Her heart on her sleeve

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,

while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

-Lao Tzu

First pull-up

Sophie gets her first unassisted pull-up!

What a team

Before

(What is it with the boyz in skirtz?)

During?

("Hey, this isn't so hard!")

After

(It was the day after St. Patty's, after all.)

Venimus, vidimus, escendimus

We did it again! The annual Big Climb for Leukemia up the 1,311 steps of the Columbia Tower was yesterday, and we had a team of 24 Eastside CrossFitters participating. And, this year, we had another 25 of our friends from Rainier CrossFit, Mt. Baker CrossFit, and CrossFit Westside joining in the fun. Forty-nine CrossFitters are hard to miss, even in a big crowd!

Most of the results are in:

NAME	TIME	PLACE IN AGE DIV	PLACE OVERALL	SEX OVERALL
Irena Netik	10:58	3 / 201	135 /1850	5 / 730
Michael Street	11:19	53 / 257	182 /1850	171 /1120
Justin Davis	11:24	58 / 372	195 /1850	184 /1120
Russell Hadley	11:53	75 / 372	275 /1850	252 /1120
Paul Callo	12:09	88 / 372	334 /1850	299 / 1120
James Walsh	12:12	86 / 257	348 /1850	310 /1120
Mark Brinton	13:13	76 / 208	559 /1850	472 /1120
Bruce Duba	13:24	87 / 213	614 / 1850	512 / 1120
Jean Christopherson	13:35	17 / 116	649 /1850	120 / 730
Marc Amsberry	13:45	188 /372	701 /1850	568 /1120
Sean McDaniel	13:58	200 / 372	742 / 1850	592 /1120
Kim Amsberry	14:13	66 /241	795 /1850	173 /730
Tom Hussey	14:12	211 / 372	786 /1850	614 /1120
Mike Hom	14:12	156 / 257	783 /1850	613 /1120
Bridget Jendro	14:23	73 / 241	823 /1850	190 / 730
Jackie Richards	14:39	80 / 241	877 /1850	214 / 730
Carrie Klumpar	15:23	107 / 241	1017 /1850	273 / 730
James Duggins	17:12	216 / 257	1320 /1850	905 /1120
Heaton Wrenn	17:16	166 / 208	1327 /1850	910 /1120
Mark Woodside	17:51	318 / 372	1375 /1850	933 /1120
Paula Tomlinson	20:21	192 / 241	1566 /1850	542 / 730
Madonna McDaniel	21:27	202 / 241	1629 /1850	587 / 730
Beth Walsh	22:54	357 / 372	1682 /1850	1058 /1120
Kathryn Haniuk	24:52	100 / 116	1735 /1850	654 / 730
Robyn Sproston	NA (yet)

Hips over shoulders

With continued exposure, this will work into a freestanding
hips-over-shoulders handstand.

Lift off

Heaton set a goal to pull 400 pounds before he turned 50. He got it done three weeks before his birthday. Strong work, Heat.

News bits

First, a reminder that the new evening class schedule starts Tues 3/13. That's TONIGHT. Perfect timing, what with another hour of daylight in the evening and all.

Tuesdays & Thursdays:
5:30 Elements
6:30 Firebreathers class

MWF stays the same: 6pm class.

Second, the Big Climb is coming up this Sunday, 3/18. You can still join the team, right up until the day of the event, if you're just that noncommittal. All the info you need--and more--is at http://www.crossfiteastside.com/bigclimb.

Strong play

In honor of Sean's birthday, Friday evening's workout was a strongman-style event, with an added metabolic boost at the beginning, courtesy of our Concept2 rowers.

For time:

1. 1000-meter row.

2. Plate carry - Move about 450 pounds of bumper plates from one end of the gym to the other. With a 60-pound D-ball cherry on top.

3. Farmer's walk, 100 pounds per hand, out across the parking lot and back into the gym.

Clock stops.

4. For reps: Fat-bar overhead push-presses or jerks, with about 100 pounds on an Apollon's Axle bar.

Just getting that devil of a bar up to the rack position for pressing was a mighty big challenge for some of us.

One minute rest.

5. For reps: Lift a 130-pound sandbag from the floor to the platform and back down.

Everything was scalable to individual strength and ability.

Much fun was had by all (except maybe the slightly horrified chiropractor observing from the sidelines). Way to hang with the heavy stuff, y'all—and to get over your fears of it, for some of you.

You'll have a chance to do more of this kind of thing if you want (and pull a big red bus!) this summer at the Mt. Rainier's Strongest Man contest (and all-around good time) down in Sumner, WA. It's a fantastic event and fundraiser hosted by our friends at Rainier CrossFit on July 21, 2007.