Sportsfest 2012

One of the best and worst things an average Crossfitter can do for their self esteem is be a spectator for any Crossfitt Competition. 

Every. Single. Time I've watched Dennis compete in Crossfit, I've kicked myself for not signing up and trying.  Most events have a scaled division, which I'm pretty capable of.  This was my 2nd year spectating Sportsfest and I can remember the first year being completely blown away by the athletes.  I remember feeling so excited that if I worked hard enough and stuck with it, I'd be out there "testing my metal."  (I believe I had only been Crossfitting for about 4 months at this point). 

This year I watched the athletes thinking, yup, I could have done that.  (now over a year into Crossfit). 

However, reality set in and I have to remember that I am 25 weeks pregnant.  After a day of watching the Cleans, Box Jumps, and Tire flips, I was ready for a nap! 

So what I have to do from now until I can get back into my "normal" Crossfitting routine is to pack away all the motivation, dedication, and inspiration that I feel when watching others succeed. 

I have to remember that pre-pregancy I made leaps and bounds, and although it will take work to get back at it, I will get back to the level I was.  I'm sick of being average.

Congrats to all that participated in Sportsfest 2012, it was a pleasure watching everybody compete and I am, as always, humbled by everybody's passion of Crossfit. 

Swimming for Time

Back in 2008 I completed my first ever Sprint Triathlon.  I did another one in 2009 and again in 2010 when I finally reached my goal to complete the course in under 2 hours. 

A Sprint Triathlon consists of Swimming, Biking, and Running and it is the shortest distance of all Triathlons.  When I trained for said Tri's I used the same program, an 8 week program that got you prepared for a novice race, and it worked for me.  The program was mostly cardo but suggested one day a week of strength (which I blew off because pre-Crossfit I couldn't care less about strength) and it got me to where I thought, I wanted to be...at the finish line. 

As of late, I've been frequenting my gym's pool and not really following any type of training program, just trying to keep my fitness up while pregnant and until the dust of 610 closing settles.  Until yesterday when I decided to swim 500 meters for time.  I wasn't pushing super hard, just wanted to get the laps in without splitting up the "reps".  So I did and I finished in 14 minutes and 30 secounds.  Then I got curious.  What were my swim times in my Tri's?


In 2008 I swam 650 Meters in:  18:27*
In 2009 I swam 650 Meters in:  19:33
In 2010 I swam 650 Meters in:  20:25

*that was the year I missed a buoy and had to swim back and around the stupid thing. 


2010 was probably the last time I set foot in a pool for any type of race, and obviously in 2011 I joined Crossfit which involved no swimming.  So all I had been doing was endurance on land and strength. 

I had Dennis do the tricky math for me and if I did a 650 meter swim at the pace I did yesterday, I would have finished in 18:51 seconds.  Just a bit slower than my fastest time back in 2008.  That is amazing to me, oh and btw, I'm 23 weeks pregnant.  (I will note that open water swimming is a bit different from swimming laps in a pool, but still). 

Holy Crap!!!!

I guess this Crossfit thing really does work! 

First Ronin Fitness WOD for me!

As I posted yesterday, under option #2, a few 610er's have been meeting at a park and doing Strength and WODs together.  Yesterday was my first time attending one of the park WODs and it was no joke.  


We started off by taking a warm up job down a football field and back.  Then did a few running exercises such as high knees, running backwards, and a side step run that I can't remember the name of.  


Johnny then reviewed what we were doing for strength, which today was finding a 1 rep max of a shoulder press, and we split into three groups.  Guys, light girls, and heavy girls (light and heavy meaning bar weight, not weight weight). 


We rotated through while people found their one rep max and even though we were limited on bars and weights, and no racks, we worked as a team to make sure everybody had an equal chance.  

Human Racks!

After the strength portion we were ready for the WOD, which today was Annie.    Since I'm "with child" I had to scale the WOD.  Instead of Double Unders, I did singles and instead of sit ups, I did knees to elbows on the ground and cut the reps in half.  Even though it was a scaled version, I still felt like I got in a great workout.  

Two really awesome things that I noticed at today's WOD was there was a brand new person at the class!  Somebody that never crossfitted before came out and did the WOD with everybody, and hopefully she continues!

Secound, Armon hit a HUGE PR on the shoulder press.  I'm not sure the exact weight, but dude is strong and I can't wait to see how much that goes up over the next few months.  Keep at it Armon!!!

Special thanks to Johnny for running the classes and coming up with the programming!

