It’s been a few days since I’ve been able to get into the gym, or yoga hot room for that matter.  In the mean time, I’ve found myself spending quality time with good friends, and of course, my girlfriend.  I’ve even been fairly good at motivating myself to run up some short trails near Snowmass and Carbondale, though nothing is really quite like a muscle-busting workout with Spencer Keep or a ligament stretching yoga sesh with Kate Giampapa .

Anyway, even with a nice Sunday afternoon off, I find it difficult to stay motivated for these daily workouts.  Luckily, some stoke comes from the people that count the most: my friends.

I had a chance to meet Arly Velasquez during my trip to Mt. Hood earlier this summer as an assistant coach for the Challenge Aspen Competition Team .  Arly was attending the summer camp spectrum in a racing capacity for the NSCD out of Winter Park, CO.  When his team left Oregon, he stayed on to continue working on his skiing and racing.  He hopped in our truck and trained with us for a couple of days before we had to make our exit as well.

Check out this YouTube video Arly produced about his trip to Mt. Hood and see what I mean about his stoke.  It’s people like this that keep me motivated to get strong, stay healthy, and shred pow all over the world.

Click here to check out Arly’s Facebook page !!

Today G.R. came out to the Roaring Fork CrossFit gym to check it out, and Spencer gave us both some run throughs of the Elements moves.  We hopped in by doing a quick warm-up and then he showed us how to do some cleans, some squat presses, and some pull-ups.  Since we were early, having arrived before the normal class time, we were able to start our fitness routine without getting in the way of the rest of the folk.

Spencer worked me through the 3rd day routine.  10 minutes of as many rounds as you can with 7 reps of both burpees and cleans.  Since I’m still recovering, I had to scale down my burpees to sets of 7 pushups off a bar and 7 box jumps to go along with a 14lb medicine ball for the cleans.  I think I completed 6 1/2 rounds in the 10 minutes allotted, and had to run outside to spit the rest of my lungs out.

Needless to say, especially if you’ve read some of my recent posts, but this workout floored me once again.  I hope after a few weeks of this, that I’ll be able to say something different, but then, it probably won’t be the case if I’m really pushing myself.  Just gotta keep on it…

Last Wednesday I wrote about my first experience with CrossFit here in the Roaring Fork Valley.  It was a welcome jump back into the fitness scene after a lengthy hiatus due to bilateral shoulder injuries from this past winter.  In the days since I first met ‘Cindy’, I have found myself dealing with the fatigued muscles and soreness associated with physical activity after a long time off from any real workouts.  And boy did I pay for it.

It had been a solid two weeks of abstaining from any adult beverages or party favors, and my body was just beginning to feel like an athlete’s again.  Or so I thought.  Thursday night in Snowmass brings a free concert, thanks to the Town of Snowmass Village , and with that all the festivities we locals enjoy.  I consumed some brews and danced it out a bit at one of the local bars afterwards, but by early the next morning I was in agony.

It seems that the time I took off from using my upper extremities was maybe a bit too long, and the comeback was almost too much.  I didn’t even feel a hangover from my night of celebration, but my arms would barely bend past 30 degrees at the elbows.  The pain was intense, but I found myself on the river a couple of hours later rowing some Challenge Aspen rafters down the Lower Roaring Fork.

Anyway, it’s been a few days of nursing these sore muscle joints, and I decided to check in with the RFCrossFit guys once again.  I stopped in about halfway through the regular group’s session to watch how it all goes down and to meet the other trainers.  Spencer put me through my second day of the Elements class, and I was able to work through some of the new moves, including the dead lift, some more pushups, and some rowing.

As with all the CrossFit sessions, there was a woman’s name for the one today, but like any guy with a girlfriend, it must have slipped my mind.  Oh well, there’s always a next time…heh.

Well, this lazy ski bum has finally taken it upon himself to find some help in getting back in fighting shape. Or is that skiing shape? Whatever the colloquialism, I contacted my good friend Spencer Keep to assist in this process. Spencer has been working out through a program called CrossFit for the past three years, and has recently begun training others in the intense physical fitness program.

Many of my close skier friends have been participating in CrossFit recently, so I decided to take Spencer up on his offer to come and check it out. I met him down at the Roaring Fork CrossFit gym and after a thorough explanation of what the program is, how it works, who’s doing it, and why it’s just plain awesome, Spencer put me right into my first session.

Each workout is given a name, usually a woman’s name, and Cindy was the belle of my first ball. Cindy consisted of rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 pushups, and 15 squats over a 10 minute period.  The goal is to do as many rounds of the three sets as possible before time runs out.  Because I’m still rehabbing my shoulders (and boy are they weak!), my pull-ups were modified to jump pull-ups, the pushups were off a raised bar, and my squats were sans any weight.  Even with all the sissy adaptations, by the end of the ten minutes I found myself staring down at the half-digested hot dogs and chips I had eaten only an hour before.  So much for junk food before an ass-kicking workout!  heh.

So, my indoctrination into the CrossFit family was a quick and queasy one at best, but I think I may have found another key to success in my long road to the top of the Freeskiing World Tour.  Now, excuse me, I have to go slam down a protein drink to make up for the lost nutrients into the sewage system off of Willits Lane…