Workout of the Day
The CrossFit Games California Regional is Upon Us!
Cassie and Sarah are all checked-in and ready to rock at the 2017 CrossFit Games California Regional! The three day competition gets underway with Events 1 and 2 on Friday, and we've included both athletes' scheduled heat times below. Heat times for days two and three will re-shuffle based on standing so we'll keep you updated as the competition days progress.
You can stream all of the action LIVE on the CrossFit Games website (click here) - and all events will be archived for you to go back and watch as well (click on the "California" tab at the top for the streaming feed).
Day One (Friday, May 26th) Scheduled Heat Times:
Event 1 - Sarah at 1:30pm; Cassie at 2:00pm
Event 2 - Sarah at 3:50pm; Cassie at 4:10pm
HERE WE GO!!!!! GO CASSIE! GO SARAH!
WOD for 05-26-17:
"Partner Boat Race"
3 Rounds for Total Time*:
PARTNER A
500m Row
400m Run
then
PARTNER B
500m Row
400m Run
*One partner working at a time (one works while the other rests). One athlete must complete their entire round (500m Row + 400m Run) BEFORE the other athlete can begin his/her round. BOTH partners complete 3 total rounds of 500m Row + 400m Run each.
(Compare to 03-25-16)
-then-
Weighted Plank Hold:
3 x 0:45 (Rest 1:00 Between Efforts)
If possible, add to 05-17-17
The House That Hopping Built: 2017 Edition
As stated in yesterday's "Cassie" post you'll have to forgive my verbose nature as I sing the praises of our two amazing athletes competing this weekend at the 2017 CrossFit Games California "Super" Regional. What they have accomplished is nothing short of incredible, not only due to the demands of the sport of CrossFit and all that goes along with it at the highest levels, but also for what they continue to accomplish in life alongside their athletic endeavors. They are, quite simply, some of the most impressive humans I know - next up, Sarah...
#ThePowerOfSHE at the 2016 CrossFit Games California Regional
For the last two years (now three) I've written an updated version of a blog post titled "The House That Hopping Built" which chronicled Sarah's CrossFit Games Open/Regional competition history, and the various paths she has carved leading up to the CrossFit Games California Regional. This year - as in previous years - so much has changed, and yet so much still remains the same. Rather than attempt to recount the history for those who might be interested (we do have a small and enthusiastic contingent of new/new-ish Arena Ready members who were not a part of the gym at this time last year), I thought it best to update & annotate the post to include some new thoughts and still provide the chronological events that led up to this day.
My apologies in advance for the length of this post. To paraphrase Blaise Pascal, if I had more time I would have written less...
2017
Here we are again, for a sixth time, on the eve of the CrossFit Games California "Super" Regional - and Sarah is ready to fight with every last ounce in her being to test herself against some of the best in the world. I could tell you the many reasons why this year's Regionals is not what we thought it would be - the non-barbell workouts, a lower-than-desired Open finish despite feeling that her Open performances & off-season training was at the highest level it's ever been, Sarah's current status of having MULTIPLE jobs at the moment (why is that always a thing every year at this time?!), the pleasant surprise of having two athletes competing this weekend (the first time since 2013 when Arena Ready sent both Liz and Sarah to Regionals), and many other realities that could be seen as things that were not expected. But we've been doing this long enough to realize that in the end, when she walks onto that competition floor, all that matters are the things she can control and the work that's already been done over the last 12 months. I can say with certainty that:
1) Sarah is fitter than she's ever been
2) Sarah is tougher and wiser than she's ever been
3) No one I know is a better game day athlete than Sarah (and we at Arena Ready know some pretty damn good game day athletes)
Lindy Barber, a multiple-time CrossFit Games competitor, once articulated it all so well in a way that I'll never forget:
Earning a spot to the @crossfitgames is about so much more than being good at fitness. It's about overcoming adversity, beating the odds, fighting for something bigger than yourself. It's an extremely emotionally charged weekend, that is fueled by the "whys" of each athlete. We are all putting all of our energy into one focus: for our larger purpose. @crossfit is about so much more than just fitness. It makes us better people. We are all inspired by our own individual "why"
-Lindy Barber
Our own individual why. I love that.
2016
Sarah's road to the 2016 Regionals once again traveled through The Open, but also through some very different and difficult life challenges that neither of us could have ever seen coming. As some of you may have known at the time, Sarah was back-and-forth to Colorado over most of the winter and spring seasons with her dad in-and-out of the hospital - and, as you can imagine, it made for some extremely difficult times for her and for her family. Somehow, even after securing the very last invite to Regionals following a grueling Open performance (which, at the time, was thought of as not enough to gain a Regionals spot), Sarah went on to have her third Top-10 overall Regional finish, completing the final day in 9th position, among some of the fittest women in the country.
The scoreboard at the close of competition in last year's California Regional
2015
In 2015, following an entire year away from competitive CrossFit, Sarah somehow found a way to claw through the 2015 Open and secure a spot to Regionals despite a tighter qualifying window than ever before, a painfully dislocated rib that continued to hamper her training, and the newly added five-day-per-week second job she had taken on (complete with a daily 2.5 hour round trip commute to boot). How she juggled that combined with helping me run the gym and coach classes - and then somehow fit any semblance of high intensity training of her own into her schedule - I truly have no idea. I marveled at her intense drive, her passion for life and those she deeply cares about (including her Arena Ready family), her commitment to excellence in everything she does, and her refusal to accept any of her responsibilities or obligations as excuses for not being the best she can be in any given moment.
