Battling Through Injury

Today marks two years since I ruptured/completely tore my achilles tendon. I went into the gym on May 26, 2014 – which happened to be Memorial Day- and because I did the hero WOD “MURPH” on Saturday, I did a workout named “Kelly” with a big handful of people at CFEC. Kelly is 5 Rounds for Time of 400 meter run, 30 wallballs, 30 box jumps. I was on the last 400 meter run when I felt my ankle tighten up a little bit. It was the same spot my coach warned me about (ankle/lower calf/achilles tendon area). I had been dealing with some tightness and pain there, mostly when I would run. My coach told me to make sure I was rolling it out and getting a lot of mobility in there because achilles tendons are important. I knew of 2 people who had torn their’s – both playing basketball. And I was like, “ha, that will never happen to me.” Well, I felt that pain, and my body immediately told me to stop. But why would I stop with one round left? (Jokes on me for being too competitive). So, I kept on going. I finished the run, did my last set of 30 wallballs, and then, when I had maybe 8 box jumps left, I heard a weird echo-y pop sound, and I felt this crazy pain in my right calf/ankle area. It felt like someone kicked me as hard as they could. I was convinced for like 30 seconds that my friend Tyler tripped and fell into my leg. I still give him a hard time about it to this day. People had to convince me that in fact no one had kicked me like I had convinced myself. Well, I couldn’t walk, and it scared me, so I flipped. Well, Nick was a fireman at the time, so he came over- probably wondered why I was flippin’ out, picked me up off the floor like firemen do I guess, and convinced me that I probably just tore a calf muscle or something. I tried to play off going to the ER because the ER is lllaaaaaaaaammmmmeeee, and I had plans to go to my friend’s pool and eat burgers, eat fruit pizza, and drink gin and tonics. Well, Daniel being the good, responsible man that he is, made me go to the ER. So, some my friends, Lindsey, Lia, Suzanne, and Lauren took me, and Daniel met us there. Look, here we are. (Great pic of all of us by the way).

The doc in the ER squeezed my calf, and nope, nothing flexed, so they knew that I had torn it, but I still needed an MRI (which came the next day, and confirmed that I had not just torn it, but instead, completely shredded it). Doc told me I would need surgery, but that he wouldn’t operate until the next week. He said that the best thing to do in my case was to use a graph (sew it up with someone else’s tendon- basically, give me a new one).

Initially, I was bummed – mostly because I felt like I had let people down. The job I was in at the time had me assisting a small team of people, and I hated that I couldn’t walk and be there to help them the best I could. I didn’t want to hold anyone back. I had also been doing CrossFit for about a year by this time, and I was getting more interested in competing. In fact, I was supposed to compete in a local competition the following weekend (Apex Games) and I was reeeaaallll excited about it, but obviously I couldn’t walk, much less do anything else athletic. So, the nice people running the event let Dan take my place.

Walking with crutches was pretty difficult, so my friend Hykeng let me borrow his bike scooter thing. The bike scooter thing ended up drawing a lot of attention to myself over the next several months. I loved it so much. I loved having to tell all kinds of strangers allllll about my injury everywhere I went. It was great…not.

But it got me to where I needed to go.

Here I am the day before surgery racing my bike scooter thing around at the gym. I had to fight all of the kids to stay off of it.

Surgery wasn’t so bad. The worst thing about it was I had to take my nose ring out, and because it lasted several hours, the hole closed up in my nose. So, no more nose ring 😦 But, apparently I told my doc I was Julie Foucher and that I could do 100wallballs unbroken (which I promise I really can- just not at Regionals). After surgery, Daniel, my mom, and my friends showed out big. I felt so loved. I had flowers showing up at my door, my mom kept giving me pain meds, my friends were constantly stopping by (which made the week after surgery when I wasn’t supposed to leave my house go by a lot faster). People brought over all kinds of good food, and Dan watched so much Parks and Rec with me.

Ok, so enough about the boring stuff. Here’s what I learned through it.

First, when it comes to injury – whether it’s something small like this, or something bigger and much more serious – you can either let it break you or help shape you into a better person. Only you can make the choice to not feel sorry for yourself. Get up. Figure out what you can do, and do it.

It’s easy to:

• Give up. 
• Feel sorry for yourself.
• Make excuses. 

But I learned really fast that these three things don’t make you better, and they don’t make the situation better.

I learned how important it is to surround yourself with encouraging, loving people. One of the reasons I was bummed about being hurt was not getting to work out with my friends. But I had a choice – I could either sit at home. By myself. Or I could get my butt up, and go see my friends at the gym and try my hardest to keep up with them. So, I decided to not isolate myself in my house like a loser and make the effort to still spend time with my friends at the gym.

I had some pretty great friends that came through for me in a big way. One of those friends is Lia. She’s really good at CrossFit. And soccer. She played D1 – for Clemson, but she blew out both her knees in her career. That’s a setback. However, she was able to relate to me through it, and it helped me during the whole process. I remember having a meltdown in the gym one Saturday, because it was a partner workout, and I couldn’t do the workout, and everyone already had a parter. I cried like a baby, and she took me to the other side of the gym, grabbed a medball, and we sat on the ground and just threw it at each other as hard as we could. She also drove me to Charleston one day so we could just sit on the beach. We even did a workout. She took this cool pic of me doing a pistol.

Just kidding. I couldn’t do a pistol then. I couldn’t do one until a few weeks ago. I was falling down in this pic actually. But she worked out with me on the beach. I have some pretty great friends that would sometimes workout alongside me.

Here I am rowing with one leg – with my friend Lindsey, who was reeealll preggers at the time, and my friend Kelly, who was normal with no injuries or babies in her belly.

Being injured made me even more grateful for my friends. I hope I can one day help other people who are going through an injury.

The third lesson I learned is to listen to your coaches. They’re smart. My coaches warned me about this. They told me to lay off the running, listen to my body, roll out, and stretch, and I didn’t listen. Because I’m dumb. Listen to your coaches. They’re your coaches for a reason. And you’re paying them to be smart.

The last lesson I learned is that everything happens for a reason. I wish I could tell you that I handled every moment like a champ. I didn’t. I had a lot of breakdowns. I saw how stubborn I really was. I fought back when other people tried to help me. While I wish I could have avoided the entire incident, I 100% believe that there was a reason and a purpose for the injury. God used it to make me more grateful. Grateful to be able to move in the first place. If you are physically capable of moving, then do it. It’s a gift. Take full advantage of it. And when you are limited, make the most of it.

