Congratulations Jay E!

...our June athlete of the month!

Get to Know Jay E. – Q and A:

Hometown: Worcester, PA

Current Location: West Conshohocken, PA

Age: 36

Occupation: Sales Operations Manager

College: Cabrini College

How long have you been a CrossFitter?  
Since Jan 2010 about 2 1/2 years

Did you ever play sports? 
I primarily played Baseball through out High School

What is your biggest achievement at CrossFit? 
I would have to say, running a mile without walking, C2B pull-ups are a close second.

What do you feel that you still need to work on? Running, Pistols, D/U's, Olympic lifts and everything else in which brute force cannot be used.

Goals for the rest of this year? 

I would like to place top 5 in the King & Queen.  I would also like to get down to a body weight of 205.  
What's your favorite WOD? 
I love anything ground to overhead, Isabel, Grace, Isa-grace, Randy, DT and so on.  Diane is pretty cool too.

What is the craziest insane workout outside of CF you have ever done?
There is a work-out called "Quadzilla", it's actually 3 work-outs with the second being, 20,19, 18, 17.....3,2,1 of Back Squats.  I started @ 135 and increased the weight each time to a 1RM Max of 515.  Walking was a challenge for a full week.

What’s your least favorite WOD?
EVA, she's quite deceptive, evil and twisted.

What’s your favorite lift?
All 3 of the crossfit total (Squat, Press and Deadlift) are tied at this point.

What’s your least favorite lift?
The Squat Clean, mostly because my technique and form are bad.  

What skill do you want to work on in 2012 the most ?
Pistols and Muscle ups, both require a lot of practice and patience.

What's your favorite foods, and snacks?

I truly enjoy most foods, Bacon and Beef Jerky top the list, followed by The rest of the meat group.

Whats your favorite piece of workout gear?
I am a fan of Chuck Taylor's.  I have set every squat, press, DL, snatch and C&J PR in them.  I am only on my second pair since 2006.  

What you say is your biggest improvement since starting CF?
I would say my endurance.  When I was only power lifting, I would be winded just walking up steps.  Today, I am still seeing continuous improvement, every month I am a little better than the previous.  

Who is your favorite coach?
Hard to decide on a favorite.  Since I am here 4-5 mornings a week, I get to experience a wide variety of coaches and styles.  Each coach brings a different strength and motivation that really helps your skills and performance.  I have learned something from just about all of them.  Aimee taught me how to kip, Jason & P have given me several lessons on Olympic lifts.  Tim, has helped my running and endurance substantially, Laura continuously has the challenge of reminding me to hook grip and not round my back, Vinny for continuing to let me know when my form/technique is off and what I need to do better or different. Steph's warm-ups are very creative especially for early morning when the brain is not really functioning.  She also brings a lot good scales, I am closer to getting pistols by using her band method. Donkey, two words "West Side".   Someday I'll get to take a class with Mel or Cate, I hear they have awesome classes.  

Why are you the reigning King of the 6am Time Slot? 
I think I have more fun as the jester than the king but seriously, you really have to adapt to rolling out of bed and "bringing it".  I really struggled when I first started going to the morning classes, Jason explained to me that everyone has ideal or optimal conditions for their training and the more we train outside of those conditions the better we will be because part of CrossFit is being ready for anything at anytime.  There are 2 additional factors, one, the people at the morning classes are awesome, everyone is always encouraging and pushing each other to do better. I know this happens in all classes so I do not intend to offend or exclude, I think it comes down to, the more you are with a group, you start to learn each others strengths and weaknesses as well as their motivators.  Second, Danny is not a morning person.  

PR's to mention? Goals Reached? Nutrition highlights?...

I have been really working on diet and nutrition lately, I have been in the middle of a weight loss competition in my office.  I am down 22lbs in 11 weeks with one week to go.  I am always concerned with losing too much to fast and jeopardizing my numbers, so I have been focusing on fat loss as opposed to weight loss and it's going well. We just did CrossFit total and I hit the same total number weighing 20lbs less.  I also hit a 205 snatch with decent form.