June 2013

Editors note
Welcome to the Spring recap quarterly! This issue is packed with the usual Who Wore it Best, Featured Athletes, Biggest Loser, recipe, and event rehashes as well as some funny. A special shout out to Amy Edelman, Chad Cinqueterra, Ben Oklan, Brandon Demler, and EJ for forwarding me so many photos saving me many hours on Facebook stalking all of you (did you know I did that every quarter? ) Another shout out to our new social committee members: Eric Strauss, Amy Edelman, Melanie Newman, Wingyun Mak, Angela Frank, Alicia Mazurek. Theyve been key in setting up things like the Bierhaus, Dinos BBQ, and the Boat Basin Social. Thanks to Brooke and EJ for all the work organizing past socials!

In this issue
Who wore it best? T-shirts Featured Athlete: Jen Goldick Featured Athlete: Tommy Carter Biggest Loser: Andy Duty Going Paleo: eating fresh, live insects Metropolis Maniacs Winning Streak Mayhem at the Meadowlands Dinos BBQ Bierhaus photos Metropolis runs Murph photos Paleo Recipe: Brownie Cake Bites Announcements

A special good bye

Ashleigh has been a member and coach at Metropolis since its infancy. She is known for her strength, her gentle and supportive touch, and the terrible-but-oh-so-funny-looking lifting faces. Handin-hand with Ash has been Lee, who came and supported members at events and socialized with us. Having finished his graduate studies, he finally joined and made huge jumps in a short amount of time. We will miss Ash-Lee. Good luck in Boston!

Again, this one has a clear winner. Ben has a collection that may make people steer clear of him by crossing the street, especially the cuddle you shirt, or even worse, the erection one. However, we all know he just wants to keep things light when we are dying through a WOD.

Featured athlete: Jen Goldick

She has been around for a while, she is as wise as she is strong. She is super involved in Metropolis events and activities, and she loves the Giants
How long have you been crossfitting? I've been CrossFitting for 2.5 years - all at CFM (1.0 and 2.0)

As one of our veteran Crossfitters, any wise words to the relatively new? I would say just I'm sure your favorite, as well as your dreaded movedon't get frustrated ments, have evolved over time. Can you give us a and listen to your timeline describing some? coaches. For the I didn't really have a favorite movement initially - I had majority of us, it to scale EVERYTHING! So I guess maybe the takes a while to get burpee! Oh, and the pullup - once I got that elusive proficient at these first one without the band, they quickly replaced the new movepush up as my favorite body weight movement. And ments. When I the split jerk quickly became my favorite lift. But as far started I had only as dreaded there were definitely a few. The snatch done bench press has been consistently difficult for me from day 1, with and deadlift with a minimal progress over 2 years. Then I became very barbell, and I was interested in Oly lifting in general, and have been pretty intimidated by spending a lot of time on the technique. Now I love everything else. But them, and just have to become more confident and that faded very quickly with the expert coaching and faster so that I can add the heavy weight. Pistols and support we have here. I was also slow as molasses on muscle ups still elude me. But I will keep plugging everything, and that changed quickly also- CF gets you away at them, cause that's what we do. conditioned fast! Just stick with everything and listen to the coaches! When they tell you to deload the bar Burpee challenge*: how did it start? Why? How did you until your technique is perfect, do it! When they tell and Cankles become the last to survive it? What did you to do the pushups from your knees until you can you learn from it? Would you do it again? get your chest to deck on your toes, do it! Sometimes Someone at the gym you have to take a small step backwards to go further announced they saw in the long run. Leave your ego at the door - I believe another box doing the that is one of our major gym rules! burpee challenge. I think 7 or 8 of us signed Here used to be a ginger crew; are you now the lone up to do a challenge of ginger? our own, and Canks and I were the last 2 standing. I am definitely someone that finishes what I start in all aspects of my life, so it really wasn't a question for me that I would survive it. It was also really helpful to have a friend being tortured at the same time to commiserate with. I learned it is important to go slow and steady to get high reps of burpees, or you will burn out quickly. Hell no! I would not do it again! *Burpee challenge of the summer of 2011: for 100 days do burpees, one on day one, two on day two, and so on until you do 100 on day 100. You skip a day, you are disqualified. Well, gingers are supposedly becoming extinct, so I guess it's no surprise that it is slowly happening at CFM too. But, since MP left us, Kim has come on board, and DT is still here. So, no, not the lone ginger, but certainly one of the select few! Gingers on 3!

