CrossFit Pittsburgh

A month ago I was in Pittsburgh for work and I had the pleasure of dropping in at CrossFit Pittsburgh. Super big thank you CrossFit Pittsburgh! Yinz were great.

Because I approach every chance to travel as an opportunity to drop in at a box, I emailed Mike the owner and head coach before I even booked my flight. He got back to me right away and wait for it - told me it was FREE to drop in if you were a member of another CrossFit affiliate. I knew in my head I was going to Pittsburgh to interview candidates, but my heart told me I was flying down to WOD with the fine athletes at CrossFit Pittsburgh. (I knew I'd like them because my teammate is from Pittsburgh and Yinzers possess wonderful qualities such as friendliness, authenticity, and genuine interest in others. They're like made for CrossFit.)

So Wednesday rolls around and I don't care that I have slept a total of 6 hours in the past 2 nights nor do I care that I keep picking at my lunch in between interviews instead of eating a proper meal. I also don't care that I am beginning to shake from the combination of lack of sleep, limited nutrients, and excessive amounts of caffeine. I was going. My parting words to my roommate were, "This has the potential to end terribly. The last time I went to a WOD feeling like this, I ended up pinned underneath the 33 lbs lady bar."

Oh how right I was. We were working on the 3 position snatch. The 10 lbs training bar felt like the heaviest thing I had ever tried to lift. I tried it with 5 lbs plates and had to take them off. I was jittery and flustered because my GPS was off by less than a quarter of a mile and kept telling me to pull into a State Police K9 unit pen. I gave myself a buffer zone of 30 minutes and ended up only arriving 6 minutes early although I had been driving on the correct road the entire time. I probably had no business being in that box. And as I thought those very words to myself, I got my arms up above my head and completely, totally forgot to drop my body under the bar. It was like the lower half of my body wasn't getting messages from my brain and my brain wasn't even aware of the disconnect until the bar smacked me firmly in the forehead. The sound reverberated around the box. I could hear it in my ears. I got a metallic taste in my mouth and then realized that I was still standing so I switched to a PVC to get my form back. A month later, the spot is still a little tender but at least I don't have a horn.

The candidates I interviewed the next day had the sense not to ask questions.

CONDITIONING

5 rounds for time of:

3 Wall walks

6 Power Snatch (135/95)

9 T2B

I had never done a wall walk before and one of the guys demonstrated and gave me a few pointers. I was petrified to power snatch after nearly knocking myself unconscious but I got over it, kind of. (I actually remained skittish for weeks after until Chad helped me get my form and my confidence back at Oly Sunday.) Princess can't toes to bar but I can struggle through knees to elbow when necessary. I finished barely.

how sick is this logo?

I cannot thank the members at CrossFit Pittsburgh enough for the support and advice that they gave me after the WOD. They helped me to figure out what I was doing correctly and what I should tweak so that I could get kipping pull-ups and T2B. My arms were so dead at that point that I wanted to curl up on the floor and never see a bar again, but their feedback has been really helpful.

I found this post "On Being a Real CrossFitter" from Fat CrossFitter the Saturday after I got back. At that moment it captured how I felt at every box I had been to. And it's true, no matter where you go, the people couldn't be nicer.

Fat CrossFitter's poetic words, not mine

In the past month, I've begun to feel like a REAL CROSSFITTER. I may not lift that heavy yet and I rarely get to click Rx on WODIFY, but when I see a WOD posted or fellow CrossFitters' photos, I'm like, Yeah, I can do that. Maybe not as fast, maybe not as much, but I can do that. (Yes, my inner monologue sounds exactly like Austin Malleolo from the awesome Letting Beauty Speak video.)

Mike coaching the next class