Level 1 Cert

I had reserved my final weekend in the States for a CrossFit seminar, appropriately called Level 1 Trainer Course: Fundamentals. This course came complete with a 45 question test and a 115-page instruction manual you were supposed to have read before the class. Needless to say, I didn’t do any such thing (despite the best of intentions) before the weekend started.

Class started at 9am and I did not want to be late so I woke up at 5am, got my stuff together, and hit the road. This is when I would ordinarily whine that because it was too early in the morning to eat I had no appetite but I got hunger pangs, so I stopped at a rest area to fill my water bottle, to which I added my homemade protein shake mixture, minus any of the things you add to make it taste halfway decent. Oh, wait, I guess I did just whine about that, huh?

I arrived about 15 minutes early and made a bee-line for the coffee because I somehow didn’t notice the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru right next door. I was pleasantly surprised to see that our head trainer was none other than Boz (Adrian Bozman, who I had met a few days ago in San Francisco). It was actually funny, when he met me the first time he asked if we’d met before. This time, he remembered me and even enough to express surprise that I was still in the country! That, folks, is a customer-service mentality.

After checking out the rest of the training staff (Heather and Ben Bergeron, among others), I grabbed a chair alongside 49 other eager-looking people. Well, actually some people looked nervous, some people looked bored, and some people looked like they had no idea what in the heck was actually going on. And some people looked like they had just walked out of U.S. military basic training. Or maybe that’s what all American CrossFitters look like; a few days later some guy came up to me in the L.A. airport and said he swore he’d seen me in a gym in Afghanistan. Apparently I have a doppelganger who’s way more hardcore than I am.

The days were broken into a combination of theory and group practice, in which we covered some of the most basic movements (three squats, three overhead movements, and a deadlift sequence). It was a good mix of moving and absorbing information. Due to confidentiality restrictions I won’t talk about the content of the course because I can’t. But what I can say is how awesome all the trainers were in terms of knowledge, being engaging in how they passed it on, and just fun to hang out with. Two of them had been Games judges, and looking back at my pictures now I see them! Very, very cool people.

A lot of the information we absorbed was useful, a lot of it did feel for the life of me like cult indoctrination. But hey, you have to know the theory if you’re going to go around explaining it to people, and I will admit that they drilled a couple of core concepts into my head much more clearly than before. As my new favourite blog says, it’s not really our fault that we have a tendency to form groups and see others of differing opinions as outsiders, and wrong because they are others. Well, sometimes they are also just wrong. And CrossFit does give a good avenue to express one’s own individualism as different from all the non-CrossFitters around, who are of course not understanding proper nutrition and training in an inefficient way (oh yeah and wimps because our warmup is harder than their workout). And they probably couldn’t take the pain of a CrossFit workout, let alone a ripped hand. There is even such a thing as a hand-rip high-five, I learned. Get the idea? Sometimes all this “we’re better than the rest of the world” stuff bothers me a bit. But hey, I also love my tribe.

Why I took this seminar is a good question because I don’t intend to become a full-time CrossFit coach or open my own gym or any such thing. Maybe I would do some part-time coaching, but it’s good to have knowledge I can use to help when people ask me questions (because they do ask) but as Steve Jobs said, you can only connect the dots going backwards. I wanted it to improve my own knowledge and I did learn a thing or two, and had quite a couple of things told to me in new ways and re-enforced. If nothing else, I’ve made huge strides towards correcting a problem with not opening my hip on the Olympic lifts. And it’s great to know how to diagnose problems others are having and know what is most critical to fix, first.

This being a CrossFit seminar, of course we had to train. For the most part, everyone knew what was coming. I pity the poor fools who had never done a CrossFit workout prior to that weekend, because we did Fran (21-15-9 thrusters at 65/95lbs (29/43kgs) and pullups). I pity myself because my breakout group had to go outside for our practical sessions and I hadn’t anticipated this so I hadn’t worn sunscreen and it was hot, so I had the same problem as in California when I got dehydrated despite drinking water all day. Actually before the workout started I felt so faint and lightheaded that had it been a normal day at the gym I probably would have begged out of the workout. But this was my CrossFit cert and I sure as hell wasn’t scaling the workout (one of the requirements to get the certification is participation in all workouts, even if you scale the level of difficulty: I think half the women did jumping pullups).

As it turned out, my sun exposure didn’t help me much. I actually had to put the bar down on the round of 15 thrusters which is kind of sad and insane at the same time. The perversity of the situation is that I left all my athletic tape in Mass because I was pretty sure the workout would be Fran, and I don’t usually rip my hands until I get to about 60 pullups. Here, I managed to rip one hand in the round of 15 and the other in the round of 9. Which is terrible, yes, but on the plus side since I also didn’t have my medical kit with me I got to use someone else’s New Skin, which hurts worse than anything else I have ever put on a wound. Way worse than salt. But, once it’s done its thing you can actually do things like shower without pain. I have to admit, though, I really feared when the first application peeled off and I knew I had to put on another one.

Anyway a crew of five of us went out to dinner at this bar in New Haven (about 15 minutes drive up the road). Luckily we had a local in our midst who knew where to take us, and we went to this awesome bar & grill where we had both a smorgasbord of beers to choose from and also an amazing menu. We were all busy looking at the burgers (they had a bacon-stuffed burger, blue-cheese, mushroom, etc.), and then it was pointed out to us that we could get a cobb salad with truffle oil (that came with chicken breast, egg, and avo, with a burger on top for an additional $5). I think there were four orders of that. Hilarity ensued when I ordered and the waitress asked if I wanted the burger instead of the chicken. Funnily enough, our table was the only thing I thought to photograph the entire weekend. It was a bit laden down with food!

After dinner and the 3 beers we had there, we proceeded to try to move to another bar. I think it was called Bar. Anyway the doorman told us we couldn’t come in dressed as we were (we were so hungry from Fran (6:10, by the way) that we went out to dinner without showering or changing. So I was in spandex, the boys were wearing something else suitably unsuitable, and somehow Trevor managed to talk our way in. To add to the bonus, we didn’t have to pay a cover charge. The girls I met in the bathroom later were suitably horrified that I had gotten in there dressed “like THAT” and without paying a cover charge. Another pitcher or two later we decided to head out which was a good plan because we did have to be up the next day to learn, and train, and take our test. It was 10:30 on a Saturday night when I got to the hotel so I thought we had done quite a reasonable job of moderation. Unfortunately, my original plans to read the 70+ pages that I hadn’t read didn’t quite happen …

… I was not real happy the next day, though, when the time came for the test and after the first 3 questions which were ridiculously easy I came upon the next 3 or 4 where the answer wasn’t immediately obvious! Hectic. Happily, they scored the test there within minutes so we all found out how we did. They are now changing the rules to make it more professional whereby scores are done offsite and mailed to you. I was glad to get my results immediately. I got two wrong which annoyed me because I wanted to know the two that I got wrong. I am now reading the manual so I can figure it out. Whatever works, I guess.

