THE CROSSFIT OPEN 2013

                                               THE CROSSFIT OPEN 2013

• Some people have been waiting all year for this week. For some its the first time they are committing to go individual. Others are not even sure if they want to be on a team. Some people's emotions are all over the place and nervous as hell. Others are just doing it to have fun. 

• Some people are dreading the up coming event. Either competitors, or girlfriends/ boyfriends of competitors, even some clients, that don't even care about the Open.

• Some people are ready, they can't wait for the Open because it means the Games are just that much closer. They have sacrificed a lot, and have made CrossFit their life. 

No matter where you are on the above spectrum. You have to enjoy it. This is one of the best seasons for CrossFit, people from all around the world come together for one workout. In what other way is this possible. To me that is amazing. I am excited to be able to participate in the 2013 CrossFit Open. 

Enjoy the Open!!! Cheer People On!!! Have Fun!!!Be apart of something special. A lot goes into the Open. All the way from the top of CrossFit all the way down to the Boxes that host it,  judge it, and  checks everyone's scores online.  


   This year the Open will be a little different for me. I will not be able to play in my home town of Houston at Bayou City CF or Pin Up CF. I will be competing individually under East Coast CrossFit, I can not sign up under their team or Bayou City CrossFit's team. Due to the rules: a owner of a box can not compete for another team and since I am on the East Coast for another year, so I will compete in the Mid Atlantic. Fun Fun. Unfortunately I will not be able to compete at Regionals, I have a scheduled training event. I am disappointed, but there is nothing I can do about it. 
I will be done and back in Houston by next CF season, at that point I will have to evaluate myself and see what is possible for 2014. It might all just be focused for 2015! 

Know What Your Doing

I’m trying to remember how my form was when I first started CrossFit. Truthfully I don’t think it was great. I remember going to my level one and being told to lock out my pull-ups, push ups, and my KB swings.  So from there I took more time to learn the form and study. I remember every night waiting for the WOD to come out on CrossFit.com, then looking up every movement to make sure I did it right.

Now a days I am still studying and still learning so I can excel in my WODs and my over all performance. Anytime I Oly lift or work on barbell movements, I focus on perfect form. I either have some one watch me or I video it to look at and critique myself.

I bring this up now because where I am working out, I see terrible form all around me. I am working out in a gym that was transformed into a CrossFit Box. There are about 30 rowers, 2 pull up racks, 10 platforms, KBs, DBs, box jumps, sleds, climbing rope, and even turf. People can come in and WOD/ workout / oly lift, what ever they want. There is no coaching going on; besides a guy telling his buddy something that he thinks looks better. I am not saying its all bad, I have seen a few that know what they are doing. I have tried to help some people and usually they come back with an excuse like flexibility, or they look at me like I am crazy.  There have been a few that have come up to me and asked for help. I think that's great, I tell them I do not mine helping them before or after my workout, just not during.

What it comes down to is you have to educate yourself. You have to educate yourself so you don’t get hurt, so you can maximize you workouts, so you can be efficient, and so you can become a better athlete. This pertains to everyone. Just because you have been crossfiting for 4 years does not mean you know everything. You still have to study; you have to evolve with CrossFit. No one is happy with staying where they are. I know I am not.

Do what it takes to educate your self and learn why we do these things. Watch videos, read articles, a great thing about CrossFit.com is they give this to you. They even give you tips from the big dogs. Every day there is a video of some one doing the WOD, they talk about how they are going to attack the workout, and then they give feedback and the end. The information is out there. All you have to do is spend a few minutes a day and you will learn a lot.

The HOOK GRIP

I asked a lot of clients and coaches at the box if they use a hook grip. Most of the people said "no".  Most of them have heard about the hook grip but tried it a few times and said the hell with that. I feel like you must use it, I know I do.
So I made a little video to go over it.
For more reading on the hook grip click here.

4 Years as Bayou City CrossFit

In the beginning there where a few. July 2008

From the Park to our first building.

Then to our true 2nd building, after the out side workouts and the quick trip down to 25th street and back.

Then to where we are now.

