Deadlift*

Performance: Work up to a heavy single deadlift

Fitness: Work up to heavy triple deadlift

Post loads to comments.

*If you came yesterday and got your deadlifts in you’ll work on the following triplet instead:

12 Minutes NFRs of:
10 reps per leg dumbbell reverse lunges
20 Calorie Row
:30 L-Sit Hold
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For Time:
Run 5K

If you’ve got a stopwatch, bring it! We’ll be running the following route

Start AT GYM TO 3RD AVENUE,
LEFT AT 3RD AVENUE
RIGHT AT 3RD STREET.
RIGHT AT CLINTON STREET
RIGHT AT PACIFIC STREET
RIGHT AT 3RD AVENUE
BACK TO CFSBK.

Post time to comments.

What are these CFSBK show shoe’ers so excited about? Maybe it’s the our awesome Flickr account!

• Good luck to Ryan J and Todd C who will be competing in an Olympic Weightlifting meet today in Garden City NJ. Resident oly lifter Jake L will be helping them warm-up and hit their lifts. This will be Ryan’s first meet and Todd’s second.
• Thanks to everyone who came out to the Brooklyn Community Foundation’s Brooklyn Get Down event last night. They sold about 120 tickets and we had a great time!

Yoga moving to 7:30pm

Effective this week Yoga for Athletes with Whitney will be moving from 6:30pm to 7:30pm on Thursday evenings. Come down and get your OM on a little later in the evening!

Programming Note

Due to the Open, we’ll be extending the current cycle a few weeks so we don’t wind up Crushing or Backing Off in the middle of it. For the next few weeks we’ll follow a similar template to the current cycle, with a Back Off week starting on Monday, 3/31.

CFSBK Endurance at Red Hook Today

Hey athletes!  If any CFSBK’ers would like to sweat it out on the track today, feel free to come by our endurance session at the Red Hook Track. Interested athletes should show up at 9:45am to support the endurance athletes finishing up and then take on a 8x400m set with Mike O’s guidance.
Here is a description of the planned workout for the day.

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Brent Fikowski’s 151 rep 14.3 performance CrossFit
I’m A Man Who Knows What He Wants And Goes After Something More Realistic

Performance: Work up to a heavy single deadlift

Fitness: Work up to heavy triple deadlift

Post loads to comments.
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Open Workout 14.3

8 minute AMRAP:
10 deadlifts, 135 / 95 lb. 
15 box jumps, 24 / 20 inch
15 deadlifts, 185 / 135 lb.
15 box jumps, 24 / 20 inch
20 deadlifts, 225 / 155 lb.
15 box jumps, 24 / 20 inch
25 deadlifts, 275 / 185 lb.
15 box jumps, 24 / 20 inch
30 deadlifts, 315 / 205 lb.
15 box jumps, 24 / 20 inch
35 deadlifts, 365 / 225 lb. 
15 box jumps, 24 / 20 inch

This workout begins from the standing position with the barbell on the floor and the Athlete standing tall. Each time the Athlete returns to the deadlift they will be responsible for loading their own barbell to the next appropriate weight. The same barbell must be used for the entire workout, and the Athlete may not receive assistance when changing the loads. Using additional pre-loaded barbells is not permitted.

Every rep counts in this workout. Credit will be given for partially completed rounds. You will enter your result by the total number of reps completed plus your tiebreak time (see below).

Special Tiebreak
In this workout, we are using a special tiebreak method. At the end of each set of 15 box jumps time should be marked. When you submit your final result, your score will be the number of reps completed. There will be another field in which you will enter the time of the last completed sets of box jumps.

Tired of watching elite CrossFitters crush this workout? See DO’s 14.3 video submission as a refreshing change of pace!

The Brooklyn Get Down Tonight starting at 8pm!

CFSBK is hosting a party/fundraiser for the Brooklyn Community Foundation. The proceeds from this event will benefit local non-profit organizations. The event will honor CFSBK for our Fight Gone Bad contributions to the local community. All are welcome to attend for drinks, food and dancing. BCF is offering two levels of tickets — $30 “Rookie” admission which includes 2 tickets that can be used for drinks or raffle entry and $55 “Pro” admission with 10 tickets for drinks/raffle entry.  Both levels are specially discounted for CFSBK members. 

Purchase Tickets Here

Check out Rob I’s best lifts from the recent Powerlifting meet CFSBK sent a team to. Strong work, Rob!

• Don’t forget that tomorrow CFSBK is hosting the Brooklyn Community Foundation’s “Brooklyn Get Down” party and fundraiser. If you’re going to drink this weekend, it might as well be for a good cause!
• 14.3 has been announced! Are you happy you practiced your box jumps? What is your plan for this workout?

Last day to take home your shoes

CFSBK has a shoe problem. As many of you have noticed the oly shoe situation in the coat room is out of control. Today is the last day to remove your shoes before we remove and eventually recycle abandoned oly shoes. If you can’t make it to the gym, please email cfsbkfrontdesk (AT) gmail.com and we’ll label and put your shoes aside.

