Sunday Story...The Open…Final Report. I want to send a big congratulations to each one of you who did the Open on Fridays with us. Every workout was a challenge. Every workout had you doing things that maybe you didn't think you could do, and you tried them anyway. Big congratulations, you deserve a round of applause for your effort. I also really want to send congratulations to the 15 people who registered for the Open. Even though not all of you put in every score, you were there, and I know you got here and were judged on all of your workouts, so good on you! Big, big congratulations to David Savage, who finished in 205th place in a field of over 2,500! It's quite an accomplishment to finish above the top 10% of your field. Now the quarterfinals are coming up for David and me, and we'll be participating in that next weekend, like the Open. The announcement for the workouts shows up on Thursday afternoon. We have until Monday to complete four workouts in five days. David and I will be doing them together. We think on Friday we will do two workouts, 10 and 2, and then the same thing on Saturday. We will have to just see; it depends on what the workouts are and how they shake out. I know the crew at Invictus will have warm-ups and strategies for us to review and implement. We'd like to invite all of you to come and watch us, cheer us on, and judge us. We would love your energy to help us do our best in the quarterfinals. Again, congratulations to each and every one of you for completing these workouts. See you on the leaderboard! If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412

Sunday Story: The Open Week Three We're in the last week of the Open. Some of us have already done this third workout. Some of you are looking at it with mild trepidation. Let's be honest, it is a burner. It's going to punish some people who decide to go out too hot, but it's going to really punish everybody in the end. This is the beauty of Open workouts in general. We are doing our absolute utmost in the workout. Most of us won't qualify for any stage of the competition past the Open, and that's fine. We don't need to. If we do well, let's go to the quarterfinals and see what it brings. Maybe it's not because you're going to go to the Games or anything else. Maybe it's just to challenge yourself a little bit further. How hard can you go? Can you go for an extra 10 seconds? Can you go with an extra 5 reps? Can you lay it out there a little bit further? Can you go deeper into that pain cave and stay there? This is part of the challenge of who we are as humans: challenging ourselves to do really hard things, and to do them voluntarily, not because we must. The fact is that you never know; you don't know how strong you are until strong is the only choice you have. The fact is that when you voluntarily try to do things that are so hard, you are going to move the needle on so many other things in your life, not just your fitness, but your mental toughness, your trust in your capacity, the confidence that comes from knowing you can do hard things. This is where the beauty of the Open lies. See you on the leaderboard. If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412

Sunday Story... The Open, Week Two Week one had us box jumping or box stepping and doing a whole bunch of wall balls. It was 12 minutes, and it pointed out to many of us where some of our training has not been what it should have been. Now here we are in week two, and we've got a very nice triplet of overhead lunges, dumbbell snatches, and a mix of high-level gymnastic skills done under fatigue. If you've been with us following the Invictus programming, you'll notice that we do a lot of fairly high-level gymnastic skills under fatigue. By fatigue, we mean we've done a bunch of stuff, and then we have to step up to the bar or the rings and perform a skill that is difficult to do but even more difficult to do under fatigue, when breath is coming hard and fast, and heart is leaping through my throat. This is one of the beauties of CrossFit: we ask our bodies to do a lot, and then ask it to do something difficult under the best conditions. You might ask yourself, "Why is that important?" The answer is simple. Sometimes we must do hard things that require thinking and frontal lobe work, even when our bodies and brains rebel against doing so. We don't want to do those things when our hearts are in our throats, our vision is narrowing, and our fine motor skills are under attack. It's at that moment that there's a separation between those of us who train for this sort of thing and those who don't. If we don't train for it, it's going to be really hard to hop up on those rings or hop up on those bars and get that job done. Every week is a real eye-opener for all of us. But that is one of the reasons to do the Open! If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly to get started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412

Sunday Story...The Open (again) It's that time of year when the CrossFit season officially opens, and the CrossFit Open begins. It's three weeks (it used to be five). One workout per week. It'll be announced on Thursday afternoon. You must have it done and post it by Monday afternoon. It's a chance to compare yourself with others like you. It's a chance to really lay it on the line and do your best in a workout you have probably never seen before. It's a chance to really up your intensity in a way that you don't normally do day-to-day. Let's be honest, you show up at the gym 3, 4, or 5 days a week, and you're not always at 100%. During the Open, it doesn't matter whether you're at 100%; you are going to do your level best to put 100% of your effort into the workout. Whether it's 5 min, 12 min, 20 min, 100%. I remember my first Open workout, 2012: 7 min of burpees, touch a target, 6 min above 6 in above your head. It was late February in Northern Nevada, cold. I had nowhere to do it but outside on the sidewalk, outside of my martial arts studio. Drop on the floor, hit the cold cement, jump up, and touch a target 6 inches above my head. I had to do it outside; I had no choice. It was the only place I had with a target above my head that I could touch. I finished with 87 reps and 88th place. That started my competitive CrossFit career: 87 burpees in 7 minutes. Since then, I've done that workout several more times and have gotten much, much better. If you ever want to give it a shot, it's tough. Whether this is your launching pad for your competitive career or just a fun 3 weeks of workouts, the Open will challenge you in ways you didn’t know were possible. If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly to get started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

