Beyond the Competition

• The crowd for the Crossfit Regionals was the fittest crowd I've ever seen. And they came prepared! Yes, the fairgrounds had some food for sale, but they probably didn't need to. The crowd brought coolers full of meat, veggies, fruit, jerky.... No popcorn. No candy. I saw some burgers and corndogs (I may have even eaten a cheeseburger), but this was a healthy crowd. I heard from one woman that the previous weekend in NorCal, the catering company had grilled veggies and turkey burgers ... seems like a great opportunity for some locals to sell their great food!

• Speaking of fairgrounds, the organizers missed some serious funtime opportunities... I know that the athletes had to do all the workouts that everyone else did, but there were so   many rides just sitting there! And a giant slide! Giant Slide! They could have at least opened it up for spectators ... maybe during the breaks?

• There weren't a lot of female individual competitors. I guess that many who qualified competed with a team because they figured they'd have a better chance of making it. But there were plenty of male competitors. Hmmm...I wonder if this has anything to do with mindset and proving something to yourself instead of doing it for a team and not getting all the glory. I may be overthinking this.

• The music was terrible! I expected the typical 'daddy-didn't-love-me' death metal'. They actually played Miley Cyrus "Party in the USA" during the last women's WOD. Seriously. Who decides that?

• I wonder if a totally average woman who never even went to a gym regularly until she was 27 could actually make it to the Regionals/Games. If she like, trained really hard for a year and didn't eat cake. Or minimal cake. So many of the athletes have a competitive background ... could someone fairly normal handle the pressure? Hmmm...

• A whole weekend of sitting ... not awesome. But I did manage to do some double unders.

Only 42 in a row - a bad showing. But I was in jeans!

               
*As an aside, there was lots of Reebok there. Interesting. Josh Everett posted this free article this weekend on the Crossfit Journal about the partnership with Reebok. I may have more thoughts on this soon.

The Key to Decreasing Pants Sizes

Some people start working out because they want to lose weight. I started working out, and continue to work out, because I wanted smaller pants sizes. I wasn't ready to move into the double-digit category (I know, a 10 is fine, but not for my body), so I did something about it. Now I'm a 4 (depending on the pants). This is probably where I should be, so I'm going to stick with it for a while. How did I get here?

A kettlebell. This is even the weight I use - 35 pounds - or 1 pood if you like Russians. We swing them overhead. It's a good time. Before I started Crossfit, I used to play around with some kettlebells at home. They were only about 10 pounds. That seems like such a long time ago. Anyway, I'm sure there were a lot of factors that led to size 4 jeans, but I think kettlebells play a big part of it.


A successful kettlebell swing needs strong hips. If you're letting your arms do all the work, they're going to get tired pretty quick. If you're doing a workout like Helen, which we did yesterday, that calls for 63 total kettlebell swings, your arms are going to give out if you don't use your hips. I felt like my arms were going numb during Helen yesterday (running in the cold rain was also involved), but I managed to get those three sets of kettlebell swings unbroken. I used my hips! (On a side note, I almost got my pull-ups unbroken too. Almost) I found a great video last week that shows the proper hip thrust for kettlebells.





That's a lot of work for your hips. And the more the hips get some good work, the smaller they get. I'm convinced of this.


And here are some kettlebells in action at Eugene Crossfit. I'm totally in control of that swing.

6 months

Yesterday I realized that my 6 month Crossfit anniversary just passed. I started thinking about all the things I got rid of when I started Crossfit.

The first thing I got rid of was cereal. I like cereal. I used to eat a bowl of Life every morning. But it really didn't do anything for me and I realized there were better choices for breakfast. So I got rid of my cereal.

The next thing I got rid of were my thighs, shortly followed by my waist. I never thought I would lose either of these things, but they completely disappeared. All that fat that used to sit there on my thighs - gone. I don't plan on seeing it again anytime soon.

Because of that, I got rid of some pants. I had to keep a few, so you'll often see me wearing pants that are too big, but belted. I'm not sure I'm where I want to be yet, but I can't afford to keep buying new pants.

