Beast of the East-Pride, Motivation and Love

This past weekend I went to go watch my friends Kate and Chris (also the owner of my box) compete in the Beast of the East Competition in Durham, CT. This was the first competition I would ever be watching, besides the games on ESPN, and I was so excited. At the same time, I had no idea what to expect out of the atmosphere, the other athletes and how well my friends would perform.

Overall, it was amazing.

Kate placed 4th and Chris 5th. They showed me (and I'm sure everyone else in there) what true heart is. The two of them battled to make it into the final workout and finished strong. After 6 workouts, I have no idea how they had the strength to even lift a barbell. Their bodies were tired, muscles and joints exhausted, but they took themselves to the next level and put their heart into one of the hardest WODs I had ever seen done. I saw pain on their faces, but they kept going, right until the very last second. Truly inspiring.

Not only was it amazing to see athletes I know compete, but to see the limits that other athletes also push themselves to was incredible. Small (looking) girls lifting 200+ lbs overhead, men doing muscle ups like they do them in their sleep and teams strategizing so well to play on all of their strengths to finish each WOD.

I came back to my box yesterday inspired, motivated and ready to work.

So thanks Crossfit, thanks Kate and Chris and thanks to all those athletes for pushing, inspiring and just being bad ass.

Back to logging my WODS:

Monday

Find Heavy Bench press (hurt my shoulder :/ )

95#

WOD: AMRAP 12

50 cal row

50 deadlifts 115#

50 Box Jumps 24"

50 cal row

got to 29 cal on the second row.

DEAD.

Beat that weakness!

A pretty amazing person in my life said this to me today:

"Identify your weaknesses, make friends with them, and beat them to death"

I feel like a lot of times, I/we look at ourselves and see our strengths, pat ourselves on the back, realize we have weakenesses, ignore them and just let them continue to be there.

For example, I know that burpees (pre-shoulder injury) are one of my weaknesses. What did I do? I would say, "oh well Burpees are my weakness so I will just continue to do them slowly..." Whether you call that a cop out or making an excuse, I definitely was not making friends with it and beating it to death.

In life...I won't sit here an list out my weakenesses, but I can think of one or two that are in the forefront of my mind lately. Am I "making friends" with the right ways to fix them? Am I sticking to my guns or letting those weaknesses run my life? Lesson learned: beating them to death does not usually happen in one day. Little by little, attack that weakness, let it know who is the one in control. I can get better at burpees, you can do that muscle up, I can confront my demons, you can forgive that person. Little by little, the weaknesses won't be your weaknesses anymore. They will be your story. One you can tell and be proud of.

and some Crossfit Barbie entertainment...

Where HAVE you beeen....

So I asked myself why I haven't posted on this blog for the past two weeks and to be honest, it was out of fear. I have been a miserable bitch recently and didnt feel like I could properly compose a blog post, and if I did, I'd be faking it. And I am not a fan of faking it. I mean, we all do it at one point or another, but it most definitely takes more effort than it's worth.

Now what did I do with this miserable bitch attitude I've had for the past few week's...I wallowed in my own sorrows and in a sense expected to be pitied. I analyzed every little thing every person said to me, every workout I had, every minute I spent doing anything, I made it ALL into more than it was. Yesterday, I was given a wake up call. I am alive. I am healthy. I can Crossfit (and pretty damn better than I ever thought I could). I have an incredible CFW family (see below) that I've found at my gym, awesome, inspiring friends AND I PRed 3 times in the past two weeks. What the hell have I been doing walking around feeling sorry for myself???

A good friend of mine told me about a little thing called Positive Self-Talk, that's what I have been focusing on today. What is great  about me and my life? Take that and repeat it over and over again in your head. You CAN lift that barbell and finish that project at work and go to bed at the end of the day with a smile on your face. You are strong no matter what your head is telling you. You are beautiful no matter what the mirror is throwing back at you.

One step at a time. Fall down 7 times. Pick yourself up 8.

Hello 125# Squat clean, 195# back squat and 225# deadlift. #baller