Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Chillin...

WHAT ON EARTH AM I DOING???? The Wednesday prior to leaving for Regionals, the RedBlack team visited CryoStudio of Austin. What is the Whole Body CryoTherapy?
The cryosauna simply lowers a person's exterior skin temperatures from approximately 90.5 degrees to abotu 30-32 for a period of appriximately 3mins by surrounding the person with gasiform air at the temperature of around negative 202 degrees.

Benefits include:
Anti inflammatory properties of cryotherapy are also used to treat chronic skin conditions such as psoriasis and dermatitis.

The Anti-inflammatory and analgesic of cryotherapy can drastically improve joint disorders such as rheumatoid and osteoartritis. Athletes use whole body cryotherapy to recover from injuries and soreness and improve their performance.

Cryotherapy can improve the function of the immune system and has been known to decrease stress levels.

Give it a try!!
CryoStudio of Austin
6836 Bee Cave Drive
Bld. 2, ste101
Austin, TX 78746
512-777-9797

Monday, June 27, 2011

Ultimate Frisbee

HUGE Congrats to Barbara who attends the T/Th 6:30am Jack and Adams Relentless Boot Camp who made the Showdown Ultimate Frisbee Team! Check out her team here:


Sunday, June 26, 2011

Define "support"...

My high school powerlifting coach, Coach D, gave me the name ApplePie my freshman year of high school because he said I was as American as Applepie. Since I had a strong desire to not only deadlift 300lbs I wanted to squat 300lbs. I quickly became Applepie300. The picture below is one of me when I was a junior in high school and I pulled 300lbs in a powerlifting meet for the first time. This was a HUGE moment for me! I'm talking HUGE!!! The picture below is of me at Crossfit Central coaches WOD on Wednesday (6.22.11). The workout was 5x3 deadlifts. If you don't know, you can tell I like deadlifts. After our 5x3s I just wanted to see if I could still pull 300lbs and well the pic is proof I can! Whats the difference in the pics (other than age)? In the first picture, my "support" is coming from my powerlifting suit and belt. Notice I don't have these on in the 2nd pic. So where is my support coming from that allowed this weight to FLY up? The other coaches on the blacktop encouraging me (every day) to stand it up. I said it before and I'll say it again....Whats the secret? #COMMUNITY!!!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Before & After Bells...

Tara Before...15lb Kettlebell....After...20lb Kettlebell....
Tom Before...35lb Kettlebell...Tom After...50lb Kettlebell...Alisa also went up in weight on her kettlebell (I cannot find her "before" pic in all my pictures)!


My bootcampers make me proud :)

Friday, June 24, 2011

DRINK WATER!

I posted this exactly one year ago today and with the temps the way they are I'll post it again! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE drink water!

