About 90 Days of Crossfit

Hello. My name is Claire. I am 24 years old and live in Denver, CO. I work at an entry-level B2B Marketing job, live with my boyfriend and border collie, and enjoy the kinds of things that other 24-year old Denverites enjoy: hiking, rock climbing, skiing, and drinking beer. I am relatively active but not terribly athletic, with moderate asthma and a very serious addiction to all things involving melted cheese and/or pancakes.

I have spent the majority of the last decade trying to figure out WHY I feel driven to get in shape. I am 5’3, weigh about 130 lbs, with a petite build, narrow shoulders and slim hips. I am neither overweight nor sedentary: I run 5-10 miles a week, and generally get at least one other activity (climbing, skiing, hiking, biking, etc) in once a week as well. By most standards, I am an active girl with an average-to-above average build.

Another big factor is that I have spent the past 2 years as a very active outdoor professional, guiding rafting and backpacking trips, working at a ski resort, and generally being as much of a dirtbag as possible. Doing those sorts of things all the time is my dream. I want to be a very active person with the capacity to wake up in the morning and hit the trail running, then follow that up with a few hours of climbing or skiing and maybe a bike ride. And, even after 2 years on the river and the mountain, I don’t quite feel like I’m there. This is a classic case of my outsides not matching my insides, and it has taken me until the last few months–when I’ve moved back to the “big city” to work in a Big Girl Job–to realize that in order to really feel like I’m meeting my potential as a person and as an adventurer, I need to get to the next level of fitness and endurance.

So now what you know the WHY, here’s the HOW:

I’m sure a lot of you have at least heard of crossfit: a style of workout that involves intervals of basic, sometimes almost primitive, moves, done with extreme intensity. I have tried listening to Jillian Michaels; tried following a running program (I am currently also training for a marathon in October); and tried and eating nothing but eggs and canned tuna. I have tried getting into yoga, and I love it, but it just doesn’t push me in the way that I feel I need to be pushed. So, starting March 26, 2012, I am embarking on a challenge to do CrossFit for 90 days. This does not necessarily mean 90 days of straight CrossFit, because I know that I will need to give my body a few days to recover here and there, but for the next 3 months I will be documenting this (hopefully intense and transformative) new phase in my life as an adventurer and athlete. (PS, this does also not mean that I will stop CrossFit after 90 days… In fact I hope it doesn’t!)

I will also be occasionally posting some “fitspo” – images from around the internet of athletic women whose physical fitness and determination inspire me. Other things you can expect to see are occasional food diary entries, pictures of my physical progress, and maybe even a video or two of me passed out on the side of the road or struggling to do a pull-up (aka dangling).

Thanks for joining me, and here’s to the next 90 days of Crossfit!