Ryann Roberts attacks his row portion of a team wod at the SicEst of the Southwest Competition in October 2012.

The 2013 Season has come to a close for CrossFit Fury. While it was a strong showing for us, we are hungry and motivated to return to the Games next year. If we are going to get one of the top spots in 2014 we need to start preparing now. That’s why we are introducing our newest training group: the Fury Competition Team.

This year’s Bomb Squad consisted of Liz Khoury, Katie Jo Peterson, Josh MacDonald (coach), Kyle Taylor, Aimee Berencsi and Alfred Rohde. Team alternates were Jason Jamison (pictured) and Tesa Ewoldt.

While we want all of our members to participate in local competitions, this team will prepare our more skilled athletes to excel at next season’s events. This is a group designed for anyone hoping to make it onto the 2014 Bomb Squad. It is also for those Masters athletes or individuals hoping to improve on their Open performance, or even those interested in dominating local competitions as Fury representatives.

The first meeting will be on Saturday June 22 at 11am.  We will talk about the plan for the group as well as each individual’s specific plan to address weaknesses and build strength and capacity.  We will work on all of the elements that create strong competitors and strong teams, including the physical and mental.

Katie Jo, Aimee and Deana prepare to make their lifts during the Snatch Ladder at the Garage Games in October 2012.

Starting in July we will have team training sessions on the second and fourth Saturday at 11.  If you are interested in being part of the group email josh to let him know.  Even if you can’t attend the first meeting or some of the ongoing sessions, we want all of our competitive Fury athletes to be primed and ready for 2014.

This month’s first Spotlight Athlete of the month is Scott Achbach.  Scott joined Fury exactly 1 year ago this month and since joining has lost 70 pounds, gotten his first handstand push up and is looking forward to doing his first CrossFit competition.  You can expect to see Scott in CrossFit by the end of the month.

When Did you start CrossFit? I Started last June.

Why Did you start CrossFit? I started CrossFit because I was tired of being overweight and out of shape.  I told myself, if I did not start making some changes in my life now that I am in my forties, I probably never would.

What kept you coming back/motivated? I started prep about a month or two after I started.

How long did it take you to go from Basics to CrossFit Prep? The thing that kept me coming back to Crossfit is the variable workouts and the competitiveness of the workouts.  Although all of the members will go out of their way to offer advice and help you, they still want to kick your ass in the WOD.

What is the best thing you have gotten out of doing CrossFit? The biggest thing I have gained from CrossFit is the improvement of my overall health and the amount of energy I now have.

What is the one thing you have done here that you never thought you could do? The one thing I never thought I could do was a handstand push-up.

What is one goal you have reached? And one goal you still hope to reach? The one goal that I have reached is that I am competing in a Tough Mudder this week in Colorado.  My next goal is to compete in a Crossfit competition.

How has your diet changed since starting CrossFit:  Although I have not gone strict Paleo, I really try to stay away from carbs as much as possible and control my portions.  I usually try to stick with lean meats and vegetables.

Additional Comments: It is because of Peter and all of the trainers enthusiasm that keeps me returning.  The great thing about Fury is because of the closeness of everybody, we all feel a sense of pride when the Bomb Squad represents itself the way it does at competitions.

The Bomb Squad celebrates their 3rd place finish in event 7-a great way to end the weekend.

Heading into Regionals in Salt Lake City, UT Crossfit Fury had been through so much.  We started preparing back in January for the Open.   Then we moved on to honing our team and individual skills for the two months leading up to May 31^st.  After months of preparation we were down to fine tuning the details when the unthinkable happened.  On May 22^nd I woke up to a text from Peter about Alfred’s accident and Regionals suddenly seemed so insignificant.  While we tried to wrap our heads around what had happened to Alfred we still had a job to do.  Now we just had a higher purpose, make Alfred proud.

We did our best to regain focus and work to get our alternate, Jason Jamison, as prepared as possible.  With a knee injury and only 3 working days to prepare we threw Jason into the deep end and gave him just enough help to keep him from drowning.  We didn’t know what the other competitors would throw at us, but we arrived Thursday afternoon intent on sending the team and Peter to the Games.

Peter dominates event 5 taking first place with a time of 4:07-20 seconds faster than the next closest competitor.

The weekend presented us with lots of high and low points.  The overhead squat workout saw several PRs, including Peter’s 275×3 and Jason’s surprise 205×3 (as a team member for the funny story behind this one).  Event #5 left us on a high with Peter finishing in first place by blowing away the field and the Bomb Squad in 5^th with another strong performance.  We also struggled with some of the workouts.  #6 was a tough event for both the team and Peter, but we hung together knowing that we still had another chance to finish strong.

Event #7 was made for Fury.  This was a chance for us to show off our speed, agility and strength.  Each person knew their job and everyone put in an amazing performance.  While everyone was busy watching the other top teams struggle with the bar and fail on rope climbs the Bomb Squad crushed the workout to finish in 3^rd place.  Peter followed up with impressive speed and finished the workout in 7^th place.