Overall, a super fun time at the cert! I hit the road to go back to North Reading, pack my bags, and have a last supper with the beautiful Laura Cogan. It was great, but all too short unfortunately as we had to be up early the next morning to hit the road to Boston Logan International Airport. I was really happy to have the time, though, because we had a lot to catch up on. It’s amazing the difference that a year or two makes. It seems like so long ago that we were at Babson and my life was definitely very different back then, but as I think I’ve mentioned before it’s great when you can still really enjoy someone’s company and friendship even with the common ground of shared experience is removed.

… and this drama will resume with a narrative of my time since I’ve gotten back to SA, since I’m super behind. The trip (Boston to Chicago to LA, change terminals & airlines, LA to Dubai, 8 hours layover in Dubai, then on to Cape Town) took forever and a day. Well, actually a day and a day. Luckily we got to Logan super early because Terminal B was closed and the security line was about a million people long. Not that bad but it took over an hour to get through! Not much happened in Chicago. I had a double cheeseburger without the bun. Should have had it without the cheese. In LA, I talked my way into double exit row seats on Emirates (yay for the extra room!). This came in handy when on the 16.5 hour flight to Dubai I slept somewhere close to 11 hours, and spent another one talking to one of the flight attendants about life in Dubai. On the flight to Cape Town I sat next to some [South African] mercenaries who were on their way back from Iraq (they did not mistake me for military), and was unable to sleep much because the seat was uncomfortable.

In lieu of yet more CrossFit photos, you can check the random things I took photos of on my plane trip.

Then I was home! That was actually about two weeks ago now. Been busy, but I’ll get around to updating this thing soon. I hate being behind.

• “It *is* hot out here!” – Ben
• “Are you doing it again?” “Fran twice in 30 minutes? I’m not THAT sadistic!” – Rob & Ellie
• “They must be wondering: who ARE these people?” – Trevor

The Dirty Water Segment

In which precious little was spent in Boston. This blog post somehow seems quite boring to me. Probably because I’m trying to remember what I did a few weeks ago. I need to play some serious catchup. Apologies in advance.

I may or may not have mentioned that I woke up Wednesday morning (this was August 10th!) with a sore throat. This was a shame full stop, but a double shame because I had to drive a few hours down to New York City for a meeting with a social venture capital company, and then my plans involved hitting the Boston hash that evening (i.e. running and drinking).

Long story short, I did drive down to New York and I was lucky enough that my meeting was close enough to Grand Central that the logistics were super easy. Very interesting meeting with some interesting folks: one was based in New York and the other in Geneva. Neither were American. It was quite interesting to hear the perspectives of foreigners, working in social enterprise, on America. Yes, the infrastructure in New York is old compared to, say, Dubai. On the other hand, this leapfrogging is a well-known phenomenon. I still marvel at the subway and the London Underground, but then again there is something about both those cities that appeals to me at the same time as it scares me. The sheer vastness and density of them kind of blows the mind.

Along the lines of trying to make better decisions, I decided to bail on the hash and instead went straight to my friends’ house in North Reading where I was staying (first a pit stop at Blue Ribbon BBQ …). Turns out to have been a good decision given that apparently the hash was disorganised and ran very late … neither of which are a good thing when you’ve been up since 4am and are feeling under the weather!

It was great to catch up with Laura (one of my dearest friends from my MBA program), and her husband Arthur. I wasn’t planning to but I wound up staying up late into the night talking with Arthur about a variety of things: South Africa (he’s spent a bit of time here but a long time ago, and much closer to the apartheid years), love, marriage, children, divorce, alcohol, sport, relationships. It was a great conversation and I’m really glad we had it because I wound up not seeing him again the rest of my trip. It was also great to get yet another perspective, but one from someone I don’t know well, on my life and decision to move to SA.

The next morning I woke up feeling mostly better but still a little tender. I had planned to train at CrossFit Route 1 with my friend Jenny whose blog is an amazingly personal chronicle of her weight loss experience. Speaking of personal, as I’ve said before this blog is mainly for my own personal reflection and benefit but sometimes I wonder about the wisdom of putting down all the random thoughts that are in my head. It was an interesting experience on this trip to have a number of people tell me how much they enjoy my blog posts. A few people even told me how inspiring they find either a) what I’ve done to follow my heart and up and move, and b) to chronicle my experience in this way. Not sure what to make of this, actually. Still processing. But hey, if you’re reading this and I inspire you from time to time: bonus, but please do something with it. Potential without follow-through is only potential.

I was still feeling sick so I went to see Jenny but didn’t actually train. Had a nice long conversation with Jared, who runs CrossFit Route 1. They finished 17th at the CrossFit Games, and also have some war stories to tell. It’s a funny thing: obviously we were frustrated at our own performance, but sounds like other teams had their own demons! Super nice guy though, and great facility. I was tempted to do the strength portion of the workout because I never bench press … but thought better of it.

My goal for these two days in Boston was also overly ambitious, as it turned out. I wanted to ship my boxes of possessions to South Africa, and sell my car. I accomplished neither. Apparently the USPS got rid of parcel post shipping (i.e. shipping very cheaply very slowly) a few years ago. I called I think UPS for a quote and with my boxes it would cost about $5000 to ship them! This is insane; the contents are barely worth that much. I am sure there is an easier way but my attempts to investigate ran up against a time barrier, so I stored my things with Austin in Chelmsford, and Rob is going to sell my car for commission. Works out better anyway, actually, because he knows more about cars and Subarus than I do, really.

What I did accomplish was catching up with friends! On Thursday night I had planned a bar crawl before I really thought through the fact that I don’t drink that heavily any more. Oops. Happily, the crowd that showed up was happy to be quite chill about it and I think we wound up going to maybe four bars, starting at The Lower Depths and ending at Bukowski (unfortunately The Other Side was at capacity which was really shame because that’s the site of one of my best memories from the 12 Bars of Hashmas pub crawl in late 2009). It was really great to see this crowd again although one of the many challenges, as alluded to above, is that when you move away for a long enough period of time you miss out on common ground. You no longer have the same circle of friends and common frame of reference on which to build a conversation. Which doesn’t, of course, mean there aren’t plenty of things to talk about but it does add a level of complexity, especially in a group.

Friday I did, in fact, train at CrossFit Route 1. The workout was a fun one involving kettlebell snatches and v-ups. Actually, that was more consistent practice at kettlebell snatches than I’d probably ever done, so it was good practice, and gave me some good experience opening that darn hip. Afterwards I mainly went shopping: I had a shopping list for myself and others (not that I would do anything like smuggle electronics into South Africa).

