CrossFit Houston's Girl's Only Summer Challenge!

So this past Saturday was the first Girl's Only CrossFit Competition I've ever done (hosted by CrossFit Houston). In fact, I don't think there's been another girl's-only challenge in Houston. Anyway, what a great Saturday! I am constantly amazed at the strength and beauty that is epitomized by our Houston-area CrossFit Women! You are all amazing and I am so lucky to be able to compete with each and every one of you. For many of the participating athletes, Saturday was their first experience with a CrossFit competition. I know from our gym alone, we had 6 new competitors and they all did amazing!


The first WOD was a little "outside the box". We had to row 350 meters, then pick up a 100lb sandbag and run with it (or waddle) 100ft then drop it off, run 100ft back and pick up a 55lb KB and a 50lb Dumbbell. We had to Farmer's walk with those 100 ft., drop them off, run 100ft back to our sandbags, pick them up and run (waddle) back to the rower where we finished it off with another 350 meter row! Whew!! Let me just say, that sandbag was not fun! Not only was it heavy, it was also extremely awkward! I definitely lost some serious time because I couldn't keep a hold of it on my 2nd 100ft walk! I managed to get by under the 11 minute cut-off though. Unfortunately for many many amazing athletes, the sandbag proved to be a much bigger hurdle and, unfortunately, many people could not finish before the cut-off time. :-(

The second WOD was a basic, 200 meter shuttle run that took less than minute to complete. Not my favorite WOD because the time's were so close (and I definitely slipped and fell in the mud twice which killed my time)

After the conclusion of the first two WOD's, the field of competitors was narrowed to exclude the bottom 50% or anybody that didn't finish the 1st WOD. For the standard division, that meant there was only 7 of us left!

To throw another hitch into the mix, the last two WOD's would be the only two that counted towards our final placements! That meant that as long as I kicked butt in the next two, it didn't matter how far behind I was in my shuttle run! Sweet!

As anyone who's been reading this blog knows, I've been spending a lot of my summer concentrating on my mental game for the bulk of my training (as opposed to tons of intense physical training days) and I was determined to test my mental mettle so to speak in this Challenge. Turns out the third WOD looks like it's going to play to my strengths...21-15-9 slamballs with a 20lb ball, 20" box jump-overs, and Russian KB Swings with a 55lb KB. (Just in case you were wondering, yes these are usually MEN's RX Weights!!!) Looking at the heavy equipment, I couldn't help but think that, although, this was probably going to suck, If anybody can swing a Men's KB, I can! So when the clock started, I just booked it! I ended up finishing first in my heat and it really wasn't as bad as I had originally thought it was going to be..(I thought maybe this whole mental game thing is really going to work!)

As I waited for the rest of the heats to finish, all I could think about was that there were tire sleds (big tires that are attached to straps with wooden bases in the middle so you can stack weights in them and drag them) stacked nearby that we hadn't used yet so I knew they were coming up and, MAN my back was hurting from that big Kettlebell already!

WOD 4 gets posted and it's a killer!! 4 Rounds of 5 Deadlifts at 185, 30 meter tire sled pull forward (95lbs), 7 Dumbbell push press each arm @40lbs, 30 meter sled pull backwards! HOLY CRAP! Sorry for the potty mouth, but this was seriously the hardest workout I've ever done in all my months/years of CrossFit! I mean, I literally wanted to quit in the middle, all I could think about was that it was soooo hot and the tire was sooo heavy and I felt like I was moving at a snail's pace! I am sure that if I had not been devoting so much time to strengthening my mental game, I may not have finished this WOD....ok I take it back, I would have finished (I have never quit a WOD) but it would have taken me FOREVER! I am extremely proud of myself because on the last backwards tire pull, in the middle of feeling like I was dying, I actually picked UP my pace. I mean I grabbed those straps and I really pulled it in the finish. I would not have done that a month ago. :-)



I ended up getting third this weekend. The 2nd place winner beat me by 2 seconds and the 1st place winner beat me by less than 30 seconds. It was hard not to be disappointed by missing out on first place by such a small margin, but I have have have to celebrate the small victories. I am making great strides with my mental game and I know it's going to pay off come Games Season next year! Just for the record, I plan on working my butt off to try and get to the 2011 CrossFit Games, and I know it's mini-breakthroughs like this that will take me there.....one WOD at a time!


