Last year’s Spartan Saturday was such as success that we decided to bring it back. From now till July 16, the 9am class on Saturdays will be focusing on training for the Spartan Race Sprint event Sunday, July 17. It will be a 5km event that should take around 30-70 mins to complete. There is a Groupon for this for $49 and is good for another 5 days. Regular price is $90. Team Shinobi will be running in the open division at the 10:30am heat on Sunday.
Members who aren’t interested in participating in the Spartan Race can still train with the class on Saturdays.
Spartan Race 2015 where yours truly is beating out coach Suavek at the rope climb
-Harvey
This is where we recap the the picture or video that got the most views, likes, or comments of the week. Ashley, MD, and JD all hitting PRs together.
The hardest metcon this week was no doubt Monday’s lactic acid building, row, clean, burpee-kettlebell grindfest split into 3 minute intervals of pure suck.
Everyone except Chloe had partners in their heats to pace off of and to take the attention and pressure off of them. Chloe was the odd one out and had to go solo in her heat. Going in the last heat, and competing when all eyes are on you can be scary and intimidating, especially when burpees are involved. Chloe’s mental and physical toughness came through like a champ. She focused on her task and grinded the burpees on her own while not giving in to the pressure. Quitting was not an option for her. That earns her Shinobi Performance of the Week. Congrats Chloe!
Coach’s Comment – “She hated doing burpees on her own but she did it anyway. It was awesome. She grinded it out.” Coach Rich on Chloe’s performance
Chloe with the sledge
Shinobi Performance of the Week is sponsored by Ninja Wraps
This week we saw the Crossfit hero workout called “Murph” programmed. To refresh your memory this is the workout:
“Murph”
For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run
Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you’ve got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it.
It was named after honor of Lt. Michael Murphy, who was killed in duty in Afghanistan. We do this workout to honor the fallen soldiers who sacrificed their lives protecting our freedom. Crossfit Hero workouts are the most grueling workouts we do.
In my seven years of training in Crossfit I have never attempted this workout. I don’t think I have been specifically avoiding it, but we don’t celebrate Memorial Day in Canada which is typically when this workout is done. This one didn’t need much warm up. I did a couple of activation drills and some dynamic stretching and then strapped on the 20 pound vest and headed outside for the run. I knew this would be a long one so I paced it slow and steady from the start. The first run took just over 10 minutes and I went inside for the main course of the workout.
From doing previous workouts involving the weighted vest I knew I could bust out a couple of sets of 10 on the pushups but I knew that wouldn’t last. I know I can do 5 pullups and 15 squats no problems without stopping so my plan was to do 20 rounds of 5 push ups, 5 pull ups, 5 pushups and 15 squats. The strategy for this one was to always keep moving and to hopefully go unbroken on all the reps. The breaking up of pushups into 5’s turned out to be a good plan since I didn’t have to break any reps the entire time. I only took breaks during the transition of movements and even then, most of the transitions I didn’t need to rest.
The last run was much harder than the first. After doing so many squats my legs felt like Jello. I thought to myself that as long as I kept moving I will finish it. I didn’t want to stop at all otherwise that would have given me an excuse to quit and not finish. After a slow run coming back, I completed the workout in 49:14.
We don’t do long ones like these often. When we do they tend to be more mental than physical. It was a grueling one, but my mind will want me to quit long before what my body is capable of. I did take a few rest days after to recover. Hopefully it will not be another seven years before I attempt it again. The next time I know I can push myself even harder.
This week we saw a lot of personal records smashed. Floyd, JD, Jem, Suavek on the deadlift. Kyle on the press. I’m sure I am missing a few people here and I apologize in advance. There were just so many PRs this week and I’m getting old and my memory wasn’t what it once was.
-Harvey
This is where we recap the the picture or video that got the most views, likes, or comments of the week. The voice that said you can’t do this is a liar. You can do this. Watch it again for inspiration.
This week we want to highlight Jem. She set a new personal record on the deadlift at 235 pounds, but what amazed us the most was her performance Monday on Murph. In Crossfit, there is a saying where we train for the unknown and unknowable meaning we prepare ourselves for anything life throws our way. Jem did exactly that on Monday when she came in not reading what the workout was beforehand. This was one workout that could have scared off a lot of people.
Jem came in a bit late and saw us running already. She thought we were warming up and started to run as well. We told her to run the 8 laps which was a mile and she did that. Going back inside she finally read what the workout was and chipped away at it with no complaints. She didn’t have a strategy and didn’t realize the bottle neck in this workout would be the push ups. She knocked off the pull-ups and squats pretty easily but ended up with lots of pushups left. Not giving up she finished the pushups and just had the last run left. It was hot outside and she could have easily stopped at that point and called it a day. But she is tough as nails and didn’t quit. It took her over an hour to finish and we are proud that she never gave up. We know that looking back on workouts, the memorable ones are not necessarily the ones where we finish first, but are the ones where we never quit.