That evening I had dinner with Craig, one of my best friends from my Exit41 days. We ate at Gibbet Hill in Groton which was an interesting experience because although they have their own cows on property, the steaks we ate were from Texas. At least they were grass-fed. And well cooked! Craig has been at Exit41 for a long, long time, and it is in some ways quite inspiring to me to hear how dedicated he still is after such a long period of time. I think the challenge he faces is that the company does have a lot of potential and talent, but a lot of really strong and talented personalities have also left (or been asked to go) in the meantime. I’m not sure how it is now, but it actually does seem to me in retrospect like the company jumped the shark sometime along during my tenure. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens next, but that the no-longer-so-new CEO is really listening to Craig is to me a very good sign. He and Katie, who had between them many years of on-the-ground experience running quick serve restaurants, were always my go-to people when I had questions on new features. They could always give an insight that others could not, usually around how staff could manipulate any new feature we were designing to their own advantage (read: theft, known in the industry as ‘shrink’).

He also got me thinking about how the way that you do something is as important as what you do. Similar to the best thing you can do to show someone you care is to be with them, and not be busy checking your phone or with your mind elsewhere but to be in the moment, and listen. Well, it’s a good reminder for those of us in social enterprise. We must not only focus on the commercial bottom line or the operations. These are the tip of the iceberg. The actual social impact we are having, and also the way that we go about doing what we do is important. There must be heart, and caring; the appearance of being good is as important as the substance because hey, perception is reality in a lot of ways. But there is also a fine line between being kind in what you do and being, perhaps, a bit foolish. Balance in all things.

It was really great to catch up with Craig, though. Unfortunately Katie was unable to join us: she got all the way there and was called back to work on an emergency. That’s how things go sometimes I guess, when we’re dedicated to something, no matter what that something is.

• “We don’t want to infect your mind with our realistic point of view.” – Gabriel
• “If you don’t know where you’re going when you get there you’re lost.” – Gabriel
• “It’s not just a question of what, it’s a question of what price.” – Itshak
• “That’s what I mean when I say the heart is gone.” – Craig

Lessons from a trail race

I am doing something I don’t generally do which is post blog posts out of chronological sequence. Then again, I don’t usually get three weeks behind in my blogs posts either. But hey, I will do what I want. I’m good at that, right?

So the morning of Sunday 21 August I woke up at 5:30am and braved cold temperatures (it was maybe like 10 degrees C), and pouring rain, to go run up and down a mountain. I entered the shortest course on offer which was 9kms (my friend Keith ran the 19km and finished fourteenth!).

Now this was a very cold experience. At one point when we turned and ran into the wind, the rain was coming so hard and fast that it felt like I was crying (or running through a river). I actually love running in the rain, so no complaints about the rain … just the ambient temperature left something to be desired!

But as I was busy running along my mind was spinning as it does when you run long distances, so here are a couple conclusions that I came to:

1. Don’t be swayed by other people’s opinions. I wound up running the entire race with my jacket because I was a bit apprehensive of the cold, and asked the opinion of one of the other runners about whether or not I should wear it. She said I definitely should and, of course, after less than 1km I was wishing I’d left it behind. I know my body and my reaction to conditions better than she does, of course, but I ignored what I thought to be true and bowed to my fears.

2. Eventually, the inevitable is going to happen. That’s why it’s called inevitable. There comes a time in every trail run where you realize there is no way you can keep your feet clean (or, as with yesterday: dry!). This one can be applied to a lot of things but I was thinking more of how the real self, warts and all, comes out under pressure. We are always busy putting up walls around ourselves and keeping this mask of how we want the world to see us. Then when we hit strain, we show our true colors. Mine came out in LA.

3. But you still keep trying to avoid the puddles! I was debating with a co-worker late last week whether or not people’s “true selves” came out while drinking. For me, the person is actually the combination of the innate tendencies and what they do with them. You can’t control how you feel, only how you react. So if someone drinks and gets aggressive but is normally not, that doesn’t mean they are truly aggressive. It’s a part of them, yes, but how they manage that part is important too. So, your mask is eventually going to slip off but like perception is reality, the way you act is as much a part of how you actually are as whatever your innate tendencies.

4. You must be having fun! I go to work every day because I love it. I have to force myself to rest because I love not only the getting better part of CrossFit but the actual experience of going to the gym, seeing my friends, and training. As I was racing along the single-track through the wind and rain and fynbos tearing at my legs, I remembered why I keep entering these races even at distances where I am not competitive (this is a tough thing for a competitive person to do). I am actually out there to have fun!

5. But really, harden the f*ck up. I’d been in a not-so-small funk since landing in Cape Town and actually, if I’m honest, probably since leaving California. This was just what I needed to break out and stop feeling so damn sorry for myself. So what if I’m worried about some people or I don’t know what’s going to happen at work or I’m not as strong and fast as I want to be, or if I picked up some weight in America, or that my friends don’t respond to my texts immediately, or someone I really like is moving overseas, or I’m not as close to my family as I’d like, or I’m too scared to say ‘don’t be scared,’ or I’m feeling torn and lost and confused about what I really want? Well, this is why they call me Princess I suppose, I’m always whining and moaning about something. Hell, even being out there in that weather is an accomplishment so quit whining, get over yourself, and get on with it.

6. It’s when you stop paying attention that you mess up. I was very concerned about being careful lest I roll my right ankle and aggravate the sprain. On the single track you pay attention to every step, but damned if I didn’t roll it on the flat dirt road before we even hit the single track section. Not badly, but it could have been bad. So always pay attention, even when you think you don’t have to.

7. Sometimes the big picture is more important than the details (i.e. you’re trying to win the war, not the battle). About 6kms in, I did something to aggravate an old injury (a sprain to my right knee). My thoughts wavered between “Geez I should walk the rest of this” and “Damn it, I still want to catch those girls ahead of me!” before I realized that pushing too hard in this race could impact my training for weeks so I should put sense before pride, but it didn’t seem so bad that I couldn’t run carefully. Turns out to have been a good decision, I think. But damn it’s hard to have three people pass you in the last km. I would ordinarily never let that happen. Now I guess I know how they feel. Heh.

8. It’s not about what you can do, it’s about what you DO do. This was one of the lessons in the CrossFit cert last weekend, that there is a difference between potential strength and applied strength. If I’m capable of running a little harder but I don’t, it doesn’t matter what I’m capable of. At the end of the day, no matter what the conditions coming into the race, we all ran as we did and the chips fell where they did. I was 13th out of 80. And also, so what if I could beat all these people at Fran? We were running a trail race, not doing thrusters (although on a separate topic if I don't have to hear the word thruster again for a long time it will be too soon...).

Yeah so that’s about it. Afterwards Keith and I warmed up at an awesome restaurant in Stellenbosch with an awesome waiter (and a portable heater….). Then I went down to Noordhoek to Meggie’s birthday celebration and this quickly turned from a very relaxed afternoon to a bit of a tequila-fueled … um, I don’t know what. I was having a great time, until the tequila ran out and the party moved to Kloof Street.

I never rejoined the party because I accidentally fell asleep in my apartment after dropping off my car. In all honesty, my body thanks me even though I was enjoying the company and would have liked to see where the night took us and see Meggie off in style (she’s going back to the UK for two months).

