June Featured Athlete - Phil Williammee

1. Where are you from? Interlaken, NY

2. What do you do for a living? Custom Application Programmer at Cornell IT

3. What brought you into CFP? I was visiting family in the area and looking for a CrossFit gym to drop into. CFP was close to my Mom’s house. I didn’t know much about CFP at the time, but I remember I was really impressed with the quality of the coaches.

4. What are some goals you've hit? When I started CrossFit, I had real mobility issues, high blood pressure, high resting heart rate, and high body fat. My mobility is much better but still not where I want to be. Now my blood pressure is great, my resting HR is about 48. My BF% went down from 26% to about 13%. A few weeks ago I did my first ever lifetime legless rope climb, it wasn’t a goal but I can do that now.

5. What are some future goals you have? Deadlift 500lbs, and do open workout 17.1 under the time cap.

6. If you could write a METCOn, what would it look like? 5 rounds for time of 5 Bench press at body weight, 5 cleans at body weight, 5 bar muscle ups.

7. What's your why? To live a long happy and healthy life with my family.

8. Can you tell us a little about your experience doing CF overseas?  I started CF 3 years ago when I lived in Doha Qatar ( a small country in the middle east ). Crossfit is very popular in Doha and there are about 5 boxes in the main city. Ours was Crossfit Oryx ( one of the few CF affiliates ) it was small and we had smaller classes like 10-14 people, with a good mix of people from all over the world. Cathy and I were a staple at the 8:00PM class, and everyone referred to us as “The Americans” and to me as “Big Phil” It was great fun and that’s where we fell in love with Crossfit, It was such a close community. I still keep in touch with a lot of people from Crossfit Oryx. During the open a lot of Military people would drop in and do the open workouts with us it was pretty cool.

9. Do you have a favorite CrossFitter and why? Tim is my favorite Games athlete, but I also like Bill Grundler and Shellie Edington I find the masters athletes really inspiring.

10. What's your favorite meal? Steak, rice, and broccoli.

11. What's your athletic background? In high school, I was on the football and wrestling teams. I also wrestled for two semesters in college at TC3. I have done a lot of sports on and off my whole life, including basketball, softball, running, and weight lifting.

12. We know you have a pretty epic home gym, but if you had to downsize to just 1 piece of equipment, what would it be? Squat Rack

13. Favorite restaurant? Zazas Cucina

14. What do you do for self care? Go for walks and do yard work for active recovery.

15. Any more big adventures with Cathy planned? Not yet, but I’d like to go to Yellowstone

16. Liquor/wine/cider/beer/all/none? Cider, but only in the fall.

17. What would you tell 18 year old Phil. Figure out what makes you truly happy and pursue it.

18. Does pineapple belong on pizza? No

19. Pick a super power and why? Whatever power the dark phoenix has (telekinesis?) , I like X-men and can’t wait to see the new movie.

20. Any advice for someone hesitant to start CrossFit? Only do it if you want to extend the length and quality of your life.