It’s been a few weeks since my last update so some of you
are probably wondering whether or not I’m still at it. The answer is: heck
yeah, I am! Here’s a recap of 10, 11, and 12. (Only 28 more to go!)
Event #10 - CrossFit Open 15.1
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| Proof! |
Date: Febrary 27
Type: CrossFit
“Distance”: 15 minutes of suffering (If you want the nitty
gritty details, you can find them
here under the Week 1 tab)
So, yeah, I’m basically doing a CrossFit competition. I know
a lot of you probably don’t know much about CrossFit, much less the open. You
can learn about it
here if you’re curious. For those of you who aren’t curious but still want to know
what I’m doing, here’s a quick summary:
“The 2015 Reebok CrossFit Games season begins with the
online Open. Anyone can sign up to compete in five workouts over five weeks and
post their scores online... To advance to the next stage of
the CrossFit Games season—regionals—athletes must finish the Open near the top
of their region's Leaderboard.”
In case you’re thinking I’m a badass, you should know that
I’m in the “scaled” division. That means that while I’m still a badass, I’m way
less of a badass than the people who can do the prescribed workout. Those
people are pretty much amazing.
Now, I realize there are some sticklers out there who are
going to say, “You said 40 races! This isn’t a race!!!!! It doesn’t count!!!!” These are probably the same people who, when I
told them about my 40 races, immediately responded with, “That’s a lot of races.
You’ll have to do almost one a week! How are you going to keep that up?” Or, “That’s going to get really expensive,
isn’t it?”
I know that none of you, my fair readers, fall into this
category. But it’s something I’ve encountered, more often than you might think.
To these people I say, come and do one of the workouts with me. I’ll think you’ll
find that it’s a lot harder than a 5k, physically, mentally, and
emotionally. (Read my recap of event #12
and you’ll see what I mean.)
Okay, so onto 15.1. The workout was basically as many toes-to-bar,
deadlifts, and snatches as possible in nine minutes. Since toes-to-bar is
something I can’t do, I was able to scale it to a high-knee raise thing. Phew. After
all of that, you had to do a max “clean and jerk” which basically means lifting
as much as you possibly can over your head.
I’m kind of new to this whole CrossFit thing so one thing I’m
still trying to figure out is how strong I can be for how long. (No “that’s
what she said” jokes, please.) It’s basically like learning to pace yourself
while swimming, biking, or running. Sometimes I go too hard too early and then
fade. Other times I’m way too conservative. I think this time around, I was way
too conservative. I took things slow and paced myself for the first part of the
workout. I was focused on what I was doing and didn’t even look at the clock.
When my judge told me I only had a minute left, I knew I had way to much in the
tank and kicked into gear to get as many reps as I could in the final sixty
seconds. I’m a little disappointed because I know I could have given it more
but at least I learned a little more about where my limits are.
As far as the clean and jerk portion, let’s just say I can
probably lift about a 5th or 6th grader over my head,
which may come in handy one of these days. You never know.
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Just pretend there's no light pole
or strip mall in the middle of the picture |
I did the workout early in the morning (6:30. Yeah, that’s
right.). When I left the gym, the sky was bright blue and, since we had gotten
a foot of snow a few days before, everything else was white, including the
flatirons. I felt like I was in a wonderland. And maybe I was. There’s part of
me that still doesn’t believe I did a CrossFit competition, and for lots for
reasons. Here are just a few: I don’t think of myself
as strong. I don’t think of myself as athletic. I was afraid to sign up. I was
more afraid to go and do it. I was afraid I would look/feel like an idiot. I
was afraid I wouldn’t be able to do it. I was afraid I would fail.
But those are the exact reasons why I do these things. Even
though those thoughts may sometimes be in my head, I know they’re wrong and by
doing things like this, I can prove it.
Race #11 – Final Nighthawks Snowshoe race
Date: March 4th
Type: Snowshoe
Distance: I don’t know. I just followed the people in front
of me and then stopped when they told me to.
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| Enjoying the post-race dinner! |
For this week’s race, Scott, Jen and I were joined by
special guest star Sarah B! It was a nice little group for the final race of the
season.
It’s hard to believe the Eldora Nighthawks races are done
already. Unfortunately, I only got to do four out of the six races. I
missed one due to work and another due to bad weather. However, four races =
10% of my race total, which means at least 10% of my 40 races will have been
snowshoe races. And that’s kind of awesome.
So the final race was really cold. Like, really, really,
really cold. The temps were in the single digits. In some ways, I’m glad the
race was on the shorter side (less than 3k, I think). In other ways, I wish it
had been longer because it took over half the race for me to warm up and I
honestly wasn’t able to feel my fingers or toes until the last five minutes.