This past weekend I went out to Marathon, TX with my family to run my 3rd Marathon. I did 16 weeks worth of training for this event. I left Thursday morning, so I could get use to the 4,040 elevation. After my 2 mile run on Friday (to get the feel of running in that climate), the parents and I drove around Big Bend (BEAUTIFUL) getting out to walk and take pictures (meaning I was not sitting for hours on end). I ended that night with a great pasta dinner that was served for the runners.
Saturday was the marathon. I got up and ate my usual race day breakfast 1/2 bagel (carbs), 1tbs peanut butter (fat/little pro) and a banana (potassium). I had the right equipment...gels, water pack, hat, etc. The race started at 8am with a shot gun on the side of the highway (literally) and we were off. I felt fine even running into a head on wind of 20mph. After my parents getting breakfast at McDonalds they stopped at mile 6 to take pictures. Then they were off to mile 9. I opend my first gel at mile 8 and quickly put it down. At mile 9 I exchanged water bottles with the parents; the bottle I handed off was 1/2 full. I wouldn't see them till mile 15. I started feeling a little woozy, but just figured it was okay b/c I was running a marathon, into the wind...so I started to chew on my tounge (it took the thought of the pain in my legs to a different part of my body). I wasn't sweating, so I thought, therefore I didn't think I was that hot...man was I wrong!
I don't remember anything really after mile 9, so here is what I was told that happend. I did another water bottle exchange at mile 15 then when I passed mile 16 I was staggering and drooling and bleeding from the mouth (from biting my tounge). The people at the water stop set me down and I was not responding, I had passed out. My parents car wouldn't start for some reason, and after getting a jump at mile 15, they drove passed and mom said "aww look a runner is down" and then noticed it was me and said "That is my daughter!" (I wear a bright colored hat so my parents can see me) My dad rushed out of the car and him and another wonderful runner (who gave up time to help) put me in the car. Daddy stopped and asked a sheriff where the EMS was and they said that they were coming to get the girl who was down. Daddy quickly replied "she is in my car!" then he drove 96mph the 10miles to the finish line where EMS then took over. They gave me oxygen and iced my body to get my temp to drop (BP 140/90). I wasn't able to respond for a little bit. They kept icing me down and trying to give me fluids to get my temp down. Some fluids stayed, most didn't.
When I finally came to I was unable to move my limbs VERY SCARY I might add. After a lot of questions I discoverd that I didn't drink enough water. As you know water makes you tinkle and if you know me, you know that I don't want to even take time to slow down to tinkle, therefore I didn't drink the proper amount of H2O. This was the STUPIDEST decision I have ever made in my life. I cannot stress enough to you to drink water...especially if you are active.
The city of Marathon has some wonderful people living there. Everyone rushed to help me and was very nice about it. Even a girl who ran the 1/2 jumped in the back of my dad's car and helped take care of me (she was a nurse from ATX). She squirted gatorade into my mouth everytime I needed a sip. I have the best parents a girl could ask for! They were there for me every step of the way and doing everything they can to help me. I am VERY lucky.
This was a VERY scary experience for me and a very good lesson. Yes, this kind of thing CAN happen to you, no matter who you are or how active you are. Please take care of yourself and
DRINK H2O!!!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Regionals 2011

I cannot believe the 2011 South Central Regionals have come and gone! It started with sectionals (check out my older post for the sectionals recaps) that lasted 7 weeks then followed by 5-6weeks of training specifically for Regionals...for the Games. Just a little background, I qualified to go to Regionals placing 21 out of the 60 women that qualifed to go. Even though I qualifed as an individual, I made the RedBlack Team. This was a HUGE honor in my opinion. I was going to compete with some AWESOME athletes. I could go on and on about how AMAZING these people are but I will get to the competition.

RedBlack agreed to meet at the venue Thursday evening to check in. Now let me describe this venue to you...it was held at Oakland Farms Ranch in the bright lights of Tomball Texas...in June. They didn't call this place #TheSahara for nothing...it was hott...it was dusty...did I mention hott? Temperatures were 3 digits all weekend long. The "battlefield" was a concrete basketball court that Rouge made look AMAZING! You get the point? After we all checked in I headed back to Cypress where I was staying (family). I went to HEB to get food for the weekend then headed to bed.

I got up the next morning, and headed to the Sahara to take on the day's workouts. Now to get a visual think track meet. There were tents, chairs, blankets, icechest...etc set up around the battlefield. People sleeping, people walking, watching, eating...as well as a DJ!! There was an athlete's tent which treated the athletes like Kings and Queens. As an athlete I had access to all the almond butter, strawberries, trailmix, mister fans, reclining lawn chairs, paleo kits, treatment I could handle. It was good to be an athlete. Okay...workouts...The first team workout was:
For time:
4 x Row 750m
50 HSPU
4 x Row 750m

How did this work? Each team member rowed 750m (See Crystal Rowing below)
Next those 4 members of the team traveled to a wall and did 50 Handstand Push ups (see David below).
After the Handstand Push ups it was back on the rowers for another 750m rowers EACH! They did great!

Next came the Thruster Ladder. This means that you perform a thruster at the first weight then every 30 seconds you move up the "ladder" to the next weight.

