Sometimes We Need To Take the Scenic Route

Even the best laid plans don't always go as expected.

Since beginning my CrossFit journey almost 5 years ago, I knew almost immediately that I wanted to be a coach and one day have my own gym, but not for the reasons you would expect...or maybe so.

When I found CrossFit, I was needing something positive in my life. I was empty and lost and on a terrible spiral down into a dark depression. I had prayed for God to lift me up and what He did was lead me to a place where I would learn to lift myself up...and I did.

How could I not share this? How could I possibly keep this to myself? I had found the best therapy for me.

Yes. Therapy.

When I started CrossFit, I was 15 pounds underweight, living off minimal sleep and just trying to make it from day to day. I can promise you, "getting fit" was NOT on my mind. The only reason I joined my first CrossFit class was because my boys karate instructor had been pretty excited about the "new class" he was offering and he thought I would like it. If you don't know any karate instructors, they are quite persistent.

So, I tried it out, partly because he asked me to, but mostly because I needed to do something other than sit around feeling sorry for myself.

That first class we did a little chipper. It didn't look bad at all, but I ended up in a puddle on the floor. As I was pulling out of the parking lot that night, it occurred to me that in that hour long class, I had not thought ONE TIME of anything else that was going on in my life. My focus had just been on the moment I was in and I was hooked!

As time went on, I really began loving getting stronger. I fell in love with the barbell and I had finally found an outlet for my secret competitive side by competing in local CrossFit competitions. My husband soon began CrossFitting and my boys started CrossFit Kids. To say CrossFit had changed my life would be a complete understatement. It changed my whole family.

Fast forward two and half years and I was blessed with the opportunity to open my own CrossFit gym which I would co-own for the next 2 years. What an amazing experience! (That is a whole separate blog.)

My love continued for coaching. I fell in love with Olympic Lifting. I wanted to be better, to be stronger and faster and my goals continued to evolve. I felt more comfortable in my 40-something year old body than I ever had my entire life! I made life long friendships in the community and I was happy.

I imagined how the gym would grow over the next years, all the awesome things that we could do, but sometimes my plan and His plan are different.

In June 2014, I finally had to admit to myself that it was time for me to change course and I sold my part of the gym to my business partner. Once again, I felt like a failure and very defeated for those first few weeks, but God always has a plan and I had to remember that. I can absolutely testify that sometimes the right decisions are often the most difficult to make.

Almost immediately, my husband and I began working on our garage and made it into a garage gym. It was around our 3rd workout together that I realized how rare it was that we ever workout together. In all the years I have been coaching, I can literally count the number of times we have worked out together.

It was fun! FUN! and I was given another reason to love CrossFit. My boys joined us for the next one and I was given yet ANOTHER reason to love it.

Did I imagine 5 years ago that I would be coaching people out of my garage? No, but I did imagine that I would still be in love with CrossFit and I am. It continues to be the best therapy ever. It's my "Happy Dose" each day!

CrossFit has been given a bad rap over the years, but I can tell you that it saved me and it saves me everyday. I LOVE getting stronger. I love sweating and knowing I gave a workout everything I have but mostly I LOVE coaching. I love the look on someone's face when they do their first double under, or kick up to their first handstand or get their first pull-up..when I see the joy on their face, there's nothing like it. THAT's what it is all about to me and I don't see that getting old for me anytime soon.

I'm still on my journey and what I have learned is that God's detours are blessings and I believe sometimes He wants us to take the scenic route instead. I am thankful for the detours because it causes me to slow down and enjoy the scenery.

Everyone has a different reason for beginning CrossFit and my story is just one in a million. Whatever your reason is, the goal is to be happy with who you are and what you are doing.

So go be happy! Life is just too short to be anything else.

Strength from Within

I have met some amazing people and have heard so many stories of courage and strength and how CrossFit has been huge in the lives of people going through a very difficult time. Sometimes a persons strength has nothing to do with how many plates are on the barbell. Sometimes, it is God's strength from within that shines the brightest.

Recently, I had the honor of meeting Landon Johnson who has such a testimony. Both Landon and his story have truly blessed me. With his permission, I am sharing it you.

Landon and Jaime with baby Callie.

In November 2012, Landon Johnson had big plans. He was training for the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Open with a possible shot at making Regionals, preparing for his Level 1 Certification, and expecting his first child with his wife.

All of that changed for Johnson in just a matter of days.

After a routine check-up, the Johnsons’ doctor informed them that their daughter had not shown as much growth as he would have liked and thought it would be best to schedule a C-section for the next day. 

On November 9, their daughter, Callie, was born at almost 37 weeks, weighing only three pounds eleven ounces. An ultra sound revealed that Callie also had a hole in her heart. Understandably, the Johnsons were shocked but believed that surgery would be able to fix it.

The next day, the Johnsons were dealt another blow. A second doctor said that she noticed characteristics that were similar to Trisomy 18, a chromosomal abnormality, in little Callie.

As a concerned father, the first thing Johnson did was research Trisomy 18 and was devastated to learn that the prognosis wasn’t good. Most babies diagnosed with this condition usually don’t survive past the first year of birth.

“I was just in a state of disbelief. I had all these plans for my daughter,” Johnson said. “I wanted her to grow up, play with Barbies, paint my fingernails, and us go shopping. Now they were telling me I may not see her past one year of life?”

“It hit us hard. You go from excitement to a state of panic in just a day, in just an instant,” Johnson said.

Johnson and his wife, Jaime, made the decision to enjoy every single moment they had with Callie and told the doctors they wanted to take her home.

Landon holding his daughter for the first time.

“We wanted to hold her, love on her and just have her home with us as long we could,” Johnson said.

The day before Thanksgiving 2012, the Johnsons were able to take Callie home.

“Taking care of Callie at home wore us out physically,” Johnson said. “We had a hospice nurse that came in twice a week. Callie was also on oxygen and had to be fed through a tube every four hours, but we wouldn’t have traded any of those moments.”

They cherished every day they had, taking her to see Santa and to the Christmas party at the fire station where Johnson works as a firefighter and paramedic.

“We wanted no regrets,” Johnson said.

On February 7, 2013, Callie passed away at 90 days old.

“My wife woke me up early one morning to tell me that Callie’s breathing sounded funny,” Johnson said. “I woke up to see her take her last breath. I got my stethoscope to listen for her heartbeat. It was the most difficult day of my life.”

Johnson says it was his faith and his relationship with God that helped him through this time. He also discovered how much Callie touched the lives of so many people in her short life.

“At her funeral, I was blown away by how many people showed up,” said Johnson. “People from my gym, I mean, I didn’t even know all their names! I felt bad, but they were there supporting us through this time.”

It was during this difficult time that he said CrossFit became something more to him.

“CrossFit was therapy for me,” Johnson said. “The friends I have made through CrossFit just blew me away. They made me smile. They would tell me daily how much Callie had touched their lives. Talking to people about Callie was healing, and I took every opportunity to talk about her.”

“They are loyal. We suffer together, and we are family,” Johnson said.

CrossFit was also healing for his wife. Jaime had never done CrossFit before Callie’s death, but she credits it with helping her to relieve stress during this difficult time.

One year later, Johnson is now a coach at Over the Mountain CrossFit. 

“As a coach he has such a positive attitude and always knows exactly how to push people and get them motivated,” said Clay Adams, owner of OTM CrossFit. ”Landon has been through some tough trials at a young age, and his faith and strength has made us all better people. I can truly speak for everyone at our box and say that he has not only made us stronger physically, but mentally taken us all to a new level. We are blessed to have Landon as a leader and friend.“

As Johnson prepares for the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Open, he says he has a new perspective on life. He has recently started back competing on the local competition scene, putting his name out there as someone to look out for.

Although he said his support system and coaching is essential to his training, it is his daughter’s memory that drives him most.

“Whenever I get tired, want to quit or drop the bar, I think of Callie and I think, ‘Be strong for her. Push through for her,’ and most days I feel like I can go forever!”

Johnson said his daughter taught him a lot in her short lifetime.

“This situation taught me that life doesn’t always go the way we plan. Life is short. Whether you live 90 days or 90 years, life is still short. If you are not living out your purpose, your calling, it’s going to be wasted,” he said.

As for his ultimate goal in CrossFit, Johnson said he “just want[s] to make Callie proud.”

The Johnsons are currently in the process of adopting and are expecting a son in May.

Believe! You Can Do This!

It is that time again when one year comes to an end and another year begins. A time when we look back on the past year and pat ourselves on the back for achieving goals that we set for ourselves OR wonder "What the hell happened?!"

I have stated before that I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions. Why? Well, let me ask you. How many of your New Year's Resolutions have you actually achieved? My guess is, probably not that many.

Now let me ask you another question.

How many of the goals that you have set for yourself have you met? I would venture to guess that you have reached many of them.

Have you achieved all of your goals? Probably not. If you have, I would tell you it is time to make some more. We should ALWAYS have our sights set on a goal and when we reach that goal, set a new one! Remember, "The finish line is just the beginning of a whole new race."

As I have looked back on this past year, I am thrilled and amazed at how much has happened.
There were many goals that I set out for myself that I still have not reached, but I am certainly closer to achieving them than I was a year ago.

As far as goals met, I competed in 4 CrossFit competitions in the RX division,  I even came in second place in my first Master's Division at the Reindeer Games. I recieved my CrossFit Gymnastic Cert., organized my very first and successful fundraiser benefiting Autism, (WODism for Autism). I went to the CrossFit Games and watched some amazing athletes! I met Cheryl Brost, Lindsey Smith, Rich Froning Jr AND Fitness Lonnie! I learned butterfly pullups, got my first bar muscle up and got stronger.

I also surprised myself with achieving my largest goal.

Owning and running my own box has been a long time goal of mine, more like a dream of mine. I saw that dream fulfilled back in August when I and two of my good friends opened CrossFit Alabaster. It has been a huge success and that is due to my outstanding partners and our amazing (and fun) athletes! I have made some pretty incredible relationships because of CrossFit Alabaster and have the opportunity to spend time with some pretty amazing people on a daily basis. I am blessed.

This morning while I was in church listening to my dad preach, he said this during the sermon, "sometimes opportunities come disguised as impossibilities. Remember, nothing is impossible with God!"

This is so relevant to me. I don't know if I thought it was impossible to have my own box, but I did wonder if it would ever be possible. What I can say is that I BELIEVED I could do it. I don't know what your faith is, but I do know this. You must BELIEVE  for it to come to pass. I truly believed. I had a few people tell me that I would not be any good at all running my own gym/business. That I didn't know how to do "this", I didn't know how to do "that". I wasn't good at "this", I needed to be better at "that".

I had faith in myself though. I had a positive support group and I chose to listen to them. I chose to believe in myself and I chose to put my faith in Him.

Have you ever set a goal or set out to do something and had someone tell you that you couldn't do it?

Did you do it anyway and succeed? Why? Because you had faith in yourself! You believed you could do it!

The same also applies to your fitness goals, as well. One of my goals this year was to have a "PRETTY Muscle Up". It's okay, you can laugh, but if you saw my muscle up, you would agree that this is a very good goal for me to have. The other day, I was on the rings working with one of our other coaches and he told me, "Dawn, give me a few minutes, I will have you on top of those rings! It's going to happen today!"

HE believed!

We transitioned, we kipped, we broke everything down back to the basics. All the things I already knew. I could do this! I was ready to do this...right? I got back up on the rings, did this beautiful kip (well, it felt beautiful)...and felt myself stop pulling, mid-swing.

For the first time, I actually heard the words in my head. "You are going to fall."

I was scared I was going to fall. I KNEW I was going to fail. I was scared I would go through the rings...all the way through and fall out of the rings. I did not expect to get on top of those rings. So...I didn't.

I did not believe.

Guess what goal I have not reached. Guess who is holding me back...me.

So today I am asking you to make goals for yourself. Write them down. Share them with someone! My biggest goals were achieved because I had help and encouragement and I BELIEVED.

You can do this!

2013 is going to be an amazing year!

Happy New Year!

Be Thankful

Thankful.
What does that really mean when you apply it to yourself?
I'm not talking about being thankful for friends or family, I literally mean your self, your body.

This is the month to be thankful. On Facebook, everyone has started the "Day 1, I am thankful for...", including yours truly. In risk of sounding cliche , we should be thankful EVERY DAY!
Today that was really brought home to me. Reality punched me in the face!