I don’t typically run, or do much of anything, outside when
it’s that cold and I wouldn’t have done this race if it weren’t for two things:
1) my 40 races goal and 2) last race of the season is always followed by dinner
at Kathmandu in Nederland and is accompanied by an amazing raffle.
So the race itself was short and cold. That’s about all you
need to know. Except for the fact that there was this wonderful little stretch
where you could see the near-full moon rising through the trees. The moon was big,
and bright, and it was almost like it was pulsating. There were some very thin
clouds in the air which created a haze around it, which only added to the Eldora
ambiance.
Now, let’s talk about the dinner. I basically have no
self-control at an Indian food buffet. I had been dreaming of it all day and it
did not disappoint. I’m not quite sure how much the buffet cost but I am quite
sure that I got my money’s worth.
Speaking of which, I totally got my money’s worth out of the
races as well because I won some amazing prices in the raffle, which more than equaled what I had spent on the races!
I literally jumped for
joy when they called my number for the $50 Mountain Sun gift certificate. As a
bonus, it came with a pretty nifty pair of running socks. And, Scott won a pair
of gloves that were too small for him, but were too big for Jen, and were
perfect on me. You might say they fit me… like a glove? Yes? Any takers? That
was a good one, right?
I’ve typically been taking pictures of all my shwag but
since I’ve already used all three of my amazing prizes, you instead get this
picture of a drawing I made of my prizes. Enjoy.
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| Exciting Prizes! |
Event #12 – CrossFit Open
15.2
Date: March 6th
Type: CrossFit
"Distance": Details
here under Week 2
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| "I did 15.2 and all I got was this piece of paper" |
This one was a doozy. When I saw the workout on Thursday
night, I wanted to cry. Okay, I’m lying. I did cry.
The workout involved overhead squats, which I had never
done, and pull-ups, which I can’t do. Let’s recap all of the negative things I
had been thinking before 15.1: I’m not strong, I’m not athletic, I have no business
doing this sort of thing, etc. etc. All of my fears came rushing back,
especially my fear of failure.
I went back and forth about whether or not I should even do it
at all. These were movements I knew I couldn’t do. I wasn’t into the idea of
going into the gym and floundering around in front of a bunch of people who can
do these things, and who make it look easy.
I had almost convinced myself not to do it but something
wouldn’t let me quit. I sent an email to Scott F., telling him my fears and
asking for a pep talk. (Scott was my tri coach for four years and has given me
lots of great advice over the year. And he’s now pretty much crushing it in the
CrossFit world.) Scott told me that he was worried about the workout too and
encouraged me to give a try. It made me feel a little better to know other
people were scared too. But still, the fear of public humiliation was very
real. I thought about it some more and then I cried again.
And then I decided to just go do it. Even though I was
terrified, I knew that if I skipped it, I would be disappointed in myself. No
matter how stupid I looked in the gym, it would only be a few minutes. Living
with the fact that I hadn’t tried would last forever. Also, I had been worried about the pull ups
but then I had an epiphany: I probably
wasn’t going to make it through the overhead squats, which meant I didn’t need
to worry about the pull ups! That made me feel better in an odd way.
I was still a nervous wreck when I got to the gym but my
fear faded quickly. In addition to the usual awesome coaches, Mellisa S. (who
is a total CrossFit badass!) was also there and it was great to see her
friendly, supportive face.
I know CrossFit has a lot of negative connotations but my
gym, CrossFit Sanitas, is an amazing, supportive, and encouraging place. It’s
not about lifting as much weight as possible. It’s about doing your best, whatever
that means for you. The bottom line: It’s about being a better you. That’s why
I’m hooked. Yes, the exercises themselves are good for me, but it’s the
community, my fellow athletes, and the coaches that keep me coming back.
To make a long story short, I struggled to get four overhead
squats in three minutes. It wasn’t pretty. At. All. But I went after it and I
gave it my all, because that’s what I do. Unlike 15.1 where nine minutes went
by quickly, it was a long three minutes of me feeling muscles that I had never
felt before. But two things I didn’t feel: I never felt like an idiot and I never
felt like I was failing.
I know some of you probably think, “If LeeAnn says one more
thing about CrossFit, I’m gonna kill myself!” I’m sorry about that. Really, I
am. I swear it will die down eventually. But for now, I’m totally loving it and
here’s why: When I’m confronted with a tough situation in life, I often ask
myself who I want to be. Both of the CrossFit open workouts were tough
situations for me and they were both great opportunities for me to remember
that the person I want to be is the person I am.
Bring it on, 15.3.