We have gained a lot of people along the way, and everyone has there own story on how they started.
Every once in a while I will talk about the beginning or even some of the growing pains we had. Going through some of the old pics, I was able to find some great pic's, some where of Travis H's first Saturday workout, or Kim W's first WOD, which was "Karen". I am sorry about that one Kim. It brings back a lot of great Memories.
When I first started Bayou City CrossFit, all I thought about was moving back to Houston, being with the family again, and helping people. I really had no clue it would turn into the beast it is now. I have learned a lot during the way. Carlos and Lisa from CF Houston and Jeremy from CF Central really helped me during my growing pains. Thank y'all.
As CrossFit grows and we grow. I am working hard on our future plans, and the changes ahead.
The one thing that stays true is our clients, all of y'all are amazing. To see the gains that people have made, and to see how people have completely changed for the better, makes all the hard work all the early mornings and all the late nights worth it.
Even though I will be out of the loop for a little while, I will do everything I can to make Bayou City CrossFit the best I can for all our clients.

The American Flag

For the past two years we have made Shirts for the team and even for our clients, and on the right sleeve we put the American flag, shown above and below on Cody's right sleeve (don't mind Jane).

And Every year people say "do you know your flag is on backwards?". So here is some info on the subject.

For flag patches worn on uniforms the blue star field always faces towards the front, with the red and white stripes behind. Think of the flag, not as a patch, but as a loose flag attached to the Soldier's arm like a flag pole. As the Soldier moves forward, the red and white stripes will flow to the back.

The blue field of stars should always be in the highest position of honor.

This flag is symbolic of the men who used to march into battle with an actual flag. So steady and strong that the flag would blow behind them. On the arms of our soldiers, the flag faces as if being carried into battle, blowing behind them.

So for me, Regionals is our battle that we go into. So we go into our battle with the Flag waving behind us. 

For more reading click this link

CrossFit Open and Team Building

Here we are one week into the 2012 CrossFit Games Open. Damn it came fast this year. I know people are pumped, nervous, excited, and about 10 other emotions. I love listening to people and reading on FaceBook what everyone says about the WOD, how they are going to attack it or even the excuses. I think its amazing all the new people that are doing the Open for the first time. Congrats to all of you!
We had over 50 people at Bayou City CrossFit to compete this past Saturday. We had peeps from Pin Up CF, CF West Houston (Aja, Aryan, Leah), and all our home field CrossFiters. What an amazing atmosphere, vibe, and energy. It made everyone feel like they where the main attraction. All I can say is Amazing. To all the judges, thank you for all the help. WOD comes out tomorrow tonight, and Saturday is Game day.

My training, I am still following Military Athlete. I finished almost all of the Ruck program and have started the Ranger program for the last 3 weeks. I have also been doing part of my workouts at 5am with Charles Johnston. Let me tell you he is loving getting up that early.
I am curious to see how I do in the open with a completely different workout program. I truly feel like this first WOD was made so that everyone no matter your skill, could do it. I am actually hoping for a higher skill set in the next WOD, and not a 6 min AMRAP of Wall Balls, LOL. That would suck. That's one thing I love about the CrossFit Games and CrossFit in general, The Unknown.

"Preparing mentally takes more out of you than the physical aspect of it."

Sanders, Summer

I am always looking for ways to build our Staff's camaraderie. Katie was able to set up a team building with Mattison Grey. For yall that don't know Mattison or what she does click Here and find out. She put on a great workshop for us, and she made it a lot of fun.
Below are a couple pics.

"Individual commitment to a group effort, that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work."
Vince Lombardi

New WOD's New Body

The past couple months my workout regime has changed dramatically. I went from Oly lifting and strength workouts about 3-4x a week, with WOD's about 5-6x a week. I would have to say I was feeling strong, I was feeling fast with light to medium weights, and my WOD times where pretty good. My weakness at the time was longer WOD's 30 mins and longer, also my run times where not that good.
Now my WODs are more like task. I have been following one of the programs from Military Athlete, a ruck march focused program. Some days there are 5 sessions and each session is like a WOD, most the time the are not for time. Some of the sessions are a 1 to 2 hour ruck march. (For y'all that do not know what a ruck march is, it is a light run/ fast walk with a pack on your back and boots on your feet.) Its a good time. I nother good work out I have done is:
30 mins hard pace
3 min jog
20 mins hard pace
2 min jog
10 mins hard pace

Now I'm feeling faster on my run's, my road marches feel good. I am not feeling strong and even my body weight stuff does'nt feel to great. I did "Kelly" a couple days ago 400 M run 30 box jumps 30 wall balls 5x, I have not had that much intensity in a workout for a while. I was sore for 2 days.
It is a little frustrating, then I think about my goal and I just keep moving forward. It will all be worth it.

