Before CrossFit (CF), I spent most of my free time running. I had finished several 50-100+ mile trail races, and I figured I was in fairly good shape. After meeting Daniela, we would occasionally work out together, and she would always smoke me. I did not realize it at the time, but that was my first real experience with a CF style Metcon. It was hard on my ego, but it was a humbling realization that I was not as fit as I thought I was. I did a free CF workout with her once, and I remember feeling like I was going to pass out just from doing burpees over a dumbbell in a workout that was less than 20 minutes long. I was sore for at least a week. At that point, I was easily running 30 miles on a Saturday morning, with no soreness by Sunday morning. It was mind boggling to me how I was able to survive running 100+ miles through mountains with over 40k feet of elevation change, but I could not hang on to a 20-minute basic workout in a gym with a fan blowing directly at me.

It took me a while to pull the trigger and sign up for foundations, and I wanted to visit as many locations as possible to get an idea of what I was paying for. I settled on CF Route 7 because I felt like I was getting my money’s worth. The facility and the coaches were noticeably different from the other locations I visited. I remember thinking that after foundations, I would be able to move well enough to post a good score on the board. Instead, when I finished foundations, I could still barely mentally process things like alternating dumbbell clean and jerk without slowly saying each word out loud.

I have gained and learned so much from being a member at CFR7. My back squat has more than doubled. I’ve had lots of PRs on my other lifts, and I have been able to string together toes-to-bar, bar muscle ups, and double-unders (I didn’t even know what those were when I joined CF). Burpees no longer feel like a near death experience, usually. I save a lot of time because the workouts are efficient, and I don’t ever have to structure a training plan. What I love most about CF is that there is always more. No matter how much I improve, there is always something new to learn or work on. There are so many athletes in the gym who are much better than me, and I have grown to enjoy the push that gives me. That seems like a good way to bring it all back to where it started for me – Daniela smoking me in workouts (and now lots of other athletes too). Not much has changed on that front, but that makes it so much easier to keep showing up. Ultimately, my success is a measure between where I was when I started CF and where I am today, but when I don’t really feel like getting a workout in, it’s the community that moves me to show up. I am grateful that I get to be a part of such an inspiring community.