I also got rid of about 10 pounds. That doesn't seem like much, but the shape of my body completely changed. I don't have a scale so I would get weighed whenever I went to the doctor's office. Since I haven't seen the doctor lately, I went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond this weekend and stepped on a few of their scales. I seem to have lost 13 pounds since I started. I'd like to lose 5 more to get to the weight I think my body should be. I'm almost there, and I know I will get there.

Something that I got rid of that I may have gotten rid of without Crossfit is processed foods. The paleo diet is based on fresh food and after a while it tasted awful to eat anything out of a can or a box. This is something I wish more people would follow suit with.

Eventually, I got rid of my excuses. All I need to do is show up and do the work to the best of my ability. I don't have to do great all the time. I think my greatest strength in Crossfit is my consistency. Even when I get really busy and I have so much to do, I show up. I know it will help my sanity if I can just work really really hard for an hour.

I've also taken quite a few minutes off my 5K time. I'm just at 30 minutes right now and I'm about to be under 30 minutes. I will be next time.

So my goals for the next six months are to get that 5K time under 30, do a real pull-up, and keep doing what I'm doing. And learn how to do a handstand. I'll get there.

I'm a Little Slow

I'm either thinking about jumping or I've jumped. I spend a lot of time thinking about what I'm doing in Crossfit and I need to stop thinking and start doing. Two of the workouts this week were specifically focused on speed and I did not deliver. I was thinking too much. The week actually started out great with Crossfit Total. The last time we had done this was in September and I did not have a stellar showing. I think my September total was 265 lbs. At that point I wasn't going to a lot of the lifting workouts and I really didn't know where my strengths were. So on Monday I thought about where I was and what I was capable of lifting. I did some quick math and set a goal for myself of 330. By the time I had finished on Monday, I had reached 335! Woo-hoo! Maybe I am stronger than I think. Maybe I tried a little harder this time. Either way, I left pretty happy. Tuesday was all about speed. Seven rounds of 7 pull-ups, suicide runs, and 7 burpees. What's to blame for my slow time? My burpees. I caught myself thinking about them instead of doing them. If I had just done them, I would have knocked at least 30 seconds off my time. This workout was so quick that I shouldn't have been thinking at all. Just do it and get it over with. Gah! I had meant to go on Wednesday, but I still had a lot to do for my class on Thursday, so I did what I didn't think I would ever do and I went to a 6am class on Thursday. That's a 15+ hour day. Uy. This was the 400m run with back extensions in between. I don't know what to blame for this one, but I had the slowest time of the day. I could blame my shins, which were not prepared for the running and I had to row a couple rounds. I could blame the early morning workout, when my body is just not working at capacity. I could blame myself for just not running fast enough. Or it could be a combination of the three. Either way, we saw a woman running on our way home. We joked in the car that there would be a bar at the next bus stop and she would need to do 20 thrusters, then continue running. Always a challenge, but it's the challenges that make us stronger. And I was stronger by Friday's 'Unhappy Hour.' The workout was Tyler - 5 rounds of 7 muscle-ups and 21 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls. I did modified muscle ups and a 55# weight, more than I had thought I would do. It was hard, and I was sweating, but I finished. It hurt afterwards, but I finished. I am getting stronger and I do need to start increasing my weight because I can. I won't get stronger unless I start challenging myself. I had set a goal on Sunday to go to Crossfit 5 times this week, but I was absolutely exhausted by Saturday morning. I'm not going to beat myself up because I didn't make it in - it's OK. But I do have Wednesday off this week, which means that I could try for it again. I think I will. It's a challenge. And the best part of the week was Saturday afternoon, when I went to White House, Black Market. I found a couple shirts that were great, then on a whim I tried on a pair of slim-fitting pants that would not have fit me three months ago. And yeah, they fit. I was shocked and couldn't quite believe it. The sales women both said they looked fine, so I took them home and got the go ahead from the guy with the honest opinions. So I guess I'm getting somewhere. As my sister said, looking good shouldn't be the goal for your workouts, but it's definitely a benefit. Goats I Need to Work On:

• Rowing. I hate rowing.
• Running faster. Definitely need to run faster.
• Cleans. They're just evil.
• Squats should definitely be deeper.
• Speed. I can do what I need to do; I just need to do it faster.