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Stop Stealing Our Rowers People

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up. Today’s edition was chalked up while hanging out at Red Wolf CrossFit in Huntington Beach, CA.

Stop in and say hello if you’re in the area.

P.S. Do these doughnuts make us look fat?

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Masters athletes are just that – masters.” — Unknown

CHALK UP IN 2 MINUTES

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU HIT THE BOX

Transformation Thursday…ALEXIS JOHNSON four years ago, she doesn’t even look like the same person.

Michele Letendre is now training to compete in the 2017 Pan Ams in Miami. FloElite combines all the regionals athletes into one leaderboard to see how athletes’ Regionals performance stacks up against the rest of the field. Happy Birthday Dani Horan. Apparently, Noah Ohlsen tore his pec two weeks before Regionals but still managed to compete and win. Kristi Eramo brings rings with her camping so she can do muscle-ups. Dan Bailey shows you that even when you’re injured you can still find a safe way to scale and get in a workout. Sheila Barden is going in for shoulder surgery tomorrow. An Ex-Marine was working out at his CrossFit box in Stockton, CA when he saw a building on fire, ran inside and saved some 43 lives. How many different synchro exercises can you do with the worm?

For your next weightlifting competitionproper etiquette for the warm-up area, or pretty much anywhere people are weightlifting.

Chalk this up under headlines we never thought we’d read...the accused NSA leaker Reality Winner is an avid CrossFitter. NY Post got it wrong though when they said she competed at Regionals.

REGIONALS REFLECTIONS

Fan favorite Lucas Parker on withdrawing and his future“I had symptoms of some sort of systemic incident somewhere on the spectrum of heat injury…I felt great up until halfway through event 1…Unfortunately, you know the story from there…I’ve run a couple blood and urine tests, with some abnormal (but not immediately life-threatening) results…I don’t have any solid answers yet…So, the question is, am I going to do this again? Will I plan for a comeback, or will I retire and shift my focus? That decision will be guided by my doctors in the coming weeks.”
Tia Wright on Missing Out on the Games Yet Again…”Rippling energy from the weekend still!!! This high was one of a kind and extremely unique, it is a hard one to describe, and will be even harder to replicate. The event, the circumstances, this is unforgettable. The LOUDEST crowd, my team on the finish-line, the layout of the event. By far the most exhilarating feeling I’ve ever felt, going into that final day knowing I needed to win this event to have a chance at qualifying. I will NEVER for get these feelings, and that yell of relief and accomplishment at the end. So much work and sacrifice comes down to one short weekend, I am already ready to get a taste of that regional floor again.”

THINGS TO…

WATCH: CrossFitting Blind

“I can’t tell you what CrossFit looks like, but I can tell you how it makes me feel.” Meet Bettina Dolinsek, a blind CrossFit athlete with her L1 at CrossFit Merle Hay in Des Moines, IA. She shares how CrossFit has transformed her life.
WATCH.

DO: Brute Body is Back

The quarterly cycle of Brute Body is opening back up again. Looking for the why? Read this. Plus the first 100 signups get a free t-shirt.
TIME TO GROW.

EAT: Chicken Veggie Bake

Chalk this recipe up under the “all I have left are veggies and chicken” category. You essentially toss chicken and whatever veggies left in the fridge in olive oil, lemon, and Italian seasoning. Bake and then BOOM, tasty dinner is served!
30 MINUTES.

BUY: Patriot AF Shorts

Shoes, shirts, headbands, shorts, socks, you name it; we love outlandishly patriotic apparel and these shorts from RedLine are right up our red, white and blue alley.
SHOP.

CHALK UP AFFILIATES

HIDE YA KIDS, HIDE YA WIFE, HIDE YA ROWING MACHINE…

A bandit in the Southborough, Massachusetts area has lifted two ergs from Pennant CrossFit. Security camera footage caught the two robbers breaking in at 3:47 AM. Owner Dan Rogan smells some foul play here because it looks like the thieves knew right where they were going.

PAINT BY DOUBLE-UNDERS…

What would happen if you dipped your jump rope into a bucket of paint then jumped on a canvas? Ask Kent Youngstrom who’s creating CrossFit inspired studio art painted with jump ropes, barbells, kettlebells and feet. Think it sounds ridiculous? Check out some of the finished products.

CHALK UP READS

“Mallory Lawson: On Motherhood, Defeat and Staying Elite” by Athlete Daily

Strip away the award ceremonies and medals. Ignore the thunderous screams and applause of the crowd, the deafening emcees and the music thumping as an overlay. This was never about the noise. It was about the silence. The dark moments alone full of sleepless nights, exhaustion and tears, wondering -fearing-that perhaps her best athletic days were behind her.

This is about Mallory Lawson proving -no, refusing- to give in to the notion that being a new mother and a high-level athlete are two mutually exclusive things.

It’s about a woman fighting and clawing to get back into shape, racing against the clock for months before Lawson stood on the podium with CrossFit 417, the second-place Games-bound team out of the CrossFit Central Regional.

“Sibling Rivalry” by Brittney Saline, CrossFit Games

Ben Smith ties Rebecca Voigt for most individual CrossFit Games appearances after spending half the weekend out of contention, Alec Smith joins his brother on the podium, and Cassidy Lance-McWherter takes the new title as the Atlantic’s fittest woman.

Like a 195-lb., 5-foot-11 security blanket, Ben Smith has just always been there. The last man still competing from the Aromas days, he’s competed in every CrossFit Games since 2009, finishing on the podium four times and winning it all in 2015. He’s won his Regional six times, and he also holds the record for most Regional event wins by a male individual athlete (19 before the 2017 Atlantic Regional; 20 afterward).

When he finished Day 1 in 19th overall, 42 points out of a qualifying spot, CrossFit fans everywhere were asking if this was real life. What seemed like smart pacing on Event 1—Smith’s air squats were markedly slower than the rest of the field’s—translated to an 18th-place event finish. He did even worse in Event 2, finishing 19th.

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