August 2014 – Kim Pallister

I like to joke with people about how I suffer from a condition called “adult onset athletics”. I never developed a penchant for fitness when I was young, and certainly never gave nutrition any thought. I always had a metabolism that let me eat a ton of junk food but somewhere in my mid thirties it slowed down and I put on a bunch of weight (ask and I might show you my “before” pic). I had some success taking off weight with a low-carb regimen I’d come up with, and I started frequenting a number of different gyms. However, without a real training plan and without a coach to help push me, those one hour workouts turned into 45 minutes… then 30… probably half of which was checking my playlist of finding the right magazine to read on the treadmill. Somewhere in early 2011 I knew I needed something different.

I came to CrossFit in a weird way. I was reading the transcript of the commencement speech given the Ringling Bros College of Art & Design. The speech was about creativity, but midway through it the speaker switched gears and suggested all the graduates find a CrossFit box and join up, saying “Crossfit is a way of organizing compressed, high-intensity workouts that make you incredibly strong in less than 30 minutes a day [I guess he never met Amy or Murph?]. More importantly, doing CrossFit makes you psychologically capable of tackling things that are challenging and out of your comfort zone, with a kind of psycho glee”. Well, of course I thought that sounded like just the thing I needed.

Google showed me BCF was right along my commute to work, so I thought I’d stop by and ask a question or two, get a tour, etc. I pulled up to see this tattooed guy opening the back door to a warehouse space. Before I could say “Excuse me, but is this…”, he had me signing a waiver and on a bar doing pullups (*ahem* On-boarding and assessment have come a long way since then, Mike!). I thanked him, went outside, threw up in the bushes, and signed up immediately afterward.

It’s amazing to think what 3 years of consistently grinding away at your weaknesses can do. I have an engineering background so I took strongly to the quantifiable, data-driven side of CrossFit and have been tracking everything for most of that time. The first year I did the open, I ranked in the bottom 0.1% of participants. “Good. I thought. Nowhere to go but up.”. Second year I moved up to the 3rd quartile. Third year up around the middle of the pack. I continue to chip away at the weaknesses and improve on strengths. I don’t know if I’ll ever get that handstand walk, but then I said that about getting an MU as well, and hey, that only took 3 years.

I can’t remember who said it, but I heard someone say a while ago, “You only have two machines you’ll use your entire life – your body and your mind. Why wouldn’t you invest in making those both perform the best they possibly can?”. I feel like BCF has become the foundation for where I pursue doing just that. 

And that speech that first turned me onto Crossfit? The speaker went onto say “Crossfit gyms tend to attract an interesting assortment of characters, who, in addition to spurring you on to mind-blotting sequences of box-jumps, pull-ups and deadlifts, will be different from the people you work with. And it’s important to socialize with different groups of people, especially if the little girls among them can clean your clock. Also, Crossfitters love to make fun of themselves. It’s a good sign when people take their pursuits seriously, but themselves, not so much”. I couldn’t have put it better myself. Mike & Christine, the rest of the coaches, and the 5:45am gang have all become close friends I look forward to seeing every day… even if I’m sometimes a few minutes late getting there. 🙂

 

 

Kim has been a mainstay here at BCF for quite a while now. I have watched Kim over the last couple years get stronger, faster, and develop his skills substantially. Kim is usually pretty easy to spot; he’s the one rolling in at 5:50 for the 5:45 class. He usually throws me off when he’s on time, I feel like I’m running late. In reality it wouldn’t be the same if he was always on time. Sorry Kim!!

I will tell you all this, Kim has taken it to the next level lately. Not that he wasn’t hitting it hard before. He was. As of late though, he has been staying late every day and working on HSPU , MU , burpees, etc. This is exactly what I am referring to when I tell you to take extra time if you want to get better. Kim is owning it!

This is a great way to improve. Pick 1 or 2 things and practice every day. Kim is a great role model on this. Kim has also been dialing in his nutrition and it shows. I have seen him lean up over the last several weeks and I know he will continue down the good road. So along with getting leaner, stronger and fitter, Kim is dialing in his MAD skillz….be jealous people!!

Another thing I like about Kim is he always is in a good mood and seems to have great jokes and even better video clips to share. He has sent me many a great clip. (ABC!!) I look forward to many more of this….please.

Be sure to say HI! And congrats to Kim when you see him. His hard work has not gone unnoticed.

-Mike