CF MHF

I first met Shawn Mack at the CrossFit 719 grand opening competition.  How do I say this... I was terrified. Besides being well over 200 pounds and without an ounce of body fat the guy was wearing the smallest shorts I have ever seen.  I wanted to make a comment but feared that he would crush me like a tiny little bug.
  

Well come to find out he is one of the nicest guys in this community (which says a lot).  I told him back in July that I wanted to come visit his gym.  Shortly after, I was told that I needed to lay off of high intensity training for a while.  Shortly after getting cleared I went to check out CrossFit MHF in Wheat Ridge. 

Even though I had been invited (several months prior)  I wanted to make sure they knew I was coming.  I sent an email several hours before the 4:30 class that I hoped to attend.  I didn't hear back but REALLY wanted to try the workout they had programmed.  So I broke one of my rules and just showed up.  Don't do this people!  Most every gym owner will welcome you with open arms but it is good form to make sure that they know you are coming.  I found out that the reason that they hadn't responded was because they were dealing with a burst pipe for most of the day.  
Shawn didn't recognize me at first due to the extreme face sweater that I am currently rocking.  Rachel however knew who I was immediately  which was impressive considering.  Even though I was a couple of minutes late (Don't do that... seriously it's rude and I should have waited until the next class) I was welcomed in and introduced to everyone in the class.  I felt instantly welcome there as though I had been going to that gym since they opened.  There was some additional commotion going on in the form of a new puppy that was showing off how damn adorable he was to anyone that would pay attention.  

Rachel was coaching and did not in anyway disappoint.  Her energy level and enthusiasm was about the best I have ever seen in a CF gym.  The warm up was self paced.  It was clear that everyone in the class was experienced and didn't require any hand holding going through the movements.  We were given a set amount of time to prepare ourselves for the WOD.

THE WOD

1.) 2-2-2-2-2 Squat Cleans @ 90% 1RM

2.) 12 min AMRAP of...

10 BB Lunges @60% of BW

10 KB Swings #45 / #35

15 Second "L" Sit

First of all, I love this type of programming.  Do heavy technical movement first then follow with a 8-15min met-con.  I had never done L-sits in a met con before so I was excited for that part.

For the squat cleans I went with a little more than 90% of my current 1RM at 245#.  Touching down and hitting a second SC without a pause at the bottom proved to be a challenge.  I dropped to 235# which was 89.8% of my 1RM. 

For part two Shawn decided to hop in.  I know the guy is an animal, but my first thought was this is a light weight WOD, He's strong but he's not going to keep up. WRONG!  We stayed just about rep for rep through the first three rounds.  I started to think, He went out too fast, He's going to blow up.  WRONG!  rep for rep for 12 minutes!  and he was using a considerable amount more than I was on those barbell lunges.  Normally I post my time/score but I am not sure what it was.  I think that we were 7 reps into the 11th round by the end of the 12 minutes.  

THE SHIRT

I am not usually a fan a V-necks but this is a very minimal V.  It's a "lower case V-neck"  I dig it.  When you visit, size up cause they run tight (or maybe I'm just finally getting some man muscles like Shawn) I will post a picture soon!  Features the slogan "Caution, Athletes at work" on the back, which is pretty boss if you ask me.

The SCORE

Based off of  my typical scoring chart (the enthusiasm, knowledge and genuine kindness of the coaches and athletes as well as the kick ass programming, the awesomeness of the T-Shirt and how attractive the ladies are)....

 I am proud to give MHF a score of a 54" box jump!

This is the rebirth

I have neglected my obligation to you all and for that I apologize   What's that you don't except.  I will punish myself with 100 burpees.... Satisfied??  I thought so you sickos!  So I took a little break from CrossFit because my doctor told me I was weak.  So I got strong and now I'm back.  A lot has transpired since my last post.  Did my first Olympic lifting competition (I love wearing singlets, always have)  participated in my first partner competition, grew an amazing beard and I lifting a metric fuck ton of weight each day.  I have visited a number of kick ass gyms in the last few weeks and will be giving my feedback on each of them in the coming days.  I also left my "home box office" (Crossfit Lodo) due to a difference of opinion with the other owners.  So I've assembled a new team of bad asses and we are opening a new gym. For the record this is the fourth gym that I have owned. So here we are,  it's 2013 the open is upon us and you want some tips on how to not suck at it.  Well don't worry, daddy is here and he is going to make everything okay.  The nature of this little project has just expanded from simply reviewing local gyms to delivering coaching ques and advice on how to make the most out of your Crossfit experience.




Diana and I competed at CrossFit SOCO's "FrostFit Challenge" yesterday. It was my first time competing on a team.  Instead of a long winded review I am going to point out a couple of things that I noticed.

~ The entire day was scored based off of total pounds lifted instead of reps or time.  I believe this slightly devalues body weight movements but is an effective an interesting approach to scoring.

~Each workout had a single bar with a single weight that teammates had to share.  This meant that for the co-ed teams the entire day would be decided based on how strong the women was and left the guys doing warm up weight throughout.

~ Every workout, with the exception of the finals WOD, was a 6 minute time domain.  That goes against the "broad time domains" aspect of Crossfit but I understand why they did it.  They had 60 something teams to cycle through 6 workouts in a 7 hours.  That is no easy task and they did great at keeping on track.

~The WOD's were very interval based.  Attack, recover, repeat was kind of the theme of the day.  I love interval training so, hell yeah!

~The CF community in Colorado Springs is awesome!  Diana and I were vagabonds of sorts at this comp wondering around, panhandling.  Not really, but the awesome folks at Crossfit 719 and CrossFit Pandora's box invited us to hang out with their groups.

~ The podium prizes were awesome!  I have placed top 3 in over 40 endurance events and never received such a hearty bounty!  it made me be stoked!

If you are interested in the details of each workout, you can find them here....Frostfit WOD's  If you are looking for a well organized comp with good shwag invest in CrossFit SoCo's next competition.


I give the Crossfit Soco "FrostFit Team Challenge" a rating of..... a gallon of Chocolate milk and two rows of fig newtons!