CrossFit Oakland

Great job Mike and Crew...

Thanks, Dougie!

Hope things are well with you out there in Ann Arbor.

For those that want to watch the slideshow in higher audio and video fidelity, you can check it out below.

Slideshow (40 MB) in Windows Media Format

The compression used on the Games site preserved the image quality reasonably well, but the audio suffered pretty badly.

When it comes to weight lifting, it's pure anger.

I imagine there are thieves pillaging my home, having their way with my wife, losing $40 at 3 card monty on my first visit to NYC, Josh Penzner that putz, someone defecating in my car, high school english teacher who told my parents sending me to college was a waste of money, an insurance claim that requires 12 forms, my dad buying a candy apple for each of us...dropping one on the ground...then throwing the rest out because he didn't want us to fight over them because we were one short, blading a chipshot, people flipping me off when I'm driving (actually, that doesn't bother me), and then I bottle it all up and then EXPLODE the weight into the air!!!!!!!!!!

To a new PR!!!!!!

The entire process only take a few seconds and then I'm back to my joyful blissful self-loving self.

8 on wed... darn, wont make it now =\

my motivation

go faster than the next guy

CFO,

i want to participate in the 2009 games, but i'll be away for 2.5 weeks, starting today, so i'll miss any meetings you have during that time.

mike and nicole, thanks for everything the last (almost) 2 years. it's been great for me, even yesterday's filthy fifty, and i appreciate all of the coaching and all the people.

see you soon.

Melissa and Jacques, way to kill that workout! (M, even post-vacation! Maybe tom's twisted idea about resting for a year before games 09 makes sense afterall!)

My number one motivator is to beat Brandon.

Crossfit Oak Land is getting a lot of love on the main site, and well deserved. I always enjoy seeing members of your crew around the challenges. I enjoy even more competing against you. What a great group. Looking forward to competing against you guys again soon.

Nabil, "One Damn Second!!!!" Won't happen again.

Crossfit Oak Land is getting a lot of love on the main site, and well deserved. I always enjoy seeing members of your crew around the challenges. I enjoy even more competing against you. What a great group. Looking forward to competing against you guys again soon.

Nabil, "One Damn Second!!!!" Won't happen again.

Crossfit Oak Land is getting a lot of love on the main site, and well deserved. I always enjoy seeing members of your crew around the challenges. I enjoy even more competing against you. What a great group. Looking forward to competing against you guys again soon.

Nabil, "One Damn Second!!!!" Won't happen again.

I just found out that I got a spot on a hotshot handcrew out of tahoe for the rest of fire season, and most likely, will be leaving tomorrow night. I'm going to try making it to the evening classes to say goodbye, with my last workout at 6, but I'm sure I won't get to see you all. I wish I had the time to thank you all individually for everything you've done and the encouragement and words of wisdom. CFO has really been a home away from home, and you all were the first friends I made when I moved here many months ago. I'll be back after fire season, and possibly sometime mid week, but other than that I have to be within a 2 hour response time of truckee. Send me an email if you'll be in the tahoe area, it'd be great to see some familiar faces.

Joe P: Have fun on the river, but keep your head above water! We'll miss you.

Tom-
Great slideshow!

Brad-
Hilarious!

Patrick-
Congrats!

Patrick,

I'm bummed to hear that you are taking off, but I'm psyched that you are going to be fighting fires. Take care of yourself and we'll see you when you get back.

It looks like Will from One World was bitten by the webpage not refreshing properly bug.

My number 1 most motivating factor, pre-workout, is to once again fit into my skinny-jeans. God I looked cute in those.

Also, FYI, I bought a high-performance, moisture-wicking shirt last week so my times should be going down by at least 30%. Look out Brandon.

Most of the time I tell myself, "maybe if I push reallyreallyreally hard I won't come in dead last." You know last, that time when the next class is done with the warmup & ready to start their workout. Then, as I'm dealing with my own personal hell in the form of burpees or knees-to-elbows I remind myself that someone had to finish last and my endurance must be pretty good to drag out a workout for so long!
We'll miss you, Patrick - be safe up there.

Patrik,
Congrats on the gig! Be careful and take care of yourself

Mainly I am motivated by the chance to once in a blue moon beat Daniel or Brandon or Mike at something. And also by those same three screaming at me to push harder when I'm trying to beat their scores. And also trying not to let Tamara beat me too badly when she uses the men's weight.

By the way, Jacques you pulled an amazing time yesterday on the rower. Nice work beating out all the big guns, you sneaky bugger! And Melissa too - your hard work is paying off big!

Kick rocks P-hole... See you on the flip side :) Hotshot crews are badass, you are the perfect xfitter for the job!!

Patrick -

I wish you nothing but the best. It's been a pleasure sharing the box space with you.

I hope to make it tonite.

Cheers!

just clicked the view image on the CF games site of Mike Minium, did you guys see his shoulders? WHAT A MAN !!! Nice job Mike, you're my new hero...

My new motivation: beat Lance!

Lau, that should be NO problem for you!

Patrick,

Congratulations on officially becoming a Hotshot. I'm sure you'll do a great job fighting fires, if your performance on the WOD's is any indication.

This is what you've been training for, but be careful out there so you can come back and kick some more ass for CFO!

Patrick, good luck and stay safe. Congrats on the gig.

But P-hole, you were my internal motivator... :-(
Congratulations on the job! It sounds like an amazing opportunity.