• “You’ve gotta be a little bit crazy to do that this morning. It’s not normal behaviour, I’m sure.” - Keith

Farmfest, family, and intimate moments with a storage locker

My flight left LAX around midnight, and I got into Boston in late morning. Rob picked me up at the airport with my car (thank you, Rob!) and after a shower in Harvard Square and lunch with Justin (a somewhat unexciting bowl of pho), I hit the road for Andover (well, Lawrence) to renew my driver’s license, which I was unable to do online. Apparently they needed to do a vision check. It was all very exciting.

Then I stopped by and say hello to friends Chad and Kathryn who I met in Cape Town, and who just happened to be in the state for the weekend. They were staying in a house right by the Andover campus that I used to walk by sometimes when I worked in town there at Exit41. It was a super fun visit: we got to catch up a bit, talk about the Games, news at CCF and with the people there, and talk about their upcoming move to St Paul’s. I really cannot wait to hear what it’s like for them to work and live there. There may even have been a cookie or two involved.

Speaking of Exit41, my ex-co-worker Claudia was throwing a reunion of old co-workers because she happened to be moving on to a new job after something like 8 years at Exit41. As this was on the evening that I was in town I stopped by and I am so glad I did because I got to see some people that I hadn’t seen in years, as well as meet the new CEO and his wife. It was interesting to talk about the challenges they’ve had in the time since I left but it also reiterated in my head how very much over working there I am. It’s in the past. Fascinating how something that can be so absorbing and that can make you so miserable can a few years later generate little or no emotional response whatsoever (I remember maybe May or so of 2009 when my frustrations with Exit41 literally led me to drinking to excess on a couple occasions).

Sadly I had to leave there earlier than I would have liked because I had a 3-hour drive up to J’s place in Vermont, where a party was taking place the next day (and informally starting that evening). But mainly I wanted to make sure I got where I was going for the night safely, because I was quite tired. Having safely arrived, I got to meet the infamous brother Troy and I’m not sure I remember too much else of what happened that night. I do seem to recall not being terribly mobile because my leg was hurting.

The next morning J, Troy, and I did a workout. I modified the workout because I was unable to grab onto the top of the swingset for pullups (my hands are too small is my excuse), so I subbed handstand pushups. 10 rounds of 10 pushups, 10 situps, run to fence, 3 handstand pushups. 16:44.

Then the day got much more exciting. This bumble bee had been flying around and landing on people. It landed on one guy’s head, another guy’s nose, etc all without incident. So when it landed on my bright purple Reebok sports bra I didn’t think much of it. Until about 1 second later when the thing stung me! Apparently you are not supposed to wear bright colours around bees. The pain wasn’t that bad and I was laughing about it and put some ice on the sting then I went outside to drink from my water bottle. Feeling a bee inside my mouth I spat out all over the floor (much to the amusement of the crowd).

Now I wish this were the end of the story but it actually isn’t. Apparently I’m somewhat allergic because over the next few hours I began to swell up like a balloon. Even when showering an hour after the bee sting, my normal t-shirt size felt too tight so I had put on the next size up. Not to belabour the point but it was actually pretty awful: literally all my joints swelled, including all of my hands and feet and I was drinking a lot of water because at first I assumed the swelling was from the airplane + some alcohol, and in the end I wound up gaining something like 10+ pounds of water weight! I saw some pictures from the weekend and I literally look like another person. That’s enough right there to keep me eating paleo, I tell you what!

But, fun party. We had a variety of outdoor drinking games (I went for the sandbag toss which didn’t involve drinking, but allowed me to test my accuracy pretty decently), a grill on which we burned some sausages and scorched some handmade jalapeno poppers (Lindsay also made 7-layer dip much to my thrill because I hadn’t had any in over a year), and there were some terrific Mexican chocolate cookies. I am still waiting for the recipe so I can paleo-ize them. Later on in the evening one of my best friends from the Boston hash came by, and we got to catch up a bit. I even got roped into playing flip cup which is a team drinking game where you face off across a table and each person drinks some (about a mouthful of beer), then puts the cup on the table facing up (part of the cup extends off the table) and then flip it such that it lands reverse side up. This is trickier than it sounds, but I was actually amazingly good once I got a little practice in: something like 60% of my flips stuck on the first attempt. This is way better than my previous attempts at this game. I thank CrossFit for my increases in accuracy. Better that than dumb luck.

We eventually went to bed when the power went out around 2am. Apparently this wasn’t our fault, but it made for a good story.

This was also the first time that I noticed a change in my friends. When I came back late last year there was a possibility in some people’s minds that I might be moving back. This time, not so much. And that created a bit of a distance in our conversations. Not that I am any less of a friend, but a different sort: the sort you see once a year, not the sort that you are super close to who happens to have been away for a while. Time moves on, people move on. New jobs, moves, and not-entirely-surprising breakups and hook-ups.

The next morning (by this time it was Sunday, you somewhat lose track of days of the week when you’re on vacation) I headed down to my parents place in New Haven. The goal for this part of the trip, in addition to catching up with family, was to clear out my storage locker. Unfortunately, between the fact that I didn’t realize that there was also furniture in it and that I had intended to get a whole half day of sorting in on Sunday but as a result of the bee sting I was ailing, I did not accomplish my goal. But I did manage to go through all of my possessions and sort out the ones I wanted to keep, and drop off the rest for donation. I’d say I donated about 80% by volume, and the remainder of what I kept was books, kitchen equipment, and some clothing. It all fit neatly into my car, along with my suitcases.

So that was a somewhat unpleasant weight to have hanging over me. I did find time to train with J at his CrossFit gym, Champlain Valley CrossFit. The workout was as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of 10 push presses @85 pounds (38kgs), 10 kettlebell swings, and 10 24” box jumps. Now this was a sort of unpleasant workout both because after about 2 rounds the push presses got VERY heavy and I had to keep dropping the weight, and because after about 9 minutes in I was just done. That is unusual for me: usually the difference between 12 and 20 minutes is pretty negligible from a metabolic conditioning (cardio) standpoint. But not today. It all made sense the next morning when I woke up with a sore throat.

It was great to see my family again: mother, father, brother, and aunt. Although I really wish I had had more time with all of them, and that I think we all were distracted by the purpose of my visit. Next time I will take more time, that I really should have done this time around. They seem so far away right now, which is sad.

Sorting through all my possessions was a bit surreal, especially deciding what to keep and what to throw away or give away. There were some tough decisions in there, mostly in things to throw away (childhood journals, for example). You know how when you move or go through a spring cleaning you are very ambitious the first two hours or so, then you just get attached to things and are less rigorous with what you choose to get rid of? Maybe it’s just me.