The highlight of the 2015 Regional, apart from the 40+ Arena Ready crazies who made their way down to the competition to assemble what was likely the loudest little cheering section in the building, was her world-record setting win in Event 5 (check out a quick glimpse of that moment at 0:50 in the video below):
2014
Sarah spent all of 2014 away from the sport of CrossFit, and dedicated herself to Olympic weightlifting in an attempt to make the Pam Am and World Team for the United States. And although the grueling year presented her with a ton of adversity (including a broken femur prior to Nationals), she ended up just one snatch shy of the former goal. By the close of 2014 she had been fortunate enough to train at the Olympic Training Center multiple times under the guidance of one of the greatest coaches alive, set new personal records in her lifts and her competition total, and finished second in the American Championships in December, bringing home three silver medals.
Sarah at the 2014 USAW American Championships, with background cameos by both yours truly and Coach Hillary (Photo courtesy of hookgrip)
As she moved on from her year of dedicated weightlifting and back into CrossFit, she had gained a new perspective on the sport and community she loves so much, and missed so dearly. For the first time in a VERY long time she was looking forward to actually having fun competing - trying her best and laying it all on the line without the intense pressure or anxiety of years past. She had missed being out on the competition floor with all of the friends she's made along the way during her competitive CrossFit journey - and I'd be lying if I said she wasn't also amped-up to leave it all out there on behalf of her dear friends, training partners, and fellow competitors, Coach Liz and Coach Amy (since, for the first time in a several years, they were not out there competing with her this time).
The official 2013 Regionals "Smile Like Sarah. Eat Like Liz" tank top
2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
At the 2010 Southwest Regional Sarah finished 23rd (including two top-8 event finishes), just three months after she started doing CrossFit (Julian and I actually had to coax her into even entering the Sectional pre-qualifier because she felt like she didn't know what she was doing yet!). In 2011 Sarah had to skip the CrossFit Games season entirely after breaking and then surgically repairing her elbow following a freak accident at the track. That was not a fun year, as the healing and rehab process took much longer than we both expected - but it did light a fire under her to come back even stronger and fitter for 2012 and beyond.
In 2012 she made a big splash at the NorCal Regional, winning two events outright and finishing second in another. She entered the final event of the weekend in 4th place (one spot away from making the Games World Final), and eventually placed 6th overall after realizing mid-workout that she was mathematically eliminated from the podium... and was happier turning around during the workout to slow down and face her crowd of supporters so she could smile and say thank you after each muscle-up. What a nerd! But what can I say, that's her style - and those of you who know her well can grasp how happy it made her to do that, particularly during that exact moment.
Here's Sarah in 2012, setting what would be the "CrossFit Games world record" in Event 5 (the double under/snatch ladder):
In 2013, Arena Ready had been open for about 7 months prior to the NorCal Regional and I think Sarah had slept exactly zero full nights during those trying times of our gym's early existence. But somehow she entered the competition stronger and fitter than she had ever been, and went on to once again win two events outright, including the final event (Event 7, the rope climb/squat clean) in dramatic fashion. When the official scores were entered, and the points tallied, Sarah finished 4th overall, just one point (and as it turns out, just one rep and literally one second) from the podium and a ticket to the Games World Final.
Sarah points and thanks her AR family in the crowd after the final event in 2013
The Arena Ready cheering section at the 2013 Regional (I think they started the wave like 11 times during the final day of competition)
Back to 2017
And now here we are again, on the eve of game day 2017, and Sarah is so grateful for another opportunity to compete and represent Arena Ready and all of our amazing people. Sometimes she doesn't get the chance to say it as often as she'd like to, either because she's exhausted from the million things she does every day, or because she's engrossed in conversation with our members/friends/coaches whom she adores and is so happy to see at the gym, or because I've ordered her to start warming up already so that she can finally train in the hopes of us eventually making it home to eat dinner before her state of sleepy overtakes her state of hunger (we actually argue over why I think she still needs to eat before she goes to bed, and that it doesn't matter that she feels too sleepy to do so). But what I do know is that she feels it every day - a huge sense of pride that we have such an incredible group of people we get to call our AR family, and an overwhelming feeling of love for the individuals that come together every day to create the "home" she helped build on Connecticut Street.
In many ways Arena Ready is The House That Hopping Built. She would never say that herself, and in fact she'd probably adamantly disagree with me on that point. But I know better - I have far more time on my hands than she does to reflect, and certainly more energy (thanks to having two less jobs) to reach rational conclusions. Her determination over the last five years to make our little place in the world a great one is so strong that I think we may have actually done just that. And all the while she's somehow had enough physical energy, mental fortitude, and unrelenting drive to excel individually in the name of Arena Ready collectively.
I couldn't be prouder of my wife, and I'm excited to be along for the ride. And perhaps even more excited that all of you get to come along too - either in person cheering from the stands, or at home screaming at your screen.
Go get 'em, Sarah. I love you.
