CFTC Social Media & Blog
March 2023 Newsletter
March 2023 Bells & Bars
The Monthly CFTC Newsletter
CFTC Team-
Whew - that was a busy February and start of March. Following the Open, we needed to take a quick break to regroup after all the activity of the last few weeks so we apologize this is getting out a little late. Did you know we started coordinating this year's Open back in December?
We had 15+ people join us for our Friday Night Lights Open Scored Sessions, in addition to workout setup, rescheduling makeup sessions and making sure everyone met the workout standards. We're especially grateful to Coach Daphne for leading all of the Open work and to Coaches Abbey and Brandon for assisting with the workout explanations and to Nathalie for the great photos. (Thanks Christian for the great group shot above.)
Interested in improving on what you learned from the Open?
The last follow-up from the Open - doing these workouts can be a humbling experience. Is there anything that came up in the Open that you'd like to work on more? Please let us know!
For March, the rest of the highlights are:
Improved free trial process - the perfect chance to spread CrossFit to those you care about
Murph prep begins - Murph is an annual Memorial Day challenge involving running, pull-ups, push-ups and squats. We will be incorporating these movements in various ways leading up to the May challenge
CrossFit Kids resumes - our first Spring class was Thurs. 3/9 but there's still time to sign up
A review of the Open at CFTC - check out our awesome competitors
Love CFTC? Remember to leave a review.
-Jon & Marcus
Events
Improved Trial Process
We love welcoming new faces to CFTC, and we want to also continue giving the attention deserved to our core classes. So moving forward, trial clients will have a dedicated coach to walk them through their first workout. Let us know if you or someone you know wants to check out CFTC.
The only other difference is trials will only be available to sign up a week ahead of time so we can plan accordingly.
CrossFit Kids Continues
Our CrossFit Kids class continues to meet Thursdays at 4:40PM. We have a great, motivated group these days, and they are making great progress.
Programming Corner
The next programming phase is a strength-building phase that begins on April 10th. Until then, we have a few things we'll work on:
Integrate some "forgotten" CrossFit movements like the Sumo Deadlift High Pull and Inverted Burpees we tackled this week
Build endurance volume for Murph, particularly for push-ups, pull-ups and running
Execute two additional CFTC benchmarks to help us track progress
Announcements
A Review of the 2023 CrossFit Open
We had 3 teams participate -
Black Team - Abby R, Bill, Daphne, Jean, John L, Nathalie and Noah
Blue Team - Abbey B, Jeanna, Juan, Julieta, Marcus, Meg
Green Team - Angelica, Denis, Jane, Magdi, Paul, Sam
Drop-In Member - Chris P
Spirit of the Open and final team standings will be announced soon
Meg made it to the 90th percentile for her age group!
Drop-In Member Chris P earned a 66th place finish in the 55-59 for the Scaled division in the world
Doing these workouts can be a humbling experience. Is there anything that came up in the Open that you'd like to work on more?
Coach's Eye - Noah
Congrats to CrossFit Teens athlete Noah! Although he's still too young for an official CrossFit Teens Games age group, Noah participated in the Open this year and tackled each workout with a hard-working attitude. Since joining our Teens class, last Fall, Noah has been consistent and brings fundamentals learned from a CrossFit New England gym to our VA gym. Although our Teens class is pausing for a bit, we're glad Noah could join for a litte while. Watch for him on the leaderboard next year.
February 2023 Newsletter
February 2023 Bells & Bars
The Monthly CFTC Newsletter
CFTC Team-
Happy February! Thanks to Coach Abbey for a great shot of the 5:30PM class earlier this month.
You may have seen some notices about the CrossFit Open going around. If you're new to CrossFit, what the CrossFit Open means to your daily CFTC experience is that workouts on Fridays on 2/17, 2/24 and 3/3 will be the same workout performed at CrossFit gyms around the world. Even if you don't do any more than show up, it's pretty awesome to be involved with something like that. For those that want to have some additional support and cheering, we'll have scored sessions that meet at 6:30PM on Fridays for those same weeks. We'd love for some more people to join in for these high-energy sessions. If that sounds fun (or scary), you're the perfect candidate. Sign up here >>
For February, the rest of the highlights are:
CrossFit Open is around the corner, three weeks to Revere Your Fitness
Check out some great nutrition tips from Coach Cece below
CrossFit Teens - bring a friend on Monday, 2/6
Love CFTC? Remember to leave a review.
-Jon & Marcus
Events
The Open at CrossFit Tysons - "Revere Your Fitness"
What does it mean to revere your fitness? To revere means to honor, to admire. And we respect our fitness by trying our best for three weeks to see what we're capable of leading into and executing those three weeks.
Sign up for Friday Night Lights where we'll form teams and encourage each other to have your best Open
All are invited to a post-workout hangout on 3/3 following the last workout
CFTC Teens Bring a Friend Day
Teens meet Mondays in February, and for the first week, on 2/6, we'd love for you to check out a class. All CFTC community is encouraged to check out a class for 50% off a trial class. Use code TEENSFRIEND2023. Teens Bring a Friend Day Sign Up >>
Programming Corner
We continue a "Fitness" phase that runs through February. In addition, we will be adding completing CFTC benchmark workouts to help you track your fitness progress.
What's a CFTC Benchmark?
CrossFit Tysons has created nine workouts named after attractions local to the area that will help you understand your current fitness level.
The CFTC 9 Trials are below. Can you guess what each entails?:
Trial No. 1: "Term Limit" - completed on 12/31/22
Trial No. 2: "Potomac View" - last completed on 1/26/21
Trial No. 3: "Red Line" - last completed on 1/30/23
Trial No. 4: "Billy Goal Trail" - last completed on 1/7/22
Trial No. 5: "Wolf Trap" - last completed on 1/19/22
Trial No. 6: "Monument" - last completed on 1/19/21
Trial No. 7: "Shenandoah" - last completed on 1/28/20
Trial No. 8: "495" - last completed on 1/7/21
Trial No. 9: "Commander in Chief" - last completed on 1/7/22
Announcements
Nutrition Tips from Coach Cece
Although you may not see her in person too often, Coach Cece has been sharing lots of great nutrition tips via our instagram page. Check out a few quick links and feel free to drop a question in the comments!