One of the things that I loved about spending over a year in South Africa is that it is honestly true that if I never saw any of my possessions again, I would be ok with it. There are some things in there that came from my parents that it was important to me that they get back but the removal of attachment was a healthy thing. Of course there is a difference between in theory being ok with not having things and actually going through the act of giving or throwing them away. So actually doing the deed was a bit hectic and there were some moments where I thought well, I could just ask my parents to store this …. But that’s just postponing the inevitable isn’t it? If I didn’t want it enough to take it with me, and I might look at it out of nostalgia once every few years …. Is it really worth taking up the space? Shame about the landfill, but so it goes. Those things served their purpose. It’s time to move on.

• “Wait, can you even drink beer?” – Nelson
• “Instead of ingesting the beer he kinda just spilled it.” – Brian
• “We may have to make you sign a waiver.” – Troy
• “Girls are weird.” “People are weird.” – J & Ellie
• “Well it is a cult, right?” “Yes.” “What?” “Nothing….” – random CrossFit guy, Ellie & coach
• “I was going to tell him: ‘You destroyed my ass yesterday.’ But then I thought about the words that were about to come out of my mouth.” – J
• “I almost went to bed without my fish oil! Yes, I know how that sounds!” – Ellie

NorCal stint: old friends and new CrossFit boxes

After the CrossFit Games, phase 2 of my U.S. trip commenced: a quick trip to the Bay Area. Since I used to live there, the subject of the blog post is a bit tongue-in-cheek (for those not in the know, calling the area NorCal is about like calling the city San Fran … it’s just not done).

Monday morning Rika and Janie took me to Budget to pick up another rental car, because the rest of my teammates decided to stay in Los Angeles for the remainder of their U.S. stay (suckers!). I mean, it looks like they had a great time. But aside from not seeing a friend or two, L.A. bores me and I was happy to get up north. While I’m on the subject I want to relay how cool the car was that I rented: it was an economy car but it was brand new, a Ford of some sort or another and it had a digital display and radio and its coolest feature by far was the gas tank that didn’t have a screw off cap, it just had an emissions- and leakage-safe place to put in the nozzle. AND it was actually kind of fun to drive!

So I took off around noon and with a quick pit stop at In’n’Out Burger (this is a SoCal institution and I’d amazingly never eaten there so decided to check it out: double-double protein style animal style no sauce no cheese, making it relatively paleo), I drove myself up to the Bay Area, specifically to Alameda where I was staying with a friend from my Ask Jeeves days, Hope. Pretty much as soon as we had put my bags down she took me to her back garden and showed me her bar. No, not an alcohol bar but a bar she uses for gymnastics (she started with trapeze and moved onto tumbling and some other things), so I proceeded to show her the kipping pullup which she found fascinating and horrifying all at the same time. Mainly because she had not yet seen the butterfly pullup.

We spent the rest of the evening drinking wine, catching up, and watching archives from the CrossFit Games. The next morning I got up, checked my old spots in Berkeley (my favourite Mexican restaurant appears to be no more), and had a latte at Café Milano where I always used to study. Took some photos of the Cal campus. It’s weird whenever I go there because I like it so much and it’s so familiar, that it feels in some ways like I never left, or like I could easily slip back into being there as if nothing ever changed.

In the early afternoon I went to CrossFit Oakland which is actually in Emeryville. Yes, CrossFit, solving the age-old problem of what to do between meals. CrossFit Oakland is moving facilities at the moment, but it looks like it will be really nice when it’s done being built out. In the meantime it hasn’t been checked by the authorities so all the workouts have to be done outside. The guy who runs it, Mike, was super nice and not only didn’t bother to charge me a drop-in fee but told me to take as many t-shirts as I wanted for free because they were old stock. Of course I took him literally and took 5 so I insisted on giving him something, but these are actually great t-shirts and they will definitely be getting some exposure around Cape Town!

The workout of the day was handstand hold for time, followed by 21-15-9 burpees, 20” box jumps, and kettlebell swings. I had a bit of an issue here: I got to 1:39 and then I was completely losing feeling in both my hands so I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and came down. Second attempt I stayed up about a minute. Definitely need to practice that one more, but after I figure out my nerve impingement issue! The second part of the workout went a bit better for me as I finished in 6:12 although I could feel that latte and I actually stopped for about a second somewhere in the round of 15 burpees. That *never* happens to me. Damn being lactose intolerant!

Following the CrossFit I headed down some dodgy back roads of West Oakland (I thought my GPS might be trying to take me off somewhere to be shot … but happily, not) to the trapeze studio for some tumbling class. This involved jumping on a long trampoline-like rig and doing a variety of other gymnastic moves (cartwheels, pike jumps, trying to jump, flip all the way over and land on your feet (I never quite made it ... Almost, just couldn’t get my legs underneath me)). This was a lot of fun but also very humbling. We finished up with some handstand walk practice.

We had sushi for dinner and due to a sad miscommunication (date mixup) it was just the two of us and we missed seeing some other old friends. This was a bit of a shame but not too much of a shame because at around 9pm I crashed. I think all that bouncing around was a bit harder on my body than it seemed at the time!

The next morning I headed over the hills east to Pleasant Hill, home of Diablo CrossFit (so named because of its proximity to Mount Diablo). I would have wanted to check out this box anyway because of its name (Diablo is Spanish for Devil), but this is also a very good CrossFit gym. They were in second place going into team event #4 when one of their team members made a bit of a strategic error by neglecting to eat carbs between workouts. Lesson learned, the VERY hard way, as Diablo CrossFit wound up in seventh place by one point (the top 6 made the cut to the final day).

The workout of the day was kipping pullup practice followed by 4 rounds for time of 10 chest-to-bar pullups, 10 ground-to-overhead with two 30-lb dumbbells, and a 100m farmers carry with two 25-lb plates. This last part was interesting because we don’t do it a lot, so it was an interesting balance of moving fast and trying not to trash my grip and have to drop the plates! The chest-to-bar pullups were my biggest problem though because, well, because they are way more taxing than regular pullups and when I get tired I tend to miss reps by not actually touching the bar or not getting sufficient height. I finished this one in 15:38. Good workout though!

Afterwards I spent some time touring the construction going on next door. I was impressed enough with the big pullup rig they had in the middle (words don’t do it justice, it looks like a torture device). Apparently the owner Jeremy designed it himself, until I saw the size of the space they were building out next door. Not sure what it is in square feet or square meters, but guessing maybe 8-10 times the total size of the main room at CCF, and including an outdoor area with a café and ice baths (gym rule is going to be if you want to do a girl [workout… you sick people] you have to get in the ice bath after). This is like a competitive CrossFitters wet dream, I’m not even kidding. Stayed for a little bit after trying on t-shirts (the drop-in fee is waived if you buy one) and chatted to the gym owner. Again, super nice, very knowledgeable, highly strategic. If I were a competitive CrossFitter in the Bay Area, I’d say this is the place to train.

Unfortunately I got caught in some severe traffic on the way to my lunch with a bunch of ex-co-workers. That was quite awful, because I got to see some of them for a lot less time than I would have liked. But on the plus side, my salad was very good, and the conversation sparked Laura to find my favourite Ask hack of all time (Ask Iris was replaced with a chain-smoking, beer-guzzling alter ego). Afterwards most of us went by the Ask Jeeves offices (where many of them still work), and Hope toured me around to see old acquaintances, meet a few new people, and do some pullups on her pullup bar. Very strange things around the Ask Jeeves offices if you ask me.

