So, as all you (non-existent LOL) readers know, I started at my Crossfit box via a Groupon.
Well – kind of. I had tried Crossfit out before heading off to my final marathon of the season last year (in Vienna in May), but HATED the way I was treated (at another box). However, as I had really vetted Crossfit out before that experience, I was FAIRLY sure that Crossfit was for me – and that it was LIKELY that all Crossfit boxes would not be the same (and certainly, that all Crossfit coaches wouldn’t be the same, people being what they are. I’d had one coach only.).
So, on September 9th, after coming back from Europe and also committing to get on The Amazing Race, I started at my current Crossfit box on a $100 for 20 sessions Groupon. This seemed like a total steal, a great way to give Crossfit “another chance,” and also gave me the ability to go to a box where I knew NO ONE. I’ve written all about my reasons for that HERE.
Anyway – so here I am, 5 (five! I thought it was three! LOL) months later, still at it, not at Rx by any stretch, but steady. And I do love it!
I had mentioned to the owner of our box that I thought – given all the people I’d talked to over the holidays and New Year’s (plus the fact I have the Newsletter column in the Ross Valley Mom’s Group, Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc.) – that I could get him a better “turn-out” than that Groupon. With a coupon like that, as you likely know, the vendor gets a bit less than 1/2 of the $ that is taken in on a deal like that – so for every $100 he got a bit less than $50. I told him that I thought I could do better – and we agreed that I’d get credit towards private lessons instead of cash. (I didn’t want cash, I wanted some private lessons.)
I cannot tell you HOW MANY people I spoke to since making that deal. The all said that they were out of shape, looking for something that doesn’t take a ton of time, etc. SCORES of people. (I went to a lot of holiday parties this year.)
Generally, I would mention Crossfit, then they would then mention an urban myth about Crossfit. “I heard that if you do Crossfit, you’ll have a man’s hook arm trailing after your car on a dark night when you get home”; “I heard that if you do Crossfit someone will put your poodle in the micowave”; “I’ve heard that if you do Crossfit, you’ll went 10 free iPads if you pass this on to all your friends”…whoops, not that one…
Then I would dispel the urban myth about Crossfit.
Then I would tell them about the “deal” I had made with the owner of my “Crossfit gym” – that they could get 20 sessions for $100 (usually $25 EACH). That NO, not everyone there was in their 20s. Or “already fit” (that was a HUGE “heel-digger” – “I’m too out of shape to get in shape.” Whaaaaaaat?)
I NOT ONLY personally told about two dozen people about this to their face, but also sent out a “blast” on Facebook, Twitter, and also via Evite to about 300 people, all “hand picked” from my “Friends and Family” list, who MIGHT do Crossfit (or SHOULD do Crossfit).
Now, for each person that actually pays, I get $25 towards a private training session. I just found out yesterday that Sera charges $50 per session (she’s the newest personal trainer at the box so the least expensive – but also the one I want given the current week’s PR’s). So that means for every 2 people that do the deal, I get a private lesson with Sera.
I have actually HEARD from now a dozen people (a DOZEN!) who SAID that they have signed up to do it.
But today, when I mentioned it to the owner of our box (trying to figure out when I can schedule the private lessons), he said that four have actually done it.
Mind you, I don’t really CARE – though I am super duper happy that I will have two personal sessions with Sera. I want to do the “1 rep max” thing that Jen has talked about in WineToWeightlifting, but we have never had a “session” at the box figuring this out – or, if they have, it’s probably been at the Oly time or on weekends, which I can’t make.
So I don’t personally have a “stake” in the folks who said that they would (or had!) done the deal. Except, of course, sort of my “reputation” in a way – since I told the owner that I was sure (I mean SURE!) that given all the folks who SAID that they were out of shape, needed something like this, etc. that I could get at LEAST a dozen to sign up for it, just to at least give Crossfit a try.
This morning, I sent an email to the owner of the box, saying that I was pretty amazed at how few had taken me up on the deal. His email back:
We often get a lot of people very interested, but the final step of getting them to commit and come in is tougher. This is why so many in our country are out of shape. People love to talk about being fit, but most are unwilling to do what it takes.
I remember a long, long time ago when my heavy then-secretary (who is “Italian American,” meaning that her father was Italian) explained to me that it was “impossible” for her to give up spaghetti, pizza, lasagne, etc. to lose weight, because she was “Italian.” Even my “intellectual” comments about how in reality (in Italy) folks don’t eat like Italian-Americans eat didn’t cut it. She was adamant that it was was “the way it was” . . . but she just “couldn’t figure out” how she, her husband, her kids, her sisters, her mother (but not her father!!!) were all so heavy.
