Monday May 2nd
Workout of the day
Training:
5 sets of:
Deadlift x 3 reps
rest 30 seconds
H.S.P.U. - amrap (-1)
rest 2 minutes
Conditioning:
AMRAP in 10 minutes of:
5 Box jumps (24/20")
5 KB Swings (53/35lbs)
10 Box jumps
10 KB Swings
15 Box jumps
15 KB Swings
continue climbing by 5's
Keri - 255lbs!! PR!
So much to talk about after this past weekend. First, on Saturday we had a rather large crew representing at the "Festivus For The Rest Of Us" competition at CF Relentless. Jeanne Pirkle ("Pirkle Power"), Lauren Corcoran, Telly Dorizas, Rob Jantzen, Tom Schultz and all 3 Lanz's (Jim, Keri and James) rolled in strong and crushed the WOD's they were challenged with. Reports we received were that PR's were being hit left and right.
In the end James Lanz walked away taking 1st place in the Mens Novice division. Keri Lanz took 2nd place in the Womens Intermediate, and Lauren Corcoran was right behind her grabbing 3rd place. Jim Lanz took 5th place in the Mens Intermediate - not bad for a guy whose training has been extremely limited while he's rehabbing a quad injury. Tom Schultz was right behind Jim coming in 6th place. Rob PR'd his 2K row by :27 seconds and Jeanne learned she can deadlift a lot more than 135lbs; turns out more like 205lbs! Telly impressed with a 7:25 2K and a 415lb dead. Congratulations to all of you! You guys kicked some serious butt!
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Now on to the CrossFit Games Open. First and foremost I want to thank everyone who participated and everyone who supported our athletes over the course of the last 7 weeks. What a ride it has been, there have been so many memorable moments, so many inspiring efforts and countless amazing achievements. We are super proud of all of you. Your results are a testament to the fact that you all had to dig a little deeper, learning a little more about what you are truly capable of. Take a moment and congratulate yourselves, you all deserve it!
The results...
Well, I'm not quite certain. As of now the Leaderboard says our team is in a tie for the 30th and final qualifying spot. As I type this I would say that is still an "unofficial" result and we will need to wait for an official word from HQ before we celebrate.
I will tell you it was a nail biter right up to the last minute. Mike Brown started the excitement on Friday when he bumped his score up from 96 to 102, getting us off to a great start. The remaining five members of the team woke up Sunday morning knowing our fate was in our own hands. We all planned on doing the workout one more time, trying to capture one of the last qualifying spots. First up were Maxine and Lauren. Knowing exactly how important every rep would be, they attacked the WOD determined to help their team. Seven minutes later they did just that, with 3 additional reps in the books.
Next up, Anthony; Tara and yours truly. The three of us met at the gym in the afternoon knowing full well what we each needed to do. Tara went first knowing she would need to dig a little deeper and she did just that. Powering through the thrusters on a mission to succeed Tara finished with a score of 95; 5 better than her previous score of 90, and 5 more reps to add to our tally.
Feeling inspired by her awesome effort, I wasted no time in getting after it. Feeling absolute certainty I motored into the round of 18, making it back to the pull up bar and getting 8 pull ups for a total score of 116. That was 8 more reps than my previous attempt and 8 more reps for our team.
Closing out the Sunday effort was Anthony. I'm sure at this point there was a ton of energy in the gym fueling his encore performance. Looking strong and consistent Anthony bested his previous performance by 5 reps ending with a score of 115.
In the end the we improved our score in the final workout by 21 reps or 21 points. Just enough to bump up our overall position to 30th, qualifying us for the CrossFit Games Regional competition. Again, this is based on the accuracy of the leaderboard, which we know has been questionable at times during the Open. No matter the official outcome I know we laid it all out there on Sunday and it felt really good.
Congrats all Festivus competitors! Great job representing yourselves & CFSS. Keri.... that picture is BADASS... your BADASS!!! You are such a tiny little thang with so much strength!
One more thing: PIRKL POWER ;}
As for the team, Doug said it right. No matter what the outcome is, all of you put so much strength, effort & sweat into every rep and you all should be so proud of yourselves. Everyone did an amazing job in each and every WOD, especially this last one. Congratulations :))
Posted by: Danielle Reuter | May 01, 2011 at 11:15 PM
WOW!! Congratulations TO all the CFSS Competitors in the CrossFit Games and to the Sunday crew who ALL Knew what you had to do and DID more! Just incredible! SOOO Anxious to know the outcome.....
Posted by: Jeanne Pirkl | May 01, 2011 at 11:17 PM
Doug, Thanks for the Festivus post! It was a great experience for me and I can say for myself and my Festivus CFSS Team, we were sooo prepared for those WOD's!
