Fran

Before I started my ever-demanding blogging obligations, believe it or not it was often a challenge to find things to do with my time. Being a single guy in Big D, thousands of miles from friends and family, coming home after work to an empty house was not my idea of a good time.

The gym became a nice stop on the way home from a long day at work. In fact, finding a gym conveniently located between my home and work was a top priority when I first moved to Dallas.

Tired of the franchise gyms, I found the Preston Gym located in Preston Center. Being a small, upscale kinda place, it was great for meeting people (everyone seems to know each other by name in there) and the personal trainers are all very cool.

After spending 3 years at the Preston Gym, last April I decided to make a change. Part of this decision was financial – between gym membership dues and my personal-training habit, I was dropping major cash over at Preston (though I am convinced that my trainer, Bo, was worth every cent). The other part of the decision was just that I was ready for a new challenge.

That’s when I found Crossfit.

I have only been going to Crossfit since April – and at the time that I joined, I thought that I would just “try it out”. But even though the gym is located in an old, unairconditioned warehouse outside of my commute, it’s become the favorite, most challenging part of my day.

The Crossfit cocktail takes weightlifting, mixes in some sprinting and tops it off with a little gymnastics. It’s always a tough workout not only physically, but mentally as well.

Although I was never given a glossary, there is definitely a vocabulary that is used between Crossfitters that I am still getting used to. Here is a sample:

• When a xfitter says…"FTW", they are making a positive exclamation (For The Win!). Beef jerky, FTW!

• When a xfitter refers to the The Box, They mean the warehouse gym that we meet in

• WOD=Workout-of-the-day

• "For time" means that whatever it is needs to be done in the shortest period of time possible. In “the box”, just about everything is "for time": "50 wall balls, for time"

• "The Girls" Refers to a set of WODs that seem to all have female names (Kelly, Cindy, Elizabeth)

• "Tabata"= is a sequence of 20 seconds of intense activitiy followed by 10 seconds of rest

The WOD is posted on a website every morning. Before I go to work, I always log-on to find out what flavor of pain will be coming my way. Yesterday, for example, we did Fran:

21-15-9 reps for time (thrusters @75lbs and pull-ups) x 3 sets

Fran is not a woman to be trifled with. After 9 minutes and 35 seconds, she had conquered my mind, body and soul.

But after thinking about Fran all day at work yesterday, then facing her at the Box and after completing that last set, I felt like superman – I was ready to go start a bar fight (though all I did was go home, take a shower, eat dinner and do some laundry, FTW.).

Although I am nowhere near being “Crossfit” (most of the xffitters, men and women, completed yesterday’s WOD in way less time than I did), it’s just a fun kind of daily challenge to have…and if you run into Fran, tell her I’m lookin’ forward to next time.