October 2019 - Volume 24
The CrossFit Open for the 2020 Games is almost here!!
The 2020 Reebok CrossFit Games Open is the largest fitness competition on Earth and an exciting showcase of the CrossFit community. Here, athletes like you, from all around the world, show up and push themselves further than they ever thought possible over a five-week period. Challenges, PRs and the unknown await. Are you ready?
CrossFit Ripcord celebrates the Open with Friday Night Throw-downs and a friendly in-house team competition. All members are invited to join in the fun, from the newest beginners to the wod-scarred veteran members!
Here are the details for getting signed up and on a team!
- Pay $20 to sign up either for the in-house only competition or sign up at https://open.crossfit.com to see how you score globally. Sign up from now until Thursday Oct 10th to be in the first random team drawing.
- Teams will be randomly assigned, with a mix of RX and scaled athletes, master athletes, and coaches. Team assignments will be posted after class on Thursday!
- Friday classes starting Oct 11th will run the Open WOD in all classes for members who can’t make the Friday Night Throw Down.
- Earn points for your team by participating in the theme of the WOD and any special challenges that occur, plus points earned on the leaderboard! We will use a scoring system where RX reps get more points than Scaled reps, which get more points than further scaled reps, but everyone can play!
So, if this is your first Open or your 8th, don’t miss out on the fun!
- Oct 4th – Free Friday Community WOD @ 5:30 pm! No pitch in this time!
- Oct 11th – Open 20.1 Friday Night Throw Down – Depending on the WOD, we will start heats as soon as 4:30 pm.
- Oct 13th – Ripcord goes spelunking! See our members FB group or Coach Steve for more info. This is limited to the first 10 members who sign up.
- Nov 16th – ExhibFIT Race! We had to reschedule this from Oct but the fun will go on! Look for more details to come!
Member Highlight
Raj Subramanian
- How long have you done CrossFit?
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About 2 years.
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- What is your favorite CrossFit movement/WOD/lift?
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Front squats.
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- What is something that most people at the gym wouldn’t know about you
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I have tryophobia.
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- What is a fitness goal you have for the upcoming year?
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I’d really like to improve my snatches and overhead squats. But first I need to work on my ankle and shoulder mobility!
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- What is a hobby you have that is NOT CrossFit related?
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Coffee, Photography, Woodworking among others…
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- What advice would you give someone who is afraid to try CrossFit?
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Trust the coaches. They will help you find the right scaling option and weight that’s suitable for you. In the end you’ll get a good workout, and will have fun doing it.
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- Tacos or Pancakes?
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Tacos
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Lemony Lentil Soup from https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/lemony-lentil-soup/
This is a great recipe to bridge the seasons from summer into fall! The citrus flavors remind us of the warm summer sun and the hearty lentils provide nourishment for those fall hiking adventures! Check out the link for more instructions on using the InstaPot or CrockPot for this soup, plus loads of other vegetarian recipes!
INGREDIENTS
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium white onion, peeled and diced
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 6 cups vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
- 1 1/2 cups red lentils, rinsed and picked over
- 2/3 cup whole-kernel corn
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- (optional) pinch each of saffron and cayenne
- zest and juice of 1 small lemon
- sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper
Directions:
- Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add onion and carrots and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and translucent. Add garlic and sauté for 1 more minute, stirring occasionally, until fragrant.
- Stir in the vegetable stock, lentils, corn, cumin, curry powder (plus saffron and cayenne, if using) until combined. Continue cooking until the soup reaches a simmer. Then cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are completely tender.
- Using either a hand blender or traditional blender, puree the soup until it reaches your desired consistency. You may need to do this in batches if you’re using a traditional blender. And always be careful, since hot liquids expand while blending.
- Return the pureed soup to the pot, and stir in the lemon zest and juice until combined. Taste and season the soup with sea salt and black pepper as needed. (The author used about 1.5 teaspoons salt and 0.5 teaspoon black pepper.)
- Serve warm. Or refrigerate in a sealed container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
FAQ’s about the OPEN and Friday Night Throw Down
We have a lot of new members since the last Open, so I thought it would be helpful to answer some common questions!
- What is this whole CrossFit Open thing anyways?
- The Open used to be the only way athletes could advance to the CrossFit Games, back when there were Regional events. But for us, it was never about making it to the Games, it was about the community aspect of every cross fitter in the world doing the same workout in the same 4 day period! It’s pretty cool to be able to message your friend over seas and commiserate about how hard a workout was! Now that athletes have other avenues to the Games, the community aspect is an even bigger part of the Open.
- What are the workouts like?
- Good question! As far as we know, Dave Castro is still programming the WODs, so we expect them to be challenging! Typically they will be between 5 – 20 mins long, designed to let the absolute best athletes showcase their fitness but with proscribed scaling options for all levels! Basically, it’s just another workout for us!
- What about teams?
- We encourage our members to sign up either with us for our In House Competition or on CrossFit.com for the global competition because it is a good opportunity to push your limits! The teams also make it more fun! You will earn points for your team by doing the WOD and any special challenges and/or costumes. The teams will be randomly assigned. Don’t stress if you have to miss a WOD for some reason, it’s all just for fun!
- Walk me through a typical Friday for this….
- If you are a dedicated AM or mid-day person, you will have the opportunity to do the same WOD in your normal class. If you are available to workout in the evenings, then join in the fun!
- The evening Throwdown will run heats of athletes with judges. Show up to the gym before 5 pm if possible. There will be a standard warm up but it will NOT be like a class, it will be on your own.
- Sign up for a time slot on the white board.
- One of the coaches will explain the WOD and standards before the first heat.
- Go HARD, crush the WOD, then cheer on the other heats!
- After everyone is done, several groups usually go out for some food and fun!
- What if I’m a new athlete/have an injury/have to scale/etc.
- No worries!! The WOD’s can be scaled to all levels, and all people will earn points for their team!