Sign up for Strength!

There are a few slots left in Coach Jeremy’s upcoming Strength Cycles, if you want to dedicate some time on your strength, strike while the irons hot.

Strength Cycle A: Novice PM
Dates: March 17th, 2014 – May 9th, 2014
Schedule: Monday, Wednesday at 7pm, Friday at 6pm

Register here (Only 4 slots left)

Strength Cycle C: Novice AM
March 17th, 2014 – May 7th, 2014
Monday and Wednesday 6:30am

Register here (Only 1 slots left)

Both cycles will wrap up with a CrossFit Total on Sunday May 11th, 2014.
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How to Clean Your Smelly Workout Clothes Properly lifehacker
Why High-Impact Exercise Is Good for Your Bones NYT
Bodyweight Single Leg Squat Progression

Performance: 1 High Hang Clean + 2 Push Jerk

Fitness: 1 High Hang Power Clean + Front Squat + 1 Push Jerk

Take 15 minutes to work up to a heavy single on this complex.

Post loads to comments.
CJ e6/6
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4 Intervals, each for time of:
Row 500m

Post times to comments.

Jude G gets set up to Squat

• Did you pick up your first Fish Share yesterday? Check out Michele K’s blog The Daily Paleo to see some cooking suggestions for your fresh Fluke.
• CFSBKer Andy Milk’s new indie electronic band will be playing this Friday at 9pm at the Rock Shop. Details here.
• Got plans this Saturday night? The Brooklyn Community Foundation is organizing the Brooklyn Get Down being hosted right here at CFSBK. All ticket sales will go to help them reach their 2014 initiatives and support local non-profits trying to make Brooklyn a better, more equal place to live.

CFSBK Softball Team…take 2?

This year marks the 3rd season for our CFSBK softball team, Las Calaveras.  And, rumor has it that there are others out there that are interested in playing.  While our current team has a full roster, we wanted to gauge interest in possibly forming a 2nd team.  The team would need 15-16 co-ed members, including a team coach/captain, as part of the YMCA Adult Co-ed League. Games are usually held once a week around 6:15pm at the Red Hook fields.  A small league fee of $40-50pp will be expected to participate for the season. ALL levels are welcome.  If you are interested, please email Jess at info(at)crossfitsouthbrooklyn(

Performance: 5/3/1 “1 Week”
75%x5, 85%x3, 95%x1+

Fitness: 2×10
Linear Progression

Post loads to comments.
LBBSQ e6/6
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5 Rounds NFT of:
15 Unbroken Wall Ball 20/10, 14/9
15 Unbroken Box Jumps 24/20

Work on how efficiently you can cycle these two movements for. Plan on them coming up in the Open.

Burpee cascade

Happy Birthday to Dave E and Shawna S!!

TODAY is the March Meat+Fish CSA Pickup!

Curious about meditation and want to incorporate it into your life? 

Vajradhara Meditation Center in Prospect Heights will be conducting a special meditation workshop upstairs at CFSBK on Sunday, March 23 from 2-3:30pm.  The class will include teachings, a guided meditations and a Q&A session. Taught by a qualified Western teacher, the meditation class will be easy to understand and emphasize how to meditate and practice in our NY urban environment.  

Teachings will discuss both mindfulness meditation (becoming aware of what is already true moment by moment and developing a more balanced understanding of self) and contemplative meditation (an investigative style of meditation where the goal is to arrive at a wisdom conclusion and then meditate on that conclusion in order to transform the mind at a deep level).  

Suitable for both beginners and more advanced meditation practitioners. No need to wear anything special, or bring anything…just dress comfortably. 

This is a free event, to register, please RSVP in the comments section so we know how many to plan for.  UPDATE: we’re at capacity, but do still comment (with your full name) if you are interested in joining the workshop and you’ll be contacted if there is space!  

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Reaching My Autistic Son Through Disney NYT

Whitney and Mirko want you to take your shoes home!
Please take them home by this Friday at the latest. Abandoned shoes will be sent to Dimension X (eventually recycled)
As a reminder, only Olympic weightlifting shoes are allowed in the coat room and we now ask that you your name on them clearly if you wish to leave them at the gym. The front desk has gel pens you can use to label your shoes.
If you can’t make it to the gym by Friday, please email cfsbkfrontdesk(AT)gmail.com so we can put them aside for you.

• Speaking of Front Desk, please welcome Mirko B, Josh S and Jess M to the Front Desk staff starting this week!
• Reminder that CFSBK is hosting The Brooklyn Get Down this Saturday evening! This event is both a fundraiser for local charities and a homage to all the fundraising CFSBK has done for the comminity through our Fight Gone Bad events.
• There is a new post on Inside the Affiliate called “Failing, Bailing and Training Culture at CrossFit Affiliates” Check it out!