Then Steve and Dan took me to the server room (because no visit to Jeeves is complete without a visit to the server room) and it just so happened that one of my old servers, GRANDMASPURSE, had been listed for decommissioning the day before (and by none other than the lovely Valerie Lanard). So Steve and Dan let me have the pleasure of unracking my server (first I gave myself an electric shock removing its electrical cord, which was not my fault there was a short somewhere on the power strip). Since GRANDMASPURSE was from the days before rackmount servers (!) well they existed back then but we still bought some that weren’t rackmountable they had to lift up the two servers above it so I could safely slide it out. Which I did, then promptly decided to jerk the server overhead just because it was so light (I think it was about 35 or 40 pounds, and I do remember a time when such a weight was a lot heavier than it feels now!). Steve, of course, took a picture which will undoubtedly show up on Facebook at some point.

A quick trip past Blue Bottle Coffee, and my favourite boutique later, I hit the road to Sonoma showing up maybe 30 minutes before the end of Hope’s trapeze session. So I got to try a few swings after ground training. Oddly enough, and I say this because I am super comfortable in the handstand and handstand pushup position, I am extremely uncomfortable hanging from a bar by my knees. That inverted position is very challenging for me. I also forgot to jump up off the platform, which of course caused me to have less speed and height than is desirable. The movements themselves were challenging because they were unfamiliar and I think the biggest challenge I had was doing things on cue. Considering my amazing reflexes there seems to be a big disconnect between hearing a command and obeying it. But on the positive side, the height didn’t seem to bother me when I was inverted, and on the last swing when I was told to let go on command and not try and do a backflip because it would happen naturally and if I tried bad things would result, I had no problem doing as I was told and completing my backflip safely. Fun stuff! Heady stuff and again humbling, but this sort of gymnastic routine fits in well with that old CrossFit prescription that you must regularly learn and play new sports.

Four of us girls stayed that night at a cabin on the property, drinking wine, eating, and only jumping on the trampoline after moderate drinking. Between my rope burn (I had just taken the wrap off!), my ankle and the fact that I’d been drinking, I decided not to jump around too much but rather went and showed Valerie how to do kipping toes-to-bar. I think I have learned my lesson with gymnastic activities and drinking. But that was a super fun time, playing South African music for my friends and talking about all manner of things Jeeves-related and not.

Valerie thought I was a bit nuts (she said dedicated but she meant nuts) when I got up the next morning to drive to San Francisco to hit the 7am workout at San Francisco CrosSFit. Little did I know this box was literally a shipping container. I felt right at home, although I despaired a bit at the thought of a long drive down Route 1 through Big Sur back to LA without a shower, especially since it was raining and the workout was 5 rounds of 5 front squats and 20 pushups. I used a relatively light 105 pound (48kg) weight for the front squats. In retrospect I should have used a little more but I didn’t want to have to worry about not being able to plow through the squats since it was a metcon, after all, and I think my 5-rep max for front squat is something in the low 60s. And I wanted to be able to reliably clean the weight since I wasn’t up for sharing a rack. The pushups of course were my limiting factor, but I wanted to do them cleanly not least because our coach that morning was none other than Adrian Bozman (or Boz, as he’s known), aka the head judge from the Games. My final time? 9:38. So, after the photo op (I’m not one for celebrity photos but considering that I was filthy I thought it was cool) I headed back in the car and hit the road for LA on the scenic route.

The trip was stunning. It was, in retrospect, a bit sad to do it by myself with no one to talk to and expound on the beauty that is the California coast. It was reminiscent of my Garden Route trip a few weeks back although the Californians are smart (or maybe stupid) and built the road right along the coast so its beauty is magnificent. The colours … truly stunning. And I even managed to figure out how to play my Two Minute Puzzle road song when I got out of radio range: via the computer.

I did eventually get my shower when I stopped in Santa Cruz for lunch and saw a CrossFit box (!) so I went in just to say hello and wound up getting offered a shower so I sure as hell wasn’t going to turn that down! Didn’t stay to train, though, because I was concerned about getting to LA in time. Shame, though, the workout looked like fun but I did in fact make it to LAX at just about the perfect time so I think I made the right decision! It was a bit odd driving back into LA on the 405 and hearing the same songs on the radio we had heard before and during the competition, but knowing that everyone was gone. The very definition of a let-down!

Long story short, the visit was a whirlwind. It was great to see old friends again, albeit briefly, comforting to see old places again, and the visit made me realise just how much I do like California.

• “Oh, they're hot.” – Hope
• “You are going to get filthy. If you have a problem with that... Well, you should know better by now.” – Boz

2011 Reebok CrossFit Games

Better late than never. I am writing this post from the Dubai Airport, over two weeks after the Games ended. As it turned out I was a little too ambitious with my U.S. trip schedule post-Games and barely had time to sleep or breathe, let alone to blog. But now I have all the time in the world, or at least a few hours.

Some of you may have seen but I already wrote a brief summary of my experience for our team blog. Here is a more lengthy version covering exactly what happened over the few days, and my thoughts/analysis.

The first team (and individual) event had been briefed at the mandatory dinner/briefing on Wednesday night. The first workout was Friday morning, involved all six team members, and we had to move 1700 pounds worth of sandbags, ranging in weight from 20 to 200lbs, 100 yards (over a stack of 9 logs in the middle, and over a 4-foot wall at the other end), and then back. If you went around the logs or wall rather than over, you had to do a 50 burpee penalty (amazingly, a lot of teams got whacked with this!).

Our result: 14:28, 40th place. Our strategy was good, namely to divide the work into four intervals (get the bags to the barrier, barrier to wall, and back), and to load up the heaviest bag onto me and Janie to carry as the first leg. In retrospect where we could have done better was firstly, we just weren’t strong enough. I couldn’t lift more than the first 4 or so bags by myself; they are heavy and unwieldy. As a result, I was left standing around for costly stretches of seconds. It’s like driving: better to go 50mph consistently than to go 100 but have to stop at a stop light every few miles. That time at 0mph brings your average way down. So in retrospect it would have been better to have two athletes primarily load other athletes, or something like that.

The actual venue itself was comprised of an outdoor arena, and a track area with some events (such as the sandbag carry) being held on the field inside the track. By the outdoor area was a tent for athletes, with food in the form of fruit, almond butter, paleo snacks, water, and coconut water. There were also medics and massage therapists around, and a warmup area that included most of the equipment we would be using. The same setup existed under the stadium, for events being held inside. Despite the shade, the area under the stadium was amazingly hot (probably body heat combined with a decently warm ambient temperature). This was one cool aspect, though: all the athletes were together, hanging out and next thing you know you realize you’re standing next to Annie Thorisdottir or Austin Malleolo, or one of the guys from last year’s winning affiliate team is talking to you about Cape Town.

