From Day One

This week leading up to my one year anniversary has been really stressful and I've been taking stock of all the things in my life that have changed over the last twelve months. I have a pretty creative mind and active imagination, but I never would have dreamed this last year of my life. I am so glad that I started this journey and I want to thank someone who is responsible for helping me start it.

Even though my first day of CrossFit was April 21st, when I did my first Saturday novice WOD, my CrossFit journey actually began 3 days earlier on Wednesday (pretty much a year ago today). For several months prior I had passed a small brick building in downtown Roanoke on the way to and from work. I watched people running down the street, lifting weights, and I noticed the sign on the windows, www.brickhousecrossfit.com - "I'll have to look that up..." I would tell myself. I kept forgetting by the time I got to work.

After I got back from a business trip in Charleston where I had been unable to walk a mile without excruciating pain, I took note of Brickhouse again. This time I remembered to check out the website. I spent the next few weeks reading and re-reading all about WODs, and infinitely scaleable, high intensity, functional movements, and watching athlete profile videos, and looking at all the great pictures of all the Brickhouse athletes. I really wanted it to be something I could do, but I was convinced that because of my size and my jacked up legs that it would be too difficult.

For some reason I couldn't give up on the idea and with a doctor's appointment looming that I was sure would be painful and disappointing, I summoned up my courage for the first time and spent a good hour drafting the perfect email to adequately explain my unique situation and choosing the exact right words without sounding too crazy and full of excuses, took a deep breath and hit send. As fate would have it, the server blocked the email and it bounced back.

I had two choices, give up, or go ask my questions in person. As I drove back by the little brick building on my way home, I noticed everyone was running outside and there was a guy standing by the front door with a "Coach" shirt on. I pulled into a parking spot the next street over and walked back down to the little brick building and stepped tentatively into the door to find the guy in the "Coach" shirt, and that's when my journey began. I started asking questions and he started explaining, all the while keeping an eye on the other athletes. He patiently listened and firmly knocked down each excuse I put up - "but what about my knees, I was in a car wreck?" - "what about the floor and the weight plates, I'm allergic to rubber?" - "How do I get started?"

I left the little brick building that night still freaked out and nervous, but I went home and signed up for the novice WOD, talked my doctor into giving me the okay the next day, and never looked back. I truly believe that my talk with this coach played a huge role in convincing me that I could do CrossFit. That he believed I could do it before he even saw me try. When he became my main CrossFit coach a few weeks later I got to see first hand that not only did he believe in me, but he cared about me succeeding. In the beginning it was really important to have a coach that took the time to teach me and support me and reassure me. As time went on, another important thing that he did for me was be the person who would push me, and not let me quit, and call me out on my nonsense.

As much as I needed the calm and understanding coach, I needed the firm "put more weight on the bar", "why don't you try running 400 meters?", "just do it", "do you want this?", "where's your hook grip?" coach even more. Every time quitting or stopping even flew into my mind, he would appear beside me to knock those thoughts out of my head with a "you've got this" or "forget about the number, just keep moving." When I was secretly pleading for a coach to come over and let me stop doing crab walks because I was clearly struggling, or tell me that I didn't really have to do 80 jumping pull-ups - 15 was plenty, I am glad he never did because I needed to have a person in my life who wouldn't let me quit. Who wouldn't let me off easy. Who wasn't going to put up with my excuses. Who would convince me to show up even when I thought I was too sore.

I played rec softball and and JV volleyball and threw shot and discus on the track team my senior year, but I never had great connections with any of those coaches. In fact, most of my experiences with sports coaches were not very good. I know that I'm needy and I appreciate the fact that someone like me can be a lot of work, especially in the beginning. It's probably much more difficult to mold a hard block of clay into something than it is to work with something that's already a little more malleable, like a college athlete. I'm glad that he found it worth the extra effort. Even though he hasn't been my coach for almost 8 months now, I consider my first CrossFit coach a good friend and he is still a person who is there for me and patiently answers my questions (even though I'm sure he rolls his eyes at his computer screen) and does his best to reassure me and support me from 5 hours away. He also still calls me out when I'm being ridiculous and making excuses.

Getting to be there for my coach.

Coach Adam has been part of my journey since day one and I don't know that it would have even started without him. I'm glad that he'll be able to coach me through my competition on Sunday as this first year of my journey comes to an end. If you don't have a person like this in your life, you need to get one. Your person doesn't have to be a CrossFit coach, but I think everyone needs someone in their life who is not only there for them, but who pushes them to be better, and calls them out on their foolishness. It could be a friend, family member, coworker... but find someone who pushes you outside of your comfort zone and leads you to the edge of cliffs you didn't think you'd come close to jumping off, but who you know won't let you fall on your face - or will at least be there to laugh with you and then help you back up when you do.