Champlain Valley CrossFit
August 2011 Newsletter
Hope everyone is enjoying there summer. The weather has been sunny and many of you have been making use of your new, faster, better, stronger you, by engaging in your summer sports. Again sorry to all of you for the late newsletter, things seem to be getting pushed back a couple of days every month. Below are a number of topics, and items to keep in mind and think about for the future.
MindBody
This week I began the process of moving all of our billing, membership management, and client tracking to MindBody online. This will a big jump for us, but also one that is needed as the gym continues to grow. Everyone will be issued a scan card which will help us keep track of when you come, how often you come, and will us me know when we haven’t seen you in X number of days. This will also set us up with a point of sale and inventory system, which will help us in the future as I look to offer more products in the gym. Lastly it will give the option for all credit card billing to be online. While we will be continuing to push recurring billing as it’s easier for everyone, you will now be able to go and purchase your membership anywhere where there is internet. This system should do nothing but make the gym as a whole run smoother and more efficient, allowing us to offer you a better experience.
One thing to note there will be a very slight change to some of our pricing, + or – $5, this will only be applicable to those you who are couples coming to the gym. As we get more and more couples, and even families, we are getting many different combinations of memberships. In an effort to not have to come up with a different price for every possible combination of memberships and punch cards there will be a standard % discount issued to couples, families, etc. for any and all combinations of memberships.
CrossFit Total
You have all been working very hard this summer, and a ton of you have been following the Wendler powerlifting program in and effort to get stronger. Remember being stronger makes everything that much easier. If your deadlift goes up 50lbs, it’s going to make it that much easier to pick up the slam ball over and over, or put good drive into a clean on your Olympic lifts. With that being said we will be doing the CrossFit Total on Monday August 29th. I hope we see a ton of you in here. Whether you’ve been training hard all summer or just getting back into the swing of things this is a great benchmark to have and will help you show the progress you’ve made thus far as well as giving you a point to look back on. The week of August 22nd is a deload week for the Wendler cycle, and with a rest day on Sunday everybody should be good to go come Monday for some heavy lifts. If you’re really looking to hit those PR’s make sure you not only rest Sunday, but also eat lots of food to and you’ll be ready to go.
Labor Day
A heads up that we will only be open for a 9 AM class on Labor Day which is Monday, September 5th. We’ve had some awesome, big groups on our Holiday’s so I hope to see a bunch of you in for a great a workout.
Paleo Challenge
It’s summer time, the livin’s easy, and many of you may have slipped of the wagon when it comes to your nutrition. Whether it’s too many slices of pizza, cookies at a BBQ, or a consistent consumption of alcohol, there’s not a better time to get back to eating clean. If you’ve done the Paleo Challenge before and fallen off a little this is a great opportunity to get back into a routine of eating better and feeling amazing…on the other hand you may have never tried eating Paleo or your diet just might need to be really cleaned up. The Paleo challenge is a great way to get your diet cleaned up, feel amazing, shed a little fat, and boost your performance in the gym, and if you hit it hard you may win a little money too, $400 or so last I check went to one of the winners. You will be ranked on your increases in performance, weight loss, and how well you ate, if you’ve got questions first check out the Paleo Challenge link at the top of the web page. There is a lot of great info in there, and make sure you check out the comments in the bottom section. Paleo Challenge will commence on Tuesday, September 6th, and run through Monday, October 5th. We are letting things slide for labor day.
You will need to pay in advance for the Paleo Challenge, it’s $20, and you can sign-up  by putting your name below on the google docs spreadsheet. Once we do our benchmark weights, times, etc. you will be able to fill those in as well. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this.
1 Year Anniversary
Wow I can’t believe it, in just a couple short weeks we will have been open for an entire year. I can’t thank you all enough for being such an amazing and important part of my life, and for being part of such a great community and amazing group of people. You are all awesome. You’ve all become stronger, fitter, healthier, and while this may have started as just a gym thing for you, I think some of the fundamental aspects of CrossFit have carried over into other parts of your lives. Again I can’t thank you enough for supporting myself, the coaches, the gym, and the people around you, you are all amazing. I figured labor day was not the best weekend to have a party, so Saturday, September 10th we will be having a party at the gym. We’ve got a large enough space here to fit all of you. The plan will be to have an afternoon BBQ/Potluck. Classes will still be on for the morning and then we will gather at Noon and go to whenever we need to. I know lots of us eat Paleo, lets try and keep it that way, especially if you’re doing the Paleo challenge, but I know some of you won’t turn away a couple of good treats. In addition alcohol is fine, as long as you bring it, so it’s BYOB for that. Below is a link to a google spreadsheet, I thought this would be the easiest way for everybody to put down what they are bringing. If anyone has questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Fight Gone Bad Fundraiser
On Saturday September 17th we will be participating in the annual Fight Gone Bad Fundraiser. This is a huge fundraiser for the CrossFit community, with affiliates raising over 1.5 million dollars last year. We didn’t participate in it last year having just opened, but we will be hitting it hard this year. In addition I’d like to make this an open house as well. Fight Gone Bad is an awesome workout, and for many people it is a first time workout that turns them on to CrossFit. So bring everybody and anybody you know. Our gym runs because of all the great people we have, and because you all give us such a great reputation, so lets keep with that trend and drag some folks in.