Danielle: Thanks so much! Glad you are back!! See you next week :)
Posted by: Jeanne Pirkl | May 01, 2011 at 11:27 PM
Just to start by echoing what Jeanne said here about the quality of our instruction. There may have been stronger athletes at Festivus but there was no one who was better conditioned than the CFSS team and that's a testament to the kind of programming and training that goes on at Doug and Tara's box.
This weekend was an amazing finish to the last six weeks of Open competition. The thing I love the most about CrossFit is watching people dig deep and realize that they are stronger than they thought they were. Seeing it and expereiencing it is what has me hooked on CrossFit. EVERYONE of us is capable of more than we realize and CrossFit is a means to realize that potential within us all.
Posted by: Rob Jantzen | May 02, 2011 at 05:42 AM
I am so proud and thankful to be a part of CFSS. What a weekend. What an effort by every one competing for us in The Open. The dedication and leadership of our coaches is amazing. What ever the final results show, you all gave superior efforts to the very end. Our athletes that did not compete showed tremendous support as well.
On a more personal note, Saturday was the best day I've had in a very long time. It was a day of friendship, family, and hard fought competition. Once again Tara and Doug were with us the whole way via texting and phone calls, helping us plan and prepare for the days WODs. The people at Crossfit Relentless were great. Very welcoming, appreciative and impressed by our group. As Rob stated, we were well prepared and mentally tough. Some funny stuff too. We all thought about going home after the 2k row. It messed me up so bad. I began seeing stars with 800m to go. Jeanne and Lauren thought they were novice. Now that's funny! Every one's deadlifts were awsome, and their time management and approach during the 7 min. DL was perfect. Keri and the girls had weight progressions, rest times, and which plates to use, all written on their hands. The judges were impressed. To hear my daughter Ryan screaming at a complete stranger, and I mean screaming, " pick it up", was so funny. She loves this too. For me, spending this day with Keri, James, and Ryan was the best of all. We all loved it. Keri has more heart than any one I've ever met. I've never seen James work as hard or care more about anything else before and it shows in his progress. I'm proud. I want Ryan and my girls around this. It's good for them and they love being with all of you.
Wow. Quite a ramble. Keep it up every one and enjoy it. What we have here is special.
Posted by: JimLanz | May 02, 2011 at 11:05 AM
First of all, a huge congratulations to all of the team competitors who did amazing on Sunday! I have been watching our team hovering between 29 and 32 place and I was so excited to see that we were in 30th place last night! All of you did amazing and should be incredibly proud of the unbelievable efforts on Sunday regardless of what the official results say!
A huge thank you to Doug and Tara for everything you both do! Just to reiterate what Rob and Jeanne already stated, your excellent training and attention to detail on every movement allowed us all to be so successful on Saturday! From the rowing (legs, back arms, arms, back, legs…that was my mantra for the 2k ;)), to the deadlifts, to the Kettlebell swings and box jumps, CFSS outshined every athlete in the competition. None of us missed a rep and there was no cringing going on while we were deadlifting! So thank you both for constantly drilling us with correct set ups, movement, and technique and not allowing us to start bad habits! Tara may not be able to spot a guy flexing from across the gym, but she can spot poor technique from a mile away! And she is unbelievable at seeing exactly what the problem is and helping us to fix it before it becomes a bad and possibly dangerous habit!
Not only do you both do an amazing job training us physically in terms of conditioning and skills, but I think we were all better prepared mentally to attack this competition. The positive energy in our box over the last few weeks has been through the roof and I think we all have been making some efforts in trying the mental training techniques that Billy shared with us and Doug has been posting on the blog. So, Saturday it really paid off…we were all able to dig a little deeper and push a little harder to fight through the WODS. My goal for the deadlift was 230 and I know 100% that getting to 255 was just as much mental as strength and technique. I was much calmer and more focused with each attempt.
Considering, there was a time in my life when I had trouble walking up stairs and picking up a container of milk, the accomplishments I have made in training and competitions over the last couple of months continues to amaze me! As an athlete, I have accomplished things I never imagined possible. And as a person, I have learned things about myself and the way I think that will translate to all aspects of my life. I have had the opportunity to get to know so many of you more personally by training alongside you. So thank you for the new friendships and bonds made! I am truly grateful to have gotten to know so many amazing people All of these successes and bonds are rooted in the crazy amount of positive energy flowing in our gym and at crossfit competitions. This energy takes over you! And it becomes the fuel for friendships to develop and grow and for challenges to be defeated. It comes, not from hitting your own PR’s, but from watching your teammates hit theirs! This became evident to me this weekend as I watched my daughter Ryan start screaming at the top of her lungs at a total stranger to “PICK IT UP” as he was finishing his last set of kettle bell swings. Everybody at that competition wanted this guy to be successful and only a handful of people actually knew him on a personal level. CrossFit is not only responsible for forging elite fitness, but also for forging elite friendships. This has been an amazing three months for me and Saturday was the icing on the cake (paleo of course!)
