Meet BLK BOX Sales Consultant and Elite Athlete
Meet Caragh. Some of you may know her as the BLK BOX Sales Rep, some may recognise her from CrossFit Strength in Depth, others may have caught a glimpse of her striking balls on the international soccer scene.
Caragh played international football for Northern Ireland, winning 33 caps and in 2017/18 spent a season playing club football for Icelandic side Fylkir. It was there she fell in love with the sport of Crossfit. Less than a year from switching focus and she qualified for a sanctioned event. In Feb 2019 she took the floor at Crossfit Strength in Depth. All this by the age of 22. She has just announced she will be returning to soccer for Glentoran Women's Football Team for the reduced 2020 season.
Hey Caragh, what is your role within BLK BOX? How long have you been here?
I am a Sales Consultant for the company. I joined BLK BOX in October 2018, so just under two years.
Can you talk us through a day in the life?
My daily routine is dictated by training so depending on what time in the season it is and what day of the week it is things will vary slightly. Monday is my rest day as Saturdays and Sundays are heavy training days. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday I will do my first session before I start work so that means getting up around 5.15am, eating something light and training from 5.30am - 7am at home or in BLK BOX before starting work at 8am. I work from 8am - 4pm and I will eat A LOT within that time (people in work like to make fun of how much time I spend in the kitchen!).
I am a Sales Consultant for BLK BOX, so my day is spent touching base with clients, chatting through gym designs and drawing up quotes.
When the workday comes to a close, I'll complete my evening session which can be anywhere from 90 minutes to 2.5 hours depending on where I am in the season. Thursdays are active recovery / full rest days depending on how tired I am. Some evenings I coach CrossFit but if not, evenings are spent relaxing, eating more food, and getting ready for the next day!
How do you manage work/life/training?
I do find it difficult to get the balance right between work and training. Sometimes they work very well in harmony with one another - being so involved in the industry through training, competing and coaching can be so beneficial but I think everyone from time to time knows what it feels like where they have allowed the demands of work to consume them and the other elements of your life can be sacrificed like training or the social aspect.
Both my work and training are demanding, time-consuming and often highly pressurised. I suppose a lot of that comes down to myself as a person because I would consider myself ambitious and extremely competitive. I like to set goals and targets, I love to win, hate losing and I like to be the best at things so whether it be work or training / competing I suppose the higher the expectations and the targets that you set for yourself, the more stressful that can become and the more demand you or others may put on you. I think that is why I was drawn to BLK BOX in the first place - I saw a company that was striving to be one of the best at what they do and I want to be part of an environment like that and also achieve that in my own personal life.
This year's goals and targets have looked very different from what I had imagined at the beginning of the year. I was looking forward to competing in a lot of Sanctionals but with almost everything being cancelled the season has virtually been completely written off.
With so much uncertainty, and it looking like the middle of next year before any Sanctionals can go ahead again, I've decided to take a short break in my training to return to playing football for Glentoran Women for the reduced 2020 season and then get back to CrossFit full time around November.
Finally, what are a few of your favourite facilities you have created to date?
CrossFit is a huge passion of mine, so it is difficult not to be slightly biased and lean towards some of these as my favourite projects - Shirokuma Health & Fitness, CrossFit Vauxhall and CrossFit 353 stand out particularly of late.
Outside of CrossFit facilities, some of my favourite projects have been Intent 91 and Origin Athletic. Each of these facilities has a fantastic and unique fit-out in terms of the equipment, with elements of customisation in each of them from bespoke rigs/racks, turf, and branding. Not only that, but each of them had a very clear vision of the type of facility they wanted to create with our help and guidance at BLK BOX.
They didn't just want a quick fix but knew that creating a world class facility would take time. They wanted to do it once and do it right which meant not cutting corners, being realistic and being committed to a process. My favourite project of all though has been my own gym which my husband and I built in our shed!