Be Proud!

I know guys....it's been a while. I have good reasons for not updating sooner!

1. It's summer. I'm at the pool. Duh.

2. We rode tripped from VA to Niagara Falls to London, Ontario, to Minnesota, to Nashville, to home. Epic. Awesome.

3. We bought Crossfit Annandale. Yep. It's ours. Could not be happier!

4. It's summer. I'm at the pool.

So, back on track. Four letter words. I use them. All of them. I have the mouth of a sailor. My kids know them. They know not to use them. EVER. Mason actually thinks the "b-word" is "bench"....makes me laugh.

OK. Focus.

There is one four letter word I'm actually trying not to use and I think you should get rid of it too.

It's killing me!

HOW?

Well, how many times have you said or heard this?

"I only lost 1 pound"

"I only did 1 pull up"

Bad. Ass.

"I only did 4 rounds"

You are doing it!

What you are doing is great. It's awesome. It's making you smile, jump up and down, sweat, and laugh. So why do we talk about out accomplishments and then make them seem un-important by using the word "only"? I never really thought about it until a good friend at the gym texted me about her workout. She was STOKED that she did this particular workout with pull ups for the first time. She was SO excited.....and I was excited for her, then she finished the excitement with "but I only did 8 rounds". Only 8 rounds? Who cares? The point and the excitement was that you did pull ups. Be proud!!!!!

I am guilty of this too. I get really excited about something and share it and then add in the word "only" so I don't seem....what? Braggy? I'm 35. I did a fucking pull up. You are damn right I'm bragging. Do you know how much blood sweat and tears go into that ONE pull up? Lots. Tons. No way I'm using the word "only". None.

I do use it with weight loss. "I'm only down 1 pound." Sad face. Tears. Swedish Fish (god I love those little guys). Why? A pound is a pound....if I loose enough 1 pounds then I'm even closer to my goal.

who doesn't love this kid?

My goal is to take the word "only" out of my vocabulary. I'm not using it. I am going to be proud of my 1 pull up, my 1 mile run, my 1 pound lost.....Pride in my hard work. No more self-hate. 

My first handstand push up. It was super awesome. SUPER. AWESOME.

15.2 - Pulling my head out of my ass

So far The Open has not been the beast it was last year - know why? I pulled my head out of my ass.

My motto last year seemed to be: show up scared, mentally screw yourself, don't trust the amount of work you've done........it sucked. It wasn't fun. I was nervous the whole week and then choked on the workout. That meant that I did each workout twice. Except 14.5. That one sucked and no one did it twice. NO ONE.

I promise I was ready......

Fast forward 52 weeks. 52 weeks of hard training. Lifting. PRs. Skill work. Three competitions. Fails. Misses. Injury. Time off. I am in a better place. I am stronger mentally and physically. I no longer doubt myself - well, as much.


The Open this time around is fun. I am smiling. I am not freaking out for days. I am not re-doing workouts. That's actually one of my goals. Finish each workout with no regrets. Go into each workout with the "this is it" mindset. Why do I need to re-do anything? Would I love to get to Regionals? Yes. Am I there? Nope.

This one and done commitment is very NorCal (so obvi I'm on board)- they are doing the same thing. Their reasoning is that at Regionals you get one shot. That's it. No do-overs.

Crossfit Miranda - swoon

Team NorCal

15.2 was a repeat of 14.2 from last year. I had done it 3 times - this would make 4. Ugh. Kinda lame, but as a friend pointed out I have done this. No need to be nervous. No need to stress. I got this.

I went into the workout with 1 goal. Do better than last time. That was my sole focus. No rest - I mean, this is a 6 minute MAYBE 9 minute workout for me. Sprint. Go. Do. Move.

