Diablo’s Masters are #intheopen! Are you?
“The strength and value of CrossFit lies entirely within our dominance of other athletes. This is a truth divined through competition not debate.”
Greg Glassman
A QUICK LOOK:
- ClassFit
- Friday Night Lights & Sunday Funday!
- SGT is Happening
- Recovery with Dr. Mory
- Open Announcement x2
- Pat Barber Fit. Muscle Memory. No Aliens.
MY LEVEL OF FITNESS Recently, I was coxed into participating in the NorCal Class Online Qualifier which ended Jan 30th. The qualifier is for the NorCal Classic competition in June – a CrossFit competition. I’ll qualify in my age group (60+), but only because there’s a limited number of competitors – we all qualified. I did not complete one of the workouts primarily because I was unable to lift the loads that I believed I should be able to do. My back disagreed with me. Nonetheless, I had a lot fun doing the workouts with the crew of members (30ish!!) who were also participating, in the Elite category, Rx, Scaled, Age Groups and Teams.
Doing the NCC Qualifier helped me learned a little more about my fitness. Cue Toby Keith’s “I’m not as good as I once was..” I’ve been doing CrossFit since 2005 and competed at the highest level until 2014, when I decided that I could not keep up with the training, nutrition & recovery management necessary to be competitive. I made it to the top of the podium in 2013 as a 50yo, and felt tremendous pressure to remain at that level if I was to return to competition. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy CrossFit training at the highest levels. It was only when I returned to class-fit that I began to enjoy training again – hanging out with friends, trading jokes, challenges & harassment.
While competing at CrossFit yields an incredible level of fitness, it is way more than most of us need for a long, healthy and active life. On the other hand, Class-Fit CrossFit allows me to do ALL of the physical activities that younger me did: skiing, hiking, running the dogs, ocean swimming, rucking, mountain biking, etc. And, CrossFit gives me an awesome level of confidence (at age 62) that I can be physically helpful to anyone in need – especially my family.
All of that said, competing at CrossFit is very cool life-hobby for many and even a source of income for the elite few. Competitions provide us with a visceral marker of our level of fitness – the manifestation of all of our work. And, almost always, CrossFit competitions are a hell of a lot of fun. No surprise: the CrossFit competition community is a cool group of like-minded people. Yvonne has made some very cool life-time friendships with many of the girls in her CrossFit Games age group competitions.
So, my fitness will remain: classfit CrossFit. As a result, I’m gonna be more fit for an active life than 99.9% of the 60+ year olds in the world. Oh, AND, I’ll be doing the Open with all of my friends – having a blast, talkin’ shit, and screaming my support for everyone doing it with me.
Join me. #intheopen
!! THE OPEN: BIG NEWS !! FNL + SFD – No excuses: we’re adding a 2nd day of Open Competition this year: Sunday Funday. Our big OPEN event will be on Friday “Night” beginning at 4PM on Fridays (starting Feb 28th). But, if you can’t make Friday nights, then come on Sundays at 10AM for “Sunday Funday”! We’ll have heats until 12:30ish. Or, if you want to RE-DO the workout, Sunday Funday will be a great time to do it!
SMALL GROUP TRAINING IS A THING! Coaches Chad, Madelin & Jamie Lee have launched their small group training programs – dedicated coaching, fixed class times & custom programming for up to 4 members only. This is a great way to improve your skill sets, work on injury recovery or start CrossFit with a customized program for you. Please email us or talk to the coach if you have an interest!
- Coach Chad: Wed/Thu/Fri 5AM & Tu/Thu 6:30PM
- Coach Madeline: Tue/Thu at 6AM & Mon/Thu 10A (competitor SGT)
JAN / FEB CLINICS & EVENTS
- FEB: Thu, Feb 20, 7:30PM – Mobility & Recovery Management with Dr. Mory – Beyond Chiropractic
- MAR: Thu, Mar 27, 7:30PM – Breath Work Techniques for Improved Performance and Mental Health – Richard Blake, PhD.
PODCAST: HOW TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL INTRAMURAL OPEN – TUE, FEB 5 at 10AM – Coach Jamie Lee and I will be sharing our tips and tricks for running a successful Intramural Open.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT DIABLO..
TWO OPEN ANNOUNCEMENTS AT DIABLO IN 2019!!
At the end of 2018, CrossFit HQ made MAJOR budget cuts to the CrossFit Games. In response, Dave Castro and his team decided to “outsource” the big-production Open Announcements for 2019. We were THRILLED when we got the call to host 19.3 in March. But, as CrossFit told us: we had to do it all – recruit the athletes, hire a media crew & professional announcers, find sponsors to help pay for it all, bring in the fans, invite outside media, install lighting, and get volunteers to judge, load bars, and manage the crowd.
Fortunately, we had awesome support from the former CrossFit Games media team, 3 awesome athletes and our passionate Diablo community. Naturally, we asked our athlete, Alessandra Pichelli and her friend Lauren Fisher – both, multi-year CFG athletes to compete head to head. It was a blast. We had hundreds of fans on hands and 10’s of thousands of viewers live online.
That very same year, CFHQ decided to “move up” the Open for 2020 to October 2019 – a fortuitous decision given the pandemic that began in March 2020! And, Dave Castro asked us to participate AGAIN!! With experience under our belt, we crushed it with 3 awesome pro-athletes, the Buttery Bros, Talking Elite Fitness and more on-hand!
Check out the broadcast!
PRSALLDAY THIS WEEK:
February Focus: Primary – Squat Variations, Secondary – Technical Oly Lifts, Skills – Open Workout Repeats.
- Mon: Front Squat. Metcon: Amrap 8m – 100m FC, Max DB Thrusters. #35/50
- Tue: 5RFT – 20/30c Bike, 5 Strict Chin Ups, 12 Pistols, Rest 1m
- Wed: Clean & Jerk. Metcon: Amrap 8m – 8RA/8LA Strict Press, 10/15 Row.
- Thu: HSPU. Metcon: EMOMx3 5HSPU, 10WB, 12BJ, then Amrap 9m.
- Fri: CFG Open 17.2
- Sat: 4 Rnds – 9 FS, 12 S2OH, 15BJ, 1m Rest
- Sun: Amrap 25m – 20/30c Row, 400m SB Carry, 3 Rope Climbs, 200m FC
- FB: L4 Coach Pat Barber is Not As Fit As He Once Was.. Inspiration for my editorial today! Great perspective from a CrossFit Training Coach & former Athlete.
- Research: Muscle Memory is Real! and it doesn’t just affect hypertrophy, but exercise capacity too! “Cells possess a “memory” such that adaptations can be more quickly regained when a previously encountered challenge is reintroduced.” Get back to the gym!
- New Fav IG Follow: Dr. William Wallace – only published research related to fitness & health. Outstanding stuff.
- Why I Don’t Think Aliens Have Been To Earth. #toohardtofind – watch this one! It’s a very cool perspective on the incredible size of our universe.
Craig
