Athlete Feature: Mary Brown
Central Athlete, Mary Brown, is one of the hardest working athletes at our Burnet Rd location. She first started CrossFit to get in shape for her wedding. After the first month she wanted to quit, but she didn’t. We’re glad she stuck with it too!
“I never played any sports as a child, and it wasn’t until after college that I started running, and eventually got into doing triathlons. Throughout my twenties and early thirties my main form of exercise was lots of long runs and bike rides. I considered myself to be in “decent shape” cardio-wise, but I never realized just how lacking I was in strength until I went on a dive trip in 2010. All of my scuba gear probably weighed 40-50 pounds, and just hauling all my gear around to each dive site was a workout in itself. It was apparent that even though I spent a lot of time exercising I really did not have much upper body strength.”
“I got engaged a few months after that dive trip, and my fiance suggested we try Crossfit as a way to get in super-good shape for the wedding. I didn’t know anything about Crossfit at the time, except that it occasionally involved pullups. I don’t think I had ever picked up a barbell in my life so I really didn’t know what to expect. I honestly didn’t think I would stick with it long-term. In fact, I almost quit after the first month, but the longer I stuck with it, the more I liked the workouts.”
Since joining CrossFit Central Mary has hit a ton of personal and athletic goals she had never expected to meet.
“When I go back and look at my workout log from 3 years ago, I feel amazed at what I have accomplished. When I first started, my max OH press was 40 pounds. I sometimes couldn’t even use an unloaded barbell for the barbell workouts because 35 pounds was just too heavy. I have seen all-around improvements in strength and have almost doubled my Crossfit Totals score since I first did it as a benchmark. I’m hoping to double it in the next 3 months. I definitely would not call myself an “overnight success” at Crossfit. For me, it has been slow but steady and continuous improvement. I am glad that even after 3 and a half years at Crossfit Central, I am still making improvements from month to month on my benchmark workouts.”
“I’m also amazed that I am in better shape at age 40 than I have ever been before. Last summer I did the Couples Triathlon just to see how my time would be compared to what it was like when I trained just for swimming, cycling, and running, and I actually took 20 minutes off my time from 3 years prior.”
If you haven’t worked out with Mary yet you can find her MWF in the 7:00 AM class at CC Burnet!