Impromptu Saturday

I decided to try and get a new state in the collection today. Too bad it was 2 1/2 hours to the closest box in Vermont! Pretty ironic thing about this box, it was called Green Mountain CF at The Confluence. Anyone who knows me, know that this is just IRONIC!!!! Funny but Ironic.  Fun partner wod of 30 EMOM of 9 sit ups passing the med ball to your partner every rep, 7 individual box jumps, and 5 push ups. I don't remember who my partner was but he was a rockin older guy and helped kill it!



After a quick call to Jason @ CF Portsmouth, I headed to a trainer meeting at White Mountain CF in Concord, NH. When I got there I met trainers from WMCF and CF New Hampshire. After some debate about some big things going on in NH, we picked our first WOD. 1 RM Power Cleans! Big numbers all around and even 2 PR's, me being one of them at 245! I almost got 255 but wasn't fast enough in the elbows.  Now that that was done on to our metcon of 500m row, 25 HSPU, 25 Ground to Shoulder with 75# Stone, 25 OHS @ 75#, 25 Pull Ups, 25 Thrusters @ 75# and between each round push the prowler 25m with 180# on it. Now this was brutal for everyone but we ranged from 13:55 to 18 min. I was done at 14:56.  After some more planning and decision making we traded some shirts and headed out. Can't wait to see what big things are coming up for TEAM NEW HAMPSHIRE.



1st Friday Back In New England

I know I haven't updated in a while but hey, I've actually been home! Weird I know. So I'm on vacation and heading up to the Boston area for a week trying to get closer to that 100 box mark.
Friday afternoon I got to meet Cori DiDonato, Shelly Rego, Tristian Dimmick and a few members of Avalon CF(90) in Charles Town, MA. At first this seemed like a normal CF Box, but looking around I could tell this was gonna be a little different.   We tackled Filthy 50, not bad, I was still a little sore from getting beat by "Whitten" earlier in the week but put up a good 22:23 time. As always, I hung around and talked with the trainers and even helped write Shelly profile page for the website.  Another client came in for Filthy 50 and Cori decided he wasn't gonna do it alone. Paul and Cori did great, I even got to play trainer while she was working out. They both did great and by great I mean Cori had to be excused once or twice to visit Pukie. After the workout I got to talk to Shelly and she showed me "Zumba", all I gotta say is classic! Wait til I put up that video Shelly! All in All, Avalon CF is a great place to be and with all their options there is bound to be something for everyone there. Thanks again Cori and crew.

I did also get to make it back to my old home box, CF Portsmouth.  Still my favorite box ever!  I got to catch up with old friends, see tons of progress, and even get a kick ass WOD in.  Jason Goulmas put us thru a little warm up and then hit us with this gem of a WOD: 3 RFT 10 muscle ups & 75 air squats. I finished it with a helping hand. It was good to be home and sure glad to see old friends.



Central PA Training Week

So this week was a "field" work trip. Most of my friends know that I'm in the military but I never seem to tell anyone exactly what I do.  That's not gonna change but know I was in Central PA this week for work stuff. I wasn't supposed to have any free time but I did manage to get away a few times. 

11/29 I managed to get out early and drop into CrossFit 717 in Lemoyne, PA.  I ran into an old face, Hudson from CF York, we chatted for a bit and then I got into my WOD. 3 RFT 5 Tire Flips, 10 135# Push Press, 15 Ring Pull Ups and a 200m Farmers carry with (2) 1.5p Kettlebells.  14:50 was all I needed for this forearm blaster of a WOD.  Cool box, didn't get to talk to Dan much due to a 1930 intro but it was fun none the less. I'll definitely come back, Thanks 717 crew.

12/1 Yes this is my birthday, Yes its was a NASTY weather day, and Yes I'm in the Dec Burpee challenge. So the weather was really crappy causing us to start work a little late giving me a chance to drop into Crossfit Hershey. I met Tim and his early am crew before we started and they were all pretty good. Now this wasn't a simple WOD and go home, this was a lot of fun all wrapped into 1 or 5 as the case may be.
 I. HSPU and DU practice 
II. 10x2 every minute on the minute DL @ 395#
III. 10 min AMRAP: 100ft of long jumps & 12 pull ups (6rds 100ft 7pu)
IV 500m row sprint: 1:34.3
V. Burpees! 32 age, 15+1 Dec Challenge =48
Thanks for the birthday fun Tim, see ya when I come back around this way!

