"My motor is my greatest strength. I just enjoy being in that state of mind--that Fran state of mind--where you're on the border of collapsing or pushing through."
Photo courtesy of Jonathon Ajay.
Jason Khalipa, Neal Maddox, Marcus Filly, Garret Fisher and Lorin Adams took the top five positions in Northern California in the Open.
While the first four men are well known within the region and around the world, Adams has yet to make a name for himself.
The Fairfield Fire Department firefighter heard of CrossFit years ago when he was flipping burgers at In-N-Out while putting himself through school. Although he wanted to start immediately, he had to wait.
“I told myself I’d start doing CrossFit once I got picked up by a (fire) department somewhere, when I could finally afford it,” he said. "I was hired with Fairfield Fire Department on August 4, 2011. I started CrossFit in November of 2011."
Adams signed up at CrossFit Solano and from the first class, “It was game on! You couldn’t get me away from there. As a firefighter, I was always trying to find something I could do, and be competitive at, that also correlates with my job,” he recounted. “CrossFit was it. There’s really nothing else I can do that trains me for my job and also gives me that competitive high.”
Within a couple of months, he worked his way onto the CrossFit Solano affiliate team, which went on to take 24th at the 2012 NorCal Regional.
In 2013, he qualified for the individual competition as the 28th-ranked man in the region. He went on to beat men who had out-performed him in the Open, and finished the regional in 17th place.
This season, he has his sights set on top five.
“I told myself to not be top five in the Open is unacceptable. Period,” he said.
He earned his spot as the fifth-ranked man in the region despite lower than desired finishes on the second and third Open workouts.
Two-hundred sixty-five reps on 14.2—the chest-to-bar pull-up and overhead squat couplet—put him nearly 100 reps behind the region’s winner, Filly (350 reps).
And the next weekend, he reached 20 deadlifts at 315 lb. to take 40th on 14.3—the ascending ladder of box jumps and deadlifts.
“I was actually doing pretty well, but it was just amazing … when I picked up the bar to deadlift 315 (lb.), it felt like a house! With the escalating ladder, especially coupled with box jumps, my posterior chain was just destroyed,” he said.
Despite those two finishes, Adams was able to earn fifth overall through his outstanding performances on the other three workouts. He took third on 14.1 (401 reps), sixth on 14.4 (242 reps) and 11th on 14.5 (9:47).
He said he believes starting the weekend in the final men’s heat will be to his advantage.
“I’m really excited to start within the top 10,” he said. “I know if I win an event in that heat, there’s a good chance I’ve beat a lot of the athletes in the other heats. Hopefully I can maintain that top 10 position going into Day 2.”
At 6-foot-1 and 205 lb., Adams is a near body double of Fisher, the man starting the regional one position above him, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 210 lb. Although he and Fisher are obviously doing just fine in the competition, Adams admitted he focuses on his diet in part so that his size doesn’t become a disadvantage in CrossFit competition.
“It can be tricky,” he explained. “I eat as much organic food as I can, with two-thirds of my plate being vegetables and then protein no greater than the size of my fist, but it’s hard. I’m in a place where I’m trying to gain muscle but also trying to stay lean and fast. I’m definitely not a smaller athlete like Chris Spealler, who’s super fast and still really strong, and I’m also not Chad Mackay: 6-foot-1 and 225 lb. So, I do a lot of research.”
After the events were announced several weeks ago, Adams tried all seven. Heading into the regional this weekend in San Jose, California, he feels confident.
“I feel really good about Nasty Girls V2. I really like that one and think it will be something with which I can be super competitive. I’m also really comfortable upside down (Event 2),” he said. “But my motor is my greatest strength. I just enjoy being in that state of mind—that Fran state of mind—where you’re on the border of collapsing or pushing through.”
He has big plans for the regional, but ultimately it comes second to his work as a firefighter.
“I really want to be super, super competitive with (CrossFit), but my firefighting job comes first,” he said. “This is just a hobby, something I get to do that helps me be a better firefighter. But I love it, absolutely.”