#ThePowerOfSHE
(Photo, along with the two above it, courtesy of... who else... the amazing Jenny AKA oh happy dawn photography)
Remember that if you're not here with us in Del Mar to cheer in person, you can stream all the action live (events will also be archived) on the CrossFit Games website - click here for all the details on how to stream the events and watch the archived events.
Cassie & Sarah's Day 1 (Friday) event heat times have not yet been officially posted, but will be updated in the next day on the CrossFit Games website here (click on Schedule in the lefthand margin). We will also post the heat times in tomorrow's blog assuming they are released to us in time.
WOD for 05-25-17:
Pause Front Squat:
3-3-3-3-3
The pause is a full 3 seconds at the bottom, with no "bounce" following the pause. This is all about posture, balance, and upright position - so prioritize those three things over loading (no, you don't have to add to last week's load). Use a rack for these sets.
-then-
3 Rounds For Time:
400m Run
10 Front Squats @ Bodyweight (no rack)
The barbell is cleaned from the floor.
Compare to 08-22-16 and 10-29-14)
Active Ingredient: Ginger
You'll have to forgive my long posts these next two days as I sing the praises of our two amazing athletes competing this weekend at the 2017 CrossFit Games California "Super" Regional. What they have accomplished is nothing short of incredible, not only due to the demands of the sport of CrossFit and all that goes along with it at the highest levels, but also for what they continue to accomplish in life alongside their athletic endeavors. They are, quite simply, some of the most impressive humans I know - first up, Dr. Cassie...
We've been really fortunate at Arena Ready over the last five years in terms of having athletes in and around our community that just have that special something. Athletes who are talented, who work harder than just about anyone else, who are accomplished and gracious people outside of the gym, and who care deeply about what they do and about the people they surround themselves with every day. They show us what's possible and inspire us to continue pushing our own abilities to a place that might not be possible without their constant example. They have given us dozens of opportunities to cheer for them and shout their names, feeling pride and joy that we get to call them our teammates at Arena Ready... that we get to train with them... and that we get to know them as people and as friends. Names like Liz Terry, Amy Woods, Hillary Hegener, Kim Tom, and Sarah Hopping come to mind when thinking about the impressive nature of training and competing at the highest level of sport, while also operating at the highest level of being a successful and inspirational human being.
Enter Cassie Ann Ludwig - perhaps the most impressive athlete and greatest example of the above-mentioned qualities we've seen yet. Cassie came to us last year, and after having dropped-in to our gym during a Thanksgiving Day holiday WOD the previous year, contacted us during her move to San Francisco inquiring about training at Arena Ready during her first year of residency as a physician (following her time at Stanford Medical School). She wanted to continue to train as a competitive fitness athlete despite what was likely to be the most time-demanding and sleep-deprived upcoming year anyone could imagine. Both sides agreed to give it a try and make it happen as best we could, and I think both sides will (now) readily admit that we had our doubts at the time - Cassie feeling like she wouldn't have the adequate time and/or programming support (read: enough training volume) to improve to the level needed to be competitive, and we (Rob & Sarah) thinking that certainly this crazy lady will eventually run out of steam like a normal human being and realize that she needs to put competitive CrossFit on the back-burner for now while she tries to at least sleep enough to not be a zombie doctor (or more of a zombie doctor than is normal, I guess you could say).
Well, much to the pleasant surprise for both sides, we were both wrong. Cassie "bought in" to our system 100% and trusted us with her programming and training direction, and proved herself to be one of the most coachable athletes we've ever met. It was a great opportunity for both Cassie and Sarah to train together and push each other in ways that only a highly competitive training environment could provide, and it's fair to say that at first Cassie was shocked at "how little" Sarah actually did in terms of total volume of training. Cassie was somewhat accustomed to a bit more of a "more and more is better" approach, and I think her perception of Sarah's reputation as a perennial CrossFit and weightlifting competitor came with assumptions of volumes upon volumes of training sessions (which has become the standard for the majority of current era competitors). To her early dismay there were many days (the majority of them, in fact, during the off-season of summer & fall) that Cassie was simply instructed to "take class and go hard" - which at times was an easy-to-deliver message since that's about all she had time for LOL. When the Fittest Games Qualifier and CrossFit Games Liftoff came around last year we ramped her up slightly on an Arena Ready-style weightlifting and accessory program to enhance her class training - and much like Cassie does with just about everything else in her life she put her head down, went full speed ahead, and absolutely DEMOLISHED every session we wrote for her... all while smiling and chuckling after every workout (well, after picking herself up off the floor and getting her bearings). The result? She posted qualifying scores that put her in the Top-10 in the country for the "pro division" of the Fittest Games, and she WON the 2017 CrossFit Games Liftoff outright in her weight class, including a PR snatch of 182 lbs at a bodyweight of 129 lbs (probably on 2 hours of sleep the night before). It was at that moment we knew she could truly have a shot at making it to 2017 Regionals (a goal she probably laughed off as "that would be great but yeah right" originally) if she could just continue staying healthy and squeezing-in CrossFit classes and training sessions a few times a week.
