So.
Here we are. A weekend like any other is approaching. Perhaps it’s like last weekend or a thousand past weekends. Maybe it will be much like the weeks next….but it won’t be like that for everybody.
This weekend our team will compete at the largest Jiu Jitsu tournament in the state.  Not all our Jits athletes, but many of them. I never cared much for competition at first, but I always saw the value in them. I competed relentlessly at every opportunity.
I competed at entirely my own expense from Florida to Brazil to California to Italy. Before I was ever paid as an athlete. I yearned to test myself against the rest in the world. I needed to find that space where I was entirely present and all the world focused into my one endeavor. One test.
I strove to find the nuances of timing. The power of each moment, breath and movement. The Power of Seconds and Cemtimeters. At high levels, that’s what any competition comes down to.
Our Tribe will compete. They will all win to the extent they let it all out. That’s where growth is. Courage of walking through the discomfort. Fortitude of mind.
There’s another competition too. The ReebokCrossFitGames. It’s goin down this weekend in LA. all the finest athletes from around the world that have bested others at sectional and regional events will compete for the title ‘Fittest in the World’. Our ‘sister school’, CFLA has a team competing. One of Santa Fe’s own, and previous Undisputed athlete, Lacie Mackey is an alternate on that team.  This event is viewable on the live web feed.
You should watch it. You should see the boys in person.
You should do this for several reasons.
It will build a fire….anytime you look at people pursuing excellence, your soul connects with theirs. Your souls communicate and ache for that same achievement. You too could be there. You’re all that’s stopping you.
Another reason is to watch possibility. To see people achieve what didn’t exist before. This empowers all viewers.
Many more reasons abound to watch/read/be a part of these contests. Many conversations about engagement and not letting opportunities slip by, and things about the nature of man stripping to his most elegant, primal and visceral state to achieve a hypertrophy of the soul….BUUUUT….
….beyond all that. Let’s go and cheer and cry and get invested in health and love and our community-and for fucks sake let’s please not let this pass as ‘just another weekend’.
The universe needs you- Needs us all-to be superheroes and courageous creators….that kinda positivity spreads like smiles….let’s raise this worlds vibration this weekend.
Shine On.
-Tait

20 overhead squats 95/75
200 mtr run
15 oh squat
400 mtr run
10 oh squats
800 mtr run
5 oh squats
50 double unders

THURSDAY
Warmup
Accumulate 30 seconds on handstand hold.
30 birdpickers
10 GHD Situps
10 archrocks
10 bar rollouts. TWICE

WOD
15 min amrap
5 power snatches 95/75
7 o/h squats 95/75
9 squat cleans

Warmup
2burpees
4thrusters
6 box jumps
8 situps
10 double unders
200 mtr run

WOD:

Complete 2 rounds for max reps with a partner of
3 minutes Box Jumps (24/20)
1 minute rest
3 minutes 1-arm Dumbbell Thrusters (45/30)
1 minute rest
3 minutes Sit-ups
-only one person may be working at a time
SCORE IS TOTAL TEAM REPS

THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN@!!!!!!!!!

For Tuesday!!!

Hey all! So glad to see everyone, looking forward to seeing everyone else! Tomorrows wod is shoulder press 5×5 then and amrap with burpees and kb swings 7,7,7 baby like my hometown! See you mañana lovely athletes!

-Crow Rising

Monday July 25, 2011

So, I know…I am late posting again…sorry coaches!  Something is happening to me this summer that I cannot quite put my finger on..I will call it~ugh.

Anyhoo, I was listening to NPR this morning and they are doing a series about obesity in America.

http://www.npr.org/series/136462878/living-large-obesity-in-america

I listen to this woman speak about how even if she lost the weight it still is a struggle because of what would be left behind as evidence of her obesity… extra skin, stretch marks.  I could hear her talking herself out of getting healthy because her body would not be perfect even if she does take off the weight. It sounded so familiar….sounded so much like me. 

Now, I never got as heavy as the woman in the story this morning, but I was getting close.  I told myself the same things she does. Even after I found CrossFit and started working out, losing weight…I would look at myself and see…a body that in some ways looked worse.  The skin…the marks~ugh~On more than one occasion, I said to people, “at least when I was heavier my skin was not so ugly.”

 Yes…I did.

But this morning, I realized that sometime …very recently…I stopped caring about the loose skin and the scars on my belly.  I know I won’t ever be free of them, I will never have a “perfect” belly…I was too heavy for too long to get this flat without surgery.  That skin…those scars? they are my road map….they show me where I was and how to steer clear of that place of being unhealthy.

So, yeah…I’ll never wear short shorts or a two piece bathing suit, but I can move and play and throw hammers and jog with a 25lb plate and get through my day without a nap.   Vivi looked at me this weekend as I was painting and said, ” Mom, I think you have a two pack.”  How cute is that? a two pack…I’ll take it girl.  I don’t I really care anymore about the perfect body.  Which…feels good too.

I wonder where else this road map will lead me?

mona

Monday July 25
> Skill power clean
> Warmup. 800 mtr run.
>  WOD
> 12 minute amrap
> 15 power cleans 95/65
> 30 double unders

Change the tire/Carmageddon

Three rds For time
10 deads 275/155
405 mtr run with 45/25-(carry it how u like, but it comes off your bar, hence changing the tire. Then you return it to your bar to do deads again.)
After three rounds you finish with 101 doubleunders.

There is an LA reference here, get it?

Dead lifts!

The wheels are off!

405 Meters with (45/25) weight!!!

Jenna sailed through her 101 double unders!!!

Thursday
5×5 deadlift with 70%max(20 minutes to complete this
…then 3 rds for time:
20 pullups
30 pushups
40 situps
50 airsquats
Rest 2 minutes between each round

Staying Engaged.
What does ‘engagement’ look like? Can I succeed(reach my goals) without being engaged?
For myself, I’d always been a bit reticent to get fully engaged.  It always seemed like it may be setting me up for a fall if I got bold enough to announce my intention or ‘engagement’  to a specific goal.  I even used the excuse that I was “remaining humble” by not speaking of achievements or goals met. The truth is I never met any goals because I never made any goals. Any achievement was consequently viewed as a bonus I didn’t really deserve anyway and was accompanied by this feeling that it was a fluke and that the ‘other shoe’ was about to drop.
Seems strange and counterproductive coming from a competition combat athlete, I know.
I’ve recently gotten a shift in personal perspective that says, “You’re just as capable as anyone on the planet to achieve any task.” this replaces the idea I’d had for my whole life which went something like, “you probably won’t succeed or win, but you are relentless and won’t quit…you’ll be ahead of the quitters.” that then morphed into “just do your best at everything and leave it all there.”
This latest incantation which is becoming part of my character seems the most powerful and authentic ….”I’m just as capable as anyone…” . It feels good. Makes me smile. That’s a sure sign!!
…so what about being ENGAGED though, Tait? Well, I believe it’s about building my ‘belief’ muscle. The one between my ears. It takes training and mantras, but it IS a muscle to work on. It takes the belief that I’m empowered by the Universe and that when I vocalize, write down and speak about my goals….when I’m engaged THAT way…well….I believe that what Coehlo says is true…”when a man is striving for his destiny, the entire Universe conspires to help him meet his goals.”
How are YOU stepping into Engagement??

Tait G. Fletcher
ITCB, NBS.