12/2 Last night in the area and I couldn't go without seeing my good friend Rusty and his box out at CF York. He almost didn't have class but he said I could come in for a speed WOD. I walked in and he thought I was the police, it was quite amuzing if you were there. Three more athletes showed up so it was time to work: 5-10-15-20-15-10-5 Walking lunges (each leg), pull ups, V ups, & KB swings (2p). I finished somewhere just under 20min which wasn't that bad.  Then I did my 17+3 burpees to end my time at York, caught up with Rusty and headed on back.  Thanks bro!

Well if you've been keeping count, 88 and 89 are in the bag, 11 to go by the end of the year. I wonder if I can get it done?  Good thing I have from Dec 16 to Jan 3 off. 



Erie and EOS

So this weekend I went to visit some friends up in Erie, PA. Knowing I had some time to kill before I went to meet them at the bar, I decided to find contact Bryan and the crew at CF EOS.  I wasn't expecting what I got when I walked into the Nautilus Fitness Center due to past globo CF experiences.  It's was a small class of three, but it was a Friday night after all. 

As we tackled the main sites 7 RFT 5 HSPU/10 185# DL/10 C2B Pull Ups/20 DU I realized that I was smashed from the week and took it down to 5 RFT.  11:44 wasn't bad, but I could tell that I was pretty well crushed and I wanted to live to fight another day. 

Another day came faster than I thought, as in 10am the next morning!

A much larger class this time, I think there were 7 counting me this go around.  Now we were going to tackle a new hero WOD, "Collin", with a few changes.  6RFT 400m run/12 95#PP/12 24" BJ/12 95# SDHP. Now I was feeling the effects of a few tequila shots on this one...more like tasting it from my pores!  26:20 was a descent time considering it all. 

Now what I did learn was CF Erie is now gone and the owner has a nice job somewhere else in the world.  So that's one less affiliate available for me to visit. Great job Debbie, keep working what i showed you on that squat so you can't get anymore NO REPS! Thanks Bryan for letting me leave sweat angles on your floor! 

5x Friday!

I don't what got into me Thursday night, but I was talkin to the Hoot and decided Friday should be kick ass workout day. When I say kick ass I mean KICK ASS!!!! Here's how it went down.....
(0900) I took a 2 hr drive out to Cuyhoga Falls, OH to visit Kevin Roarty and Burning River CrossFit. 7x1 Back Squats were on tap. Kevin pulled out the big tire for depth and I got a great PR of 355#!

Thanks Kevin, I'm glad we had strength cuz Brain and the crew at CF Legacy (1100) had a fun little Team WOD in store for me. I was given Aaron as a partner for this: 4min each station of Med Ball Cleans, Box Jumps, Push Ups, Pull Ups, & V Ups. There is always a catch, you can only do 10 reps and while you are working your partner is either holding the bottom of a squat (1st 3) or a plank (last 2).  Aaron and I did amazing scoring 620 reps.  This was a crusher! Thanks for the fun times Brian!

By now I'm in serious need of protien, so i stop and crush a pound of BBQ before heading to CF Energy (1300). I was a few min late, but I was still warm so I jumped right into the WOD: 2RFT 50 Pull Ups, 30 Asst Pistols, and 100 V Ups.  This took a little bit longer than I thought it would but hey, this is Wod 3 in 5 hrs! 22:41 wasn't that bad and Kyle was really cool to sit and talk with about how he does things.

By now you gotta be thinking that I'm totally trashed and couldn't have a 4th WOD in me, but I digress! To the Barn Batman!  I got to SPC CF aka the Barn about 3 thinking I could take a nap. WRONG! I walked in and saw a familiar face, Kyle Klein. We finished 14th and 15th at the Fall Brawl.  Today was their make up day, so I decided to do "The Chief". 5rds of 3min on / 1 min off of (3) 135# HPC, 6 push ups, 9 squats.  I got thru 20 rounds. Not my best, but again this is WOD 4.  Thanks Guys for endulging me.