If you're interested in personal nutrition coaching, check out more details >>
February Schedule
On Presidents Day - Monday 2/20 - the following classes are cancelled, all other classes held as normal:
6:30AM Group CrossFit
6:30PM Group CrossFit
7:30PM Teens
Friday Night Lights
No regular 6:30PM class on 2/17, 2/24 and 3/3. Gym will be used for CrossFit Open scored sessions. Come out and cheer us on if you're not participating!
Congrats to the current Nutrition for Performance participants. All are doing great, stick with it for a few more weeks through the Open!
Coach's Eye - Coach Victor
Congrats to Coach Victor - he recently finished up night classes to improve his emergency response education. If you didn't know, Coach Victor is a full-time firefighter in Virginia and uses CrossFit to excel on the job. If you know someone interested in getting physically ready to pass the Physical Assessment Test for firefighting, Victor would love to help.
January 2023 Newsletter
January 2023 Bells & Bars
The Monthly CFTC Newsletter
CFTC Team-
Welcome to 2023! Thank you to everyone who came out to our Holiday Party - the gift exchange was great, and we added some new superlatives this year. Shout-out to John Lee for winning the Top Gear award - always coming ready to throw down, to Abby - for the Best Addition to Your Zombie Apocalypse Team because she never gives up, and Daphne - for the Model Class Attendee - she's always encouraging, whether coaching or joining in for a class. Be sure to come out and vote next year.
We head into the new year with a new coach on staff - welcome Coach Lan! In addition, we have many programs kicking off in 2023.
This time of year is a great time to bring in friends and family to CFTC - sign up by 1/2/22 to receive a free piece of apparel. As a reminder, for any member who refers someone to the gym, they also get 50% off the next month, just fill out this form.
For January, the highlights are:
Nutrition for Performance - get help optimizing your nutrition at the start of the year, sign up by 1/3/23.
CrossFit Open is around the corner, three weeks to Revere Your Fitness
Restart of youth programs - CrossFit Kids meets Thursdays starting 1/12
Love CFTC? Remember to leave a review.
-Jon & Marcus
Events
The Open at CrossFit Tysons - "Revere Your Fitness"
What does it mean to revere your fitness? To revere means to honor, to admire. And we respect our fitness by trying our best for three weeks to see what we're capable of leading into and executing those three weeks.
Join us for a nutrition challenge that will run Jan. 9 through the first week of the Open.
Nutrition focus includes
Personalized macronutrient guidance from Coach Cece
Body composition readings
3 weeks to build a nutrition base followed by 3 weeks of performance focus
Even if you don't join in for the nutrition part, sign up for Friday Night Lights where we'll form teams and encourage each other to have your best Open
CFTC Youth classes begin the week of 1/9
Teens classes start Monday 1/9, meeting at 7:30PM Mondays
Kids classes start Thursday 1/12, meeting at 4:40PM Thursdays
Receive a discount using code CFTCYOUTHWINTER23 if you sign up by 12/31/22
Programming Corner
We continue a "Fitness" phase that runs through February
Fitness Phase Overview
We started the fitness phase a few weeks ago, and you may have noticed a number of "chippers" - a series of movements that don't repeat, and you chip away, one by one
The next few weeks will be a triplet focus
Specific Goals and Focus Breakdown
Weightlifting: Increase max output work capacity
Snatch & Clean & Jerk: High percentage lifts under fatigue paired with low percentage cycling
Strength: Squats, bench press and pulling from the ground in a progressive cycle
Be sure to record your lifts in Wodify
Announcements
Welcome to Coach Lan!
Landis joins us after spending time coaching in Colombia and as an experienced CrossFitter, originally from Venezuela
Lan also has experience with Parkour, so definitely listen to his body awareness tips
It's great to have another Spanish-speaker on staff, so stop by a morning class to say hello
January Sign-Up Specials
New members that sign up by 1/3/23 receive a free piece of apparel. Rates for new members will be increasing slightly after this, so sign up soon. Sign up >>
For current members who refer friends or family, we offer 50% of the next month. Sign up >>
Coach's Eye - Melia
Did you know... Melia has worked out at the same gym as fittest man on earth Justin Medeiros? Aside from that fun fact, Melia is a consistent, hard worker from our evening classes who stays focused and always is looking to improve her technique. We love that attitude and celebrate her for it.
Nutrition seminar
Join us for a nutrition seminar Wed 1/11
All are welcome to attend our nutrition challenge seminar tonight at 7pm! Even if you aren't part of the challenge, we'd love to have those interested in nutrition in any aspect attend. Coach Cece is knowledgeable about lots of topics and may have time for some questions at the end.
Topic: Nutrition Seminar
Time: Jan 11, 2023 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us05web.zoom.us/j/84193510607?pwd=SjRXRi9vOFAvZXQxa3ZIRy9DZHRBUT09
Meeting ID: 841 9351 0607
Passcode: 3t7yqA
Programming Corner: Fitness Phase
CrossFit Tysons Corner Programming focus for Winter 2022-2023 provided by DekaComp
Writeup provided by DekaComp
COMPETITION READY
Duration: 14 Weeks
Includes Prep for the CrossFit Games Open & Quarter Finals
Welcome to the Deka Comp Fitness Training Phase, a phase where we will build off of our Base Strength, Weightlifting, Gymnastics, & Power Endurance Phases with a focus on blending everything we’ve done this past year with progressively natured, functional movement, executed at varied intensities. This cycle is where you will notice the least amount of distinction between sections.
At the core of this phase is the CrossFit method with a competition bias. We will specialize in being as broad and competent as possible across the 10 physical skills and the components that represent them. In the power endurance phase, we merged a lot of fitness components but maintained a training separation (for the most part) in the three major areas of: Intensity, Volume, and Speed. Now we focus on blending everything but in a gradual manner. Since we spent a long time building a strong and capable foundation by separating the components of fitness, then increasing the ceiling of your work capacity via the power endurance phase, we can now transition nicely into the broader focused fitness phase. We will work towards increasing our ability to maintain efforts over broad time and modal domains. Essentially we are improving the sustaining of rep cycle speed and duration.
Progression
This is an intensity progression from a load and metabolic standpoint. So overall you will notice a linear progression in the weightlifting reps and percentages week to week but you will also notice that we will ask you to increase your metabolic intensity week to week systematically. To do this we will begin the phase with 80% of the weekly training session as high volume / 20 % of the sessions as low intensity sessions, we will gradually focus on reducing the volume and increasing the overall intensity to a 50/50 weekly split during the open. We do this in order to prepare specifically for the Quarter finals. Before the Quarter Finals we will have the final week of the Open dedicated to completing 23.3 on the Friday, followed by a Mock QF’s week-end on that same week-end. We will use 23.3 as one of the training pieces for this week-end. You will then enter the two week taper period, which will feel like a deload and a prep, in order to allow for the maximum supercompensation of the year to occur for you. It’s important to note that all athletes are different and respond to different tapering methods differently. That said, this will be a general taper in order to allow for the benefit of the majority.
