Sarah starting the day off right!

Well what do you know; the sleepy little Central Coast has gone out and gotten itself a slight CrossFit habit.  Rumor has it that people are gathering in droves on weekends to engage in something as bizarre as “competitive exercising” – Kenny Powers would be appalled.  Do they do this for gobs of prize money, endorsements, or fame you ask?  Shockingly, the only apparent rewards (for now) seem to be personal achievement, extraordinary fitness and health markers, and the joy that can only come when like minded individuals are involved in the pursuit of all things ridiculous. 
When one of these exercise people was caught on camera and asked about his choice of daily fitness activities, the reply was short and curt. “I’m sorry” he said, “I’m a CrossFitter, I don’t do interviews with my shirt on…..GADOOSH!” and then he walked off into the sunset on his hands, leaving said reporter just a little bit more intrigued and a little bit weak in the knees. 

Today’s Workout:

CPC - REPRESENTING IN VENTURA!! (missing Augie and Fielding)

I do believe that I am currently suffering from what is medically referred to as, “being sore as f%@k” (sorry Carrie) – but man does it feel good.  What an unbelievable day CrossFit Pacific Coast had on Saturday!  There were stellar performances everywhere that there was a CPC’er and I thought that the personal efforts given and the collective teamwork shown were just awesome. 
The best part of the day for me personally was to see that everyone was having fun, but as a coach, hearing how many of you said that you had learned a lot is equally as gratifying.  There is nothing like competition to teach you about your own body.  More importantly, there is nothing like competition to teach you about how your body is going to react to you being cranked up on adrenaline before and during the actual workout.  I listened to a recent NFL preseason interview where the lineman was saying that there’s no way to replicate “game speed” in a practice.  The same thing applies to CrossFit.  The more time that you spend in the game the more comfortable you’ll be with the speed of and discomfort of it.
Thank you so much to everyone one of you that competed, we’re extremely proud to have you representing both CPC and CrossFit.  Thank you to those of you that came down to support your teammates,( to those that followed with a slight delay on Facebook), to those of you that volunteered from all of the gyms and of course to Colin, Huff, and Faith for putting on one heck of a competition.  Nick Conn, Jaala and our Amber were the highest scoring competitors from the 3 local gyms and deserve a hand as well – well done!

Today’s Workout:
Central Coast Clash Workout #2
Find your 7 Rep Max Front Squat (3 Attempts in 10 Minutes)
Within 6 minutes, run 600 Meters and do as many burpees in the remaining time.  You will be scored on your burpees.
Rest 4 Minutes
RMMAP in 90 Seconds

ARE YOU READY?!!!!! The Clash is here folks!!  Tomorrow morning, 14 of your fellow CrossFit Pacific Coaster’s will be leaving the comfort of our quaint little Santa Barbara home and heading down to the mean streets of Ventura for an all out battle!  Well, to be honest, it will be a lot more relaxed and fun than that.  However, competing is never easy – for anyone.  Kudos to those CPC’ers that are stepping up and giving this a go. 

Representing CPC will be:
Amber “The Animal” Anderson
A-Train Dazet (will be a CPCer as of Aug 22^nd)
Kate Goldstein
James McCoy
Zach Devine
Fielding Dalton Bulter (….Roadhouse)
Chris Otsen
Sarah Morrison
Eric Bowers
Jim “The Claw” Cordes
Christina Hogans – Luciasomethingorother
Fanie Jensen
Brett Vernon
KJ Morris
Augie Johnson

Good luck to everyone competing, we hope that we’ll have a great big CPC cheering section as well!

These are the workouts that we’re doing:

WOD #1
 ”The Laundromat”

For time:
35 Box Jumps (Males – 24″, Females – 20″)
Pull-ups (Males – 25 CTB Pull-ups, Females – 25 Pull-ups)
20 Ground-to-Overheads (Males – 95lbs, Females – 65lbs)
15 Forward Rolls
20 Ground-to-Overheads (Males – 95lbs, Females – 65lbs)
Pull-ups (Males – 25 CTB Pull-ups, Females – 25 Pull-ups)
35 Box Jumps (Males – 24″, Females – 20″)

WOD #2
“The Triple Crown”

PART A:
Athlete has 8 minutes to establish a 7-Rep Max Front Squat

* If the athlete gets the weight locked out overhead after their 7th Rep (no thrusters), 20lbs/15lbs will be added to that score for men/women respectively.