14.2 in The Books

Congratulations to everyone who participated in 14.2. Many folks got their first overhead squats at 95/65 while others got their first chest to bar pull-up still others were perhaps unable to post a single rep.. which is ok! 14.2 was a bit of a gut check for lots of folks and left you nowhere to hide in those three minute windows. Take what you can from the experience and move on to 14.3

Week 2 CFSBK Men’s Leaderboard
Week 2 CFSBK Women’s Leaderboard

Hit it and Quit it
The Open schedule gives us 5 days to complete each workout.  Some people notoriously attempt the workouts 2 (or more!) times in that window to try and get a better score each time. In our opinion, unless you’re on the chopping block for making it to regionals it’s best to “hit it and quit it”.  First off, lets put the Open into perspective. For most of us mere mortals this is an annual benchmark where we can see how we do versus our friends in the gym and strangers across the globe. It’s cool to see where you’re at but in terms of actual placement, the stakes are pretty low.  If you’re sitting at say 1,511th place in the North East re-doing the workout and moving up to say, 1,432th place does little more than to stroke your own ego… sort of I guess. Going into the Open with the mentality that you might re-do the workouts will only weaken your initial attempt at it. Take the time to plan your strategy, watch other folks do it to inform your perspective and then give it everything you’ve got one time.  Don’t give yourself the easy out of a “re-do” just because you can. It makes about as much sense as doing “Fran” Monday day and then seeing if you can shave 3 seconds off your time on Wednesday. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

The Open is awesome and one of my favorite times of the year. I love seeing everyone come together to compete and see how their training over the last year has paid off.  Have fun with it, hit each workout hard and move one to the following week.

Still Some Room To Get Strong

There are a few slots left in Coach Jeremy’s upcoming Strength Cycles, if you want to dedicate some time on your strength, strike while the irons hot.

Strength Cycle A: Novice PM
Dates: March 17th, 2014 – May 9th, 2014
Schedule: Monday, Wednesday at 7pm, Friday at 6pm

Register here (Only 5 slots left)

Strength Cycle B: Novice AM
March 17th, 2014 – May 7th, 2014
Monday and Wednesday 6:30am

Register here (Only 5 slots left)

Both cycles will wrap up with a CrossFit Total on Sunday May 11th, 2014.
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I only got 306 fewer reps than Talayna CrossFit Games

2 Rounds for As Many Reps as Possible of:
2 Minutes Push Press* 135/95
1 Minute Rest
2 Minutes Toes to Bar
1 Minute Rest
2 Minutes Double Unders
1 Minute Rest

Jerks are no reps on the push press station. Focus on staying tight and keeping your midline as you press out. The load should be such that you can perform 10 unbroken and perfect reps of fresh.

Post reps per movement and Rx to comments.

CFSBK Athlete Of The Month

Laura McElherne

As the competitive season for CrossFit gets into full swing with the Open, we get to know one of our members who’s been steadily upping her strength while becoming more competitive on metcons within the gym as well. Laura’s unassuming attitude, quirky sense of humor, and quiet demeanor belie her intentions…she wants to beat the person ahead of her. This determination and her eagerness to be coached along with her friendliness on a barbell rack caught our eye. Let’s get to know a bit more about the gal we coaches have called “Strong Laura” for a while now.

Fox – How did you first find CrossFit?

Laura – A friend had started at The Black Box: CFNYC and was getting super buff. I was immediately intrigued and started watching the mainsite videos. I remember watching a video of The Bear Complex and thinking about how badass all that barbell work looked. Soon after that, I started straying from my hamster-wheel cardio workouts and trying to do CrossFit at the Park Slope NYSC. I would grab like a 5 pound body bar and practice the clean and the snatch in a hidden corner of the gym so nobody could see me. I bought a book called The New Rules of Lifting for Women and started to learn to squat and deadlift from it. I was also doing a lot of yoga, but I was frustrated by how little I was improving. Plus I was smoking like a chimney. I’d be the person you’d see having a cigarette right before entering the studio and then lighting up again, all zenned out, as soon as I was out the door.

Fox  –  Reformed smoker, I get it. No judgement. I also remember that Bear Complex video, classic! That was big weight back then, now it’s toy weight for those guys. I’m pretty impressed that you actually squatted and deadlifted on your own, too. What brought you to CFSBK?

Laura – Well as I was trying to do CF on my own and had brought my squat up to a staggering 85 pounds, I was also talking non-stop to Andrew, then only my boyfriend, about it. I’d avoided joining due to the cost. For an early birthday present in June 2012 he finally had heard enough and bought me the Foundations course, and also did it with me. We scheduled a private cycle with McDowell due to schedule constraints and it was great. I’m pretty sure that Andrew figured I’d move on from CrossFit after finally trying it, and I’m pretty sure I planned to go back to NYSC a little better equipped to keep training on my own. None of that happened. I quit smoking, joined SBK, and quit NYSC.