Testing
Our testing will be unlike the rest of the year, due to the nature of this phase. We will use actual CrossFit competition tests, rather than testing for specific physical skills and they will appear in a different format than we normally use. We generally book end the phase with a week of testing, the fitness phase includes multiple cycles within the phase and we will simply conclude each cycle with one test based on the cycle focus. (see ‘cycle focus’ below)
CYCLE FOCUS OVERVIEW
General
Week 1-4: 80/20: Chipper Focus
Week 5-8: 60/40: Triplet Focus
Quarter Finals Preparation
Week 1-4 50/50: Couplet- Weekly Open Focus + Mock QF
Week 5: Taper week
Week 6: Taper Week + QF
Specific Goals and Focus Breakdown
*Keep in mind these are biases and focuses not periodization excluding the squat and bench press cycles.
Weightlifting: Increase max output work capacity
Snatch & Clean & Jerk: High percentage lifts under fatigue paired with low percentage cycling
Strength:
Squats: Progressive overload back squat cycle
Pressing: Progressive overload bench press cycle
Pulling off the ground: Weightlifting will be very demanding so we will reduce the frequency of heavy loads here but will maintain this integrity via metcons and accessories.
Accessory: Post Chain + Core focus on strength and stability
Gymnastics: Increase work capacity and stamina
High skill movements under fatigue paired with low skill, high rep cycling
Metcon: Progressive over intensity
Chippers: 80/20 - Volume/Intensity format
Triplets: 60/40 - Volume/Intensity format
Couplets: 50/50 - Volume/Intensity format
Open Weakness: 1x/week In order to specifically hone in on your weakness.
EMOM 10
Amrap 30 sec
Choose a weak movement. This movement must be light (below 50% of your max rep if it's a barbell).
Movement Conditioning: 1-2x/week in order to specifically address regular occurrences in online competition.
Accessories: Free Volume and maintenance
Posterior chain 3x/week
Core 2x/week
Shoulder Health 1x/week
Upper back 1x/week
December 2022 Newsletter
December 2022 community events and announcements at CrossFit Tysons Corner
December 2022 Bells & Bars
The Monthly CFTC Newsletter
CFTC Team-
The Holiday season is approaching, and we're here for it - warm fires, hot drinks, cold and darkness all around. What's not to love?
A warm welcome to all of our CrossFit Kids participants for this session - Emily, Emily, Zora, Gwyneth, Matthew, Makena, Brianna, Mia, Calina, Keira, Lena, Madison and Hannah, and welcome back to adult member Sinan.
For December, the highlights are:
Holiday Party - tonight at CFTC! See details below. Begins 8PM on 12/10
Good Habits, Better Holidays challenge update
The CrossFit Open - a 3-week celebration of fitness is coming soon. Make it your best showing by getting ready with a new-year nutrition challenge, more details here and below
Holiday Hours - read below
Love CFTC? Remember, you can always bring a friend or leave a review.
-Jon & Marcus
Events
CFTC Holiday Party
Join us for a party - we will provide some drinks, snacks and holiday cheer.
We ask you to bring a dish to share and an optional gift ($20 or under) for an evil santa gift exchange.
We hope to see you! Family and friends are welcom
Sat. 12/10 at 8PM at CFTC
Good Habits, Better Holidays habit builder
Use the time we have in December before Christmas to build some fitness momentum heading into the new year.
Get access to a daily habit tracker and advent-style calendar for something to focus on each day
The goal is to set and achieve a goal number for each of the following from 12/1 - 12/26:1 hour of exercise, eat clean (limit sugar, alcohol, eat lots of veggies, etc.), 60+ oz. of water + vitamins and bonus habits of good sleep, meditation and gratitude journaling
Encourage members Magdi, Jeanna and Joe who are all making great progress so far.
Sign up here (current members - $5 or non-members - $25)
Programming Corner
We begin a "Fitness" phase, beginning the week of 12/12
Fitness Phase Overview
Welcome to the Fitness Training Phase, a phase where we will build off of our Base Strength, Weightlifting, Gymnastics, & Power Endurance Phases with a focus on blending everything we’ve done this past year with progressively natured, functional movement, executed at varied intensities. This cycle is where you will notice the least amount of distinction between sections.
Week 1-4: 80/20: Chipper Focus
Week 5-8: 60/40: Triplet Focus
Specific Goals and Focus Breakdown
Weightlifting: Increase max output work capacity
Snatch & Clean & Jerk: High percentage lifts under fatigue paired with low percentage cycling
Strength:
Squats: Progressive overload back squat cycle
Pressing: Progressive overload bench press cycle
Pulling off the ground: Weightlifting will be very demanding so we will reduce the frequency of heavy loads here but will maintain this integrity via metcons and accessories.
Gymnastics: Increase work capacity and stamina
Metcon: Progressive over intensity
Open Weakness: 1x/week In order to specifically hone in on your weakness.
Movement Conditioning: 1-2x/week in order to specifically address regular occurrences in online competition.
Accessory: Post Chain + Core focus on strength and stability
Announcements
The CrossFit Open is around the corner
We're doing things a little differently this year to get ready for the CrossFit Open.
The Open is a a three-week international event where anyone — regardless of fitness level or ability — can get scored in the biggest fitness competition in history. The 2023 Open will take place from Feb. 16 - March 6.
Leading up to the Open we will have a nutrition challenge with personalized suggestions focused on performance.
Holiday Hours
No Classes
12/25
Cancelled Classes
12/23 6:30PM
12/24 9:30AM
12/25 6:30AM
12/26 - 12/30: 6:30PM
12/31 9:30AM
Always check Wodify for most recent schedule
CrossFit Kids and Teens Upcoming Sessions
Stay tuned for a next session announcement
Sessions resume the week of 1/9
Coach's Eye - Alex
Alex has been with CFTC for a few months now, and the evening classes are glad to have him as a member. He has been making great progress with CrossFit and we're glad he found CFTC to reignite his CrossFit passion.