Welp, to say that she did just that would be the understatement of the year. Anyone who has been in class with Cassie or in the gym while she's working out as been witness to the unbelievable ability she has to put her foot on the gas pedal and push the limit until there's nothing left to push. And then she'll do it again. And again. And if we told her to change something slightly or alter her pacing/technique/strategy she would implement it instantly. And then GO SO HARD AGAIN. Over and over, every single day she was in the gym for every single session. There was only ever one speed that we saw from her - GO SO HARD. I had never seen anything quite like it - and this is coming from someone who's been around Liz, Amy, and Kim for years... the original champs of GO SO HARD. She made everyone around her better by setting the tone week-in and week-out, showing them (including Sarah) what was possible, and making it seem almost normal that her level of effort was to be expected every time she laced up her shoes and got after it. It's one thing to say you want to be good at something - it's a completely different animal to actually do the work every day it's necessary (literally every single day without one wasted session), despite all the other things going on in your life, and all the other challenges that someone with such high "outside of the gym" goals surely has. This is what Cassie does - she just goes. She doesn't stop. She doesn't know the words "that's not possible" or "take it easy" or "well there's always tomorrow to try hard" - she is the embodiment of the principle that in order to achieve results "you don't need harder workouts, you simply need to go harder."
Last weekend Sarah and I were so honored to attend Cassie and Lindsey's beautiful wedding, surrounded by the people who know and love them the most. It was one of those experiences where the event and the people in attendance provided such clarity on how the two individuals at the center of it all wound up being such amazing people in so many different ways. The level of love and support, and wisdom, and shared respect was palpable and it just made me think, "Well now it all makes sense. Of course these two people are f**king awesome and no wonder Cassie basically dominates everything in life." I was honored to witness Cassie's most true, happy self in person, alongside the one she loves most and with her family and friends in tow. It helped us to understand exactly how her complete badassness has become standard operating procedure for her and her life, and it was so much fun to watch and be a small part of that event in some fashion.
In two days we'll be honored in a different way when Cassie takes the competition floor among some of the fittest athletes in the world at the California Regional. With her wifey (woohoo!) by her side and her Arena Ready family in tow, she's going to show the CrossFit world what many of us already know... Cassie only knows one speed - GO SO HARD. And more importantly, Cassie only knows one way to be (okay, maybe three) - awesome, inspiring, badass.
Can't wait to wear my Dr. Cassie Ludwig shirt in Del Mar and REPRESENT THAT ACTIVE INGREDIENT: GINGER.
GO CASSIE GO!!!
Dr. Cassie Ludwig...
Active Ingredient: Ginger (yes, that's actually what the bottom line says LOL)
WOD for 05-24-17:
Power Snatch:
12 Minutes to Establish a Heavy Triple (NOT 3RM)
-then-
AMRAP 6 Minutes:
6 Power Snatches @ 155/105 lbs
9 Box Jumps @ 30/24 in
-REST 3 Minutes-
AMRAP 6 Minutes:
12 Kettlebell Swings @ 70/53 lbs
9 Box Jumps @ 30/24 in
CF Games Regionals/Memorial Day Weekend Schedule
We're three days out from the 2017 CrossFit Games Regionals, and I'll have more thoughts on our two amazing competitors in the coming days. Meantime we wanted to post our Regionals/Memorial Day Weekend class schedule so that those who are not making the trip south to attend Regionals in person can plan their workouts accordingly. Since most of our coaching staff - and about 3-4 dozen members - are scheduled to make the trip we'll have a slightly altered class schedule on Thursday and Friday, and will be closed on Sunday and Monday (Memorial Day). Please feel free to reach out with any questions.
Thursday, May 25th:
CrossFit Classes at 6am, 7am, 4pm, 5pm, and 6pm
(12pm and 7pm Classes Cancelled)
Friday, May 26th:
CrossFit Classes at 12pm, 4pm, 5pm, and 6pm
(6am and 7am Classes Cancelled)
Sunday and Monday (Memorial Day), May 28th - 29th:
Gym Closed
Several have already asked, and yes we will do our traditional "day after" Murph hero WOD on Tuesday, May 30th (since Regionals has been on Memorial Day weekend pretty much every year since we opened the gym, and we've had competitors at Regionals every year). Those of you who are very observant may have recognized that we've weaved a volume-progressive pull-up/push-up/"Cindy" prep cycle into the programming over the last 5 weeks which should help attack the beast that is Murph. And in that vein, here we go for Tuesday (yes, there will be scaling options for the Cindy rounds in case your hands are mad at you or if the volume is not appropriate for your current training level)...
WOD for 05-23-17:
Power Clean + 3 Push Presses:
10 Minutes to Establish a Top Set
-then-
Against a 15-Minute Clock for MAX REPS:
50/40 Calorie Row
10 Rounds of "Cindy"
MAX REPS Curtis P Complexes @ 95/65 lbs
1 Round of "Cindy"is:
5 Pull-ups + 10 Push-ups + 15 Air Squats
1 Curtis P Complex is:
Power Clean + Front Rack Lunge Right + Front Rack Lunge Left + Push Press
SPS Championship + Hoodies and Regionals Shirts
SPS Championship: Kate & Mike
Congratulations to Kate "The Flying Squirrel" and Mike "Rick Broning" Stein for their fantastic performances on the competition platform at the SPS Championship in Oakland on Saturday. Kate went 66/73kg (with a "training" clean & jerk make at 77kg) for a 139kg total in the 53kg BW class - good enough for a podium finish and another fantastically entertaining medalists picture:
Mike set two PRs by going 102/131kg (a 1kg clean & jerk PR) for a 233kg total (a 4kg PR on his competition total). His lifts are right on the brink of another breakthrough for even bigger numbers fairly soon, so it will be exciting to see things develop for him over the course of this year.