**If the bar drops to the ground at any point, the athlete must find a way by him or herself (either by stripping off the weight or by cleaning the bar) to get it back onto the racks if they wish to go for another attempt.

Rest 2 Minutes (walk to start of Part B)

PART B:
In 5 Minutes:
Run 600m, then
AMRAP Burpees

*Athlete will be scored by how many burpees they complete within the time frame.

**Burpees will be done with a lateral jump over a parallette.

Rest 4 minutes (get set up for Part C)

PART C:
In 90 Seconds:
(RAMMAP) Row As Many Meters As Possible

* Athletes may use whatever damper setting/footpad setting as desired.

Today’s Workout:
1 Time for Time:
1000 M Row
1 Minute Plank Hold
50 Wall Balls
1 Minute Plank Hold
800 M Run
1 Minute Plank Hold
50 Box Jumps

“One of the best things that terrorists could do is to build more fast food restaraunts…” 

Wow, what a line huh?  I wonder how much McDonalds gets eaten at the offices of Homeland Security?!  Chris Otsen sent me this trailer a while back and I finally got around to viewing it and am deadset on seeing the movie now.  Anyone seen this particular film? 
We talk a lot about nutrition here at CPC and the dangers (real life dangers) of eating poor quality foods day in and day out.  I believe that a revolution has started in this country, albeit a small one.  10 years ago, health food stores were small, funny little places where people with severe food allergies shopped and rubbed elbows with people that were probably described as paranoid and delusional.  Now we have both Lazy Acres and Whole Foods in the same town; now we have Almond Milk and organic vegetables being sold at Ralphs.  Granted, both of the above stores are probably not thriving in small town Kentucky or Nebraska, but progress is being made.  Yes, we still have a long way to go, but every single person that choses organic over genetically modified, that choses whole foods over fast foods is putting a drop into the bucket.  Someday all of those drops will add up as more and more Americans realize that what you eat today affects how you feel tomorrow and what you eat for the next 5 years will define the health you have for the rest of your life.  Keep keepin on CPC’ers, you’re paving the path of health and wellness for this country!

Today’s Workout:
Find your IRM for Clean and Jerk

Followed by Tabata L-Sits

Brogre outside of a European Health and Wellness establishment.

Check out this PDF that Zach sent us on the 20_Worst_Drinks_in_America_2010.  Who would believe that a Sobe Green Tea Drink would be equivalent to 4 pieces of pie?  That a Rock Star Energy Drink (the Fuel of CrossFit Ventura) would be equivalent to 6 Krispy Creme Donuts? 

The battle for health and wellness is a tough one with a lot of the chips stacked up against us as consumers.  Perhaps Vons will be so kind as to distribute this PDF in its beverage isle so that people actually get a grasp on what it is that their consuming every day (sometimes more than once a day).  Which one was the most surprising to you?  Please post to comments.

Today’s Workout:
1 Time for Time:
Walking Lunge 100ft
21 Pull Ups
21 Sit Ups
Walking Lunge 100ft
18 Pull Ups
18 Sit Ups
Walking Lunge 100ft
15 Pull Ups
15 Sit Ups
Walking Lunge 100ft
12 Pull Ups
12 Sit Ups
Walking Lunge 100ft
9 Pull Ups
9 Sit Ups
Walking Lunge 100ft
6 Pull Ups
6 Sit Ups
Walking Lunge 100ft
3 Pull Ups
3 Sit Ups

That is all.

Today’s Workout:
5K Run for Time.

Saturday August 28th is going to be awesome!  Not only are we holding our H2O seminar, teaching swimming skills to a ton of triathaletes and CrossFitters, but our good friends at Paradiso CrossFit in Los Angeles are coming up for a “box jump”.  David, Martina and Zeb (all hail Grandmaster Zeb!!) will be gathering their crew and heading up our way to do a workout with us.  What is the benefit of going to other boxes you ask?  Well, it’s always great to get to meet other CrossFitters, the people that share the same obsession as all of us.  Secondly, it’s a great way to share ideas, get tips on movements, see new coaching styles and have a lot of fun.  We’re excited to have the Parodisoites up our way and hope that you all show up for the workout!

Today’s Workout:
AMRAP 20 Minutes (3 minutes of work/1 minute of rest)
3 Deadlifts (225#/135#)
6 Knees to Elbows
9 Push Ups

Fireman Phil at last year's CFV competition!