November 2022 Newsletter
November 2022 community events and announcements at CrossFit Tysons Corner
November 2022 Bells & Bars
The Monthly CFTC Newsletter
CFTC Team-
We're in the heart of Fall, and we've had a lot of full classes both in the mornings and the evenings. It was great to see one evening class where every cardio machine we had was in use with members and coaches doing the workout - 8 rowers, 3 bikes and 1 ski erg all cranking away.
A warm welcome to our new morning members - Carl, Joe and welcome back to Isha.
For November, the highlights are:
Happy Hour Nov. 1 at Solace Outpost 7PM
Welcome to new coach Landis (goes by Lan), you'll see him around soon
Thanksgiving Hours - read below
Love CFTC? Remember, you can always bring a friend or leave a review.
-Jon & Marcus
Events
Tysons Happy Hour
Join us for a happy hour this Nov. 1!
Look for a coach or one of our evening members - Tyler
Rogue Invitation Recap - Team Style
This Saturday 11/5 the day's workouts will be partner versions of two events from the Rogue Invitational. The Rogue Invitational is a competition similar to the CrossFit Games that tests a variety of fitness.
On Saturday, we'll tackle CFTC's version of Back Attack and DT with a Spin. Check Wodify for the workout details.
Programming Corner
We continue our Power Endurance programming phase.
A few benchmarks to be on the lookout for:
"Karen" - later this week
"Grace" - a repeat later in December
Weightlifting focus:
Back squats and front squats
Jerks
Gymnastics focus:
Lower reps over multiple rounds
Higher level skills
Announcements
Thanksgiving Hours
Wed 11/23 - 6:30PM class cancelled
Thu 11/24 - only 9:00AM class (Kids class cancelled)
Fri 11/25 - only 9:00AM, Noon, 4:30PM classes
Sat 11/26 - only 8:30AM class
Welcome New Coach Lan!
More to come on our new coach Landis (he goes by Lan)
He joins us as an experienced coach and will be helping out in the mornings initially and other classes moving forward
Kids Class Resumes - Thurs 11/3
We already have a strong showing for our 6-week Kids session, but there are a few spots left
Kids: Thursdays 4:40PM - resumes Thurs 11/3
Final Sand Bags Arrived
We have rounded out our collection of Rogue Strongman-style sandbags
These are great for cleans, carries and static holds. Swap out your barbell or dumbbells for one of these (with coach's permission), if you want an extra challenge.
Weights are:
Blue = 20 lbs., Brown = 40 lbs., Green = 50 lbs., Red = 70 lbs., Yellow = 100 lbs., Black = 120 lbs.
Coach's Eye - Angelica
Good luck to Coach Angelica who will be representing her Olympic Lifting gym - CHFP, and we hope the love from CFTC as well at the 2022 USAW American Open. If you didn't know, Angelica is a competitive olympic lifter, earning her place to compete as one of the best in the country in her age division (yes she can snatch more than you). So definitely take her cues to heart when she gives tips on lifting technique. Good luck Angelica!
October 2022 Newsletter
October 2022 Bells & Bars
The Monthly CFTC Newsletter
CFTC Team-
Happy Fall! We're officially in the thick of the season. For Labor day, we celebrated hard work by completing our version of "The Capitol" from the CrossFit Games, pictured above. Everyone can benefit as we round out our sandbag options with a few last sandbags on the way.
A warm Fall welcome to our new members - Kara, Heidi, Allie - who've become great additions to our noon class, as well as - Alex, Zachary and Melia - who have come in the evenings.
For October, the highlights are:
Lots of Private Training going on
Double-Under skill session on Tuesday 10/4
Happy Hour in the works for later in the month
New programming focus following our gymnastics phase
A few schedule updates for Columbus Day
Love CFTC? Remember, you can always bring a friend or leave a review.
-Jon & Marcus
Events
Tysons Happy Hour
Join us for a happy hour this October! We're still finalizing details, but be on the lookout for an email with time and date to be sent soon
Jump Rope Skill Session - Tue 10/4 6:30PM
We know double-unders can be frustrating to learn, especially with the pressures of a clock. Join us for a skill session focused on breaking down jump rope as a skill
Class will end with a short MetCon if you end up missing the day's workout
Free for members
Led by Coach Sam
Check-In on Your 2022 Goals
Back in August, we paired members with a coach to give suggestions on how to incorporate some more regular drills to develop a skill of your choice.
During the week of 10/3 we'll have a specific class to check-in on your goal. If you achieve it, share it in the Wodify comments or tag us in a post!
If you joined CFTC after August, let your coach know in your next class what would really excite you - it could be something simple like coming to class more often, or something performance-based like getting your first pull-up or muscle-up.
Programming Corner
We just wrapped up our gymnastics phase, and we hope you were able to make some breakthroughs on pulling and pressing endurance. Now on to Power Endurance.
A few notes:
The current programming cycle focuses on Power Endurance
This cycle runs from 10/3 - 12/18
Some notes on this cycle:
Focus: Max force production over multiple occurrences and broad time ranges
Previous phases isolated different areas - strength, weightlifting, gymnastics occurred earlier in the year, and now we focus on increasing our work capacity ceiling
The focus for different days will cycle through so that Monday is not always snatching, etc.
Focus on speed-strength
Moving light loads quickly
Focus on strength-speed
Moving heavier loads consistently
The next cycle will focus on General Fitness
Announcements
CFTC Provides a Range of Private Training Areas and Coaches
Did you know CFTC offers a range of private training options?
We currently have clients with a wide range of goals:
Teens and kids getting ready for sport season
Families training together to encourage a love for fitness
Masters athletes recovering from injury
If you have a specific need or a tight timeline for a goal, we'd love to work with you to set up a few private sessions.
Schedule Updates -
4:30PM class only meets Fridays
Indigenous People's Day / Columbus Day - Monday 10/10
No 6:30AM Class
No 6:30PM Class
Noon, 5:30PM, Teens class meet as normal
Kids and Teens Classes - Going Strong
Teens: Mondays & Wednesdays - spread the word! A few spots available
Kids: Thursdays 4:30PM - resumes Thurs 11/3
Coach's Eye - Jeff
A belated happy trails to long-time Tysons BJJ and CrossFit Tysons member Jeff! Jeff has been one of the longest-running members at CFTC, and we wish he and his wife the best as they move abroad and keep making us proud.
A few things - did you know that Jeff...