I decided to make the most of it, and I got stronger. It forced me to work on skills that I had put off – like rings dips, handstand pushups, and strict pullups.

And eventually(pretty quickly actually), skills started to come back…

(I don’t recommend doing the above video). There’s no need for 1 legged double unders. But, I do remember the day I started doing double unders in the gym again…and box jumps..It took about 6 months, but it was worth the wait.

And sooner than later, I was back out running. And then, soon after that (right before the 2015 Open, actually) I was back doing workouts as prescribed in the gym. I posted this on instagram during the Open in 2015 to show that even though I was hurt for the majority of the year, I still got better by making the most of it, sucking it up, and still showing up at the gym.

I remember the day my doctor took my boot off and cleared me to start taking steps towards walking. It had been a little over 3 months by this time. Praise. Here we are. His name is Dr. Divina, and he did a great job putting up with my stubborness. 

And here’s how tiny my leg was when that big ole boot came off.

But it eventually grew back. I eventually got stronger. To this day, I still barely have a calf in my right leg. It’s weird. It bothers me sometimes – like if I’m on my feet all day (pretty much everyday) or if it rains for a couple days straight, it actually aches pretty bad. It affects my squats (I need to work on it), and I’ve been terrified of even trying to rebound my box jumps again. But all of these things help me remember what I’ve been through and how thankful I am to be where I’m at now.

I wanted to wrap this up with someone who is way cooler than me- Julie Foucher. She tore her achilles tendon last year while competing at Regionals. I love this video so much. Qalo is pretty great too.

Tales from a Rookie at Regionals – The Day Before

The following is part 1 of a 4 part series, talking about what I got to be a part of May 19-May 22 at the CrossFit Games Atlantic Regionals in Atlanta, GA. It was my first year competing. I learned A LOT and had a whole lot of fun in the process.

THURSDAY. It’s here. I got up this morning pretty early because I had a brilliant idea- prep all my food to take with me to Atlanta. We’ll see if it was worth the 90 minutes it took to get it all ready this morning. I feel funny about it. So far, I’ve only had one of the lunches, and I’m already tired of cauliflower. Great. When have I ever wanted to stop eating cauliflower? I’m not incredibly Type A, but I had to be for this, so it stressed me out a little. We needed to be on the road by 11 ish to get to Atlanta in time for me to check in. I needed to move around a little bit, but I figured we would probably walk around Atlanta later, so I knew I didn’t need to do a lot before I left. I woke up reeeallllll excited. But stressed. But only stressed about food. And music. Daniel was making some food this morning too, so we debated on what music we were going to listen to. We settled with mostly U2 and a little bit of Eric Church and Zac Brown thrown in there….that’s pretty much what we agree on musically.

So, I decided to go play spikeball with my friends. After dominating (no, just kidding) for an hour or so, I headed back to my house to meet Dan and peace out. But first, he surprised me with the Anderson Independent. Turns out CFEC made the front page of the paper- and they talked a little about me going to Regionals. Haha, front page, y’all. Obviously there wasn’t much going on in Anderson today for little ole us to make the front page. I read the article, and after I got over the horrendous pic of me on the front, I loved it so much. It’s not everyday that someone says really nice(and truthful) things about you in the paper. That really meant a lot to me. Thanks Mike! Here’s the article if you haven’t seen it. 

We got to Atlanta around 2. We walked all over the GWCC, before we found out where I was supposed to register. We found a lot of random hallways though. I decided that Sunday morning I can go practice my handstand walking in one of these random hallways – so none of the other girls will see me and be jealous of my skillz. No, I’m really just kidding on that. That wasn’t even funny. But I really am going to need to reserve one of those rooms to practice. Don’t worry though. I’ve been practicing for the past month since I got the invite. We got out of the car, and I noticed my lulu top was on inside out. That would have been a cute first impression. I totally played it off and changed in the middle of the road, right in front of the Georgia Dome. I’m also pretty sure that I was the only athlete that brought her Kavu bag to register. Everyone else had, you know, workout bags.

When I registered, they marked me, and gave me my new favorite tank. It says athlete in gold and everything. I can’t even believe it. The feeling just got way more real. I love it so much. I’ll probably sleep in it.

We drove to the hotel — about 2 miles away from the GWCC. Picture us rolling our huge cooler and microwave up in there. How else was I going to eat all the eggs, diced sweet potatoes, cauliflower and chicken I brought? Well, it took an hour to check in. Long story. It was 3:30 by this time, and I hadn’t had lunch. I got really close to plugging my microwave in and heating up my cauliflower right there in the lobby. But I remembered how bad it smells cold when you open the container, and I didn’t want to be a diva, so I patiently waited while eating spoonfull (s) of peanut butter. Everyone was so curious as to why the buffed up girl had numbers all over her body. One of the guys behind the front desk told me he wanted to look like me. Thanks sir. He was cool and complimentary about it though. Some people aren’t. That’s ok though.

We hung out in the room and watched tv. We haven’t had cable in awhile, so Dan was pretty happy with watching some tv. We decided to walk to the GWCC since by this time, I needed to be back for an athlete briefing in a little over an hour anyway. Man, I love Atlanta so much. We had our first date in Atlanta a long time ago – Braves game and then we ended up feeding homeless people sandwiches- that we made in my kitchen.We made a lot of friends that night. I’m pretty sure that if we had PB&J sandwiches in our bag now, we’d probably eat them. But downtown Atlanta is a great place to people watch. I just love it so much. When we were dating and Dan was looking for jobs, I kept praying he would get hired at a hospital in Atl because I wanted to live there. But good thing Anderson wanted him more. So, they got both of us. I’m pretty happy about the way it turned out.

Anyway, back to the story. There were tons of food trucks in Centennial. I was like, “cool. Food truck festival, same weekend of regionals.” Turns out it was a music fest – The Shaky Knees Fest. So, I was like, “Oh, cool. I like music festivals AND food trucks AND regionals.” Turns out, it was the weekend before. I dunno why they were still set up four days later. What a tease.

We stopped at the CNN Center so Dan could eat at Fresh To Go. I dunno why though. I offered him some cauliflower to eat earlier. But he wanted real food. We saw Asa in there with his fiance Angie. I was happy to see someone I knew. And then we saw them again in the GWCC. So, I sat by Asa, and getting to talk to someone I knew a little made me not as nervous.