Nice work. lifters! A big thank you also to Jeff G for helping coach, load, and handle our lifters at the meet while our three main AR Weightlifting coaches were away for a wedding - thank you, Jeff, and great work to you too!
Hoodies & Regionals Shirts
The first wave of Summer AR shirts are hot off the production press and are ready for pick-up and payment. This first wave includes the hoodie sweatshirts, baseball tees, and Regionals shirts (Cassie & Sarah shirts). If you pre-ordered, and managed to complete & submit the survey for sizing, then your items have been set aside for you and labeled for pick-up. Thanks to the Sunday Open Gym and Barbell Club crews who stayed late and helped us sort everything, the reserved items are organized (in alphabetical order nonetheless) on top of the boxes in AR North for your convenience - payments should be made on the Square iPad register, and a coach can help you if you have any questions:
Remaining sizes and extras (i.e. non-reserved items) that are up for sale are hanging on the rack (hoodies) or folded in the cubbies (baseball tees and Regionals shirts). Feel free to purchase one if you see something you like (they'll go fast!). Please also help keep everything neat and tidy as you look through the loot to see if you'd like to purchase anything.
The other pending styles ("Swolemate" shirts, "Definition" shirts, etc) are still in production and should be ready and delivered to us in the coming weeks, so we'll let you know when the remaining styles have arrived!
WOD for 05-22-17:
Alternating EMOM For 4 Rounds (12 Minutes):
1) 40 Unbroken Double Unders
2) 5 Deadlifts, climbing
3) 100m Run, increasing in pace
Climb in loading to your working weight for the AMRAP below (or just above it). This is NOT intended to be a 5RM or even a "heavy" set of 5.
Increase your pace on the run in each round, finishing with your fastest stride in round 4.
-then-
AMRAP 10 Minutes:
400m Run
10 Deadlifts @ 275/195 lbs
15 Toes-to-Bar
Sweaty Saturday: Partner WOD Part Two
The fun from Friday continues with another classic Sweaty Saturday special.
Happy weekend, all!
WOD for 05-20-17:
With a Partner For Time:
400m Run
"Fran" @ 75/55 lbs
400m Run
"Fran" @ 75/55 lbs
400m Run
"Fran" is...
21-15-9 Reps of:
Thrusters (traditionally @ 95/65 lbs)
Pull-ups
Both partners complete the entire workout's reps, and both run the 400m distances TOGETHER. The "Fran" sections are completed with only one athlete working at a time.
The first athlete in the door from the run may start the thrusters immediately and does NOT have to wait for the second athlete to finish the run. Athletes alternate full movement rounds (e.g. Partner A does 21 thrusters, then Partner B does 21 thrusters, Partner A does 21 pull-ups, then Partner B does 21 pull-ups, etc).
The Most Important Question Of Your Life
As a follow-up to Sarah's blog post from two days ago (Stress And Living On The Roof) Margaret sent us a great post by Mark Manson titled The Most Important Question Of Your Life. It's an excerpt from his best-selling book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k: A Counterintuitive Guide To Living a Good Life and I thought it was fantastic, so wanted to share it here on our blog. The original article can be found by clicking here and I've pasted it below in its entirety as well:
Everybody wants what feels good. Everyone wants to live a carefree, happy and easy life, to fall in love and have amazing sex and relationships, to look perfect and make money and be popular and well-respected and admired and a total baller to the point that people part like the Red Sea when you walk into the room.
Everyone would like that — it’s easy to like that.
If I ask you, “What do you want out of life?” and you say something like, “I want to be happy and have a great family and a job I like,” it’s so ubiquitous that it doesn’t even mean anything.
A more interesting question, a question that perhaps you’ve never considered before, is what pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for? Because that seems to be a greater determinant of how our lives turn out.
Everybody wants to have an amazing job and financial independence — but not everyone wants to suffer through 60-hour work weeks, long commutes, obnoxious paperwork, to navigate arbitrary corporate hierarchies and the blasé confines of an infinite cubicle hell. People want to be rich without the risk, without the sacrifice, without the delayed gratification necessary to accumulate wealth.
Everybody wants to have great sex and an awesome relationship — but not everyone is willing to go through the tough conversations, the awkward silences, the hurt feelings and the emotional psychodrama to get there. And so they settle. They settle and wonder “What if?” for years and years and until the question morphs from “What if?” into “Was that it?” And when the lawyers go home and the alimony check is in the mail they say, “What was that for?” if not for their lowered standards and expectations 20 years prior, then what for?
Because happiness requires struggle. The positive is the side effect of handling the negative. You can only avoid negative experiences for so long before they come roaring back to life.
At the core of all human behavior, our needs are more or less similar. Positive experience is easy to handle. It’s negative experience that we all, by definition, struggle with. Therefore, what we get out of life is not determined by the good feelings we desire but by what bad feelings we’re willing and able to sustain to get us to those good feelings.
People want an amazing physique. But you don’t end up with one unless you legitimately appreciate the pain and physical stress that comes with living inside a gym for hour upon hour, unless you love calculating and calibrating the food you eat, planning your life out in tiny plate-sized portions.