Liz wraps up event 6 with the walking lunge holding her 100lb axle.

With ups and downs all weekend and the Bomb Squad’s performances mirroring Peters, both finished in 6^th place overall.  While we fell short of our goal to return to the Games again, we feel like we succeeded in so many other ways.  We worked hard to represent Fury and all of its amazing members on a bigger stage.  It is the people in each and every class at Fury that motivate us.  The whole team had a blast this past weekend and left everything we had on the floor to represent the hard working and amazing community at Crossfit Fury.  This weekend was about overcoming obstacles and relying on others for strength.  Fortunately for us we come from an unmatched group of people.  Next year, we will take that group of people all of the way to Carson, CA.

Jane was born in Boulder, Colorado and grew up in Glendale, Arizona. She graduated from ASU with a Bachelors in Biology and Psychology. She is currently on the track to get a Masters in secondary education and become a high school science teacher. Het background in athletics includes swimming, gymnastics and jump rope. Jane has been jumping rope for as long as she can remember. She started on a team in kindergarten and competed in her first national competition when she  first grade. Jump rope has been a part of her life for 20 years and she specializes in single rope speed power and freestyle, double Dutch speed power and freestyle and pairs as well as group routines.

Now when it comes to the Jump rope clinic on June 8th you may want to know what is in store for you. The clinic will be an hour long with a cap at 40 people. The main goal of the clinic is to master double unders. The clinic will include a dynamic warm-up, jump rope fitting to make sure your rope is the proper length, and instruction on proper jumping technique for double unders. To improve your ability to complete double unders a portion of the class will consist of circuit based training: single jumping tricks, plyometic jumps, double dutch and high knees. Jane’s sister, Kimberly, who is a doctor of physical therapy as well as a seasoned jump rope competitor will be helping her run the clinic.  The clinic will start promptly at 12pm and we will have daycare available.  You can sign up for the clinic at the Front Desk-It’s time to tackle those DOUBLE UNDERS!

All of CrossFit Fury is very fortunate to have Ryann’s help, support and expertise. I have said it before and I will say it again if your body ever needs a tune up, he is the man to see!

This year we have seen an even more active role from our sponsors.  With the tragic accident of Alfred a few of our sponsors truly stepped up to  help us out. First on the scene was Laboy Law Offices who was at the hospital, gathering police reports and setting up private investigators while Alfred was still on a morphine drip. Healthy Life Family Medicine was in contact from 2am on the night of the accident making sure we asked the right questions. Then with AZ OPT on the team and having Will around, Alfred will be moving better then before when he comes back. Finally it was less then two months ago when Fury decided it was going to begin providing health insurance but it was no easy task to find a company to insure the ‘wolfpack.’ In the end it was Worldwide Insurance and their agent Peter Pope who made the process efficient and effortless for us. Now looking back it was not a day too soon….

We cannot thank everyone enough for their support in our journeys. Know that we are entering this weekend full of steam with an entire army behind us. Thank you!

Thank you, Josh, for what you bring to the gym every single day and how it makes every one of us better.

Also as we head to Regionals we want to thank all our sponsors for their support!   If it weren’t for our sponsors, we would not be able to take care of our athletes and the expenses it takes to get to and from Regionals and The Games.  Thank you to Wilhelm Automative, AZ Orthopedic and Physical Therapy, Healthy Life Family Medicine, Nees Harley Davidson, Laboy Law Office, Worldwide Insurance, Patriot Motors, Exceptional Floor Coverings, The Lighthouse, Goodnight Pediatrics, Epoxy Strong, Susie’s Temporary Fence  Service and Janette Bunger Realty.

With that said, we are wrapping up our Regionals shirt and getting ready to go to print.   Nofo Lilo’s design won for Best Regionals design and Esther Wodrich’s black t-shirst design was chosen for our next gym shirt!  Thank you so much to everyone who submitted designs. Shirts should be for sale by Tuesday!

Back it up

I’m Mark. A yo-yo dieter on a roller coaster of weight loss and weight gain. Every New Year brings a new resolution to lose the weight – once and for all. I have always struggled with my weight. Lose ten, fifteen, even twenty pounds only to put it back on, plus a little more each time. And, this is me exactly two months before I started at CrossFit Fury. Just hanging on and hoping that this year it would be different. This year is different. My neighbor has been bugging me to join this CrossFit gym called Fury. What have I got to lose?

Sign Me Up

Saturday class was a breeze. Not. 400 meters on a bad knee, shin splints and lungs that haven’t felt the burn of a run in years – and that was the warm-up. Then the real fun begins. Box jumps, push-ups and burpees…oh my. The fatigue was overwhelming. I was the last one to finish, but I made it. Crazy thing is that despite the fatigue and finishing last, I signed up.  I filled out the paperwork and Aimee asked if she could take a “before” picture. “No thanks, I’m good,” I tell Aimee. I have spent my entire adult life being self-conscious about being anywhere in public with my shirt off. Not even my family sees me without a shirt and now a perfect stranger wants to photograph me? “No thanks Aimee,” I repeat politely with a smile as I hide my horror to her request. I try to slink out the front door without any more interaction with this lady. I do not succeed. She opens up a conversation about some Paleo Diet plan and I roll my eyes to myself as I think that it’s just another fad diet. “Let me think about it, see ya Monday.” And I darted out the door.

