It's finally here.
Nerves are kicking in, blood swimming in my veins from the adrenaline rush, and my palms are sweaty. But most importantly I feel that I've done all I could to take part of something big.
The competition that I have been training for and talking about for four months has arrived. A week from today, the CrossFit Games 2012 open will kick off on the 22nd of February, US time.
I have been through a journey in the last four months. Not just physical, but mental. I decided to take my fitness levels beyond the four-walls of a typical gym. I decided to take part in an international competition on a whim after a training session in October.
What's so nerve-wrecking about the competition, you ask me? You don't know what you'll be competing at and against whom. Last year 27,000 people took part, this year it's estimated to be 100,000 people across the freaking globe! and I am one of them.
Stating next Wednesday, each week for five weeks one workout (aka WOD) will be put up online on the Crossfit site, and you only have four days to complete the workout and validate your score. The workouts will include anything from - Olympic lifts, powerlifting, gymnastics, skills (double-unders, wall balls, toes to bar), and met cons (metabolic conditioning, meaning cardio).
They will be paired differently each week with different rep ranges and weights.
Here is the tricky part for me. In four months I have honed all the skills with hard work - from double-unders to toes to bar, to learning more than 20-30 movement patterns. Not only that, I also increased my strength level significantly. Week on week, I was PRing (having new personal records), I was learning new lessons, how to mentally deal with a gain or a disappointment, learned to listen to my body, learned to be in tuned with myself and my thoughts.
Despite all that, my fear since the day I started and until today is always going to be weights. It's always going be my "goat", because no matter how strong I am as female who weighs 50kgs (110kbs), to be able to lift as much as other female crossfitters will always be my challenge. And that's okay - because strength is built over time, not overnight.
I have faced a lot of stumbling blocks in the past few months. Some were harder to get pass through, some were just a "typical bad day," but each time I got up and took a step forward nevertheless.
Challenging areas:
My mobility - which I have been seeing a physiotherapist for week in week out to ensure I work on it and get my body to work in harmony, and this process is still on-going. Boy, 4 months ago I couldn't overhead squat 10kgs, now I can do so with 35kgs!
Olympic lifts -I have been working on my Olympic lifts on weekly basis with an Oly coach Ikaika Paakaula, who has 15 years experience. In just four months...I was able to improve my Olympic lifts technique and I can do a clean with 42.5kgs, which is REALLY close to my own bodyweight!
Diet - My eating habits has always been off and on. But recently I did something that although saddened me in a way, it also helped me a lot at the same time. I have done my "Allergy test" to see if I have any issues with certain food items. 36 out of 300 items were marked as "intolerant" from a not so-severe to extreme intolerance. Through that list, I have changed my eating, added new items, removed a few items. It's still not 100% yet, as everything is a process and takes time to sink in and adapt.
Mental - Mental challenges are the worst - not the training, not the sweat, or not the muscle burn you have during WODs. It's the thoughts that swam in my head. But with time I am slowly, I repeat, SLOWLY, learning how to deal with my negative thoughts. Thanks to great coaching by @CandiceHowe, I am much better at dealing with mental breakdowns.
I owe it to her and CrossFit LifeSpark for making me a better well-rounded athlete, physically and mentally. When I first made the decision to take part in crossfit, oh boy, little did I know what it takes... but I made it this far and hopefully I will make top 60 athletes in the region!
Starting next week, I will write a blog post about each workout, how well or not so well I do, and where I rank worldwide. So stay tuned!
Nerves are kicking in, blood swimming in my veins from the adrenaline rush, and my palms are sweaty. But most importantly I feel that I've done all I could to take part of something big.
The competition that I have been training for and talking about for four months has arrived. A week from today, the CrossFit Games 2012 open will kick off on the 22nd of February, US time.
I have been through a journey in the last four months. Not just physical, but mental. I decided to take my fitness levels beyond the four-walls of a typical gym. I decided to take part in an international competition on a whim after a training session in October.
What's so nerve-wrecking about the competition, you ask me? You don't know what you'll be competing at and against whom. Last year 27,000 people took part, this year it's estimated to be 100,000 people across the freaking globe! and I am one of them.
Stating next Wednesday, each week for five weeks one workout (aka WOD) will be put up online on the Crossfit site, and you only have four days to complete the workout and validate your score. The workouts will include anything from - Olympic lifts, powerlifting, gymnastics, skills (double-unders, wall balls, toes to bar), and met cons (metabolic conditioning, meaning cardio).
They will be paired differently each week with different rep ranges and weights.
Here is the tricky part for me. In four months I have honed all the skills with hard work - from double-unders to toes to bar, to learning more than 20-30 movement patterns. Not only that, I also increased my strength level significantly. Week on week, I was PRing (having new personal records), I was learning new lessons, how to mentally deal with a gain or a disappointment, learned to listen to my body, learned to be in tuned with myself and my thoughts.
Despite all that, my fear since the day I started and until today is always going to be weights. It's always going be my "goat", because no matter how strong I am as female who weighs 50kgs (110kbs), to be able to lift as much as other female crossfitters will always be my challenge. And that's okay - because strength is built over time, not overnight.
I have faced a lot of stumbling blocks in the past few months. Some were harder to get pass through, some were just a "typical bad day," but each time I got up and took a step forward nevertheless.
Challenging areas:
My mobility - which I have been seeing a physiotherapist for week in week out to ensure I work on it and get my body to work in harmony, and this process is still on-going. Boy, 4 months ago I couldn't overhead squat 10kgs, now I can do so with 35kgs!
Olympic lifts -I have been working on my Olympic lifts on weekly basis with an Oly coach Ikaika Paakaula, who has 15 years experience. In just four months...I was able to improve my Olympic lifts technique and I can do a clean with 42.5kgs, which is REALLY close to my own bodyweight!
Diet - My eating habits has always been off and on. But recently I did something that although saddened me in a way, it also helped me a lot at the same time. I have done my "Allergy test" to see if I have any issues with certain food items. 36 out of 300 items were marked as "intolerant" from a not so-severe to extreme intolerance. Through that list, I have changed my eating, added new items, removed a few items. It's still not 100% yet, as everything is a process and takes time to sink in and adapt.
Mental - Mental challenges are the worst - not the training, not the sweat, or not the muscle burn you have during WODs. It's the thoughts that swam in my head. But with time I am slowly, I repeat, SLOWLY, learning how to deal with my negative thoughts. Thanks to great coaching by @CandiceHowe, I am much better at dealing with mental breakdowns.
I owe it to her and CrossFit LifeSpark for making me a better well-rounded athlete, physically and mentally. When I first made the decision to take part in crossfit, oh boy, little did I know what it takes... but I made it this far and hopefully I will make top 60 athletes in the region!
Starting next week, I will write a blog post about each workout, how well or not so well I do, and where I rank worldwide. So stay tuned!
