Tell us about yourself:
I’m a Ventura local, born and raised, and am lucky to have the majority of my large family still residing in the area. I spend most of my time with my 3 year old spaniel mix, Rainey, and my senior Appaloosa horse, Belle. In my free time, you’ll usually find me horseback riding on the trails in Ojai or walking my dog by the Ventura Pier. I love walking downtown to grab coffee, stopping by the farmers’ market on the weekends, or hitting a good happy hour spot. I also enjoy traveling, snowboarding trips to Mammoth each season, and visiting national parks.
What do you do for a job?
I’m the Senior Director of People Operations for a small biotech company based in the Bay Area. I’ve been with the company since 2018 and was originally based out of our Mountain View headquarters. When Covid hit, the company went fully remote and I moved back to Ventura “temporarily” to be closer to family until the office reopened (that was nearly 6 years ago and I’m still here). Because I work from home, I’m able to sneak away to attend the noon class most days.
Tell us something people might not know about you:
Unless we’ve gone out to eat together, most people don’t know I’m vegetarian (and have been for over 20 years).
What brought you to CrossFit in the first place?
I’ve always preferred group classes, I need the accountability of a group setting and an instructor to keep me on track and motivated. Before CrossFit I did a lot of hot yoga, then kickboxing, then HIIT style classes. CrossFit was a natural transition from HIIT. When I moved to Mountain View for work, NCFit was right up the street from my office so I joined them in May 2018. When I moved back to Ventura, I joined BeachSide because we use NCFit programming. It’s been great to continue with the same programming throughout my CrossFit experience.
What was your first impression? How has that changed?
Even coming in fairly fit, CrossFit was, and still is, humbling. What I love about it, though, is it meets you where you are. Everything can be modified while still giving you an incredible workout.
What was your first “Bright Spot?”
The Open is always my favorite part of the year. It brings the community together while pushing us beyond what we think are our limits.
What are you working on now?
I desperately need to work on mobility outside of class. I have an account with Pliability (formerly RomWod) but I need to be better about actually using it.
What’s your favorite BeachSide CrossFit memory?
Coach Jess gave me a cue once of “pausing at the top” of my kipping pull-ups that made it so I could finally move from singles to stringing my pull-ups together. That one cue helped me get past years of that plateau.
