Here Goes

So I decided to start a blog.  Quite an adventure for a techno idiot like myself, but a number of people in my life thought it might be a good idea.  A bit about me and why I'm sharing my training exploits with the unsuspecting world:  I'm the co-owner and Director of Training at CrossFit Will County in Oswego, Illinois.  I've been CrossFitting seriously for close to four years, but training for one athletic pursuit or another, largely swimming and lacrosse, my whole life.  Like many, I've often wondered how I'd measure up to the sport's top competitors.  Earlier this year, at the urging of our optimistic members, I and a few others from our box, entered a downstate competition.  Out of over a hundred entrants, we placed four in the top six.  I won two of the three events as well as the overall, by a signifigant margin.  So what the hell?  Maybe it's time to see how I stack up.  And so begins the road to the sectional qualifier, held early next year in the St. Louis area.  Time to shore up some weaknesses, not the least of which would be, well, weakness.  I'm pretty fast, but shall we say, a bit understrong.  After a number of conversations with James (OPT) Fitzgerald, owner of Optimum Performance Training and winner of the 2007 CrossFit Games, I've decided to follow his training prescription, which can be found at optimumperformancetraining.blogspot.com.  The training is very demanding, usually including a number of doubles and sometimes triples in a typical week, and recovery has already become a slight issue.  But I'll keep working on it and slugging away everyday, warts and all.   Here are a few vitals if anyone cares, some I'm happy with, others I wish would just improve already:
Fran 2:38
Diane 4:10
Grace 2:53
Helen 7:26
Deadlift 385#
Clean & Jerk 245#
Back squat 315#
500m row 1:29
Consecutive pullups 57
Fight Gone Bad 358

Thanks for reading.  More later.
J