Fox – Ha, awesome. Aside from getting to snatch more than a 5 pound body bar, why did you end up staying with us?

Laura – I started to progress where I’d stalled and was learning new skills. I was never athletic, always super uncoordinated, and this was the first time in my life I started to feel like I wouldn’t be a wimpy klutz forever. My first double under felt like a miracle. So did my first handstand. It was also really inspiring to see women doing pull ups and know that if I kept working at it, someday I could do them too. I’m still not great at any of those movements, but I know that if I stopped coming, I would never get any better. Beyond that, I figured that if I was going to be spending 3-5 days a week going to the gym for an hour or more, I might as well talk to people and have fun with it, instead of just zoning out on an elliptical or hiding in a corner with a barbell. I never really knew anybody in classes I attended before unless I brought a friend, the environment simply didn’t foster it. Now I train among friends every time I’m here. Plus I really love the programming here, and the way the coaching staff brings it to life. You guys never seem to be phoning it in like I’ve seen in other classes I attended at “globo gyms”. I swear I’m not just sucking up!

Fox – “Suck Up Laura” is going to replace “Strong Laura”! Kidding. We always like to hear that we’re doing the job we strive to do. It’s so true that you can and should have fun with this stuff. How did you develop such a sunny outlook? Where are you from originally?

Laura – California, naturally. Santa Clara, in the Bay Area, to be exact. My parents are still there and I love to visit when I can. I moved to New York in 2005 to attend NYU for Art History. Now we live in Flatbush which is great. Aside from some great food we have sooo much space. Enough space in fact to keep up with my vintage chair collection. We have 12 chairs in our apartment.

Fox – Are they human sized, or this part of some dollhouse hobby? 

Laura – Nope, all full sized. It’s embarrassing. I just love collecting junk. In my defense, it feels like a way to keep my love for art, craft, and design alive, even if the art history degree didn’t translate into a happy career. I now work in social services. I’d been working for some galleries and an auction house and felt like my soul was being sucked out of me. I started volunteering to distract myself from the misery of my old job and eventually landed my current gig as an analyst with Street to Home – Brooklyn/Queens. I work on policies to promote continuous quality improvement and evidence-based best practices, ensuring that we’re complying with our city contract and fulfilling our mission to end street homelessness. I love my job, but I do still crave art in my life. In addition to the chair hoarding, I also make ceramics—hand-thrown vases, planters, mugs and such–and I’m constantly doodling, lettering, and painting. And I love to cook. Andrew and I are sort of foodies I guess, so eating out at new hot spots and tasting new cuisines also satisfies some of the thirst for all things creative.

Fox – How did Andrew and you meet?

Laura – At a bar through a mutual friend. Romantic, I know. I was coming out of a long-term relationship, as was he, so I thought we would just have a summer fling and keep things casual. Andrew described me to his friends as “Fake ID” for the first month of our relationship. But eventually, we started spending more and more of our time together, and I realized that I actually kind of loved the guy. He lost his father about 6 months into our relationship, and working through that tragedy together really drove home how much he meant to me. We were married in September last year.

Fox – That’s nice to have such a positive takeaway from a sad loss. And to progress from booty calls after meeting in a bar to husband and wife is a great journey. Congrats!

Laura – Thanks! Fun fact about Andrew and I and that bar: Andrew is 10 years older, and the name of the bar was Lolita. Total Humbert Humbert.

Fox – Ha! You guys seem to have a great sense of humor. Alright, last stock question. What should we look for in a future Athlete of the Month?

Laura – First of all, someone who knows the value of being a nice person. And secondly, someone who challenges themselves. I know that when I see people working hard, lifting heavy, and going fast, it inspires me to do more.. I especially love the women who buck the “don’t lift heavy or you’ll get bulky” BS, and who aren’t concerned with what society says is beautiful. Those women are role models.

Fox – As are you Laura. Thanks for sitting down and sharing. 

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Don’t forget to submit your 14.2 scores to the CrossFit Games site by 8:00pm this evening.
Failing, Bailing, and Training Culture at CrossFit Affiliates  Inside the Affiliate 

Performance: 5/3/1 “3 Week”
70%x3, 80%x3, 90×3+

Loss of a neutral back position will automatically end your rep out.

Fitness: 1×5 Linear Progression
Add 5-10lbs from last week’s exposure.

Post loads to comments.
DL e5/6
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3 Rounds for Time of:
Run 400m
21 Kettlebell Swings
12 Burpees

Post time and Rx to comments

Roy and Brian putting the work in

• Today is the last day to sign up for the Fish CSA. Get on it!

Don’t Throw Your Stuff Out… Repair It!