Featured athlete: Tommy Carter

If youve wodded with Tommy, it is likely that he finished before you and then spent his time cheering for you, thats why he is the captain of the Green Wieners. Hes a powerful ,cheerful, and Rogue-clad crossfitter.
How long have you been crossfitting? A little over a year. Favorite movement: The clean. Movement you dread: Hand stand push ups will forever own my life. Do the Rogue outfits help? Absolutely. It's a guaranteed 5 lb PR on any lift when wearing some rogue gear. Especially the tees with skulls on them. If you don't believe me, ask Kpo. Any other brands and Crossfit looks you recommend? Eroc put me on to the 2XU compression shorts...they are soo SWEEEEET! Summer is coming, and you are in the "shirts off" club. At what point do you decide to take it off? Sun's out guns out! It doesn't take much for me and if the gym is anywhere near as hot as it was last Summer.... FORGETABOUTIT Most memorable competition moment? My one and only comp so far was the King of Queens this past December. The third WOD was a descending ladder of 275# dead lifts, burpees and 2 pood kb swings. I remember being completely smoked half way through it saying to myself: I actually signed up to do this? And paid to do it? Haha good times. How do you stay smiling through and post wod so well? Not to sound corny, but we are all so blessed to get to come into the gym everyday and do the things we do. I think it's something that we often take for granted.

Smiling through heavy kettle bell swings at a competition

Biggest Loser: Andy Duty

He had just joined Metropolis and decided to dive into the Nutrition Challenge. Holy Moly! Check
What made you decide to join the Nutrition Challenge? I decided to enter the NC because I desperately needed it, for many reasons. One, I knew that regardless of what I was doing in the gym, it wouldn't matter if I wasn't eating right. Second, the way the challenge was set up, as an all-or-nothing, extended time, CHALLENGE, monitored with a buddy system (I had a great buddy-Will Manning!), was the best way for me to kickstart the nutritional aspects of my CrossFit/better-health journey. Third, I was still really new to CF when the challenge started, and I knew that the NC would be a great way to get more involved with the gym, meet more members, and encourage me to step up my game in the gym (one aspect of the challenge was to increase my WODs/week). What was the most challenging? Actually, I loved the diet portion. I didn't have terribly healthy eating patterns at the time of the start, especially coming off the holidays, but I love eating healthy, and I always feel better when doing so, so the change in diet and eating habits were a welcomed part of the challenge for me. The hardest part for me was the 8+hours of sleep a night. I'm a night owl and have a tendency to stay up way too late, especially when I do a WOD in the evening, which was generally the time I would do my WODs. However, I really tried to keep a regular 8+ hour sleeping schedule during the challenge, and it was beneficial. What was the most effective part of the NC? I liked the way the NC was set up and how it was monitored and scored. It wasn't just about weight loss, even though I did lose a decade of pounds. It was all inclusive: changes in strength and endurance through benchmark WODs, daily journaling/ monitoring of food intake, and we even had a great Facebook group where we shared our ups/downs and the many great recipes that all the little chefs in the challenge were cooking up. We could have turned that wall into a cookbook. How have life and diet been post NC? I made significant improvements in my WOD performance, strength and endurance, and overall flexibility so it really put me on a great trajectory for continued improvement at the gym. In fact, in addition to body changes, that was the most significant part of the NC. I was able to see improvements in my performance in the WODs which has given me great encouragement in my CrossFit abilities. I have a long way to go of course, but I'm encouraged. I haven't been as strict on my diet since the NC, but I have tried to implement the main aspects that I learned from the diet portion of the challenge, mainly portion control and eating quality, whole food. I also sleep a lot more.

I cant believe I have to pose topless under this terrible light!

Crappy light dont matter now! Im HOT!