Sidenote- Asa- you probably aren’t reading this, but if you are, I think you’re pretty great, and I can’t wait to see where this next year and several years takes you. Thanks for showing me a great example of what it looks like to step out in faith. You’re humility rubbed off on me, and I don’t see how it couldn’t have impacted everyone you came into contact with this past weekend. 

Back to the story. Athlete briefing was great. It really is an incredible honor to be here, with these great athletes, judges, and other volunteers. I really don’t take it for granted. I’ve been saying that a lot, but actually getting to sit around them on the actual competition floor solidified that feeling.

Daniel and I walked back to the hotel. We met a guy playing the trumpet. He told me he wanted to play us a song. I was like – “Aw, that’s sweet. He’ll probably play something romantic.” He started playing the Rocky theme song. Awesome.Cool thing was it was the same song that was playing when I got my first real muscle up less than 6 months ago. So, thanks, sir, for setting me up well for this weekend.

Anyway, that’s all I got. I wish I could tell you we partied all night in the ATL, but our night consisted of Dan eating sushi take out and watching tv and me trying to do ROMWOD.

More to Come…

 

The Voice in My Head

If you would have asked me a couple of months ago if I were a mentally sound athlete, or human in general, I would confidently say, “yeah, sure.” I can make myself keep going in a workout. I can somewhat stay calm, breathe, and push through when my body is telling me to stop – especially in a competition. Well, through this training process, I’ve realized that I in fact am not so mentally sound. In fact, I’m pretty much a basket case.

I never really knew how much of a mental case I was until I started training hard. I’ve flipped out to myself and to others more than I probably ever have before. It’s affected everything from my sleep to conversations with people because I’ve been so dang distracted. I’ll admit to you that I’ve noticed little character traits in me that I don’t like. I get uptight, and I have pretty negative thoughts about myself. And it’s made working out not as much fun.

But with less than a week left before Regionals, I’ve been trying to get that mind right. So, I’ve been trying hard to think more positively, pray, remember why I’m doing this in the first place, and honestly, I’ve just tried to suck it up.

Since then, here is how the past week has gone down:

 

I’ve been mostly flippin’ out about the first event. I hate snatching. I hit a snatch PR this past week. To the athletes I’m about to go compete against, it’s nothing impressive. But to me, it’s gold. It’s gold because it set me up mentally to meet my goal for Event 1, when honestly, I’ve been terrified of it. Although I’m not where I want to be when it comes to the ole’ snatch, Colin has been working with me on it, and I have improved a lot, and instead of getting down on myself and focusing on how I’ll never make it to the last set of snatches (or probably the set of weights before that.. or before that :)) I’m going to focus on that PR and the improvement I’ve seen in myself.

PS. I know this still isn’t considered a “great snatch,” but if you saw me 3 weeks ago, you’d agree that this is a win- jump forward and all. 

Also, last Monday I went and ran on a True Form Runner. Most people hate this thing, and they make it clear (on their face, and by their words) that they can’t stand it. You are the motor. You power the thing. If you stop, or even slow down really, you feel it. Mentally, that would suck. Now don’t get me wrong- I’d much rather go for a casual run around a garden or something, but I have now somehow talked myself up to loving the True Form – even when it’s combined with deadlifts. This mindset has made me so excited to take on Event 5.

Another way I’ve been preparing mentally is this little game we play at CFEC called Nutmeg. If you workout at CFEC, you’ve probably heard of it. Either you love it, or you hate it. I’m not going to ramble on to you about all the rules, but it’s basically every (wo)man for themself – there are balls flying, people getting hit in the face, crazy glasses, Steve Perry, the best of 80’s Pop, dangles, handstands — if it doesn’t make you mentally stronger, I dunno what will. My friend, Shawn Hanna, is the instigator and has played a huge role in increasing my mental capacity over the past two years, really, but more specifically, the past month. Nutmegs aren’t a good thing. Basically it means the ball went between your legs. It’s the worst. But I’ve been on the quest (not on purpose) to 100 nutmegs in 2016 before Regionals. Well, good thing I not only surpassed 100 this past week, but I actually got 101. The purpose of me telling you this: Surround yourself with people who make you stronger mentally. Nutmeg has made me more mentally sound, and therefore, it has been an extensive part of my training.

Last, but not least – I did Events 3,4,& 5 yesterday. I woke up feeling great, but as I got to the gym and started warming up, I felt terrible. I wasn’t scared of the workouts, I just felt a lot of pressure to do reallllllly well on them. I’ve come a long way on skills like butterfly pullups and pistols, but I couldn’t find my rhythm on butterfly pullups, and then I tore my hand before we even started, and then I couldn’t do pistols when we were warming up. It was the set up for disaster. So, I just decided to do what was familiar to me, which is really humbling –  all my pullups kipping, and I actually finished the workout that way before the time cap. SO looks like I’ll probably be the only athlete kipping pullups at regionals, and that’s ok because “kippin’ aint easy, y’all.” I then told myself that I could do pistols (as I did my first one 2 weeks ago) and I did way better on event 4. And then I told myself that I wasn’t too tired to deadlift 275 pounds 21 times, and I did better on event 5 from the previous week. All because I made a choice to just suck it up, and get it done.

photo by BuckHead Media

Almost done- bare with me- people have been showing me way more love than I deserve, and I’m holding on to all the positivity. Words mean a lot to me. Colin keeps putting up with me (I dunno how he does it). Nick keeps telling me that he thinks I’m going to win (thanks Nick). Daniel keeps telling me he’s proud of me. And people at CFEC have been so encouraging to me.

Last, but not least, here is an article I read by Josh Bridges – who I’m guessing will probably win the Cali region in about an hour or so, and he should because of that mustache: Breaking the Mental Barrier- By Josh Bridges

The purpose of this isn’t to bore you, or to rave about what I’ve accomplished in the gym. But I want you to know that only you can control your thoughts. Here’s what I’ve learned through it:

• Take every thought captive – only you control your thoughts. Your thoughts will either make you crumble, or they’ll change things for the better.
• Figure out your “Why?” – and go back to it when you need to remember why you’re doing what you’re doing in the first place.
  • <— make sure you are a part of that “why.” At least some part of what you’re doing has to be for you (not necessarily all of it though).
• Have go to’s – for me, I have everything from Bible verses(2 Corinthians 10:5 and Philippians 1:6 to name a few), to quotes, to song lyrics (Right now, I legitimately rap “make me proud” by Drake on the way to the gym everyday).
• I don’t necessarily have to quit being critical of myself, but instead, if I am critical of myself to someone else, I follow it up with something positive.
• Sometimes you just have to suck it up, get over yourself, and go for it. You’ll feel better when it’s over.
• Don’t be afraid to be humbled.

