River North CrossFit and HeritageBBQ Chicago

I flew to Chicago last Wednesday for stop 3 on the HeritageBBQ by COCHON555 tour. (Fun fact, we're supposed to write Cochon555 when it's found in the middle of a sentence, but I think it looks better always capitalized and since this is my blog, I'm going to be a rebel and do what I want.) I overslept and had to take a later flight, but it worked out for the best because I got on the same flight with two of my coworkers. We had so much luggage because we had to bring a bunch of stuff from Toronto and it really helped to have all three of us. We landed at ORD and then took a shuttle to the rental car place. I was able to put my functional fitness to use by throwing a 79# bag of pop-up banners on my back and dragging it to the shuttle stop. The driver made some cute comment about how I must workout and then tried to take the bag from me. His tone changed after that.

By the grace of God, my schedule permitted me to drop in at River North CrossFit for the 8 AM class on Friday. I felt like such shit from San Francisco and Toronto - exhausted, hungry, bloated, dehydrated, and just plain frustrated. Getting an hour to myself to do what I love made all the difference. My only complaint about tour is not really having the space to recharge - both in time and physical space.

I LOVED River North CrossFit. It was a convenient 10 minute walk from the Freehand, where we were staying. The space is large and there's a lot of natural light.

WOD

Clean & Jerk
Every 90 seconds for 15mins
Squat Clean & Jerk (60,65,70,75,80,85,90,95+)

For Time: 
50 Squat Cleans (135/95)
*Every Minute complete 4 burpees

Coach Rob Strube worked with me on my jerk. I know that I have a lot to improve on when it comes to this movement, especially compared to my clean. He had me pause and focus on an explosive drive. I tend to focus on fast feet and it doesn't work that way unless you have your drive down. I used 110# for my 95%.

Coach said to use about 50% of our 1RM for the metcon. I hit a 125# squat clean the week prior and was pretty sure I could have hit 130# so I used 65#. I felt like I did a pretty good job pacing the workout. I got 10 cleans the first round. Then stayed around 5-7 per round, until I knocked out 8 during the last minute. I didn't want to do anymore burpees!

I really wanted to hang out and do some mobility, but I needed to back to get showered and meet my boss at Eataly. The group was great about posing for some photos before I left.

We had events on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I didn't have to attend the Friday dinner, thankfully, but I was running registration Saturday. We partnered with Chicago Gourmet and registration was split between EventBrite tickets and my guest list, which was definitely frustrating. We didn't make it to bed until 2 AM and our alarms we're going off at 5:15.

Our HeritageBBQ event was held at Morgan Manufacturing - an awesome event space. We got there bright and early to set up.

That cardboard box holds this 250+ pound Wilsonart cart. The cart is made of beautiful wood with a gorgeous quartz counter, but it may be the most freaking annoying thing ever. The winning chef in each city takes one home, but we have to pack up the second one to send it to the next city. So far, it has fallen on my foot, my coworker's ankle, broken at least one wooden pallet, and created countless hours of stress. That being said, I definitely want one for my house when I finally become a homeowner.

There's a lot of delicious food at all of our events, but we're often too busy to eat. Chef Bryan Collante of Untitled Supper Club made these delicious ribs and his station was right near registration. I ate 8 servings.