Hello Foundry Community! I’d like to introduce a new blog series for 2013: Athlete of the week!
Each week, the coaching team will recognize one athlete who has accomplished an impressive feat, made significant progress, or has a rewarding story to share.
Without further adue, our first athlete of the week is David Johnson!
Breaking new barriers
David is a regular 5 WOD/week at the 5 AM class (talk about dedication!) We got a chance to catch up with David and find out about his experience at The Foundry:
Foundry: How long you have been training?
DJ: I started training in October, 2012 — my first foundations class was the first week of that month. I’ve been coming more or less five days a week since, with a couple missed days for business travel, holidays, etc.
F: What are a few things you have accomplished so far?
DJ: I think the two things I’m most pleased with accomplishing so far have been my progress in deadlifts and handstand pushups. The last time we did 1RM deadlifts, I failed at 305 (and I was close). I hadn’t ever deadlifted more than 225 before. That was really exciting. When we did HSPUs in foundations, I couldn’t do even one of them. The day that you took that picture, I knocked out 11 of them in one set. (I’d like to get better depth eventually, but one thing at a time).
F: What are your next goals?
DJ: My mobility/flexibility continues to be something I’d like to improve. I’ve made a fair bit of progress already, improving my squat depth and developing greater flexibility in my ankles and hips. I’d like to continue to build on that and hopefully hit a full-depth squat over the next year. I think my form on the Olympic lifts more generally has gotten better — I’d like to continue to improve consistently on my form and weight. And I’d like to bench 225. That has been a goal since college and I’ve never gotten close. It’d be rad to hit that.
F: What is something we don’t know about you?
DJ: In 2012, I ran a 198 mile relay race from Madison, WI to Chicago. In June, 2013, I’ll be running in another 200 mile relay race from Logan to Park City, UT (including more than 15,000 feet of total elevation gain). Depending on how that goes, I’m seriously toying with registering for a 50 mile (solo) trail race in Colorado in the fall.
Thanks for being our first Athlete of the Week David! Be sure to congratulate David and continue to WOD hard!