Back for More: CrossFit Adrenaline

May 11, 2013

Devin Webb

“I do know that when it comes down to it, every one of them will leave it all on the floor and give it everything they have. At the end of the day, that’s all you can ask for.”


 

Last year, the CrossFit Adrenaline team came out of nowhere to place second at the South East Regional and 22nd at the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games in spite of what some would consider a lack of experience.

For four of the team members, the Regional was their first CrossFit competition. The team has been preparing for the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games season ever since.

“After we all returned home from California last year was when we sat down and all decided to give this team thing another go,” Allison Bourdon says. “We have been training a few times a week in the offseason together — whether it is a team-based workout, lifting together, or pushing each other through the same individual workout.”

Last year’s team included sisters, Lindsay and Allison Bourdon, Chelsea Lowery, Austin Medford, Stacey “Tate” Adams and TJ Menerey. TJ’s brother, Matt Menerey, will be competing in TJ’s place this year, while TJ will serve as the team’s coach.

“At the end of 2012, TJ’s shoulder started hurting,” Matt says. “He couldn’t lift it over his head. In January, he had to have surgery, so he is on the (down low) in rehab and is not able to lift weights yet.”

Because he was on last year’s team, TJ knows how to push them to work harder and get better as individuals and as a whole.

“TJ is awesome at motivating us to work harder,” Medford says. “If we come in and put out a less than acceptable effort, he’s always there to remind us, ‘Why did you even get out of bed today?’”

Matt believes having a coach will benefit the team. In the past, they have gotten very little coaching except from each other.

In fact, the whole team has been working out and training together to improve as much as they can for this year’s Games season.

“One of the most beneficial things we have done as a team has been to get on specific programming, and we have all made adjustments to our schedule so we can train together more often,” Medford says.

At this time last year, the team had only worked out together three times. This year, the members of Team Adrenaline have competed in several competitions as both individuals and as a team.

“Going to these competitions just reminds me that we have to keep training hard if we plan to qualify for the Games again this year,” Adams says. “I competed in one individual competition with my other male teammates in which they took first and second, and I took fifth. The individual competitions make me grateful that I have five other teammates that are really strong across the board and especially in the areas that I am weak.”

Indeed, the individuals of Team Adrenaline are very strong. Lindsay Bourdon finished the Open in first place for individual women in the South East. She credits her performance not to herself, but instead to her team.

“To me, the Open is a stepping stone in the long, competitive CrossFit season, the goal of each step being to give it your all in the fight to qualify for the next level,” she says. “I focused on that goal and tried my hardest to contribute a good score for our overall team total throughout all five Open workouts.”

More than anything, her accomplishment speaks to the work she and the rest of the team have done since the end of last year’s Games season.

“It was very cool to end up where I did and, to me, confirmed that hard work in the offseason paid off,” she says. “I am beyond excited to enter the next phase of competition with my team. I don’t know what I would do without them, as they push me to work harder and be better.”

Chelsea Lowery agrees that the team dynamic pushes each of them to work harder and get better.

“It drives you to be better, not at all for yourself, but for them,” she says. “You can’t quit. You can’t give up. You have people depending on you to pull your load. It’s not about you. It’s about the whole team.”

Before Team Adrenaline, Lowery had never been on a team. She says that it has been one of the best experiences of her life.

“Are they a part of my family? Absolutely!” she says. “I love them all and am always so proud of them no matter where we end up.”

Where they end up depends on what the next phase of the Games has in store.  

“Overall, I think we are prepared for Regionals, but until we get there and get after it, we won’t know how prepared,” TJ says. “We understand every other team is out there busting it to get better, too. The South East has some strong teams, and there will be a few ‘no name’ teams [that] come out just like we did last year.”

Team Adrenaline competes for a cause.

“Every competition we have done as a team has been in the name of MECP2 Duplication Syndrome and for Ethan,” Allison says. “It is important to always have something bigger in our heads than what we are already doing. Competing for the greater good!”

Ethan, Allison and Lindsay’s 11-year-old nephew, is a part of the Team Adrenaline family.

“He is the inspiration for all of us because he is so excited every time he comes in the box,” Medford says.

Because they have more to compete for than just themselves, TJ expects his team to do well at Regionals.

“I’m not going to say where we will finish because you never know what they are going to throw at us,” he says. “I do know that when it comes down to it, every one of them will leave it all on the floor and give it everything they have. At the end of the day, that’s all you can ask for.”