170215 - Faces of Choice City - Rick

This gentleman is proving to us all that you can have both brains AND brawn! His calm demeanor masks a determined inner fire that pushes him to be the strong athlete he has become. Him and his wonderful wife, Laura, are a power duo and a big part of our fit family. His double-unders can't be matched and his persistence is down right admirable. Meet the strong, stoic, smart RICK! 

Tell us about yourself!
I'm from Tucson, Arizona. I actually have lived there three separate times; my parents loved it so much we kept moving back until it finally stuck. While living in Tucson the last time I met, Laura Stein, my amazing wife who finally convinced me to come in, but more on that later. Tucson is also where I really got involved in Hap Ki Do, a Korean martial arts, and was my main form of physical activity for many years. It is also why I have years practicing double unders. We would warm up with a 1000 to 2000 singles then compete for most unbroken double unders. Laura left Tucson to pursue her PH.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and I followed her there. When she graduated she accepted a Post-Doctoral position here in Fort Collins at CSU. After we moved I accepted a Field Engineer position with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and so I spend my days driving around Colorado and Wyoming fixing servers and the like.

Why do you “CrossFit”?
Laura finally convinced me to come in to a Bring A Motivated Friend Day. The WOD that day was Annie (50, 40 , 30 ,20 ,10 double-unders and Ab Mat sit-ups). And after wanting to die during a lovely burpee Death by 10 Meters as a warm up, which didn’t make it through. I was pretty excited about the double-unders, I mean how bad could it really be, but after that first set and 25 situps in I was done for. After that eye opening experience the boot camp being offered and led by Coach Michael and Coach Lauren seemed like a good way to easy into it. Six weeks of personal coaching and less intensive workouts later (though I would have argued differently at the time) I was hooked. I love that everything we do seems to build on everything else we do, and so you can see gains in your performance without necessarily having worked on something in particular. I mean less than a year later it was no longer a question of finishing Annie but just how fast can I do it, and I think it went pretty well this last time.

What makes “Choice City CrossFit" so special?
From a performance standpoint, the level of experience our coaches and especially Michael bring is incredible. I remember being struck watching our athletes compete at a recent local competition. Just the difference that CCCF athletes had in form across the board was very noticeable. However, more than anything else the community we have here makes it feel like a second home. It really is wonderful to come in daily and see friends doing awesome things and being an inspirational, be it killing a work out, encouraging others, or just plain being awesome.

Strength - Push Press
3, 3, 3, 3, 3

WOD
Tabata Crippler
8 rounds each of :20 work :10 rest of:
Squats
Lunges
Squat hops
Jump lunges