Pop Up Repair is an intervention in the cycle of use-and-discard consumerism. For four weeks in June 2013, a group of theater artists activated a storefront repair shop, fixing household objects brought in by members of the community. The pop-up shop is the experimental first step in a larger research project investigating our relationships with the objects we use every day: what they mean, what they’re worth, and why we repair and reuse instead of buying new. We open in Brooklyn NEXT WEDNESDAY, March 12th. We will tackle household items of all kinds – chairs, lamps, phones, toys, jewelry  spoons, spatulas – if you can bring it, we will try to fix it! Prices usually range from $10 – $80, though it depends on your item. Bring it in and we will give an estimate.
Check out their website here and take your broken stuff to 540 President Street, Lower Level, off 4th Avenue where they’ll be from 12-7pm for three weeks only.
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Olympic Weighlifting Level Standards Cathletics

For as long as possible:

From 0:00-3:00
  2 rounds of: 
  10 overhead squats, 95 / 65 lb.
  10 chest-to-bar pull-ups

From 3:00-6:00
  2 rounds of:
  12 overhead squats, 95 / 65 lb.
  12 chest-to-bar pull-ups

From 6:00-9:00
  2 rounds of:
  14 overhead squats, 95 / 65 lb.   14 chest-to-bar pull-ups

Following the same pattern until the athlete cannot complete the perscribed work in the allotted time frame. For the full rules and standards, click here. (You’ll have to click on the Week 2 Tab)

For the folks not registered for the Open we’ll also be offering a 9 minute AMRAP version of this workout scaled for your needs.  If you’re registered and know you can only complete a couple reps of this workout, you’ll do as much as you can Rx’d to get a score then will modify for the remainder of the workout.

Post reps completed and Rx to comments.
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3 Rounds NFT of:
1:00 Row
10 Strict Dumbbell Presses
15 V-Ups

Coach David’s video submission for 14.1 (113 Reps)

• Don’t forget about our Free UFC screening today starting at 2:00pm. The gym will supply some beer but everyone is welcome to BYOB. Dogs, babies, non-CFSBKers and imaginary friends are all welcome too! The card should go through until 5:30pm or so.
• Don’t forget we have Yoga with Whitney H at 10am and Active Recovery at 11 and 12pm today!

CFSBK Powerlifters Competing Today

Today 5 CFSBKers will be competing in the USAPL Guerilla Fitness Raw National Qualifiers. Each athlete will have three attempts at a 1RM Back Squat, Bench Press and Deadlift.  Best of luck to all competing under the watchful eye of Coach Jeremy

Lifters
Uzef G
Paul J
Nicole A
Rob I
Becca W

Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for the Fish CSA

Quick note: This UTH piece is different than the others and quite a bit longer. The middle section (starting with “Melissa was born…”) is the traditional Underneath the Hoodie form that Margie created, so feel free to skip there. Either way, know the beginning is a bit weird and won’t be what you’re expecting. Thanks for reading! —Kate R.

Underneath The Hoodie: Melissa L.

By Kate Reece

Vital Stats
Height: 5’2’’
Date of birth: December 5^th
Born and raised: Waterbury and Bristol, CT
Place of higher learning: Eastern Connecticut State University and Hunter College
First shot: Once won an honorable mention ribbon for showing her aunt’s pygmy goat at a county fair

Step into this church. Immediately, your gaze rises to the vaulted ceiling, which descends into a collection of simple stained glass windows. The architecture is basic, but the placement of every angle, every window is intentional. The colored glass holds and refracts the light unobtrusively, casting a spectrum of muted colors inside an otherwise darkened space. Take a seat. The wood of the pews is slightly chipped; there are grooves where fingers gripped, rubbed away at the varnish, the result of individuals lost in thought in a way that is supported by mechanized movement of one’s extremities. Feel the air, the stillness. Even in the absence of belief that something supernatural or holy might occupy this air, you can still feel the sacred weight of tradition that is honored here, the weight of hours upon hours of quietness, interior examination, and solitude.

But wait—close your eyes. Listen as the walls of this church gently start to crumble, fall away. Feel fresh, restless air start to swirl around you as the ceiling lifts off and dissolves into perfect blue sky. Now, you’re standing in an open field. There is flat expanse for miles around you. The breeze moves lightly between tall yellow grass—millions of thin blades accommodating one another, rubbing and moving, creating a low and gentle swishing sound that makes the silence a thing you can actually hear. The horizon is so empty that you ache to know what’s beyond it, what lies at the end of the proverbial rainbow. But for now, your palms are flat and open, lungs clear, skin warmed by a gleaming sun. Breathe. And laugh. It’s enough to be this alive.

—

Now you know what it felt like to be offered a glimpse into Melissa’s soul—that glimpse seen through her respectful, dead-on stare, with her warm denim-blue eyes and open face. On the afternoon of MLKJ Day, I met her at the gym after she had taught a morning of classes and finished a workout with Arturo. He was still doing something awful involving thrusters and running, and she hollered encouragement as he huffed around the block in a weighted vest before she slipped into her ’02 Dodge Neon. “Working out by yourself sucks,” she said simply, turning the key in the ignition.

