{level one certified with a side of food}

I landed in Reno Friday afternoon at 12:30 and arrived back in Kalispell Monday at 12:45, twenty minutes earlier than scheduled.  When does that happen?  I spent two days on the University of Nevada-Reno's campus, which is quite pretty, at a CrossFit level one certification.  Who knew you could be so sore from moving, moving, moving with a piece of PVC pipe.  We sat in lectures, practiced fundamental movements, worked out, practiced movements, worked out, listened to lectures, snacked on all sorts of Zone/Paleo food (nobody would have been caught dead with any other kind of food), practiced movements, worked out, etc, etc, etc.  I am still tired!  By Sunday night all I wanted to do was curl up, rest my weary knees and fall asleep.  But I did what any follower of any healthy eating plan does after a long weekend of fitness and healthiness, I cheated!  I had a French Dip (what bread????), a side salad that consisted of  iceberg lettuce and a 16 oz. bottle of blue cheese dressing (That's  not how I ordered it.  That's how it arrived at my table), a very loved and longed for Corona and lime and with the help of one of the cert trainers, a beautiful, large, moist, chewy, almost orgasmic chocolate brownie.  It did have some crap on the top like a couple of sliced strawberries and a plump blackberry, but I quickly discarded those.  I have never had a better cheat night.  My night of indulgence was celebrated and cheered on by three of the cert trainers.  Nobody appreciate's a good night of crappy eating like them.  It was glorious.  I have to admit I haven't quite climbed back on the Zone wagon, but tomorrow I will be.  Preparations are in order as I type.  I have a pan of broccoli cooking, turkey patties on my George Forman grill [I know.  How gay is it that I have one?  But, I love it. :)], containers out for my food tomorrow, cans of tuna on the counter waiting to be opened and stored in the fridge, chicken and lean burger thawing and peppers waiting to be chopped.  It's time to hit it hard.  Next week is going to be a good week for a fresh rested me.  On top of all this food prep, I am taking a recovery week.  I believe I started to hit an overtraining cycle in my training.  I wasn't recovering from workouts and feeling totally exhausted and not seeing results.  So after a long weekend of certifying I thought it was the perfect time.  I am loving it, but at the same time feeling terribly guilty.  We'll see if I actually make a full week, but I'm going to try hard.

So back to the certification.  I'm very glad I went and planned to before I was even asked to coach at the gym.  I'm just that kind of a girl.  More fitness info, please.  People keep asking me, "how does it feel?"  Honestly.  I'm very glad that I did it for myself and for our gym.  All of my friends, CrossFit and otherwise have been very supportive and I appreciate that, but you know what?  It doesn't feel like it means anything.  Any Joe off the street can attend these certs and there is no testing at the end.  Show up, do the work for the weekend and you get a nice CrossFit Level 1 certificate when the weekend comes to an end.  (But, apparently you can't be a total dick and get one though.  Heard of a story of a guy that they refused to give a certificate to.  He was an ass and they said they didn't want him out representing CrossFit.  I thought that was great.  I respect that.)  There were two people that attended that have never done CrossFit. But, now by CrossFit's certification standards they can now coach at a gym, open an affiliate, etc.  That is the bummer.  However, I'm pleased and proud to know that I did the work beforehand that does qualify me more than they are.  It is still kind of a letdown when you think about it that way.  However, I need to make it known that a great majority of the people attending were strong, hard working, CrossFit drugged individuals.  It was fun to be around so many different CrossFit shirts and tore up hands. 

So I start a new CrossFit adventure now.  Gaining experience as a coach, learning from my coaches, our gym members and my mistakes, and making a difference in people's lives.  Isn't that really what CrossFit is all about?  Changing lives one athlete at a time. 3-2-1-GO!