Wednesday – 5/6/20

WOD

AMRAP 15:
50 Calorie Row, Bike, or Ski.
50 Med Ball Cleans
50 Single Arm Shoulder-to-Overhead,
50 Box Jumps.

Tuesday Night Musings with Coach Preston.

Reflection.

I stumbled into CrossFit about 13 years ago. I read an article on the training the actors did for the movie “300”. The article featured a CrossFit style workout they did called “300”. I thought it looked brutal and couldn’t wait to try it out at Lifetime Fitness. A few days later I did try it…….and I was hooked. I couldn’t get enough CrossFit. I was constantly trying to find different workouts online to try on my own (which was much harder to do then than it is now). I came across a video online of a guy doing Fran in his Firefighter gear. Man! I thought he was such a bad ass! I didn’t have heavy fire gear to use, but I had to try Fran anyway. So, I went into lifetime and set up my thrusters on the squat rack and my pull ups on the assisted pull-up machine (I didn’t know about kipping or bands at this point).  As the months went by, I gathered a good list of workouts and moved through them day by day at the gym. Often going from the treadmill at one end of the gym over to the weights and back for a number of times in some kind of timed torture Metcon. 

In the economy crash of 2008, I lost both jobs I had (only a month after getting married) and could no longer afford to work out at Lifetime. So, what was the next best thing? Well, getting my pump on with Tony of course. I found a used set of P90X DVDs on KSL for $25. Tony and I threw down for about a year, until I really started getting sick of seeing his “my shit don’t stink” face EVERY SINGLE DAY. Luckily by this time, I had established myself with another company and had moved from my starting position to a higher paying position. With the massive extra dough I was making (not really), Jones surprised me for Christmas with a Groupon to CrossFit Sandy. I was freak’n stoked!!!………and then I went and saw their facility (which is no longer there). Imagine a CrossFit gym in a small rectangular shaped T-mobile store. Not too appealing right? Well I didn’t think so. Even though I would have taken it over nothing, I nicely told Jones that I was going to look around and see if I could find another CrossFit gym that was also close to home, but had more space. The only other gym I could find that was somewhat close to Riverton, besides CrossFit Sandy, was CrossFit Draper.

I stopped into CrossFit Draper the following night after work. I was nervous and about to shit myself as I walked in and they were finishing up a WOD with 15+ people all throwing down. There were some fit freaking individuals. It was intimidating! But I wanted in!!! After talking with Jones and knowing that it was just too much for us to pay the monthly dues, she shocked me when she said if you want it that bad, we will make it work; and that is what we did.
I signed up for CrossFit Draper and started going everyday at 5:30 am. It was epic! After a while, one of the coaches persuaded me to start coming in the afternoon. She thought it would be a better group to help push me as I was excelling past the morning crew. So that is what I did. It was a good group in the afternoon. There was this cool dude Alecio that could throw down. I also met a guy who shared my love for the CrossFit Football program, Ben Smith. There was this little guy Double D (Kyle’s bro in law) who had quads for days and could squat a house. He was insane! Then this young punk started coming in and made me and everyone else look like complete chumps (Kyle).

Those were good times and I was loving CrossFit. I was so obsessed that I decided to register for my Level 1 Certification. I signed up to take my Level 1 at CrossFit Park City. It was so cool! I got to learn from some of the biggest names in Crossfit, Chris Spealler and Miranda Oldroyd. At my Level 1 Cert, I ran into Alecio and Julia. Without knowing, we had signed up for the exact same dates to get our Level 1 Certifications. Crazy! Shortly after getting my Lv1, I blew my knee out for the third time and had to take some time away from the gym to recover from surgery. After I healed up, I returned to Draper. Unfortunately, Alecio was no longer coaching there, although I did not know why?

Then one day I received a Facebook message from Julia asking if she could give me a call. That is when they told me about opening up Helo and asked me if I would like to come be a coach. Of course, I was super excited about the opportunity and told them I would be glad to. 

As you may already know, over the next 6+ years coaching at Helo, I soaked up a ton of new knowledge about CrossFit and life in general. I earned 3 more CrossFit Certifications, and even started coaching my own Powerlifting class on Saturdays. In our coaches and members, I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the best people the world has to offer. It has truly been one of the greatest experiences I will have in my lifetime. I am so blessed to be part of it, and it will always be a part of me.

I hope you enjoyed my reflection on my CrossFit journey. It has been an awesome ride and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. At this time, I have decided to hang up my coaching cleats and move on from coaching CrossFit and coaching at Helo. This has been one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make. Even though I knew in my mind that it was time, I didn’t want it to be. You guys are all my family and it has been really emotional for me to come to terms with this. But with mine and my families current schedule, the time I have to coach and develop as a coach is very minimal. It is not fair to you guys or any of the coaches to continue on calling myself a coach without putting in the hours that I should be putting in.

I want to thank all of you for putting a smile on my face and making my day better each and every time I coached you. Thank you for showing up for my morning classes. Thanks for letting me guide you through your intro’s. Thanks for showing up early Saturday mornings to throw down some heavy weight. Thanks for your trust in me to show you how to move better. Thank you for teaching me how to move better and be better. Thanks for inspiring me and making me want to be better. Thank you for being my CrossFit family. I wish each and everyone of you all the best that life has to offer.

Love,
Coach P.

Attention:  To start – Welcome Back! First Day of the Re-Opening! Second, please remember to sign in for classes on MindBody (as per the usual again) because we have capped classes to ensure we are following all state and county requirements with spacing, and so it is key that you reserve your spot. Third, we decided not to send out a group e-mail with the updated waiver, so when you come in, just remember to snag one and take it home to fill out and bring back the next time you are in. You will be briefed by your Coach on the cleaning and new things to do.  Fourth, remember to wear your masks to class and keep the required distancing.  Fifth, congratulations to Nat as it appears she is the only person who finished both components of the April Challenge!To start – Welcome Back! First Day of the Re-Opening! Second, please remember to sign in for classes on MindBody (as per the usual again) because we have capped classes and so it is key that you reserve your spot. Third, we decided not to send out a group e-mail with the updated waiver, so when you come in, just remember to snag one and take it home to bring back the next time you are in. Fourth, congratulations to Nat as it appears she is the only person who finished both components of the April Challenge. And sixth, we will still be posting primarily on SugarWOD going forward (with stretching and monthly challenge information) and encourage all of our members to continue to post their results there, or downloading the App if they didn’t have it during the period at home!