The End of the Open, the Beginning of the New Awesome

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....and just like that, with 15 Thrusters and about 10 "you're sssoooo close" chest to bar pull ups (story of my life recently, BTW), my very first Crossfit Open has come to an end.  I have to say, it has been one wild ride.  I had no idea what to expect when I signed up.  I went in with an open mind and just wanted to see what I could do.  Well, I did way more than I ever imagined.  I exceeded my goals (blew them away, actually) for the first three WODs.  13.4 threatened to derail me, mentally, but I rallied back and pushed through 13.5 and I have to say, overall, I'm extremely pleased with my performance, and I learned a lot about myself in these 5 weeks.  I learned that the depths of my determination go further than I ever realized; I learned how to push past the pain and just keep going.  Just. Keep. Going.  Believe it or not, I've never done that.

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have read my recent status about how I've basically ridden my natural athletic talent my entire life.  I've never put much effort into it and I was still mostly successful.  I'm ready for that to be over.  I'm ready to not just "do Crossfit".  I'm ready to train.

While I accomplished more than I could have imagined during the Open, it also shined a glaring spotlight on where my weaknesses are.  I've come a long way, but I still have a long road ahead of me. It's GO TIME, baby!  Enter.....my new plan to "Step Up the Awesome"

Are you familiar with the Lift Big Eat Big crew?  No?  You should be.  I don't believe in comparing myself to other women, but boy hardy have I got a serious girl crush on Streaky.  She's amazing.  Ah-mazing.

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(Photos used with permission)

I want to be Streaky when I grow up.  Which is funny, because I'm like a decade older than she is, but whatever.  What I love about Streaky is not her appearance (which, BTW, is smokin') but it's her story. It's a story we've all heard so many times before.  It's a story a lot of us have lived.  She was over weight, unhealthy, and spinning her wheels on the treadmill.  But instead of restricting her calories to a level that barely supports basic metabolic function, she went the opposite way ~ she started eating food.  A lot of food.  And lifting weights.  A lot of weights.  BOOM.

I'm finished with restricting calories.  According to this calculator,  1500 calories (I'm looking at you Zone Diet) isn't even enough to keep my body from cannibalizing itself if I were in a coma (BMR), much less enough to fuel life and my regular old workouts.  I'm done.  From here on out, Jess is EATING THE FOOD.  

Lift Big Eat Big, quite handily, recently wrote an article about how to get big while also doing Crossfit. Hello serendipity. 

And this brings us to "Stepping Up the Awesome".  

Running Drills & Sprints 1x/week

Lifting Big & Skill Work 2-3x/week

Regular Met Cons 3-4x/week 

Full Rest Days 2x/week

Lots and lots of food.  Real food.  Whole food.  Even some starch and grains (gasp).  

I'll maintain this schedule until the end of May, at which point my regular life schedule will change due to summer break.  I'll take a few days at that point to rest & deload and make any needed adjustments to my training or schedule.  

I plan to weigh and measure myself on Monday and then not again until the end of May, but I'll come back here every weekend and let you know how the week went and my plans for the following week.  

Stepping Up the Awesome in 3...2...1...GO!!!!