It's been awhile! Life has been out of control. September came and went, and now my head is spinning with thought of October already being here. I guess it's good to be busy! Anyway, my last post sort of touched on the negative things that have been going on in life. While all of the negativity doesn't seem to be gone, I sure have been able to get rid of most of it!
The past few weeks have again showed me that I'm stronger than I think. As most of you know, I'll be participating in the O2X Challenge on October 18th at Loon Mountain. It's probably one of the most terrifying things I'll ever do in my life. It's an outdoor trail run (walk for me) with natural obstacles. Again, I don't know what possessed me to sign up for this, but I did, and now I have to focus. This past weekend a group of us made a trip up to Blue Hills Ski area to do some trail run prep. Our group was lead by the amazing Mike Monarch. When we got there he told us that we were going to go up and down the ski slope as many times as possible. UP THE SKI SLOPE- like the slope that people ski DOWN. Oh okay. It was too late to back out, because he already saw me- haha. So we started warming up, doing some stretches, and the whole time I'm looking up at the slope. My body was going to have to make it all the way up there. And back. More than once. We finished warming up, and MM cut us loose to get up the slope at our own pace. Of course pretty much everyone took off running. Not me- I know my limits, and it was also SO HOT on Sunday. Like, come on Fall, get it together. I got about 1/4 of the way up and turned around to see how far I had gone. It wasn't that far- and I had so much more to go. I was struggling. I was breathing so heavy, my back hurt, I was sweating (who wears all black to go hiking?) and I was thinking about turning around and calling it a day. Just at that moment, MM came down from the top, and asked me how I was doing. Obviously I was struggling. I probably was crying, I don't even know at this point. I remember the first thing I said to him was "My body wasn't made for this kind of activity." His response- "Of course it was-let's go." I knew he wasn't gonna let me just scoot back down the slope- I was getting up there, no matter how long it took. We got to this particularly steep spot, and that's when I lost it. I told him that there's absolutely no way I'm getting up there, and I'm going to drop out of the O2X challenge (drama queen that I am). Of course he talked me off the ledge and made me go up a little more, then rest. In the whole time I was on that slope, I can't even count how many random people stopped to ask if I wanted some water, if I was okay, if I wanted their walking stick, and to tell me how great I was doing. It was truly a humbling experience. It restored my faith in humanity a little. So Mike and I kept trucking. I felt so bad for keeping him behind, and not letting him get his trail run in, but he assured me it was fine, so on we went. We finally made it to the top, and it was the best feeling. Just like completing all of those box step-ups at the competition. There was a group of people at the top who started clapping when I got up there; a few of the guys from my group who were waiting and of course, Mike. I can't thank that man enough for everything he's done for me. He is truly an amazing human, and a great example of what a coach should be. After a few minutes of rest, it was time to get back down. Mike took me down the bunny hill, since it would be less steep, and scary. Wrong- it was still scary. I think going downhill is more scary- you don't have much control, but thankfully I had my new trail shoes, which worked out really well. I made it back down to the bottom to see Elena, Alisa, & Olivia waiting for me. They had already been up and down a few times- totally impressed by those ladies. Another guy in our group, Chris had this fancy watch on which told us what altitude we were at. After all was said and done, we ended up rising up 553ish FT. That's legit. I'm so proud and happy that I made it up there, but more importantly, I'm actually excited for the O2X. I mean, of course I'm going to be scared until we get there, but for now, I'm excited- because I know that I will be able to do it. Thank you MM and EM for everything- Words cannot express the amount of love and respect I have for you both. I'm forever grateful for you!
Other big things happening soon:
I signed up for my SECOND competition!! WOOT. I'm so excited! This one is for a good cause. It's for Barbells for Boobs being held at CrossFit Tolerance in Rhode Island. I initially wasn't going to sign up for it, because one of the wods was burpee barbell jump overs- and I'm just not there yet, but Justin, the owner of CFT, was super cool and accommodating. He ended up changing the standards anyway, so that in the scaled division, you could have a trailing foot. That is coming up next weekend on October 12th! If you would like to donate, I've included the link in this post. It's for a great cause, that helps pay for mammograms for early detection for breast cancer. Every little bit helps, so just give it a thought! https://fundraise.barbellsforboobs.org/fundraise?fcid=351181
#NutritionFest starts tomorrow at RCFBC! It's a paleo challenge with a teammate! I'm glad to be back on paleo challenge- I feel like I got a lot out of it last time, and I'm fully committed this time. Naturally, I chose my main chick- Kate Hutch to partner up with. We did all of our food shopping today & we are ready to go for tomorrow! Team #BlackonBlackonBlack is coming for you guys!!!
Tomorrow also begins the start of my first Olympic Lifting course. I'm very excited. I'm not sure what to expect, but I know it's going to be awesome. I have been waiting for this class to happen at bare cove, and finally it's here!! I'm hoping to make some gains, learn some new skills, and get stronger overall.
Other NEWS! Reebok CrossFit Bare Cove is opening a second location on the Scituate/Cohasset line called CrossFit SciCoh!! It was a huge announcement, and an awesome surprise. I'm so happy for Mike, Chris & Sharon on this new endeavor. I'm excited for our community to expand, although I am a little nervous that we'll lose some of our members. Everything will work out! This is going to be awesome for the community!
So that covers most of what's going on. Honestly, I can't remember what else, but this seems like a pretty decent list of good things!
Oh yeah....I HAVE A WEBSITE!!!! With the help of many people, I finally setup a website, and will be posting my blogs on there, along with my favorite recipes, products, etc. I'm so excited to share it with you all! Take a peek, share with your friends, and leave me some feedback! I appreciate everyone's support more than you know! http://www.thatcrossfitgirl.com/. DISCLAIMER** Sometimes the website displays my blogs, sometimes it doesn't- I have to figure out what's wrong with it!! ****
Have a wonderful week! XOXOXOXO - AA
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