April 2011 around the time I got my first dead hang pull up. My bother Tommy took this photo at my Parents house for a class he was taking on training or something. It's one of the only photos I have of me doing anything CrossFit related.
I've been CrossFitting for over 2 years now. In those few years I have to say I've never really enjoyed the oly lifts. During that portion of our workout I just try to stay under the radar and hoped the coach would just not look my way. I'd go light and keep my form but wouldn't push myself at all. Oly lifts is not something I cared to be good at, mostly because I just assumed I would suck. I'm small, I've never done it before and starting at my age, I just felt uncoordinated. Did you hear that? Excuse, excuse, excuse... Haha!
For the past two years I've avoided working hard in those areas and I haven't had much success either, not surprising. This morning, I went to East Valley CrossFit and we were running a 800 for our warm up and I was thinking about the fact I stink at lifts. East Valley CrossFit is pretty much know for it's athletes being well coached in oly lifts and they all seem to excel. Which is why I almost didn't go this morning!... But I went, Doug (the AM coach) is someone I've known since I started CrossFitting and I felt comfortable with him.
This mornings warmup/wod had power snatches and power cleans. Guess who did four extra reps? Me (21-15-9 me: 21-19-9) because I can't read or count in the AM. I'm glad I went and felt I made a little process with the help of Doug (and maybe me not dodging the coaching). In my mind this is a good fit for me and the right time. I'm now ready to receive the coaching and become better at this portion of CrossFitting (yeah, it's sorta important).
My time at Core was great, the coaching staff is top notch and set the bar high for future coaches. Taking this time to visit other gyms has been so good for me. I got to catch up with a few old CrossFitters that have moved on to coaching at other gyms (East Valley and Free Range). I've visited a gym where I knew no one, which allowed me to just put my head down and workout without any distractions (CrossFit Southwest).
I'd still like to visit a few more, Tribal CrossFit if I can find a time that works and Magna because well I love purple! All the others are too far to consider for my home gym. But I think I'll still try to bounce around on weekends, this has been fun. East Valley is where I think I'll head to most mornings. Yikes, a little scary and a lot exciting!