I have a younger sister that was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis close to 15 years ago. If you are not familiar with this disease, it is basically an attack on the nervous system.

The way it was explained to me is that there are 3 different types of MS.
In the first case, the person may have an exacerbation and then never have one again.
This is not my sister's case.

In the second case, the person will have a series of exacerbations over their lifetime. Each one can be completely debilitating, which for my sister, put her in a wheel chair the first time. The exacerbations can also be mild. But after each exacerbation, that person does not recover their health 100%. In essence, it is like a stair step effect. Each exacerbation leaves them a little weaker, a little less coordinated, a little more "foggy", ect.
This WAS my sister's case.

In the third case, the person will have an exacerbation that they never really recover from and their health takes a nose dive.
THIS has now become my sister's case.

This post is not about MS.
This post is about being thankful and NEVER taking your health for granted.

MS is a terrible disease and it is awful to watch someone you love suffer from it. What is even worse is when it happens to someone who no longer has the will to fight it.

When my sister had her first exacerbation, she walked into the ER on her own two feet. Two days later she was temporarily paralyzed on one side of her body. Just. Like. That! She was in a wheel chair for the next 3 months and she worked very, very hard to get out of that chair.
She did!
She was 25 at the time.

I think that was all the fight she had in her or close to it. The next exacerbations were not so bad, but as she recovered from each one, I could tell that her coordination was getting worse, her memory was getting worse and her desire to fight it and her desire to stay active faded.

I wanted so much to help her. I had big ideas on how I could do physical therapy with her and get her stronger, steadier on her feet and help her be able to walk up stairs again. I had read testimony after testimony on how people were able to fight their MS. There was even a story on the CrossFit Journal about one lady's journey with MS and how CrossFit helped her so much. I was excited! We could do this! I sent the article to my sister saying "look what we can do!"

She didn't want my help. What she wanted was an easy fix. The way she looked at it, her legs had always worked, they would work again. She had always been able to walk, she would be able to do it again. What she didn't see was that she had to do the work. She had to put forth the effort.

She was taking her body for granted. She thought that her body would just keep taking the neglect she had been showing it. That she would even be fine to continue to smoke. Other people smoke, right?
I spent 6 frustrating months working with her daily and finally had a painful realization.
You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped.

My sister just turned 39 years old on October 16.
This morning I visited her in a nursing home.

This is what I learned today.

My "Fran" time doesn't matter so much to me as I thought.
The fact that I can carry my 9 year old son up the stairs to bed if he falls asleep on me, does.

Treat your body right. God gave you that body to do work.
Do wonderful, wonderful things!
And be Thankful.

What's In Your Head?

I have been stewing on this blog for the past two days and I hope that I will be able to articulate what is in my head.

If you crossfit, I'm sure you've heard the quote by CrossFit Founder Coach Glassman, "The greatest adaption of CrossFit takes place between the ears."

I completely agree. In my humble opinion, CrossFit is about 30% physical ability and 70% mental. I am sure if you ask other CrossFit coaches, they may give you a different percentage, but mental ability will be high.

For example, it doesn't matter how damn strong you are, if you can not let yourself drop under the bar, you will NEVER squat snatch or squat clean any significant weight. If you cannot trust yourself to put your feet over your head, no matter how strong you are, you will never do a handstand pushup. And if you cannot disengage from the pain, you will never have a sub 3 minute "Fran".

These are obvious examples, but here's what got me thinking about all of this in the first place.

This weekend, I was talking with a friend of mine, who had just done Fight Gone Bad. She knew that I had done this WOD the day before and what my score was. She said, "Girl, you beat me by 3 points!" She was excited because she had done this as RXd. She just had surgery a few months ago and I was really excited for her because she has worked very hard to get back to where she was before.

But I told her that I was mad at myself because I KNEW I could have done better. How much better, I don't know, but when round three came and I knew I had already PR'd my old score, I slowed down and just coasted the rest of the workout. Why did I do this? Maybe it would have helped to have some crazy firebreathers next to me knocking out a 405. I know it wasn't because I couldn't physically do more.

You know what it was? It was my head! I had started talking myself out of "killing it" because I had already reached my mark.