Jem front squat
Shinobi Performance of the Week is sponsored by Ninja Wraps
Welcome to this belated edition of the wrap up. I want to start off by discussing about full effort. We believe “full effort” is so important in our training that we have that phrase written on our wall. There is a huge difference in performance and results when you train at half effort compared to giving it your full 100% effort. Yes, training at full effort is hard. It is even scary at times as you have to mentally force yourself to go to an uncomfortable place. One of the scariest workouts for me is the 500m row. It takes only about a minute and a half to complete, but for me to give full effort while my legs are burning and my lungs are screaming for air is incredibly challenging. This is why we do short, high intensity workouts. We see maximum benefit with minimal training time. Having said that, you will notice that sometimes we will program training sessions that explicitly say 50%, 70%, or 90%. We use these sessions to prioritize recovery or skill, but the majority of our training will be at maximum effort. If you haven’t been seeing results lately, you should ask yourself whether you truly gave it your full effort. Full effort means full results.
Floyd had no problem giving full effort on Friday morning. He was the only person in at the 6am class. Every time he is the only one in the class, he would joke that we should cancel the class and go for pancakes. This time I surprised him by making a bet with him that if he completed the workout within the 15 minute time cap, I would finally take him out for pancakes. Now Floyd normally doesn’t need motivation for workouts, but this time he came flying out of the start and didn’t slow down. He was close to finishing but I used my sneakiness and enforced a wall ball target of 10 feet while he normally shoots at the 9 foot target. That was the game changer and pancake day has been postponed indefinitely for now. Sorry Floyd!
I want to thank JD and Colleen for allowing Chris and I to join in on their 5k run on Tuesday. JD and Colleen are training for the Manitoba half marathon and so far their training is doing well as I was trailing behind them the entire time struggling to keep pace.
-Harvey
This is where we recap the the picture or video that got the most views, likes, or comments of the week. Friday night coach karaoke is the winner this week and will be a strong contender for the Shinobi social media award of the year.
This week the award goes to our husband and wife duo, Matt and MD. They prove to us that couples that train together, stay together. This week they traveled to Fargo for their run. MD completed the 10k in 1:23:55 and Matt completed the full marathon in 3:56:28. Great job!
We have quite a few nurses at Shinobi and we want to give them another shout out as this was nurses week. This week we continued our running focus even though the weather wasn’t as cooperative. For those of you who like watching competitive exercising, the regional round of the Crossfit Games season started this weekend and will continue for the next few weeks.
Just a reminder for those of you who are sore or have injuries. You can still come in and the coach will either modify the workout or assign something else for you to do. Please still come in. Regular attendance builds a routine and allows you to stay focused.
This week we have Chole finishing fundamentals. She is a natural at the split jerk and her secret superpower involves smashing things with a sledgehammer. Please say hello to her in the evening classes.
Chloe with the sledge
Some of the highlights of the week:
-Colleen with great form on the Romanian deadlift
-Jason coming to regular classes again
-Return of Jem and throwing down with Harvey and Suavek on Friday
-Dee with great form on the front squat
-Kyle with an Indiana Jones style roll coming in from the run as Harvey was closing the garage door
-Great turnout on Saturday followed by another pop up yoga session
This is where we recap the the picture or video that got the most views, likes, or comments of the week. Nurses week collage takes it this week.
This week the award goes to the gum chewing, chapstick wearing, WOD crusher, Jose. On Tuesday she did the hang power cleans and front rack lunges at the prescribed 75 pounds. This was an impressive feat, but what I liked about this performance was not necessarily that she RX’d the weight, it was that she used a weight that was challenging and stuck to it.
Some members will sometimes choose a challenging weight to start the workout, but as they fatigue, they take off the weight. What I don’t like when athletes do this is that it doesn’t challenge you to stick with something even when it gets tough. This will relate both inside and outside the gym. When it gets tough, you stick with it until you complete your goal. Granted, as coaches, we will lighten the weight for you mid workout if we think your technique is compromising your safety. We don’t want to see injuries, but at the same time, we want you to be challenged.
Jose stuck with it and completed all four rounds in just over 9 minutes. This was a real quad burner!
She also had perfect attendance, coming in all six days this week. Congrats Jose!
Jose pushing the sled
Shinobi Performance of the Week is sponsored by Ninja Wraps
-Coach Harvey
Introducing Kevin, our newest fundamentals graduate
With the great weather this week we had lots of running outside. We did a lot 200m and 400m sprints and I joined in on the 5:15pm class on Wednesday with JD and Anesa. Great effort this week, lets keep the energy up all summer long.
Kevin has finished fundamentals. Please give him a warm welcome in the classes.
Here are some highlights of the week:
-Suavek had his birthday but was out of town all week
-Jason made an appearance for a workout Monday night
-Floyd with perfect attendance this week
-Colleen did a few solo WODs this week and didn’t throw anything at me as I urged her to go harder
-Friday night with MD and Ashley training hard while slow jams were blasting
-Impromptu Saturday morning yoga class with Chloe and the boys
We’ve seen some great work by our athletes and we want to recognize some of the amazing performances by starting a new weekly feature…
Ashley dominating the Turkish Get Up
This week I want to spotlight Ashley Scott. After coming off of a recovery week Ashley came in and busted out a heavy 35 pound Turkish Get-Up. She was able to do it with that weight on both her left and right sides. With focus and determination the weight seemed to go up with ease. Impressive! Congrats Ashley
Shinobi Performance of the Week is sponsored by Ninja Wraps
-Coach Harvey