Work Load For The Past Week

For the past few weeks I have change my work out routine, I have been focused on longer WODs, running, and rucking. This past week I started following SealFit, I have always heard of it and watched the videos on CrossFit.com. Let me just say some of the days are crazy, a big work load. So this past week I did 2 full days of SealFit, and still ran and rucked. Then Friday was"Murph" on CF.com so of course I had to do it, 39:19 with vest. Was not my best, the first mile was slow, I kept moving through the pull ups, push ups, and squats. The 2nd mile felt a lot better.
I have been having a lot of pain on the top part of my right foot. So I talked to Matt Arnold (Airrosti) about it and he was telling me to roll out my Tibialis Anterior, it has helped out a lot but still bugging. So now I am taking a couple days off from the pounding of my feet, roll it and ice it.
I have enjoyed this past weeks of long WOD's, I'm not going to lie I do miss the 5-8 min metcons. But that is no longer in my life right now.

On another note, we are working on Levels for the box. Not Leveled classes but a test out. We are using some of the bench marks From Crossfit. The game plan is a quarterly test out of skills and on some levels there are WOD's. I am pumped about this, because I feel like people get stuck in their everyday life and in their workouts. If we can give them something to shoot for, it will help keep them motivated and striving for more. Charlie and I are working through the details and will be putting out more info soon.

The WOD for today is coming off of Sealfit.com,
1 Mile Run
50 Burpees
2000 M Row
50 Burpees
1 Mile Run
with 20lb vest

Can't wait.

Coaches WOD

The WOD was:

1000 M Run (40lb/30lb vest)
10 Deadlifts (315/205)
Sled Push
10 Push Jerks (185/115)
30 Sit Ups
3rds For Time
Most wear vest during Run, Deadlifts, and Sled Push

It was a good WOD, the deadlifts where rough after the run and the Push Jerks where more of a push press, you just had to man up so you did not have to rack it after 2 reps. The first round I did 3,3,2,2,. Then round 2 and 3 I did 5 and 5. My goal was not to slow down on the run and keep a good pace for all the 3 rounds. On the sled we pushed from the top bar for two rounds and low bar for one round. All and all it was a good WOD.

Kris
Charlie
Shelby
Vic
Katie
Andrew
Ashley

It Could Change Your Life

I debate with people all the time about Paleo and how it can change their life. I have talked to clients about their experience with Paleo and them changing their eating habits. I have gotten some crazy feed back. I have heard of Family's telling them they need to quit eating that way its unhealthy or they are already to skinny. I even heard a doctor tell them they need to eat more junk food to gain weight. Stuff like that blows my mind.
The other night I was at Pin Up CF talking to Erica, and we started talking about Paleo and the Paleo Challenge. She started to tell me about her friend Julia and how she developed

Rheumatoid Arthritis, and how she had started to eat Paleo and it changed her life. So of course I wanted to share her story with as many people as possible. I ask Erika to ask if she would send me her story. And here it is, and I forgot to say she is a CrossFiter now too.

My Paleo/Crossfit Journey

　

Hello, my name is Julia, I live in Ireland and I am a Crossfitter.

I was asked to share my story, it’s an ordinary story but it’s one that has turned this formerly sick, pain ridden individual into the super kick ass cave girl that I am today, so I’m very happy to share it with you and, if it makes you smile or encourages you to start or stay on your own journey, then I’ve done a good thing and your journey in some way will become part of my journey.