I had such an amazing time this Saturday and I hope that more and more women will realize their inner strength and potential through CrossFit Competitions just like this one! Great job ladies!

I Did It!!

Well, the Whole 30 if finally over. It officially ended on Wednesday night. That's right, 30 days of no sugar, no grains, no legumes, no processed foods, and no dairy! No Sweat! Actually I was surprised at how easily this way of eating became over the course of the 30 days. The first few weeks brought about some serious Diet Coke cravings and I definitely missed the cream and sugar in my coffee but about halfway into the 3rd week, I came to a surprising realization that I didn't really miss those staples of my former diet anymore! In fact, I have yet to put cream or sugar back into my morning coffee and I haven't touched a Diet Coke or any other type of soda since it's been over...and I don't plan on doing it! I have come to appreciate the subtle differences in good coffee when you drink it black and I have no desire to put the high fructose corn syrup or processed psuedo-sugars back into my body. For anybody that doesn't know...Splenda was discovered while looking for a new pesticide...it's an organo-chloride. You know what else falls into the category of organo-chloride...DDT and Mustard Gas! The hardest thing I found while on the Whole 30 was that it is almost impossible to get good, clean sources of protein while eating out or picking something up from the store unless you live next to Whole Foods. Almost everybody cooks there meat in butter or some other kind of non-optimal oil and if you look at the packaging of most deli meat, you will find ingredients like sugar, tapioca starch, potato starch, all sorts of unwanted, unnecessary additions! The best quick and easy protein sources I was able to find were Applegate Farms Organic turkey breast or roast beef, simple canned tuna in olive oil, and sometimes I got lucky at Whole Foods and they had a protein source on their lunch buffet that didn't have any non-Whole 30 approved ingredients in it. I definitely wouldn't say that I was perfect on the Whole 30. I only ate what I was allowed to eat but there is much more to the Whole 30 than just food choice. It's supposed to change the way you think about food. When you're having a sweet craving, you are not supposed to give in and eat fruit to fight that craving. It is essentially the same thing as eating candy because, once digested, your body doesn't know the difference. Sugar is sugar is sugar! I must admit that I probably ate much more fruit than I was supposed to. I also did not always limit my coffee intake to 2 cups (before noon) as I was supposed to, but all in all I think it was a great success. I may try my hand at another Whole 30 someday and try to be a bit more strict with regards to fruit consumption, etc. My hope for the future of my diet centers around continuing with the basic principles of the Whole 30. I will limit my intake of non-Whole 30 foods to one meal a week if I really want one. This Fourth of July for instance, I am planning on having one slice of cake, but all the other party foods are Whole 30 approved! I am also going to begin experimenting with thinking about my food as it pertains to my workouts. We were taught at the Whole 30 workshop, the proper way to fuel your body pre and post workout and I have yet to really experiment with it. But perhaps a more detailed look at how I fuel myself for CrossFit will lead to bigger and better gains in the gym. I've got my bar set high for next years CrossFit Games season and it all starts with nutrition. This summer is my "off-season" as far as my intense training goes, but this is the perfect time to zero in my nutrition so I will be prepared to go hard and heavy come Fall! Anyway, I would really encourage anyone that is looking for a way to turn their health and life around to give the Whole 30 try. Your body will thank you for it! Here's a pic of me from my most recent CrossFit competition. I'm not quite where I want to be as far as leanness is concerned but I'm not doing too bad and I'm sure that the Whole 30 has helped shed some fat from my abs.

What It's All About.

This is why I CrossFit. This is why I'm proud to be a part of this great community. This past weekend I participated in the Battle Buddy 57 Reps for TCH WOD. It was a fundraiser WOD for Texas Children's Hospital in which each 2-person team completes 57 reps of 8 exercises. This WOD was in honor of Olivia Stevens whose dad, Chad, works out at Bayou City CrossFit. Little Olivia was born with a rare chromosomal deletion and spent the first 57 days of her life in the NICU at Texas Children's Hospital. She's been fighting ever since but is doing well. The "Perseverance through Hardship-57 Reps for TCH" WOD was our way, as a CrossFit community, of showing our support and I was amazed at how many people were there. It's like all you have to do in this community is share....share your stories, share your hardships, and peopl will be there to pick you up and help in whatever way they can. That is CrossFit. I wish I had more articulate things to say about the amazing people that make up our local CrossFit community, but I guess sometimes you just have to come and see for yourself. Here's a few pics from the weekend.

