In the beginning...

Well, everything has a beginning, this is Jakob's. This is an attempt to utilize the platforms of social media,  blogging, tweeting and Facebook, to create a space in which we can follow, learn and watch my oldest son, Jakob on a journey. Jakob began to train at the Cross Fit New Haven facility last night. He is enrolled in what the CrossFit world refers to as their "On Ramp" program, which as the name implies, is designed to bring an individual up to speed and therefore, able to train in this (CrossFit World) particular or peculiar way. The intent here is to be able to follow Jakob as he progresses through the process that began last night, and perhaps convey, what my extraordinary son sees, finds and feels as he embarks into the Cross Fit world at the age of 14.

Jakob's baseline.  Jakob currently does some "core" training with Erin Pac, an Olympic medalist (Vancover 2008), within the off season baseball program he attends at the NBS Community facility in Milford. The workouts Erin Pac puts them through on Tuesday nights are athletically subtle, but strenuous. The work leaves all the participants not winded, but exhausted. The strength and endurance she has been training into the legs, hips and body is clearly evident when you watch the progression of the kids drill seven weeks out.

Jakob's Cross Fit New Haven start.  Jakob has a cousin in Utah who, somewhere along the line, became a devotee of this new Cross Fit training world. Almost like an alien abduction, Cousin Cody began Cross Fit Training and has been a disciple and an  unabashed advocate of all things related to Cross Fit ever since. So, it was from the far reaches of Cross Fit Draper, Utah, that Jakob and I began to try to figure out what the hell had gotten into Cody. As I said, Jakob was already familiar with the intensity and concepts within Core Training, and he and I poked around the web and the State of Connecticut to see what was up with Cross Fit. We settled upon the Cross Fit New Haven franchise, located in the old Robby Len factory on State Street in New Haven, as our Cross Fit Petri Dish. This will be our story, Jakob as the trainee, the rest of us as observers. We hope we all learn something along the way.