About 10 years ago within the space of 6 weeks I developed Rheumatoid Arthritis, going from healthy to not able to dress, walk, shower or use the bathroom facilities on my own. To say Arthritis threw my world into complete chaos is to understate the impact of the illness on me. I can remember talking to a lady in the hospital, who was trying to be helpful when she told me I’d soon get used to only wearing running shoes. There and then I vowed I would wear heels every single day for the rest of my life…

Over the course of the next 10 years at times it was impossible to work, my relationship ended and looking back, I‘m sure that the illness had a lot to do with the break up. Over the years I’ve been on too many different drugs treatments to mention, all of which helped keep my symptoms at bay - at least for a short period of time then it was back to the Doctors to try another combination of drugs. Eventually my regime included taking medications to counteract the effects of my Rheumatoid medications it felt like my life had become a constant battle to just contain my condition while also trying to live a normal life that had at least some quality to it -that was tough for me to achieve. In honesty I never really succeeded in that goal…

Throughout this time the hardest part was not being able to do simple things like raising a coffee cup to my lips, or to put my own underwear on, not being able to do these things wear you down in the end.

Jumping forward to 2010, one day it occurred to me that I hadn’t worked out in such a long time, 9 years to be exact; in turn I wondered if I could actually complete a workout? Would I keel over after 10 minutes? What would be the arthritic effect on my body? That sounds like a challenge right? Enthused by the thought of the challenge I choose to take a Kettle bell class, now I have to be honest with you it took me about 4 weeks to build up the courage to go to a class, I’d almost go in the doors only to back out at the last minute. Eventually I did make it into the class and almost instantly loved it, loved that it was tough on me but from somewhere, I’ve got no idea where, I found the balls to not give up, to keep going no matter how hard I found it. After about 4 months of kettle bell classes, I came across Paleo…

I bought the Paleo Diet Solution and took Robb Wolf at his word when he said give it 30 days. If it doesn’t change your life, what have you lost? (I’m paraphrasing here!). Paleo wasn’t easy at first, I think it took my body about 4 or 5 weeks to begin to feel real again, by that I mean my body started to feel healthy for the first time in probably 15 years. By the time I got to week 7 of Paleo I woke up one morning knowing that I wasn’t going to continue taking my injections and the other 10 drugs that I was taking on a daily basis… That was 10^th October 2010, I have not taken any of the drugs since that day. I have lived pain free since the same date.

Shortly after taking the huge step of stopping treatment, I started to believe. I mean really truly believe that I can achieve anything I put my mind to, so with that in mind I realized I needed a new challenge, you probably know where I’m going now, yes I found Crossfit…

Crossfit was tough, I can honestly say I hated Fundamentals (sorry Coach) there was stuff I wasn’t able to do, it hurt, and often I wondered why I was putting myself through this crap. But I wasn’t about to give up just because it wasn’t easy. I graduated fundamentals and did my first ’big girl’ WOD the very next day. What can I tell you? If Paleo is the tool that allows my body to function at a level that someone with Rheumatoid Arthritis would never expect Crossfit is the thing that makes me glad to be alive, really, really alive - what a feeling, you can‘t buy that. I’ve done Murph just once so far, we all know how tough that WOD is my high was so great following it that I walked to my office with happy, emotional tears in my eyes - one of the best emotional feelings I’ve experienced - ever. So no matter how hard the WOD, despite the blood (ya gotta love those rips on your hands), the sweat and the tears of frustration, I can tell you that I truly love each and every single second of it.

I am so very excited by life, and life is exciting because I am living, hand standing, jumping, skipping, climbing, running, lifting proof of the fact that this stuff really does works.

Am I slightly obsessed by Crossfit? Yes of course I am, better that than being obsessed by what drug regime might give me a better chance of being able to get out of bed unassisted right?

If any of this rings a bell for you, if you’re trying Paleo and finding it hard, going through Fundamentals and wondering the hell why you’re doing it, I’d urge you to stay on this path, you are going to gain so much from the journey I promise you that, So now go get some, go on I dare you!!

Julia xx

Games Training

This past Tuesday night Andy and the Team went out to Genesis-AP. It's ran by David Claiborne. Him and his crew treated us right, in other words they kicked our ass. We had a great time with it. He programmed some skills that we do not use here, so it was great exposure to their world. We will be going out to train with them again in a week.

Saturday we will be going to CrossFit CenTex to train with Chad and Ursula. Brush up on our Oly skills.

For any of y'all that did .com yesterday
1 L sit Rope Climb
5 HSPU on Paralletts
10 Pistols with a 45 lb bar
5X
I did it RX and it took me 21: and change. That was a tough, challenging, but yet fun WOD.




Charlie flipping Cody caring the keg

Andy

me and Jane

me and thick bar

Katie caring

Belize and Rest

Me and Katie

John flipping a coco tree

BCCF!!

