Lift, Bike, Collapse.................

We started the day at CrossFit Red in Grand Junction, Colorado. Thanks to Patrick for letting us crash his place, pugs and all.

Today was a CrossFit Total, so we joined in as we have not tried a total since early in the new year. Anyway here are the numbers:

Donna:

Back squat: 170#

Press: 80# Back to where it was before the shoulder injury :-)

Deadlift: 245# PR!

Total: 495# Last Time Jan 1st 460#

Matt

Back Squat: 335#

Press: 165#

Deadlift: 404# PR!

Total: 904# Last Time Jan 1st 805#

I guess we can say for certain that strength bias works!

Then we had to work out what to do with the girls while we rode. Turned out Patrick has a friend in Fruita who owns one of the bike shops there, Single Tracks. We headed there and Chris, the owner, recommended a local kennel, Soap Creek Kennels, for the girls. It worked out great, we dropped the girls, picked up a couple of rental bikes (GT Force) and headed for the 18 Road Trails in Fruita.

Donna and I both felt the effects of the heat and the altitude (about 1000 feet higher than what we are used to). That said we hit some great trails; Chutes and Ladders, Kessel Run, Front Edge and Zippety Doo Daa.

A local and some scenery

Donna rocks Kessel Run

Now we are sitting back enjoying a Fat Tire beer (sorry breaking with the paleo beer for tonight) and reminising about meeting here in Fruita 4 years ago!

For those in rainy Boston this is what blue sky looks like :-)

The girls would like a recliner and eating paleo on the road ditch the bun and cheese

Across the mountains........................

A long day on the road today, but the scenery made it worth the while.

Roads were pretty good and traffic was fairly light. We drove from Raton, New Mexico, via Durango to Fruita Colorado. We had lunch at the Cypress Cafe in Durango, very dog friendly, local and organic :-)

Tomorrow we will hit CrossFit Red and hopefully some local mountain bike trails :-)

O Lifting is a great way to start the day :-)

We had a great start to a long day. Jason at CrossFit Oklahoma City welcomed us to his place. Great set up, big space and the most versatile pull up station I have seen.

Today they had Olympic Lifting programmed, so Donna and I jumped in, going for Heavy Single Snatch and Clean and Jerk.



Matt: Snatch 70kg/154lbs C&J 85kg/187lbs

Donna: Snatch 63lbs C&J 103lbs a new PR!


Laura and I compare our shiny blue VS shoes - finally someone else brave enough to wear them.

Luke bangs out a 120kg/264lb Jerk

We both really enjoyed the session even though we did have to leave early to check out and hit the road.

So windy Gingers ears got blown back and they have lots of wind turbines

We headed out through Texas to Raton, New Mexico, another 500 mile 7 hour epic. I thought Oklahoma was flat and featureless, well Texas was even more so. It was nice to finally see some hills in New Mexico and even nicer that the temp is now 80F instead of 100+F.


Tomorrow is another long day, this time through scenic Colorado, we plan on making a few sight seeing stops along the way to Fruita.

No tumble weeds spotted yet, but there is always tomorrow........

Today was a 500 mile run from Memphis to Oklahoma City. 7 Hours in the car and there is not much to talk about, as the scenery is not remarkable at all. Donna broke out the CD's that Trish had made for her and played straw drums on the dash board for the last couple of hours though.




Matt and Ray
Big thanks to Ray for hosting us in Memphis, being our tour guide and chef. Huge thanks from me to Ray for finding Peggy's Mom to make me a home made Pecan Pie. It was the best ever :-) We look forward to seeing you in NZ soon.

Tripping around Memphis

We spent today in Memphis, getting to see some of the sights and enjoy not having to drive for little bit.

We headed to CrossFit Memphis this morning to check the place out and chat with Mike. He has a diverse mix of clients with power lifters, MMA fighters and Oly lifters all in the same space. It was good to learn about some different approaches and techniques. Watch for information on the program he is experimenting with currently, "Strength Balance", we hope to see it in the CrossFit Journal in a couple of months.

Mike, Donna and Matt

Then Ray took us out to see the Memphis sights. Gracelands, Elvis's favourite Krispy Kreme donut shop, the Missisippi River, herds of Buffalo.

Gracelands is back there somewhere I promise

Buffalo roaming wild (no not really)

Also a grain unloading system where the truck is tilted into the air on on hydraulically driven ramp.

Ok so it was the highlight of the tour for me at any rate.

Memphis, must be time for BBQ!

