Day One

The 10am class on Sunday doing the main site WOD.

For those of you doing the Zone Challenge, today is your first day! How are you feeling? I'm hungry. Does anyone feel like the amount they are suppose to eat is too much? I'm already thinking about what I am going to eat tomorrow. It's going to be a pretty busy day, so I'm guessing that most meals will be quick and easy to measure out. Here's my Zone plan for Tuesday:

Breakfast: 2 blocks
14 grams of Fage 2% yogurt with 1 apple cut into it

Snack: 1 block
1/4 cup low-fat cottage cheese lightly sprinkled with 1 cup of sliced starberries
coffee with 1/2 tbsp of 1/2 & 1/2

Lunch: 3 blocks
3 oz sliced deli turkey
2 cups of celery
1 apple with 1 1/2 tsp almond butter on it (it's not much almond butter, but at least it provides me with one perfect bite of apple and almond butter! I always save the best bite for last!)

Snack: 2 blocks
1 zone bar

Dinner: 3 blocks
4 1/2 oz of lean ground beef cooked with onions, garlic, crushed red pepper and Italian seasoning
2 cups steamed green beans seasoned with salt and pepper
1/2 of an orange for dessert
(I estimate that the olive oil used to cook the onions is enough fat and because there is 1/2 a cooked onion in one block, that I probably am only eating about 1/8 of a block of carbs from the onion. I will eat a little less green beans to keep everything balanced.)

snack: 1 block
1 oz cheese stick with 1/2 orange and 3 almonds

Because it will be such a long day and I want to eat within an hour of waking up as well as before I go to bed, I am spreading my meals out more than usual.

-M

Workout:
Five rounds for time of:
30 Glute-ham sit-ups
25 Back extensions

Sand and Sweat

Three person teams doing relays of burpees, sprints and kettle bell swings at Natural Bridges on Saturday morning.

Kettle bell swings at the top of the hill.

Hitting the water after the workout.

CrossFit Santa Cruz Saturday Workout Crew!

Check out more pictures from yesterdays Beach Workout.

Thanks to all of you who showed up and endured hill sprints, kettle bell swings and burpees in the soft sand! For those of you who are starting the Zone Competition on Monday, please let us know if you have questions about anything. I recommend that you go to the store today and stock up on items that will easily keep you in the zone all week. I went to the store today and here are the meals I am going to make myself on Monday. Maybe listing them will help those of you who are new to this. Start simple!

Breakfast: 3 blocks
2 whole eggs and 2 egg whites scrambled with 3 tbls of avocado
1 whole apple and 1 cup of strawberries

Lunch: 3 blocks
Spread 3 tbls of avocado on 1 slice of sprouted wheat bread. Put 2 oz sliced deli turkey on top of that, and add 1 oz of sliced cheese over the top. Stick the whole thing in a toaster oven, or place in a slightly oiled frying pan over medium heat. Heat until cheese is melted and bread is toasted on the bottom.
1/2 of an apple

Snack: 2 blocks
2 cheese sticks
2 kiwis
6 almonds

Dinner: 3 blocks
Salad with 3 oz of grilled chicken breast, 3 cups romaine lettuce, 1 cup spinach, 1/2 of a sliced cucumber, 1/2 of a sliced apple, 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes, 1/4 cup celery, 1 tsp olive oil and as much balsamic vinegar as I need

Snack: 1 block
3 oz of Fage 2% plain yogurt mixed with 1 sliced peach

Hope this helps!
-M

Workout:
How many rounds in 15 minutes of:
5 burpees
100 meter uphill sprint
10 kettle bell swing
100 meter downhill sprint

Beach Day

Cill playing on the rings during a workout last summer at Santa Monica Beach. We miss you Cill!

When you can do things at the beach that are normally done inside the gym, like rope climbing and ring exercises, it is always a fun experience. But, most of the time we have little or no equipment when at the beach.

Today is our beach workout. What do you think we will do? There are so many possibilities!

Workout:
Run 5k

What Are Your Goals?

Christa dead lifting during the Thursday 7pm class.

Christa has been CrossFitting with us now for about five months, coming to classes two to three times a week. She moved well from the beginning, so her biggest gains have been in her strength and endurance. While she has mostly lost inches rather than weight, she is looking forward to trying the Zone Diet and seeing what kinds of results she has. I think it will be amazing for her!

We are all excited to strictly follow the Zone Diet together so we can go though not only the difficult parts side by side, but also to witness the positive goals attained that we individually are setting for ourselves. Please feel free to post your achievements, frustrations, questions, favorite Zone recipes and other comments on this site each day and let us know how things are going for you in the Zone.

What personal goals are you setting for yourselves by following the Zone over the next six weeks? I'll start: I would like to get PRs on all of the major CF benchmark workouts!

Workout:

Dead Lift 3-3-3-3-3

Balance Your Body Through Food

1 apple, 2 ounces of cheese, and 6 almonds is what we call two zone perfect blocks. This is a typical zone snack in the CrossFit world of eating to not only be healthy, but also to achieve great performance results.

