Thanks to everyone who came out to compete, help out, or cheer at the CrossFit Squamish/CrossFit Whistler Prequel to the Sectionals this weekend at our gym! The weekend started out a bit of a grind on Friday night with the power clean/weighted lunge WOD, but everyone pulled through and headed home to begin the rest/recovery/refuel process. Bright and early the next morning everyone showed up for the run/row WOD and posted some really fast times.
The weather was amazing! The fatique definitely started to set in after this workout and with only a couple of hours before the final WOD; everyone hung out in the sun and did their best to refuel and manage energy levels. The intensity definitely peaked in the final AMRAP WOD. The shirts were off and the judging was fierce. The room was loud and was full of sweat. It was competitive but very supportive. And at the end of the weekend the scores were added up and it was very close!

Top left: Nils on the erg,
Bottom left: Mike’s pushups in the AMRAP,
Bottom right: Mel’s WB in the AMRAP

Congrats to everyone who came out this weekend. We hope that you gained a lot from the experience and can head into the next 3 weeks with a little more confidence, or at least you have some ideas of what to try next time.

Other news item #1:
Many people have been asking us about how to volunteer or spectate at the CrossFit Games Qualifier on the 27th-28th of this month. Spectators passes are $50 for the whole weekend but this includes one guest pass so it’s not a bad deal. Alternately, you can volunteer to help out. Either way, please follow the link on our homepage to the 2010 games site to register yourself on our master list, and we will go from there! Athlete and volunteer registration ends this Sunday, but spectator registration will stay open until the event. You can also check out the blog on the 2010 Games site to see the latest entry titled “The Deadly Quartet” to get a taste of what’s to come that weekend.

Other news item #2:
Happy Birthday Chris (today) and Jen (last Saturday)!

Other news item #3:
This Wednesday at noon Shaw Cable will be coming to visit us again (the Vancouver crew this time, not the Sea to Sky Crew like last time). We are going to be holding a class at noon that they will be filming. We would really greatly appreciate anyone who can come at that time and doesn’t mind being on TV! Thanks in advance!

Heather & Jesse

Last night Krista and I went up the Chief to take pictures of the start and stop spots if you want to put your name on the leader board at any time. We ran into Jamie at the bottom who was on the same mission!

Here is where you start your watch…

For anyone who hasn’t gone up the Chief before, this is at the end of the long flat path from the parking lot, and is the first obvious place that you have to take a big step up!

To go on the leader board, record your time to the top of the first peak (for those who haven’t done this, follow the signs, but essentially stay left at the forks). The official “top” of the first peak for our purpose is a cracked rounded top looking section of rock…well…at the top.

Stop your watch when you get to this rock. Just let us know your time and we’ll put it on the board if it’s top 5. And for once we don’t care about your technique. You can bolt up the path like a crazy animal for all we care. If you don’t want to stop and check out the amazing view then keep your watch running and record your total up/down time.

Have fun!

H

A lot of our CrossFitters are coming back from the south… and east (that one’s for you Brad). Krista and I got back from Costa Rica a couple of days ago and saw two different Squamish groups while we were away!

I can tell you that practicing free standing hand-stands is a million times less scary on sand than it is in the gym… I highly recommend it!

Classes over the last few weeks somewhat resembled the early days. It was amazing that we went from waitlists for the 6am all through December and January, to only 1 person in the 6 am several times during the Olympics (right Julie?!).

Class distribution is great and we generally have less waitlists now than before. You guys have been great about confirming your spots or canceling out so we are going to tweak the waitlist system slightly. From now on when you get moved from the waitlist into the class you will still receive the confirmation email, however, you DO NOT have to confirm that you are coming as we will automatically assume that you are. If you no longer want the spot you DO need to either cancel yourself out or email us to let us know. So what we are asking of you here is that you be accountable for the waitlist requests that you make, as getting in and not showing up will be considered a no-show… here’s the thing… if someone cancels out last minute and you get bumped in, we recognize that isn’t very much notice and it may not always work. So please please be considerate of your training partners and give as much notice as possible if you have to cancel out. If you are registered for a 6am or 7am class we need you to CANCEL OUT BY 10pm THE NIGHT BEFORE so the waitlist people can check before they go to bed. Genuine emergencies will always be the exception to the rule. Just email us.

We know that this won’t work 100% of the time… we just ask that you are considerate of others (i.e waking up a 5:30am and deciding that you want more sleep is not cool for the person on the waitlist who really wanted the spot)… our system keeps track of late cancels and no-shows. We get that “accidental misses” and emergencies happen so don’t worry, we won’t be on your case for these…. just if it’s a trend

And on another sad note…. today we said bye to Marlee and Gerard who have packed up their lives into shipping trucks and are flying to Boston tomorrow… for good. Gerard was one of my original training partners at CrossFit Whistler, and his wife Marlee started with us here when we opened. We are going to miss you guys a lot. Marlee, people are already talking about how much they miss you being around. We wish you the very best and hope that you find amazing community in Boston, you certainly added a lot to ours. (and Marlee you look friggin awesome so you better keep it up!)

