Category: CrossFit Open 2013

F*ck It.

This is my newest and most favorite t-shirt. Pretty much says everything that needs to be said. I love it.

pretty much says it all

I also love GoodReads.com. Especially searching quotes on GoodReads.

In line with my mood for today I entered the following text, ‘F*ck It’ and hit ‘Search.’ Below are some of my favorite resulting quotes:

“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened… or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the fuck on.” ― Tupac Shakur

 “Ok. You fuck me, then snub me. You love me, you hate me. You show me a sensitive side, then you turn into a total asshole. Is this a pretty accurate description of our relationship.” ― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

 “You are not your job, you’re not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking khakis. You are all singing, all dancing crap of the world.” ― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

“Operation Self-Esteem–Day Fucking One.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

 “Nobody dies a virgin… Life fucks us all.” ― Kurt Cobain

 “Half of life is fucking up, the other half is dealing with it.” ― Henry Rollins

 “You’re fucked. You thought you were going to be someone, but now it’s obvious you’re nobody. You haven’t got as much talent as you thought you had, and there was no Plan B, and you got no skills and no education, and now you’re looking at forty or fifty years of nothing. Less than nothing, probably. That’s pretty heavy. That’s worse than having the brain thing, because what you got now will take a lot longer to kill you. You’ve got the choice of a slow, painful death, or a quick, merciful one.” ― Nick Hornby, A Long Way Down

 “Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn” ― Orson Welles

“By the way, when Oprah Winfrey is suggesting you may have overextended yourself, you need to examine your fucking life.” ― Tina Fey, Bossypants

 “I learned that the world doesn’t want to be saved, and it will fucking punch you in the face if you try.” ― Gerard Way

 “Listen, smile, agree, and then do whatever the fuck you were gonna do anyway.” ― Robert Downey Jr.

 “When she came to her senses again she cut off all contact with him. It had not been easy, but she had steeled herself. The last time she saw him she was standing on a platform in the tunnelbana at Gamla Stan and he was sitting in the train on his way downtown. She had stared at him for a whole minute and decided that she did not have a grain of feeling left, because it would have been the same as bleeding to death. Fuck you.” ― Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played with Fire

“You need just the right amount of ‘Fuck the world’ and the right amount of belief in something…and you need the right amount of love.” ― Gerard Way

 “Get there early because hope does not park your mother-fucking car.” ― Jon Stewart

It only seems right that it’s Deadlift Day at ACF. Bring on the long overdue Deadlift PR.

WOD Prep:
* 2 Minutes Per Side
 
1. Establish a 1RM Deadlift in 25 Minutes.
 
Completed: 300lbs. deadlift PR!!

At long last – 300lbs. 

This has been a goal since forever. Granted as soon as the bar landed to the ground my head started spinning and the stars came out I would have fallen over had Viv not taken hold of my arm and gently spoke to me, ‘It’s okay, you’re okay… Mary, you’re okay.’ Her muffled words somehow breaking through the pretty molten colors and landing on my brain.

I regained composure and looked around and realized there were quite a few athletes watching and wondering if I was going to topple. The feeling in the triple wide was electric. Perhaps it was the lack of oxygen. There were a lot of PR’s, a lot of athletes working hard and supporting one another. All the things I love best about CrossFit neatly wrapped up in a 300lbs. Deadlift PR. 

10 Minute AMRAP of:
10 Deadlifts (115/75)
15 Box Jumps (24/20)
 
Completed: 6 rounds + 2. 182 reps total. No where near my open score. But it was a great night and I worked fucking hard. I’ll take it. Woot.

Open WOD 13.3

“If you really love something, you never try to keep it the way it is forever. You have to let it be free to change.” ― Cassandra Clare

WOW 13.3:

Standards

12 Minute AMRAP of:

150 Wall Balls (20/14)

90 Double Unders

30 Muscle Ups

Completed: So, even after attending a Saturday afternoon jump rope clinic and spending counltess evenings after work practicing in the driveway, I still do not have double unders. Therefor the best score I could hope for in Open WOD 13.3 was a score of 150 total. As in 150 wall balls. That’s it. I do not have double unders and certainly do not have muscle ups.

Imagine my surprise when I scored: 152!! And PR’d on my Karen time (150 Wallballs for time) by 1:10, with a total time of: 8:17. Woot! That’s 150 wall balls and two double-unders. Not sure how it happened other than after completing the first double-under my judge jumped around me and cheered and screamed ‘YES, you did it! Now do it again!’ Pretty cool.

If you work hard in CrossFit the change you will see will be within you.

hit the delete button. Open WOD 13.2

“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you.” ― Lao Tzu

If you haven’t heard, the CrossFit Open is upon us. It is a five week competition and we just finished week two. Anyone anywhere in the world can compete in the CrossFit Open, you just have to sign up. It may sound overwhelming at first, like why would I want to compete against CrossFitters like Rich Froning or Annie Thorisdottir? These people are the real deal, professional athletes, Fire Breathers, as we like to refer to the true badasses in the CF world. Alas, I’m not a Fire Breather. I’m a pretty avg. person who wants to stay healthy and enjoys feeling strong, connected, and in the mix of things I enjoy.

