Road to Regionals 2016

Wow.

I can't believe I get to write this post. About two weeks ago I got an invite to the CrossFit Games Central Regional as an individual competitor! To say I am excited about this would be an absolute under statement, I am ecstatic.

This accomplishment was a lofty goal that I had set for myself last year. And truth be told, I really did not believe I would be able to achieve it. But I made it anyways and always knew in the back of my head I would have a Regionals team to fall back on.

However, about 6 months ago, some life choices I made led me to reluctantly change gyms and no longer was team an option for me. It was qualify to CrossFit Regionals as an individual or go as a spectator. I didn't really think I could make it individually and for about a month I had resigned to just being a CrossFitter for fun. I had qualified for Wodapalooza in January and I told everyone that was my Regionals, I was going to leave it all out on the floor and take in that big competition like I would Regionals.  I really didn't have hope that I could do anything in the CrossFit world. Too many big girls that workout full time and focus all their time and energy toward that.

Fast forward to the Wodapalooza in January, I was competing in the RX division, and although it wasn't the Elite division with all the amazing athletes, there were numerous CrossFit Regional Individual competitors in my division. My main goal was to have fun there and in doing that, I surprised the heck out of myself! After the first day I was sitting in 4th, after the second day I was in 2nd, and after a heavy third day, I ended up finishing 9th overall. My goal was to finish in the top half of the 70-80 girls in my division and I way exceeded that. I ended up beating a lot of regional athletes and this was the first time I let myself believe that I had the capability to potentially qualify for Regionals.

A few other moments over the next month showed me that I had the capabilities and one night in late February, I told my coach that I was going to make Regionals. I think he had been waiting for me to say those words for the past 6-8 months, and although long awaited, I finally had enough confidence in myself to believe them.

The open was a long and crazy road for me. Waiting every week on Thursday for the workouts to be released is nerve wrecking and then slowly watching the leaderboard on Monday and waiting for everyone else's scores to come in is miserable. I redid every workout this year except for fourth one. I had to make sure I put everything I had into every workout because I could leave no doubts. If I wasn't going to make Regionals, I had to know that I did absolutely everything I could to get there.




Initially, I thought my fifth and final workout score was going to be enough. This was the one repeat workout, and if you compared it to two years ago, my first time was amazing. But watching the scores come in on Monday, I knew I had to give it one more go. I am so thankful for my Heavy Metal CrossFit family who helped me pace it out (and actually slow down in the beginning) and then bring it home in the end. At the end of the day, I was sitting in 22nd place in the North Central Region and I had a good feeling I would be making Regionals!

And then two weeks ago, I got my official invite and so, so happily accepted it! I get to compete in Columbus, Ohio May 26-28th against 39 other girls who were the top in the North Central and Central East region. I cannot wait. While I know I put a lot of effort into making Regionals, I would not have been able to do it without a crazy amount of people surrounding me.

First off my family, they have always supported me in whatever I do and I could not be more blessed to have them by my side. Secondly, I have to thank my old gym. They initially helped me fall in love with CrossFit and pushed me many days to be better. But even through I hesitant to leave my gym initially, making the switch to The Lab and Heavy Metal CrossFit was possibly the best thing that could have happened to me.

I gained an Olympic lifting coach in Justin Thacker who has helped my improve my lifts significantly. Not only have my maxes gone up in every lift, but I have become so consistent with every lift. I can walk up to a heavier barbell and have the confidence to hit the lift.  My lifts are not quite as big as some of the top athletes, but I can lift enough now to be competitive with the big girls.

I also have been blessed with Matt who has been programming all my CrossFit workouts to allow me to work on my weaknesses but also excel when needed. We set up a schedule that has allowed me to work on my lifting, gymnastics skills, and engine successfully around my work days that has really seemed to be working. Matt has also been the one who has dealt with all of my highs and lows. When I had a bad day he heard about it or when something was hurting, he changed the programming to keep my going. He has been great to have along my side.

Switching gyms also allowed me to meet new people, find new training partners, and allowed me to laugh at myself a lot more.  I do CrossFit for fun and I think I had lost some of that sometime in the last year.  With the switch, I found myself laughing when I did stupid things and not getting upset and just overall enjoying the process a lot more. Granted the Open was stressful, but I made it in one piece and honestly had some fun along the way.

Lastly, I have to thank my friend Amanda who kept me calm throughout the Open. She helped me create a strategy on every workout and gave me the confidence I could do what was needed to be successful.  Her belief in me and pep talks along the way fueled me during the open and kept me positive the whole time. I cannot thank her enough.

Here is to a few more weeks of hard training and then competing at the CrossFit Games Central Regional! I cannot wait!