Strength:

Find 1 Rep Max of Shoulder Press

75lbs 

WOD:

Annie

50-40-30-20-10

DU

Abb Matt Sit ups

I did HALF Annie in 7:52

Lots of Options!

Since lots of fellow Crossfitters are in limbo as to what their next move is as far as joining a new box, there have been some really awesome and creative solutions.

1.  Box Hopping.

Kate & Joanne @ Apex

2.  Outside WODs in Parks.

www.roninfitness.blogspot.com


3.  Giving Globo Gym's another shot.

Clearly that's not working out so well for some...

I have yet to box hop in the area, most require a fee of about $15 per class and if I can avoid paying per class, I will. 

I also have yet to do a Ronin Fitness class, but I'm planning on going tonight and you can pretty much bet that the outside WOD will be my next blog topic.  I'm going to add the Ronin Fitness website to my blog roll so you can keep up with those workouts if you are so inclined. 

Back when I first found out I was pregnant, I was having a hard time making it to WODs due to how I was feeling and as a safety net I got a summer membership at a local globo gym for the pool access.  I signed up in May, but I hadn't done anything with it until recently since obviously I dont' have anywhere to go. 

I've gone twice and both times I was very happy that I did.  Swimming laps is one of the more enjoyable workouts that I've done.  In college I took a swimming class (yes I got college credit to swim a mile) and it was the first time I ever learned how to freestyle swim.  I loved it.

Post college I've done 3 Sprint Triathlons but the once Crossfit came into my life, I didn't have access to a pool anymore and swimming wasn't part of my workout routine.  But I'm happy that I have access to a pool until I figure out my place back into the Crossfit community. 

It's no Crossfit Clock, but it gets the job done!





Not for Time:

500 Meter Freestyle Swim

500 Meter Swim with Kick board (Legs)

AMRAP: Tread Water





Windy City Crossfit

Over the 4th of July weekend, Dennis and I decided to take a Mini Vacation (aka Babymoon) to the city of Chicago.  Neither of us had ever been to the Windy City and we LOVE going to new cities together and exploring.  Since joining Crossfit, visiting new boxes is a must.  

On our agenda this vacation was to visit Windy City Crossfit.  Two years ago (before our Crossfitting days) Dennis and I went on a cruise for our wedding anniversary and on the cruise we made friends on a booze cruise excursion.  We all hung out together on the cruise and when we all got home, we promptly friended each other on facebook. 


After reviewing our cruise picture, it was obvious that Dennis and I needed to change our bodies and thus came Crossfit.  Once we joined, we both became obsessed, and through the obsession, came facebook posts, and these posts were seen by our cruise friends, one in particular, Megan.  


Megan then joined Crossfit out of curiosity and like us, hasn't looked back.  


Why am I telling you this?  Megan happens to living in Chicago and when she saw that we were going to be in the city, we coordinated to meet up at her box to WOD together. 


How freaking cool is that?  Somebody Dennis and I met once 2 years ago were meeting up to WOD together.  Facebook + Crossfit = a wonderful thing. 


Windy City Crossfit Box was very impressive.  They had a very large space, multiple trainers, and ample bathroom and showers.  I was very impressed with the class flow, and being pregnant, the trainer was very accommodating.


We did a group warm up, strength, and then the WOD.  


Warm Up:
3 Rounds
3 Dead Lifts
3 Hang Cleans
3 Push Ups (on a slow count)


Strength:
3 Rounds at increasing weights
Clean to a Push Press to a Jerk


WOD:
8 - 1  (8-7-6-5-4-etc)
HSPU
T2B
(I scaled and used comparable movements for this)


After the WOD Dennis, Megan and I went out to breakfast to catch up and it was really cool that we all had this interest in Crossfit.  


So another notch in my Crossfit box list (ok that sounds weird), but if you didn't notice, I keep a running tab of all the boxes I've visited and do a WOD at (Except KOB).


The rest of the vacation was awesome and we very much enjoyed the city of Chicago.

Crossfit Honor and Murph 2.0

I'm trying to get back into the blogging habit for multiple reasons.

1. It keeps me real.  If I'm having a bad day I can "vent' about it here and get it out of my head.

2. It's a fun way to keep track of my goals, PRs, and I'm sure one day (or maybe not) I'll have a lot of fun reading back.

3. I hope at least it provides some entertainment value to my fellow readers :)


So looking back at my blog posts, I have a few memorable days that I haven't blogged about and since I'm kind of in limbo right now with things, I'll use those as my blog topics.

Back on May 28th, 610 did Murph (one of the most notorious benchmark WODS) and it was my first time ever doing it.  I specifically remember dodging this bullet last year and thinking that the people that showed up for that WOD were absolutely crazy.  I was up for the Murph challenge this year, but the timing wasn't ideal.  Murph, on a hot day, unbroken, and pregnant.