People want to start their own business or become financially independent. But you don’t end up a successful entrepreneur unless you find a way to appreciate the risk, the uncertainty, the repeated failures, and working insane hours on something you have no idea whether will be successful or not.
People want a partner, a spouse. But you don’t end up attracting someone amazingwithout appreciating the emotional turbulence that comes with weathering rejections, building the sexual tension that never gets released, and staring blankly at a phone that never rings. It’s part of the game of love. You can’t win if you don’t play.
What determines your success isn’t “What do you want to enjoy?” The question is, “What pain do you want to sustain?” The quality of your life is not determined by the quality of your positive experiences but the quality of your negative experiences. And to get good at dealing with negative experiences is to get good at dealing with life.
There’s a lot of crappy advice out there that says, “You’ve just got to want it enough!”
Everybody wants something. And everybody wants something enough. They just aren’t aware of what it is they want, or rather, what they want “enough.”
Because if you want the benefits of something in life, you have to also want the costs. If you want the beach body, you have to want the sweat, the soreness, the early mornings, and the hunger pangs. If you want the yacht, you have to also want the late nights, the risky business moves, and the possibility of pissing off a person or ten thousand.
If you find yourself wanting something month after month, year after year, yet nothing happens and you never come any closer to it, then maybe what you actually want is a fantasy, an idealization, an image and a false promise. Maybe what you want isn’t what you want, you just enjoy wanting. Maybe you don’t actually want it at all.
Sometimes I ask people, “How do you choose to suffer?” These people tilt their heads and look at me like I have twelve noses. But I ask because that tells me far more about you than your desires and fantasies. Because you have to choose something. You can’t have a pain-free life. It can’t all be roses and unicorns. And ultimately that’s the hard question that matters. Pleasure is an easy question. And pretty much all of us have similar answers. The more interesting question is the pain. What is the pain that you want to sustain?
That answer will actually get you somewhere. It’s the question that can change your life. It’s what makes me me and you you. It’s what defines us and separates us and ultimately brings us together.
For most of my adolescence and young adulthood, I fantasized about being a musician — a rock star, in particular. Any badass guitar song I heard, I would always close my eyes and envision myself up on stage playing it to the screams of the crowd, people absolutely losing their minds to my sweet finger-noodling. This fantasy could keep me occupied for hours on end. The fantasizing continued up through college, even after I dropped out of music school and stopped playing seriously. But even then it was never a question of if I’d ever be up playing in front of screaming crowds, but when. I was biding my time before I could invest the proper amount of time and effort into getting out there and making it work. First, I needed to finish school. Then, I needed to make money. Then, I needed to find the time. Then… and then nothing.
Despite fantasizing about this for over half of my life, the reality never came. And it took me a long time and a lot of negative experiences to finally figure out why: I didn’t actually want it.
I was in love with the result — the image of me on stage, people cheering, me rocking out, pouring my heart into what I’m playing — but I wasn’t in love with the process. And because of that, I failed at it. Repeatedly. Hell, I didn’t even try hard enough to fail at it. I hardly tried at all.
The daily drudgery of practicing, the logistics of finding a group and rehearsing, the pain of finding gigs and actually getting people to show up and give a shit. The broken strings, the blown tube amp, hauling 40 pounds of gear to and from rehearsals with no car. It’s a mountain of a dream and a mile-high climb to the top. And what it took me a long time to discover is that I didn’t like to climb much. I just liked to imagine the top.
Our culture would tell me that I’ve somehow failed myself, that I’m a quitter or a loser.Self-help would say that I either wasn’t courageous enough, determined enough or I didn’t believe in myself enough. The entrepreneurial/start-up crowd would tell me that I chickened out on my dream and gave in to my conventional social conditioning. I’d be told to do affirmations or join a mastermind group or manifest or something.
But the truth is far less interesting than that: I thought I wanted something, but it turns out I didn’t. End of story.
I wanted the reward and not the struggle. I wanted the result and not the process. I was in love not with the fight but only the victory. And life doesn’t work that way.
Who you are is defined by the values you are willing to struggle for. People who enjoy the struggles of a gym are the ones who get in good shape. People who enjoy long workweeks and the politics of the corporate ladder are the ones who move up it. People who enjoy the stresses and uncertainty of the starving artist lifestyle are ultimately the ones who live it and make it.
This is not a call for willpower or “grit.” This is not another admonishment of “no pain, no gain.”
This is the most simple and basic component of life: our struggles determine our successes. So choose your struggles wisely, my friend.
-Mark Manson
WOD for 05-19-17:
Rowing Technique:
Skills & Drills
-then-
10 Rounds For Time, With a Partner:
250m Row
10 Burpees
Both partners complete ten full rounds. You do one full round, then I do one full round, then we rest exactly one minute. Then we repeat that nine more times. Each round is all out.
(Compare to 09-27-16)
How To Watch The 2017 CF Games Regionals
Cassie and Sarah compete on Memorial Day weekend in the California "Super" Regional from May 26th through 28th, but superfans of CrossFit will be glued to their devices starting this weekend as the first group of CrossFit Games Regionals (including the East Regional, with defending champs Katrin Davidsdottir and Mat Fraser) starts on Friday morning, May 19th.
