CrossFit Golden Gate and the Start of the HeritageBBQ Tour

This past month has been a whirlwind. I left Atlanta on September 11 for the first stop of Cochon555's HeritageBBQ tour in San Francisco. Our event was held at Magnolia Brewing in Dogpatch and the light of my life Colton came to help us sell merchandise. 

I fucking love this kid.

We had incredible dinners at The Battery, Dirty Habit, and at our own event. By Tuesday I was dying to do a WOD and was able to drop in at CrossFit Golden Gate for the noon class before my redeye to Toronto for stop two.

Functional Fitness

Last week I started my awesome new job at COCHON 555 and I flew out to Napa on Thursday for our Heritage Fire event. It was FANTASTIC! Honestly, I've never been to a cooler event. I'm extremely excited for the Heritage BBQ tour to start in September. If you're in San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Austin, or D.C., you should buy tickets. I promise it will be a great time.

So a major component of event production is setting up for the events. Thank you Captain Obvious. Since we know I love lifting and carrying heavy things, setting up for events is kind of like a CrossFit Christmas for me. Clearly I am in the correct line of work.

I would like to report that my CrossFit membership totally paid off this weekend when my new bff Matt and I headed to the storage unit with the U-Haul van. We needed to pack up the rest of the items in storage so that they could be properly inventoried on site. This included a 23" Saffire kamado grill (think the red version of a Big Green Egg) and a gigantic plastic pallet.

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I almost lost an ear when I accidentally trapped my head between the egg and the back door latch on the van, BUT we didn't drop it.

I am extremely proud of figuring out how to get this pallet into the back of the van. It wouldn't fit into the side entrance and we couldn't get it high enough to clear the back. Then I realized that it would flip exactly like a tire, so we put it down on the ground and flipped it right into the truck. Strongman training for the win!

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CrossFit Mean Streets

Continuing my LA box tour, this morning my friends Jhon and Raiza accompanied me to CrossFit Mean Streets of Downtown Los Angeles. Jhon had gone the day before while I was hungover in my hotel bed praying for a swift and sudden death and he had on the t-shirt to prove it. It was nice that he could lead the way to the box since my brain doesn't always function at 5:30 in the morning.

CrossFit Sandbox

Greetings from LA!

I got in late last night and my buddy picked me up at the airport. I'm here for a conference this weekend but last night I crashed at his place in Santa Monica. Saving the organization money and catching up with a good friend - two birds with one stone. This morning I awoke to the familiar sound of barbells and remembered that my buddy's place is next to CrossFit Sandbox. I promptly put on some spandex and walked down the street.

The guys at CrossFit Sandbox were welcoming right away. The 9 AM was finishing up and I filled out my waiver, paid the $25 drop-in fee, and hung out with everyone else in the back. I really enjoyed the company (it had been more than 3 days without CrossFit!) and I felt very much included in the conversation.

14.2

I'm a little tardy with a 14.2 write up, partly because I was traveling and partly because I was unhappy with my score.

14.2 was announced on Thursday, March 6 when Camille Leblanc-Bazinet and Talayna Fortunato went head to head in Miami. It was effing crazy. Talayna killed that shit.

WORKOUT 14.2

Every 3 minutes for as long as possible complete:

From 0:00-3:00

   2 rounds of:

   10 overhead squats

   10 chest-to-bar pull-ups

From 3:00-6:00

   2 rounds of:

   12 overhead squats

   12 chest-to-bar pull-ups

From 6:00-9:00

   2 rounds of:

   14 overhead squats

   14 chest-to-bar pull-ups

Etc., following same pattern until you fail to complete both rounds

Pink Iron

Member Kristen, Owner/Coach Holly, Coach Barbell, and me having some fun after class.

So this amazing place called Pink Iron exists in real life. It's where Barbie, if she were real and badass, would train and it's probably the most beautiful place I have ever been. I'm a sucker for pink. I had an entirely pink dorm room in high school and loved every damn inch of it.

Cave CrossFit

Greetings from LA! I arrived last night, went to Yogurtland and then watched Sideways with two of my favorite guys in the world. Conked out on the couch and felt spectacular this morning.

Colton and I spent the day running errands and driving around town. We hit up Whole Foods, Alfred for coffee, and drove around the Hollywood Hills. Then I switched rental cars and made Colton take me to CrossFit (even though I have my own car.)

