6:00 AM

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6am-clock1

So, you see, I am a morning person.

In Junior High, I was that kid who would wake up 20 minutes early to run around the block before school.  In High School, I would bike over to the track to run intervals at the crack of dawn.  In University and during my post-graduate schooling, I had been known to get up before 5am to get in a long run…. are you seeing a pattern?  It seems only natural that 6am would become my preferred gym time when I started at Crossfit Altitude nearly four years ago.

As such, I have been a regular member of the morning crew since January 2010.  That’s 3 years and 8 months, minus a 2-month break for my second baby.  If I’ve averaged three 6am’s per week, that’s 588 are-you-crazy-to-be-getting-up-that-early-WODs (Crossfit lingo for workout-of-the-day).  Instead of the usual 7am wakeup by my children at home, I drag myself out of bed at 5:30am while my house is still silent, and trade 90 minutes of blissful sleep for 60 minutes of sweat and camaraderie, effort and determination, accomplishment and improvement.  

Back in 2010, the morning crew was sparse.  There was a regular group of three or four of us, and a busy day was five or six.  It is now a regular occurrence to have more than 15 people already well into their warmup at 5:55am.  Amazing.  My husband caught on to the morning-crew adrenaline a couple of years ago, when pregnancy nausea kept me in bed, and now he’s hooked as well… in fact, it’s become a battle in our house to see who gets that before-the-dawn spot.

The buzz surrounding the 6am class has grown.  People are giving it a try.  Usual evening gym-goers are coming to see what all the hype is about, what the people are about, what it’s like to start your day on such a high.

You think you can’t get out of bed?  You can.  You think we like getting up in the dark of the pre-dawn and the cold of the Winter?  We don’t.  But we do it anyway.  And you can too.  

Give it a try.

Come join us.

Do it Anyway

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I am a competitive person, and I was faced with a big challenge this past weekend: a half-marathon ROW.  Yes, you read that right… 21.1km on an erg.

You see, the Crossfit Games took place last weekend in California, and competitors were surprised with this endurance challenge two days before their three-day competition was to begin.  The buzz around my gym soon changed from ‘wasn’t that workout announcement crazy?’ to ‘do you want to give that a try?’.  Seven of us took the bait.

The calm before the storm...

The calm before the storm.

I signed myself up last Thursday morning for Sunday’s morning’s event.  That meant I had three full days to think about things.  And worry about things.  And worry, I did.

I worried about being undertrained.  I worried about not being able to finish.  I worried about what people would think if I quit.  I worried about the pain.  I worried about the blisters my hands would get.  I worried about the mental stamina this would require.  My worry brewed from lying just under the surface to full-on bubbling over on Saturday night- I packed and re-packed my gym bag three times, I set two alarms, and I paced footprints into the carpet in my hall.  Then this conversation happened:

  • Husband:  Why are you so nervous?
  • Me:  I’m nervous about tomorrow.  What if I don’t finish?  What will people think?
  • Husband: Who cares?  At least you tried.

Huh.  That’s true, and that pretty much sums it up.  At least I tried.  After all, if you don’t push your limits, then you’ll never know what those limits are.

I was scared, I felt pressure, I feared judgement, and I did it anyway.  The thing is, pressure is a perceived emotion.  And so is judgement.  You can only feel pressure if you perceive it that way, and you can only feel judgement if you allow it.

Don’t perceive it that way.  Don’t allow it.

Do it anyway.

Evidence! Not sure why the date says August 22- I can assure you I will not be doing this again on August 22!

Evidence!
Not sure why the date says Aug 22-
I can assure you I will not be doing this again on Aug 22!

Burpees and Babies

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Let me take my ‘professional hat’ completely off.  I will keep both my ‘mom hat’ and my ‘athlete hat’ on while I write this post.

~~~~~

“Can I still do Crossfit (insert other forms of exercise here) when I’m pregnant?”

I get asked this question quite often around my gym.  My short answer is “Yes”.  This is my long answer:

In 2008, I was pregnant with my son and continued to run until about a month before my due date.  I am a runner, and so, I ran.  I had lots of encouragement along the way- friends applauded me, family supported me, running partners slowed down for me, and people were generally accepting of my choice.  The response was very different three years later when I continued to do Crossfit, my newfound love, during my pregnancy with my daughter.  Aside from fellow Crossfitters, I found a hesitant, reluctant, skeptical response from others.

“Are you sure you should be doing that when you’re pregnant?”  “Is it safe?”  “Do you think that’s good for the baby?”

Yes, yes, and YES.

You see, the beauty of Crossfit is that it can be adapted, scaled, and modified to suit nearly all fitness levels and abilities, including pregnant women.  These were my rules:

  1. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.  And then hydrate again.
  2. Do not go breathless.  I kept my workouts aerobic rather than the gasping-for-breath-wanna-puke-may-die anaerobic feeling I often get from non-pregnant Crossfit workouts.  It seems to me that if mom is oxygen-deprived, then baby would be too.
  3. If it doesn’t ‘feel right’, don’t do it.  For me, that meant no kipping pull-ups, no box jumps (I did step-ups instead), and no backsquats.  They just didn’t feel right for me, for my pregnancy.  Every situation is unique, every pregnancy is different, every judgement call is individual.

Trust your body.  Trust your baby.  Pregnancy is not a condition or affliction, ailment or disability.  It is a chance for you to give your baby the healthiest mother that you can.  Make no mistake, labour, delivery, and recovery are physical events in which fitness can be a huge help.

So should you continue to do Crossfit when you’re pregnant?  Absolutely.  Should you continue to run when you’re pregnant?  Absolutely.  Should you continue to swim and walk and do yoga when you’re pregnant?  Absolutely.  If you’ve been doing it pre-pregnancy, if you have a low-risk pregnancy, and perhaps most importantly, if it feels good to do so.

3, 2, 1, Go.

On my due date in 2012: I did a '7-minutes-of-burpeess' workout. I got 52.

On my due date in 2012: I did a ‘7-minutes-of-burpeess’ workout. I got 52.

***I understand that some mothers experience high-risk pregnancies in which exercise is not appropriate.  I was lucky to have two uncomplicated, low-risk pregnancies, and the above post is based on my own personal experiences.  It is not meant to be taken as medical advice.  Always check with your midwife or doctor… but listen to your body too, you know it best.