Week 24 – Tomorrow is Another Day

Well I had my follow up appointment and I got super lucky in that my doctor has mentioned that I should be able to use my foot more. I was cleared to go and use a stationary bike but absolutely no spinning. I was also not cleared to jump, run, or hike just yet. These past few weeks have been horrible for my mental state. I am happiest when I am running, biking, hiking, lifting, and pulling. In other words, I am not happy if I am not at the gym doing physical activity. I only went to the box once in my 3 week rest period and just that hour was the best hour of my week. The tear is healing but I am now required to use my foot more but I still have to be careful as it is still healing. Here are a few things that I learned while I was required to rest. First, if you don’t like what you see in the mirror, don’t beat yourself down, get a new mirror. Your reflection should not be a source of self hate. Sometimes you see yourself reflected in others and the negativity they have makes you feel bad about yourself. This is an opportunity for you to find a new friend. This person is not your friend if they make you feel bad about yourself. There is a difference between finding a weakness and feeling bad about you. Do not confuse these two ideas. It is ok to not be perfect. Second, you are where you are. This was never more apparent until now with my injury. I must accept the fact that I will not bounce back as that is not how the human body functions. Lastly, all bad things that happen do not have to make you stop reaching your goals. In other words, when you are in juried take the opportunity to make the other area strong. This is not the time to stop reaching for your goals just change direction. As always I am grateful for my friends and family that have helped me though this difficult time.

Tomorrow is a new day and my first day back after a solid week off. I will be doing a modified workout and really look forward to working with the ladies who I have missed (Nurse Jackie, Joanna, The Heather’s, Ariel, and of course Keidy). My birthday was awesome and I even got some CrossFit gear such as shoes (my favorite aunt), socks, and a Reebok gift card. I got my Polar watch battery changed and started packing my Polar heart rate monitor. Watch out because now I am going to be awesome! Have you ever had an injury that took you out of your daily routine? How did you deal with it? I think that I might be able to get back to my routine but I hope that it will all return to normal soon.

Week 23 – What happens when you sit

So during this time when I am forced to sit and think some odd things have come up in my mind. Addiction, love, passion are all things that come from the same space. We all have these things and some of us express them in destructive ways but others focus that same passion and energy into healthy things. I have an addiction to fitness. I always have. There is something in the competition of whatever that drives me. When I got sick a few years back it put me into a depression and I gained weight. I have had a lot of time to look over my life. When I was in high school I was happy on the track. When I lived in Austin I would go out every single day and ride my bike. It was a type of meditation and calm. Rain, shine, wind, Saturday, it didn’t matter to me what day it was or what the weather was. In the cold I put on long pants and in the heat I put on shorts and packed extra water. I have been doing CrossFit for 6 months now and it is my meditation. It is my peace in a world of chaos. This injury has slowed me down but I am not out. I do push-ups at home and I do one legged squats at my desk. I was down for a full week and the horror of stopping was so over whelming that it is unexplainable. My trainer said she would get a program together for me so that I didn’t use my foot. It is so great when you find others who understand your need to move and push yourself. The probability that I will be out for most of the summer is very high but I am going to fight it. In talking with the doctor he said take it easy for 3 weeks and he will check in with me. Next week I go back for him to see my foot. I have done everything and more than what he said. Rest, Ice, Compress, and Elevate and repeat. My swelling has gone down on my foot and I am hopeful that he will take the original estimate of 8 week and reduce it.

I did go to the box this week and I think it was the first time I was sad to not do burpees. Yes that is the first time and the last time you will ever see that. I am hoping to go on Friday as well with my ladies. So here is to a new week, a new lease on life, and the ability to do more today than I did yesterday. Cheers and happy lifting!

Week 22 – On Pause

So there was an interesting thing that happened on Sunday. There was a wild ninja that broke into my house and I attacked him before he got to the baby kittens. No that’s not true. There was a circus in town and their bear had escaped and was terrorizing my neighborhood and as the wanna-be-superhero I sprung into action before the trash was bear handled. That’s not true either. I really wish it was something as exciting as a ninja bear or I was attending the open call for America’s Next Top Superhero but in actuality I caught the edge of the step and fell the rest of the way down the stairs. All in all I have a “spring” in my step. Yes that is right, I sprung my foot and am currently out of commission when it comes to CrossFit but I am just too stubborn to really stop exercising. I am currently working on an upper body workout that allows me to not use my foot but still workout. I was told that I might be out of commission for 6 to 8 weeks but as the all famous Tony Hawk once said “You are going to have to fight me”. I cannot just sit still anymore.

