Where are the posts?!

To our readers -

You may have completely abandoned this site (no offense taken) due to lack of content or are simply wondering, ‘where the #$%& are your posts?!’  The blog authors of the West Loop Paleo site have been asked to begin contributing to the CrossFit Construct site.  Thus, the West Loop Paleo – turned West Loop Paleo-ish – and now West Loop Faileo site will be turning off the lights – shutting down – going away – saying sayonara, adios, salut! 

We have thoroughly enjoyed writing and discussing paleo recipes, bowel movements, fungus, stretching, suck lists, injuries, calluses, protein shakes, cheating, FAT, meat, drinking and CrossFit.  If you want to read more from these talented bloggers, visit CrossFit Construct.  If you never again want to read about this stuff – well, you should probably stay away from the site.  Although, where else can you read about poo on Monday, interval training on Tuesday, a recap of the CF Games on Wednesday, lifting a sh*t ton of weight above your head on Thursday and that b*tch FRAN on Friday?!

Best of Luck!  Follow us on CrossFit Construct!

Crossfit Open

We all know of the clusterf*&k that was the beginning of the online crossfit open (if you missed it, check out Drywall's blog for a nice summation of what went down). This mind blowing experience then led to the geniuses over at HQ extending the deadline for WOD #1, which lets be honest, has no physical benefit whatsoever besides making you want to vomit. Great.

But, while i mock the brain trust that programs this foolishness, I have not been as excited or experienced a more competitive, encouraging atmosphere than last saturday at the Crossfit Chicago box. dShea, dbone, tyler, and myself gave it go at 2pm with others from LP and some non-affiliates. let me provide you with a quick summation of events:

2pm, heat 1 (check out ramsey's videos):

dshea

dan got placed in heat 1 while tyler, dbone, and myself got placed in heat 2. dan decided having four espressos prior to "go time" was a grandiose idea. we all sat around like nervous little school girls debating how we were going to tackle this beast. all i kept saying was it is only 10 minutes, we do this everyday. derek, on the other hand, not nervous at all stated he was going to crush 1 of these 6 WODs...as you shall see below, i dont think it was WOD #1. back to dshea, he began strong with fast as hell DUs (first time with speed rope) and then some quality snatches. around round 3, though, he began to get tired and there was dbone encouraging/yelling at him to breathe and pick up the bar with short breaks (this will be ironic in the next paragraph). round 4 began and there was dshea telling his judge to find him a bucket because he wanted to vomit. staying classy CFconstruct. from there, its history. all-in-all, dshea was the guinea pig for our group and he smoked it...maybe next time, just layoff the espresso to avoid the vomit. kid's DUs were quick as hell.

heat 2

twubs, ty, dbone...all next to each other in respective lanes.

after a bit of stretching, making sure i could lift the damn weight and getting the typical shit-eating grin from Rudy which i believe means, "i know you are screwed, you know you are screwed...this should be quite entertaining", the LP box got a lovely surprise...dbone decided he did not like his current attire and was going to go shirtless. and i quote, " it is going to get jiggly up in here"...followed by bryce chanting, "chubby derek, chubby derek"...chubby is a relative term in crossfit, i.e. if you have >4% body fat. tyler during the grand majority was quite stoic. but i digress, with jonny running a tight ship, the gun sounded and we were off. (from here on out, i can only speak for myself). DUs were strong, and I snatched the first round. DUs strong again, but snatches got heavy in a hurry. proceeded to clean and jerks...money. saw Billy S do this and decided that man is fast as hell, it cannot be that bad. at about this point, everytime i got to DUs, I would catch dbone out the corner of my eye...resting. i was like WTF!, he is crushing this, he even has time to have an ongoing convo with Rudy...continuing on to round three...knocked it out. not that bad...then...the wheels fell off...once the 10 minutes were up and i was doing the "bacon sizzle" on the ground, i proceeded to hear derek laughing again!? he though it was an 8 min amrap, then i found out that derek drank the kool-aid on rudy's theory, "work fast, long rest"...he took this to the fullest.