I can’t wait to be in Atlanta in less than a week, competing with some pretty great people, with no expectations other than to do my best and have fun while doing it. I’m sure there will be times that I flip out, but I’m more ready than I was to control those thoughts, calm myself back down, and get  my mind right.

Ok, have a great week, and be nice to yourself. No pressure.

Oh, yeah, and I almost forgot a recipe. I’ve been slacking with trying out new food lately. So, here is another recipe that we love from PaleOMG. It builds on that fried cauli I talked about last week: Chicken Bacon Rice Bowl

Weaknesses Exposed

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Unfortunately, for the first year in awhile, you won’t find me out late celebrating one of my favorite countries. I’m trying to be good. No margs for me this time around. But I’m making myself a deal. Instead, I’m going to have my own Cinco de Junio. Hold me to it. It’s on a Sunday, but you’re all invited to celebrate with Dan and me by eating tacos and drinking margs.

I did somewhat celebrate Cinco de Mayo by playing nutmeg with some friends and listening to some crazy Mexican tunes this morning, instead of working out. And right now, as I type this sentence, Dan and I are about to down somewhat of a Mexican dish– it’s just not chips and queso. Sad. But in happy news, today was an active recovery day for me. I never thought I’d actually get to this point, but I LOVE RECOVERY DAYS. Like I love them so much. Just some light moving and stretching. There’s no pressure. No competition. Even today, I was going realllllly slow, and Colin was peddling on that assault bike so fast and running so fast, but I let him just have the win. No pressure. And I like that active recovery days are outside. I’m just a much happier, more care free human. Here is what after active recovery looks like:

 

Moving on. Well, all 7 of the events for Regionals have been announced, and I am SO flippin’ excited about them! Well, I guess all of them except that snatch ladder. Which just so happens to be Event #1. While I may not make the best first impression in Event #1, I’m really excited to compete in all of the other events.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not excited about the events because they’re easy or anything.. they’re actually all pretttyyyyy tough. But I knew that going into this thing.

We’re going through each and every workout this weekend – on the same days and in the same order that I’ll be doing them 2 weekends from now.

Although they’re crazy hard workouts, I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I can’t wait to push through that feeling in my hamstrings after I go through three rounds of running on that True Form, and then do a whole lot of GHD’s really fast, and some heavy deadlifts. I can’t wait to see if I can handle legless rope climbs at the very end of the weekend – when my shoulders will most likely be fried. I can’t wait to see if I can actually walk 100 feet on my hands. I’ve never HAD to do that for an event or anything, so we’ll see what happens. I’m working on it. Also, as sad as it may be, I need to tell you that last week, I could barely do a strict handstand pushup. Now, I can. Also, I debated on putting this next piece on here (but it is what it is) – my PR snatch is 135 lb. That just so happens to be the first weight I’m supposed to hit in this crazy heavy snatch ladder. To some of you that may or may not sound impressive. But to me and to these athletes that are going to be there- it’s really not impressive. At all. And I have to snatch that 10 times in 2 minutes before even moving up in weight. But I accept the challenge.

Dave Castro posted something on instagram the other day, and I couldn’t agree any more. He said:

“The regionals programming is programmed for the top athletes to go to the games. It is not programmed for those who can’t. It’s programmed for those who can. I expect a lot of people to be stopped by the rings on day 1. That’s the point. And at the games. Expect events that will stop games athletes. It’s not about making your favorite athlete shine. It’s about testing them and exposing weaknesses in them. #stepuptotheplate.”

Well done, Dave. Weaknesses that I used to not care about have been exposed. But in all reality, I’m loving every second of it. For example, this whole time I thought I was doing strict muscle ups by just simply standing on a box, with my arms not locked out, and halfway pulling myself up and through the rings. Ha, my coaches (and the Event #2 standards) finally had the heart to tell me that I wasn’t in fact doing a true strict muscle up. BUT, now I know I can do a strict muscle up. I did some Tuesday morning. And I’ve been working on them since. I’ve never been more determined to walk on my hands. I’m tellin’ ya– I’m no natural when it comes to making my body do what I want it to. But I’m determined to not be that girl tumbling down the floor in front of thousands of people in 2 weeks. And the good news is, although I’m a late bloomer, things do usually end up clicking for me. And once they click. I’m on it.

Weaknesses exposed make you better – but only if you let them. If you don’t take anything else away from this. Take that. Being uncomfortable leads to growth. It makes you a better human. Embrace it.

Thanks, again, for your love and support – especially for all of the nice things you’ve said. I talked a lot about this here last week.  But most recently, my little 4 year old friend Cat gave me $50 to help pay for expenses to make sure I’m ready. In her comment, she said, “Thank you for teaching me burpees.” I teared up a little. I love ya, Cat, and I can’t wait to watch all you accomplish in life because your parents put you in gymnastics and CrossFit as a small human.

No matter what happens, this experience has already been so great. I’m watching myself get better really fast. I’m watching myself do these skills that I’ve always put off. I’m watching myself not give up. This wouldn’t be possible without getting that miraculous invite to the Atlantic Regional.

I’m having the time of my life, I’m being pushed like I never have before, and I’m counting down the days until I get to compete with these amazing athletes that I look up to. I’m beginning to actually believe that I do deserve to be there. Competition is when the hard work I’ve been putting in combines with the miracle that only God could make happen for me, and ends up with me doing way better than I could have ever even expected out of myself. For real. SO, anything is possible!

These are getting better.

I’m gonna fight for every single one of these. 

The feeling you get after that strict muscle up lockout

And I’ll always love ya, thrusters.

 

PaleOMG Easy Breakfast Casserole

Happy Sunday morning! Don’t mind me, I’m just over here trying not to lose it after watching this video:

The video speaks for itself. It’s beautiful. I love it so much. This is why I love CrossFit. Fitness for everyone. No one should ever be held back from trying to better their life.  Props to this guy for making a difference.

