I haven’t worked with Andrea enough to write too much, but I have noticed an amazing transformation in her. She has become a serious competitor, even though she doesn’t realize it. I was watching her during “Lynne”, and she seemed frustrated with her Pull ups. What I saw was Andrea using a half kipping half butterfly technique. I asked her if she could come in to open gym to learn how to butterfly and within one session, she has an amazing comprehension of the technique. She has come a long way and I look forward to watching her progress. Andrea trains hard and is a joy to coach.
-Adrian
I have always been quite active. My childhood was spent running around with the neighborhood boys, cross country skiing, playing football, baseball, soccer, and basketball. Whatever sport the boys signed up for, so did I, well except for football. I’m glad my mom put her foot down and refused to sign me up for Pop Warner football. She did however let me play baseball with the agreement that I would switch to Fast pitch softball if the hobby stuck around. In high school, I played basketball and ran track. In college I cycled for the ASU cycling team and swam on the Sun devils master swim team. After college, I decided take a year off from sports which turned into a four year sabbatical. My friend, Brian Ross introduced me to Crossfit after a conversation I had with him about getting back in shape. My first Saturday class left me quite frustrated-and with wobbly legs and. I immediately signed up for classes. I have never really lifted weights and never imagined that lifting in the capacity and constraints that Crossfit presents would provide me with the same satisfaction and exhaustion that riding a 100 miles on a bike, or playing basketball for 5 hours does. The WODS are always challenging and I love trying to chase down the times and weights of the phenomenal athletes that call Core Crossfit home. I want to thank Tom for keeping in touch with me after my injury. Your text messages always kept me motivated to keep up with my rehab so I could come back and finish my days off with the 4pm classes at Core Crossfit.
When Norm came to us he already was in great shape. He hit the workouts hard, but rarely made the Leader Board. In the past few months he has really dialed up the intensity. Now he not only makes the Leader Board daily, but he has become a leader in the classes. Many of our athletes look up to him and ask him for advice. I asked him what he changed in the past few months and he said the biggest thing was his diet. While this is true, there has been another change. Lately I’ve noticed that Norm will not sacrifice form and technique for a faster time. The one thing I am most proud of Norm was during the last “Fight Gone Bad”. After the first round (which he scored over 120 points) he stopped the WOD. Norm noticed that his body wasn’t in condition to continue after not enough sleep and not enough food in his system. This attitude is a true sign of a mature athlete.
-Adrian
First of all, I want to express my gratitude to the staff and athletes of Core CrossFit. The experience of CrossFit would not be fulfilling if it weren’t for the great people.
Just for starters a little history about myself. My name is Norm and I grew up in a small town located in south east Washington; for a little background I was active in sports and did lift a few weights during high school. Albeit, I did graduate as a pip-squeak, I joined the USMCR, and finally grew into my shoes. Once I completed my first year in the reserves in 1999, it was off to college at ASU and welcome to the valley of the sun.
Over the past 15 years I have been in and out of a gym doing the walkman, diskman, mp3, ipod, iphone, ipartner and whatever/whoever would join me at the gym thing. Up until February I had no idea what CrossFit was all about or ever heard of it. My best friend Charlie told me to youtube CrossFit and that we should join as it would cure our gym boredom. He arranged our baseline with Tom, and Charlie told me to definitely check out what we were getting into. Much to my chagrin I never checked it out to see what exactly what I was getting into… MEA CULPLA! That was some baseline and that did get the heart rate up. At that moment I wasn’t sure if this was something I wanted to do on a daily basis. To no avail, we did join that morning and the first few WODs were interesting and fun. Alas, at the end of the first week I had the weekend gave to reflect and wonder what just happened. After wondering what just happened, it was apparent that it was time to make things happen and not watch them.
Just after my first month, I was fully committed to this sport and enjoyed everyday of it. There is nothing like the feeling of getting to the edge, jumping off – only to climb back up and do it again and again. The sport helps bring life into a simple perspective; set a goal, endure the effort of the challenges of that goal, succeed and accomplish the goal to realize the opportunity – only to set a better goal next. I totally enjoy the mental aspect of this sport. Set little goals and eventually they will help you realize that you can fulfill big dreams. The sport is physical as the WODs are demanding and the sport is fun because it gives one the ability to compete with others and oneself. Today I would say I am probably in the best physical and mental shape of my life, with more goals yet to be accomplish. Most importantly about this experience so far, Core Crossfit has allowed me to meet great positive dynamic people. This has been a heck of ride thus far with more journey to go. It is an honor to get to know, train and learn from all of those at the box.
