5 Rounds:
Push Press 4-6 Reps
Band Pull Apart 15 Reps
Rest 2 min
In 5 Minutes:
1 Mile AirDyne @ 90%
Max Sledge Hammer Strikes in remaining time
Rest 3 Minutes
In 5 Minutes:
800m Run @ 90%
Max Burpees over parallette in remaining time
Rest 3 Minutes
In 5 Minutes:
50 Unbroken Wall Balls 20/14
Max Row for Calorie in remaining time
Jen Reynaga has been with us for at least 4 years now, maybe more. She is an athlete that had transformed herself prior to starting CF and has continued to transform herself through our program and her own hard work. Did you ever have a female English teacher who qualified for the Boston Marathon, but then a couple years later deadlifted 275#? I doubt it.
Jen is an obsessively hard worker and has impressed us all with her strength and work ethic. Lately she had been plagued with some unusual aches and pains that did not seem to be associated with exercise and some other unusual health issues. She was diagnosed with an uncommon form of arthritis known as ankylosing spondylitis. She went onto a devoted paleo diet plan in an effort to continue her fitness progress and to heal herself from the issues that have been plaguing her.
Some people are just unstoppable and unrelenting. Jen is one of these people which is why she has been able to achieve so much and why she will continue to for years to come. Aside from her fortitude, she is an amazingly nice person who makes a great effort to attend every event we have at this gym and is a staple in our CFES community. For these reasons she is well deserving of this months MOM.
Oh and finally a member-provided blog write up that I don’t have to spend 15 minutes proof reading!
1. What do you like best about CFES?
I am at heart a really shy person. I embarrass easily. I am nervous about anything new. I am not physically courageous. Really, I should have bolted when I first walked in the CFES door. But I didn’t. I credit the community our coaches have fostered and our members have grown. I love that this community manages to be equal parts supportive and badass. Shout out to my 6am posse!
2. Tell us about your last PR?
Nancy. I decided I wanted to do it Rx, but my elbow kept crumpling with the OHS. On my way back from the second round, I ran through the gym and dug in my bag for my wrist wraps and awkwardly twisted them on while I made my way back to the bar. The next set I did unbroken. Despite my detour, I took 90 seconds off my time. I was happy that I knew that I was in trouble with the OHS, and that instead of going into survival mode, I did some trouble shooting and fixed the problem.
3. Which CrossFit movement do you wish you could do better?
Snatch, Snatch, Snatch! It’s a beautiful movement, and I would like to do it with some grace accompanying my natural brute strength.
4. What life lessons have you learned from CrossFit?
Beware of WODs that look easy.
Beware of tumbling trampolines.
Beware of early morning canine flatulence (Shout out to Grayson!).
This is probably the most important: The thing that looks impossible before you do it, looks a lot easier after you have done it.
5. Before CFES, what was your athletic background?
Well, for the first 40 years, I walked some. My crowning glory was when I was 7 and I finished the March of Dimes walkathon. My dad waited for me at the finish line for hours. Nobody thought I’d finish 20 miles. Then in 2007 I lost fifty pounds and I did some running. In 2008 I ran a lot (three marathons in five months, two other long races). In 2009 I ran some more in Boston and here in town. Someday I want to run again. A 3:30 marathon finish time would be nice (ten minutes off my 2009 PR).
6. Most memorable moment at CFES?
Oh man. There are so many. Sabrina doing the over-head-lunge event at the throwdown and Alice Keller ready to inflict serious bodily injury upon anyone who got in Sabrina’s way. At regionals in 2012 Cori falling to her knees with a hundred pounds overhead AND THEN standing up with it. And more recently, there was this guy who did a 120 foot handstand walk…super cool.
Yes. I realize “Most” suggests that I am supposed to pick one moment. But this is the question I could spend the longest answering. At CFES I have seen our members in victories great and small and also seen them handle defeat with grace and goodwill.
7. What is your day job?
I am a 12th grade English teacher at John F. Kennedy High School. I love it! I have been there for 21 years, leading the department for 6ish years, and am likely to retire from there (I don’t like change and they put up with my purplish hair). I love being the last stop before students graduate and go out into the world–I tell them that my class is college with training wheels. I love that over the course of my career, a number of students have told me that the first book they read cover to cover was in my class. And I love talking with my students about weightlifting. Oly lifting is really exotic and intriguing to them. They love telling me gym disaster stories.
8. What do you like to do on the weekends?
Anything that involves good music–a long run with my ipod, a concert, or clubbing in my living room. I try really, really hard not to do any correcting on the weekends.
9. Favorite curse word?
F*ck, of course. Mother f*ck on special occasions. I stick to the classics.
10. Give us your best quote.
This requires some context. When my elder daughter and her boyfriend graduated from Kennedy, they told me that I was the second scariest teacher on campus. I asked them, How could this be? With firm exasperation my daughter said, “On the first day of school you promised the whole class that we would ALL fail and that we would ALL die.” I defended my pronouncement–these are universal truths about the human condition! She replied, “Yeah, but nobody ever tells us.”
So there. Everybody fails. Everybody dies.
I find that the more I comprehend this, the more I am able to achieve and live now.