Anyway, moving on. This food post is going to be short. BUT I wanted to show you one of our favorite breakfast recipes. If you love sweet potatoes and sausage, this is for you to try.

I can’t take credit for it though. It’s from PaleOMG. Check out her blog if you haven’t. She has great recipes, she’s hilarious, and even if you aren’t the “paleo” kind of person, you can still modify the recipes to make them work for you.

If you’re wanting to prep some breakfast today to get you through the week, you should check out this recipe: Easy Breakfast Casserole. It really is so easy. And so dang good.

PaleOMG – Easy Breakfast Casserole

Here’s what a little bit of it looks like. We prefer no onion in our’s. And sometimes, we add tomatoes. And I could eat the entire casserole if I wanted to.

 

Well, like I said- short and sweet. Which is unlike me. But I bet you’re happy about that. Enjoy your Sunday. We’re off to church soon. AND today I have my first gymnastics lesson, followed by some (or a lot) or training! We’re going to do that 50’s Regionals Chipper from 2014— not a lot of skill involved, but a lot of go and burn, so I’m actually really excited about it. I’m weird. You already knew that. Ok, bye!

16.2 Round Up

Happy Tuesday to ya. I’m 2 for 2 on going everyday with some mobility work/yoga. Yesterday by myself. Today at the gym with Colin and Jerry. It really is the beesssttt. And thanks again, Bradford for pestering me about ROMWOD until I actually did it. True friend. But I’m weird guys. I can totally make myself go run 5 miles. I can make myself get up at 4:30 am and go to the gym, but it’s almost impossible to make myself be still, work on some breathing, and actually do some yoga or get in some extra mobility. My coaches have been on me about it since I started CrossFit. My lack of range of motion and lack of flexibility hurts me.. bad. I had even more of a wakeup call to this when I went to my Level 1 Seminar back in December. They laid out the 10 General Physical Skills. It’s CrossFit’s First Fitness Model. Here they are: 1. Cardiovascular endurance 2. Stamina 3. Strength 4. Flexibility 5. Power 6 Speed 7. Coordination 8. Agility 9. Balance 10. Accuracy. You are as fit as you are competent in each of these 10 skills. I feel somewhat confident about the first 3. But that #4 — I just may be the worst in the gym. I’ve made it a goal to get better at these skills this year, but most importantly: flexibility. The more I work on flexibility, the more these skills that follow it will improve.

Ok, I’m all over the place. On to 16.2. Did you miss those weekly workouts last Friday? Yeah, me neither. For the remainder of the CrossFit Games Open Season, I’m not going to post them. Instead, on Monday or Tuesday, I’m going to talk briefly about the Open in our gym. In case you want to see our workouts, I pretty much just follow this link right here. Check out those heavy squat cleans and toes to bar work we did last Tuesday, March 1st.If that’s not prepping for the Open, I dunno what is. Good call, Nicholas.

We’ve been doing this Friday Night Lights feel this year at CFEC. Describing it on here doesn’t do it justice. The atmosphere is way better than any competition I’ve ever been to. The past two Fridays have set the bar high for the remainder of the Open. We have 100 or so people signed up to do some sort of version of the Open, and while not everyone can make it Friday night, most people do their workout then. If you want some good family fun this Friday night, CrossFit Electric City is the place to be. Kids. Pizza. Beer. And people working out. You don’t have to do the workout though (In fact, you can’t if you’re not signed up) but watching is just as fun. There’s something about the Open that pushes people to do their best. Having all your friends yell at you (nicely – for the most part) and cheer you on can’t be beat.

The highlight of Friday night was watching a guy named Jarrod (who also happens to be a Geoduck) knock out his last set of squat cleans. Jarrod has been at CFEC for maybe 6 months now. I’m not sure what the weight on the bar was, but I do know that before Friday night, he had never cleaned it before. And he did it multiple times. While Jarrod is getting stronger, I dunno if he could have done it without the 100 or so people in the gym cheering him on — yelling at him.. telling him he COULD do it. And even cooler, about 20 of us circled around him and pushed him to do it. It was the highlight of the night, that’s for sure. I’m still waiting for someone to show me a picture of it. Someone had to have snapped one. Telling you about it doesn’t do it justice. Let’s see…there were a good bit of PR’s Friday night., and I think everyone’s toes to bar have improved since last year.

We ran heats again Saturday morning, and then again alllllll day Monday. Monday was mostly made up of people who wanted to redo 16.2. The highlight of Monday to me was my friend Haley (who also happens to be a Geoduck.. wow). Haley will tell you that she’s no gymnast. We have that in common. Movements on the bar don’t come naturally. But like me, Haley is going to always come out fighting to make up for lost time on the bar. And Monday night, she did just that. She redid 16.2 and came up with 75+ reps better than when she did it Friday night. Only 5 (I think) Rx people in our gym made it to the third round of the workout, and because Haley redid the workout and knew she could get there, she is one of those people. I got to judge Haley, and I watched her link together her toes to bar for the first time!! Come on! The Open! As she was doing them, she was like “I have noooo idea where these are coming from” I think she was able to string 8 together.

Here’s a picture that my friend Joanna sent me of Haley killing 16.2.

Speaking of pictures, unfortunately the above one is the only one I could find from the weekend. No one seemed to take pics. Or maybe they are just hiding them from me.

For me, 16.2 was great. Actually, 16.2 was only great the first time around. I didn’t care for it the second time around.I got the same exact score. I really saw myself finishing all those cleans in the next to last round and getting to that last set of cleans, but turns out, my mental game was off Monday. BUT the GOOD NEWS is last year I couldn’t string together toes to bar. This year I could. Also, I had never cleaned 175 lb before(the weight in the 4th round, I think). My goal was to just get there. I knew it would be hard to clean though. Well, I got there with about 2 minutes to go in that round. I failed the first one. But I got right back up, did it again, and nailed it! I ended up hitting it 5 times. I failed 3 times total I think. I seriously couldn’t have done it without everyone cheering. Colin told me he cried a little….probably at how painful these cleans actually looked. Here’s a video(from my macbook) of the actual video that was taken. It’s pretty ugly. It’s slow. My knees cave in. I’m working on it, y’all. But the point is the atmosphere. I couldn’t have done that without my friends cheering for me. I’ll never forget it.

