CrossFit Rowing Certification: A Recap

Saturday, drive to southern California. Spend the night. Row all day Sunday. Drive home.

Except for lacking the foresight to request a PTO day today, things couldn't have gone much better.

I spent Sunday at CrossFit Monrovia, just outside Pasadena. They're a relatively new affiliate, and were very excited to have Olympic Gold Medalist Erin Cafaro down for their second ever hosted certification. It was a one-day rowing certification (the two-day rowing certs include actual, in-the-boat rowing on day 2), and we were forewarned that the entire day would be spent on a C2 indoor rower (aka erg, or ergometer). They weren't joking - we literally walked in and saw that the ergs were our desks. Lots of technical work, peer coaching, video review, and three solid workouts later, and we were all certified CrossFit rowing instructors.

My day started off at 8:45 am. It was already over 80 degrees out when I went over to register. After I signed in, I looked up and saw none other than Josh Everett, one of my favorite "CrossFit celebrities" from the Games. Josh Everett, one of the strongest guys his size on the planet, was at CF Monrovia for a day of rowing instruction. He said it was one of his weakest areas that he needed to work on. Though Josh could probably muscle his way around an erg with horrible technique and still pull better numbers than trained rowers, the fact that he was that committed to working on something as comparatively not exciting as rowing shows why he epitomizes the elite CrossFit athlete.

However, things got even more exciting once Erin Cafaro started speaking to the group. It was really interesting to hear her talk about how much CrossFit improved her experience as an already elite athlete. At 5'9", she's among the smaller of America's top rowers. Prior to starting CrossFit approximately 2 years ago, she was on the cusp of making the team that was headed to Beijing. Since CrossFit, she not only made the Gold medal winning team (the first American women's 8+ to win Olympic Gold since the era of the 2000 meter race), but qualified in two boats (8+ and the pair) for this year's world championships, winning in both. In CrossFit, that would be akin to winning the individual Games title and being on the winning affiliate team. In competitive rowing, her accomplishments are pretty extraordinary.

Fortunately for us, Erin is as good of a coach as she is an elite athlete. The group was a mix of experienced rowers, along with aspiring CrossFit coaches whose only prior rowing experience was Fight Gone Bad. Oh, and also Josh Everett. It was great to hear Erin explain rowing concepts in several ways, sometimes using different terms and analogies than I've used in the past. I feel that I gained a much better, multi-faceted bag of tricks to help different people correct their bad rowing habits, and I also got help on a nagging problem I've had for years in my rowing stroke.

However, as fun as things started off, they were about to turn downright miserable as our first workout turned out to be 5 full rowing tabatas (8 x 20 seconds on / 10 seconds off, for a total of 40 intervals) at different resistance settings. Of course, this was the time they picked to video our technique for later group review. I can think of few things as awful as tabata rowing, particularly when we reached the '10' damper setting. But we sucked it up and did as told.

Afterward, we watched our videos. Along with what Erin had to say, she opened it up for some group critique. It was really interesting to hear how different people perceive the same faults. Even the novice coaches were really able to grasp what Erin was teaching, the entire goal being strong, efficient rowing.

We then took a lunch break. The weather being over 100 degrees at this point, we drove the 2 ½ blocks to a local café. Monrovia is a cute little town, kind of in its own little world. This is where I really got to know the hosts, one of whom I initially met at the CrossFit Games beer garden (that's where you meet true friends for life!). I love few things on the level of meeting awesome people, and for some reason a lot of them come from CrossFit boxes. CrossFit Monrovia has only been around since last December, but you wouldn't know it based on what they've accomplished in that time. They are a really awesome bunch, and their designated bartender, Brad, actually makes his own CrossFit Kool-Aid (vodka included). Had we not been facing a 6 hour drive home, I definitely would have insisted on having some. Next time!

We hadn't even digested our food when we were back on the ergs, doing more drills, ingraining more technical work. I was a little out of it after the second sprint workout, so the afternoon was mostly a blur of rowing, hydrating and talking to people. Then came workout #3 - a classic CF rowing chipper:

1000 m row, 10 KB swings (we used dumbbells), 2 burpees
800 m row, 8 KB swings, 4 burpees
600 m row, 6 KB swings, 6 burpees
400m row, 4 KB, swings, 8 burpees
200m row, 2 KB, swings, 10 burpees

I finished in 17:57, third woman of the group. It was a surprisingly fun finish to the day. Plus I forced myself to row faster every time Erin or a coach with a video camera walked by. What can I say, I have selective motivation!

We finished with some peer coaching, where each person would row a few strokes for a rotating line of coaches who would give one suggestion or comment, good or bad. Which meant getting to critique and be critiqued by, among others, Josh Everett, which did not suck at all.

Going into this past weekend, I was honestly dreading the trip down, only to work out all day and head right back. But it was 100% worth it. Erin Cafaro is as inspirational and helpful as she is badass, and the group was filled with great people. Special, special THANK YOU to the CrossFit Monrovia hosts - including but not limited to Tracey, Brad, Kate, Ryan, Caesar, Lauren - you guys are a special dimension of complete awesomeness, and I wish you all were closer so we could meet up more. Please come visit sometime!

Definitely a quality weekend. Now if only Cal hadn't embarrassed the game of football on Saturday...