Received is L1 back in ~2012
Taught classes for CFTC after receiving his L1 for a period
Was one of the few that braved a kettlebell swimming workout back before swimming showed up consistently in the CrossFit games
Is one of the best rowers at CFTC with times in Wodify across a range of times that are a good goal for anyone:
500m Row: 1:35 (2016)
1000m Row: 3:25 (2016)
2K Row: 7:17 (2015)
September 2022 Newsletter
September 2022 Bells & Bars
The Monthly CFTC Newsletter
CFTC Team-
Welcome to a cooler September after a warm August. Thank you to everyone who came out to our second CFTC - Club Pilates class shown above.
As Fall starts, we have some exciting events and additional classes to look forward to:
9/5 - Labor Day - CFTC Version of The Capitol - one class at 9AM led by Coach Marcus
9/7 - Start of Teens Class for the Fall
9/8 - Start of Kids Class for the Fall
9/27 - Double-Under Skill session led by Coach Sam
Keep reading for more details. Enjoy these last Summer days!
-Jon & Marcus
Events
Labor Day Capitol Challenge - Mon 9/5 9AM
We will have one class at 9AM on Monday 9/5 for Labor Day
The class will be a modified version of The Capitol from this year's CrossFit games. We'll form teams, share equipment and have a good time.
Jump Rope Skill Session - Tue 9/27 6:30PM
Dayle
Jane
Julieta
Justin
Magdi
Manish
"Rockstar" status - to claim your t-shirt, fill out this survey
Abigail
Allen
Alyson
Daphne
Jeanna
John L
Meg
"Diva" status - Honorable mention to those who made Diva stats for a month. Not enough for a prize, but that's a major dose of commitment.
Daphne
Abigail
John L
Shout-Out to everyone who got to ten classes or higher in August to stay on this track
Christopher
Josh
Nathalie
Kids and Teens Classes Resume Soon
Teens: Mondays & Wednesdays - resumes Wed 9/7
Kids: Thursdays 4:30PM - resumes Thurs 11/3
Help us spread the word! Especially for the Kids class
Coach's Eye - John L
We've given John L a few shout-outs over the years, but this past week he celebrated a birthday (49!), and we all could only hope to be as fit as him as we celebrate our own birthdays. With recent PRs on Snatch and muscle-ups, it's awesome to see that progress. Keep it up John - you've earned it.
Programming Corner: Power Endurance Phase
Writeup provided by DekaComp
Duration: Mon, Oct 3, 20221:00 PM Sun - Dec 18, 20222:00 PM
POWER ENDURANCE PHASE
FORCE - VOLUME - SPEED
Welcome to the Deka Comp Power Endurance Training Phase, where we will follow our Base Strength, Weightlifting, & Gymnastics Phases with a focus on max force production over multiple occurrences and broad time ranges. This is arguably the most important training style for a CrossFitter as most competition workouts are designed to test the athlete’s upper limits of their capacity in multiple ways. It is important, however, to remember that this is a training phase and should be treated as such, this is not a competition.
In the previous phases we separated the important elements of CrossFit competition in order to build a nice base for the season. Base strength polarized all elements of building all things strength: power, strength, hypertrophy, strength endurance, Aerobic base and practice in the 10 general physical skills. The weightlifting phase followed and refined the strength developed. Then we took you through a short Gymnastics phase with a barbell cycling focus at weightlifting percentages, we also prepped your squat for power with controlled eccentrics in this phase. Now we enter our final phase before our fitness phase. Since we spent a long time building a strong and capable foundation, we should be able to build your capacity ceiling very high. Entering our Power Endurance Phase, we will now work towards high intensity; speed/force per rep.
Progression
This is an intensity & speed per rep progression. So overall you will notice a linear progression in the percentages week to week but you will also notice that we will ask you to explode with speed on all major lifts. You will also notice speed-strength and strength-speed sessions. These will be fundamental to supporting your ability to produce force in the major lifts. Technically it is an accessory but will not feel like your typical accessory. Both combine speed and strength elements in supportive and in contrasting methods but with different priorities.
It is imperative that competitive athletes develop both strength-speed and speed-strength because together they are considered the essential elements of power. Since the ability to produce maximal power over long efforts is a key determinant in the performance of CrossFit, optimizing an athlete’s power endurance production is of great importance.
Strength + Speed = Power x Total Volume = Power endurance
Speed-strength @ 30-60%
Prioritizing speed over strength, here you need to be moving a light percentage with the intention of creating as much force as possible and you will actually see the implement (barbell) move with acceleration.
Strength-speed @ 70-90%
Prioritizes strength over speed, here you need to have the same intention of max force in the rep, but you will not see the implement (barbell) move with speed as much as you do with speed strength.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Below is an example of the weekly schedule as is stands for the Perform Track. Class will follow this cycle with some changes in the schedule of each pieces so that your members can touch base on the different elements no matter what day they come to workout. This means that on some days, perform and class tracks won’t align. We understand this can complicate things slightly for any athletes trying to complete the perform track but we feel this is the best way for your members to see progress while still getting variety.
Example Weekly Schedule
In order to introduce variance, we will rotate the daily training every other week. So week 1 will begin with day 1 with weightlifting, whereas week 2 will begin day 1 with gymnastics, we will follow this trend throughout the week. This variance will help to drive adaptation in the best way for our purposes in this phase.
Monday
Snatch, Strength-speed + power endurance + Progressive Intensity Interval Metcon + Accessory + Tempo Conditioning
Tuesday
Gymnastics Pulling OR Pushing focused Power session + Gymnastics Strength endurance + Short round amrap metcon + Movement conditioning + Accessory
Wednesday
Clean + speed-strength endurance + Weightlifting Accessory + Short Multiple Amrap Interval Metcon + Accessory + Anaerobic Threshold Conditioning
Thursday
Active Recovery Day
Friday
Jerk + Strength-speed + power endurance emom + Accessory + Short fast interval metcon + Accessory
Saturday
Gymnastics Pulling OR Pushing focused Power session + Gymnastics Power Endurance + Odd object + Accessory + Long low impact Metcon + Accessory + Anaerobic Conditioning
Sunday
Rest Day
Other Training Modalities
Weightlifting
We will continue a weightlifting progression focused on high percentages and mainly on hip extension in order to support our power endurance phase. We will use snatch and clean & jerk sessions to create our highest potential for pure power. As these lifts are the best for us to use that combine speed and strength.
