Real talk...be honest about what you want to achieve!

HAPPY EASTER!! 

Let me start by saying I love that I WOD at a box where love knows no boundaries. Call it what you want...we have an amazing mix of people and personalities at our box. And I love it. I love that we acknowledge and accept people for who they are because honestly at 3..2..1.. go...we are all the same! (suckers about to die...)

This picture really needs no caption. LOVE THIS!

Since I won't be posting tomorrow- those of you who follow for food ideas I have just 1 recipe I know FOR SURE I am making. Thanks AGAIN to freaking Maria. YES! SCOTCH EGG MEATLOAF!! And super appropriate to make on Easter Sunday.(because it has eggs...)
http://optimalnutrition1.blogspot.com/2013/03/scotch-egg-meatloaf.html

Scotch Egg Meatloaf

An easy, delicious version of this recipe, except made into a meatloaf, rather than single meatballs and the clever addition of bacon, wrapped around the entire loaf, so each serving gets one slice of bacon.
Either version works and either will give you a huge bolus of protein.
Ingredients
Your favorite meatloaf recipe using 2 lbs grassfed ground beef
3 hard boiled eggs, peeled
Bacon
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix together the grassfed ground beef with your favorite meatloaf additions.
Dump half of the mixure into a loaf pan (I used 8x4).
Top with 3 eggs.
Dump other half of ground mixture on top of eggs and press down to seal around sides.Layer slices of bacon on top and wrap around sides, so the entire meatloaf is covered. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour.

That's it. All the food advise I am offering this week. With Easter I am sure there are going to be family dinners with lots of leftovers and if you are like me and your assignment was salad you got smart and you are making enough so that you have some left over- I also grabbed a rotisserie chicken from Costco- have to have protein with my greens. If you are looking for ideas for easy items for this week-  here's a tip of things to purchase on grocery day-

A few sweet potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli or any green veggie, eggs, spinach, kale, lots of turkey (for us non beef lovers) and some chicken thighs..need that fat for the last open wod! That's it. If you can't make some quick easy meals from that..email me, text me- I am always happy to help.

THE LAST WEEK OF THE OPEN IS UPON US!!

I can't believe it. This is been the longest and shortest 4 weeks of my life. The emotions this Open brought out of me this year have been all over the board. 

But ...time for real talk. As each WOD has come out- we all get a little nutso. WHY? because lets be honest. There are very few athletes that have ZERO weakness' if there are any at all. The ideology behind CrossFit is the term general physical preparedness. Meaning if we are training CrossFit in GENERAL we should be prepared for whatever comes our way.  I have been able to find complete LOGIC with each movement. Now do not get it twisted that because they are functional I love them. No one LOVES thrusters OR burpees..and if you do..get your mind right THEY HURT ALOT! Anywhoo. So here is my gripe and please, no one take offense to this. I am not targeting any one person.

Gthug pushing 135# first time ever and not just ONE time..

We all have strengths and weakness'. BUT- do we train our weakness' like we do our strengths? I am going to throw a BIG FAT NO out there. I myself am guilty of dropping off the pull up bar more often than I should. 

Here is a great example-Garrett Smith- a triathlete by choice (I call it crazy but whateves) He knows his strengths are anything without heavy weight on the bar, running and gymnastics movements, (this is in relation to CrossFit we all know he swims like a freaking fish and can ride like the wind) however-he has had to endure 4 WODS now whereby the weight has been heavy (even a 20# med ball can be a challenge). Last night he pushed  135# multiple times. Did he get a super high score? No...was he smiling when it was all said and done? YES ! he has made some pretty amazing progress. And I would venture to guess that next year he is going to shock the crap out of us all. He knows in order to get stronger-he will have to train that weakness. Although I didn't really get to watch him in this WOD. From the pictures I have seen from week 1 to week 4 tells me he has been training his weakness. 

Love the look of determination!

I also want to point out another athlete who confessed to me that when the WOD came out-she might have cried. She felt like there was NO way she would even get one 95# bar over her head. Oh Monie- you silly girl. Of course you will. We were all there cheering her and pushing her and again- not only did she get one-she got more than one. She was SO excited, we were so excited. It was honestly the BEST moment of 13.4 at CF22 if you ask me. After she got her first rep she dropped the bar and started screaming over to her son who was also wodding-her whole affect changed- we all watched as Monies confidence increased and that bar was no longer something that was going to cause her to cry OR defeat her. 

Hard work gets hugs at CF22

And I am throwing this out just for shits and giggles...You will probably see her stepping her game up in the next few weeks. After the WOD was over she walked around from the inside of the perimeter of safety tape and hugged us and thanked us all. What an amazing moment to watch an athlete like myself that sometimes has too much self doubt overcome come a fear. At the end of the day if us women in the Masters have learned anything from this -it should be that age won't define us. We work just as hard as a 21 year old elite athlete-it just may look a little different. 