It was also a weird mix of competitors and spectators: there were some areas only staff and competitors could go, but a lot of other areas where you had to go mix with the spectators to get anywhere. Not that this was a problem, and it was actually quite good because it allowed me to visit with friends new & old, but it was a bit unusual, maybe?

Anyhow. Team event 2 was later that afternoon and again involved all 6 team members. This time we had to do as many rope climbs as we could in 2 minutes (rope was 15 feet tall), then we had to minutes to establish a 1 rep max weight from ground to shoulder (clean). Each event was scored separately.

Our result: 24 rope climbs (43rd place), 930lbs cleaned (43rd place). In both of these we were tied for last, so one more rope climb or one more pound lifted would have made a difference. Conversely, the reverse is also true which is easy to forget. Here, I can only speak for myself but I was so excited that on my first rope climb I think I climbed the entire rope with mostly just my arms. Unsurprisingly, this tired out my grip so that on my third attempt I literally got about 13 feet from the top and had to stop, rest my grip, climbed another foot … and just couldn’t make it all the way to the top. This is the sort of scenario you have nightmares about and it not only happened to me but that particular moment of ignominy was captured on camera. Well, in my defense I wasn’t terribly interested in pulling a Rich Froning and dropping 15 feet from the top because I could no longer hold on, and then not being able to do my clean at all. Considering the rope burn I sustained on the way down because I could barely hold the rope with my hands (it’s 2 weeks later and still not healed), I think it’s true that grip and safety was an issue. But still. I’m not going to be living this one down in my own head.

Then on the cleans, I made my safety lift at 95lbs (yes, my brain is now working in pounds and miles after three weeks back here, well at least sort of), although it was way harder than it should have been because I could barely grip the bar. Then I increased the weight to 115 (53kgs) which again is a very achievable weight for me and I missed my first lift. Here I was starting to get frustrated because I knew my grip was gone and my form wasn’t very good (wasn’t opening my hip at all, really) but I decided I was not going to miss the next lift so I didn’t. It was ugly as all hell but I made it. Then I looked the wrong place for weights and wound up stealing from my teammate next to me (!), but was ultimately unable to make that next lift at 125lbs. Got it high enough but couldn’t get my elbows around/couldn’t get under it. Here is where lack of technique and practice with Olympic lifts comes in. Especially after my cert this last weekend I am recognizing the importance of getting back to basics (or, as is usual, actually doing what I say I am going to do!).

Following this event were the opening ceremonies where we all marched into the stadium behind a big flag that said Africa (well, mostly all of us … the schedule was running late so Mona couldn’t march because she had to be getting ready for her heat and Chris couldn’t march because he wanted to stay with Mona ). This was about as interesting as it sounds.

Being the fans that we are, we stuck around the rest of the evening to watch the individual competitors after Mona finished. Unfortunately, she also hit issues with grip on the rope climb which is a shame because it would have been so cool to see her get to the weights (apparently the other girls were checking her out in the warmup area because she’s so good at these Olympic lifts ... the individual workout was 5-4-3-2-1 rope climbs and clean & jerk with ascending weights). As a result, we got caught in traffic on the way out, got home super late, and didn’t necessarily set ourselves up great for a good performance the next day. The more competitive teams, I am sure, went home immediately after their events.

The first team event Saturday didn’t start until 1pm so we did get to sleep in although since we missed the briefing at 8am we had to ask some questions when we got to the venue. The first team event involved four team members and was a chipper of 40 muscle-ups, 100 deadlifts, 100 GHD situps, and then a sprint relay. There was a time cap and our team didn’t quite finish within the time cap. I sat this one out which the competitor in me wasn’t happy about but the human in me was for a number of reasons not the least of which was that on Friday I had become massively dehydrated no matter how much water I drank. Saturday I took electrolytes but doing two workouts that day would not have been a good idea, all things considered.

The final team event (only the top 6 teams made the cut to the final day of competition) was only a few hours later. I think our heat was 3:45 or so. This workout was called the “Killer Kage” because it involved monkey bars (this, in addition to the ocean swim the individuals had to do, probably comprised the biggest surprises of the competition, at least in terms of actual movements we had to perform). Monkey bars! I saw this early in the morning by checking Laa-Laa’s mobile uploads to Facebook, and thought that would be super fun although there were no monkey bars in the warmup area so we had to just go out there and kind of figure out how to do it! That’s part of what makes CrossFit fun. So the team event was a relay where you couldn’t move to the next station until the person ahead of you had cleared. It started with to shoulder to overheads at 95 pounds (I remember a time maybe 8 months ago when my 1 rep max was about 110 and on this occasion I did 14 in a row before I failed to lock out my arms and dropped the bar), 20 box jumps onto a 60cm box, then a 50 foot traversal of the monkey bars, 50 double unders, and 500m row on a stationary bike, then repeat this process in reverse. So I was all happy until I hit the double-unders which are a big weakness of mine and these just took me FOREVER, during which my teammates were all waiting for me and I knew it. It was very frustrating. Then I got on the bike which just about killed me and before I knew it I had to get back on the bike again. OMG I have never felt so close to my lactic acid threshold since 400m races in high school. By the time I got back to that damn jump rope I could barely jump an inch in the air, so luckily we hit the time cap pretty quickly.

After this our team and the team from the Cayman Islands (the Latin America Regional winners) were hauled off for drug testing. Because it makes so much sense to drug test the two last place teams. Sadly the team that won the Asia Regional couldn’t afford to make it to the Games. Well, maybe next year. So this was my first experience with drug testing and according to Rika it was a bit of a dodgy experience but since we weren’t gunning for first place we didn’t really complain. But what I was upset about is that my biceps were cramping badly after that event. It was because of the monkey bars: going from bar to bar wasn’t a problem, but grip was: not due to strength but due to the fact that the bars were slippery so you had to get to the next bar and grab it, HARD, to make sure you didn’t fall off (I actually did fall off about 2/3 of the way through). The end result, apparently, is bad cramping. After my drug test I had one of the medics massage my arms, then Chris made me go see one of the massage therapists who had this cool but painful massage gun. He ordered me to go eat a banana. Lessons for the weather: bananas and salt.

The competition now over for us, we could sit back to fully enjoy the individual competition (heavy front squats, the stationary bike, and the monkey bars), before heading home to collapse. Oh, wait, I mean drink a little bit of alcohol and then collapse. This was preceded by a quite amusing trip to the package store where the patrons took one look at our three bodies (you do tend to get looks if you wear a CrossFit outfit around town, imagine that). The next morning, Rika, Janie, and I woke up early to go watch the competition and I’m so glad we did because it was amazing. The highlight of the morning individual competition involved pushing a heavily-loaded sled around. Some of the lighter athletes like Kristen Clever and Chris Spealler had a hell of a hard time with it.