After I wrestled her (not really, as I surely would have lost) into Le Pain Quotidian on 5th Avenue, it was clear that while she was trying to have a good attitude and be polite, she still would rather have been anywhere than sitting across the table from me. I should have just told her that I didn’t think she’d be able to do it because then, for sure, she would have told me every secret she has tucked away in the recesses of her big, thoughtful brain. (If you want to get her to do something, tell her she can’t.)

It seems important to point out, too, that we’re far from being strangers and I’d already witnessed both her fierce and fiercely fun sides—the sides that tend to be the final reveal after you’ve known her for a while. We joined forces on the Fighting Tacos soccer team last summer and fall (her being the force, my being mostly a hindrance to winning). After one of our games at Brooklyn Bridge Park, framed by the tall, bright lights of Manhattan’s skyscrapers, a guy was fooling around on the field and accidentally kicked a ball straight into her face. A bunch of us from the gym were standing by the bleachers where she was seated and everything sort of just went quiet. Our open mouths and eyes widened as fury erupted from this small, well-mannered woman. I won’t repeat what she said to the guy, but as Fox recalls, “I thought she was about to rush a dude. He may never know how close to death he came.” Fortunately, the guy quickly apologized. Months later, she also celebrated New Year’s Eve at my apartment. At one point during what became a four-hour dance party, she practiced Jennifer Grey’s leap into Arturo’s waiting Patrick Swayze arms, and wouldn’t quit until they executed the iconic lift with perfection, ringing in 2014 as we played “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” on repeat.

Thankfully, we got there, to that space that feels like the best first date of your life, that all interviewers crave—where other sounds disappear (in this case, the piercing wails of a flock of Park Slope’s children), and the world seems to stop spinning, just to enable this moment. I know I only scraped the surface of what is her deep interior well, but at least I got to see the shape of that well, and see some of its outpourings.

—

Melissa was born in the beginning of December at St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut, the same hospital where her brother and her parents were born. Both of her parents are the third of seven children in large Catholic families, and they met in Waterbury, “The Brass City,” when they were teenagers, getting married three years later. On their first date, Melissa’s French-Canadian father Roland and Irish-Catholic mother Eileen made plans to go waterskiing. Roland had long wavy hair, not unlike Americanized depictions of Jesus, and he showed up at Eileen’s house barefoot, leaving his banana-yellow 1970 Firebird parked in the driveway as he came to the door to say hello. Though they’ve now been married for almost 40 years, Eileen’s mother enjoys telling the story about how petrified she was that her daughter wouldn’t return home safely from a date with this guy who couldn’t afford shoes, yet somehow drove such a spicy car.

The majority of both sides of Melissa’s family still live in or around Waterbury, but Roland and Eileen moved north and slightly east to Bristol a few years into their marriage. Their home in the suburbs looked like the rest of the homes on their block, and it’s the same home they own today. Roland, a patient, thoughtful man, attended a technical high school and became a trade carpenter, building cabinets and doors and working in detailing. When their kids were born, Eileen waited tables in the evening while Roland worked during the day. Eventually, when Melissa and Roland Jr. went to school, Eileen—ever organized and proactive—found a job that would overlap their schedules as a paraprofessional, assisting with special education in various elementary schools.

Family was Melissa’s life, and she watched her parents live simply and work hard to raise her and her older brother. She was an extremely shy child and teenager. Her natural disposition for working quietly translated into the classroom where she was an excellent student. She particularly enjoyed math, appreciating being given sufficient information and data that enabled her to solve complex problems. She spoke up in class when she was expected to, and when she felt strongly about something, but rarely otherwise. She sensed early on that sometimes people talked just to hear themselves, and she always felt that less was more. It seemed obvious that quality would win over quantity.

It wasn’t an explicit expectation that she begin working as soon as possible, but she took over her brother’s paper route when she turned 13. It didn’t feel like some huge sacrifice that she would get up a bit earlier every morning as her family and neighbors slept, hop on her bike, and ride around delivering papers so she could earn her own money. When she turned 16 and wasn’t playing soccer or running track, she continued working at a local supermarket and eventually at a food stand in Lake Compounce, an amusement park in Bristol. (She was soon promoted to manager of the food stand, and it should be noted that, after she left, there were a few deaths at the park.)

She wanted to get involved in theatre at Bristol Eastern High School, but it was too big a stretch for her shyer personality. Sports provided her with a critical social outlet. She was a dynamite athlete, and in the context of a team she felt comfortable enough not only to be aggressive but bloom out of her shell into friendships with her teammates and into her natural gifting as a leader. In track, she ran the 800m and 4×4 relay, selecting those events because she considered them the hardest, leaving her, as she explained, “with nowhere to hide.” She quickly became captain of her soccer and track teams and early on she chose to lead primarily by example—again, using her words only when necessary.

