Yesterday, my daughter and I competed in a CrossFit competition called Alter Egos at CrossFit Decimate.
CrossFit Decimate in Colorado Springs is a great gym. The owners are top-notch, it’s a wonderful space, and a great place to visit and compete. They are one of the only a few gyms to tackle holding a CrossFit competition in Colorado during COVID. For that, I have a very deep respect for them. It’s most definitely not easy complying with Colorado’s COVID restrictions, but the fact that they were willing to hold one and successfully tackled it puts them first in my book.
So my daughter and I tied for last. We scaled the last workout so she could do the deadlift weight. It was fun, but very tiring and a very long drive. Will most definitely do this again next year.
For the past several months, I have struggled physically. There have been times when my neck hurt, my back hurt, my legs were tight, and my hips were locked. I chucked this all up to CrossFit, but there was always something wrong with me. Rare were the days where I felt 100%.
We moved, so I had to find a new chiropractor. I tried one who had 178 five-star Google reviews. This chiropractor took x-rays and did a thorough analysis of my spine. What he found was my pelvis was tilted, my middle back was locked up, and my neck was out of alignment. So that would explain all of that.
So I have now entered a phase to fix all that, which is adjustments three times a week, tailored to fix me. I just started. I’m not gonna lie, it sucks. The area he adjusts are tender and sore.
I have cut back my CrossFitting as well. No back squats. No heavy deadlifts. I am struggling mentally to just do it because I’m stiff and sore and feel like I’m one hot mess.
So I’ve entered a season of healing. I’m even debating about taking a break from CrossFit altogether so I can heal completely. I want to keep moving for the rest of my life, so I have to do something now in order to do so.
I don’t say this often, but that will be the last time I do that workout.
I love CrossFit, and I love the Hero Workouts, which are meant to push you to your limits as you honor a fallen soldier who fought and died for our country. I love doing these in their memory.
However, I cannot do Chad again.
It’s been three days. My right calf is finally “fine.” My left calf is still locked up and extremely tight. I can’t walk without a limp. It hurts to touch it. This sucks.
Again, my normal CrossFit workouts have been completely ruined.
I’m just too old to do these things, like running a 10k. I’m in incredible shape, but that doesn’t mean I can beat my body up and not suffer the consequences.
I don’t know why I do these things to myself. They are challenging and fun at the end once you’ve done them, but the after effects on my are devastating.
I just can’t keep doing this, and I guess I have to learn the hard way it seems.
My daughter and I did a CrossFit competition, Battle at the Rock, last weekend at CrossFit Castle Rock. I’ve done this CrossFit competition before, but my daughter hasn’t. I entered master’s, and she did open. She had to scale everything, but she had fun. I did much better than I had anticipated — mainly because I did 100 double unders unbroken.
After five years of CrossFit, PRs or personal records, are hard to come by. So when they happen, they are special, indeed.
Today, we did DT, a CrossFit Hero WOD I’ve written about before. It is:
12 Deadlifts (105 lbs)
9 Hang Power cleans
6 Push Jerks
I PR’ed by over 2 minutes, which was super exciting for me.
When you’ve been doing CrossFit for this long, it’s a constant mental struggle and lots of ebbs and flows. PR’s and CrossFit competitions help to keep me motivated on the days I don’t want to workout at all.
Last weekend, my daughter and I (my son tagged along as well) traveled to Lehi, Utah, for a CrossFit Competition. We were partners, and we entered Battle of the Box Utah in the intermediate division. It was fun. We got to swim in Salt Lake. We tried to see the largest open-pit mine in the world, Bingham Canyon Mine, but it was closed due to COVID.
We got to do pistols in the competition. Overall, it was an okay competition. Neither of us liked the second WOD, which had you doing burpees every minute on the minute while trying to complete an AMRAP.
I’ve been absent of late. That’s been on purpose. There was nothing I felt like I had to say, so I didn’t say anything. While life still keeps chugging along, it still sucks, let’s be honest. Vacations cancelled, wearing masks, hiding from others and the world… I truly thought this would be over by now, but it’s not.
