{lift like a girl}

So life at the gym continues after returning from regionals.  My first training cycle is awesome!!!  I just get to CrossFit, just do the WODs as Rx'd.  No Russian powerlifting cycles.  No two-a-days. No THREE-a-days.  No handstand pushups. No muscle ups.  No going balls-to-the-wall all the time.  I just get to CrossFit.  Ahhhhhh . . . To some this alone sounds like hell.  To me it is like a fresh breeze on a hot summer day.  I'm not saying it is easy in the gym, but it is a nice change of pace from the six months leading up to regionals.  It's a nice break for my body both mentally and physically.

Though I don't feel like I have to go all out, balls to the wall on the workouts I feel I am still working very hard and seeing some times on my MetCons that I am happy with.  I am still working on decreasing my rest time and continually remember two things I have been told regarding rest in a WOD. 

• "Rest when you are done!" ~ Coach Buf


• "I know you can't breathe, but nobody else can either!" Judge at regionals

Point taken.  Oxygen is overrated and I can catch up on my oxygen debt at a later time. 

My favorite part of being at the gym is working on my strength.  Though I'm not concentrating on gaining strength right now I am pushing myself.  I have missed our last two CrossFit totals so I really don't know what my 1RMs are.  On the books I know they are lower than what I can actually do so I'm pushing myself.  When calculating weights for various lifting days I pick a weight that I anticipate I can do in a 1RM or where I WANT TO BE.  It has been working well and I've been so excited to see my numbers.  A few weeks ago in a 5x5 front squat I did a sixth set and did 135 because 125 moved easily.  Last week 5x5 back squats, my last set was 185, 10# lighter than the last time I actually did a back squat for a PR.  This week.  Ahhh, this week.  This week was 5x5 deadlift.  My deadlift has been stuck at 225# for nearly 6 months and, honestly, it was downright pissing me off.  I pulled it five times in a 5x5, but have not been able to get even a 5# PR in any other workout.  So Tuesday we get a little treat of a 5x5.  I told Coach B that I WAS going to PR today so he let me do the lift a little bit differently than the rest of the class.  I started at one weight and added 10# for each set, ending with where I wanted to PR, 235#.  Well, I started pulling at 195 and low and behold I worked my way up to a 10# PR and pulled it 5 times!!!!!  It's about damn time!!!  So while I was so, so excited that I finally got a PR there is a downside to my story.  I tore up my back. :(  I strained my back muscles big time.  So, after a couple days rest, a couple trips to the chiropractor, some deep tissue massage, a tape job, a nice layer of BioFreeze and plenty of icing I'm on the mend.  I was able to do a very light workout today that still taxed my body a bit, but at the same time it loosened my muscles and helped me feel a bit normal.  The work felt good.  So after a nice three day weekend and some walking around with the fam I think I will be feeling pretty good by Tuesday and hopefully it will be fun and games as usual.  Well, except for deadlifts.  I think I will give deadlifts a break for a couple weeks.  Oh, and I think I will throw a massage in for good measure.  Okay, maybe that is just because I want one, but it will be good for my back, too!

Gaining strength is one of the best thing we, the female population, can do for ourselves.  It builds lean muscles & dense bones, it gives us heightened self-confidence, a sense of achievement when we meet our goals, and the list goes on and on!  So go forth ladies, fuel your bodies well, work hard, drink lots of water and

LIFT LIKE A GIRL!

{sectionals 2011}

Eleven months until the CrossFit North Central Sectionals. This time I have nearly a year to train instead of cramming it into five months. I feel like I am in a good place in my strength and conditioning heading into this year training. I am going to try to stay current on this blog and document my journey through this year. I am going to try to do well with my training diet (I do a Zoned Paleo of sorts. I am not strict with this because #1 I have a life & I‘m a busy mom of three #2 I enjoy some of my favorite foods every now and then, and #3 I have a life & I‘m a busy mom of three), I am going to cook more, try more Paleo recipes and share them on here, train hard everyday I am in the gym, I’m going to tighten up my Olympic lifting technique, I am going to read more about my sport and articles that support what I am doing, I’m going to rest and breathe later during workouts and I’m going to push past that last rep that I squeeze out and do two more.

I will probably vent and gripe on here at times, I will sing my praises at times, I will encourage all my likeminded readers to continue on their healthy eating/CrossFit path, I will moan about my soar muscles, etc., etc. Here is where I will lay it all out. If you choose to follow my journey I thank you for taking the time to peek into my world. I am very excited about what these next eleven months have in store for me.  P.S.  For this new year of adventures I changed my blog design . . . simple pleasures! :)

“Strength is Beauty”

 

{like no other}

 

Last weekend I had the amazing privilege to compete in the CrossFit North Central Regional Qualifier. In late March I placed 20^th at sectionals allowing me to move on to compete at Regionals. So for the next five weeks, with the meticulous and genius programming by Coach B, I trained and trained hard for the next step. (Okay, let me just say that there was one Saturday that I just couldn’t give it my all in my first workout. After, I apologized to my coach and told him that I just didn’t care today. Hahaha! He gave me a smile and a nod and said, “That’s okay.” J ) That next step seemed to come pretty quickly! So Tony and I made arrangements for childcare, Tony got up-to-speed on coaching me, workouts were strategized (is that a word?), travel arrangements were made and we were off to Regionals in Castle Rock, CO.