Posted by: Keri Lanz | May 02, 2011 at 12:47 PM
Awesome pictures, awesome stories. I missed every bit of it this weekend and reading these blog posts today makes me want to go right back to the box right now!
Every frickin one of you people inspire me.
Awesome job by the Festivus athletes and the Sunday heroes that (hopefully) pulled CFSS into the regionals.
Posted by: Steve Marshall | May 02, 2011 at 03:38 PM
My turn...
First off, thank you to Doug and Tara for making these past six weeks what they have been-- amazing. You two really know what you are doing. Everytime I tell my mom about a lift she says, "Lauren, please be careful, you are going to hurt yourself." And I always find myself responding, "No I won't, Doug and Tara make me do it the RIGHT way." And as silly as that sounds, it's true. I almost had a heart attack on Saturday watching other competitors' technique. It's nice to know we have a strong foundation of technique to build our strength on :).
Secondly, thank you and congrats to all the competitors. You have all shown me what it means to be dedicated, determined and strong. If headquarters knew their ass from a hole in the ground, maybe we would have some definitive results right now. Unfortunately, we just have to wait. But, I'm praying we pull this thing off.
With respect to Saturday's Festivus competition, I just want to say a few words. I honestly did not want to compete at all on Saturday. And if you ask Tara, she will advise you that she almost terminated my membership because I did not tell her I was going (take my warning- don't get Tara on your bad side). I was physically and mentally drained from the last six weeks and the thought of driving 3 hours to compete in three workouts was just not on the top of my "to-do" list. Needless to say, I decided to go (thanks to two very convincing individuals who shall remain anonymous) and figured, if anything, I would cheer on my CFSS teammates. When we arrived, we found out what the workout would be and the first WOD was a 2k row. As most of you know, I rowed in college, so this was obviously an opportunity I could not pass up. I then went on to deadlift 250 pounds, which a year ago I would not have thought that was possible without the use of a forklift. What was even better than my own achievements was watching the rest of the CFSS family. Doug detailed the results above, but my overall favorite was Jeanne, who was shooting for a 135 pound dealift and banged out 205 pounds (even though she does not look entertained in the back of Keri's photo haha).
My family thinks I am crazy for doing the things I do, but it's comforting to know that when I'm with my CFSS family, we all look crazy together :).
Posted by: Lauren C. | May 02, 2011 at 04:35 PM
After reading all these Amazing Posts, How can you not be Super Pumped Up? To ALL the CFSS Athletes that competed 2011 CrossFit Games Open and The Festivus For the Rest of Us Throwdown ... YOU ALL ROCK and Continue to INSPIRE!!! Thank You Doug and Tara for giving us such a special enviroment to learn, grow and feed off each other's energy and spirit. Through their continued coaching, guidance and giving us a CF Home to train ... I hope to continue to grow as an athlete like so many others and soon "step outside my comfort zone" and join in the spirit of competition! You Are ALL Warriors and Glad to be part of CFSS!!!
Posted by: Gene | May 02, 2011 at 05:37 PM
I wanted to say congratulations to the all of the CFSS members who have competed in the CrossFit Games and the "Festivus For the Rest Of Us." As a specator, I have been quite impressed with all of your determination and drive. It was great watching all of you rally for one another. Tara and Doug, you have a great group of people and athletes at CFSS.
I have watched my husband (Rick Hacker) push himself and achieve things at CFSS I never thought possible. He has been a true inspiration to me. Thank you Tara and Doug for continuing to make my husband the best athlete he can be. Rick's determination is unbelievable...we spent this past Saturday (my birthday by the way) at CrossFit Garden City so Rick could do the last WOD of the CrossFit Open one more time and beat his original score(83). I am happy to say that he beat his score by 10 points, ending with a 93.
Congrats again to everyone! You have a lot to be proud of.
Posted by: Linda Hacker (Rick Hacker's wife) | May 02, 2011 at 07:58 PM
OMG, Rick! 93! You are a force to be reckoned with! That is so awesome. And Linda, cheers to you for spending your birthday in a box. I'm sure that's not many wives idea of a birthday party lol. Hats off to our spectators!!
P.S.- Thank you to all of our military CrossFit athletes! God Bless America!
Posted by: Lauren C. | May 02, 2011 at 08:07 PM
Happy Birthday Linda and congrats on a 10 point improvement Rick! With a wife that supportive it's no wonder Rick has fast become an incredible crossfitter.
Posted by: Rob Jantzen | May 02, 2011 at 08:43 PM