It was pretty darn cute today when they came by with their kids to say goodbye… Marlee opened the back door of the car to take Will out of his car seat and the first thing he said was “can I do pullups?”

Appreciate all of the great people in your lives… cause it’s sad when they move!

H

For all our athletes participating in the Sectional Qualifier later in the month, we’ll be hosting a warm up event this weekend. Members from Whistler will be coming down to join us. If anyone not competing feels like coming to check it out and cheer on our athletes please feel free to do so.

*Movement standards will be addressed prior to each event.
*Scoring will be on the least amount of points accumulated over the two days (ie. first place=1 pt., second place=2pts., so on and so forth)
*Scaling will be allowed and accounted for in the scoring
*We’ll run two heats per event. Each athlete will be a judge for one heat, and a competitor for one heat.

Friday Night 8PM

WOD 1

for time:

21-15-9

Clean (135#/95#)
Standing Lunge (135#/95#); bar on shoulders

Saturday Morning 8AM

WOD 2

5 rounds for time of:

400m Run
500m Row

Saturday Morning 11:45AM

WOD 3

AMRAP in 12min of:

6 Pull-ups
9 Push-ups
12 Wallball (20#/14#)

The other day before class started a couple of us were talking about the Olympics closing ceremonies, which lead to talk about Nickelback, which quickly turned into a talk about celebrities we’d liked to fight. This made me think of Tyler Durden. If you don’t recognize that name download Fight Club. Below is a compilation of Tyler Durden quotes used in a song by the Dust Brothers (This is Your Life).

This is Your Life

this is your life
good to the last drop,
doesn’t get any better than this
this is your life, and it’s ending
one minute at a time
this isn’t a seminar
and this isn’t a weekend retreat
where you are now
you can’t even imagine
what the bottom will be like

only after disaster
can we be resurrected
it’s only after you’ve lost
everything that you’re
free to do anything

nothing is static,
everything is evolving,
everything is
falling apart

you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake
you are the same decaying
organic matter as everything else
we are all a part of the same compost heap
we are the all-singing,
all-dancing crap of the world
you are not your bank account,
you are not the clothes you wear
you are not the contents of your wallet
you are not your bowel cancer
you are not your grande latte
you are not the car you drive
you are not your f*cking khakis

you have to give up

you have to realise that someday you will die,
until you know that you are useless
i say let me never be complete
i say may i never be content
i say deliver me from swedish furniture
i say deliver me from clever art
i say deliver me from clear skin and perfect teeth
i say you have to give up
i say evolve, and let the chips
fall where they may

-Tyler Durden

Post to comments a celebrity you’d like to fight.

Olympic Timeline:

November 21st 1998: First round of voting is completed between the three preposed Canadian cities: Vancouver/Whistler (26 votes), Calgary (21 votes), and Quebec City (25 votes).

December 3rd 1998: Second round of voting is conducted and Vancouver/Whistler beats out Quebec city 40-32.

January 2003: bidding books are submitted for three host cities: Vancouver, Pyeongchang (South Korea), and Salzburg (Austria).

Febuaray 2003: In the first round of voting Vancouver places second to South Korea 40-51 and Austria is eliminated with only 16 votes.

July 2nd 2003: Vancouver wins the bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics 56-53 making it the second closest Olympic vote since Sydney won the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Febuary 28th 2010: Here we are at both the end of the month, and the end of the Winter Olympics. As I think back to the summer of 2003 when we won the bid it seems like a long time ago. Since then Olympic talk, debate, highway construction, mascots, and marketing have played some part in most peoples lives (at least in this area). I’m proud of the job we have done as Canadians bringing the world to our door, and sad to see it coming to a close. When I stood in Live City last night watching the fireworks display after Blue Rodeo, I couldn’t help but feel very fortunate to know this is where I live. For all of you who have participated, volunteered, or taken part in the festivities I salute you.

GO CANADA GO

Jesse

“A weak man is not as happy as that same man if he were strong.”
-Mark Rippetoe

There are many different expressions of strength, and many different ways to get stronger. In my experience most people, or training programs will train strength endurance. Commonly light loads, for high reps, or long duration, and rarely (if ever) train absolute strength (ie. 1RM). How often did you lift something very heavy in singles before you started CrossFitting? I’m not saying that strength endurance isn’t important, but I am saying that it’s only one piece of the puzzle. Absolute strength is critical for the continued development as an athlete. It’s just not strength training, if you don’t lifting heavy things, often.