Right now I’m 37th(I think) in the southeast region out of 10,000+. I want it so bad. But with only 20 getting to go, and 3 workouts left, I just don’t think it will happen this year. I’m a little late to the game. But I’ve already seen so much improvement in myself over the past couple of weeks, with the help of my coaches, so I’m ready to turn it up a notch or two and really work on my weaknesses, and who knows- maybe next year?!? But I’m excited to be in the running for it. I think the added pressure has been good for me. Caring has made me uncomfortable, but I know that growth will come from that. I’m still just trying to remember to smile through it all and remember that life is better when you don’t take yourself so seriously.

Can’t wait to see what 16.3 brings! I want some wallballs. Or some thrusters. Or some more burpees. All the things like 99% of the world hates, but I love.

What I’m Learning…

Happy Hump Day to ya. First things first. I wanted to show you a picture of my dog, Charlie. He’s checking out all the cool cats(and by cats, I mean all different kinds of people) that walk by our new house during the day. He doesn’t bark or anything crazy. He’s just inquisitive. He’s not supposed to be on the couch, but I let him anyway.

Bare with me. I don’t usually get too deep with the words, but every now and then I do. I wanted to share with you the number one thing I’m learning right now:

Whatever it is that God put you on this earth to do, live it out with the intent to make others better. You’ll find yourself get better in the process.

I may not may not know you, so therefore I don’t know what you believe, but I hope you know that you exist on this earth for a purpose. You’re not here by accident. And everyday you have a choice… you can either live your life just going through the motions, or you can live your life with purpose. 

Without trying to sound too dramatic, half way through 2015, I had a quarter life crisis (actually, not really…but I had some things to think through). I woke up every morning feeling like my life had no purpose. I had a great job – a job that so many would love to have – at my church. But something just didn’t feel right. I felt like(for me) I wasn’t in the best spot to make the most impact in this world – and all I’ve ever really wanted to do was simply help people make their lives better. Every single day at work I would walk past the same sign in the same stairwell that said: “What would you do for God if you knew you couldn’t fail?” All I could think about was how I wanted to coach, train, and ultimately make people better through fitness, nutrition, their habits, and ultimately their lifestyle. For the longest time I shrugged those feelings off because that dream seemed impossible. First off, I knew nothing. Second off, I already had a full time job. Third, I was so scared of rejection and failure. People continually called this out in me, and I just laughed it off because for the previous two years, I was always the girl in CrossFit that was there to get a great workout, release stress, utilize my competitive drive, and make friends. But as my coaches would go over technique in all those complex movements you have to do, I really just didn’t care. (I now wish I could take all of that back 🙂 I was wrestling with all kinds of feelings in my job before Daniel and I decided that it was best for me to just get out, reevaluate where I was at, and start working toward these dreams I had to help people help themselves and ultimately make their lives better.

We invested the money to get my CrossFit Level 1 Cert. Despite being the most humbled as they picked apart all of my movements, it was one of the best weekends of my life. I passed the test, got my certificate in the mail, and immediately became the best trainer that ever lived. Hahahahaha, actually that last part is 100% false. But my eyes were opened, and since that weekend in December, I’ve been working hard to make myself better – so that I can ultimately make other people better. The JOY that I’ve found through that can’t be beat. I promise.  There’s something about this working out thing… You naturally bond with people over mutual experiences, like working out. And when you’re training or coaching someone, they’ll tell you allllllll about what’s going on in their life. I have LOVED getting to build relationships with people I’m training or coaching. It always goes back to relationships. How can you not care about the people you’re investing time and energy into?

Right now I know about 1% of what I would love to know, but I’m working towards learning more. First of all, I’m at the gym 6 days a week learning from the best coaches around. I’m not saying that ignorantly either. I go to a gym where the owners and coaches genuinely care. Several months ago, they cared enough to not let a trainwreck like me just jump in there and start coaching class by myself — and I’m really thankful for that. Nick and Cindy are the owners of CrossFit Electric City, and they took a chance on me. That’s for sure. Back in November, they started letting me help out in class, and it was one of the most fun, yet uncomfortable things I’ve ever done. (It actually still is). I remember the first time I went over the workout in front of class, my brain froze, and I’m sure nothing I said made sense. Not only are Nick and Cindy great coaches, but they are great friends of our’s. They’ve been in this fitness thing for a looong time. I look up to them, and I’m pretty much watching their every move in the gym. My life wouldn’t be the same right now if it weren’t for them, and Dan and I are very grateful for that. I kinda just started showing up to help coach back in November and made the gym my second home, and they just went with it I guess. I don’t take that for granted. Nick has called out a lot of potential in me and has believed in me more than the majority of the world, so I’m thankful for that too. If you’ve ever been trained or coached by Nick or Cindy, you know that this is more than just a business. They’ve invested a lot of time, money, and resources into making the fine people of Anderson,SC better.

Here’s a pic of Cindy and Nick in their gym, CrossFit Electric City. Nick is pretty chill- except when he nails me in the head in nutmeg. Check out his beard. And Cindy (tiny Cindy) is somewhere around five and a half months preggo with their baby boy (name yet to be determined, but right now, he is Iron Man Potato Head Meeks). 

photo cred: Josh Wilson Photography

I’ve also been able to learn a lot from my friends Kelly and Colin. They’re both coaches at CFEC. I already told you about how great Kelly is a couple of weeks ago here.  But I also want to make it known that CFEC wouldn’t be the same without Colin Leonard. The guy has a gift. Mostly everything he says just makes sense. He’s a great coach. He’s patient. He’s smart. He wants to see others get better. Him and his wife Lindsey (and their famous, now toddler Emerson) are some of our great friends, too. Last Wednesday, Colin was helping me with ring muscle ups. He tried thing where he spotted me on the rings, and something just clicked with me. He said something that I’ll never forget — “I’m no longer concerned about making Colin Leonard great. I want to make Alison Stall great.” He said it because he sees potential in me. The fact that he would even say that meant a lot to me, and I’ll never forget it. The reason I’m even telling you this is not to rave about the imporvement in muscle ups, but because I want to be a coach like Colin– someone that wants to make others great.

Here’s a picture of Colin and me (and Em, who is not my baby) back in July when we competed at the Independence Games in Florence together.

Who knows what the future holds?– But for right now, this has felt right. God has humored me as he’s brought me clients to train. But I’m beginning to believe that I am good at it. Am I where I want to be? Hell no. But am I WAY better than I was in November? Definitely yes. And the coolest thing is that as I’m having these opportunities to help others get better, I’m getting better in the process. I’m implementing what I’m dishing out, and I’m seeing results in my own life.