The class schedule will change slightly, and we will be offering more classes in an effort to get more people in here. You can come hit the workout at the following times…
8:00 AM
9:00 AM
10:00 AM
11:00 AM
Below is a link to our fundraising page. I’ve registered with the Fight Gone Bad fundraiser through Rapid Giving so it’s pretty easy to donate money. Last year one team raised over $40,000, while I don’t expect anything near that, I think with the 100 or so folks we have CrossFitting that $2,000 is a very reasonable goal. Feel free to Facebook the link or e-mail it to your friends as well.
Missing Medicine Ball
We’ve been missing a 20lb Dynamax Medicine ball for almost 2 months now. I’m not sure who has it, I don’t remember lending it to anybody, but if whoever has it could please return it, it would be most appreciated. They are quite expensive and it is definitely needed for our classes. Thank you.
Boot Cancer Competition
Sunday, October 2nd is the BootCancer fundraiser/competition in St. Albans. While the gym was very new this time last year, we still had a handful of people compete and had a strong showing with 2nd-6th in the men and 1st in the women. Whether you’re gung ho and want to compete or thinking about possibly getting involved with CrossFit from the competitive sport side, this is a great little local event to attend. I encourage lots of you to do it, it was a great experience last year, and it would be awesome to have a ton of you up there. I can tell you from being there last year, there were ALL fitness levels, so there is no reason anyone in the gym couldn’t go compete. If you’ve got questions or concerns about it you can talk to myself, Kristi, Chris, Trevor, Ken, Elliott, or Erik, we all did it last year.
Concept 2 Fall Rowing Challenge
The Concept 2 Fall Rowing Challenge is upon us, with that being said, is there interest in creating a team. It goes from September 15th to October 15th. This is NOT competitive, it’s a good way to get some extra rowing in, and if you make use of it right it will help you build some extra capacity. I will be working on including a little extra rowing in warm-ups and workouts to help add to your meters. We need a group of 10, and each member has to row 100,000 meters, which averages to about 3,400 meters a day. There isn’t a prize, just getting fitter, but we will get entered into a raffle for a rower, and with 40 teams or so it’s not a bad chance. Below is a link to a google docs spreadsheet, so if you want to sign-up put your name down, and I’ve put days so people can mark their meters down as well. Oh, and it’s FREE.
New Space
I know there has been a lot of talk, certainly a lot from me about moving to a new space. We originally had a space lined up for the summer that fell through and was rented to somebody else. Most recently I was working on a space on Marshall Avenue, but in the end they were asking too much money and we couldn’t come to an agreement. I made the decision about a month ago to invest in more equipment, and have now just made the investment into the Mindbody software so that we can run our existing facility better and accommodate more people here. With that being said we will not be moving anytime in the immediate future. There are no spaces around that provide the right size/price, and while there are spaces out there that fit what we need and can afford I don’t want to change our location drastically. I am actively looking for new spaces though, and as fall comes and the gym continues to grow I’m hoping to be able to make the move towards the end of winter, around February or March. I’m sorry if I got your hopes up, I know I certainly go my own up, but at this point I don’t want to overextend the business and put it in a position where Champlain Valley CrossFit would have to be shut down. I will be continuing to try and refine and maximize our space and make as many training tools as possible available to all of you. Thanks for being patient with our space and I’m going to work to continue to offer you the best experience possible.
Kids Program
Some of you may know Laura who comes to the noon class. Laura owns and run GMA a youth swim program and has done the CrossFit Kids Certification. She along with Dani who will be attending the Kids Cert. in October are going to start putting together a Kids program. We don’t have any dates set yet or times for that matter. Because of our limited space and schedule it will likely just be a couple of days a week, but we are going to be offering a program starting in the fall. I will be sure to keep you guys in the loop as Laura and Dani work on hammering out the details.
So, that’s it for the moment, again there is always stuff I forget, but that’s what you’ve got. Below are some articles for everybody. This time none of them are from me, with that being said if you’ve ever got a good article regarding health, nutrition, training, whatever, send it along and I’ll be sure to include it in the e-mail. Thanks so much for being such an awesome group of people to work, train, and have fun with.
– Jade
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