Now for the last WOD of the night. I got to visit a relatively new box, CrossFit Akron.  I was the only one in the late class but it gave us a good chance for some snatch practice.  Brian pulled out the camera and we did a 15 rep, upward progression.  I really got a great shot of where I need some work in the pulling stage of my snatch. I started at 95# went as far as 145# but kicked it down to 115# for the last few rounds to concentrate on form. 

Thanks everyone for letting me getting 82 thru 86 done, 14 more for 100!
Hope everyone has a great thanksgiving!

Greensburg and Youngstown

 I decided to get in a double for Friday so after my normal night at Mon Valley training, I headed out to CF Greensburg in Greensburg PA. This place was much like a hybrid training center with MMA, self defense classes, and CrossFit.
After some intros and a tour, we started the warm up. Joe was a little behind but quickly got us into our WOD of 10 Rounds of 8 Burpees and 8 Pull Ups. Nice fun times for a Friday night!  11:13 was not too bad for my second WOD of the night.  We talked a bit, gave some props to all there crew and then headed out. It was really cool to see that many new people kipping already.  Hope to get back there soon.

Now for Saturday I wanted to get in a box I've been trying to get to for a while. So I gave Joe a call and headed out to CF Youngstown in Ohio.  It was a beuatiful day and I guess it was a ladies day. 5 wonderful CFYO women and myself tackled a 3 Rft of 10 DL (250#), 200m run, 10 Burpees, 200m Run, 20 reverse lunges.
These ladies had tons of heart and killed it, even the woman who was on day 1!

A good saturday overall, even made back in time to watch THE OHIO STATE BUCKEYES dismantle Penn State.

What a week.....

So I accidentially hit the save button vice the post button but heres what you missed....

(11/4) Well I decided that I need to go home to Cinicnnati to register my Jeep since PA has some hex again lifted vehicles but first a stop at Integrated Fitness in Bethel Park, PA. Great AB Killing Workout:
4 RFT
8 Overs / 9 Russian MB Twists / 10 V ups / 11 Prayers then a 350m Row sprint. Finished up in Sub 7
Really good group and a good coach in Jim.

Now off to Cincy...getting tired....make a phone call....crashing in Columbus instead :)

(11/5) So I looked up the closest Affliate to my friend Karen's house and found CF Core Tactix in Dublin, OH.  I really was unimpressed with this one.  The space was great, people were cool, but the trainer was a tool! I don't know for sure but they said his name was Bo.  He didn't introduce himself and left just as fast thru his special door as he came in.  The WOD: 10 Rds 7 SDHP @ 95 / 7 Pull Ups - Untimed. Just not a good experience, Sorry CFCT.

Grab some fuel for the body and the Jeep and off to CrossFit Heights in Dayton, OH.  Here I met Tamarraw, co-owner of CFH.  This was a very friendly box that had some great clients.  The WOD, 800m 55# DB Farmes Carry. Seems easy but everytime you drop it and do 5 Burpees, 10 Push ups and 15 squats. Go light and start with the penaly, go heavy and get a pass on 1 drop.  Made it thru in 9:59 with 1 drop.  Totally a fun WOD and had a blast hanging out and chatting.  Awesome box and great trainer, Thanks for the beenie T!

(11/6) Now here I go again with my bright ideas, a saw a new box opened up about 90 min away in Madison, IN. This trip came without its obsticals! I'm talking a building fire, cows, new boots and crazy countries roads! My friend Jenna asked me to take her to CrossFit, I know that Jaimie wanted to take her but Jenna really wanted to drink the Kool Aid!  We met Nick and his crew and quickly learned that Mad City CF has actually only been open for 6 days! I must say this was a very welcoming box and took very good care of my new boot. 
Now for the WOD: 5 RFT 10 Box Jumps 20" / 10 Sit Ups / 10 SDHP @ 75# = 11:10
I didn't get to meet Cori but big ups to her and Nick and all of Mad City CF, here's to a long sucessful journey!

