Year One - My Crossfit experiment

After Dexter was born I found myself faced with a serious lack of time available for training.

In 2008 I did my first Ironman, spent an enormous amount of time training, did a Marathon, a half-marathon, sprint, Olympic distance and half iron distance triathlons as well.

Then Delilah was born. In 2009 I did very little training or racing.

In 2010 I bounced back with higher mileage run focused year that saw me beat my previous bests at 30km in Hamilton, run a 43:30 10km at Fall Colours and a blistering 20:33 5km at the Cookie Run.  A banner year.

Dexter arrived the following January and suddenly, not only was there a new baby, but there was still a toddler at home. There would be no bounce back year this time. I had to get creative.

Enter Crossfit.

In order to minimize the impact on the rest of the family, most weekday mornings I quietly slink out of bed at five o'clock in the morning, dress, make a coffee and drive to Physics Crossfit to face the unexpected at the 5:30am class. One hour, that's it, and the actual workout part is only a fraction of that.  But what a workout.

Constantly varying, short, intense, full body workouts focusing on full range of motion, with the best exercises from Olympic Weightlifting, gymnastics, plyometrics, calisthenics and kettle bell will be thrown at me in unknown and unpredictable combinations.

One year ago today, I took my first Crossfit intro class and leaned things like "thrusters", "sumo dead lift high pull" and "over head squats" (which I was completely unable to do).


Through Crossfit I discovered that I had some pretty serious mobility and flexibility issues that I always kind of knew I had, but didn't fathom the extent or impact.  Now I could see, and it wasn't pretty.

One thing Crossfit has done is identify my weaknesses, and as the year progressed, those weaknesses became stronger, and exposed other weaknesses. On this one year anniversary of my experiment I feel that I'm finally at the point where I've worked through all the peripheral weakness and am finally focusing on the the core abilities and building strength where it counts.  


Over the past year I've done things I had never dreamed of being able to do, and in some cases, had never even heard of. I have emerged at the other end stronger, fitter, more flexible and mobile than ever before in my life.

I've done workouts that have included 100 pull ups. I've climbed a rope 15 feet into the air. I've dropped a really heavy barbell from my shoulders, and loved the sound it makes when it hits the floor.

I've also made some really great friends. Friendships bound in shared suffering and shared accomplishment. Friends you don't want to let down by bringing anything less than your "A" game to the workout.

I like what Crossfit is doing for me. I am a new man. Bring on year two.  I expect it to be a banner year.