If you want to get better, spend as much time as you can around great people. Write down what they say. Listen to them. Do what they do. I hope this encourages you to figure out what you’re good at, and use it. Don’t waste that gift. That would be lame. If you don’t know what you’re good at, ask someone that actually knows you. Life is way better when you use your gifts to help other people. And most importantly, life is too short to be stuck in a rut. If you feel like you’re supposed to step out in faith and do something crazy, do it. Like me, you don’t have to have it all together. Just promise yourself (and those that have taken a chance on you) that you’re going to hustle, learn everything you can, and be humble. Results will come.

So, with all that said, let me know how I can help you. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll go figure it out for you. CrossFit may not be for everyone, but CFEC has other options as well. There’s something for everyone. Email me if you’re interested.

alisonstall10@gmail.com

I leave you with some classic song lyrics (well, not really classic.. pretty sure the song is only a couple years old) but music speaks:

“Keep the earth below my feet
For all my sweat, my blood runs weak
Let me learn from where I have been
Keep my eyes to serve, my hands to learn”

-Mumford and Sons

Fit Friday

Yeah, it’s not Friday. Give me a break though. We’re all moved in to our new house! I’d give you a tour, but it’s covered in boxes. Nothing is where it’s supposed to go. It’s kinda stressful, but here I am, on a Sunday morning, just typing away, not doing anything about it. Moving has shown me that we have WAY too much stuff. But we LOVE the house so much. The dogs do too.

We had another fun week in the gym. The CrossFit Games Open is upon us – so we prepped for that a little bit more. If you missed it last week, I said that CFEC is doing an intramural/in house competition for the Open. I believe we hit 100 people!! There are 3 divisions in our gym – Athlete (Rx), Fitness, and Wellness… So even if you’re not signed up officially online, you can compete in the In House Competition and still try really hard, be on a team, and cheer on your friends. We had our first “Friday Night Lights” two nights ago, and man oh man, was it fun. I had severe FOMO though because Dan and I had to miss some of it because we were closing on the house. But it was great! There were people lunging, burpeeing, and doing some sort of pullups EVERYWHERE. There was pizza and beer. I’ll go into more details about that later. But for now, here is what we did this past week! You can access all of our Athlete, Fitness, and Wellness workouts here:

From Good to Great – My Friend, Nicole Bowen’s Story

Rain. Blah. Rain is frustrating when you’re trying to move your stuff across the city. Rain has been the norm over the past 6 months or so in South Carolina. It saddens me.

You know what isn’t sad though? Great, hardworking people. I said awhile back that I want to use this blog as a platform to rave about the awesome people in my life. CrossFit Electric City has a lot of them. I hope your gym does too. If you want to meet all kinds of people that aren’t like you, get out of your bubble and go to the gym. You’ll meet all kinds of people there.

I’ve had the opportunity to workout alongside Nicole Bowen over the past 3 years. We started CrossFit around the same time. Nicole is a former rower at Clemson. You won’t find a more hardworking person – for real. She works at TTI, does a lot of freelance on the side, somehow makes it to the gym 5 days a week, and is in a D Group(which requires a lot of discipline). On top of that, she is incredibly generous, and she is passionate about always giving her best.

Awhile back, Nicole had some bumps in the road in her fitness journey, and honestly, just life in general. Nicole told me that she has always put an incredible amount of pressure on herself to be a great athlete, friend, and just all around human. However, she felt like she always fell short — being more on the side of “good,” not “great.”

I wanted to share her story, in her own words, because maybe you can relate to Nicole. Her story hits home for me too.

Fast Forward  – I’ve been able to witness Nicole get better in all kinds of ways over the past couple of months. I’ve watched her go from “good” to “great” in the way she carries herself. Great doesn’t always have to mean you’re the best at everything in the gym (Whoa, that would be a lot of pressure, and life is about more than that). I believe that being “great” is all in how you carry yourself. I’ve watched a transformation in Nicole over the past couple of months. In the past, Nicole would get SO down on herself for not meeting her own crazy standards that she put on herself. She would scream, cry, and get SO down on herself. Just ask her about it. We’ve all had our moments, but I think the pressure really got to Nicole. But Nicole has changed. I’ve watched her live a little, laugh at herself more, shake it off, and move on. And I believe THAT has made Nicole better – a better friend, teammate, and ultimately athlete. For real, if you look at her now, she’s better now than she ever has been. She’s moving quickly (even with burpees), and her strength is coming back scary fast! My mouth literally drops watching her throw weight around. And she can butterfly her chest to bar pullups. (Teach me, Nicole). It has been fun to watch, for sure!

Nicole is READY for the CrossFit Games Open this year. And watch out world, because she’s more prepared than ever to show up and have her best Open yet.

 

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My Break from Life, Friends and Crossfit (In Nicole’s Own Words)

This past year has been one of the most challenging years, mentally and physically, that I have come across thus far. It seemed as if no matter what I did it wasn’t good enough for anything, anyone, and not even myself. I struggled at work, with my freelance work, my friends and relationships with them, my Christianity, and athletic goals. My world was crashing down around me and I kept digging myself into a bigger hole or so I thought.

It all started last summer when I felt like I was in a rut with my spiritual life and I had met with Stephanie Fura and she told me about D Group. Basically D Group is the “Crossfit “ of bible study and it was honestly something that I needed. It’s embarrassing for me to admit that I had gone to Catholic School my entire life to know nothing of the Lord or have anything to show of it other than the few things that were “burned into me” prayer wise from repetition. Once I had gotten back from Charleston I decided to join a group and started my spiritual journey with God as my center.

As the weeks moved forward I felt that I was making great progress with all aspects in my life but I kept having a heavier and heavier workload from work and freelance that was truly impacting me physically and mentally. I was constantly exhausted and never could get the right balance between everything. I struggled with my timing or ever having the time to meal prep, see friends, or do basic chores around my house because I was always working countless hours a day.

