Our Level 1

My wife and I went to Crossfit Roots this past weekend to get our Level 1 CrossFit Certs. It was quite the experience. Aside from the fried quads, the sore hands, the "I almost puked conversations, the no-reps, and my small bout with dehydration, I'd say it was an AWESOME weekend.

The night before:

We live three hours away from Boulder and I had to work on Friday. So after work, we loaded up the kiddos, and headed down to Colorado. The boys were crabby (they refused to eat what Ali and I wanted, so we had to stop once for gas, and twice for food), and my youngest one was getting over being sick, but we were still making decent time...

That is - until we heard an awful grinding noise as we were pulling into Boulder...

Yup - our brakes completely fried... like to a point where we couldn't brake without thinking whole the tire was going to fall off. We eventually got to the hotel to meet some family. It was good to see them, and they were a life saver over the weekend.

Day 1:

Despite the toasted brakes, we hobbled the car to CrossFit Roots for day 1. The boys went with my family, and as Ali and I began class, my family scurried to find a place to get our brakes fixed (by what turned out to be a place that completely ripped me off).

Class started with intros, what was to be expected from us in class, a lecture on some of the philosophies of CrossFit. We then went into breakout sessions. (AKA we went to learn exactly HOW wrong all of us were doing squats, and presses.) In these sessions, we went over fundamental movements, and got cues as to how to improve... and they worked! I've never been so sore doing air squats in my life!

After lunch, and near the end of the day, we had one last break-out session where we were taught the "Thruster" and the pull-up... Which means one thing - the dreaded "Fran".

One thing about Fran: she's a harlot in and of herself - but to add altitude, a day of getting worn down in the name of "proper form", and (to only be found out later) dehydration, Fran just becomes nasty.

However, at first, I was feeling great! I was the first one done with the Thrusters, and on the pullup bar. I was flying along (with my first 11 reps done) when I hear our instructor Kurtis say, "None of those reps count, Jeremy. Start over!" Yup! no-rep x11. Defiantly, I did my second "first" 21 pullups unbroken... Then the dehydration kicked in.

I stumbled through the rest of the WOD, feeling like I was going to puke, with a headache, and dizzy. As I'm lying on the floor in agony, Ali says, "they're doing the picture now..." I managed to stagger over, and faked a smile thrice. After they finished, I stumbled out and commenced dry heaving.. in front of everybody.

Moral of the story? Hydrate or Die!

I eventually recovered later that night, had a chance to hang out with the boys, drive our car (with pristine brakes), and got some sleep.

Day 2:

Because we have two young boys, we are hardly ever on time to anything. Ali and I left the hotel a tad late, forgetting breakfast. We swung into Whole Foods, and got a bite, and scurried into class about 10 minutes late... to the relief of the instructors... They started to think that I died the night before.

Day 2 was a lot like day 1. We learned about diet and programming, as well as the deadlifts, cleans, snatches, and muscle-ups. Because our muscles were tight from the day before, they were screaming on day 2 - so we welcomed a WOD... until we had to sit and let the muscles slowly tighten up more.and.more...

After lunch and the lectures, we had a test.

The test was not bad. The wording was a little janky at placed, but there was plenty of time to sift through everything. I was told by the instructors to yell "TIME" when I finished.. I decided against it. I finished, somewhere in the middle... and didn't want to look like Delta Bravo.


The Weekend:

All in all, this was a great weekend!

Despite all the missteps, the weekend was awesome! I highly recommend both new CrossFitters and Vetrens alike to take some time to learn exactly "what is CrossFit" and how to improve. I feel like I'm much more knowledgeable of what I'm doing, and why I'm doing it. And I know this will transcend - not only in CrossFit, but in many other aspects of life as well.