December 2020 Newsletter

Congrats to Cayla and Travis Riesen on the birth of their son, Camden Harrison! Born December 11th, on his due date! Congrats guys!!

New Owners in the house!
The year of the pandemic, working from home, quarantines, shut-downs, and cancelled social events across the globe has finally come to a close.

While I know many are excited to say good riddance to a year riddled with death, disease, and world-wide disaster; there has, however, been a lot of good to come from 2020….at least for me, your new CrossFit Harrisonburg owner. 😉

In 2020, not only did I give birth to our baby boy Callan (in the middle of April during the shut-down and mandatory quarantine), but only a few short (eight!) months later, my husband Erik and I became the new owners of CrossFit Harrisonburg!!! <- Excitement!

This is the DREAM opportunity for me!

I’ve been a part of CFH since 2013 when former owner Garth, recruited me onto his coaching staff. Before that, I was one of – if not the first – CrossFit coaches in the entire city of Harrisonburg. I have been Crossfitting in Harrisonburg since 2009!!

MY STORY

I’ll never forget the day Erik told me about this “new way of exercise, called CrossFit.” We laughed and said, “man that sounds intense. I bet no one can exercise like that for very long…” meaning we thought for sure people would get tired of working THAT hard, ALL the time. LOL!

Little did we know that in less than a year from that statement, I’d have my L1. At the time, I had been teaching group fitness classes at the local Gold’s Gym and taking Kettlebell Classes at the local MMA gym. It was at the MMA gym where I started coaching CrossFit.

To be honest, I really didn’t know enough about it or what I was doing – I was following the crossfit.com main site each day, just learning as I went. I coached more as a hobby – learning and hanging out with people – and eventually CrossFit Harrisonburg was founded and I was able to join an amazing coaching staff.

In the next seven years that I spent on staff at CFH, I coached, powerlifted, and crossfitted. (I don’t know if those are actual words, but you know what I mean.) Things that stand out to me are in 2014 – I hit a 315 deadlift and a 275 back squat, did 17 unbroken strict pull-ups, and won a local strong-woman contest! I’ve competed in several CrossFit competitions, and in 2019 I even got my first bar muscle up! Oh, and I still pull too early on my OLY lifts. One day when my kids are older and I have more free time, I swear I’m going to fix that.

But my two proudest fitness accomplishments? It HAS to be birthing two babies!! In fact, it was the birth of my daughter Brielle that ultimately led me to where I am right now.

After having Brielle, I knew I couldn’t go back to work full time, so instead, I quit and started one-on-one nutrition coaching with clients. Because I had been previously teaching a bootcamp class at our local parks and rec, the then-owners of CFH approached me about continuing my classes in the back room at CFH. Dixie said to me, “We have all this space and you have a community of people you are coaching,” ….and the birth of StrongFigure Bootcamp began.

To make a very long story short, StrongFigure Bootcamp is the physical location based off the blog I’ve been on-and-off writing (thanks, kids) since 2011. And SFBC is THE bootcamp of Harrisonburg (as we love to claim), and we are located inside the back of CrossFit Harrisonburg. And since I had been doing business and coaching classes inside the gym for several years now, it was a pretty easy transition into ownership of the entire gym.

When Garth called me up and asked if Erik and I were interested in buying the gym, my answer was “I have to talk this over with Erik,” but inside, I was screaming YES! Isn’t it every crossfitter’s dream to own a CrossFit gym?!

So now I’m living my dream and I’ve never been more excited about something in my life. I cannot WAIT to do everything in my power to make CFH the absolute best gym in … anywhere, really!

In case this stuff interests you … My Certs:

• CrossFit L1 (2009, 2013, 2019)
• CrossFit Kettlebells
• CrossFit Strongman
• CrossFit Mobility
• USAW Sports Performance Coach
• AFAA Personal Trainer
• AFAA Group Fitness
• TRX Suspension Training
• LesMills bodyCOMBAT, bodyPUMP, bodyFLOW
• Certified Health Coach
• Certified Sports Nutrition
• Kids Nutrition Certificate
• SUPER PASSIONATE about health, fitness, food, and our community / families.