Sunday Story...More Monks! Last week I went to walk with the monks, as I mentioned in last week's story. Unfortunately, we didn't get a 6-mile walk. We only had a 1-mile walk due to the weather, which was actually very nice except for the end, when it started raining cats and dogs. The other thing was that there were a whole lot more people there than I think anybody expected. There must have been at least a couple of thousand people, and it was a crowd of calm, peaceful, happy, harmonious people who were there to celebrate a truly amazing accomplishment. Those monks walked 2,300 miles from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C. Some of them did it barefoot. They did it in the rain, in the cold, in the heat. It didn't matter; they were just walking for peace. In these trying times, and there's a lot going on in the world these days, I'm pretty sure that most of us can get behind peace. Pretty sure there are some universal truths that we can all get behind. We'd all be happier if things happened in a more peaceful manner, in a more harmonious manner, in a way that honored every human's purpose on earth, every human's ability, every human's voice. Everyone deserves to be heard, everyone deserves to be respected and honored, everyone. I hope each of you can walk through your day with peace in your heart, assured of the dignity and respect you deserve as a member of this human race. If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Walk for Peace It's Sunday morning, and yesterday I walked with the Buddhist monks from Fort Worth back to their monastery. These monks walked from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., starting in October and finishing on February 12th. That's how long it took to walk 2,300 miles. Think about that. A 2,300-mile walk. One step at a time. They were walking for peace. They weren't walking to get fitter; they weren't walking for exercise; they were walking for peace. Another Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, wrote a book many years ago titled "Peace in Every Step," and part of that message is that every step we take in the world should be taken with peace in our hearts. Peace in our hearts means that every step that I take, every word that comes out of my mouth, every action that I do is done with kindness and with the idea of generating more peace in the world. That's what it means to me to walk for peace. It's not a protest. It's not a religious ceremony. It's not sanctified; it's not sacred; it's just a walk for peace, and that is something each one of us should do with each and every step. If you were there and you joined me, I hope you felt peace. If you didn't get there, if it wasn't in your ability or on your schedule, I highly suggest taking a little walk today, whether it's one step or a thousand, and do it for peace. If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412

Sunday Story...100 Words When I started CrossFit many years ago, we read "Fitness in 100 Words" by Greg Glassman. The first sentence is, "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat." When we look at that prescription, it's a very healthy way of eating. It starts with meat and vegetables. We eat protein first; that's the meat part. We eat vegetables, which provide some carbs, a healthy dose of fiber, and micronutrients that support our health. When it says, "eat a little sugar" or "eat a little starch," that means a little. We're not eating two cups of rice in a sitting, or even one cup. We're eating a little starch, like squash and sweet potatoes. The other part is "no sugar." And this is the big one for all of us. If you're like me, you love sugar. As humans, we were programmed to eat sugar. The difference between the way we were 10,000 years ago and the way we are now is how we get our sugar and how often. It used to be that sugar was hard to come by. If you wanted sugar from bees, you had to knock the hive out of the tree and risk the stings to get the honey. As a matter of fact, naturally occurring sugars like berries and fruits only occur in season. So, we couldn't get strawberries in December or apples in March. Sugar was hard to come by. And that's why it says, "no sugar." Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. It's that simple. If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Kindness I suspect most of my conservative friends think I’m liberal, and most of my liberal friends think I’m conservative. The fact is simple…I am neither…and I am both. Let me tell you where I stand, because it's really simple. I will paraphrase a quote from the Dalai Lama: "My religion is simple, it is kindness." This is where I stand: On Kindness. Here’s a quick test: if you must ask yourself whether what you are doing is kind, or whether what someone else is doing is kind, 9 out of 10 times (and probably 10 out of 10), it is not kind. Just the fact that you need to ask belies the fact. I remember sitting in a room with Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, the founder of Non-Violent Communication, as he told the story of a session with a twice-convicted pedophile. Now, for most of us (me included), we would have a hard time finding compassion or empathy for someone who committed such heinous acts against any human, let alone a child. And Dr. Rosenberg admitted he had a really hard time finding any empathy for that individual. He forced himself to sit and listen to the man's story without judgment. And he managed to discover empathy for what the man had gone through and the pain he subsequently forced on his victims. This didn’t excuse his actions, it didn’t exonerate him of his crimes, or even mitigate his actions. But by simply listening and showing empathy and kindness, he managed to shift his own judgment and treat another human with some measure of dignity. Now, Dr. Rosenberg practiced nonjudgment and kindness for decades before he could dig so deeply into his own prejudices and judgments. I am not sure I am big enough to do that. But what I do know is that kindness will lead me to finding equanimity and harmony in my own life. Every human, even the worst of us, deserves kindness. Every human, even the saintliest, deserves kindness. Every human, every time…Kindness. If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412