"My dad once told me to never get upset, but never be satisfied. I remind myself of that daily in training and competition to keep things in perspective.”
Photos courtesy of Amber Beckham
With four Open workouts down, Kristin Reffett’s recent resignation is paying off just as she hoped. Before the release of 13.5, she held eighth in the Central East Region.
She doesn’t miss her old job a bit.
“I have no idea what I want to do with my life, but I know I've never been more passionate about anything (other) than fitness and health,” she says.
Several months ago, Reffett decided to quit her job as an accountant. Although her plush desk job paid the bills, she wasn’t content. The deeper she got into CrossFit, the more she longed for the box.
“I realized I have no reason to do something I hate everyday for a paycheck,” she says. “There are plenty of ways to make enough money to eat, so I might as well pick one I enjoy doing.”
Since leaving corporate America, Reffett has become a full-time coach, athlete and sales associate at a popular local running store. She says she is exactly where she belongs right now, confident that “the world will always need accountants if I ever go hungry.”
Reffett first heard about CrossFit after a friend told her to check it out online. A former collegiate runner at Murray State University in Kentucky, Reffett moved to Nashville for her first accounting job post-college two years ago. Quickly, she began to miss competing and being coached.
“I came off my last season of track in the best shape of my life (at that time), and I continued to run myself into the ground, fearful of losing my fitness without having a coach and a team anymore,” she says. “About the same time that my body became too broken down to keep running. I was looking for an all encompassing workout routine and CrossFit was it.”
Reffett says, after watching her first CrossFit video, she knew she wanted to compete in the sport. It was a perfect transition after college and she was back to having a coach, a team and a goal.
A month after joining CrossFit Nashville, she entered the scaled division of a local competition. She didn’t do so well.
Since then, Reffett made it her goal to focus on her weaknesses and, one day, make it to Regionals. Today she’s on the verge of doing just that.
“My only goal for the year was to qualify for (the Central East) Regional,” she says. “Sure, I want to be one of the top three, but that's completely up to what I get done in the gym everyday, not my competitors. I'm only in control of my performance.”
Reffett’s performance so far has been competitive. Her 13.4 score of 103 reps sits just beneath Julie Foucher. Add that to her first three Open workouts — 190 reps on 13.1, 334 reps on 13.2 and 263 reps on 13.3 — and you have a track record of someone who only needs one more good run this week to make her first Regional appearance.
To earn her ticket to Columbus, Ohio, Reffett trains twice a day, six days a week. She says her main focus is getting stronger.
“I had never touched a barbell before CrossFit, and remember maxing out at a 115-lb. back squat,” she says.
Today, after a year-and-a-half of CrossFit, she’s increased that by 85 lb. She can deadlift 235 lb., snatch 135 lb., and clean and jerk 165 lb.
To get her numbers up, Reffett focused on two things: adding weight to her 5-foot-5, 135-pound frame, and adding weight to the bar.
“It's never really any girl’s goal to gain weight,” she says. “Unfortunately, strength doesn't come as quickly as endurance for me, and I just knew I wanted to be very competitive in the 2013 season. Eating paleo and doing CrossFit (workouts) will get you strong over time, but I knew it wouldn't give me the drastic strength numbers I needed in such a short time to be ready for the Open. I decided the quickest way to improving my power numbers was to put on some pounds anyway I could.”
This meant consuming multiple milkshakes, hamburgers and donuts every week, on top of her usual paleo diet.
“Ironically, as hard as I’ve tried, I haven't gained weight,” she says. “I am still at 135 pounds, but my lifts have gone up and my met-cons have improved. I'm not sure what to credit that for, probably just the training. I would gladly accept a milkshake sponsorship though.”
On top of eating more, she has also made it a point to go as heavy as possible in every workout.
“For the past half a year or so, I've been taking every WOD and upping the weight, even if it defeats the purpose of that (workout),” she says.
Reffett also incorporates specific strength work five days a week, focusing on squats, presses and deadlifts. She is quick to add skill work for movements like double-unders and muscle-ups.
“I pretty much train only my weaknesses,” she says.
But she knows strength alone won’t earn her a place at Regionals, as evidenced by the Open thus far.
“I feel (13.1) only biased the truly fit,” she says. “You can't use the argument that this (workout) favored the heavyweights, nor did it favor the bodyweight ninjas. You had to be good at both.”
Knowing that a top-10 spot on the Leaderboard is about as permanent as chalk in the rain since there is still one workout to go, Reffett is keeping a level head until the Open officially closes.
“My dad once told me to never get upset, but never be satisfied,” she says. “I remind myself of that daily in training and competition to keep things in perspective.”
