate park and broke his wrist in a couple of places and chipped his front teeth and got some stitches in his lip. I guess he's not so good on that scooter.

It sounds like Claudia did a good job while we were away. Thanks to her for handling things. Back to the FD grind tomorrow and the gym on Wednesday. Will be fun I'm sure.

Hi Ho

About 200 miles of rain yesterday which wouldn't be so bad but we're on the Harley.

I wanted to share the below before it disappears from my inbox. It was written by Mike Rutherford of boot camp fitness and I found it interesting. Enjoy

 Riding Out The Dip

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 One of the most frustrating aspects of my career has been in dealing with the athlete who quits. I'm not speaking specifically about our program, but training in general. Invariably I can count on a percentage of athletes who will start the program and quit after a period of time. As an aside, I've never been happy about it nor have I hardened to the notion. Like many coaches, I remember the defeats and forget my successes. I read Seth Godin's The Dip and low and behold, his rational made it easier to sort out the phenomena. For the most part Seth presents The Dip mostly from a business perspective but it actually applies nicely to this dilemma. I will break this down briefly for this writing. A new student climbs on board and begins the program. Initially, they arrive on time, they get good and sore, they start to make positive lifestyle changes and they are having fun. The improvements,while hard, are easier at the start. It's a honeymoon of sorts. Then after the first month or so the dip occurs. Those quick initial gains have been banked and the next improvements become more difficult. The bloom is off the rose. The love is gone and now it's just work! In The Dip, Godin explains that it's at this point where the successful are often times separated from the unsuccessful. World class sprinters work for years, all to shave hundredths from their race time. Golfers strike thousands of putts all to lower their score by a few strokes over the course of a tournament. Vice Presidents of corporations suffer long hours, poor leadership for years and then become CEO. These are all examples of fighting through the dip. I'm always excited to hear the glee in the voice of a new athlete after their first 15 to 30 days of training, to receive positive e-mails and text messages. But after reading The Dip, I know that the dip is only a few days or weeks away. For years, I have been telling my athletes that this training journey we are following is not a sprint race it's a marathon race. The real measure of our success is where we are in 12, 24, 26, and 60 months from now. We still have much to learn and that there will be peaks and valleys along the way. Most times it's pig headed determination that separates the successful from the unsuccessful. So now when I begin the coaching process with a new athlete I will wonder. Is this one going to be willing to ride out the dip?

Took Another Big Bite

I guess it's common in all business, being faced with expenses that you're not ready for. Most of you probably know nothing about the CrossFit RRG (risk retention group) as I haven't really spoken of it much. Unfortunately the necessity of having this type of insurance coverage has become necessary in today's clime. The bad part is the timing, at least for us. Our insurance is due June 23rd each year and the cutoff for joining the RRG is June 15th. No big deal really except for effectively doubling our insurance cost with not much warning and really not much of a choice. Bottom line is we have committed to another year and paid the piper.

As most of you heard about, we returned from Vegas and the Dutch Lowy seminar. I think you'll experience a difference in the way things are programmed and approached. I plan on going into more detail next week.

Penny and I are riding the Harley to Washington Wednesday morning for a family get together. There will be less classes than normal as Claudia will be filling in and has other commitments. Please hang in there as this will be the last hiatus for awhile.

Our CrossFit family continues to grow with Dana and Susie finishing their foundations sessions with Claudia on Thursday, Brian and Shawn coming for an intro. next week when I get back and Jen's Children Trent and Amanda coming to the Kids class tonight. Welcome!!

Don't know how much posting I'll get done while I'm gone as the Blackberry will be my main method of access. I'll do my best to keep working at it.