Basically…

Monday morning arrives and I am stoked! My first Basics class. Yeah buddy, bring it on! I just know that years of lifting weights and doing that elliptical machine are going to pull me through this workout. Wrong. How many box jumps? More burpees? Didn’t we just do these on Saturday? And a row? The whole time I am doing the WOD I hear Coach Kelly yelling at me. I don’t even know if she is yelling to motivate me or because I am doing something wrong, I just remember a lot of yelling. I finish the workout dead last and spend the next several moments on the gym floor looking up at the ceiling trying to catch my breath. To say I was sore for the next few weeks would be an understatement. Despite the incredible soreness, the Basics classes eventually become somewhat enjoyable and within four months I end up being able to do prescribed weights for every workout. My hats off to Kelly, a great motivator, teacher and coach. I owe most of my weight loss to the Basics class – 40 pounds in 6 months.

Then, I finally took Aimee up on her offer and tried the Paleo lifestyle. Once I plateaued with my weight loss from exercise only, Paleo allowed me to drop an additional 20 pounds and has helped me to maintain my body weight for six months now.

Moving On Up
I love Basics! Why in the world would I want to move up?  I am not really into all that Olympic lifting stuff anyway. But, the coaches haven’t steered me wrong yet, so I head into Prep with Marcus. I soon discover that Prep is just more stuff that I will suck at! Marcus is kind enough to show me how to do a muscle up…in slow motion. Seriously? My first day of prep and I am introduced to a skill that I immediately filed into the “impossible” category. Never stop learning, I guess. It’s not long before I move into CrossFit. Actually, my wife informed me that I had moved up after seeing a post Peter made on Facebook. Nice! No biggie. I am definitely up for this challenge. So for the past five months with five workouts a week, I accept challenge after challenge. In addition to my own health, my kids are now also doing CrossFit Kids and they love it. What a great gift to give them so early in life! I need to thank Deana, Will, Josh, Alfred, Kyle and Derek. You have all had significant roles in my improvement and Fury is lucky to have you on staff. Most importantly, I want to thank my wife, Nancy for making this all happen with her never ending support and for enduring the miserable body weight roller coaster with me for all those years!

“The greatest adaptation to CrossFit takes place between the ears.” Greg Glassman

Developing our mental superpowers doesn’t happen naturally as a result of exercising, but it’s an opportunity CrossFit can give you as it ruthlessly exposes our fears and self-doubt. Next time you’re in the gym, here are a few tips to incorporate and exercise your psyche.

Goal Setting: There are 3 types of goals in the world of sports psychology: outcome,
performance and process goals. An outcome goal simply compares your performance
with someone else, for example, beating them! While a goal like this can be motivating,
it also increases anxiety, and too much anxiety can cause your body to work against
you. Performance goals on the other hand, put the focus back on you. Examples of
performance goals would be to complete a WOD faster than your previous time or
banging out all of your air squats on Cindy without stopping. Process goals are moment-
to-moment goals you can implement during a WOD like pumping your arms on the side
of your body (instead of across) when you’re running.

Self-talk: Here’s an easy tool to use in your next WOD or for the rest of your life. Focus on a word or short phrase that emphasizes either technique or motivation. For example, a high school long distance racer repeats “Ole Miss”, his college of choice, when it’s time to position himself during his 5,000 m runs. The only rule around self-talk is to keep it positive and here’s why. When we’re under stress, like a CrossFit workout, our minds are in a highly “programmable” state, in other words, what we say to ourselves goes straight to our subconscious mind, bypassing logic and reason. And our subconscious mind is where our habits are stored, not just our physical habits like the ability to rep out power cleans, but our thought habits too. Repeated thoughts become beliefs, and what you believe becomes your reality.

Relaxation: There’s a certain level of adrenaline needed to execute a great performance and that varies from person to person. A common misconception is that athletes should be totally relaxed before competition, not true! However, if you find yourself feeling overly anxious pre-WOD, you can breathe your way back down to a comfortable level. Big belly breaths or allowing your belly to go “Buddha” will help ease you out of fight or flight mode and into the feeling of having an opportunity before you versus a threat. You can also incorporate breathing into certain movements. Derek calls this “conscious breathing” and has a great tip for the rower!

As with anything, building these habits into your workouts consistently will yield the
mental muscles you need to improve your performance in the gym. And the great thing
is, they can crossover into your everyday life. So if you feel nervous or worried about an
upcoming event outside of the gym, try one of these tips to get you re-focused and on to
achieving your goal.