Friday April 18th Rabah Rahil and myself boarded a Southwest plane and headed to the great city of Boulder,CO…well first landed in Denver, got a rental car…a silver Kia Soul, which is NOT the original YELLOW Kia Soul they had reserved for us. Yellow should be saved for like super cool SUVs, not small trunk Kia Souls…and drove to our cute little weekend residence that he found on Air BnB! After unloading luggage we set out to get groceries and find our weekend adventures’s locations.
We drove to Crossfit Roots, where I would be spending most of my weekend (it was 800m from our home), then after chatting with some people we decided to check out Southern Sun for dinner. (We had a goal to eat at as many local restaurants as possible). Since we were full from dinner we then went to Trader Joes for weekend groceries. Then back “home”. We unpacked and got settled in our cute little weekend home.
Saturday morning we woke up and had breakfast together before I headed to Crossfit Roots for my Coach’s Prep Course and Rabah packed his bags to take on the town via foot. I walked into Crossfit Roots and was greeted by my seminar leaders; Matt Chan, Cherie Chan, Dave Lipson, and Adrian Bozman (Boz).
We (capped at 20 people/coaches/athletes) began the seminar by looking at “Foundations of Effective Training” and “Points of Performance for Functional Movements” before breaking into groups.
It was finally time for lunch. I asked if I could work out and they advised me not to because we were going to do a workout later on that day. I wasn’t thrilled about this because I didn’t want to miss a training session. So I drove the 800m back to the house to have lunch. Rabah even came in from his adventures on the town to join me for the last 15mins of my lunch (awwww). After our hour lunch I went back to the box to finish up that day’s lessons. After lunch we worked in groups a little longer before reviewing/learning about class structure and how to teach to a group of all levels.
As Cherie warming up for our group setting workout (showing us how to lead a large group safely and effectively), in walked Camille Leblanc-Bazinet (super nice by the way)! So of course I got a picture with her (after our days work)!
We closed out the day with “Diane”. I had just PRed my “Diane” time a few weeks prior so I was excited to give it another go. When I called time, I was 20 seconds SLOWER than what I did a few weeks ago…WHAT!?!?! As much as I want to blame the slowness on having to do HSPUs on concrete floor, I think it was what people were warning me about, altitude. After chatting with some of my new friends I headed home to find Rabah at the casa (poor guy, his on foot afternoon adventures got rained out so he had to stay in). We then left there and headed to California Pizza Kitchen (so much for “local”) in the gross weather. It was pizza (him) and salad (me) before heading back to our casa to turn in for the night.
Sunday we woke and had breakfast together before I headed back to Crossfit Roots for Day 2. Rabah also had plans to meet up with one of his buddies, Kyle, to go exploring and to catch up on life. While he spent the day exploring Estes Park with his buddy,
I was taking on Day 2 of the Coach’s Prep Course. We started the day looking at programming (my favorite part). We broke into groups and looked at 9 different WODs that were programmed for the week. Used a great and VERY detailed checklist that was given to us to determine what we were missing form the programming and we we should program in the next few weeks. We also looked at programs that focused on certain skills (gymnastics, strength, etc) and how to pair them with crossfit. I didn’t even bother to ask about working out at lunch, I just put on my shoes and went for a 30min run. There were trails every where so I wasn’t worried about getting lost. I wanted to test my lungs and see how they handled the altitude. and yes, I did feel it LOL. I thought I was going ALOT faster than I really was. The weather was PERFECT so it made for a nice mid day run.
After lunch we looked at HEAVY DAYS!! Matt put us through a warm up and got us set to take on 7×2 Cleans…BOOM! I was pumped! I noticed that I was increasing in weight during my sets and I was feeling good so I would prob hit a PR if not more. On my 6th set I cleaned my PR (210 at the time) 2x!! I asked Matt and Cherie what I should do for my next set and they suggested I leave it be and walk away. 1 PR was enough…BOOO, but okay, LOL! It was still awesome!
After “close out remarks” we all mingled for a bit. It was here I got to ask Matt and Camille, games competitor athletes, a questions I have been wondering…”What is the 1 thing you had to sacrifice to train for the games”. Matt quickly responded with “you cannot have a job (I’m assuming he meant a regular 9-5 gig)”; Camille agreed. Her input was that it was different for everyone some it was food/nutrition others it was time with the husband/wife. I found that very interesting and not far from what I expected.
That night R and I ventured to Larkburger…which looked like a cross between Hoppdoddys and P Terrys. The menu stated good options and we took them, but something didn’t settle right. We called it an early evening because we were getting up early to visit another box and explore! Part B, coming soon…
