Blue Crab CrossFit July Newsletter

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I’m from Omaha, Nebraska. Growing up, I was a very active child. I did tap dance for a couple of years, figure skating for a year or two, gymnastics for 3 years, and soccer for 10 years. Eventually my parents made me choose a singular sport, and I ended up choosing soccer. Since there were not a lot of local soccer teams in Nebraska that were competitive, my soccer club constantly travelled out of town to play games, nearly every weekend during competition season. I used to call the main soccer season “living out of a suitcase for 1.5 months season”! Post-soccer life, I’m majoring in Computer Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and will be returning to Maryland after graduation to work in cybersecurity.

Tell us about your fitness journey and discovering CrossFit

After medically retiring from soccer in high school, I got into weightlifting to stay in shape. However, after a couple of years, I was bored with the monotony of traditional weightlifting programs. I ended up watching the 2021 CrossFit Games while packing up my dorm to move to Maryland for my internship and decided to give CrossFit a try. Blue Crab CrossFit ended up having a Groupon deal and was only five minutes away from my apartment. One Groupon deal and two years later, I’m still doing CrossFit!

CrossFit helped provide structure and fun back into my workout routine. Prior to CrossFit, the monotony of my workouts caused me to be inconsistent with the gym. With a variety of workouts and movements, I regularly make it 3-5 times a week to the gym and no longer dread working out. Well, I guess I dread some workouts but for a different reason (yes, looking at you Fran). Temporarily moving to Maryland every 3-4 months for my internship makes it difficult to form long lasting relationships (even within the interns as people are constantly graduating from the program or rotating at different times), but CrossFit has given me a supportive community to return to.

What goals do you have within the next year – CrossFit and non-CrossFit?

CrossFit  – Get muscle ups (bar and/or ring) and strict handstand pushups. These two moves still elude me but look like a lot of fun to do! While I can do kipping handstand pushups, I want to build the strength to be able to do them strictly.

Non-CrossFit  – Graduate college! I head back to Nebraska in August to do my senior year before returning to Maryland permanently. Outside of school, I’d like to go snowboarding in Colorado. I’ve gone snowboarding at Killington in Vermont but want to experience the powdery snow in Colorado instead of the icier mountains in the Northeast.

Tell us more about your life outside of the gym – favorite thing to do when you’re bored, favorite meal, music, job etc. 

I love being outdoors! Hiking, camping, biking. If it’s an outdoor activity, I’m 99% of the time down for it. This year I’ve also gotten into indoor rock climbing and boulder. Maybe one day I’ll try them outside! My favorite meal is a Burmese dish called Mohinga. It’s a rice noodle and catfish soup that, when done properly, takes hours for the broth to be ready. The wait and cooking effort is worth it!

Some random facts: I’m the middle child of 3, I have 2 dogs (German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois and Lab/Boxer/Supermutt) and a leopard gecko, I love to listen to and attend operas and symphonies, my favorite animal is a three-toed sloth, I love to garden/am a plant mom, and I’m a giant bookworm.

We had a busy June giving back to our community and putting our mark on our new space!

Thank you to Megan L. for coordinating the donation of 30 birthday bags to the Howard County Food Bank! These birthday bags will go to families in need – they contain all the basics to throw a birthday party for their children!

We also painted our original slogan, Experience the Molt, along the wall behind the rig. Thank you to the painting crew for showing up and leaving their mark and a special shout out to Coach Tyler for the idea, designing it, and staying up way past your bedtime to get the wall taped up for painting!

What is “Experience the Molt?”

Molt stands for a couple of things in the context of Blue Crab CrossFit and its history. As part of “Experience the Molt,” Molt stood for “Movement of Life Training.” According to the dictionary, Molt is defined as “to cast or shed the feathers, skin, or the like, that will be replaced by a new growth; to cast or shed (feathers, skin, etc.) in the process of renewal.” If you’ve ever heard of a softshell crab, it’s a crab that just molted and is in the process of growing a new shell. Given our logo has the crab, Molt in the context of BCCF is the process of shedding your old skin to be replaced by new growth. When you join Blue Crab CrossFit, you are joining a community of like-minded people who are working hard to live a healthier, stronger life. In the process of that, you are shedding your old skin to replace it with a stronger, healthier version of yourself.

Stop by and see the new wall today. It looks great!