Am I crazy?

 Welcome!

First, let me explain why I created this blog and what I hope to achieve by sharing my journey. 

It's a bit a convoluted story, so hang in there, it all makes sense in the end.

I have been trying to get fit and healthy by doing Crossfit since October of 2012. Like many people, I started out exercising just to lose weight and after many stops and starts, found myself at a Crossfit gym and with loftier goals. The intensity, the enthusiasm and support of the other members and coach really resonated with me and I have never looked back. It also revealed a weirdly competitive side that I hadn't experienced before. I didn't know this about myself and this plays into my decisions later on as you will read.

Through the years, I improved slowly and started participating in local competitions. I had a completely unrealistic fantasy about going to the Crossfit Games in the distant future. Something about my first Crossfit Open, brought out the fighter in me and a desire to try and accomplish more. I came in last in the Canada East Region, so I had a long way to go, yet I still forged ahead. 

Recently, Crossfit has made some major changes to the Games and I became concerned there would even be a Masters division in the future.  People speculated that the Masters divisions will be eliminated altogether some day! I knew that I wasn't anywhere close to being a Games athlete, but I liked having that dream, as unrealistic as it seems to be. 

Then, last summer, on the CF Masters Facebook page, one of the  Games athletes asked people who were over 55 to sign up for Wodapalooza, a Sanctioned where the winners would receive an invitation to the Games. He had managed to exact a promise, that if enough people who were currently or would be over 60 soon, signed up, Wodapalooza organizers would create a 60+ division. People signed up and they created the division. Hurray for us! If the Crossfit Games decided to eliminate 50+ athletes, at least we had another competition to aspire to qualify for. 

I signed up and prepared to do online qualifier, which determined who would get to go and compete in person in Florida. 

I confess, I would love to go to Florida in February and exercise in the sun, but realistically I just hope to do well and not be in last place. This, by the way, is a common goal for me when I compete. I just wanted to not be last. This plays into my later decisions, as you will read.

Once the workouts were announced, I was chatting with a few members of my gym who also were attempting to qualify for another event, the Atlas Games in Montreal and discovered that both events used the International Online Qualifier to choose their competitors. 

This meant that anyone wishing to try and qualify for several events, need only do one set of workouts and that their score can be applied to the events they registered for. 

So I quickly signed up for Atlas Games as well, since I was doing the workouts anyway and Montreal was close and I might make it. Who the heck knows?

I was excited for this online qualifier, expecting it to be similar to the Crossfit Open, as I was used to their 55+ standards. I was however,  a bit annoyed  that they did not have different standards for 55+. Everyone doing the workouts had one set of standards and weights if you wanted to be eligible for the in person competition. 

 I went ahead and did my best and managed to log in the RX scores, though for some workouts I barley managed more than a few reps, due to some major gaps in my skills. My placement for both events was nothing to write home about, but it got done. I didn't expect to qualify, so I went on with my life, with plans to try and do better next year and didn't give it another thought.

A couple of months later I received a curious e-mail, that had me scratching my head. When I said my placement was nothing to write home about, I should have said, I came in 28th place for Wodapalooza and 20th place out of 20 registered athletes in Atlas Games...AKA  dead last. So imagine my surprise when I received this. 

How in the world does someone in last place get an invitation? What I didn't realize back in August, was that the Crossfit Games Age Group Online qualifier was scheduled to be released the same weekend as the Atlas Games. So most of those women, who qualified for the Atlas Games, were also  top 200 in the Open and would likely decline  their invitations to focus on their chance at the Games with AGOQ. So basically, I got back filled into an invitation.

 I could also have declined it, knowing I was not really in the top 10. However, I saw this as a chance to sharpen my focus and my training. I doubt that there will be another scheduling issue in the future, so I'll take this as an opportunity to see how it feels to participate in a multi-day major event and see how I handle it. I had these crazy ideas that I could take my middle aged non-athletic body and lifestyle and hang with the top ladies after only a few years of training. What will it be like to be out on the field actually doing it? I don't want to be in last place, as I mentioned before, but nothing is for sure and I don't know who else will be competing. I was within a few reps of some ladies, on some workouts, so I may have a good day or some of my stronger movements will be programmed. Who knows? I won't give up before I've even started. 

So, in order to improve my chances of not being last, I need to get working on my weaknesses,  conquer the holes in my game and getting my mindset on point. I need to be consistent, diligent, persistent. I need accountability and commitment.  

I'll be logging my thoughts and training, sharing any inspirational podcasts, books and videos that help me on the road to not being last in  the 50+ Women's division of the Atlas Games 2020. 

I am 60 years old and I might actually be crazy. Wish me luck!