What is that Michelangelo quote? "The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim to high and falling short, but setting our aim to low and achieving our mark."...BINGO!

She also told me that she thought that I was one of the hardest training coaches that she knew. Am I? I certainly didn't feel like it at that moment.

Not long after this conversation, I watched a video of a friend lifting a 300lb deadlift on Facebook. This friend is my size and weight, and Holy Moly, that girl picked 300lbs! Wow, I am nowhere close to that! Why? Because I am scared of another herniated disk. There. I said it. The answer is "FEAR".

So then, I just started beating myself up. Do you do this?
If you were in my head Saturday, it would have sounded something like this, "I could have worked harder during FGB.", "I can't deadlift twice my bodyweight.", "I struggle daily with a 'sugar demon'", "I don't have six pack abs," and of course, "I can't do a freakin' muscle-up!" I just continued to tear myself down in my head.

This of course put me in a lovely mood for my family and the poor guys had no idea what was wrong with me.

Today I talked about some of this with my coach. We also discussed my inability to do a muscle-up. He said, "There is no physical reason why you can't do a muscle-up."

Did you read that, folks? No. Physical. Reason.

I said, "Well, it's not because I don't want to. I do! I feel like it is my job as a coach to be able to do this. This is the only movement I can not demonstrate."

He asked, "So, what do you think it is?"

I thought about it for a few minutes and finally I said, "I'm scared. I'm scared of hurting my shoulder, I think." I went on to explain that whenever I step up to the rings, my heart starts racing, I get butterflies in my stomach and I get nervous as hell. This didn't happen when I was learning how to do pullups, or double unders, or handstand pushups, but it is there when I step up to those rings....It's in my head! "The enemy is my inner me!"

So, I finally had to reset myself. Just sit down and ask myself, "What is going on in your head?!" I can tell you, that if I were to have done a WOD with my friends Saturday, I would have sucked...seriously. Why? Because I had spent the entire day beating the crap out of myself.

As I took some time to really refocus my thoughts, I asked myself, "What makes a good coach?" and I found this great quote. "A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are."

I feel that I do this. I am not saying this to toot my own horn, but I always look at where my athletes are going, not where they are. I see their potential and I do my best to help them see it, too. I LOVE coaching. I LOVE watching my athletes surprise themselves everyday doing things I already knew they could do.
I was told by one of my athletes, "I love the way you break down these movements so that I can see them in slow motion and in small parts. It helps to make it all click in my head."

I think I will take that any day over PR'ing a lift or a muscle-up.

Sometimes it just takes 1 positive comment to turn your thoughts around and let your head help you rather than work against you.

So. What's in your head?

Saturday

Rest day

Sunday WOD

5 rounds

35 Double unders

200 meter run

time-9:22

Monday
Strength

work to get 1 rep max on Front Squat

Pr'd at 150lbs! YAY!!!

WOD

75 KBS (35lbs)

75 Pushpress (33lbs bar)

When you set the weight down, run 200 meters

time 8:14

Did 75 KBS unbroken and 57 Pushpress unbroken

Eating:

Saturday, Day 12 of Whole30

Breakfast: 2 fried eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, apple with almond butter

Snack: Larabar

Lunch: Grilled chicken with lettuce and tomatoes, 1/2 cup of grapes & apples

Snack: almonds and raisins

Dinner: Stuffed Red Peppers (made with ground beef, chopped spinach and sauce)

Dessert: Frozen grapes

Sunday, Day 13 of Whole30

This was not my happy day. Really missing my comfort sweets but I made it through!

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, 2 pieces of Canadian bacon, apple with almond butter

Snack: Larabar

Lunch: Left over Stuffed pepper (so good!)

Snack: nuts, seeds and raisins and some turkey meat

Dinner: Steak and baked sweet potato

Monday, Day 14 of Whole30

Breakfast: 2 hardboiled eggs, 1 piece Canadian bacon

Post WOD: Progenex

Snack: Larabar (don't really know what I would do without these!)

Lunch: hamburger patty with salsa, broccoli

Snack: Ground beef with spinach (left over mixture from the stuffed peppers)

Dinner: Cubed Steak (seasoned only), cauliflower, broccoli