Before I knew that 610 was doing Murph, I had committed to splitting Murp (I will now refer to half Murph as Murph 2.0 going forward) with one of my friends Hillary that used to go to 610.  Her and her now husband Blake both trained at 610 and when they did, as things typically happen there, we all became friends.

Dennis and I were sad when they made the switch to Honor, but as they say, location, location, location. 

So of a sudden I was going from never doing Murph to doing Murph and Murph 2.0 in the same week.  Some may say that is crazy, but not as crazy as somebody that will remain nameless (http://blog.reformedfatty.com/)  that was going to do Full Murph twice in one week! 

As weird as it sounds, visiting new boxes, both near and far has become something that Dennis and I very much enjoy doing.  It's cool to see the slight differences each box has, and learning from them.  Even though we knew we were in a world of hurt at Crossfit Honor, we were excited to finally see the facility.

I f*cking love the Lime Green!


The facility was incredible.  HUGE space, nice equipment, great staff, and did I mention the logo was lime green? 

So on Thursday, a mere 3 days from doing Murph, Hillary and I were teaming up for Murph 2.0. 

Lets just say that Hillary carried me!  She did slightly more than half of the WOD, and for that I thank her.  Her and I chipped away at the WOD and when we were down to the final mile, I don't think we could have been more proud. 

Dennis, doing Murph for the 2nd time, changed his strategy by breaking up the movements proved to be the faster strategy. 

MURPH is no joke!

For time:
1 Mile Run
100 Pull Ups
200 Push Ups
300 Air Squats
1 Mile Run

As a team:  I believe we finished in about 44 minutes? 

It's An End of An Era

As if I wasn't going through enough both mentally and physically,  life decided to throw yet another curve ball at me.  

Seconds after landing in New York from Dennis and I's "Babymoon" in Chicago, I got 610's blog update saying the gym was going to be closed at the end of July.  My heart sank.  I started to feel the same way I felt when I heard Trainer Mike was leaving, and then again when I found out Trainer Molly was leaving.  Sad, very, very, sad.  

My workout identity was being taken away from me. 

Yes I know I'm being a LITTLE dramatic, but Crossfit610 gave me something that the LA Fitness' of the world couldn't.  It not only changed my body, it helped me gain confidence and taught me that I can do things that I never though possible.  (and that I can get under 150lbs!)

Over the months of training, all the members became friends and we grew as people together.  Bottom line, it was a really great thing. 

AS IF THINGS couldn't get worse, I learned that Tuesday July 10th was the last time I would ever WOD at Crossfit610.  UGH.  

Sparing all the details, it just wasn't possible to continue the gym the way it was.  And the best option for the owner and the members was to close the doors, but in hopes that everybody would go else where to continue their Crossfit Journeys.  

Something that meant a lot to me was that for the last WOD at 610, Elissa was by my side.  Her and I started Crossfit at the same time and I can honestly say that I am so happy to have crossed paths with her.  Besides being one of the nicest person I've ever met, she is inspiring.  It's been amazing watching her grow over the year and to see her achieve so much.  I will always remember and cherish all the stupid stuff we've done at the box, all our little jokes, and all the tears we've shed together (we are definitely the criers!).

Once all the classes were threw, the burning question that everybody was asking was.....What are you going to do?!?  Such a huge choice and it  being extra complicated for me since being due in November, my Crossfitting days were limited as it already was.  

With no other Crossfit location ideal to me, I was simply at a loss.  And then this happened:

How cool is that?  With things up in the air about where people are going to go, former 610 members were meeting up with what equipment they have to do WODs.  That just shows how committed, and how close we all had become.  

Among all the emotions and having things sink in, I realized that I have my membership at 24/7 that I had not been using at all.  

So today I swam, and I freaking loved it.  I always forget how much I love swimming until I get back into it.  I swear I am part fish (it would explain my love of The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, my tattoo, and my constant want to be near or on the water).  

Between the "at home WODs" at random meet up places and my 24/7 membership, I think I will be ok until after I have Baby O and then who knows from there!

I happened to bump into a former 610 member at 24/7 and it was nice to catch up! 

610 will always have a special place in my heart and I can't thank Trainers Mike, Molly, and Evan for all they've taught me, and how much they believed in me, even when I didn't believe in me.  

I hope to continue my Crossfit Career, regardless of where I end up, and I will ALWAYS ALWAYS know where I started and where I came from.  610 for life!!