THOUGHTS ON GREG GLASSMAN’S COMMENTS
I will not talk about the nature of his comments, but only say this: I’ve learned you can’t say anything anymore. You can’t publish anything. You can’t go anywhere without the assumption that you are being videotaped.
While none of us agree with Greg Glassman’s comments, there was a time where he would have been forgiven, where his apology would have been accepted, where his fallacies for being human would have been recognized by all of us who are all just as guilty of sin as he is. He would not have been forced to resign, there would not have been such an uproar, etc.
Greg Glassman founded CrossFit but is not CrossFit, yet everyone wanting to de-affiliate because of his comments saddens me. Where is forgiveness in all of this? And does what one man thinks affect your love for CrossFit? It doesn’t mine.
IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS SINCE I’VE STARTED CROSSFIT
I can’t believe time has flown by. My CrossFit Level 1 Certification is due for renewal, and I’m not renewing it (I decided this way before the uproar). I just don’t need a piece of paper and $1,000 down the drain to tell me that I know what I’m doing when it comes to CrossFit.
I MISS CROSSFIT COMPETITIONS
I am craving a CrossFit competition right now. I can totally see this fall having non-stop CrossFit competitions as all the boxes try to squeeze them in. Fine by me. Bring them on.
Trueform Runner with my Paddleboard behind it
MY TRUEFORM RUNNER
My dear husband got a screaming deal on a Trueform Runner for half off. It is barely used. I am in love. I’ve never run on air before, but this machine is as close to it as I’ve ever felt. Super excited for when the winter comes, and for my aging bones.
I’VE TAKEN UP PADDLEBOARDING
Every year for my birthday, I buy myself something big. Last year, I bought two paddleboards — one for me and one for someone to go with me. Needless to say, they have been a God-send in the midst of COVID. I can escape on the lake, get away from everyone and the world, and let the soothing waves wash away all of my anxieties, frustrations, and sometimes anger at the world.
I was deadlifting this morning early in my garage.
I hate deadlifting. I don’t know why, but I do.
As the weight got heavier and I began to realize I was dreading this more and more, I asked myself why I was doing this? Why was I doing something I don’t like?
CrossFit is about doing a bunch of things well, and working on the ones you don’t do so well. Yet, at the same time, as I age, I don’t want to waste time doing something I don’t like doing.
You could say I had an epiphany.
I also realized I probably was never going to increase my deadlift weight because I hate doing it. I haven’t maxed my deadlift or my back squat in about two years. I am just never there mentally.
And I realized something: that’s ok. I am extremely fit. I don’t need to do something that is hard, heavy, and I hate doing.
One of my all-time favorite CrossFit workouts is Murph. Murph is a Hero CrossFit WOD, named after Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy who gave his life fighting for our freedoms in Afghanistan in 2005. One of the best things about CrossFit is these Hero Workouts. I’m still working through them, but to honor the fallen, and I can’t think of a better thing.
It’s tradition to perform Murph on Memorial Day at CrossFit boxes around the country, and it’s always fun. This year, I did it at 5 am, and although I did not PR, I did well. My daughter completed her first full Murph this year, so it was great.
The CrossFit Murph Workout consists of:
1 mile run
100 pull ups
200 push ups
300 air squats
1 mile run
It’s a killer workout that requires mental fortitude and desire to finish. For me, it’s much more than that. It’s about celebrating life, our freedoms, and those who have fought and died for them. It’s about remembering how hard life can be, but rejoicing in its blessings as well. It’s about preparing mentally for the worst, and appreciating the best. It’s about community, which is not as it once was this year, but will be happening soon enough.
If you get a chance, do this workout. You won’t regret it.
If you remember about a year ago, I hurt my thumb somehow (turns out, it was just inflamed, but that’s beside the point). I quit doing snatches because of it.
For the last two weeks, snatches have been in my programming — a lot of them. So I’ve been forcing myself to do them, and I’ve been getting my ass kicked because of it.
But I realized something while hating every moment of those workouts — I’m stronger than I think.
Yesterday, I squat snatched 75 pounds for 55 reps. I honestly didn’t struggle at all. The Rx weight was 85, and I thought 75 I’d have to strip weight.
Next time, I’ll go for 80. Because I’m stronger than I think I am…