Melissa’s reticence was not standard-issue shyness; it was also evidence of her precocious wisdom, which she credits to her parents’ Catholic values. She went through every rite of passage at St. Gregory, the church her family attended every Sunday in Bristol. Mass broadened her perspective beyond the walls of her own life and concerns, buoying her with the awareness that it was a waste of time to become wrapped around axles of trivial or selfish concerns. That spiritual upbringing also carved out a calm interiority in her mind, which in turn created an ability to be deeply comfortable while alone. She also became convinced that loving people well mattered the most.

Every Sunday after Mass, her family would drive the 12 miles back to Waterbury to visit her maternal grandparents’ home for family dinners (in the same house where Eileen had grown up). All of Eileen’s brothers and sisters and their kids crowded into the one-floor ranch-style home, comprised of a living room, kitchen, and one other common room. The closeness of the space translated to the closeness of their relationships, and that blood community and its accompanying support and love provided Melissa with deep, tethering roots.

—

Despite being the home of ESPN, Bristol was an unremarkable town, the main street peppered with chain restaurants, a Walmart, and mostly lower-middle class stretches of suburban homes. It’s the kind of small town that most young people leave only provisionally, for college or brief explorations, ultimately returning to be with their families and start their own. Melissa and her closest friends were not of that disposition. She literally counted down the days until she could leave for college. She didn’t know what she wanted to do but she had the sense that if she went away, she could reinvent herself to a degree—get outside the routines she’d grown stuck in and escape the settled perceptions of others. If you’ve grown up in a small town, you know what it’s like to be plagued by people’s unwillingness to imagine you beyond their memories of your fifth-grade self. Melissa wanted a new beginning, to let her world take on new shapes and expand to meet her insatiable curiosity.

She had visited colleges in Boston and came close to leaving Connecticut entirely, but practicality won out and she chose Eastern Connecticut State University. She found a home at ECSU, and immediately she felt more outgoing and comfortable than she had in high school. It was a Division III school, so she was able to play soccer. ECSU was also where Melissa met Teresa Belling (known to CFSBK as a powerhouse athlete). Melissa and Teresa played soccer together and were roommates for most of college, drawn to each other because of their shared family values. They took long runs through the woods of Willimantic, and maintained a regimen of two, sometimes three-a-day workouts, biasing legs on Mondays and Wednesday, “bis and tris” on Tuesday and Thursday, and sit-ups daily. They worked hard at school and soccer, and played hard on the weekend. (Ask Melissa about how she introduced Teresa to alcohol.) All told, college was a wonderful and gratifying experience.

Melissa majored in Economics and worked summers as a teller at Fleet Bank, which gave her a sense of the scope of bigger banks. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do after graduation, but a relative got her an interview at a fledgling hedge fund in Westport, Connecticut, and she was soon employed in their Operations department. That hedge fund was Bridgewater Associates (a name she dropped casually, as though it was some local bank and not a $100-billion-plus company that’s made more money for investors than any other hedge fund, ever). Melissa was drawn to the company’s ethical and inventive ethos, and she could lead there the way she led on the soccer field—by example, through hard work, as part of a team. By age 25, she was managing a team of four other employees and had received numerous promotions. Even if she didn’t love what she was doing, she was responsible for it, so it was going to be perfect.

Around that time, she and Teresa, who was working for ESPN, had moved back in together. Despite continuing to play soccer and the fun they and their friends were having on the weekends partying and dancing in New Haven, Melissa’s life revolved almost entirely around work. That familiar restlessness returned. In the middle of her fifth year at Bridgewater, she realized she was completely exhausted—and much like how she felt when she left Bristol for college, she was ready for a new experience, and for the borders of her world to break and extend yet again.

—

In the spring of 2007, Teresa and Melissa packed a car and left Connecticut for Brooklyn. They found an only slightly decrepit apartment in South Slope, which cost twice as much as their loft apartment in Connecticut (which had had a swimming pool). Melissa’s parents helped them move, and when they arrived at the apartment, Eileen opened the door and entered the bathroom, where the toilet was clogged with a large, rank pile of feces. Many mice abided in the apartment alongside Melissa and Teresa, the furnace broke down in dead of winter, and though they eventually hightailed it to Kensington Gardens, they were both 25 years old and sold on New York City.

Melissa started working in Human Resources for Goldman Sachs and Teresa was still working for ESPN so the pair slogged through gruelingly long weeks, hanging out on the weekends playing co-ed soccer and hitting an array of “globo” gyms. Melissa logged time primarily in spinning and step aerobics classes and with Nautilus machines. She started complaining to her brother over the phone about her boredom in the gym. He had recently begun following CrossFit’s main site programming (along with the Navy SEALs training component), and he told her to check it out. She had no clue what any of the movements were on the daily WODs, but she and Teresa, always ready for a new adventure, decided to spend a Saturday morning taking a teaser class at a gym in Manhattan. The teaser was half of Cindy. Melissa used the fattest band possible for her pull-ups, did pushups on her knees, and couldn’t achieve full range of motion on her squats. But she finished. She and Teresa went to brunch afterwards and could barely lift coffee cups to their tired faces. Nonetheless, they thought This is awesome. They went through the gym’s Foundations program and kept training in Manhattan for about six months, until they found CrossFit South Brooklyn.