We started the day with Shana, this time at CrossFit East Decatur. She borrowed a wod from CrossFit Austin.

Before and After!

For time:

200 M Run

20 Dumbbell Hang Squat Cleans 55/35 lbs

400 M Run

15 DB Hang Squat Cleans

200 M Run

10 Hang Squat Cleans

400 M Run

Time

Shana: 10:28 Rx

Matt: 11:50 w/50's

Donna: 12:20 w/20's

Jonathan: 13:00 w/40's

Then it was time to say our goodbyes and hit the road to my friend Ray's place in Memphis. I met Ray in Afghanistan and have been meaning to take him up on his offer of a place to stay since I got to the US.

Almost as soon as we got here, it was time to head out for some local BBQ at the Commissary in Germantown. Good stuff, so now we are back at Ray's full of BBQ and trying to get the girls to adjust to the one hour time change.

More box jumps?????????????

Today we had a great drive from South Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia. The girls slept along the way.


Once we hit Hotlanta, we met up with Shana, she is another games qualifier so we will be cheering her on in Aromas as well.

She took us to CrossFit North Atlanta, where Tony and Travis welcomed us in and then hit us with their OWOD (Our WorkOut of the Day).
21-15-9
Box Jump 30"/24"
Push Press 115#/75#
Donna: 7:31 Tuck Jumps/65#
Matt: 7:04 Rx

Shana hit her own version subbing Push Press for Chest To Bar pull ups.

Ginger checks out Shana's box jump form

After that we headed (in rush hour Atlanta traffic grrrrrrrrrrrrrr) to The Corner Pub for dinner with Shana's crew. Good food, great conversation, thanks guys. Now we are back at the hotel and the girls are exhausted, they and we have had a big day. Temp today during the workout 94F/34C.

Ginger, Donna, Jonathan, Brooke, Kath, Shana, Matt, Kiwi

Jeannie has posted on her own blog about our visit to Jeannies Beach CrossFit, check it out here.

Jeannies Beach Rocks!

We arrived a bit early at Jeannies Beach CrossFit so ended up heading down to the beach and walking the girls.

Me and the girls trying to break in early

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Now we can say we have dipped our toes in the Atlantic Ocean, next time we see the sea it will be the Pacific Ocean in California.


Back to Jeannies place and this time we got in to work out. Thanks Jeannie, Jesse and crew for coaching us and cheering us on. The workout was 5 Rounds for time of:
5 Deadlifts (Heavyish)
10 Ring Push Ups
15 Box Jumps
Matt: 8:04 205#/Elevated feet, Arm Cross Over/22"
Donna: 11:19 165#/ Standard Push Ups/20"

The ring push ups were nasty, look to see these in the new MaD CrossFit box in New Zealand. One of the great things about visiting new gyms is that we get to see and experience new things and learn from others so that when we finally open the doors we will have all sorts of tricks and tips to employ.

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Jeannie has a pug as well, a big boy named "Tito" and one of her clients brought her pug puppy "Kip" so the gym was CrossFit and puggy heaven.

Pug friendly? You bet!


Jeannie and her gym are great, she welcomed us in and really worked us over. She is also about to move to a much bigger space so if you are ever in Virginia Beach be sure to look her up. Thanks to Lis at CrossFit Watertown for the recommendation.

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After the workout we hit the road again, this time headed to Florence, South Carolina. Next stop on the whistle stop tour of CrossFit Gyms is Atlanta, Georgia tomorrow.

That was one long bridge....................

330 miles from Pennsylvania to Virginia Beach getting to cross one of the modern engineering wonders of the world the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Not a bad day. Many Sunday drivers along the way but we still made better time than TomTom thought by over an hour.

That's the other tunnel entrance behind them a mile in the distance

Thanks to Greg for hosting us in PA, good food, good beer, good wine, bad movie (Beer Fest)

Mmmmmm grilled pork!

Now we are happily ensconced in the VB Double Tree Hotel, eating chocolate chip cookies and getting ready to hit Jeannies Beach CrossFit tomorrow morning.

Kiwi enjoying her first night in a hotel

Starfish at dawn................................

So today we did a 350 mile run from Cape Cod to Pennsylvania. Not a bad trip despite the rain. The view from the Tappanzee Bridge in New York was amazing. I think today we hit the most states that we will in one day: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.

For some reason the girls got us up at 5am, then proceeded to play with the dried starfish in the lounge. WEIRD dogs!

Tomorrow we head to Virginia Beach :-)