(11/7) Now it's time to leave Cincy and head back to the 'Burg, but not without a detour or two!  Detour 1, CF Power Performance in Loveland, OH.  Now this was a crazy place with grafitti all over the walls and heavy metal music blarring...I loved it! I met trainers Pat and Chad when I walked in the door. I watched the end of their Oly class, did some warm up and then got to work.
1 min on, 1 min off of the following:  Row for Cal, Bike for Speed, Sledgehammer Swings, Double Unders, Lateral Shuffels, and Punching Push Ups: Tabata Scoring except total Cals on rower = 231.5
This was something new and very interesting for me, loved the intesity and even the ribbing by owner Alicia who came in mid wod.  Thanks CFPP, I'll definately come visit this box again.

Well it's a long drive home, so to break it up I found a Sunday night WOD at the home the 2010 CF Games Mens Champ, Graham Holmberg aka CF Columbus.  Graham wasn't in but his partner Brandon was. Now this was a big class for a Sunday night and they were all good people.  After some warm up rounds and some double under / pistol skill work we hit a favorite WOD of mine, but in a new way.  "Jackie" was her name but in reverse! 30 Pull Ups, 50 thrusters @ 45#, and a 1000m Row = 7:14. Loved the way this turned out, glad I made the stop.  Thanks CFC, hope you like my "Doubled Up" wod.

Well 79 boxes down and countless stops to go, I'll say this is one of the funnest games I've played in a long time. Here's to more boxes in more cities and more states....

Fall Brawl 2010

First off, I know it's not traveling but it's a fun ass weekend. 

So CF R.A.W. hosted a local competition this weekend.  CrossFitters from Delaware, Ohio, West Virginia, & all over PA showed up.  54 men and 51 women got up awful early to take on what Molly and her crew had in store for us.  There were 3 WOD's to challenge us all for these!

Wod 1: 1.5 Trail Run which should have read run up 3 BF Hills!!! Finished in 14:02, 39th overall.

Wod 2:
21-15-9
20# Wall Balls / Row for Cal / 115# Ground to Overhead .  Finished in 9:39.  Not to bad, 11th in the WOD, bumped up to 23rd overall.

Wod 3:
5min time limit, establish a 1 RM Deadlift and then use rest of the time to do muscle ups or pull ups.
Score is DL # + 1pt for pull ups + 3pts for MU
If you don't know me, I freaking love deadlifting, really my favorite thing ever. 
505# DL + 2 MU + 47 Pull Ups = 557!  5th in the WOD

Overall I finished in 14th place. Not bad for my second competiton ever!  I had a great time and met some new friends and some old ones.  Can't wait to compete again.  Thanks again RAW!\

Chicago!!!!

Sometimes I go a little overboard, even for me.  I get these wild hairs that say "You can do it! Your a beast!"  Why do I listen to those voices? 

So it's Monday morning and I've already decided that a 3-peat is a good idea.  Why???

6am

I was told there was a surprise for this one.  What kinda of surprise could be waiting for me at CF Chicago West Loop this early in the morning? Fran? Cindy? Grace? Nope even better Kelsey!

Kelsey is a good friend that actually changed her work schedule to join us in the early WOD and what a morning was instore for us.
Deadlifts 5x5xMax Effort 65%, 75%, & 85% of 90% of 1RPM.  I know, I know, I failed Calculus too!
275, 315, & 355 were used. Then 2x10 body rows with 155-135.
Finally 21-15-9 of 115 Power cleans & Pull Ups  5:39
I'm exhausted again and I'm only writing this! Cool Box, good group of early birds, and a cool trainer. 

Drive 10 min, Sleep 20

8am

They have this thing called RowFit here. We were a little early so we got to watch.  Looks fun, if you like rowing.  Good thing I do cuz we had it on tap today.
WOD:
1K Row; every 15 strokes do 10 burpees.  5:50 / 20 burpees / 43 strokes!
5 min Rest
60 Push Press @ 95#; everytime you rest below shoulders or out of rack do 15 box jumps (20") 5:16
Total 16:06
Shoulders = Crushed! Another good box in Chicago, one more to go and I'll have done them all. GO TEAM ROWFIT!