We started our competition experience by cheering on friends in the team competition on Friday. Everybody did great and it is so wonderful to watch everybody working so hard and putting to use the hard training they had been putting in. I started my competition at 8:00 Saturday morning, WOD #1 “The Lift” max floor to overhead, however you wanted to get it there. It didn’t have to be pretty (which is good, because my technique on Oly lifts is mostly not pretty!), it just had to get there. Four ladies on one platform with 25 minutes to get your max. I got a PR of 15# and clean and jerked 130#!!!!! Holy crap! That is a lot of weight to hold over your head. WooooooHoooooo! What a great start to the day! WOD #2 “The Run“. 1400m, not a sprint, not endurance. Chose your pace wisely and give it your all . . . AND don’t get passed by the person that started one minute after you! At 10:11 am I was given the “3-2-1-Go!” I had two songs on my iPod to run to. I knew I wouldn’t need the full two songs so I chose two that make me want to work hard and fast, “Riot” and “Slow Drain”. Off I go! Slow down right away so I don’t bite it on the slight grassy/rocky downhill and take off on the paved path. I finished with a strong sprint in 5:41. Awesome! I’ll take it. That is a 6:21 per/mile pace. I’m guessing I could have kept up that pace for one mile and one mile only! Lol WOD #3 “The Triplet” 500m row- 12 OHS w/ 75# - 50 Double Unders - 3 rounds for time, 15 minute cap. When they released this WOD I thought, that is pretty doable. A friend sent me a message that simply said, “Famous last words!” You know what? He was absolutely right! This workout was brutal. Not just to myself, but to the masses. This workout alone eliminated 22 out of 51 women! Every workout is evil in it’s own way, for me that “way” was the row. I fell apart on the row. However, I battled through and finished in 14:55!!!! Just barely under the timecap, but that is plenty of time for me to move onto the final WOD on Sunday!

Sunday, new day, new competition. Going into Sunday I was in 28^th place. I’m going be honest withl all my readers, I had a meltdown Saturday night. I was tired (I turn into a 3-year-old when I am tired), weary, the discovery of a lump on the back of my knee had me freaked out (don’t worry, I found out it isn’t serious) and the final WOD freaked me out. WOD #4 (I’ll call it The Chipper) had a 20 minute timecap. 10 Snatches @ 95# (5# under my 1 RM) - 20 Chest-to-Bar Pullups - 30 stick jumps, 20” - 40 Ball Slams, 30# (never done those before!), 30 stick jumps - 20 Chest-to-Bar Pullups - 10 Snatches @ 95#. OM-freakin’-G! So this WOD made me cry Saturday night. I went to bed and woke up doing the Snatch in my head and I still couldn’t make it look right. By the time I crawled out of bed I decided all I could do was plug away at each and every rep and laugh at myself when it got ugly. . . And “got ugly” it did! I missed many of the first 10 reps and took over five minutes to finish them. By the time I got to the pullup bar I was the ONLY one on there and one gal even hopped up for her SECOND set of pullups while I was plugging away at my first. All I could do is smile and shake my head. I have to say I rocked the stick jumps and for never doing ball slams I did well on those. I eventually made it back to the Snatches. Whew! Big deep breath, pick up the bar and GO! GO! GO! GO! GO Holy crap! I’m not missing any! Oops! Missed that one! Breathe . . . GO! GO! GO! GO! TIME! Damn! Well, if you counted correctly you will see that time was called with only one snatch left!!!! I battled it to the end and came one rep short of posting a place at the North Central Regionals. You know what? I have only been with CrossFit for 13 ½ months. I will take that!!! Had I got that one snatch I would have placed 24^th!! That is only four places lower than I placed at sectionals. I’m proud of that.

Here are my three favorite things of the weekend: 

• 
  
  My husband. Tony came with me to watch me do my thing, be my number one supporter and to coach me and he performed amazingly wearing each of those hats. He got choked up after my third WOD when he looked around at the crowd cheering for me when I busted through my final skills to barely move onto day two. He stepped out of husband role and coached me perfectly. So perfectly that we have very few pictures because he was to nervous and anxious to remember to pass my camera to a friend or take any pics himself. Thank you, babe, I love you! 


• 
  
   My coach and dear friend, Buf. Buf coached me over the phone every morning, before, right before and right after every WOD. Words of encouragement, words of praise, words of pure strategy for every workout. He knows exactly how I workout and what I can do even when I don’t. I posted a Facebook status that said it all, “With your coach’s confidence you can move mountains.” I didn’t quite move the mountain I had hoped, but I did indeed move a big mountain! I would NOT be where I am today in the gym and personally if it wasn’t for Buf. Thank you! 


• 
  
  My support network. This included friends and family via text, FB, phone, etc, friends from the Denver area (friends that I might add I never would have met had it not been for CrossFit) & my fellow CrossFit Flathead competitor that cheered me on during every WOD, friends and family back home in the gym that did the regionals workouts right along with me throughout the day and cheered for me when we would call with updates and friends and family that were so gracious to help us out watching our kids back home so Tony could travel with me . . . Colette, Greg and Cammi and my dad. To all these people that supported me in some way, shape or form. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are all amazing people and so dear to me!

If you CrossFit and ever have the chance sign up and compete in some sort of CrossFit competition, do it! I have competed in quite a few physical competitions of sorts and there is NOTHING more amazing and inspiring than a CrossFit competition. The CrossFit community is like no other. The support and encouragement is like no other. The personal accomplishments are like no other. The friends you make through CrossFit are like other.

CrossFit is like NO other.