Women Weights (lbs): 105, 115, 125, 130, 135, 140, 145, 150, 155, 160, 165, 170, 175, 180, 185

Men Weights (lbs): 155, 165, 175, 185, 195, 205, 215, 225, 235, 245, 255, 265, 275, 285, 295

Below is a pic of me early on...I made it to 140lbs. It wasn't my max (145lbs) or my goal (155lbs) but I will take it.
That night I made sure to get in bed early because my FAVORITE workout was coming up the next day. I when I woke the next morning I gather my things and headed out the door ready to go! WOD #3 was the following:
21-15-9 reps for time of:
Deadlift (275/185lbs)
Box jump (30”/24”)

I got there early (first athlete) and was taking my sweet time getting things ready for the day. I was informed we were in Heat 3 which started at 9:50am. I was socializing with parents and friends. We had already done the briefing...it as a good easy morning THEN Chris said, "get ready to go we might be in heat 1". He quickly said "we ARE in heat 1 lets go". I looked at my watch it said 8:50am, heat 1 starts at 9am, so I HUSTLED over to the warm up area where they were calling for redblack over the loud speaker. I got there...pulled 135 about 5 times THEN jumped on a box 5 times. Chris shows up...he does even less than me for warm up. Then we had to line up to go on the battlefield. Warm up was out the window. So how this went is Chris did his 21-15-9 with 275lbs and 30" box. When he got done he tagged me. I flipped the box over to make it 24" for me. I then unloaded the bar to make it 185# for me.

Then I started on my 21-15-9 reps of deadlift and boxjumps. This workout was all about speed and good form. I treated it like I did Fran...forced rest. When I let go of the bar it wasn't because I needed the rest it was more for "pacing".

We finished 1st in our heat and 4th over all. This means we got interviewed!! It was AWESOME!!!

The last team workout for that day was the 250s. This went as follows:
For time:
250 Chest to bar pull-ups
250 Kettlebell swings (24/16kg)
250 Double-unders
250 Overhead squats (95/65lbs)

This means that between the 4 of them they had to complete all 250 reps of those exercises. Chest to bar was the first one.
Kettlebell swings was the 2nd
Double Unders was the 3rd
and Overhead squats was the 4th!

No lie...RedBlack KILLED it! They too were interviewed for their outstanding efforts...heck only ones in their heat that finished!! AMAZING!

We, Red Black went into Regionals sitting 4th. After the first day we were 27th, After the 2nd day we were 12th. We needed to be in the top 10 to compete the following day. Yes we were very bummed but did you see the come back we did!! We work well together...and day 2 def showed it! We had 2 4th place finishes...no other team could touch that! I cannot wait to train along side these athletes again! Truly gifted people!

So what did we do on day 3 you might ask? We cheered our heart out for Central. Team and Individual.


Cheering worked because Crossfit Central is sending 3 girls to Central! HUGE congrats to Carey Kepler, Lisa Thiel and Lindsey Smith. Y''all are MUCH deserving of this opportunity! HUGE congrats to all athetes from all boxes who competed this weekend. The conditions were rough and everyone pushed through. I'm blessed to have these people in my community!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Habitat For Humanity

MOVE THAT BUS!!!!! Okay maybe its the wrong show HOWEVER CrossFit Central is taking on a new kind of challenge. We are working with Habitat for Humanity to build a home. Our coaches are creating teams to work with the Romo Family to build more than just a roof over their heads. We are creating a space for them to flourish. I'm PUMPED to be paired up with Coach Heather Reed on June 25th to help build! If you can help us out on this day physically and or financially, I can promise you your efforts will not go unoticed. Click HERE to join our team...see ya out there!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

New Kettlebell!

Cory, one of Brentwood's newest victims got a new 25lb Kettlebell and ROCKED it in class on Thursday when we did "Kettlebell Hell...Part 1"!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Meet The Fumagals!

Meet the Fumagals! I have the pleasure of torturing this beautiful family during the week. Larry (dad) travels during the week, Josh (youngest of 3) is an AWESOME competitor swimmer (practices/meets on week days and/or weekends) and Kim is a wife, mother of 3 boys and a working woman...HOWEVER this family manages to find time to workout together at some point during the week. THESE actions stand out to me. Even with busy lives they make time for their health...and together.

Did I mention Kim manages to keep a garden? Trust me good stuff comes out of there...I'm currently enjoying some tomatoes and I have had some peppers too!

A family that sweats together...stays together...