Thursday, November 28, 2013

Fitness Elevated

Wow!!! I competed in my first Crossfit competition this weekend in Salt Lake and it was AWESOME! My attitude going into this competition was not to be THE best, but to be my best and I feel that I accomplished that! I was very nervous weeks prior, even days prior, to the competition, but I prayed a lot and did my part in putting in the time and energy to train as well as I could for the competition, so I knew Heavenly Father would help me. The first day I went in to compete, Friday November 22, I wasn't even nervous at all! Huge blessing! I'm just so grateful I have a healthy body and mind and that I am even able to do crossfit, let alone do it well. So grateful for this experice - so many blessings!

Fridays events 
Max Chest to Bar Pull-ups: 6
Max rep bench press w/83 lbs. = 11
Pro Agility drill = 5.11 seconds
Max Broad Jump = 94.0"
500m sprint row + 5000meter ro

I would have to say that the sled push/pull was by far the most difficult part of Saturdays competition workouts  for me, because the sled weighed 115 lbs. (only 10 lbs. less than I weigh) and we had to push the sled through dirt. Basically you had no traction, unless you had cleats, which some people did, but we had no idea we were going to be pushing them through dirt, so me and my two friends who competed (Jason and Pete) definitely didn't have cleats. That is one of the elements that I love about crossfit competitions though, you never know what they are going to throw at you - it's kind of cool because you have to be ready for anything! I think that's rad. You have to work and think on the fly! This workout with the sled consisted of the following:
Cash In: 2 rope climbs
2 rounds
Sled push - 115 lbs.
Sled pull - 115 lbs.
Log carry 
Cash Out: 2 rope climbs

I had to put everything I had into pushing that sled through the dirt - dang that was HEAVY! Much heavier and more difficult than I anticipated. Every muscle I own was being worked over to get that sled down and back from one line to the other. It took some serious mental concentration too. My judge was awesome and was cheering me on the whole way through the workout. It was great! 



 Totally bearing down and giving it everything I had - completely exhausting all body resources to finish this workout.



I wore the green compression socks because I have a pretty good size burn on my right ankle from rope climbing earlier during the week.








The first event of the day was a 2 mile run... First mile just run, next 1/2 mile run with a bucket of bricks in each hand (10-12 lbs. per bucket), and last 1/2 mile run with a 40 lb. sandbag on your back. Not to mention, this run was outside and it was cold enough that you could see your breath. Go get that girl! 









The best part of the competition was all of the incredible support I had from friends and family. It meant so much to be that Allie, Anthony, Jade, Heather, Megan, Ashley, Joey, Jenna, Britany, and Bob and his family came to watch and cheer me on. The whole experience was amazing. Jason and Mitch, my trainers/coaches, have been so incredibly helpful and encouraging through the whole training and competition process. I had a blast! I would definitely do another competition...I might be addicted ;) 






 500m sprint + 5000 meter row
My time: 2:00 500m sprint
              22:40 for the 5000m row
 If you think my face looks like I wanted to die, that is exactly what is going on there - that was extremely difficult! After I finished rowing, I had to physically remove my feet from the foot pads with my hands, because my legs were completely destroyed and I couldn't move by themselves. I set my feet on the ground and then crawled onto the floor as just laid on the ground gasping for air for a few minutes until I could use my legs again to stand up. I had a whole cheering section rooting me on through the whole thing. Allie really helped me to mentally zone back in after I almost lost my focus. She pulled my back by telling me to focus on my breathing and that helped tremendously. Thanks sis - you helepd me close in and finish that row when I was starting to fall off the wagon! 







That, was rad!!! There may be more crossfit competitions in my future :) 

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Crossfit competition coming up....

This upcoming weekend, November 22-23, I am going to be competing in my first crossfit competition; Exciting and nerve racking! When I signed up for the competition back in August, none of the workouts had been revealed, but over the last few weeks they have slowly been revealing the workouts...and they are nothing short of intense!

Fridays Competiton Workouts
"The Combine"
*Max broad jump
*500m sprint row - immediately followed by 5000meter row (talk about death)
*Monkey bar + max chest to bars pull-ups (no drops inbeteeen pull-ups, as soon as you drop that is the end of your pull-ups)
*Pro agility drill
*Max bench press - women's weight to be announced (my max 3 rep bench press right now is 105 lbs. so I'm hoping the weight is 105 or less)

Saturdays Competition Workouts
7:30am 5K run
   First loop - just run
   Second loop - 20 lb farmer carry run
   Third loop - sandbag run (weight tbd)
Event 2a 
   Snatch + hang snatch 
Event 2b
   15-12-9
    Ski matchine (15 calories, 12 cal, etc.)
    Box jumps
Event 3
   To be announced - they have hinted that this event will include sleds, ropes, atlas stones, etc. yikes!! 

I have been training for almost three months, with workouts everyday Monday through Friday and two-a-day workouts on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I know that some of these workouts I may not yet be strong enough to do at this point, based on the weight they determine for them (such as snatches and bench press), but I know I have trained hard and am ready to go in there and do my very best! My motto for this competition is simple, "it's just me against me." I'm in this to do my best! 

Below are some of my crossfit battle wounds...but totally worth it. In the last two months I have linked kipping pull-ups, PRd in the bench press, done 129 burpee pull-ups, did 5 sequences of Bear Complex unbroken in round 5 with 90lbs, etc. I am so excited about the progress I've been able to make and I'm so grateful for Heavenly Fathers help through the whole process. I wouldn't be able to do any of this without Him. I'm excited to go out and do my best this weekend in the competition. Excited Allie, Anthony, Jade, Heather, and Ashley will be there to support me! 

Bear Complex
 One sequence (clean, front squat, push press, back squat, push press) - final round completed 5 sequences with 90lbs without breaking!


Pull-ups 




Crossfit is so much fun and it challenges me everyday; that's why I love it. If you've thought about trying it, stop thinking and start doing - you won't regret it. As far as the competiton this weekend....here goes nothing! It's just me against me!