Sectionals, Mom's B-day, The Move & Albuquerque

Karen & Davey at the New Neighborhood Park with the Sandia Mountians in the Background

Wow, what a crazy and amazing March 2010 we had!  In the last month I turned in my notice at Vicon in Houston, we competed at sectionals in Austin, we helped pull off an amazing 60th birthday party for my Mom in Porter, we packed all our stuff, moved to Albuquerque, I started a new job at Norman S. Wright SW and we got settled in our new house.

I guess we will start with sectionals.  March 13th-14th.  What a great and humbling experience.  I placed 57th out of 130 men.  Karen had a couragous effort that put her at 59th out of 66 women.  And we both had the pleasure of cheering for our buddy Jeanna Cournoyer on her way to a 5th place finish sending her to regionals.  Of course we wish we had done better, but it just was not our day as they say.  To be honest I am not sure I would have been able to qualify even on my best day...there were just a lot of really fit individuals there.  The competition was well run and the WODs were broad and fairly written.  I look forward to giving it a go again next year.  As long as I am capable and as long as they let me, I'm going to keep at it.  Karen is very motivated for next year, she is going to come back stronger than ever.  These experiences will only make us better at everything we do.

So, we came back from sectionals and got after packing and getting set up and ready for my Mom's Birthday party.  We went out for an amazing dinner on her birthday March 16th.  Limo, fancy food, lots of booze, the whole deal.  It was a great time to spend with family and friends.  Then we threw the big party on Saturday the 20th.  Karaoke, Pappas BBQ Catering, Margarita Machine and lots of great people.  It was a honor and a pleasure being a part of planning my Mom's 60th party.  I love my Mom very much and watching her have such a fun week and enjoy herself so much was a blast.  She deserved every bit of the work and planning it took to make the party and dinner happen.  Between my Dad, me and Karen I think we did a pretty good job.  It was a blast.  Happy 60th Mom.

Now it was immediately time to move.  During all this we had been planning and packing for the move.  We dropped my car off to be shipped on the 19th.  The U-Pack moving truck dropped off to be loaded on the 22nd, we loaded it with every friggin thing we owned and had it picked up on the 23rd to head to Albuquerque.  We hit the road the morning of the 24th for the long drive.  Checked in to our rent house and picked up my car on the 25th.  Unloaded the trailer on the 26th with Ben's help.  And then started the process of getting settled in.  We are very happy with the rent house and we love Albuquerque so far.  I started my new job on April 1 and we are moving forward with life.  We really do miss our families, it is going to be an adjustment for sure.

We are finally completely settled in, it is really cool to live in the same city with Ben and Tasha and it will be cool for our sons to get to know eachother.  Got the new Gibson Garage Gym set up and everything.  Thanks for reading.  Much more to come from us now that we can finally settle back into a groove and get after it.  Do work son!  Do work!  Hope to see everyone soon.

Update!

Quick update:

It's official; We are moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We are very nervous and very excited.  We are going to miss all of our friends in Houston!  And we are going to especially miss our families.  It is tough, but we are very excited for the new scenery and opportunities that this move will bring us.  The move should be complete by the end of March if all things go according to plan.

Mom & Dad, we will miss you deeply.  Thank you so much for being so supportive and understanding.  I Love You!

More information to come as it unfolds.  Thanks for reading, I hope to see you all around!

-Shane

Sorry!

Howdy everyone!  Sorry it has been so long since an update, we have been crazy busy!

We are still living with my parent's, temporarily, in Porter, TX.  They are so great and have made living there a joy and it is certainly affording us a lot of opportunities and open doors as we figure out what the next step will be.  We have been training hard in preparation for the sectionals on March 13-14.  OPT Big Dawgs has been our program since Jan 1 and it has been tough but we are seeing gains.  Sectionals are going to be rough and we do not have any delusions of winning, but we are going there to do our best, have fun and hang out with some really cool people.

I attended the Level 1 cert at Alamo CrossFit on Jan 23-24. Had an amazing time and learned A LOT! Huge thanks to Alamo CrossFit for hosting. And hats off to the HQ trainers Todd, Rory, Jon, Joe, Stephan and Miranda who are all incredibly knowledgable and fun to be around. I can't wait to have the opportunity to spread what I learned.

Karen just had her Level 1 at CrossFit Strong in Dallas this past weekend.  She will have to chime in and share her thoughts...

During her Level 1, I dropped in over at CrossFit Dallas Central on Saturday and open gym hours on Sunday.  Everyone there is freakin' awesome.  I have rarely felt so welcome somewhere that I have never been before.  Thanks very much to everyone at Dallas Central for having me at your place.  I am sure I will see ya'll around.

Well, that is all I have for now.  What I can tell you is that we have some major stuff coming and we are very excited about it.  I hope to be making an anouncement soon.

Thanks for reading!  Things are going to continue being crazy throughout March, but I will do a better job updating!

On the road...Level 1 here I come!

This afternoon Karen and I will hit the road heading to San Antonio.  My CrossFit Level 1 Certification has finally arrived.  Karen's certification is in Dallas at the end of February so she is going to take this weekend as an oportunity to train at a new box in San Antonio on Saturday and get some much needed rest and relaxation.

We are on rest days after this until Jan 27 when we start our next rotation with OPT Big Dawgs.  Sometime between now and then I will post up about my certification experience.  Stand by!

Here is a fun picture of Davey.  Our new 13# kettlebell that we ordered for my Mom to be able to do swings with came in today.  When we unboxed it he came straight over and deadlifted it...I love this kid...

Not bad form either.

CrossFit Champions "Bugaboo" Video

Special thanks to Matt & Pam Munson of CrossFit Champions as well as everyone that participated and helped in putting this video together.  This community is really something special.


Bugaboo from CrossFit Champions on Vimeo.

Sometimes...

Life asks you to chop down a tree too...gotta have fire wood...

Throwin' Hay...

For those of you that don't know, my parents have horses on their property.  Two of their own, and a third horse that a friend owns and stalls there.  Horses eat hay, and lots of it.  So, a couple times a year, we load up in the truck, hook up the trailer and head deep into God's country to pick up and replenish their stock of hay.  We (Me, My Dad, My Brother) made another one of these trips on this past Saturday.  We hand loaded 137 bales onto the trailer, drove back home and unloaded all 137 into the hay barn.

If you have never done this kind of work, it is not easy.  Especially not when you attack it the way we do.  Bottom line, we want to get it done as quickly as possible.  This process involves a lot of stacking, throwing, crawling, climbing, etc.  The bales are cumbersome, unevenly weighted, inconsistantly shaped and generally not built for convenient handling.

So, if you are still with me, this is where CrossFit comes in.  I cannot think of an activity that measures your funtional fitness in the real world any better than "throwin' hay".  After the day's work, my family was quick to point out how easily I seemed to throw and stack the bales in comparison to past trips, not to mention the pace I kept.  The particular loading process this time required throwing the bales a fair distance to eliminate double and triple handling each bale.  What can I say, the bales just felt lighter and flew farther.  I was assurred these bales were not any lighter than previous trips.

CrossFit works.

As a CrossFitter, I train for the sport of life.  Sometimes life requires you to "throw hay".  Don't you want to be ready?

Thanks for reading.

-Shane