For information of how to stream every single event from every single Regional competition (including next weekend's California Region with our two athletes) check out the information on the CrossFit Games website (click here) - the details are also listed below:
The entirety of the 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games Regionals will be streamed to Games.CrossFit.com, CrossFit’s YouTube channel and the CrossFit Games Facebook page. Anyone, anywhere can watch every heat of every division online for free.
All Regional competitions start at 9 a.m. local time each day and end by 5:15 p.m., with the exception of the larger South Regional, which will start at 9 a.m. and end by 7:15 p.m. When heat schedules (local time) are available, they can be found on the CrossFit Games website on each Regional’s competition page (see below).
We’ve listed a schedule and time-zone specifications for each Regional weekend.
May 19 - 21, 2017
East Regional | ET | UTC -4 hours
South Regional | CT | UTC -5 hours
May 26 - 28, 2017
Pacific Regional | AEST | UTC +10 hours
California Regional | PT | UTC -7 hours (GO CASSIE & SARAH!!!)
Central Regional | CT | UTC -5 hours
June 2 - 4, 2017
Meridian Regional | CEST | UTC +2 hours
West Regional | PT | UTC -7 hours
Atlantic Regional | ET | UTC -4 hours
Don’t worry if you miss any of the action. The live coverage will be archived on the Games site too, so you can watch even after the events have ended.
WOD for 05-18-17:
Split Jerk:
2-2-2-2-2
Climbing as technique allows.
-then-
For Time:
200m Run
21 Hang Power Snatches @ 95/65 lbs
21 Overhead Squats
200m Run
15 Hang Power Snatches
15 Overhead Squats
200m Run
9 Hang Power Snatches
9 Overhead Squats
Stress And Living On The Roof
All of my clients, and I believe nearly all people, would love to build a beautifully balanced life, to eat perfectly Paleo meals and be free from cravings for salt, sugar or alcohol. They'd like to sleep eight or more hours per night and wake up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. They'd like to work out consistently except for their perfectly coordinated rest days, with always flawless technique. There would be no need for stress management, because each day would represent an oasis of fresh, colorful fruit and veggies, plenty of clear, cold water, clear mind, full heart, and joyous exercise. Chris Kresser defines these four elements: nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management, as the "four pillars of health," and I tend to agree with him.
Many of my clients have limited ability to focus on these four pillars because they have created a world in which they feel like they are fighting for survival - trying to make ever more money to support lifestyles ever more extravagant in cities which are ever more expensive. Fear of not having enough - money, time, accolades - drives us to enter survival mode. If you feel like you are fighting for survival, eating nutritious food, getting enough sleep, and exercising regularly can't be among your top priorities. In survival mode, all you care about is living to fight another day.
When we exist in survival mode, our bodies respond with cortisol and adrenaline, potentially fueled by caffeine. We are constantly ready to fight - no time for sleep - we stay up late and wake up early. We go from email to phone call to meeting to flight to traffic to bills. No time for nutritious meals - we forget to eat until we're starving, and then we eat whatever quick and easy calorie bomb will get us through. No time for exercise - we sit in a screen-induced trance, forgetting to even move for hours on end, slouching further into our chairs, and sagging into our standing desks, wondering why our atrophying bodies hurt everywhere. No time for stress management - we can't even breathe, much less breathe deeply, and we can't imagine finding time to go outside or play with dogs and children with no agenda. Every single moment feels urgent, critical, and time-sensitive.
If you are existing in survival mode, there are two things to evaluate: what do I really need/want, and am I doing what I need to be doing/can do to get there? Through evaluating your priorities, you can sift through the things that are meaningful - the things that bring you joy or fulfillment, and/or the things that are necessary to ensure the survival of your family - and make choices to ensure that the things taking your time or money, are also bringing you joy or fulfillment, and contributing to your survival.
Once we've fixed the foundation, and are no longer feeling threatened, we can then focus more effectively on building health. These four critical elements enable us to thrive, and the absence of any or all of these components will lead to feeling gross in the short-term, and being sick in the long term.
The foundation relates to basic survival.
The pillars relate to optimal health.
Then we can focus on the future.
Too many people confuse the roof and the foundation. You can't fight for the roof in survival mode as though your life depends on it, without crumbling in the pillars. You can't realistically talk about the luxury of fulfillment or achieving lofty goals if you're unsure whether you will actually live to see the day that you experience them.
Your life plan should absolutely ensure your foundation is solid - that you have enough money to keep a roof over your head, food on your table, and time to enjoy the people you love. If you're truly stressed because of flaws in your foundation, pay close attention to that - manage your income, your lifestyle, and your expectations so they're in sync.
If you've established that you're striving for goals that represent luxuries versus necessities,slow down, stop stressing, and focus on building the pillars. Learn about nutrition - food quality and quantity, meal prep and cooking. Get enough sleep - turn off the lights, put down the phone. Exercise regularly - find a routine you like and stick to it consistently. Manage stress, but only to recognize when it's overtaking you, and decide whether it's your foundation that's stressing you, or your roof. If it's the roof, take a step back, do more deep breathing, and realize that you're only one person, and Rome wasn't built in a day.