3:30pm

What could I possibly have left in the tank or my shoulders as the case may be. I met Sean when I walked in, well re-met Sean.  Sean was the coach at Windy City CF back in May when I visited last. Small world but made for great catch up.  CF 312 is actually another pretty new box, much like GBCF, the bumpers smelled great and even still had some oil them.  What could we be possibly in for that I haven't seen today? If you said SNATCH you get a gold star.  These were Tall Snatches though.  No hips, no jump, all arms into the squat. 75-95-115.  To bad this was just the skill work, here was the actual WOD: 12min AMRAP 4 HSPU / 8 Slam Balls @ 20#.  Shoulders crushed, had to do kipping HSPU after like 5 rounds but
I made it thru 11 rounds. Thanks for a great WOD Sean.  312 is gonna be good!

Well that's it all 7 downtown Chicago boxes visited and they all are good. Now time to hit the burbs next time I visit. 72 down and more added every day....

On the way home.....

Well many things come from a road trip, unfortunately this one was the ending, on the bright side we did get to hit one more box, CF Arlington Heights.

Quick and fun warm up and then off to the WOD:
5 Rounds of
400m Run
3 Snatches @95
12 OHS @95

I finished in 14:37, Rx.  Jaimie was the only other one who did it Rx @ 19:00.  She almost beat the other guy in class! A great time was had by off and now off the watch Farve Bowl III! Thanks CFAH!

Packer-land Saturday

So I've never went to Northern Wisconsin before until this weekend.  I had the bright idea to go see the "mecca" of the north, Lambeau Field and maybe do a handstand or two.

Pretty cool place I'll have to admit, it's no Paul Brown :), but it's cool how it's in the middle of town with houses all around.  Now off to Green Bay CF to meet Grant and Sam, Owner and Boxer respectively.

Green Bay CF has been open for just about 3 weeks and you could tell.  The place smelled of fresh bumpers and new mats, it was great!  Too bad for us Grant had something else in store for us, rope climbs and running...Yeah more running.

So we talked about some progressions and found a good progression for Jaimie to do the WOD of:
1 15' rope climb / 800m run
2 15' rope climb / 400m run
3 15' rope climb / 200m run

8:51 was a good time and just beat out the rain.  Now back time to get back, get breakfast and great ready for one crazy/awesome family wedding

Start of a great weekend!

Wow! So I had a whirlwind tour of some Big Ten towns this weekend and boy do they all hate my Buckeyes.

1st stop Friday morning was Quad City CF in Davenport, IA where we met Austin and his crew. After a quick warm up we hit the WOD: "Jump Your Wall Balls Off!": 10 Rds of 10 Wall Balls (20#), 15' of long jumps, 10 Box Jumps (24"), 15' of long jumps. 14:37, not bad but got really wobbly towards the end. Great crew, awesome box, and would definatley visit them again. Thanx QCCF!

After a quick shower, we hit the road, for Progession CF in Rochester, MN. Due to bad math and internet reading, we figured out we would be about 3 hours early. So after a quick visit to the mall and an oil change, we killed enough time to hit the box a little early.

Progession CF had Lumberjack 20 waiting for us. I haven't done this since it's inception last year. This is a brutal 1 3/4 total run plus 20 reps of 7 different exercises. BRUTAL! 27:05, about 2 minutes better than last year but my back really paid for it. This was one great box with an amazing crew, Matt really has something going on up there in south MN!

5 hours to Wisconsin......

Idaho Falls, Day 2

This place isn't so bad after all :)

I looked on line and found that there was a second CF affliate in town, ID Falls YMCA. Due to my responsibilities, their 1 class/3 day a week schedule and my wonderfully large bed in the hotel I didn't make it. Good thing Maltese CF had a 3:30 class!

I met Parker this time, he's the other owner of Maltese CF and a firefighter. This time the WOD he laid out had a little bit of what I'm good at and someting I suck at.

800M Run
8 Rds
8 Pull Ups
16 Squats
800M Run

14:13, not too bad but my runs still suck but I'm gonna blame 4700' of elevation. That and I suck at running. Met some more of their crew tonight: Blake, Hillary and Jamie were all in the 3:30, Dr. Sarah Pepper in the 4:30 and Em and Ric (i think) in the 5:30. Thanks again for a great time Maltese CF, see you again in January!