Squat: Our squat progression will rotate between Back squat and Front squat and also be used within the Speed-strength and strength-speed sessions.
Gymnastics
We will focus on gymnastics Max low rep capacity but over multiple rounds in order to sustain volume. You will see many high level gymnastics with high force potential paired with other elements to add the endurance stimulus.
Metcon
Our metcons will need to be very interval based. This is a great tool for forcing higher speeds and rep cycling then we may be capable of in the moment. But for the most part this will be more balanced than in the past in order to get ready for the fitnes phase where we will prioritize the Metcon.
Note: These are daily focuses and may not fall on that exact day of the week. We will mix this up in order for the cycle to not be too redundant.
Power Conditioning
This is where we will specifically target power endurance and hit your maximum force capacity from different angles. This will also include the speed-strength and strength-speed sessions.
Accessories
Focused mainly on, strength endurance, power, speed, as well as joint and tendon health in the following areas of the body:
Midline/Core
Shoulders- Vertical and horizontal push/pull
Hips/Knees
post chain- Lower/Upper.
Conditioning
We will actually have some short conditioning sessions 3x/week in order to train anaerobic threshold capacity. This is important for building your speed and endurance. You can view this as the contrast to the weightlifting sessions.
Programming Corner: Gymnastics Phase
CrossFit Tysons Corner Programming focus for the Fall 2022 provided by DekaComp
Post provided by Deka Comp
5 WEEK GYMNASTICS PHASE
Gymnastics Phase
5 Week Volume progression
Welcome to the gymnastics progression. In this short progression, athletes will be exposed to a progressive dosage of gymnastics volume based on Maximum repetitions. We will focus on base movements that have transferability throughout most other gymnastics movements. Just like when we use basic lifts in a strength cycle.
Gymnastics will be done focused on strength endurance, stamina, using a volume progression because our sport requires your gymnastics to be done for repetition and under fatigue. Keep in mind that we focused on higher level gymnastics in the weightlifting phase, we will focus on mid level gymnastics volume in this cycle, don't be surprised if your progress here positively affects your high level gymnastics too.
Progression
This is a volume progression. So overall you will notice a linear progression in the percentages of reps week to week. Just like percentages in a weightlifting progression, it should start off very doable then progress to become more and more difficult each week.
We will divide each week into 4 Gymnastics focused sessions:
Strict hspu volume progression
Ring mu volume progression
Bar mu volume progression (PERFORM) - Class = STRICT C2B
Pistol strength progression
*Below is an example week for the PERFORM programming, but we will change movements from one day to the next, week to week, as to not be too redundant.
If athletes in your community want to build a solid base to compete, it will be important to get the gymnastics accessories in. If they want to be able to do deficit wall facing hspu’s or traverse the parallel bars, they must start with these accessories and continue them as they improve. These accessories can help you help them improve faster and provide them with added value!
For our classes, we will touch base on all the important pieces of this program. This means that some pieces may be pushed to Thursday as to allow all members exposure to what this cycle is focused on and we may deviate for the schedule of the Perform program so that athletes are not doing the same movements on the same days. We understand that this could potentially cause some issues for athletes following the Perform Programming but variety is something that we cherish and we know your members do as well.
Weekly Schedule
Gymnastics is an extremely specific sport to the individual, so you will notice a lot of percentage options based on your max repetitions. It’s best to scale down when in doubt. The percentages are not going to be exact, we are simply looking for progression week to week, so if you begin at your threshold there will be no room to progress and you will not adapt favorably.
Monday: Gymnastics Technical + hspu volume Progression + Gymnastics Accessory + Metcon + Accessories
Tuesday: Barbell Cycling + Squat strength progression + Accessory Squat, speed + Metcon + Accessories
Wednesday: Gymnastics Technical + Ring mu volume progression + Gymnastics Accessory + Metcon + Accessories
Thursday: Active Recovery Day
Friday: Gymnastics Technical + Gymnastics Bar mu volume progression + Gymnastics Accessory + Metcon + Accessories
Saturday: Barbell Cycling Complex + Pistol strength progression + Gymnastics accessory + Metcon + Accessories
Sunday: Rest Day
Other Training Modalities
Weightlifting
Barbell cycling focus on the olympic lifts + Strength hypertrophy squat cycle where we will prep for the next power endurance phase with controlled eccentrics, through a volume progression (adding reps to this for 3 weeks). Controlled eccentrics are a necessity in preparation for producing any type of force. If you want to produce large concentric force, you must be able to eccentrically absorb the load first.
Metcon
These will be as balanced as possible as far as the time domains and stimulus go. But keep in mind we will need to avoid the shoulders to a degree during this phase. The metcons will be meant to compliment the cycle, not hinder it.
Gymnastics Accessories
Balanced between:
-Strength endurance
-Overfatigue in common body parts
-Power Endurance
Accessories
Focused on hypertrophy, strength endurance, power, speed, as well as joint and tendon health in the following areas of the body:
Midline/Core
Shoulders- Vertical and horizontal push/pull
Hips/Knees
Post chain- Lower/Upper.
August 2022 Newsletter
August 2022 Bells & Bars
The Monthly CFTC Newsletter
CFTC Team-
Happy August! It was great to catch up together outside of the gym at our recent happy hour. We will have some additional outings soon. Thank you to everyone who responded to our survey. If you still want to pass along some feedback, it's not too late.
We're excited to continue with rolling out Coach-Athlete pairings where we'll work with you to define a goal you're excited about achieving by the end of the year. This isn't meant to add any extra stress, so choose a goal you're genuinely excited about.
Also, check out a joint CrossFit-Club Pilates class this Wednesday at 6:30PM.
Stay cool and enjoy as summer winds down.
-Jon & Marcus
Events
Your Success is Our Success - Challenge through the end of 2022
Coaches work with all recurring membership athletes to choose a goal
Group class programming continues as it does currently
When there is time during classes, Coaches will provide individual scaling and accessory suggestions to progress toward the goal
Coaches are assigned to a small number of people they interact with regularly
All you need to do is keep showing up and working hard
If a Coach hasn't approached you by 8/5, please reach out.
Joint Pilates and CrossFit Class - Wed 8/3 6:30PM
Warm-up led by Club Pilates
Resistance workout led by CrossFit Tysons - will be catered to all ability levels
A great chance to ask questions of either facility, and enjoy a fun workout at a reduced cost, a great chance to bring a friend!
