Wednesday 9.2.2020
“Hot Sauce”
4 Minute AMRAP:
75 Double Unders
25 Burpees
25 Pull-ups
4-minute rest
4 Minute AMRAP:
60 Double Unders
20 Burpees
20 T2B
4-minute rest
4 Minute AMRAP:
45 Double Unders
15 Burpees
15 C2B Pull-ups
Tomorrow’s Forecast:
Thursday’s workout calls for running and slam balls.
Box Brief:
Weightlifting clinic is Saturday at 11 am with Coach Ricky. There are only 12 spots available so sign up fast! The cost is $20 (paid to Ricky).
Congrats to Portia for being the September Member of the Month at Apollo! Scroll down to learn more about Portia.
Congrats on being the September Member of the Month! You are such a sweet person who brings a smile to everyone in the room. It’s about time we introduce you to our entire Apollo community.
You have made amazing progress since first joining a couple years ago. What brought you in originally and what keeps you coming back?
My friend Nikki had been encouraging me to join Apollo but I had so many injuries I thought I was too broken to do CrossFit. I finally started coming to Apollo when my son (Ethan) was at boot camp with the Marine Corp, which was three months long with no contact other than written letters. Ethan loves CrossFit so I felt it gave me a good way to connect with him in my letters and it also made me feel like I was doing something he would be proud of.
I keep coming back because I believe that having fun is an essential part of living a happy healthy life and Apollo is just flat out fun. I love the coupling of the physical grind with the laughter and camaraderie of the group. Our coaches keep the atmosphere fun and welcoming all the while making sure each person feels important.
I find it exhilarating to do things that I never thought my body was capable of doing. I love how committed to good healthy movement our coaches are and because of that my body has healed in so many ways and is so much more capable than ever before.
I am healthier and happier because of Apollo and I am so grateful.
Basically your entire family comes to Apollo. You must be proud that all of them recognize the importance of being physically active. Is this something you and Ron (husband) have enforced as they grew up?
Haha. Yes, I am so proud of my kids. So I would’t use the word “enforce” but maybe that’s accurate. The great thing about CrossFit is it is equal parts brutal and fun so our boys needed no prodding to join Apollo: they both love a physical challenge. Our daughter on the other hand is an introvert and loves being all cozy at home so she needed a little extra “encouraging”. But we’ve always been a fun-loving and competitive family overall, from ping-pong to 2-on-2 tackle Nerf basketball, so it’s an easy fit for us.
Outside of school, how did you spend your extra time growing up? Were you really into sports, band, dungeons and dragons?
I had the benefit of growing up in a dance studio my entire childhood. My Mom is a dance teacher so the studio was my second home. I spent most of my days dancing and I loved it. As a teen and young adult, I taught dance up until I married Ron and picked up stakes to pursue our dream of him becoming a major league baseball player. Although I do not regret picking up stakes to support his dream I do get tempted to walk into to the dance studio next to Apollo to reconnect with that part of my heart.
Your husband Ron was a pitcher in the MLB for a decade. How was that? What was the best and worst part of being married to a professional athlete?
Wow this is a doozy of a question that I could talk about for hours. It was a thrilling, terrifying, lonely, exciting, brilliant roller-coaster ride. The absolute best part was getting a front row seat to watch my best friend’s dreams come true. I am actually tearing up just thinking about it. When I met Ron he was in Single-A, we got engaged just before he was promoted to Double-A, and he made it to Triple-A just before our wedding. He spent several seasons dominating Triple-A but he was still somewhat of an underdog: he’s 5’10’, threw an 87-mph fastball, so not of typical stature or speed for a big league pitcher. But this man battled and battled year after year and just kept getting guys out. One night it happened, I was waiting in the players parking lot in my car with our two kids at the time, after his Triple-A game with the Sacramento River Cats and my cell phone rang… “Babe, I’m going up. I’m going to Oakland. We did it!” (I’m currently crying again.) I jumped out of my car, as he emerged from the player’s clubhouse, I ran down the hill towards him, jumped into his arms, we fell onto the grass in a huge triumphant embrace. He did it. The next day I watched from the wive’s section in the Oakland Coliseum as he was called from the bullpen in his Major League debut, and I saw him come in and strike out his first batter, the Hall Of Famer, Jim Thome. My heart was beating out of my chest, prayers on my lips, just like every time he took the mound. What a ride.
The hard part was the instability. Ron could get sent up or sent down or released on any given day. It felt like every time he pitched he was pitching for his life. And with each change, the team would send him to the destination they wanted him, and I would pack up our kids and sometimes our apartment and get us to our new temporary home. We spent so much time apart. Parenting on my own when he was on the road and living away from family was a challenge. I do have a unique bond with the other player’s wives that we came up with through the minor leagues. We kept each other company and sane through the crazy roller-coaster of professional baseball.
On a scale of 1-10, how much do you admire your husband?… He told me to ask.
Oh my gosh that guy! You know what, he is actually so admirable it can be annoying. There is almost nothing that he isn’t good at. I’m so happy that he is my partner in life because I have quite a few weaknesses that his strengths more than make up for. He’s a 10.
Would you rather speak all languages fluently or be a master at all instruments?
This is an easy question for me: speak all languages, for sure. I was on a mission trip to Mexico a bajillion years ago and I felt so sad that it was so challenging to not be able to encourage people or pray for people in their language. To have the ability to have a conversation with, give encouragement to, or get to know absolutely any human being I ever come in contact with without language being a barrier just sounds incredible.
You have to sing karaoke, what song do you pick?
Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper. Not a doubt in my mind.
What was the worst style choice you’ve ever made? Do you have a picture you’re willing to share?
In the 5th grade I was looking through a teen magazine and saw a girl in an ad with her bangs sticking straight up, flat and super straight and 5 inches high and I just thought she was the coolest human I had ever seen, so naturally I grabbed a pair of scissors and chopped my bangs so that I could replicate her epic hairstyle. Problem is my hair-cutting skills as an 11 year old hadn’t quite developed yet and I now had a huge patch of hair on top of my forehead that measured not 5 inches high but more like 5 millimeters high. Unfortunately I have no photo evidence of this faux pas.