CrossFit Athletic Group

If you had a lineup of Chris Schott, Lira Bordoley, Mrs. Nevarez, and Mr. Carey and asked 10 random people to point out the one that does not do CrossFit, everyone would point to Mr. Carey. And that is just the way we like it.

CrossFitter in Hiding is a great status to hold; don't go out of your way to talk about CrossFit, wear shirts with sleeves and two pairs of shorts, and keep that whole nutrition thing in your back pocket until someone calls you out in the workout comments. But when it is time to do the CrossFit thing, do the CrossFit thing and do it really well. Have strength in all the power lifts, have coordination for the Olympic lifts, do pull-ups, handstands, squats, and all the other gymnastics movements, run no matter the elements, and have your eyes set on a low trajectory towards a distant horizon. This mixture will set someone up for success no matter the age.

Any time someone asks Mr. Carey how he's doing today, he always responds, "older and slower than the last time you saw me." After 8 years of CrossFit with the Champions Club, Mr. Carey has seen his best 3 months of fitness and is now our Athlete of the Winter. He might need a new response now...

... well, unless someone asks him after Elizabeth.

It has been a slow, steady climb up the fitness charts for Mr. Carey the last few months. He experimented with fasting for a period of time (which motivated a few other people to do the same) and made coming to the gym more of a priority. The first workout he caught my eye on was our Modified Linda where he used 50-lb. dumbbells and did not die. Then I noticed how his running paces were not slowing down towards the end of workouts and that classic hands-on-knees James Harden defense pose was usually saved for after workouts instead of after round 2. And finally he was just automatically assigned to the heavy weights.

This has been a long time coming. If rumor is true, Mr. Carey was often heard saying, "I'll never do CrossFit" back in 2010-2011 when Mrs. Carey kept asking him to join her and the rest of the moms. When he finally joined in the winter of 2012 he seemed to fit right in and quickly became on par with all the other parents. As we added to our mix over the years with the Andersons and Reggies and now the Benni and Colussis, I've been waiting for Mr. Carey to take that next step as an athlete. He'd have a good week or month here and there, but always revert back to the middle of the pack when the holidays came around or when the pop came back into play. I'm not sure how much of his winter can be attributed to the nutrition because I'm sure there are other factors that come into play, but I know that we gotta have this Mr. Carey be the norm from here on out. "DNF because nachos for lunch" can't be a thing any more.

Another reason why I love Mr. Carey is because he knows damn well that "DNF because nachos for lunch" is going to happen again. He knows it's not the end of the world when it does and now he has the formula to get back on track. In CrossFit there is this Sickness-Wellness-Fitness continuum that looks something like this:

It basically means that there are measurements of your health (blood pressure, body fat, Fran time, Cindy score) that can be plotted across this continuum and anyone that is living mostly towards the "fitness" end has a built-in buffer against sickness. On March 15, 2020, Mr. Carey is floating somewhere on the curve right above the letter "t" in "everything we can measure about." That means that if he falls off the deep end with pop and nachos and the comfy spot on the couch for a week or two, he'll find himself being "well," and only after weeks and weeks of that behavior will "sickness" come on.

Mr. Carey gets it. He does not have to maximize his output every single session. He is allowed to enjoy pizza and Mrs. Carey's banana bread when the time is right. He just needs to build up a big enough buffer is all. In 2018 I would say it was not built up. In 2020 the dude is about as fit as a dad his age can hope to be. If he find himself slipping towards the normal wellness, we'll all just shame him into fitness like this time. Agreed?

...........

Low trajectory towards a distant horizon is exactly what the Champions Club seems to be on at the moment. This winter we saw a crazy spike in New Kids during December, then things smoothed out and everyone meshed into the regular sessions. The VanDoorn family was definitely the most-seen of the crew, with Jack Decker a close second. Attendance was routinely in the 30-40 range with no session seeming to overflow like the Summer ones did. There were a few highlights too: Cecilia won a National Championship for Grand Valley, Lira did some sweet powerlifting things, Shannon started up Champions Club Running, and speaking of overflowing sessions, the Christmas Workout had 60 people! Coach Casey and Mrs. Tara gave out socks with pictures of my face on them. Grace and Budo both left, came back, and left again on their respective service duty missions. The return of Mr. Wonsil was also a pleasant surprise.

Now with sports on hold, we'll be using this as a "Spring Training" of sorts for the Summer, with 2019 rookies like the Paris, Tea, Maddison, Makenna, Rylee, Caitlin, Emily, and Michael coming back for the time being, as well as the College Kids. I don't think we'll be going right from 30 to 60 people a day like the Summer, but I think we'll definitely see a steady increase in attendance over the next few weeks. Speaking of Summer Rookies, Anthony Banet was a close 2nd for Athlete of the Winter. I literally asked him one time if he could up his attendance from 3 to 5-6 times a week and he did, no questions asked. His performances showed and hopefully he'll have the opportunity at some point this spring to show off on the track for his senior season. Schott, Lira, and Sharp were also in the mix at one point.

Thank you guys for giving us a great winter! Three more months and we'll be looking at another Champions Club Summer.