I started with quick over head squats and did my chest to bar pull ups quick. I cannot string them together, but found a box that allowed me to have my feet on it and not take my hands off the bar. So I did a C2B pull up, put my feet down and DID NOT take my hands off the bar. I'm not sure how much time it saved me - but mentally it kept me moving. I ended up doing better! Wahoo!!!!! I went from  77 reps to 84 reps. I'll take it! I was 4 reps from making the next round. SO CLOSE!!!! I was super happy. These 84 reps gave me my highest finish yet in The Open on an individual workout. Smiles for days.

 I love to compete. I love to see my mental progress as well as the physical. I have so much fun pushing myself, being with friends, and finding out I can do new things.

Bring on 15.3. I'm ready

Beyond the white board has me in the 80th percentile. I'll take it!

This is the 10am Crossfit Annandale class knocking out 15.2

Heat 3 crushing 15.2. I was in Heat 1. One of these days I will figure out the GoPro. Step 1 is remembering to turn it on!

Superfit DC: Team Booty Crew and Christmas Abbott

It's been almost 2 weeks since Superfit DC. I'm recovered. It did not take 2 weeks........well, maybe mentally. It's such a big build up. It's such a long day. My partner, Holly, and I had a blast. We work well together, this was our second competition together......hopefully with many more to come. Here's the scoop:

WOD 1:

Yep. Thrusters. 3 of them. Heavy. I had a hard time not jerking at the top - but I hit 125# which was awesome because my goal was 115#!!!

WOD 2:

I should have known better - but on paper my partner and I were all "We got this!". Turns out that this was hard. Not in a "I hope we can do the movements" kind of way.....but it was just a lot of arm/upper body stuff and time went FAST!

WOD 3:

Ew. Wall balls. Bleh. We did sets of 10 with fancy throw high and switch. Yes. We are fancy, even when tired. My partner did the last 20 and I headed to the rower. We ended with 81 calories.

Christmas Abbott was there. That was awesome. My second time meeting her....no big deal (yes it is).

Don't worry, I'm working on my arm placement

My husband LOVED meeting her (only his 1st time)

Warm up area

You don't have a crotch shot pic? Weird......

This was my husbands first two-person competition. He did great!

on the rower

wall balls of death

thruster city with a unicorn shirt

toes to bar - again, that unicorn shirt was magical

You are right. I am not in this pic. My partner had bronchitis and I took her home as soon as we finished....missed the group pic

Thank you to everyone who came out to cheer, take pictures, and take video. It is always so much fun to hang with friends and work out!

Lift Heavy Shit

I did not grow up in the weight room. If I went to the gym is was for the dreadmill treadmill, the bike, or those fancy Nautilus machines. For high school sports we didn't even enter the weight room - that was for the dudes - football players mostly. It smelled in there. It was scary..... I mean, it's just a lot of yelling and high fives......right?

Then college came around. The lacrosse team was scheduled to be in the weight room two mornings a week. I kinda just went through the motions, talked, walked around, talked some more.....you get the idea. 

When I joined the gym as an adult I LIVED on the treadmill. I trained for 1/2 marathons that way - it could get boring, but there was built in child care and no weather excuses for not getting that run in.

Then came Crossfit. I wasn't really in the know about exactly what it was - I had watched The Games on TV, but that does not show you what all those women do on a daily basis to get there. I didn't know any terminology, I didn't know how to actually do any of the lifts. I did giggle at all the names - Snatch, Jerk, Box, WOD.......I'm immature. I got my ass handed to me. I still do. The technical part of weight lifting, gymnastics, and other movements are what keeps me coming back everyday. I want to do better, I want to lift heavier, I want to go faster. 

Why?

I see the change. I feel the change. Lifting weights (heavy as I can) is something I really like. Who would have thought!?!?!?! I am not going to lie - I love that I can lift the same or more than some of the guys at the Box. I'm not sure how it makes them feel (but I do work hard to be able to lift more). Lifting weights has also helped in my day to day life. I am happier, less stressed out, my once daily migraines have gone away, I'm eating better because I see how it affects my workouts.........and I'm inspiring my kids. That's the best part.......They think I'm the strongest mom around. I'll take that title any day.