Saturday, May 17th we will hold a Beach Workout followed by a Zone Information Session and Zone Challenge Announcement. We will meet at the gym at 10am before heading to the beach. Bring sunscreen, a towel and beach-worthy clothes (just in case!), and be ready to have lots of fun and learn more on how to take the next step towards reaching your health and fitness goals. If you have been contemplating trying the Zone, now is the time to do it!

Check out Dr. Berry Sear's site for more on the Zone Diet.

Workout:

5 rounds of:
500 meter row
10 overhead squats (men use 95 pounds, women use 65 pounds)
10 ring dips

In the Zone

"It doesn't have to be fun, to be fun."

Putting in the effort to train hard and push your body,
rewards you with more strength, better wind, and
increased flexibility, to name a few. Training hard is great,
but eating well is mandatory. So many of us train hard
without proper dedication to our food. The combination
of CrossFit and the Zone is our best bet for optimal health
and fitness.

Have you ever thought about trying the Zone?
Here is an opportunity.

This Saturday we are putting on a Zone Challange/Workshop.
We will be having a BEACH workout with Zone Food and
Information to follow.

Stayed Tuned for more information.

Workout:

20 rounds for time of:
5 Pull Up
5 Push Up
15 Squats

Quantifiable

Dietrich working for position in the press.

Client: "Do you think I am making any progress?"
Trainer: "Do you feel like your are making progress?"
Client: "I don't know sometimes I feel like I am"
Trainer: "What's your Fran time?"
Client: "8:38, but it was the first time I did it at weight."
Trainer: "I would say yes then you are making progress."

Showing improvements in CrossFit is simple.
One way to find out if you are improving is repeat a workout.

If you haven't been keeping track of your times,
now is a good time to start. Pick a workout
you like, and get a time. Repeat the same workout
a month from now.Compare your times if your time
improves, you are making progress.

"What is your Fran time?"

Workout:
9 Rounds of
115 pound Thruster, 5 reps
5 Pull ups

Superglue Anyone?

Phillip has been focused on his diet and training with
the second annual CrossFit Games in mind.

Have you considered entering the CrossFit Games?
Perhaps there is a misconception that the games are
only for elite athletes and that only those who feel they
have a chance for the title should enter. If you're
considering entering but worried that you won't be able
to "measure up" to the competition, think about how
many people run a marathon without the expectation
of winning. Participating in the CrossFit Games is about
the personal challenge of working consistently and
intensely towards a goal and giving it everything you have.
It is about being fully present to feel the energy of
crossfitters across the country coming together to celebrate
what they love. It is about being involved in something
bigger than the sum of its parts.

July 5th and 6th, 2008. Sign up and represent
CrossFit Santa Cruz!

Workout:
5 rounds of

Row for Calories, 1 minute
Thruster 1/4 body weight, 1 minute
Press 1/2 body weight, 1 minute
Rest 1 minute

Happy Mother's Day!

How many of you would love to see your Mom in the gym CrossFitting? So far at CrossFit Santa Cruz, Danielle and Hollis' Mother, Carol, and Leif and Olin's Mother, Sarah are our regular CrossFitter Moms. And, they are wonderful to workout with! Happy Mother's Day to all of you CrossFit Moms!

Eva T of CrossFit Santa Cruz Central and Adrian of San Francisco CrossFit overhead squat.

Jolie of CrossFit One World and Eva T team up during thier lunch time workout on Saturday.

The team workout that the trainers of this weekend's CrossFit Level 1 Certification did during their lunch break was the following:

3 rounds of:
40 overhead squats (men use 95 pounds, women use 75 pounds)
50 pull-ups
60 box jumps
70 double unders
400 meter run

These are the total reps to be completed by each team of two.

There are two people per team. Only one team member can work at the same time except for on the run when both team members run together. Each run and set of movements needs to be completed before the team can move on to the next set of movements. Team members can alternate jumps on the same box during the box jump segment. The reps can otherwise be split up in any way desired between team members.

Open, Close, Push, Pull

Peter doing ring dips (push).

Duffy kettlebell swinging (pull and open).

When structuring workouts in CrossFit, we often organize the movements into four different categories; pushing movements, pulling movements, opening movements and closing movements. We usually try to provide a balance of these movements within each workout because there is little benefit to doing only one type of movement, such as all pulling movements, like rowing, rope climbs and pull-ups in the same workout. You will notice that many of the classic WODs such as Fran (thruster - push, pull-up - pull) or Cindy (pull-up - pull, push-up - push, squat - open) have a good balance of movements. That being said, don't limit yourself to workouts that are all perfectly balanced! Next time you make up your own WOD, think about the types of movements you are incorporating.

Workout:

400 m run
21 Ring Dip
21 Kettlebell Swing (men use 24kgs, ladies use 16kgs)
400 m run
15 Ring Dips
15 Kettlebell Swings
400 m run
9 Ring Dips
9 Kettlebell Swings