After much deliberation, we decided to go to Cave CrossFit on Beverly Boulevard. Coach and co-owner Zee Brod taught our class. Zee was great and gave me so much personal attention during our snatch work. We also got to meet Brian Jaffe, the other co-owner/coach at Cave CrossFit.

We had a thorough warm-up of a 400m run, jumping jacks, burpees, and Samson stretches. My snatch was seriously struggling today - I had to stick at around 45#. I realized that I hadn't eaten anything besides a green juice and a chocolate today and was pissed at myself.

The WOD was 21-15-9 thrusters and box jumps - 24 inch for women and 30 inch for men. Besides getting incredibly lightheaded and thinking I was going to throw up from hunger, I had an amazing time. I used 50# for the first 19 thrusters and then switched to 45# for the remaining. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this WOD and want to do it again.

Planning and Still Failing

Sometimes you can plan ahead and still fail.

This past week I was in San Diego for work. Yay San Diego! Many of you know what my profession is, but for those of you who don't, I help a non-profit create new regions around the country. I travel each month for meetings, but I was out in San Diego for a week of team building, community involvement, and immersion in the city's educational landscape. Long hours as you can imagine.

the great looking pool I never got to get into

It was an amazing week, yadda yadda yadda, lives were changed, impact was made, and yet despite my best efforts, I never once exercised. The hotel had a gym and the weather was perfect for running. This June Gloom business is basically a race director's dream by the way.

When I packed to come home, I put all of my clean workout clothes in my carry-on. It was full of things I didn't wear.

more clean clothes for CrossFit!

Sometimes these things happen and you have to move on. Despite my sedentary lifestyle, I am down 10 lbs from the beginning of May. I think making better food choices (like avoiding the leftover potluck on the 9th floor) have been paying off. That, and a massive amount of coffee.

Casual Day in Marin

I was recently in San Francisco for work. Over the course of a week, I viewed more PowerPoint presentations than I can count, drank too much, angered my friends, and managed NOT to get fired. All in all, successful trip.

The running partner/neighbor who used to live across the street from me and motivate me to drag my ass around Central Park has moved back to California. I'd say boo but he has a much sicker set up out there. Kudos to you bud.

We made plans to run some trail in Marin on the Saturday after my work obligations ended.

Check out that awesome color-coordination.

For some reason, I own a lot of turquoise and neon yellow running apparel. I was so set with socks that matched my shorts and sports bra and sneakers that matched my pullover. This is gear from different companies mind you. I got those shoes for free from Brooks for being a wear tester, but you can buy a pair here.

I was effing starving so I went to Mel's Drive-In to house a meat lover's breakfast.

My former running partner and his buddy showed up and picked me up. We drove out to Marin.

parking lot for the trail

entrance to the trail

in a tree!

Thankfully my former neighbor knows that photographs are important for the blog and offers to take them or be in them.

look at that view

I'm entertaining running the Dipsea Race one day. I almost fell during this short portion so I'm not sure how wise that idea is.

The run was awesome. It was beautiful and mostly downhill. I felt so free just throwing myself into the run and enjoying the fresh air and the woods, and the promise of the ocean in a few short miles.

We met back up with our buddy who was meeting us with the car at the other side. Then we drove to the Pelican Inn to drink wine and eat cheese. 

all runs end at the bar

hipster heaven

Hotel Gyms

Greetings from San Francisco!

My team has a requirement that we only stay in hotels that have gyms. Who am I to argue with such a policy? In order to take advantage of this perk, I've decided to stay on Eastern Standard Time for as long as possible.

5:45 AM taking photos in the bathroom because my roommate is still asleep

I got down to the gym to find both treadmills and one elliptical in use. No big deal because I dislike treadmills anyway. I woke warmed up on the elliptical for ten minutes and then did some lifting. My plan was to alternate 10 minutes of cardio with three sets of arm exercises but then a man appeared and hopped on my elliptical seconds before I was about to get on.

The annoying thing about hotel gyms is that everyone tries to workout at the same time. You should have seen the gym when my 350 person team descended upon Miami. It was a large gym but it didn't stand a chance.

I used 12 lbs and 10 lbs weights for my arm workout. I did a set of shoulder presses with the 12 lbs and then another set with the 10 lbs immediately after. I did the same for biceps curls, followed by tricep kickbacks with 7 lbs weights. I repeated this twice, realized my elliptical machine had been jacked, and then switched to some half-ass crunches.

I finished up my 30 minute workout with a few sun salutations and was showered by 6:45. Good day.