I don't typically put my videos on Facebook - They are up on Instagram (@alhardman) and on my YouTube page. I don't like to just put them out there all willy nilly. I work really really hard.....but I do it for me, not anyone else. So, grab your popcorn and get ready to watch some of my "workin hard" videos.

Now go and lift some heavy shit!

Magic and Happy Tears

I truly believe that magical things happen when you put in hard work. So maybe it's not REALLY magic - but sometimes it sure feels that way and that's the world I will be living in.

I spent the weekend watching Regionals - namely Julie Foucher, Camille L-B, Michelle Letendre, Annie......just some of my favs. I was in awe of how fast they moved, how heavy they lifted.....and of course the outfits. I'm always on the hunt to find shorts that stay in place, sports bras that are supportive, and racer back tanks - cause let's be real....I'm wearing a top. No one needs to see all that.









In true CF fashion yesterdays workout was a Regional workout (team): 49 pull ups and 7 over head squats (OHS) @ 115#.  My goal since forever, and especially my last competition, is to string pull ups together. I'm super glad I can do them one at a time, but I NEED to be able to string them together for many reasons. Competitions is one of them. I have a goal of doing competitions RX, but my coach has said that I am a scaled athlete until I can string pull ups together. Yesterday it clicked. We were practicing pull up progressions and the coach demonstrated how to string them together. I jumped onto the bar (no more jumping off a box for me) and *MAGIC* I strung two together. I was PUMPED. Wouldn't you know it? No one saw. Turns out people were doing their own shit. ;)  I got my husbands attention, got back up there, and did it AGAIN! SUCCESS!!!! Ok. So I can sting two together. Awesome Sauce. The workout called for a ridiculous amount of pull up: 49. Ugh. I was on a pretty great high and decided (and was told) that I was going to do my thing, string together what I can, and just chip away at them. A friend sat next to me and kept count and off I went.

Let me tell you what got me through this workout. Pure happiness, adrenaline, and support from my peeps. I jumped onto the bar and strung together 4 pull ups. FOUR!!!!Holy shit!!!!! For the better part of 29 pull ups I did sets of three and two. The last 15-20 I did quick singles - I was getting tired! Now, for that OHS @115. Wasn't sure I would have that in me after 49 pull ups (although I wish I had tried......story of my life). I set the bar up with 95# (I've only done 85# in a WOD before). I did the 7 OHS in two sets, but I did them - AND they felt good!!!!! My husband and I got in the car and I was still beaming. All that hard work. So much magic. So happy. I informed Sam I would be SUPER annoying for the next 30 minutes or so - I was fast talking and SUPER hyped up. Then I stopped talking and cried. Yep. Just sat there and let it flow. I was SO happy, proud, tired, excited......maybe the dreams and goals I have aren't THAT crazy or far off???????

One of my new loves: Camille L-B has a clothing line out that is pretty great: Via Prive. I have one of the tank tops, which I love. It's stretchy, soft, a racer back (my FAV), and it's long! I hate when I lift over head and my belly pops out. No bueno. I'm hoping to stock up on a few more of these, they are great! I wore it in that magical WOD (49 pull ups and 7 OHS) and it stayed in place - no belly show, I could move freely, and it was SUPER comfortable.




What helped me after the workout, and still is helping, Crossfixe Hands tube. My hands only tore a little on each hand, but it hurts - and I want them to heal quickly. This stuff absorbs quickly, soothes, and stimulates rapid skin recovery. I put it on RIGHT after I washed my hands (which I always feel like I"m going to pass out during). Instant relief. I also love that it comes in a tube - like a chapstick. Easy to take anywhere and throw in your bag. If you tend to rip your hands up I would recommend picking some up.



Here's to a MAGICAL week!!!! If you want to join me I'll be camped out at GMU watching the Mid Atlantic Regionals this weekend cheering on my friends!!!!!