Anyone still on the fence about whether or not they should compete on the 14th down in Ventura?  Let be the first to tell you that if you chose not to go, then you will be missing out on a lot!  Not only will we get to meet other cool CrossFitters from up and down the coast; but competing in this sport, especially in a venue like CFV where the workouts are scalable, the environment borders on ridiculously friendly and it’s right in our backyard is awesome. 
There are CrossFitters all over the country begging to find smaller competitions like this and we have it right here! Take advantage of this folks, all of you have enough experience to compete in this event and no matter who you are you will learn something about yourself, about CrossFit and about the greater CrossFit community that you are a part of.  This weekend is the last opportunity to join the fun.  Who’s in?!

Today’s Workout:
Press 3-3-3
Followed by AMRAP 8
15 Double Unders
10 KB Swings
5 Burpees

CLASSES TODAY WILL BE HELD AT 6AM, 7AM AND 10AM FOR FIESTA.

Eric just got back from a weekend spent with some of the world’s leaders in endurance conditioning.  Here’re his thoughts on the weekend:

After checking the “Specialty Certification” page on the main site for months, I finally found a CrossFit Endurance Cert that was located nearby (although Melbourne would have been fantastic).  I’ve had my eye on this cert for a long time and didn’t hesitate to sign up immediately.  From a personal note, I’ve despised running up until I learned and applied the physics of POSE running.  Since that time, I’ve found it bearable and on many occasion (can’t believe I’m saying this) enjoyable.  Out of all the certs I’ve attained, CFE has taught me the most about overall fitness and training athletes.  I enjoyed extensive lectures and conversations on nutrition, body maintenance/injuries, sports psychology, equipment, programming, and most of all, MECHANICS.  

In traditional endurance training, athletes are told to prioritize their training by 1) volume, 2) intensity, and 3) skills.  Brian MacKenzie and his team at CrossFit Endurance have literally been shocking the endurance world by flipping this model upside down and applying CrossFit as the primary concentration of training.  They preach 1) skills, 2) intensity and 3) volume.  Wait, so am I saying that in training for a marathon, athletes should run LESS?  WHAT?!?!?!  The breakdown of their model is something I’m eager apply to my own training as well as share with all of you…especially those who have endurance events on the Elite Goals Board. 

So what does this mean for our little beachside gym overall?   Well, I think it’s obvious that we have to do mandatory weekly time trials of the 5k and 10k.  Just kidding!  In 2 very full days, the CFE team took my running form and fine tuned it to make me a 57% more efficient runner (an algorithm I can only pretend to understand).  That’s simply amazing!  Who wouldn’t want to be more efficient in their last mile of Murph or 3^rd round of Helen?  Traver and I preach strict form on the lifts and now you’ll be seeing the same attention given to running.  If you have any questions, please pull me aside and/or checkout www.crossfitendurance.com. 

Today’s Workout:
Back Squat 20 Rep Max (1 second rest max at the top of squat)

Followed by: Pull Up Ladder
1 Pull Up in minute 1 – rest for the remainder of the minute.
2 Pull Ups in minute 2 – rest for the remainder of the minute.
Etc…

Migs - skinnin the cat.

This past Sunday a few of us CPC’ers decided (I was forced) to step outside of our CrossFit comfort zones and try something a little bit different – yoga.  Though not my first experience with this foreign exercise concept, it’s always interesting to try something relatively new periodically as both a test of CrossFit’s efficacy as a way to get a fresh perspective on movement. 
My thoughts on yoga?  As painful as it is to admit, I found the class to be very valuable (minus all of the hippie BS about accepting the present moment) with regards to development of balance and flexibility.  Having to use a skillset that is based upon very explosive, outward and yang type movements developed from CrossFit and applying that same skillset to movement patterns that are very slow, internal and yin in their application was actually quite interesting as well as challenging.  The class was excellent at pointing out deficiencies with regards to symmetrical strength differences and postural favoritism.  Anyone else have positive experiences with yoga that they’d like to share?  Is yoga something that you’d like to see offered here at CPC?  Do tell.

Today’s Workout:
With a Partner:
1200 M Run (Alternate 400’s 1, 2, 1)
120 Wall Balls
800 M Run (Alt. 2, 1)
80 Wall Balls
400 M Run
40 Wall Balls