North Shore CrossFit

The Head of the Charles is one of the largest regattas in the world.  With a three mile upstream course, passing through seven bridges, it is considered one of the most challenging courses in the rowing world.  Over the two day event 1,953 boats raced under the power of almost 9,000 athletes.  Amongst those athletes was a crew of eight women in the Master 40+ category and one hard driving coxswain named James representing the Greater Lawrence Rowing program.  I joined this club about five weeks ago after a two year hiatus from rowing, specifically to fill a seat in their boat entry for the Charles.  We medaled in two regattas leading up to the Charles which fueled our enthusiasm and confidence.  However, it’s rare to place eight athletes with varying experience levels in a boat, toss in a handful of on the water practice sessions and expect great outcomes.  So, this past weekend we rowed the Charles with confidence tempered with a good dose of humility.  Our division had seventeen boats representing clubs from England, Canada and several clubs from the United States.  Head races are time trials so boats set off at  roughly ten to fifteen second intervals.  Passing or being passed by boats is the only indicator a crew may get as to their status amongst the immediate field of competitors.  We passed the boat immediately ahead of us within the first 750 meters and then fought unsuccessfully to fend off a boat passing us.  With no more passes we crossed the finish line with a time of 19:40.25  We emptied our tanks having left it all out on the race course.  We rowed really well.  There just happened to be ten other crews that rowed even better.  It was a beautiful day to race and it was capped off with food, beer and lots of discussion about the next time we take on the Charles.  Only one thing is for sure, we WILL be faster.

This past weekend, our local tennis team won 2nd place at the USTA 4.0 Seniors Nationals out in Indian Wells, CA (Palm Springs area). Our team played out of the Bass River Tennis Club throughout the spring and summer to qualify for the Sectionals. At the end of August, we traveled to Springfield, MA and won the Sectionals and the opportunity to represent New England at the Nationals. At Nationals there were 17 teams (representing 17 sections of the country), and we made it all the way to the finals where we lost a tough match to a team from VA. But we had never even expected to make it to Nationals, let alone to make it to the finals! And we played in some intense conditions (severe blue, lots of sun, and 110-120 degrees on the courts for the midday matches!). It was a beautiful venue!

One of the unexpected highlights of the tournament was the visibility and enthusiasm we received about our shirts. They were designed by a tennis friend of ours who is a breast cancer survivor. She and Lorraine Salter (our teammate from Reading) are both survivors who raise money for the ESSCO-MGH fund for breast cancer research www.esscomgh.org. Many players at the tournament came up to us to tell us their stories as survivors, and many wanted to buy the shirts because they are really cute and 100% of the proceeds go to the research. It was very heartwarming and exhilarating!

This summer we had the priveledge of have Jay Pelletier at the gym.  Jay serves our country full time and has been an active member on our blog for a while now going by the name Pellet01.  Jay has been doing the NSCF workout of the day for while now and actively recruiting fellow soldiers to our site daily.  He sent me some pictures of a huge success story of a good friend of his, Captain Damiani, who has changed his life following the NSCF workout of the day.  Very cool story.  Jay also presented NSCF with his deployment coin.  One of only 500 made.  We will have it framed and have it on display at NSCF.  Thank you Jay!  We look forward to your return to NSCF.

Jay (middle) with his Personal Security Platoon

Here is a summary of training from Captain Jorge Damiani.  

1.  I arrived in Iraq on or around november 2009… When i volunteered for a deployment  that’s where I met MAJ Pelletier and MAJ McFarland and I was about 5’9 and 240 lbs
For the part 2 years after starving in ranger school in 2007 I decided I will starve no
More! So o ate! And ate! So
I went from an average weight of 205 almost all my life to 240-245!
For about 3 years!

2.  While protecting my country from terrorists in iraq! I started doing crossfit with MAJ Pelletier (my hero) and MAJ mcfarland(the crossfit jumpmaster), 5 times a week, well 4 times a week cause Saturday was our cardio day ( running, biking, etc)
And we never
Missed a day for about 9 months we religiously crossfited all the time.

3.  The diet was also a big part of the deployment…
I started with 5 block protein carbs and fat for 4 times a day for a month!
Lots of food if u ever done blocks!
No sugars no bread no rice non of that grain stuff…..

Then about month number 2 I decided to mess with my blocks and follow what I been reading and taught by different people.
For the next 7 months I ate 5 protein, 6 fat, and 1 carb 3 times a day with a before bed snack of 1 block of protein and 1 block of fat!

So long story short!
I started crossfiting, Paleo dieting and also following North Shore crossfit WOD’s provided to me by MAJ Pelletier
And 8 Months later I dropped about 8% body fat about 45 lbs,
Went from doing a single pull up to 50 in a row (kipping).

I sleep better at night! I feel better and right now I am 200 lbs! I know how to eat better! I
Crossfit 4 times a week! And enjoy life!

Captain Damiani Before

Captain Damiani After

Check out NSCF member Kate Somssich’s member spotlight

kate somssich member spotlight