It was the summer of 2010, and the garage doors were up as they walked in one evening after work. Fox was coaching, but there wasn’t a front desk yet, so he approached them and started talking to them. He thought they both looked like “heavy hitters” (in addition to assuming that they were a couple) and he hoped that they would come back. They did. After a few months, Fox invited them both to join the competition team classes and Melissa became Athlete of the Month in May 2011.

Things were going beautifully at CFSBK, where both Melissa and Teresa had fallen in love with not just the physical training but also the community. The welcoming, kind ethos exhibited by the coaches and athletes felt reflective of the values that had drawn them into friendship with each other years ago. But over at Goldman Sachs, the creeping feeling of restlessness, exhaustion, and dissatisfaction returned for Melissa. A steady stream of Why am I doing this, I’m not making any impact in the world, This work is so insignificant, played like the lyrics to a bad song in her head. Melissa knew that if she was going to spend that much time dedicating herself to something, she needed to feel that it made an impact on peoples’ lives in some consequential way.

So in 2011 she quit her job and began taking the pre-requisites necessary for applying to Physical Therapy programs. Fitness and sports had been the dominant themes of what she’d always been most passionate about, along with loving and caring for people, and it suddenly felt like pink cursive writing scripting her calling across the clouds. She also became convinced that she wanted to move back to Connecticut for school, buy a house in the middle of nowhere with lots of land, and be near her family again.

But then she was invited to begin coaching at CFSBK in early 2012, and with much prodding from Fox and others she checked out some New York schools. When she visited Hunter, she knew she’d found the one. (She was so stunned when she was accepted to their program that she asked them if they’d made a mistake.) She started in the summer of 2013, and the experience of PT school alongside coaching continues to convince her that she’s found how she wants to spend her professional life. She loves understanding physiology and how marvelously the human body self-regulates, and she loves learning the nuances of CrossFit’s lifts and teaching progressions and how to correct common errors in movement. Managing all this new data and information, and using it to solve peoples’ problems in a functional, important way, is a perfect fit.

That familiar process of blooming, of being part of a team, has also woven its way into the fabric of her story at CFSBK. The combination of her dry, quick wit and unassuming demeanor means her humor catches you when you’re least expecting it and in the best way. Jess Bailey remembers one class where the Question of the Day was about something you regretted losing. One guy referenced once losing a bunch of CDs and jewel cases, and Melissa asked him to repeat his answer and then laughed. “Oh, I thought you said you lost all your Jewel CDs!” she explained. Two minutes later, she started playing Jewel songs during the warm-up.

—

We’re about an hour and a half into our interview, and her ceramic pot of jasmine tea and mine of decaf coffee are long dry. Suddenly, I’m not pummeling her with questions to keep driving her divulgences forward. The sounds in the restaurant have faded, and a bubble seems to form around us. She’s saying that she doesn’t know how she got here, what a miracle it is that things somehow fall into their right place. “If you had asked me even three years ago what I’d be doing now, I would have had no idea that I’d arrive here. But it seems to be working out well.”

Still, though… “There’s so much out there,” she says. Her voice is even quieter than usual but she’s still looking me straight in the eye. “The world is a big place, and to be tied down in one place for an extended period of time—there’s always something else. Whenever I think my world is too small, it’s depressing, there’s so much more I could be doing.” This disposition shows itself in her affinity for being a bit of a daredevil, for finding ways to experience life at its limits; a few years ago, she went skydiving and last year she bought her first motorcycle. “Without the gym,” she continues, “I absolutely would have moved somewhere else. I feel connected here, it’s my community and my family. But I’m never satisfied. It kind of sucks.” The beauty of a restless heart is ambition and openness, but its casualties (even in a life well-attended by loyal friends and family) can be loneliness, and a lack of absolute contentment—though never a lack of gratitude for the gift of being alive.

The whitened sun is setting when we leave the restaurant to walk back to her car, casting everything in a matte shade of pale yellow and dove gray. I say something about how brief it all is, how I never want to get to the end and wish I had done something differently. She nods and looks down 5th Avenue as we wait at the light to cross the street. “You only get one,” she says.

Parting Shots
Favorite way to eat eggs: in pancakes
Favorite lift: Clean and jerk
Any assumptions CFSBKers make that she would like to disabuse them of: She is not, nor ever was, a gymnast (though she wishes the opposite were true).
Favorite band: The Band