"Perseverance Through Hardship-57 Reps for TCH"
57 Reps of Each Completed by the Team

1) Box Jumps, 20 inches
2)Push Pres, 75 lbs
3) Sit Ups w/Med Ball, 16lbs
4) Lunges with DB, 25lbs
5) Push Ups
6) KB Swings, 35lbs
7) Squats w/DB, 25lbs
8) Burpees!

Mind Gym

"What you think affects how you feel and perform. Training your brain is as important as training your body."-Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence

If there's one thing I learned at the Regional CrossFit Competition it's this: I need to SERIOUSLY work on my mental game! If I had to make a list of all the things I excel at in CrossFit, I think it'd be pretty long...Cleans, Deadlifts, Burpees, Thrusters, Ring Dips...I've spent the last year trying to master all of the physical movements in CrossFit (though I still need work on some of them....(hello handstand push ups and muscle ups!) but there's one thing that I've been completely ignoring, my mind!

Taking a look back at my athletic life, I can't really remember a time when I've ever thought about my mental game. A good friend of mine explained it to me like this. "Natural athletes have never had to rely on anything except their physical abilities and when they finally reach a point in their athletic careers where it takes more than just their bodies to achieve greatness, they falter."

Growing up, I was always a natural athlete. I started playing organized sports at a very young age and transitioned seamlessly into Junior High Athletics. I was always on the A-team. I played Junior Varsity Volleyball as a Freshman when all my friends were still on the Freshman team. I was a starter for the Varsity as soon as I made the team. When I got to college, things weren't quite as easy for me. I walked on to the Trinity University Volleyball team, but by 2 months into my Sophomore year, I had earned a starting position and kept it until I graduated in 2007. But that was then....this is now! Now, I don't walk into the gym knowing that nobody can beat me. You see, back then, I didn't need to rely on my mental game to make me a better athlete. I knew how to play the game and I just did it, without thinking about it and this unfortunately has left with a big handicap to overcome.

At the end of day one at the Regional CrossFit event, I was in 14th place and I was happy. 14th out of all the competing Crossfitters in Texas, Oklahoman, New Mexico, and Louisiana was pretty damn good in my mind. I knew that I couldn't physically finish the fourth and final workout on day two, but I figured if I competed really well on the 3rd workout, I'd have a chance to keep my spot in the top 15. Day two rolls around and I'm in the first heat for the 3rd workout: 100 double unders then 3 rounds of 10 deadlifts @185# and 1 sandbag sprint then 1000 meter row to finish it off. I was feeling pretty good about it. 185 pounds wasn't anywhere close to my max and I'd been doing really well with my double unders lately. But as soon as that clock started and I started my jumps, I was in trouble. I only got through about 20 some odd double unders before I messed up and immediately my mind started racing. How was I supposed to win if I had already messed up?? How many other people were having trouble with their double unders?? And that's where I lost it....my mind was so busy worrying about what everyone else was doing and berating myself for messing up, that I completely "checked out" for the rest of the workout...I had the whole rest of the workout to do!! How much time could I have made up if I just gritted my teeth, finished those double unders, and then raced through my strengths (deadlifts and the sandbag)?? But I had given up. When the day was done and I was lamenting my 24th place finish, I came to a strange realization. The reason I was so upset about it was that, deep down, I knew that I hadn't given it my all. In fact, I couldn't remember the last time I had actually given it my all in a workout.
"You know what your problem is right?" One of my friends said to me on the way home. "You don't have a mental game. You don't gather yourself and focus. You don't come to win...You just come to do a workout." I guess I should have been upset about this comment, I mean come on...I just finished 24th in the whole region! But he was right...I don't have a mental game. I don't focus, I don't think about what I have to accomplish, I don't visualize myself winning...and because of that, I don't win.

And this has led me to my new summer goal, finding my mental game. I have so far purchased "Mind Gym: An Athletes Guide to Inner Excellence", "The New Toughness Training for Sports: Mental, Emotional, Physical Conditioning from One of The World's Premier Sports Psychologists", and "The Mental Edge". Hopefully by Sectionals next year, I won't be looking back at my performance wondering how much better I could have done if I had only tried harder!