-Sarah
WOD for 05-17-17:
AMRAP 5 Minutes:
7 Deadlifts @ 245/165 lbs
40 Double Unders
-Rest 5 Minutes-
AMRAP 5 Minutes:
7 Power Cleans @ 185/135 lbs
14 Pistols, alternating
-Rest 5 Minutes-
Weighted Plank Hold:
3 x 0:45 (Rest 1:00 Between Efforts)
If possible, add to 05-09-17
R.I.P. Barbells
You'll have to please excuse all the Regionals talk these next two weeks as we gear up to the big weekend in Del Mar (May 26 - 28). Cassie and Sarah have put in so much work this last year in order to be able to represent themselves and Arena Ready at one of the highest level competitions in the world, so hopefully talking shop about the events and workouts - and reminiscing about competition years past - can be forgiven by those of you who may not find it all as interesting as the rest of us. Thanks for your understanding.
In class on Monday I made the joke that in honor of the upcoming 2017 CrossFit Games Regionals, which for the first time ever will (seemingly) not include a barbell whatsoever, we will run our workouts at Arena Ready with no barbell for the next two weeks. After the groans subsided I of course said "just kidding!" so as not to let anyone suffer with the thought too long - although between Monday's non-barbell AMRAP and Tuesday's non-barbell met-con, it would appear that we're at least giving most everyone's favorite strength & conditioning tool a bit of a break for the early part of this week.
But don't despair, we'll have our share of barbell movements mixed in with other elements as we always do... and for now we'll wish that our old friend the barbell Rest In Peace this coming Regionals season. Some of us are still holding out (wishful thinking) for a "surprise" Regionals Event 7 to be announced on the spot, immediately following Event 6 - perhaps a nice heavy barbell with really any movement requirement. A weightlifting coach can dream...
For now, how about a flashback video to 2015 when barbells were in play and Sarah set a Regionals Event record with a heart-stopping miss then a make (at 10:02 in the video) in Event 5:
R.I.P. Barbells.
WOD for 05-16-17:
Pause Front Squat:
3-3-3-3-3
Climbing as technique allows. Pause is 3 seconds at the bottom.
-then-
For Time:
400m Run
15 Double Kettlebell Front Squats @ 53/35 each side
5 Bar Muscle-ups
400m Run
12 Double Kettlebell Front Squats
4 Bar Muscle-ups
400m Run
9 Double Kettlebell Front Squats
3 Bar Muscle-ups
So Much Fitness In The Building!
Arena Ready had 20% of the 2017 NorCal Individual CrossFit Games Regional female athletes in the building this weekend, and the four ladies got after the six announced Regional workouts together in good spirits. Sunday afternoon was a fun and furious finale which entailed a run through of Regional Events 5 and 6.
Thanks to our super fit friends Bri Gaipa and Shannon de Peralta for coming over and pushing Cassie and Sarah during these prep sessions! It will be fun to watch all four of these awesome women battle it out with the fittest in the "SuperRegion" in just two weeks - 2017 CrossFit Games Regionals here we come!
The FIVE stages of woking out, with four of the fittest women in the country:
1) Stand around for a while and talk about how sore you are:
2) Do the actual workouts, eventually.
3) Lay on the sidewalk in dramatic fashion and talk about how bad the workouts were:
4) Get yourself together just enough for a group photo:
5) Eat breakfast/brunch together and thank our patient server for accommodating the oddest combination of sides and substitutions conceivable (brunch photo not available, sadly).
WOD for 05-15-17:
AMRAP 18 Minutes:
18/15 Calorie Row
18 Box Jumps @ 24/20 in
18 Single-Arm Dumbbell Snatches @ 55/35 lbs (alternating)
18 Walking Lunges
18 Handstand Push-ups
The ABCs of Partner WODs
Those max effort partner feels.
Happy weekend, friends!
WOD for 05-13-17:
On a Running Clock, With a Partner...
A) From 0:00 - 5:00
Partner A Completes - AMRAP 5 Minutes:
6 Hang Power Cleans @ 155/105 lbs
12 Toes-to-Bar
24 Double Unders
(Partner B may help count, judge, and cheer for Partner A)
From 5:00 - 7:00
Rest & Re-Set Equipment
B) From 7:00 - 12:00
Partner B Completes - AMRAP 5 Minutes:
6 Hang Power Cleans @ 155/105 lbs
12 Toes-to-Bar
24 Double Unders
(Partner A may help count, judge, and cheer for Partner B)
From 12:00 - 14:00
Rest & Re-Set Equipment
C) From 14:00 - 28:00
Partners A & B Complete - 14 Minutes For MAX REPS:
1200m Run (TOGETHER)
60 Hang Power Cleans @ 155/105 lbs (SPLIT)
120 Wall Balls @ 20/14 lbs to 10/9 ft (SPLIT)
MAX REPS Lateral Bar Burpees (SPLIT)
Partners run together and both complete 1200m. Hang power cleans, wall balls, and bar burpees are shared and may be split in any fashion (does not have to be equal). The faster runner can start the hang power cleans as soon as she has completed the run, and does NOT have to wait until the slower runner completes the run - however, the wall balls and burpees cannot start until the preceding movement's reps are finished. Use the same barbell loading as used for Parts A & B.
Record three scores for today:
1) Rounds + reps for Partner A on Part A
2) Rounds + reps forPartner B on Part B
3) The team's total lateral bar burpee reps on Part C (or score as an AMRAP if wall balls are not finished)