to get mushy for second, after each heat, everyone came around to those competing to give them a pound/high-five and tell them nice work. like i stated before, awesome atmosphere. anyways...i stayed for the final 3 heats to watch some doods crush it, i.e. nate, kurt, bryce, erin, the usual suspects. ridiculous.

so, while this post has been biblical in length, i just wanted to make the point that...why arent more people doing this (ladies...)!? especially, those who have crossfitted for at least 6 months and the fact that now derek has signed up Construct as an affiliate so we can do the workouts in our box. I know im not making the games, and i know there will be certain workouts where the Rx is too heavy and ill struggle to get one rep. who cares, the competitive atmosphere is amazing. im not using it to get better at certain exercises, because it wont make you better, it is the work you put in prior that shall make you better at the movement.

(i guess this makes up for everyones' writer's block for the about the next 3 weeks)

Transition Time!

Sorry this is a short post but just wanted to let you readers of this blog know that we're working on merging our site with CrossFit Construct's site and want to extend an invitation to all of you who are/would be interested in participating by submitting an article or something about yourself to the new blog! Please let us know if you're interested! We would LOVE to hear about your experiences, thoughts or questions!

Warmin' Up

I’m not talking about the weather.  I’m not even talking about stretching.  I am literally talking about ‘Warming Up’, pre-skill work, pre-WOD.  What gets your juices going?  How do you know your body is ready for the skill work or the WOD?  Do you ever feel you need more of a warm up?  Less?  What makes up the most effective warm up for you?

And…A recipe!  Paleo Slaw - Purple Cabbage, Mango, Red Onion, Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Salt & Pepper to taste!

I Have a Need For Speed

*Fam emergency:( Sorry for my tardiness*

So I have been a jogger for years. I started faithfully leisurely jogging while in college. I had put on the freshmen forty and needed to drop some poundage in my junior year. I gave up the 2 liters of soda per day, and started jogging and "voila!", 30lbs melted off like magic:)

I wish it were still that easy to drop off a little booty meat, but I know my body is now used to the leisurely jog and no longer shocked by it. A few of you suggested intense interval training to switch things up, and I have been trying to do that on warmer days tabata style. 20 seconds fast run, 10 seconds leisurely jog. The only problem is that my "fast run" is not very fast! I mean it is definitely faster than my jog, but it doesn't feel crazy intense.

I know some of us have began posting about running technique, and maybe you have some advice for me as far as sprinting goes. However, I would also like to know if it is possible to significantly increase your speed through some type of training. Is there something that I can work on in particular that will give me more speed? I did some searching on Google and saw "speed training" and "interval training" as ways to increase speed, but they seem the same to me. Can anyone provide advice and enlightenment.

Ouch!

A few times during a WOD, I have either been tired or just not paying attention to form and have hurt myself. During my first few months, I was doing a longer WOD that included thrusters, running and kb's. I started to get really fatigued but didn't want to break up my last set of thrusters. Then BOOM, I hit myself in the head with the barbell really hard. Ouch! I think I was really surprised and made a funny face and kept going. Of course a few people had to see it. I think John A was one of them. I had a nice red goose egg on my head for a few days.

Then about two weeks ago, while doing push presses, I hit myself in the nose. What?!?!? That REALLY hurt. The barbell scraped skin off my nose and I hit it so hard I got a bloody nose and my eyes were watering. I somehow managed to finish but my nose hurt for two weeks after that.

Now I want to hear your stories so I don't feel so bad about myself. I am just a really good exerciser that can by klutzy at times. :)

Let the GAMES begin!

Tomorrow CrossFit will release the first round of WODs to qualify for the games. I'm really eager and excited to see what they will be and curious to see how this new set-up will work. Does anyone have any favorite athletes (Mikko Salo and Camille LeBlanc) or predictions for the winners this year?? Make sure you check out the CrossFit Games website to stay updated! Here is a video of the badass, grueling craziness to come...