Workout is indoors at CFTC in place of the normal 6:30PM class. Members are welcome to attend
Programming Corner
Curious why we've been doing so many thrusters lately? Wondering - didn't we just do front squats last week? Thinking to yourself - what happened to doing pistols?
A few notes:
The current programming cycle focuses on Weightlifting
This cycle runs from 6/27 - 8/21
The weekly schedule is approximately
Monday: Volume Snatch OR Clean & Jerk session + Metcon (Strength endurance stamina- triplet/couplet)
Tuesday: Gymnastics Pulling OR Pushing focused session + Metcon (Anaerobic Threshold- multiple short intervals) + Power Conditioning
Wednesday: Volume Snatch OR Clean & Jerk session + Metcon (Aerobic Threshold- Longer intervals)
Thursday: Active Recovery Day
Friday: Intensity Snatch + Clean & Jerk + Squat + Metcon (Speed endurance- short fast rounds) + Power Conditioning
Saturday: Gymnastics Conditioning + Gymnastics accessory + Metcon + Odd Object/Conditioning (Power focused)
The next cycle will focus on Gymnastics
Announcements
Free At-Home Workout Variations
If you ever have anyone who keeps bugging you about suggestions for workouts and you've given up explaining CrossFit, we've created a free guide that just gives the basics. It's a week of workouts that you can vary in countless ways and links to videos to explain the movements.
Eventually we'd love for people to join us in person, but that's not always an option.
Attendance Award Updates
Current results - keep up the good work. Following August, we'll do final calculations and get the winners their prizes.
"Diva" status -
July: No July divas
June: Abby, Daphne
"Hall of Fame" status -
July: Alyson, Dayle, Abby
June: Allen, Jeanna
"Rockstar" status -
July: Bill, Allen, John L., Jon, Jane, Julieta, Meg, Jeanna
June: Dayle, Jean, Jon, Justin P, Magdi, Meg, Manish, Marcus, Nathalie, Omid
Kids and Teens Classes on Break until Labor Day
Teens: Mondays & Wednesdays - resumes Wed 9/7
Kids: Thursdays 4:30PM - resumes Thurs 9/8
Coach's Eye - Dayle
Thanks to Dayle for joining us during the summer. The 5:30PM class appreciated your encouragement and know your consistency has helped make progress. Keep up the hard work!
Programming Corner: Weightlifting Phase
An update on where we are in our training cycles. Weightlifting phase extends from 6/27 - 8/21
Welcome to the CFTC Weightlifting phase, where we will follow our Base Strength Phase with a focus on the Snatch and Clean & Jerk. The Base strength phase was very polarizing with the 10 general physical skills, we worked a lot on all of them individually. You should notice the focus is here is stepping towards blending these components together, with our macro goal at the end of the year during the fitness phase, to blend them together almost completely.
Our main goal will be to increase your capacity for intensity in the two lifts over 8 weeks. We have lined up our phases this way for two reasons:
Sharpen the “strength blade”
After building strength with a focus on application of force there are no two better lifts that can display it and transfer it like the snatch and Clean & jerk. Therefore, this weightlifting phase is not only meant to focus on the two lifts but have the two lifts facilitate more explosive force that your body is capable of translating from the base strength phase.
Specificity
If you are going to be specific in our sport about anything, getting better at these two lifts is crucial because (the snatch especially) they are extremely common and routinely show up in competition in a multitude of different ways. Nonetheless, increasing your ceiling in the olympic lifts is a huge advantage.
Note: this training phase will be largely focused on weightlifting, but this is a focus and a bias, we will balance this explained below under training modalities. If weightlifting is a strength of yours, it is still worth it to strengthen them further, but you will also largely benefit from the other modalities as we look to balance our program.
Progression: 8 weeks - 6/27 - 8/21
This is an intensity progression. So overall you will notice a linear progression in the percentages week to week.
You will notice two waves of progression, where we focus on linear intensity progression for the first wave, then a volume progression where we cycle back on the intensity and build it back up again using complexes. We will divide the week into 3 sessions: A snatch day, a clean and jerk day, and a combination day; where the combination day is always focused on intensity and the others are focused on driving up intensity through higher volume.
You will notice A LOT of weightlifting accessory. These are drills and will mainly be positional pulling and overhead strength/mobility drills that become progressively more athletic, and therefore challenging, as the weeks go on.
Weekly Schedule
Weightlifting is an extremely regimented sport, so you will notice more similarities in the training week to week than you normally would. This will drive adaptation in the best way for our purposes in this phase.
Monday: Volume Snatch OR Clean & Jerk session + Metcon (Strength endurance stamina- triplet/couplet) + Accessories
Tuesday: Gymnastics Pulling OR Pushing focused session + Metcon (Anaerobic Threshold- multiple short intervals) + Accessory + Power Conditioning
Wednesday: Volume Snatch OR Clean & Jerk session + Metcon (Aerobic Threshold- Longer intervals) + Accessory
Thursday: Active Recovery Day
Friday: Intensity Snatch + Clean & Jerk + Squat + Metcon (Speed endurance- short fast rounds) + Accessories + Power Conditioning
Saturday: Gymnastics Conditioning + Gymnastics accessory + Metcon + Odd Object/Conditioning (Power focused) + Accessories
Sunday: Rest Day
Other Training Modalities
Gymnastics
We will focus on gymnastics capacity within the weightlifting focus because this is a CrossFit competitors program and we need to be balanced. We need to continue to train aspects of everything and we will use the weightlifting recovery days as an opportunity to increase gymnastics capacity. We will have a focus on complexity, power endurance, and muscle stamina in this cycle when it comes to gymnastics. So you will see a volume and complexity progression, coupled with skill work on the more powerful gymnastics movements, such as deficit kipping hspu and muscle ups (Ring/Bar).
Metcon
Our metcons will need to be dialed back on intensity for the CNS, especially on the weightlifting days. At this point in the year, especially if you have summer competitions planned, this will only be a positive thing as the Metcon is being accounted for from the macro perspective as well. We will slowly progress your metcon intensity and volume through the cycles.
so you will notice that they are longer in this cycle when looking at the average time of the metcon, this does not mean the will be ALL long metcons, as you can see our daily metcon focuses above.
Note: These are daily focuses and may not fall on that exact day of the week. We will mix this up in order for the cycle to not be too redundant.
Power Conditioning
We will do power conditioning twice per week in order to compliment the body’s adaptation to weightlifting and fill the endurance gap in a balanced program.