7 Days in Belize, great time. Ate good, drank a lot, had great company. Broke a couple golf carts, swam with sharks, sting rays , and a lot of fish. The wind blew almost all the time, which I think was a blessing in disguise, with out it it would of been a little hot.
I worked out the first three days, and on the 3rd while doing sprints my back just tighten up, and started having neck pain and a headache. I took the remaining days off from working out. I wish I would of taken all 7 days off. With the type of workouts we do , I truly believe you need rest. Not just a day off here and there, but sometimes you need 2 to 3 days off. Every so often you need a week off. We push our bodies to the red line often. You must take care of your body. Specially with little injuries, I am the worst at that. If you do not rest the injury will not get better. Your muscles will not recover and grow. So the bottom line is listen to your body. Enjoy your vacation and its ok not to workout more then 2 days in a row.

South Central

1st Place in the South Central Region.

What a weekend. What a Hot Weekend. I have to say its one of my favorite times of the year. I get to see a lot of friends, I get to compete against them, I get to cheer for them, and I get to make new friends.
The Sport of CrossFit is growing and evolving each year. I'm just lucky I have been able to be a part of it for the last 3 years. We had a great venue, hot as hell, but a great spectator venue. Its some of the best judging that I have seen. There where a few bad calls, but you will always have that. All and all the best judging. All the staff was great, Matt and Pam did a amazing job. Thank y'all, every one that helped.
My big thank you goes to the Bayou City CF Community, all I can say is it was amazing to be on the floor hearing y'all scream for us. Its the loudest I have ever heard. I love y'all.

To our team, y'all did amazing. I am pumped to be going to The Games with y'all. Like I said its not about you its about the team, Train for the Team.

The Regionals

So its here 2011 Regionals. A lot has changed, the venue is in Tomball, everyone knows the WOD's, and I am competing on our Team.

The issue with knowing the WOD's for me is, all I have done in the last month and a half is specific training, specific movements. I believe my GPP is down. For the first time in a while I did a solo WOD and it kicked my ass. That's no ones fault but my own. Everyone has said "what about the unknown, that's CrossFit". I agree with that statement. I know last year a lot of people where crying about our Regional WOD's where harder or not hard enough. I guess this was a way to say everyone is doing the same across the world. I see the reasons, I just don't like them. You can't make everyone happy. Adapt and overcome.

Tomball, TX, Damn its going to be hot. I love it. I told Charlie G. the other day I drive around with my window's down to get use to the heat. He laughed at me and said I was crazy. I was in Oklahoma last weekend, and you can feel the difference. I was out in the sun all day, no sun burn. If your out in the sun here, you will be cooked well done. Take a knee, drink water.

This year I am going team. I have a couple reasons for that. One is I want this to be a start for Bayou City CrossFit in the Team comp. Our team has been training hard. We meet up 4 to 5 times a week, either as the group or WOD partner. We had a Team dinner last night, and all I can say is we are ready. All I can promise is we will be out there giving it 100%.

Good Luck to all competitors.
Lets Go Team, Game Day.

The Team

The Bayou City CF Team.
The way we made up our team this year was the top scores from the Sectional WOD's.
Our Team is:
The Women (in order): Katie Russell, Susie Tannery, Jane Shin, and Monica Wonzer
The Men (in order): Vic Zachary, Charlie G., Cody Sanders, and Kristian Montoya

I have to say I am excited about this, this year is the year we make a name for Bayou City's Team. This is week two of our training and its been great. We are dedicated to each other and the Box. We expect all of y'all cheering us on in Tomball for Regionals.


Monica

Kristian

Katie

Vic

Charlie

Susie

Cody


Jane

Scottsdale AZ

I just got back from a nice 4 day Reilly vacation to Scottsdale AZ. Its was a well needed trip. We stopped by Cactus CrossFit and did a WOD with Kevin, Great place. We hung out by the pool, hiked up Camelback, and ate some great food.
I was lucky enough to hang out with my cousin Valerie and her husband David. I don't get to see them enough.
It was great to be able to hang out with Lori and John outside of the Box. Can't wait for the next vacation.

on top of Camleback Mountain, with my 2POOD shirt

Lori and John representing on the Mountain

Lori with a little climbing

Katie all smiles