The big goal for this week and next is to focus on the healthy eating and build the upper body strengthen. This will allow me to get strong without putting the stress on the ligaments in my foot. I will continue to post and keep you updated on my progress including pictures and stats. Also, I am working on trying my heart rate monitor (HRM) from polar again to track my progress.

Regional Photos

Here are some of the images I took at the regional competition. These athletes were amazing to watch. First let’s start with the ladies doing a strict handstand pushup. So you start in a handstand and drop down to touch your head (believe it or not this is not the hard part) and then push yourself back up. Here you see the ladies all in the starting position.

One of the things the athletes had to do is a handstand walk (sounds like a lot of handstand work but it was just 2 events that had handstands and there were 6 events). Here you see the men trying to get ready for the handstand walk. Sounds simple enough but it is not.

This is the first part of the event which was 3 tries at finding your max weight of a hang squat snatch. Yes it is a funny word but a lot of weightlifting words are funny. Here you see the gentleman preparing his bar to lift.

Next is a picture of my coach about to start the workout that called for a legless rope climb. This is you have to climb a rope without using your legs. It is more about using your hips in a similar manner as a kettlebell swing. She did great at this event! How can she not with arms like that.

This is the women trying to push-up from the handstand push-ups. You can see the muscles working trying to get the body back up. Not easy to do and not easy to watch.

This is a great image for shoes. I have a shoe issue and I loved all the bright colors that these men are rocking. Could be an ad for Reebok!

Here is my coach Keidy again just happy to be competing. So many of the athletes were just happy to be at the regionals. I was excited just being there to take pictures. These athletes really made my job easy.

Lastly, this was one of my favorite parts of the whole competition, these athletes would finish a workout and get up and go support and coach the other athletes. Yes, that is right, they got up and helped their competition complete. This simple act costs them nothing and makes them a better athlete. It also makes the athlete who is still working know that everyone is supporting him. Being in this position myself a few times it is really hard and you just want to quit but sometimes you have to push through and just finish.

Week 21 – Sometimes the strongest person is the one that lifts the spirits of others

I was lucky enough to go to the regional games this past weekend. This was truly inspirational on many levels. First, it made me feel weak and strong at the same time. I felt like the weight these athletes lifted was amazingly heavy and some of them made it look like nothing. It made me want to push myself to get better. The workouts were tough (some of them were designed to not be completed) but the ladies and gentlemen pushed through it. One lady even set an event record and didn’t even look exhausted. It made me feel strong because every single person that was in the regional competition had a moment of weakness. Even the strongest among us has a point of weakness. Second point of inspiration is that these ladies all started where I am right now. The road to success is not always easy so don’t ever give up. Give it your best and some day you will be the best. Lastly I got to take pictures of the athletes in the North East. The beauty of these people is in the work and effort they put in day after day after day. I really feel like capturing the moments of these athletes is what I am supposed to do. I see images of athletes and for whatever reason the photographers smooth out the skin and muscles. This removes everything that person has spent years working on. Sara Hill Mass and Rachel Goldenberg are just some of the amazing ladies that have a muscle definition that is without words. I hope that maybe I can get a chance to take some photos of them and of course eventually be able to take photos for Reebok. I want to thank my friend Heather for driving me to the regional competition. Of course, many thanks to my friend, my coach, Keidy for always being a great coach, a spectacular athlete, and allowing me to take photos. It is not always easy to be the focus of my lens and I appreciate the time you have allowed me to spend with you while working out. This is your personal time and to allow me in is invaluable to me.

The goals for last week was to get all my gear ready for the regional competition so I was a bit of a slacker and only worked out 4 days. I didn’t even go to my gym to work on my pull-ups. This week I have to get focused on getting to the box and eating clean. I need more time taking photos of athletes and I need to get that scheduled. This summer I am going to use the weekends to get out and see some of the areas around me and build out my athlete portfolio at the same time. I have to get back to my routine and work on building a better version of myself. I have to let my inner athlete come out. Here’s to another week of greatness…