I nearly met Pukie last night for the first time, but I think Journey might have beaten my time on the row.

Right On P!

Get ready to Do Work-

Sending a BadAss to do a BadAss job.

Stay safe.

P-Hole,

Good luck up in Tahoe. Hopefully there will be as many dangerous fires up there as there are good-looking girls, which is to say none.

> just clicked the view image on the CF games site of Mike Minium, did you guys see his shoulders? WHAT A MAN !!!

Not to mention that he's executing a textbook perfect clean there. Mike's cleans at the Games rocked. He practically gave a how-to clinic while competing.

Something that surprised me about some of the guys in the last two heats of the C&J was how poor some of their technique was on the cleans. Bad rack positions and overly wide stances were not uncommon. There was even a dude who would power clean the bar, do a front squat, and then jerk it. Immense waste of energy. Many of the top competitors with form problems still powered through the workout very respectably because they were such serious athletes, but one can't help but wonder whether their times would have improved had they actually been able to execute a proper clean from the start.

Hooray Patrick. Sounds like an awesome opportunity. I have no doubt that you are the man for the job. Congratulations.

Good work Melissa on the row. I think you are right, though about Journey's time. I am pretty sure it sub-8.

> But P-hole, you were my internal motivator... :-(

internal motivator? hmm.

Patrick- You will be missed! Stay safe...

Tom - Thank you so much for the slide show - those were amazing photos - do you do family portraits?

Mike - Awesome pic (not too special)!

Motivation: Seriously, I am just happy to finish most of these workouts without puking or otherwise humiliating myself... Maybe motivation comes with kipping pull-ups?

Tom,
Nobody (except Nabil) needs to have perfect form to C&J 155! Do you think that heavyweight boxers make sure they have their feet set exactly perfect when the throw a punch or do you think that a shortstop stops to make sure that his grip is perfect on the ball before he throws on a double play? NO. They just do the best they can under the constraints they are given. It was not a dance contest or a beauty pagent. The point was to get the weight from the floor to overhead 30 times AS FAST AS YOU CAN. If your form goes down the $hitter and you step on a few babies because you are in a hurry, so what...you're still the winner.....and that’s all that matters! I'm not even sure "proper form" would have made a difference for some guys because the weight was so much lighter than their one rep max in the C&J.
For example:
Look at the people that had really good form on the C&J WOD like Mike, Nabil, Speal, OPT, AFT and probably yourself….Their times were not very impressive.
Now look at the form of Conner, Khalipa, Tamara, and the rest of the people that dominated that workout. None of the people with the top scores had even marginally good form (during the WOD) if you were looking purely at their C&J...but they did the best they could under the constraints and kicked ass. I think that Conner, Khalipa, Tamara, et al all have really good one rep max form on the C&J but they didn’t need it during that WOD.

…just my thoughts

PS. I like your slideshow

P-hole - You are a hotshot, so it only seems right. Here's hoping you get just as much fire action as you want, but no more.

Daniel,

You make excellent points. However, the cat doing the power clean > stand up > front squat > stand up > jerk came close to not finishing the workout in the allotted time.

I disagree that the people that dominated the workout had bad form, although some of them may have. Connor and Tami were doing nicely. Khalipa wasn't jerking the weight because he didn't need to. He's so strong he could just do it as a thruster, which turned out to be faster. I just watched his video and his cleans looked pretty damn good. I would argue his good technique helped him win.

I guess my point was not that perfect form is necessary for great performance. Instead it was that out of the men that finished in the top 40, I was surprised that any of them had any issues with the clean at all. I was surprised that they had any weaknesses given their elite performances on everything else.

> and probably yourself….Their times were not very impressive.

Definitely myself. My time was anything but impressive on any of those workouts.

Congrats, Patrick! You'll be missed. The Tahoe area is lucky to have you.

My motivation is first to improve on my last weight/time/score, but also to beat Lance (now that Edgar's gone).

B-Rad G:

Dude, i was the one who defecated in your car--just doing my bit to help motivate you.

Sharm

P-hole, good luck bro.

Daniel,

After having read through the posts now, I'm not sure I agree with what you're saying, or at the very least I think you're misreading Tom's argument.

It isn't so much an argument about whether perfect form wins titles. It most certainly doesn't. Working at a high enough intensity level will produce form faults.

I think the main point to be taken away is whether (and this applies to the top guys as well) having better technique (not perfect, because too much time is lost in the pursuit of perfect technique) would yield higher output or a better time. I think the answer is an unquestionable yes.

If you, for example, didn't pull the bar a good foot too high on each clean (photos don't lie), you'd save a lot of energy, and would likely be able to go for one more rep each time during your set of 30, rather than exerting more energy than needed. You can do better, and have a faster time, with slightly better technique (again, not perfect, just better).

I guess an analogy I'd try to draw is I like your chances of throwing out the runner stealing second a little better if you're stepping into the throw vs. throwing while still in the catching/squatting position, all other things being equal (yes, I know Benito Santiago could get away with it, but there are exceptions to every rule). Same goes for your clean. There's one way to do it that gets the job done, and then there's a better way to do it.

I think even Khalipa could do better, to tell you the truth. Not by much, maybe just ten seconds or so. And he doesn't even need to be close to perfect to do it, just a little better.

And I believe that's the point Tom was trying to make. And if he wasn't, he should've been.

My number one internal motivator before beginning a work out is thinking about Mike punking Daniel in a post.