Kat's Training Diary

I'm home from the Regionals/Canadian Nationals that took place this past weekend. From the moment the workouts were released on Wednesday, I knew it was going to be a battle! And then the poor weather hit and was about to enter the toughest weekend battling SNOW!!!

I knew this was going to be my event to shine going into it. Snatch and Overhead Squat are my two favorite lifts, and I do very well with barbell complexes. So I was very pleased to see this one pop up. Going in, I was thinking of starting at 95# and moving up from there. I starting warming up in the very tight warmup space with Chad nearby coaching me on and fellow Big Dawg Rob Corson yelling at me from the upper deck. I hit a solid and easy 100# snatch complex in warm up, left it at that and knew that I needed to start at 100#. James and Brett were saying that there were alot of girls tied at 85# and 95# so anything above that I knew would bump me up in the rankings. Kris Hallee told me of my station assignment... I looked over and noticed that Chad and I's good friend JMac (the guy with the stop watch in the picture) was the judge's assistant at that station. First attempt I rocked out 100# in less than 15 sec! Second attempt I rocked out 105# in less than 15 sec! My third and final attempt was going to be at 110#. James was standing behind me and told me to stay calm and focused on my effort. Chad was standing next to me uttering the same advice. JMac counted down "5-4-3-2-1 Lift". Snatch Grip Deadlift straight into squat snatch into overhead squat... dropped it from over head re-gripped and went for my last squat snatch. I didn't drop fast enough under it caught it with bent arms and tried to press it out but didn't get it. Luckily I did the first 3 skills so quickly I had enough time to calmly re-grip and try again. I aggressively threw that bar over head, caught it with locked arms and stood that weight up JUST as the clock hit 25 sec! BAM I did it!! I was so estatic! I hit the weight like I never have before in a competition! Good enough for 7th place in that event and the ONLY female to snatch over bodyweight!!

I walked into the building and went straight upstairs to the mezzanine area where the majority of the athletes were waiting. I could feel the tension and nervous energy. 30 females had went and only 3 had managed to finish under the time cap. Great... one of my worst exercises (wall balls) and some monster females were unable to finish this workout. I tried to forget about that and just go in and execute my game plan. Round One... 18 WB unbroken, then 12, then 5. Onto pullups which are usually a breeze, but for some reason they weren't counting. Then I realized that my judge was only counting them if I hit my throat on the bar. I clipped the bottom of my chin on a couple and those did not count! Shook my mind alittle but I pushed through and got back to the WBs. 1st round was completed in 2:31. Round Two... 5 WB... then 2s, 3s, whatever I could string together. Pullups again 12 and 8. Round Three... OMG I wanted to quit so bad. It hurt! My legs were aching, my chest was pounding and I had no more power left in these hip to jump the ball up like I was doing in rounds one and two. WBs were done mostly in 2s and 3s. I would be counted to 9 then took a break. Grabbed the ball then my judge would resume counting starting at 6! WTF! I said you just counted to 9 aren't I on 11 now!? Judge said no. WTF! That was not the time or the place to get into an arguement with my judge, but it destroyed my mind. It took away drive. My body and mind just shut down at that point. These WBs are beyond difficult trying to get to 10 feet as it is and now reps that he was counting were being taken away. I kept going and tried to fight through, I got to 10 WBs completed on the 4th round before the clock ran out. That workout was tough, but two days later I don't remember the difficulty of the workout physically, but rather the mental battle I had with the judge's counting errors. I'm not one to argue or complain and most people would stay that in the heat of the moment the athlete can't process that information, but I was so aware in that moment and upon the buzzer going off at the end of the workout my passion for the sport that I loved was gone.

I did not want to continue. After that workout and that experience I didn't want to finish the competition and I was prepared to quit CrossFitting all together. I was full of negative emotions. I knew the task of the weekend was not going to be easy, but I was not prepared to handle a situation like that mentally. After the buzzer went off I went over to Chad and some fellow Dawgs sitting in the stands and I just collasped in his arms. I was upset, I was pissed and I just wanted to leave. I laid it all out there, gave everything I had. As James says "full effort is full victory", I gave the full effort but some how I felt as though my full victory was robbed from me. I'm not talking about rankings, points, or placing... that didn't matter to me. But some how I can't look back and feel "victorious" about my huge accomplishment in completing 115 WB shots and 60 Pullups in 15 min!

Chad told me I could do two things... go into Sunday's events and battle hard and show everyone what a true athlete I am or give a 1/2-assed effort and give up and feel sorry for myself. I knew the latter was not an option. I entered the weekend to push myself to my limits and show everyone why I belonged there.

I walked into the arena as a new day and MY EVENT! I was pumped and ready to hit this one. I love double unders (burpees not so much, but who does love burpees!?). I had great support from fellow Big Dawgs. I was assigned my station, with fellow Dawg Rob Sifton as my judge. Sifton and I constantly battle it out on the Big Dawg blog for top spot in any double under workout. Our "Rhiannon" and "Flight Simulator" scores are within points and seconds of one another. He told me he was going to yell at me and not let me stop. I had numerous Dawgs behind me yelling and cheering me one as well. I hit those first 50 double unders unbroken easily and dropped quickly into the first 10 burpees. Chad told me afterwards that I was done 50 DUs and 10 burpees in 49 sec! Then I picked up the rope. Most people said their legs stopped working at this point. Not me, my issue wasn't my legs it was my ARMS! My arms were toast after all those WBs and pullups from the day before. I wanted to go but my arms wouldn't work. I pushed and pushed and left it all out there, but could feel myself slowing down when I didn't want to. I wasn't tired. I had more to give, but my body had nothing left for me. 4:59 in that event good enough for 10th place.

At this point I was completely exhausted. My legs were sore, my arms were sore, but beyond that I felt as though they had no more energy left in them to give me. I was scared to think what a 45# bar would feel like let alone the 95# bar I would have to Clean & Jerk and the "Sort-of Big Fucker" of a Tire I would have to flip in the final workout. Chad took me out to grab some complex carbs to fuel my body and make me feel a bit better. That definately worked! Made my body feel completely re-energized!

600m Run

The tire felt good. It wasn't as heavy as I was expecting so it allowed me to grab and flip right away one after another. Jumping in and out each time was not a challenge for me. Then on to the Clean & Jerks. I was able to grab and go easily on these as well. Then on to the run. I was the first athlete in my heat to start running. Good I needed that! But why must we run again!! All of the tire flips and clean and jerks felt good and efficient. But the running was horrible. The only reason I was able to get through that workout was all of the support that I had. Fellow Dawgs ran beside me, yelled at me, gave me encouragement as I fought the pain of the running. HUGE THANKS to Michelle, Liz, Rob C, Geoff, Leighanne, Stacey, Laura, Gord, Dave, Trevor, JMac (I'm sure I forgot someone in there) and most of all my AMAZING boyfriend Chad for yelling at me and pushing me beyond my limits on each and every lap of those runs. But more than that I had each and every judge encouraging me by name as I passed their stations, I had people I didn't even know cheering for me. I had a great crew of people sitting in the stands right infront of my station banging on the glass encouraging me. I even managed to all out sprint the last 1/2 lap to pass two people ahead of me back into my gate! Dispite ranking 30th in that event, that was the highlight of my weekend. To receive so much support from such an amazing community put me in a different place mentally. My body was doing the work and it knew that it was difficult, but at one point I realized each and every person cheering for me and pushing me beyond my limits. Fellow competitors wanted me to do better than I thought I was capable of and realizing that gave me the energy to push my limits!

I needed that. That experience renewed my passion for the sport that was taken away earlier in the weekend. I may have been the smallest competitor out there, and the wods may not have been in my favor, but I am proud of what I am able to do. I know that there are some girls out there that look to me and think if she can do it so can I. It was inspiring to have a ton of people come up to me this weekend and introduce themselves... they all knew who I was. That was shocking to me. People know who James, Brett, Spealler, etc are because of what they have done in the CrossFit Games, yet I have not earned the opportunity to compete there yet.

I just hope that I can continue to inspire and push fellow CrossFitters beyond their perceived limits. But watch out because I will be a crazy good runner by next year!!