Crossfit Certification Weekend

(no it's not raining in there, my camera just sucks)

This past weekends adventures took me back to California. Strange to not be headed somewhere for a race for once. However, a great opportunity came up for me to do my Crossfit Level I certification so I jumped on it. Despite a nagging cold (my first one in 2 years I think) from Ecuador travels, I hacked up my lungs all weekend and got the job done.

I have to admit, I have been out of mainstream Crossfit training for a few months now. Since living up north, I’ve been doing my best to keep up with air squats, KB swings and ab mats. However, any ability to lift heavy has disappeared - so very frustrating. On the plus, time away in a controlled environment allowed me to return to running and nurse my achilles, so I suppose not all was lost.

Ok, back to the weekend. I arrived Thursday night into Long Beach and first stop was to Crossfit Newport for the evening WOD. And as expected, it did not disappoint! I hadn’t hung on a pull up bar forever so when “Death by Pull-ups” and “Death by 30m” came up, I knew I was in trouble. However, I did my best on the bars and only needed to modify ½ way through. It was great to see the Newport crew as they are always a fun and welcoming bunch. Got to catch up with Coach Carl (my pacer from the SD100) and Bob and Jennifer drove down with baby Lincoln for a visit and dinner. Cat and I then hit the road down South to Salona Beach for a few days visit with TR. I enjoyed an early morning seaside run to Del Mar, breakfast at Ki’s and a yummy Mexican dinner, life at my “home away from home” was nice as usual.

Early Saturday morning, the amazing Cat drove me back up north to Anaerobic Inc in Rancho Santa Margarita for my 2 days of Crossfit learning. What a GREAT GREAT weekend. I learned so much more than expected. The instructors were awesome and all the people taking the course were really nice. We hit some tough WOD’s (like Fran) in addition to hundreds of squats, dead-lifts, SDHP, clean and jerks and on and on and on!!! My understanding of how to execute the movements and to teach them grew tremendously. My STOKE for Crossfit returned and after some good discussions with some new mentors (like the head strength and conditioning coach at University of San Diego who uses Crossfit for all his athletes) I now better understand how to make “endurance athlete Jen” and “Crossfit Jen” fit together!!! WAHOO!!!! I’ve got some great ideas for all the runners, tri-athletes, mountain bikers etc who I coach on how to apply these methods into their programs.

A tiring weekend, but a great weekend. I spent Sunday night back at the Cox household and realized more and more how much fun having a baby could be as I played with little Lincoln. Bob caught me up on the latest i2P happenings and we even heard from Ray this morning while we drank our morning coffee. He and Kevin are 2 days into the Siberian Express – Ray sounded cold! These guys are going to be great out there as over 8000 students follow along and learn.

Back here in Squamish now, times are busy. Outdoor classes start tomorrow morning, I have lots of training to get on with and Thursday I head out to Vernon to meet Coach Andrew and the Balance Point Racing Team for some testing. I’m on a great high from the weekend and STOKED on life! I hope you are too........