Still Surprising Myself

This past weekend I was in a competition with two of my teammates and friends from Concord CrossFit. I was bummed leading up to this weekend because for the past month my back has been acting up. My training has severely lacked because of this making me feel like I was going to fail my team. This was my first 2-day competition, and I wanted to be excited!

This is a kettlebell snatch

As the weeks leading up to the event came and went, we quickly realized the event was going to be more than a little disorganized. So we went into it with an attitude of having fun. That and to top if off, despite feeling good the four days before the competition and seeing an ART/Chiropractor 3 weeks in a row, my back immediately began bothering me the morning of the competition.

I spent time stretching and trying to loosen up the best I could. I was so worried my performance would suffer. The only area I ended up struggling was with the deadlift ladder. My one rep is 200, but I couldn't get past 155. As day one went on, I felt better and better. We got to the one workout; I was dreading that involved kettlebell snatches. (see photo for what this is) It wasn't the movement; it was the weight of 35lbs. That coupled with the fact that I barely ever do these because they aren't programmed at my gym made me nervous. I finished just five shy of completing the workout when I thought I wouldn't get any. Score.

That night we went out and grabbed dinner and a couple of drinks, which was a ton of fun. What wasn't so fun was waking up at 4 am in SO much pain I had to hobble across the house to get something to dull the pain to be able to go back to sleep. I woke up that morning tighter than ever in my lower back. At 4 am I almost convinced myself I would have to bow out.

After a discussion with my teammates, I decided to continue. Oddly my back loosened up sooner than it did the day before. Or maybe I just knew what to do with it this time.  Day 2 was pretty good as well. During one of the workouts involving knees to elbow, snatch and power clean. I completed just as many rounds as my other two teammates! My coach was there and videoed the workout. While I was doing it, I was sure I was SLOW. In reviewing the video, I actually could see I did really well!

Although our last workout didn't go well because the judge didn't know how to count double unders, I genuinely felt I was able to take my fair share of the work load, and I don't feel like I held my team back in the end.

This is the workout we'll be doing Saturday!

I also know that I can certainly push my body further than I thought. Although I was exhausted by the end of day 2, I have never completed seven workouts in 2 days nor did I ever think I could. The mental capacity it took me to move past my back pain and the thought that I wouldn't be able to perform was a challenge, but I did it.

I am taking the rest of the week off from working out. I hope that my back will stop hurting despite being unable to pinpoint where the problem is coming from or what is causing it. I am hoping to do our special memorial day workout on Saturday, which I wasn't able to do last year.

Going forward, I am taking a break from competition for the remainder of the year. I want to focus on some personal goals, better my nutrition and get stronger. I know that I can grow into an even better athlete and that will be my focus for the remainder of the 2016 year.

I look forward to continuing to share my journey as I continue to surprise myself each day.