I finally hit rock bottom when I was about to row a 2k with a coworker during our lunch break in September. As I was warming up and stretching in spider stretch, I slipped on the smooth concrete floor and dislocated my shoulder … STRETCHING. Just my luck right? I’m trying to get back into the gym and then this happens. Unfortunately, I have dealt with a lot of injuries throughout my time as an athlete. Each time that it happens it just seemed like a slap in the face. I have always been the “GOOD” athlete with the heart to push myself and work hard but never was the “GREAT” athlete that would make it in the top spot, top boat, or top finish. Being a competitive and passionate person in athletics and everything that I was involved in to took a toll on me over time. It kept me from giving any attention to myself because I was so focused on everyone else and their needs when I couldn’t meet my own.

When this happened I felt like it was time for me to throw in the towel and give up. I was never going to be the ideal person that I wanted to be or strived to be which only sunk me deeper and deeper into the rut that I was falling into. I stopped going to the gym most days and said I didn’t have time. I made excuses for everything on why I couldn’t do it. There were days where I would come home and eat a bag of Cheetos and a pint of ice cream because I thought to myself well it really doesn’t matter anymore because I am not worth it or it doesn’t matter what I do its not going to help me or hurt me in the long run. My mindset was really going through the ringer.

As time went by, I realized that I had a competition that I had signed up for at the beginning of December with my partner Derek. There were many times we talked about dropping out or me finding him a different partner that would actually participate well. He wouldn’t accept that ha! His mindset was for I needed to do this for myself and show that I can do anything that I set my mind to and that we were going to do this competition for fun, nothing else and that the outcome didn’t matter. I “got back” into the gym but still struggled due to the holidays. When I did start back, after therapy, etc. I decided to focus on the “fitness group” and the non-competitor group. My new struggle was going in thinking I would do well to only get my “lack of better words”… ass handed to myself. The reality was that I had to clear my mind and refocus myself to why I was doing Crossfit. Not just for the competitive side, but because I really enjoyed it and the people I was around.

It honestly wasn’t until Derek and I did that competition before Christmas to realize how much I missed THIS. By THIS I meant the atmosphere of the people, places, friendships, competition, and camaraderie. Not sure if it was the adrenaline that I was feeling but my first event that Derek and I participated in felt like I could do anything. I went into the remaining events with my head held high but was sadly beaten down again by myself. The second event even though we had practiced it didn’t go as planned. I failed reps, couldn’t hold my own, and just overall felt that hot anger take over me because I couldn’t do the simplest tasks. When the time cap came to a close I couldn’t get away fast enough. I was embarrassed and scared at the same time. I wanted to quit and fully give up. If it hadn’t of been for Derek and Alison to talk me into continuing I probably would have left. This showed me that I had truly special and inspiring people in my life that I was shutting out. I left that competition more humble than I had been in a really long time. This was just only the beginning of my new journey.

I had told myself that the New Year was going to be the new beginning for me, and my journey back to where I want to be. It wasn’t going to be the typical cliché new years resolution of fly and die but a total refocus in that everything that I do is a building and humbling experience. There were going to be days where I would excel and there will be days I will fall behind, but the key was taking the step and moving forward everyday. This really hit home for me when I had gotten one of the most motivating and inspiring gifts from my roommate, Stephanie Trotter. She had made a box of quotes for everyday of the year compiled of bible versus, famous sayings, and tidbits that she had collected from my closest friends. Now every day I start my day with one of these quotes, daily bible reading, and daily devotional (My Upmost for His Highest by: Oswald Chambers – Thanks Shandi! This has forever changed me). All of those set the tone for me and helped get my mind right because I now know I cannot control everything –  only God can –  and we cannot do life alone. So each day is a new day and sometimes you just need to take step back and humble yourself in order to succeed.

“ I will find more within myself” – Julie Foucher

 

Nicole was my partner in Clash of the Titans Competition last June. It was a lot of fun. We got 1st place.

Back in 2013 – competing in Statesboro together. Nicole got 2nd. I got 4th. This was one of the first times Daniel and I hung out with Nicole outside of our gym. 

Apex Games in GVL in 2014. Nicole did great. Dan did great. He took my place because I couldn’t walk. Good husband, he is.

 

Nicole and Derek competing at The Independence Games back in July 2015. Derek is a great friend, and has been a huge encouragement to Nicole over the past couple of years. 

 

 

Fit Friday

What’s up y’all? Happy Friday (or maybe Saturday for you by now). I’m doing a CrossFit competition this weekend with my friend Jackie. We had our first WOD tonight. It was reeealllll crazy – lots of cardio. I have a love/hate relationship with the assault bike. I love it. But I hate it. So this was interesting… while I was on the assault bike, that TERRIBLE, overplayed summer song by The Weekend came on (“Can’t Feel My Face”) and it brought back terrible memories from when I did a Krispy Kreme Doughnut Eating Contest over the summer. That dumb song played while I shoved doughnuts down my face and almost made me throw up. I only did it because I’m competitive. I don’t even really like doughnuts. Anyway, the song triggered something in me, and I immediately thought of shoving doughnuts down my face, and I almost just threw up right there on the assault bike in front of all kinds of people. That would have been cute. Anyway, Jackie and I won the workout, and we compete again tomorrow. So much fun.

Man, I love competing. I mean, I may do like 4 competitions (at most) a year, but when I do them, they are so much fun. You get to hang out and meet cool people and watch people give their best. I always get really nervous, which is a great feeling to have every now and then – especially when I compete with a teammate. I’ll quit on myself way before I’ll quit on someone else, so I try to push myself really hard.

Speaking of competing, we’re getting ready for the OPEN. It was just announced in the middle of last night that we have 94 FREAKIN’ PEOPLE signed up for our In House Competition of the OPEN at CFEC. We’ll be split up in to 6 teams. I think this number may even go up a little because usually what happens is, people who forgot to sign up see all the hype, and then they feel lame and left out, so they beg to be put on a team… so maybe we’ll even hit 100, who knows?!? The important thing is that I am on the Geoducks, pronounced: “Goey Ducks” Here’s a snapshot of my teammates, and I couldn’t be any happier. I believe in all of you, Geoducks.

We are in fact not ducks. I was bummed about this because my arm flappin’ won’t work as our team dance. Geoducks are clams – sometimes known as the King Clam or the Elephant Trunk Clam. It’s one of the longest living organisms, and it’s the mascot of some school in Washington. Their fight song goes like this: “….Squirt it out, Swivel all about, let it all hang out” Here’s what we’re working with so far.

Speaking of the Open, we did some more prepping this week. I am just loving these workouts. Below is what we did, along with some extra stuff I did. To access all our athlete, fitness, and wellness workouts, you can go here: