Nancypants

Here is a link to the CrossFit home page showing the finals of CrossFit LA's Nancy challenge (BTW, CrossFit LA is also known as Petranek Fitness, if you have seen me mention PF before. They are one and the same--check them/it out at http://www.petranekfitness.com or http://www.crossfitla.com). We did the baseline in October, I think, and then 8 weeks later--on Andy's birthday--did the challenge time at Santa Monica High School's track. The Nancy is:

5 rds for time of:
-400m run (one lap)
-15 overhead squats (65lbs for women, 95lbs for men)

http://www.crossfit.com/mt-archive2/004474.html

I swear, these events make me so proud to be a part of CrossFit LA. It was a yucky (for LA) morning, but people came out and beat their times and cheered each other on, and even though you can't see this in the video, we also, importantly, ate birthday cake afterward. You can see all my teachers and fellow students, and you can also see me; I'm wearing a black shirt and gray sweatpant/leggings. I'm also in the background at times holding a clipboard and looking official-ish. (When I wasn't doing the workout myself, I was recording others' times and writing them on a whiteboard that kept smearing because of the rain).

There's a quick section where I attribute my improved performance to my pants. The explanation of that is that there is a student named Mike--the one shown who had a difficult time--who never wears shorts to work out in, so he is called Pants Mike. Well, Pants Mike did have a hard time, but he also improved his performance, if I'm not mistaken, and as the video shows, he never gave up. How awesome is that? (BTW, Alyssa, the other student shown who had a hard time, also took about 10 minutes off HER baseline time. She is a little slip of a thing and routinely lifts weights that boggle my mind.) I, on the other hand, am always working out in shorts, but this time I wore the aforementioned sweatpants. So I figured that must have had something to do with my improvement.

Well, that and the fact that I get instruction and encouragement at CFLA that never ceases to amaze me. When I started training there almost 2 years ago, I couldn't even break parallel on a squat, let alone balance 65 pounds overhead while squatting--75 times, no less--relatively quickly. (Unfortunately, the squat you can see is bouncier than it should have been; not all of my squats resulted in the medicine ball moving the way it did. But that shows me I have room for improvement!) The first time I did the Nancy, which I think was last August, I could only squat 25 pounds without toppling over. Then in October for the baseline, I added 45 pounds to that amount and took at least 10 minutes off my August time. And then in December, I took almost 3 minutes off my baseline time.

I have said this before, but CrossFit and Brazilian jiu jitsu are more than just workouts. They are choices about the kind of person you want to be and the kind of life you want to live. I just marvel sometimes that I have managed to find coaches, teammates, workout partners, and friends who are helping me make some pretty awesome choices. I don't know what I did to deserve them, and I'm not going to dwell on it too much--I'm just going to enjoy it! (And continue to wear the pants.)