A few weeks ago some friends from our box and I traveled to Utah to watch our friend and coach Claire compete at regionals. Claire has been such an inspiration to me. If you are a crossfitter you will know how elite of an athlete you need to be to make it to regional competition. There were over 2800 women competing in our region alone (more than that that began the competition but that was about how many finished all of the workouts) and only the top 48 make it on to the regional competition. Claire was one of those 48 women in the southwest region to qualify. It has been a goal of mine to compete on a team at the Crossfit Games Regionals since I competed in my first open a year ago. Being at the event made that drive even stronger, but how long would it be before I would be able to condition myself to compete at that level? After all, I had only done Crossfit for 9 months before I became pregnant, which was enough time to start to become proficient at some of the movements but certainly not to be elite at them, and I definitely have quite a few glaring weaknesses. I have to assume that it will be at least 4 weeks after I have our little girl before I can resume my workouts, which brings me to late September, and then the uphill battle of getting back into shape begins. If you read stories from women who have competed at a much higher level than I have, they mostly have one thing in common, the first 2 months back are so tough! If my experience is similar this will bring me to the end of November before I even start to feel like I was where I left off, then there are just 3 more months to get ready for the Open. I also have had this fear that my time is limited because I am in my thirties now (I'm 31) and won't my fitness level just decline as I get older? Man, I wish I would have started this earlier! I know, I'm such a Debbie Downer, but these are real thoughts I have had many times throughout my pregnancy.
Being at regionals really helped me rid some of these negative thoughts and gave me hope that I can compete at a high level post baby. It was cool to watch the top competitors like Tiffany Hendrickson, Mandi Janowitz, Chris Spealler, and Tommy Hackenbruck compete, but where my main inspiration lay was in 3 people and one of them I get to train with on a regular basis.
I've always known Claire to be a great athlete since I first met her. She demolishes every woman and most men's scores in our gym (even when she does the WODS at their weight), but it wasn't until her preparation for Regionals that I realized how much better you can get at this sport in a short period of time if you are willing to put in the work. If you haven't already read her blog about her experience, you need to! (http://crossfitblade.com listed on the main page) I saw Claire transform as an athlete with the help of her husband Chris's programming in a short 2 month span. When they announced the workouts she was disappointed because not many of them would showcase her strengths (she is incredibly strong and an amazing Olympic lifter). She really is good at everything but those two things are her strengths. After the workouts were announced I told her not to sweat it because I thought only the top 5 or 10 women would even be able to complete them. Luckily Claire didn't take my approach and bank on everyone else not doing well. Instead she worked her butt off every day, twice a day putting in grueling workouts even she couldn't always complete. At the end of the 2 months I was in such awe how she went from barely being able to do a strict handstand push up (by the regional standards) to knocking out all 54 of them along with front squats and burpees under the 20 minute time cap. Watching her accomplish this gave me hope that I can come back and dramatically improve on my weaknesses despite my short timeline before the 2015 Open begins.
My other inspiration came from a couple of women that I don't know personally but I really related to their life experiences. One of those women is Michaela North. She qualified for regionals just 8 months after giving birth to twins. She had to take off an entire year prior due to a high risk pregnancy and a surgery following the birth of her twins. I can't imagine the struggles she faced coming back after such a long time off, but she did it, she proved she was still one of the fittest women in our Region even though she had such a short time to prepare.
The 3rd woman that I drew inspiration from was Darcie Warren. I don't know how old her kids are, but she has 6 of them! The other cool thing is that she is 35 years old and has a build similar to me. She is 5'5" 133 lbs according the the games.crossfit.com site and I am 5'7" 128 lbs pre-pregnancy. Maybe I'm not too old after all??!!
When we returned from Utah, a few of us began putting in some extra work with the common goal that we will send a Bladestrong team to Regional Competition next year. I don't know if I will be one of the athletes elite enough make the next Regional team (there are only 3 men and 3 women competing on a team), but what I do know is I will be working hard to improve on my weaknesses and become the best athlete I can be and push others to be the best they can be so Crossfit Blade will be well represented at the 2015 Southwest Regionals.
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| Southwest Regionals |
Today I am 31 weeks pregnant. Yes, I am down to a single digit week countdown! Here are a few things I have been doing for exercise, nutrition, and beyond. Please note that I believe the journey through pregnancy is different for everyone. In no way is what I do the right or wrong thing, it is just what feels good for me.
I am still working out 5 days a week, this week I actually got 6 days in since I coached class on Friday and it was a team WOD (which is always fun). We had odd numbers in my last two classes so I decided to join in. The last one was especially fun because I partnered with another pregnant member at our gym for team preggo! For the strength portion of my workouts, I do back off the weight a little from what I feel like I could do, to be sure I keep my lifts at a good speed. This week I did a 2 RM front squat of 165# but I think that is the heaviest I will be going on that lift since the second rep got a little slow. I am using dumbbells and kettle bells in place of the barbell for workouts that require snatches or cleans. Last week I had a frustrating day when after a workout I was going to finish up with some strict pull ups and only did one, which didn't feel good. I was so bummed because I still had 10 weeks left and didn't want to see my pull up strength dwindle for the next 3+ months. A couple of days later I came in and felt much better on the pull up bar and completed a workout of pull ups and double unders. Another great example of listening to my body, just because something doesn't feel good one day, doesn't mean it won't feel good the next. I just need to remember that when it doesn't feel good that it is ok not to do it (I'm getting better at that).
As far as nutrition goes, I have been eating mostly meat, fruits, veggies, and nuts during the week and usually end up with some cheats on the weekends. I admit it, I had pizza last night and it was really good! I do still have protein shakes since it is an easy snack and my doctor said it is completely fine but would recommend being sure the ingredients don't contain soy. Haha, if she only knew how conscious I am of eating things that contain crap (soy) fillers. My favorite protein is SFH chocolate pure whey. It comes from grassfed cows and doesn't have any crappy fillers.
One last thing that I want to share is one of the doTerra essential oils I started using this month. Immortelle which is an anti-aging oil. I know you are thinking I am probably crazy about this age thing, but actually I have been using to help prevent stretch marks. I got just a couple of little ones from my first pregnancy that started to look worse again. I had been using other essential oils on my belly but nothing has worked as well as this one. I have been using it multiple times a day for 3 weeks now and you can hardly see the ones I was worried about and have not got any other new ones (knock on wood:). Ladies, if you are worried about getting these you must try it!
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| Snatch Grip Deadlift at 29 weeks |
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