Taking Paleo to a whole new level: Alicia, JCash, Cat, and Ariel contemplate eating insects for protein. Cat backs out when she finds out they are alive. Alicia and JCash have made it a habit. Thanks Wingyun for the tip
To Alicia: Please tell us about the bug eating. Alicia: I believe the bug eating started as a drunken dare between me, Cat and JCash. Not sure how or why it came up, but Jcash brought the crickets last week and Cat bailed. We ate a cricket each (live) and J said he'd bring another bug. So it was a mealworm this week and waxworms next week. We don't have any pics, but we have video of both. The verdict: Cricket - pretty tasteless though slightly nutty. Didn't really gather any crunchiness or anything. Mealworm - it was like a nutty goo. Didn't realize mealworms had legs...freaked me out a little For some random reason I've always wanted to eat a live bug. I think it's due to my obsession with Bear Grylles on Man vs Wild. I guess the benefit is that bugs are accessible and high in protein :) To Ariel: Why are you eating bugs? Do they provide enough protein for all that you do: Ariel: Lol... I don't eat bugs, Jason Castro brought some of them and offer me one. He said it contain protein so I eat some.

To JCash: Where do you get the bugs? How do you pick the ones to eat? How do you keep them fresh? JCash: I get them from the zoo. They are the bugs that I feed out to the animals. Depending on the bug, some bugs need to be refrigerated, others are kept in a warm room. Pretty much all bugs are edible besides like certain beetles.

Metropolis Maniacs
an interview with Rob Seda What do you attribute your winning streak to? Superior training. Seriously though, I think a lot has to do with our collective intimidation factor. Aside from the fact that there are weighted jump ropes, foam rollers and air squats galore, Meredith What are sleeves? Philbrook swims across the East River every week to Roosevelt Island as a warmup. Are there any MVPs? Aside from me? Zach VanLemmeren has done a good job as our QB keeping everyone involved. There have also been pretty strong showings every week from our fellow Metropolis supporters on the sidelines. Who would you give the prize to for most team spirit? or most dedicated? Most team spirit- Id have to say the combination of Brandy and the Tinder app best represent the Maniacs team spirit. Its an epidemic. Ada Smith would win most dedicated after showing up last week directly from Boston, in the rain, for the 2nd half of the game. Do you think that the desire to continue being undefeated will make it too serious and no fun? There is no crying in baseball, and there is no losing in crossfit. We play as a team every week- I think that keeps it fun regardless of the outcome (as long as its winning).

Get psyched for the next Throwdown! Who will lead the winning team?

Mayhem at the Meadowlands: Check out how badass the four teams representing Metropolis are!
Thanks Chad for the photos

Dinosaur BBQ
This ever popular event had an awesome turnout. WOD WOD Thanks Amy for the photos WOD

WOD

WOD

WOD

Totally WOD

WOD

Chicken dance?

How many empty beer bottles have we here? Clean Plate Club

Willkommen in der Bierhaus!

Ein

Zwei
Hes totally goosing me!

Hold that thought, got a call Ha ha! Im totally goosing her!

Drei! Yuck What the hell!

Nom nom nom! Paige is totally Paleo! So happy to be surrounded by these pretty ladies!

Photo bombs!

Endurance WOD

Brooklyn Half marathoners Coach Dave, Coach Lauren, Brian S, Brian A , Ben F , Sandy , Johanna, Karin, Ron, Jessica , Courtney A. and, Laura W.

4 am rise, shine, and run!

4am race

With the rain holding off and the sun shining, Metropolis had an even bigger turnout for Murph than last year! See if you can spot Vikram. Hes hard to see. Check out who Murphed more than body weight.

Pull-ups with a view

3, 2, 1, GO!

Playground takeover!
49, 50!

SUNSHINE!

Featured Recipe: Brownie Cake Bites Thanks Stephanie Miller

http://www.health-bent.com/treats/paleo-browniecake-bites

Again?! Look around, and you will find Brendans image all over: magazines (in case you missed it, he was featured in Shape Mag), posters, websites, YouTube.

Yield: 2 dozen mini muffins

1 (7 oz) package Creamed Coconut (or a scant cup of coconut butter should work too) 3/4 cup chocolate chips or 6 ounces worth of chocolate bars 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 eggs 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Congrats Ariel on another win!

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Line a mini muffin pan with liners. 2. In a large bowl, melt the creamed coconut and chocolate chips together, whisking occasionally, until smooth. 3. Whisk in the rest of the ingredients. Note that there is no additional sugar used in this recipe, so if you like things quite sweet, youll want to add in some additional sweetener. 4. Portion out the batter into the muffin liners. 5. Bake until cooked through, about 15 minutes.