Not quite sure what prompted this post, I guess it was that email from the owner of the box. He’s pretty philosophical about this. I’m astounded. This is his “job” – so he’s “seen it all before.” But it just doesn’t compute for me. Is it because I’m a Virgo, Year of the Ox, “what you see is what you get”-type of person? If I tell someone I AM going to do something – I do it!
Okay well, enough of that. Did I mention that I can barely walk? It’s funny. The Double Unders 2 days ago have caused my calves to basically seize up like rocks. I am trying to walk by not lifting my feet off the ground (Laugh).
YESTERDAY’S WOD:
(A) 4 RFT
400M Run
20 Sumo Deadlift High Pull 1/.75P
(B) “Diane”
21-15-9
Deadlift 102/70KG
Handstand Push Up
(C) 2 Min in L-Hang
(A) I did this at Rx (0.75 pood being the orange kettlebell). The frustrating part is that Catalina – who CONSTANTLY b*tches about how she “doesn’t want to get bulky” (and even SAID TO MARGO – in Spanish, though Margo then told me – that “she doesn’t want to have legs like [Margo]” – !!!!) did it at Rx as well and beat the PANTS off of me. She usually does everything at exactly half the Rx because of this “bulky” thing. But she finished SO MUCH faster than I did that I literally had the entire final 20 SDHPs to do and she was done and resting! (I did the 9:00a.m. WOD, where only Catalina and I did this (A) – everyone else did a different (A) that was harder, but we were all doing the same (B) and (C). Which meant that the entire box had to wait for me through 20 SDHPs – not that it was a big deal, really, but a little embarrassing)
(B) I actually WROTE DOWN my time because of course this is one of The Girls and I’d like to start keeping track. I have managed, in the intervening day, to lose the piece of paper. Pfffft. Anyway, I obviously didn’t do the HSPUs, but I DID do kneeling pushups. This is a BIG DEAL for me, since I haven’t EVER done pushups due to the shoulder issues. Bill worked on them with me a few days back (Monday?) and helped me to do them in 2 pieces – down, then up. Which of course makes people laugh since most of the time I’m lying on the floor with my forehead and chest on the mat. No matter, it’s working fine by me.
TODAY’S WOD:
(A) Push Press 5 x 2
(B) Front Squat 5 x 2
(C) 8 Min AMRAP
15 Wall Ball
30 Double Under
OR – CONDITIONING
(A) 5 Rounds 45 Sec On 45 Sec Off
Row For Cal
Push Press 40/30
(B) 8 Min AMRAP
15 Wall Ball
6 Burpee
If I go at 3:30 that’s the first workout. I have to go at 6:30p.m. to get the Conditioning workout. I’ll likely do 3:30 if I go at all – not meant that I’m bailing, but I have to do the GiveIt100.c0m stuff today (I’m behind) plus I will go Friday morning – then we’re off to Hawaii. The house is a disaster, just not sure whether I want to break up the day at 3:30. It’s 11:00 now, we’ll see. I have a LOT to do today so we’ll see.
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CROSSFIT WEIGHT MAXES:
Deadlift: red bar (15 kg) plus 2 10ks 2 5k for a total of 45kg. I have to go back and see if I have done better than that. I thought I could do 55kg – um, no. I went back in my “Crossfit Weight Maxes” list (I’m glad I started tagging these) and that’s my max so far.
Pushups: Did them kneeling on the ab mat, how Bill showed me. Elbow “insides” facing each other, going down slowly until I can’t support myself, flop (laugh). As I go down, elbows in to sides, and they will “naturally” tuck back so that at the “lying on the floor” part, the “elbow insides” are facing forward. Palms between shoulders and chest. Weight pressed on outside heel of hand (so not the thumb side). To go back up, TRY to just reverse that. For me right now, it’s more like an “alley-oop” using my back and glutes more than my triceps. Just keep at it.
Back Squats: I have in back posts that I had done this with a LOT more weight than I did with Sera the other day. I think that just means I was doing it wrong. As Sera so prosaically told me (laugh) I do a “stripper squat” – meaning I push my butt out and am using my quads, not my glutes. If I do it right, I can’t even do it with weight. This will be something I work on in a private lesson.
“Diane”: So, doing Diane at 45k and scaling the pushups mightily, somewhere I have a piece of paper saying what my time is. If I find it, I’ll put it here.