I am a competitive person but I’ve been struggling recently with the idea of competing.  I simply do not like feeling like I’m about to throw-up in the hours and minutes leading up to the actual competition. It’s too much some times, the built up anxiety and fear. There’s a never-ending list of What If’s that flood my thoughts usually concluding with tragic blood curling infused consequences. The imagination is deep and graphic and capable of drumming up some pretty outlandish stuff, I assure you.

You have to take control though, hit the delete button and deposit those paralyzing thoughts in the trash. What can help you hit the delete button? The people around you, positive people, engaged people, people ready to do the same. There was too much enthusiasm in our box about the Open and too many of my fellow athletes, none of us Fire Breathers, swallowing their doubts or fears or hesitations or all of the above, and signing up for the Open.

Inspired by our community, I signed up too:

WOW 13.2:

Standards

Complete As Many Rounds & Repetitions As Possible In 10 Minutes of:

5 Shoulder To Overhead (115/75)

10 Deadlifts (115/75)

15 Box Jumps (24/20)

Completed: RX weight for women at 75lbs. 227 reps total.

Athlete of the Year. Thank you. Open WOD 13.1

“You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings.” 
― Elizabeth Gilbert

It’s a strange thing being nominated for and then winning an award. Throws you into a tizzy of activity, and your whole routine gets amped up. For me it did anyway, suddenly I wasn’t just going to ACF for my daily WOD. Suddenly I began to put pressure on myself, excited about the nomination, wanting to win. Getting a manicure and pedicure.

Last week I didn’t feel like just another member anymore at ACF. I felt special, different, a little bit removed. This can be good and bad. I tend to think about things too much as it is. Generally I’m more comfortable blending in. Which is funny considering I do not blend, as I stand head and shoulders above most. But at ACF everyone is used to my height, so aside from the occasional joke from one of the coaches I’m just another member there to do my best. I relish this. Out in the real world, out in public, people tend to stare or point. Strangers will even come up and ask me questions; How tall are you? Did you play basketball? Once while standing in line at the grocery store with a former boyfriend who was 3 inches shorter than me, the woman in line in front of us turned around and stared at us. She looked me up and down. She looked said boyfriend up and down and then she said, ‘Well, you know what they say, we’re all the same height horizontally.’

True story.

I suppose it’s not that I don’t like to stand out, I would just like to be noticed for things other than the most obvious. Wouldn’t we all. To me, walking up to someone and saying, ‘You’re tall’ is the epitome of stating the obvious and being lazy. Wouldn’t it mean so much more if we took the time to notice little not so obvious things about one another, positive things, and then pointed them out? You’re very patient, you’re a good listener, you have a nice style about you.

Way back when in 1998 in a bar in Denver I was out with a group of friends shooting pool and drinking beer when a black gentleman came up to me and said, ‘Wow, you’re really tall, did you play basket ball?’ Having had just the perfect amount of beers and feeling confident I replied, ‘You’re really black, did you?’

He looked at me and didn’t say a thing.  My friend Kerry started eyeing the Exits.

After a moment the gentleman smiled and then high-fived me and said, ‘Right on, can I buy you a drink?’

Back to being awarded Female Athlete of the Year by my ACF peeps: Pretty freaking awesome. Being recognized for something you work so hard at, is really quite something. When you’re working hard, when you’re really working hard, and you’re forcing yourself out the door against being tired or hungry or the dishes still sitting in the sink and the bills not getting paid… when you’re pushing yourself just one step further, one moment more even when you think you can’t… You really don’t think anyone is actually noticing. It’s dark, you’re tired, it’s late, or too early and it’s cold and you just want to eat some Trader Joe’s curried chicken straight from the bucket and crawl under the covers. But somehow you don’t. You push through the powerful pull to stay and you keep going.

So when you actually do get noticed for something so incredibly positive and in your mind not obvious at all… well, it’s like being blessed.

Thank you ACF.

OPEN WOD 13.1

WOMEN – includes Masters Women up to 54 years old
Proceed through the sequence below completing as many reps as possible in 17 minutes of:
40 Burpees
45 pound Snatch, 30 reps
30 Burpees
75 pound Snatch, 30 reps
20 Burpees
100 pound Snatch, 30 reps
10 burpees
120 pound Snatch, as many reps as possible

Completed: 114 reps. Happy to have the first Open WOD in the books. Mediocre score, but this is my first Open and I’m happy just to learn strategy. After judging on Saturday and being a part of the absolute raw energy and excitement of a lot of athletes pushing themselves towards their very best, I feel energized for 13.2.