A new one even for me

Well as most of my friends know by now, my job takes me around the country and to some crazy places. I gotta admit though, this is even a new place for me, Idaho Falls, ID and Maltese CrossFit.

Maltese CF is owned by Parker and Sam, two local firefighters. Unfortunately I didn't get to meet Paker, maybe tomorrow I will. I got the box just as one member was leaving. I quickly learned that all the regular 530pm crew came in early so it was just gonna be Shane and me. As I read the white board it had two WODS: 1. Death By Press @ 95# and 2. Tabata lateral jumps.......FUN!!!!!

Death by Press went ok, 10 rounds with 10 reps of round 11, I just missed the last one. No sooner did I drop the bar it was 3-2-1 GO! with the Tabata's. 32-32-33-34-30-28-26-28 Shane did a great job pushing me thru both of the WODs.

A great time was had by all! We even had a little BS session and some muscle up work post WOD. Definately a good box, with great coaches.
Thanks Maltese CF!

Early Morning with Kitsap CF

So I had this bright idea last night to hit the 6am class at Kitsap CF in Poulsbo, WA (great box BTW) Little did I realize that 11 miles in Washington meant like a 20 min drive. None the less, I was gonna put #64 in the books one way or another. As I got to the box, it was like 43 deg out and I could still see stars in the sky.
I quickly met Brandy and the end of the 5am crew, I used to be a 5am guy...
Anyway, Dan the owner soon got there and I quickly realized he was on the CF training staff and saw good things in my future. Did a good warm up and then introduced us to a new girl named "Nadia" and how she came about.

"Nadia"
21-15-9
Thrusters 105/75
Wall Balls 20/14

Totally fun WOD! Since there are a lot of new people in the 6am, only Brandy and I were the only ones who did it Rx.10:19 and 5:29 respectfully. I really liked this WOD I must say. We hit the foam rollers, "played" on the mega monkey bars, sang happy birthday(40) to kavita and had a paleo pumpkin muffin. I thanked Dan and his crew, told him about the primal palate and then took my box photo and headed back for a long work day.

Totally a great way to start my day here in Washington. Thanks again to Dan H and all the members of KCF for making me feel welcome.

Back in the Seattle Again.....

Had a busy day at work but I found a way to work in two WODs at two boxes so far. Olympic CF (Poulsba, WA) and Westsound CF (Port Orchard, WA)

Met Nick and his 3:30 crew as they were finishing up at Olympic CF this afternoon. I thought I was going to a farm house when I got there but it was an awesome space. I did a few kipping muscle ups and then he showed me a progression for strict muscle ups. I actually almost got one. Then Phil showed up and we got to work on the WOD.
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Kettle Bell Swings and 40m sprints. Finished the WOD in a pretty decent time of 5:06.
Finished up, said my good byes , thanked Nick for a great WOD and headed for round two.

......Quick side note......

So a few months ago, I met a guy named Rick Sinclair thru wodclub.com, he is a 55 year old Firefighter from Vashon, WA. Great family man with 3 kids, a wife and a granddaughter who is older than his son. Today though he is a CrossFitter and a bad ass one at that and he was able to meet up with me tonight.

......Side Note Over......

Round two was at Westsound CrossFit. Met Micks crews sans Mick, hes a firefighter and was on duty, just around 6 tonight. Their menu had one of my personal favorites, Deadlifts 5x5x5x5x5. Decided to kick some young kid ass tonight and warm up with 215. The first 3 rounds opened with 315, 365, & 385, Round 4 got crazy with a 405 for me and 395 for Rick. Young asses had nothing on us after round 3. 5th and final round had some guts behind it, 465 for me and 390 for Rick. We were impressed by him, he's a freaking beast!

Well off to bed, possibility of #64 with Kitsap CF in the morning.

