A Whitehorse coach and athlete is heading to the CanWest Crossfit Games this weekend.

Cliff Schultz, who owns Peak Fitness, CrossFit 867 and Avalanche MMA, is heading to the western championships in Coquitlam, B.C. from July 28-30.

He qualified through a series of workouts, which were posted online.

From May 4 to June 5, Schultz performed five different workouts and logged his results online.

When the month was done, Schultz had placed eighth out of more than 300 other competitors in the master men’s 40-44 category.

Schultz began doing CrossFit about four years ago, after taking a step back from competing in MMA.

He says that he’s in the best shape of his life.

“As I get older, what’s good about CrossFit is it’s scaled to what you can do and scaled to even age categories,” he says. “I made it to the CanWest Games because of my age category. If I was going against the younger guys in their 20s, it would have been different.”

The 40-year-old coaches eight classes a day, offers personal training and leads a CrossFit class at the youth corrections centre.

He spends about four hours each day working on his own fitness.

“I like it because you don’t know what’s coming next,” says Schultz. “You always have to be ready for the unknown, they say. It’s neat that way.”

The competition workouts were released two weeks before the games and so Schultz has added them to his regime.

The first event on Friday is a four-mile run.

“I had to pretty much change my eating habits,” says Schultz. “I don’t like running. I don’t mind doing the bikes and all the cardio stuff... I’ve been having to run every day, get my running legs back.”

The CanWest Games will be Schultz’s first major individual event.

He’ll compete in eight events over the weekend competition.

Schultz is hoping to be in the middle of the pack. He’s up against 11 others in his category.

“I’m just hoping to finish right now,” he says. “I know I’m going to be so sore when I’m done.”

CrossFit 867 has a history of athletes competing on a big stage.

In 2013, Erin Light competed at the world CrossFit Games. She finished 27th.