I just want to give a big shout out to all the FCCF athletes who participated in events this past weekend -- the Catalyst Games, the Pennsylvania Tough Mudder, the Rochester Flower City Half Marathon, and the Duathlon! We also had many other athletes cheering on the ones competing, so a big thank you to them for their support. It is so inspiring to be a part of this group. Well done and congrats on these events!
 

We are proud to announce that Jessica McNabney will be representing FCCF in the Northeast Regional CrossFit Games May 25-27, 2012 in Canton, MA. Jessica has only been doing CrossFit for 9 months, so this is an amazing accomplishment. Our team just missed the cut-off to go, but we had a great turn-out of our members competing for FCCF and I could not be more proud of watching them grow through the process. We had many PRs and inspiring workouts. Many of us are making the road trip to cheer on Jess in MA and can't wait to watch this great sport.

It will be a wonderful weekend for some of our new CrossFitters to see what the Regional competition is all about. We congratulate Jess and wish her the best!

When we return on Memorial Day (Monday, May 28), we will be hosting our second annual "Memorial Day Murph" fundraiser and potluck breakfast. Memorial Day Murph was created in honor of Navy Seal Lt. Michael Murphy who was killed in the service of the country in Afghanistan in 2005.  This fundraiser is hosted by CrossFit boxes all over the country and honors fallen military members.  CrossFitters will offer up our pain and sweat to raise money for charities supporting several military causes. To read more about this event, see the WOD, and register, visit their website at http://memorialdaymurph.com/. If any local crossfitters want to compete in this and don't go to a local box, get ahold of us and register online for this event and we'd be happy to have you join us. On Memorial Day, we plan to run "Murph" from 7-9 am with a potluck breakfast to follow.

Because of the special fund raiser, all other classes at FCCF will be cancelled on Memorial Day.  Be sure to check the online shedule for the latest schedule updates.

Today marks the start of the 2012 CrossFit Games Open Qualifiers.   For the next 5 weeks athletes from all over the world will be competing in qualifiying workouts in hopes of earning a spot in regional competitions, and ultimately for a spot in the CrossFit Games championships in July.

We will have over 30 athletes from FCCF participating in the Open Qualifiers, and I have to say that discussions about and anticipation of the qualifiers has been dominating the gym for the last week!

For the most part, the qualifying workouts won't be affecting the schedule at the gym too much.  I have cancelled Fundamentals classes on Saturday for the next five weeks (Sunday Fundamentals are on as usual).

We are happy to have non-affiliated CrossFitters come do the WODs with us in order to get their workouts judged and validated.  Just shoot me an email (see our contact form) or look us up on the Games site.  We will be opting in for all the workouts.

Good luck to all the FCCF people and to all the Rochester-area athletes participating!   Let's represent for Western NY!!

Many of the athletes at FCCF participated in the Hammerhead Fitness WNY Challenge Series recently. It was a great event consisting of three different Saturdays of competition (one each held in Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse). Hats off to the event organizers, sponsors and volunteers for a outstanding series full of great competition, comraderie, and fun. I am so proud of all of the FCCF people who participated and gave it their all. The final results are posted here

FCCF's Dan Collins took 2nd overall and Eric Schenck took 4th overall in Division 1 with a strong showing from Tyler Savage, Josh Marshall and Blake Severson. Jason Walsh took 3rd overall in Division 2 with Brandon Daniels taking 8th place and Andrew Ostashen finishing 9th.

Adam Coccia got third place in the first event, but was abroad for school during the other two events.  Kris Kratky, Matt Buffan, Tung Truong, Bill Pontius, Mike Maida, and Ryan Feltner also represented FCCF well in Division II! Congrat guys!

For our women, Kari Schenck took 6th overall in Division II with great performances also by Ashley DiVierno, Jennifer Chapman, and Carolyn Prvatera Gage.

In Division I, we were so proud of Michelle Stewart (4th overall), Jess McNabney (2nd Place in DeWitt), and Casey Manning. Our women are amazing!

And last, but definitely not least, was our team made up of Adrian Lugo, Anne Burns, Morgan Howe, and Aaron Smykowski (the "June Kids") took second place in the series and took first place in the final compeition at CF Dewitt. There are some inspiring and hilarious stories from our team from this series!

The effort and sportsmanship exhibited by all the FCCF athletes makes me proud to be associated wtih them, and is a big part of what makes my job so rewarding.  Not only did we have a huge turnout of people competing, but there were crowds of FCCF people supporting the competators at each event.  Thanks and congratulations to all of you!

Next up is the CrossFit Games 2012 Open!  Many of these same athletes (plus many more), will be competing in this starting next week! We are hoping some of us will make it through to the Regional Competition and can't wait to see how we stack up against the entire North East!

Good luck to crossfitters around the world in this exciting event. Get Some!

Our 12-week "Learn To Run" Seminar start next week.  One class a week on either Tuesday evening or Saturday morning.  This is a great way to get your running technique "fixed" before the start of the spring/summer running season.   Hit the "Contact" link and shoot us an email for more information, or you can sign up here.

We had about 15 of our athletes compete in the Hammerhead Upstate NY Challenge on January 14th. We were represented in all three divisions for both male and female (Div 1, Div 2, and Team). There were many great athletes in attendance and it was a very fun event for our athletes and all of our gym members there to cheer on their friends. What an amazing CrossFit community we have, both within our gym and the greater Rochester/Buffalo/Syracuse area. Next up, many of these same athletes from FCCF (and a few others who couldn't make the last challenge) are headed to CrossFit Buffalo for Round 2 of this event this weekend!

Good luck!

We'd like to wish all of you a very Happy Holiday season from all of us here at Flower City CrossFit!   We will be open for one WOD on Christmas Eve (Saturday at 8am), and will be closed on Christmas day.   We will also be closed on New Years Day.  Other than that, we will be open with our normal hours through New Years.  

If you are an out-of-town CrossFitter who is in Rochester for the holidays, please come join us for a WOD.  We love visitors!  Just shoot us an email here and let us know when you are thinking about dropping in.  Hope to see you over the Holidays!

To celebrate our one-year anniversary, we hosted a night at FCCF with dodgeball, food and friends!  It was a great night, spent with many of the wonderful people who make the gym such an energizing place to come to every day!

This past year has been simply amazing!  The gym started out with about 5 members and today it boasts a community that is comprised of well over 100 CrossFIt members and almost as many Bootcamp members.  My dream to open a gym started almost 12 years ago, and in my wildest imagination I don't think I could have anticipated this past year being as sucessful and FUN as it has been.   When I look at the success of the past year what I am perhaps most happy about is the people who have found a home at FCCF.  I am sure that I could not have hand-picked a better group of people to be a part of the FCCF community.   The members here are among the most dedicated, hard-working, supportive and caring people I have ever met.  It has been, and continues to be a joy to work with every one of them.   Seeing the amazing things they acheive makes all the long hours worth it!

I want to give a special shout out to Ann Miller-Michaels and Kris Kratky for all they did to make the anniversary party such a great time.  I also want to say "thanks" to Steve at Hammerhead Fitness for putting together what has got to be the coolest plyo-box ever (see the picture below)!  Thanks also to Davin Sweeny for a very special Ab-mat signed by several CrossFit luminaries.

But most of all, I want to thank all the wonderful members that make FCCF what it is.  You all inspire me every single day! 

Few better ways to celebrate a CrossFit anniversary than dodgeball!

Mike is a force to be reckoned with when he's got a dodgeball in his hand.

Serious ups!

Engraved plyo box signed by FCCF members!  How cool is that?

THANKS for a great first year!!!