A WOD with Julie Foucher at Reebok Crossfit One

The Sport of Fitness has arrived.

I arrived a bit later than everyone on Thursday night thanks to a later flight, but I managed to locate my towncar at the airport and make it to our hotel sans any problems. After launching my luggage in my room, I quickly caught a cab and headed over to The Stadium where everyone was meeting for dinner. Not only was I excited to finally meet some of my favorite bloggers, but I was also starving! I hadn’t really thought my day through (surprised much?! I also forgot my boarding pass!) and didn’t eat lunch before boarding my noon flight. I destroyed one of those snack boxes on the plane, but I was pretty famished.

Naturally, I was more preoccupied with chit chat and swordfish than I was with photography, so I stole the following from Kelly.

Jess and me at dinner

We all spent a couple of hours getting to know each other but retired to our hotel rooms early. After all, we had a big day ahead!

Friday came bright and early and we all geared up in our Reebok apparel and caught the shuttle to Reebok HQ.

Top Row: Ericka, Steve and Bonnie Bottom Row: Jeremy, me, Jess, Lala, Alfonso, and Ashleigh

After a quick breakfast, the FitFluential crowd enjoyed a brief presentation in the FitHub. We were also surprised with a fun bag o’ Reebok goodness. I LOVE PRESENTS! However, more on that manana….I’ve got something different to share.

The key bullet on the morning’s schedule? A WOD at Reebok Crossfit One!

It’s a beauty of a box!

I watched the 2012 Crossfit Games and was fascinated with the competitors. Not only are they amazing athletes but the sportsmanship I observed on-screen really hit home. They cheered, encouraged, and supported each other, regardless of the competition. And guess what? A bunch of these athletes were at Crossfit One to workout with us!

This crew packs a punch!

Spencer Hendel, Austin Malleolo, James Hobart, Jared Davis, Christy Phillips and JULIE FOUCHER were all there. Y’all, that’s Julie Foucher, the Second Fittest Woman in the World! And guess what else? I got to be on her team for the WOD!

Each athlete/coach chose two bloggers to be on his/her team for the WOD. Ericka and I were psyched to get chosen by Julie and I literally could not stop marveling at how easy she made every skill seem. The kicker? She is incredibly nice and very smart. In addition to being a badass beast in the gym, she is also smoking her second year of med school. Yeah, seriously. Let’s just go ahead and call Julie my idol right now.

Julie and me, hanging out. You know.

Anyway, the workout was as follows:

Run 200 meters each (relay format)
150 Dumbbell Thrusters (45#/30#)
100 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
50 Box Jumps (30″/24″)
Run 200 meters each (relay format)

After the running portion, one person would start knocking out the thrusters, one person would hold a 115# bar in a static position, and the third person would rest. We rotated through these three positions until all 150 thrusters were completed. Then, we followed the same system to complete the pull-ups followed by the box jumps.

Steve, post-WOD. I kinda felt like puking too!

Dear, sweet Ericka actually ran the Philly Marathon yesterday, so we decided to take it a bit easier on the weight since she was only two days out from the race. She and I both used 10# dumbbells for the thrusters and subbed in ring rows instead of pull-ups. She and I also used a lighter bar for the static hold which was clutch. I seriously don’t know how she pulled off a marathon yesterday!

Julie demonstrating ring rows

Y’all, Julie could have completed this entire workout solo. Seriously, that girl is so impressive! When I was in my resting phase, I couldn’t help but watch her knock out her sets. I even laughed as I watched her bang out 35 box jumps (on the highest position) without breaking a sweat. She paused, looked at me, hopped off the box, and as an afterthought goes, “You can finish the last 10.” I think she was just trying to be generous and share the workout because she most definitely was not tired!

Christy Phillips, Ashleigh, Jess, me, and Ericka after the WOD.

Julie, Tina, Courtney, and me

One of my favorite parts of the WOD was meeting Annemarie McKay. She is a 74-year-old Reebok employee who began doing Crossfit and now participates in the sport twice each week. She definitely scales the majority of the moves, but she completed the entire team WOD! Check out my video of her finishing the final run (and sorry about the line of sight; there were some big, muscular men in my way!)

Seriously, I don’t use the word “inspirational” too often, but I found Annemarie to be sincerely amazing. Would you look at that smile as she finishes the run?!