Back Tracking(4): June to Oct 10

Recap Only:

-CF York (York, PA) Very inviting box, jumped in like I was one of the crew. Thanks Rusty & Brittany, you two really found a way to make someone feel welcome...."If you don't introduce yourself to someone you don't know is 50 Burpee penelty"

-CF Collective (Lancaster, PA) No coach, I knew the WOD, 20 min on the rower for a 5K. Not the best 1st impression

-CF South Hills (South Park, PA) Mike T. has a great crew, nice box!

-Mountaineer CF (Morgantown, WV) Tommy H. has done great things with lots of obsticles. Love the Mega plex tour and the Turkish Get Ups

-CF Lynchburg (Lynchburg, VA) my home away from home, the only place I can walk into and everyone hugs me and waits for my pain! Thanks Ryan M.

-CF LIS (now Jet City / Seattle, WA) Nancy after 5 days off sucked! Thanks for the post WOD beer!

-CF West Seattle (Seattle, WA) Heavy Back squats. "Are girls are nasty but we like them" = BEST QUOTE EVER

-CF New Hampshire (Manchester, NH) very nice place, good crew. Jenn and lil man were there with me, which made it even better

-CF Game 2010 (Carson, CA) EPIC!! Too many things happened to recap. Met a great crew of judges to hang with all weekend. Love ya Starr, Ro, and Stretch

-Dogtown CF (Culver City, CA) 295#(PR) on Front Squats. Liz and Dusty rock

-CF LA (Los Angeles, CA) sorry I was late, trainer didn't stay around to say anything. Found owner upstairs 45 min after sitting around the box. Not the greatest experience

-CF Paradiso (Marina Del Rey, CA) AWESOME time with Helen and the CFP crew. Dave and Zeb are awesome

-Sin City CF (Henderson, NV) 2 games style WOD

-Iron Edge CF (Mesquite, NV)

-CF Dixie (St. George, UT)

-CF Flagstaff (Flagstaff, AZ)

-CF Carmel (Carmel, IN) "I'm too stubborn to quit when I'm hurt", with Jaimie

-Blast Fitness (Indianapolis, IN) CF Oly Cert. Josh Everett..245 snatch

-CF Hampton Roads (Yorktown, VA) effin Mary!, with Mopper

-CF of Breckenridge (Breckenridge, CO) 7 girls and me for a WOD = Awesome sauce at 10,000 feet!

-CF Verve (Denver, CO) Heavy DL's and Death by Thrusters

-Pikes Peak CF (CO Springs, CO) Snatch grip DL and push-ups

-Red Rocks CF (CO Springs, CO) more snatches!

-CF Athletics (Pittsburgh, PA) Jenn runs a great crew, my new home box as of Nov '10

-New London CF (New London, CT) farmer carries with 95# barbels is intense

-CF Providence (Providence, RI) Josh, Rx = ripped hands!

-Mon Valley CF (Elizabeth,PA) new but exciting to help get it off the ground. Jason and Chris are great peoples

-CF Northern KY (Florence, KY) took my niece but she refused to workout and went to McD's. Lucas has a nice crew

-Centerville CF (Dayton, OH) pre-marathon wod may have been a bad idea ;)

-CF Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA) Annie and Fight Gone Bad. Jenn, Mike, & Blake rock!

-Catamount CF (Canton, OH) Amanda = fun! Very clean box!!!

-Coca CF (North Ridgeville, OH) Kate Rawlings is amazing!

-CF Riverfront (Wilmington, DE) Ian made a mod WOD for Susan, snatch balance time!

-CF Bare Hills (Baltimore, MD) very bad representation of CF. No intro, no warm up, no questions, just go and get it done. No interacting with the 3 non-locals, not fun and not recommend

-CF Lancaster (Lancaster, PA) pre warrior dash wod, still got a wicked deadlift!

That should be all of them, if not I will add them eventually.......