Accessories
Focused on hypertrophy, strength endurance, power, speed, as well as joint and tendon health in the following areas of the body:
Midline/Core
Shoulders- Vertical and horizontal push/pull
Hips/Knees
post chain- Lower/Upper.
July 2022 Newsletter
CrossFit Tysons newsletter for July 2022
July 2022 Bells & Bars
The Monthly CFTC Newsletter
CFTC Team -
___
Summer is in full-swing, meaning a 4th of July workout and some sticky weather. Note that there's only one class on Monday 7/4 - 9AM. We wrapped up a running series in June, with participants making big progress in understanding and appreciating how to progress in their running. CFTC also partnered with our Pilates neighbors up the street for a joint Pilates and CrossFit class.
Keep reading for details on a fun happy hour to look forward to and updated progress on summer attendance awards.
Our Kids and Teens programs continue to expand, and if you know of friends or family wanting to check out these classes or our standard group class offerings, July and August are great times to try a class and work it into your schedule for the fall.
Stay safe and Happy Fourth!
-Jon & Marcus
What do you like improved at CFTC?
Events
July Happy Hour - Wednesday July 20 7:00PM at The Perch / Starr Hill Biergarten
Take a second to get out of the gym with some games and beverages around the corner at The Perch
Star Hill Biergarten is a brewery and events space on the roof where the Tysons Wegmans is located. They also have live music on Wednesdays, so we hope to see you. Leashed pets are welcome.
No RSVPs required, but if you see Dolores, let her know you plan to come
Coach's meeting - Friday July 15
Although the meeting is only open to coach's, we wanted to let you know that it's important for all of our coaches to meet in person periodically so we can ensure a consistent experience for all our members.
If you have any thoughts on where we could improve, let your coach know or you can always
No 6:30PM class on this day
Announcements
CFTC Joins the Affiliate Roundtable discussions
At the end of 2020, CrossFit launched its Roundtable discussion groups. Co-owner has participated in these for the last six months to get ideas for CFTC as well as learn best practices for gyms.
We learned a lot from local the roundtable moderator CF-L4 and owner of CrossFit Reston Maggie Tincher as well as hearing from gyms in Seatttle (Rainier CrossFit) and New Mexico (CrossFit Four Peaks). If you're ever in those areas, those are great gyms to check out
Kids and Teens
Classes continue through 7/28 followed by a break in August
Teens: Mondays & Wednesdays
Kids: Thursdays 4:30PM
Thank you to Coaches Sam, Meg, Daphne, Cece and new addition Nate for making these programs successful
Attendance Awards for the Summer
Through June, July and August get an extra bonus for keeping up your routine – rack up the classes!
Current results - keep up the good work
"Diva" status - Abby, Daphne
"Hall of Fame" status - Allen, Jeanna
"Rockstar" status - Dayle, Jean, Jon, Justin P, Magdi, Meg, Manish, Marcus, Nathalie, Omid
Your highest attendance month will determine your award level, as long as each month meets the 12-class minimum
12 classes per month – "Rockstar" status and CFTC sticker
17 classes per month – "Hall of Fame" status and CFTC shirt
22 classes per month – "Diva" status and CFTC water bottle
Prizes to be awarded in September with monthly updates the 2nd week of each month
Coach's Eye - CrossFit Kids
Our CrossFit Kids classes have been a great source of joy for the participants and coaches. A quick shout-out to Zora (right) and Madison (left) who also show up with a learning attitude and eager to learn the next movement (or just hang around on the pull-up bars).
June 2022 Newsletter
With summer around the corner, it's the perfect time to work on skills and keep showing up
June 2022 Bells & Bars
The Monthly CFTC Newsletter
CFTC Team-
We ended May with a heartfelt tribute to two Memorials - one for the annual Murph challenge, and one in memory of the Buffalo community that experienced undeserved losses. On top of the recent tragedy in Uvalde, we have a lot to reflect on this Memorial Day. We hope you were able to use the holiday to rest and welcome the summer.
We have a number of new offerings for the summer - some one-time options and a few recurring ones. A perfect chance to get individual coaching on running, gymnastics or explore private training for your specific goals.
Happy June!
-Jon & Marcus
Events
Club Pilates & CrossFit Tysons Joint Class: Sat. June 4 8:30AM
Warm-up led by Club Pilates
Resistance workout led by CrossFit Tysons - will be catered to all ability levels
A great chance to ask questions of either facility, and enjoy a fun outdoor workout at a reduced cost, a great chance to bring a friend!
New options for gymnastics-focused personal or small group training
For those who want to work specifically on a gymnastics skill, like:
Handstand holds
Handstand walks
Pull-ups
Muscle-Ups
We are offering limited-time personal training for these sessions with Coach Marcus during the summer during weekday morning or weekend hours
Other private training sessions are available for other goals
Running-focused skill summer series: "How to Not Hate Running"
These small group sessions will go over the basics of running as a skill, teaching the fundamentals of Pose running technique and building volume from there:
Posture
Cadence
Injury Prevention
Pre-Race Fueling
Speed and Endurance Development
Limited Time Offering
Meets Wednesdays and Fridays 7:30AM
June 8, 2022 - June 24, 2022
Sign up by June 5
Announcements
Murph & Mimosas - Thanks for Joining!
Everyone who completed "Murph" on Monday or earlier in the week, congrats!
Keep an eye out for an upcoming social outing
We will get together at least once during the summer at a Biergarten or other local venue. Stay tuned.
Kids and Teens
Kids and Teens classes will pause for the week of 6/6 - 6/10
Summer Session: 6/13 - 7/29
Attendance Awards for the Summer
Through June, July and August get an extra bonus for keeping up your routine – rack up the classes!
Your highest attendance month will determine your award level, as long as each month meets the 12-class minimum
12 classes per month – "Rockstar" status and CFTC sticker
17 classes per month – "Hall of Fame" status and CFTC shirt
22 classes per month – "Diva" status and CFTC water bottle
Prizes to be awarded in September with monthly updates the 2nd week of each month
Coach's Eye - Happy Trails to Sean and Lea
The Tysons area has its downsides - one of those being it's an area where people have temporary assignments, and are in and out in what seems like far too short a time. We had one member - Sean - leave for other adventures in Boston and one member - Lea - who will return to her home state of Florida at the end of June - and we'll miss them both. Happy trails and best of luck to these stalwarts of the afternoon classes!