Staying Organized

Well, It's been almost a week since I started the Whole 30 and, surprisingly, things have been going really well! One of the biggest excuses I've heard from people with regards to healthy eating, especially on the kind of scale that the Whole 30 is judged on, is that they just don't have enough time. They can't cook all the time. They're too busy. Well, I may not have kids, but I am juggling a bootcamp 4 days a week, partially managing the CrossFit gym, nannying for my step-siblings (ages 17, 10, and 7), and I'm a full time student at UT Houston School of Nursing (My day planner looks like something exploded all over it, there's so much to do!) and if I can do it, YOU CAN DO IT! The secret is....organization! Yep, organizing your meals and snacks is just as important as organizing the rest of your life maybe even more important because what you put in your body determines your overall health and well-being...what could be more important than your health?? Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now. What I really wanted to share is my tips and tricks that help me stay on the Whole 30 no matter how busy my life gets. Obviously the most important thing to do is to head the grocery store and make sure you stock up on plenty of Whole 30 approved foods. The biggest change I wanted to make, aside from the completely cutting all the not so healthy stuff out, was to really try and up my intake of veggies. I happen to be a snacker so I figured the best way to ensure that I'm getting in plenty of fresh veggies was to find portable, tasty veggies that I can use as snack foods when I get hungry in class or in between school and bootcamp when I just need something to tide me over until lunch or dinner. So, on my last trip to the grocery store, I was on a mission for snack veggies and that's exactly what I got! Sugar snap peas, baby carrots, yellow and red grape tomatoes, yellow, red, and orange bell peppers and last but not least..celery! I spent about 30 minutes of my Monday slicing, separating and bagging up my veggie snacks and I now have plenty of grab and go bags for the entire week! Bottom line ya'll is that it's not that hard! It just takes a little planning and a lot of ziploc baggies! :-)

The Whole 30

On Sunday, May 23rd I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend the Whole 9 Nutrition seminar at CrossFit West Houston. Whole 9 refers to the nine factors related to optimal fitness and health goals. These nine factors are Nutrition, Sleep, Stress Management, Active Recovery, Injury Rehab, Fun and Play, Personal Growth, Temperance, and Training. This particular information session was focused solely on nutrition as it is truly the base for a healthy life. You will never reach optimal health and wellness without a solid nutritional base. It's just not going to happen. No matter how much you think you can negate that bad food with exercise or a "promise to do better tomorrow" a crappy diet is still a crappy diet and it will get you crappy results! Get it?

Now I have really cleaned up my diet exponentially since January of 2010 but I have to admit that there was still about 10% wiggle room that I left in there. I love diet cokes! Yes, no matter how much my mother harasses me about them, I still drink them and I still love them! I also have become really lenient with regards to sugars and I drink way too much coffee and not enough water. But after sitting in the Whole 9 lecture and listening to the success stories that many people have had with regards to their health and athletic performance, I decided that it was time to clean it up completely. So I decided to embark on the Whole 30 program. The Whole 30 is kind of a blueprint of what to eat and what to avoid for optimal health. The challenge is to spend 30 days eating a completely clean, Whole 30 approved diet for 30 days to sort of give your body a chance to re-set from all the junk that you've been pumping into it over your lifetime. I have much much more scientific explanations on how this happens, but I won't get into that here.

So as of June 1st, I have been on the Whole 30, that means 30 days of no dairy, sugar, grains, legumes or alcohol! Yikes! So far it has been going really well, but I'm sure I'm in for a bumpy road ahead, after all, a month is a long time! :-)

If anybody wants more information on the Whole 30 or chooses to join me on this journey, you can find all the information online at www.whole9life.com! Stay tuned for some Whole 30 approved recipes and a peak at what I'm eating to stay Whole 30 approved!

Regionals

It was a hot one at GSX at the South Central Regional CrossFit Competition this past weekend in Ft. Worth! Rumor had it that it was the hottest place in the country that day....not sure if that was true but it was definitely one of the hottest Regional events this year!



Saturday went well. I PR'd on my Squat Snatch with 115lbs and I got 9 rounds on my weighted Half-Cindy. That put me in 14th place at the end of day one with two more workouts set for Sunday. Day two didn't go as well as day one and I ended up 24th overall at the end of the weekend. Looking back, I was pretty happy with how I placed though. I've made some great strides in the past year and am looking forward to how much more progression I can make before Sectionals next year!