August 2016 Goals

Pure Barre Goal: I went to Pure Barre twice this month, which makes 51 classes this year.

CrossFit Goal: 97/200 WODs. I dropped in at CrossFit Hamilton and CrossFit Central LI.

Mileage: I ran 23.5 miles this month. It included a brutal 6.4 miles on the Beltline, the Area 13.1 Half Marathon, and a nice 4 miler through Oyster Bay.

Sunday Morning Run and Friday's Perfect WOD

This morning I woke up refreshed from a solid night's sleep at my parents' house. I decided to go for a short run and was promptly reminded of my abs as I tried to get out of bed. My abs have never hurt while running before but I suppose there's a first for everything.

Drop Ins

Drop ins are my favorite part of traveling for work. I have been so fortunate to meet so many wonderful people across the country because of CrossFit.

I've sat at similar desks in so many hotel rooms over the past 5 years. I have my routines and my hotel loyalties (Hilton Garden Inns are by far my favorite), but sometimes being alone in a hotel room sucks. It's lonely. I was traveling for work for 2 years before I started CrossFit. I used to spend a lot of time in hotel bars.

I don't dread business trips as much. I don't drink as much while on the road. I feel better about the career I have chosen. Traveling for work isn't as glamorous as I once thought it was, but it pays my bills and lets me work from home with my dogs every other day of the year.

Drop ins are an opportunity to see the magic of CrossFit all over again. You walk through a door in an office park or a strip mall or a converted warehouse and it's a little nerve-wracking. You introduce yourself, fill out a waiver, tell the coach your injuries, and look around to see how that box compares to yours. I always get nervous about being late. I like to get the lay of the land and observe the community before the class starts. 

For an hour, you are welcomed into someone else's family and made to feel at home. They share their things with you, they cheer for you. They tell you the good places to grab dinner or the best route back to the highway. If you want to feel special, go be the new kid for a day at a box. Sometimes I get sick of being just another person in an airport or a rental car or a hotel, and it feels really good to be treated as one of the pack but also as someone a little special because I'm only here for the day or the week.

Area 13.1 2016

I ran the Area 13.1 Half Marathon on Saturday. I did this race back in 2014, but it was in November that year. In case you were wondering, the same course in August is a heck of a lot harder.

The Area 13.1 is a night race in Roswell, GA. It's alien-themed. Get it? Like Roswell, New Mexico? 

The race starts and ends at Riverside Park. There's free parking but you have to find it an available spot in one of the three parking lots. I had to pick up my race packet the day of so I arrived pretty early and had an hour to wait. After many trips to the porta-potties, we lined up and got ready to roll.

National Watermelon Day

So National Watermelon Day is apparently a thing. I had no idea until I started seeing it online, but I was already wearing my cute Brady Bands watermelon headband. It went with my flamingo print shorts, but that's another story.

After realizing I didn't run at all (outside of a WOD) for the entire month of July, I knew that I needed to step up my game. And so I set out for a 6 mile run. Only when I was about to go, my Garmin touchscreen froze. I called up Garmin and a real life person named Julian who spoke with an American accent (I have no problem with accents, except when I don't understand a customer service representative and then I lose my shit) answered all of my questions and fixed my problem in less than 10 minutes. That alone should motivate you to buy a Garmin over another brand. They are completely worth the money.

Let's Go Blaine

CrossFit Identity members got a fantastic message last week when we were told that Blaine would be coaching the 5:30 and 6:30 AM classes starting August 1. Blaine is one of my favorite coaches, but he stopped coaching before Eric and Brandon bought CFID. I have missed him telling me to get back on the bar because there's no time to stand around, that I have a butt wink (I think I fixed this), and that I need to push my knees out by my elbows.

The butt wink is the moment at the bottom of a squat when the pelvis begins to rotate backward and slip under the body.
source

So Kayte and I got on #theblainetrain and have gone to the 6:30 AM both mornings. It's actually kind of delightful to start the day with my favorite thing to do. Granted we haven't maxed out a lift yet, but I think I'm going to stick with this on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings.