Friday I got the opportunity to spend the day at the Reebok Headquarters in Boston — and it was awesome! Obviously, from the looks at this pic, it was photo op heaven 🙂

I flew in Thursday night and met up with the Fitfluential crew — so exciting to finally meet so many of the people I’ve been reading for months.  We were all terribly absent on photo taking Thursday night so thanks to the amazing Kelly O. for snapping this one of me with Julie and Anne:

We had dinner at a pub-ish place that not only had Pumpkin ale with a cinnamon rim but the food was pretty darn good too. We spent the night chatting and getting to know each other a bit before heading back to the hotel for an early night.

Check out this awesome view from my room (it is just outside the city, as some snarky Instagrammers informed me that this was NOT Boston):

Friday morning we were up bright and early to head over to Reebok, where their gracious staff provided breakfast and a goody bag with some sweet Reebok gear. I got new crop pants, a perfectly fitted red Crossfit tank top and a zip up pullover — perfect for the winter season.

After getting an intro to the 2013 line and some of the new things Reebok is working on in the future, we headed over to the Crossfit gym. Coolest thing is this box is just for Reebok employees. It’s huge and has a ton of great equipment.

The staff were all there to welcome us, explain a few things and get us started with our WOD for the day. And guesssss what? Julie Foucher, the 2nd Fittest Woman in the World, at the Crossfit Games this year — was there.

Guess what even more? I got to be on her team for the workout! Lucky ducks, Heather and I were. Sadly, I had to take it very easy, considering I had a marathon to run in two days. I didn’t want to take it easy — I wanted to burn it up. But I figured I would hate myself come Sunday if I did. I opted out of thrusters and just did shoulder presses.

Thanks to Jess for posting the WOD:

Team WOD:
Run 200m each (relay)
150 Thrusters (45#/30# dumb bells)
100 Chest-to-bar pull-ups
50 Box Jumps (30″/24″)
Run 200m each (relay)

Rules:
1 person works
1 person holds 115 lbs (overhead/at shoulders)
1 person rests
* If the bar hits the ground, 10 burpees for each person!

And this is how you feel after a good WOD: 

Alfonso was done!!!

When Julie did her pull ups, I could really only stare in awe at the way her muscles were blowing up. Soooo impressive! And I believe she’s on her way to becoming a doctor right now, as well. This girl is awesome! I got the chance to do a short interview with her too:

She was such a sweetie and I’m so glad I go to meet her! In addition to Julie, we also got to meet a few other competitive and award winning Crossfit athletes — several of which were on staff at Reebok Crossfit, I believe. Here’s a pic of the studs:

And since I read so much about everyone’s workouts, it was awesome to actually get sweaty with these peeps in person! Love being in the presence of fitness-motivated individuals who like to work hard and treat their bodies right.

Here I am with Crossfit athlete (11th place at the Games!) Christy Phillips, Ashley and Jess post-WOD:

Another cool thing about the day was meeting 74-year-old Reebok employee Ann. This photo is a little blurry but as an older person, Ann was such an inspiration! Apparently, she does Crossfit regularly and it has really helped improve her health.

She did the WOD right along with us and finished strong. Here’s Ann banging out some ring rows:

After the workout, we had a chance to speak with the athletes, Reebok product managers and others. I quickly took Ann aside and asked if I could get her thoughts on a few things. Here’s our short interview:

I was just in love with the facility! Additionally, the Reebok complex was just full of fitness inspiration. A main area of the building had rows of treadmills, ellipticals and stationary bikes. There were signs on the wall directing employees to sign up for spin classes and encouraging everyone to work out. Of course, a nice, large locker room as well!

Stole this pic from Courtney: 

As Ann said in the video above, it’s clear that Reebok treats their employees extremely well. From my point of view, they also treat their customers that way. Their ears are truly open to customer feedback because they want to make the absolute best product they can for us. It’s awesome to be able to help them work through some of those things.

Me, Tina, Anne

After the workout, some healthy lunch and a focus group discussion with the ladies, we heard about the Reebok running line. The thing is, Reebok has so many kinds of shoes, it can be overwelming — although that is good because they offer all shoes for all feet!

It definitely seems like they are more focused on branching out now though — coming up with lines for all kinds of fitness in addition to the original stuff. Clearly, Crossfit is their big superstar right now — and I’m loving it! I’ll show some of the cool Crossfit t-shirts I got below 🙂

The day wouldn’t have been complete without a group run of course. Below L to R: Heather, me, Anne, Reebok Running Brand Manager, Jess, Julie, Tina, Jeremy, Bonnie, Lala: 

We definitely sprinted and I definitely felt it the next day, which had me worried about the marathon. And well, you shall hear about that later!

One thing Reebok mentioned that I think they have right on is that people that do Crossfit are PROUD of the fact that they do Crossfit. They want to tell the world through their clothing — and that’s why the creation of a Crossfit line is uber successful! How do I know? Because I want a ton of stuff that says “crossfit” on it — I just love it. Their box was decked out accordingly. 

All in all, the day was a huge success. I love all that the company is doing and look forward to seeing what their future holds. Until recently, I had kind f forgotten about Reebok as a brand. Then, Crossfit came into my life and all of the sudden they were relevant.

From what I learned this weekend, they are going to be growing in other areas now as well. They’ve got a stellar team on board that knows how to listen — and their blogger outreach strategy is phenomenal.

Two of my favorite ladies from the weekend (and two I’m least likely to see much in the future because they live so far away :(! )

We kind of felt like a team in our matching gear this weekend — thanks to Reebok’s generous presentation. I love my new warm-up zippy jacket and wear my #GetAfterIt t-shirt all the time (so catchy!)

Several of us also wore our new RealFlex Fusion shoes. I wear my Reeboks for Crossfit and other training that isn’t running.

Lastly, though I didn’t get many photos of them…It was great meeting Steve and Bonnie Pfeister — an awesomely fun and funny couple who run their own fitness website and training facility. Very inspiring individuals!

Additionally, Alfonso and Lala were really fun to hang out with — another pair of inspiring individuals, both packed with lotsa muscle and personality! I also met Jeremy — who runs his own training company in Arizona an competes (wins!) fitness/body competitions as well.

Thanks to Reebok and Fitfluential for bringing us together for this opportunity over the weekend. I look forward to more collaboration in the future and yes, my love of Crossfit is more than on fire right now!