Sweet Sweet Kim

So now let me add an example of an athlete that KNEW she had to train her weakness if she wanted to get points in this WOD. Sweet quiet Kim Weir..Oh do NOT be fooled by her quiet demeanor...this girl has so much MOXY! Kim got the opportunity to train one on one with 3 pretty amazing coaches on Thursday (he he Kat, Liz and I) probably more pressure than she wanted and honestly- Kat started coaching her but Liz and I were there and well...if you know anything about the SWEATFIELD girls..um...we always have plenty to say. Funny story about Kim. When 13.2 came out she and Joe had to WOD right after the announcement because they were leaving to go out of town and I was her judge. She asked me what she should do if she couldn't complete a 75# push press...I know that I looked at her all kinds of crazy and was like uh..WHAT? then also in the same breath told her she could. I think sometimes...all you need is someone to tell you that you CAN do something..because she did. She pushed the bar as many times as she could. She never gave up. And so here she is 2 weeks later...pushing 95#. So proud of her. Another HUGE moment. 

15 years old...watch out boys..this cutie can handle herself.

And of course, I am a little biased with this one. My niece Riley. Now, my meltdown when this WOD came out wasn't due to the fact that I completely suck at Toes 2 Bar. I was pissed that my MOM at 71 had to try and get a toes 2 bar. The concern wasn't that she wouldn't try. It was would she hurt herself trying? So. Mom was only able to post a score of 3 on this WOD. BUT, she modified the wod and did it anyway and I believe she got as far as I did. Into her round of 15's. BUT, there is no modification for my 15 year old niece. And guess what. She did it. She pulled that 95# bar as many times as she could in the time she was given. Its crazy to me that the individual age bracket spans from 14 or 15-to 39. But here's the deal. If you want it bad enough- you will get it. And Riley wanted this. 

Probably by now - I should have made my point. There are so many amazing stories coming from CF22 right now that if I blogged everyday I wouldn't be able to post them all. We are all getting better and we are all getting braver and stronger. 

Here's my beef. If a normal everyday WOD is posted and you look at it and you are like eh..that weight seems heavy to me, and you are constantly going under the weight by 10 or 15#....do you REALLY believe that you are going to get stronger? What is that saying from Eintstein about INSANITY Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This   is so true. So if you are in the gym and everyday you pull the same weight lets say 65# and then you do the Open and you are required to pull 95# don't bitch and moan because you can't do it. You can't do the same thing day after day and expect a different result or outcome right? We all have goals. We all CrossFit or we are athletic for whatever reason. So here's a non CrossFit example..you can't train for a marathon and only run 1 or 2 miles right? How do you expect to build up endurance if you never train past a certain point. The bottom line is - if all you really want is to just be fit and workout a few times a week and constantly get your ass handed to you. Then that's awesome. You are still doing WAY more than most people do. If your goal is to get better. Better at life, better at lifting, better at anything. Then honestly we all know- YOU HAVE TO PUT THE FREAKING WORK IN. If you aren't willing or able- totally fine and ok. But don't complain if you are participating in something that requires you to give more than you are willing to give. 

A really good example. A competitors WOD came up before the Open whereby we had to do 30 135# hang cleans. It doesn't help that I was doing these WODS with Amanda who is CRAZYYYYY strong, and I am always trying to keep up with her..oh did I mention my own child is only 3 years younger than her (again- age is just a number). Anyway..my gut instinct was to scale the weight (glorious thing about CF scaling options) however, how in the hell would I know if I could do it if I wasn't willing to try? So I tried and by damn after I pulled a few power cleans and realized oh snap...a hang clean...can't take the bar all the way to the floor.  I managed to get through 30 hang cleans that day. And the next time I had to pull a 115# clean...I knew without a shadow of a doubt..I could do it.

So I guess my point, and the train I am going to be on. If I want to get better at things I am just really not good at. I am going to quit bitching about how bad I suck at them...and I am going to train them and get better. So when "goat" work comes up. BE honest with yourself. One day we had to do goat work and it was funny because my shoulder was bugging so I just worked on Dubs instead and Jen Perry totally called me out. She knew..I didn't need dubs work..but I did explain my shoulder was compromised and Staff Sargent Jen let me off the hook. 

Everyone is at a different place in life. You all cant be like me. An empty nester with not alot to do besides work, blog and wod. I get that. BUT, decide what you really want. If you want to get stronger...start with baby steps add 1.5 lbs to each side of the bar and go up from there. If you want to stay the same. Just show up and do what you have been doing. 

I love that this Open has brought out things in people I never knew existed and more than likely neither did they. I know that last night Jayanne asked a few of us to please start pushing her. Please make her do heavier weights. Can't wait to WOD with her next year in the Open......

Croni...out.