March was an action-packed month with a LOT of running. Thankfully I'd been smart when planning the first part of my year and had taken that into account and only planned 2 races near the end of the month. I did, however, schedule a CrossFit competition! I'd done three or four competitions in 2015, but didn't manage to fit any into my crazy 2016 race calendar, so I figured this would be a nice way to take a step back from running and get back after those weights. This gave me the opportunity to get back into the gym and "skip" weekday runs without feeling guilty...because finding a balance sure isn't easy! It was FANTASTIC to get back to my favorite form of cross training and to catch up with all of my CF buddies - it had been WAY too long since I'd spent quality time in the gym. Granted, this also meant that I had many a rough workout! The competition I'd signed up for was a team competition with 3 other members (two guys and one gal) from my gym. The event was called "Barbells for Bullies" and benefited a local Pit Bull rescue - bonus, that meant there were dogs EVERYWHERE during the day of the event!!! But I'm getting ahead of myself. A few months back someone posted the link for this competition on our gym's Facebook page. Immediately someone (one of the "big strong" people) jumped in and wanted to make a team. I wanted to compete, but I had no business joining that person's team, so I put out a call for folks to join me in the, "I'm a wimp, but I love Bullies" division (more commonly called "scaled" in the CF world). We had a full team within a week! (Contrary to popular belief, not everyone who does CrossFit is a great, big meat head...many of us just look like scrawny little shmo's like me! Granted, our gym's other team, "The Jackson 4," were most definitely great, big strong folks...but not meat heads either.) Three of the four people on our team can best be classified as "short" (and I don't feel bad saying that as I'm the shortest)...so we picked an appropriate team name, "Your Dog Is Taller Than Us!" HA! It worked though, and helped play into our "we're just gonna push our own limits and have fun" sort of attitude. Generally speaking, when I compete I have two goals - to have fun and to push myself to do stuff I didn't think I could. Bonus if I don't come in last! As the competition drew near we started to strategize. Since our main goal was to have fun, we focused mostly on making sure that everyone on the team understood the workouts (there are all sorts of structured "rules" as to how you do these moves/lifts/workouts, and everyone needs to know the "right stuff" before you start). We also made sure to discuss "who should do what." Thankfully, the workouts really were most advantageous for short people...YAY! There were a few moves (rowing and wall balls) that are easier and/or tall people are generally better at them, but these were (thankfully) not the focus of most of our effort. We made a general plan, and then showed up! Like I said...dogs EVERYWHERE!!! We were greeted by 5 pit bulls from the rescue who were available for adoption, and lots of people came to watch and brought their dogs too (Maggie even came and sported some LCF pride)! We were nervous, but we'd all done the best we could to prepare. We warmed up, and hit the ground running. The first workout was the one we all expected to "do the worst" in because it was the strength workout. Two of us were doing bench press, and two doing power cleans. The goal was to get as much total weight as possible. Everyone (except me) set a new PR (and while I didn't set a new one, I did tie my standing PR), so we were off to a much better start than expected! The second workout was our bread and butter - dead lifts and variations of push ups - we KILLED IT!! I did far better in this than I thought I would...and learned that I can hammer out 15 deficit push ups in about 20 seconds (not something I normally "do"). We went into the final workout expecting to fall somewhere near the "bottom of the ladder" because of the first movement in the workout:
...then a little bit of magic happened... WE TOOK THIRD!!!!! So long story...well...a little bit less long - Even if you're the underdog (literally) you can do great things! Little doesn't mean weak, and you can often find a way to use it to your advantage! The rest of the month was a whirlwind - I started to find a balance between running and CrossFit and running, did a couple of races (Runs with Scissors and Three Creeks Half Marathons on the 22nd and 23rd) and enjoyed time with friends (hiking, running, eating), and then buckled down as I took a look at my crazy months (yeah, plural) to come:
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Melissa is many things...among them, she is a friend, sister, daughter, dog owner, RunJunkEes Ambassador, Colfax Marathon Ambassador, Skirt Sports Ambassador, Lowry CrossFit member, and a mountain girl at heart! Archives
February 2018
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