Back Tracking(3): Feb - May 10

Recap time again:

-1st muscle up

-CF Ignite (Westward, NJ) had a good AMRAP of HPC, K2E, & Push ups

-CF Morristown (Morristown, NJ) "Karen runs a mile", I hit a parking meter

-CF Knoxville (Knoxville, TN) a few visits and I gave a paleo lecture, Johnny and his crew took care of me

-CF Ktown (Knoxville, TN) a few visits here too, Grant and Jessie tried to kill me rowing

-moved to Pittsburgh, joined CF Confluence

-CF Buffalo (Buffalo, NY) Angie plus 50

-CF St. Louis (St. Louis, MO) Barbara on rhoids with Ric Stokes

-Jeannies Beach CF (VA Beach, VA) went with like 5 hashers including Jaimie and Cheryl. Learned what TRX was

-CF Chesapeake (Chesapeake, VA) tried to kill Jaimie with mountain climbers

-Alamo CF (San Antonio, TX) Patron drop in fee for Rick, crushed the wod, and 500m race. All with Mopper

-C.C. CF (Corpus Christi, TX) lots of squats! Had Hoot, Mopper, & a hot shower

-CF On The River (Lawrenceburg, IN) almost puked and the only one to see it was the trainer

-CF Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH) Das Gym was full of meatheads and machines

-CF Nati (Cincinnati, OH) great crew, hero WOD "Paul" while Jaimie ran 2.5 miles of Hell

-CF Reston (Reston, VA) Level 1 Cert

-Windy City CF (Chicago, IL) higher wall balls makes life interesting

-Atlas CF (Chicago, IL) squat clinic and the Bear

-Chicago CF (Chicago, IL) up and down the ladder with the most snatches ever other than Randy

-Milwaukee CF (Milwaukee, WI) total - 975

-Lincoln Park CF (Chicago, IL) OZ park fun with sandbags

Back Tracking(2): Oct/Nov/Dec 09 & Jan 10

Lots of work has been going tons of changes have happened to me by this point. Here's a quick recap:

-Old Town CF (Alexandria, VA) 2 WODs here. Did my first back squat PR. 245# at that point

-CF Portsmouth got a new box. 1st WOD was Vince, Mer, and myself

-CF Casco Bay (Portland, ME) 1st attempt at "Randy"

-Lumberjack 20 for FT HOOD

-Started Paleo, life forever changed again

-CF on a cruise ship and scared the big black women with burpees over the bench and HPC

-CF Winter Mixer @ CF Cynergy (Hanson, MA) Had a great partner in Trish Hitchcock (AWESOME WOMAN) and met Laurie Lawerence

-CF Fenway (Boston, MA) did a little indoor invasion. Great people. Met Eric, Stacy K was in NH visiting my box

That's the abridged version of those 3 months, next 3 or 4 months soon......

Back Tracking(1): Aug/Sept 2009

What I've decided to do for the next few was play a little catch up. Taken from my work out log, a few old emails, and lots of great memories, so here goes.....

So Susan Mopper told me about this thing called CrossFit and I decided to look it up.  It just happened that CrossFit Portsmouth, in Portsmouth NH, was having it's grand opening in just a few days, I was living there stationed on the USS DALLAS (SSN 700).  I contacted Jason Goulmas and scheduled my 1st intro class.
Let's just say it was a little more than I expected but It was great because everyone was on the same level. I quickly joined the 5am / 5pm classes depending on my schedule and quickly fell into the CFP Family. The strange faces that all looked at Jason like he was crazy soon became like a second family. Vince, Meredith, Terry, Jenn, Marc, Jeremiah, and myself were Jason's originals, his "OG's" as he likes to call us.  In fact, they are all still part of CFP in one way or another, i unfortunately moved to Pittsburgh mid Feb but have been back to visit.  This is the place we were intro to the ladies, the heroes, the met cons, the lifts, and of course Eric Morris.

Who I am and What this is about

So I've been asked to do this for a while now, so here goes. I am "Navy Mike" and I am a CrossFitter. Not only do I crossfit but I am a member of the US Navy and a full time student. My job requires me to give alot of myself and sometimes let other things fall by the wayside. The one thing I don't let fall by the wayside though is fitness. In August 2009 I was on a vacation in Colorado with about 1000 of my closest friends.  One of them, Susan Mopper, told me I was getting fat. She was right, I was 6'2" and just about 260 pounds and I need to make a change.

With that said, this blog is about the trials, tribulations, & travels of 1 avid CrossFitter and the quest to CrossFit all over America and possibly the world.