Then the team competition which consisted of a relay where each team member had to do a benchmark workout before the next team member could start. This was criticized after for being a boring event because the affiliates could do those workouts whenever they wanted in their gym, whereas stuff like sled pushes and monkey bars and ocean swims can really most easily only be done at a competition like the CrossFit Games. But while it may have been lacking from a creativity standpoint from this perspective, from a spectator perspective this was off the hook to watch. The leadoff girl from CrossFit New England did more consecutive ring dips faster than I have ever seen anyone, Mel absolutely destroyed Fran (Mel is one of my favourite CrossFitters: she taught me the kipping pullup and this weekend she not only remembered my face but also my name. She’s a super sweet girl, a hell of a competitor, and watching her do Fran is something I’ll never forget!). On the flip side, one girl got absolutely stuck on the ring dips and destroyed the chances of her entire team. That was very emotional, even from the stands. Similar when the leadoff girl from CrossFit Fort Vancouver (last year’s winners), got into trouble on the ring dips and it was pretty clear at that point that CFNE was going to run away with it.

OK I will say, watching anyone do 150 wall balls for time is boring as sh*t. Why they ended the relay with THAT escapes me.

The afternoon events were the individual final three events, which was actually just one set of exercises. The first time through you had 3 minutes to see how far you could get, the second time through, 6 minutes, and the final time through you had to complete all the exercises for time. It was rowing, wall balls, toes to bar, box jumps, sumo deadlift high pulls, burpees, ground to overhead, and then a sled pull. What was interesting about this to watch was how the wall balls really kind of did Kristen Clever (last year’s champ) in. She wasn’t very good at them, and it slowed her way down having that early on in the sequence for three out of nine events for the weekend. On the men’s side, Pat Barber took the 3- and 6-minute heats super slowly, then the Manimal came out. Unfortunately from the stands we didn’t have a good understanding at all of overall standings, or how places in these events were impacting overall standings.

Actually in general this is probably the biggest failing of the event from a spectator standpoint, but it gives them something to work on for next year. I am having a hard time recalling whether or not last year’s online stream was any better. I somehow think not. I think some of this was up on the monitors but what is generally referred to as play-by-play (vs colour commentary) was lacking. A lot of others have commented about this, so I won’t belabour the point here.

Afterwards the boys and Mona went shopping for jeans and I went to watch the award ceremonies with Laa-Laa and Susan. This was about as expected. I had a bit of a moment in this process when the guy from Reebok went to give the prizes to the male and female winners (Rich Froning and Annie Thorisdottir, respectively) and he was again thanking the CrossFit community, including Coach. Coach is the founder of CrossFit, named Greg Glassman. He’s a bit of a controversial figure, because he’s abrasive and no longer CrossFits so he’s like this out of shape middle aged man. But at this point the Reebok guy gestures towards the boxes and out comes coach and up stands everyone in the audience to catch a glimpse of this guy. Including me. Then I started laughing and said something along the lines of “Oh my God this is such a cult … there is our cult leader!”

After the award ceremony Reebok had sponsored a (non-paleo) dinner in which we partook (the cornbread with maple butter was awesome!), then went home and got prettied up for the SICFIT party at a club in downtown. That was a bit insane. I did meet some cool girls from one of the other affiliate teams, and a guy who was a firefighter from I think Washington State. I was much more interested in talking to him about the scariest situation he’d encountered in his career than I was in drinking (still dehydrated I guess), and I was very happy when the time to depart arrived.

And I am not kidding when I say that the drive home was more enjoyable than the entire time at the club because our cab driver spoke about as much English as I did Spanish (actually that’s not true, my Spanish was better). I obviously had more to drink than I thought because I was realizing the next day how sorely lacking my vocabulary had been the night before, which is just sad. But it was great: first we took a long detour to get food for the boys, then the cab broke down on the side of the 405 (when the cab driver says “oh no” it’s never a good sign) …. Anyway it was literally a laugh riot or at least that’s how I found it. Even better was the conversation with the cabbie who was asking me if Chris was Mexican (he has dark skin, see, although he doesn’t actually look Mexican), so I said no, no, he was from Sweden. Then he asked if I was Mexican (because my Spanish was so good, obviously).

And that was pretty much our weekend! As I said in my post on our team blog, all this experience does is make me want to be better. I made some rookie mistakes and paid for it, although I was not lacking in focus; so while I’m disappointed by some of my results I am not disappointed in the effort I put in.

The takeaways:
• This year’s Games seemed to bias towards strength. Strength is never a bad thing and we need more of it. We’re just not as strong as these other teams which we knew but being confronted with it is a whole other matter.
• I need to practice my weaknesses. And not sprain my ankle again. In a way, this injury gave me a bit of a mental “out” for the areas where I did poorly (it was only a few weeks ago that I could climb the rope again because of the pressure on the ankle from the ankle wrap, and similarly as recently as 2 weeks before the Games I couldn’t even do double-unders reliably). But I don’t accept that: excuses are just that; there is a world of difference between what you CAN do and what you DO do.
• I/we need to practice those Olympic lifts more.
• We need more competition experience. Looking forward to the United We Stand team competition in Durban at the end of October!
• I need to make a plan regarding the weather because my body does NOT handle heat well when I’m not accustomed to it.
• Renting a house is definitely the way to go. We could cook our own food, and relax in a more chill environment than a hotel room.
• Having a team manager/coach along, if possible, would be ideal. Coordinating lots of people at once is always a bit hectic, and taking that responsibility away from a competitor would only be a good thing.

Our team managed to get quite a good bit of airtime in the live streaming broadcast, at least for the events I participated in. Between that and the fact that I didn’t pack much training gear so I wound up wearing around my numbered tights in the following weeks, I sure did get my 15 minutes of fame with people coming up to me, asking how it was to compete (and some of them claimed even to have seen me in the stream or on ESPN3). Hey it was one childhood dream of mine to be a professional athlete and be on ESPN. This is as close as I’m gonna get, so I enjoyed it.

These were for my team blog post but repeated here because, well, it amuses me to do so, and really the only good quote from the weekend was Susan’s “Not all cults give you results like these.” (true…):
• Most amusing celeb statement: “Why are they making us do stupid shit?” – Pat Barber
• Most un-paleo celeb statement: “I’m thinking about having one [a beer] right now.” – Kristen Clever
• Best t-shirt seen at the competition: “My girlfriend is stronger than you.”
• Second best: “Don’t use a machine. Become one.”
• Most sexist comment fit to print: “Don’t worry, the girl saved you.”
• Best hair: Taylor Richards-Lindsay
• Funniest one-liner: “Is that peanut butter?” “No, it’s almond butter. Peanut butter’s not paleo.”
• Best quote related to a bad rumour: “Do you really have to ride a bull?” (there were rumours that the team competition on Day 2 would involve riding a mechanical bull … don’t ask …)
• Most amusing pickup line: “I don’t give two f*cks about your Fran time. Mine’s 3:10.” (I would have challenged him to 50 burpees for time right then and there but I wasn’t wearing the right outfit….)