These are the three most common concerns I deal with as a coach:

It’s Dangerous/ I’m worried about getting hurt: Know and learn the lift, do a proper warm up (ie. a set of 5 with an empty bar and a couple sets with sub maximal weight), know your limits, and once you put your hands on the bar apply yourself to the lift (this is both mental and physical). Things can go south on a 1RM, just like they can anywhere else in your life so be smart: know and practice ditching the bar, and use spotters when it’s heavy.

I don’t want to bulk up: This is usually a comment from someone who couldn’t “bulk up” if their life depended on it. You will not bulk up unintentionally. It just doesn’t happen. What you may find is you lean out, gain some muscle, and your body weight gets to where it probably should have been in the first place.

I don’t want to slow down: This usually is a reference to running. What this usually means to me is: “I’m better at running long slow distance than lifting heavy things, so I would rather do that”. If you aren’t strong, your not fast either.

Above is a photo of a marathon runner (left) and Brian Mackenzie (right). Brian Mackenzie runs CrossFit Endurance, and is a successful ultra distance runner (100 milers). Being strong doesn’t have to mean you suck at running, and it certainly doesn’t have to replace it either. Get stronger and you will get faster.

Out of interest on this topic I leafed through my own training logbooks. Below is my CrossFit Totals from January 2008 through December 2009 along with any WODs that I did within a two week range near the Total.

Jan 1st 2008 CrossFit Total: 225-115-285=625 (body weight 175#)
Elizabeth: 18:00, Cindy: 20 Rounds, 400m Run: 1:16, Grace: 11:50 @ 95#, Fran: 6:41, Annie: 9:40

May 30th 2008 CrossFit Total: 285-115-315=715 (body weight 170#)
Angie: 20:12, Cindy: 23 rounds, Fran: 5:44, Fight Gone Bad: 320

July 9th 2008 CrossFit Total: 305-135-355=795 (body weight 170#)
Angie 17:20, Fran: 4:10, Fight Gone Bad: 353, Helen: 7:53, Griff: 10:21

Jan 24th 2009 CrossFit Total: 309-143-353=805 (body weight 175#)
Elizabeth: 7:19, Nicole: 154 (7 rounds), Murph: 38:20 (with vest), Max pull-ups: 45

March 10th 2009 CrossFit Total: 314-143-358=815 ((body weight 175#)
Murph: 37:02 (with vest), Karen: 5:21, Nicole: 157 (7 rounds), Nancy: 12:41, Jackie: 6:24

Dec 15th 2009 CrossFit Total: 315-165-385=865 (body weight 180#)
Fran: 4:03, Annie: 7:42, Griff: 10:45, Grace: 3:27, Max Pull-ups: 48, 400m Run: 1:07

There are many things that contributed to the improvements I made in the different WOD’s, but the point is: as I’ve gotten stronger, I’ve only continued to get faster. In January I pulled a 420 Deadlift and a 320 Back Squat within a week of a 6:57 2000m Row. Don’t limit yourself, or be afraid to get strong. You’ll like it!

Jesse

Rapattack Recuit Training from jesse bifano on Vimeo.

The last couple days have prompted me to finally load this video up. A couple of you have ask about what I’ve done for some of the last 12 years, and this is a taste of that.
This is a compilation of our new recruit training from a couple years back. Don’t judge to harshly the quality of the Push-ups or Squats, but know that we know better now, and that in any case all participants much like most of you, are working as hard as they can to become the best they can be. I feel confident saying that my time spent at Rapattack has played a major part in who I am, and how I do things.

Jesse

Today I was lucky enough to partake in a media air show (down in Coal Harbor) showcasing what Rapattack does best. For the demo we did a three person rappel, and then hoisted off the barge back to the helicopter. It’s been a busy last couple days preping for this/hoping the weather holds out. When we woke up this morning in Parksville things looked grim. But by 2 this afternoon the demo was completed, and as we flew back to Qualicum the heavy rain set in. It was very cool flying in over the Olympic rings, and getting an aerial view of the flame. But rappelling onto a floating barge was not as simple as one might initially suspect. Not dissimilar from shooting a moving target.

Jesse

The weather this week, coupled with all of the Olympic excitement, seems to have pulled most of us out of our winter slump. Its been really fun this week listening to everyone’s stories about the events they have been too. Canadian’s are much more patriotic than we give ourselves credit for.

Can’t help but to post a few more pictures of what’s been going on at the gym the last few days…

Just a final reminder that the gym is closed for the next two days (Mon-Tues), and programmed classes will run today, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday with the next open gym on Sunday. Yoga will also resume next sunday!

Jesse will be teaching all classes from Wednesdays until next Monday and I will be back on the schedule next Tuesday bright and early. If anyone is looking to book a massage appointment for next week or beyond, I have set the program to skip the “request appointment” part, so when you choose a time it will automatically be yours and it will send you a confirmation email. I can also be reached by email while I’m gone.

Happy Sunday!

Heather & Jesse