Oktober Obliteration

On October 21st I headed down to Tomball Texas to compete in Oktober Obliteration on Oct. 22nd which was hosted by Crossfit Champions. This is a neat box. It is on land, kinda like a "mini ranch". This place has so much potential and a powerful community to provide FANTASTIC competitions in. This competition was 300+ athletes. 4 different "levels" all of which were sold out except the "Sr. Masters". They had team and individual sign ups. It was SOLD OUT. I'm the only one that got in from Crossfit Central. Thank goodness I had my good friend Tony there to support me.

The WODs were nothing that I expected. The first one went as follow:

3x

25 Jumps on Right Leg/25 Jumps on Left Leg/50 Run in place

5 Bear complex (105#)

3 Bean Bags in a hole...Corn Hole (no I'm not kidding, and I STINK at it)

My Time: 8: 36 placing me 4th after the 1st WOD

WOD #2: Chipper

50ft Prowler Push (85#)

25 Burpee Hand Release Lateral Box Jump (20") (say that 3x fast)

300m Run

25 Burpee Hand Release Lateral Box Jump

50 ft Prowler Push (85#)

This was a leg BURNER! OUCH!

I finished in 7mins and some seconds placing me 5th in my division

The last workout was a sandbag workout...

150ft Sandbag Carry (70# the whole time)

(seemed like forever)ft sand bag toss

10 get ups with Sand Bag

150ft Sandbag Carry

This workout was my best one! I thought it was going to be horrible and I was going to drop more in my division. Guess again! I rocked it finishing 2nd in my division! As you can tell from the picture below I didn't!

1st – Janet Black
2nd – Chely Galvan
3rd – Karen Pierce

I look forward to this event nextyear!

For more photos go HERE.

5 Fitness

As a trainer, I strive to have a positive, strong impact on my client's lifestyle. I want and will do everything in my power to make sure my clients benefit from every aspect of training with me. I’m always asking myself, “how can I add more value to my client’s sessions?”. With this guiding thought, my creative side kicked in and thus Living Amped was born. On July 1^st, 2011 I filed a DBA with the city and made it official. Living Amped, my training company, is dedicated to helping educate, encourage and motivate others in the benefit of leading a healthy lifestyle by providing beneficial and essential coaching to those of need. Living Amped offers a variety of different training options.

About the time Living Amped all started to come together, a friend of mine asked me to be a core coach for his new gym/facility, 5 Fitness Training & Yoga. I told him about my company and my desire to make it a well known program, not just in Austin, but any where. I want to help coach people to lead a healthy lifestyle no matter where they live. We talked about my goals and core values of Living Amped. He quickly offered space in his facility so can not just launch Living Amped, but host it there. Pieces where coming together so perfectly it was scary!

Using Zum as a visual guidance, the owner is building a fabulous training facility in the Mira Vista Medical Park off Bee Caves Road. 5 Fitness’s mission is to provide the Westlake area with an elite Personal Training and Yoga Stuidio, run and managed by the area’s most experienced personal fitness coaches, who specialize and excel in the five core foundations of health and fitness; Strength Training, Cardiovascular Health, Nutrition, Flexibility, Recovery and Rest. This training facility is going to be nothing short of top notch, atmosphere included. I cannot think of a better place to host Living Amped.

Mid September 2011 I was presented with a non-compete from The Hills. In my decision not to sign it, October 3^rd, 2011 quickly became my last day at The Hills; 3 weeks short of my 5 year anniversary. The Hills took a chance on me out of college and for that I will be eternally grateful. However, sometimes it just takes a little shove to confirm that you are doing the right thing.

5 Fitness is currently in the process of being built. The building/space is there, we are waiting on permits so we can make bigger moves, but it is moving right along. Once the permits are approved, it will be a quick 4 week build out. Until then, the owner has secured a space just down the sidewalk for us core trainers to train our clients. I will be training out of this temporary space starting October 4^th, 2011.

Run For The Water 2011

On Sunday October 30th, 2011 1500 runners, including myself took on the Run For the Water race. My training went like this. On a few (more more than 5) pretty days in the past few weeks Duker and I ran 3ish miles around the neighborhood to take advantage of the day. However I continued to do my normal .com crosfit workouts withe the 1pm crew. According to Jen (in pic above) we finished in 1:23 with negative splits! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! Notice there was no 8-9mi run during the week. I will have more pain after I eat my treat (Amy's icecream) they I did post race. I owe it all to the crossfit style training. It is without a doubt the best way to train for anything that life dishes to you; "train for the unknown".

Huge thanks to fellow corssfit coach Jen Cardella who met up with me and ran this race. She did a great job at pacing me as well as keeping me mentally in the game. Every mile she would look at her watch and check to see how we were doing. My request was not to tell me numbers, I wanted to listen to my body. Therefore she would say "we are doing perfect", and that is all I needed to hear to keep going. She too has a past love with the endurance and running. It was nice to prove that we can crossfit and still get our endurance high!

Are you training for a race and need a new style of training? I suggest you check out Crossfit Endurance. It is without a doubt the BEST way to train for running!

Strictly Strength

Coach Travis Holley, founder of Strictly Strength is bringing the world 365 Days of Strength. Travis began CrossFitting to gain strength and is now returning to those roots to discover and implement unconventional training methods. Travis began his blog project hoping to reach athletes interested in true strength training and to show the lifestyle that accompanies it. As a coach, Travis understands that he must uphold the same standards which he expects of his athletes. He never designs a workout or asks his students to do anything he is unwilling to do himself. He takes this serisouly and has been known to ask new athletes to sign a contract to be sure they recieve the most from each training session. Day 26 of his project is dedicated to the team with which he trains at CrossFit Central. Travis led the 1pm Coaches WOD and put them through a gruelling test of strength. See if you can find your favorite coach suffering in his video! There are 338 Days of Strength still to come, guranteed to change or inspire your training each day.

This workout was so much fun! I don't know if it because it involved strength "stuff" or it wasn't about time just completion. Or I got to use the Yoke for the first time, either way it as AWESOME and alot of fun! If you are looking for a GREAT strength program, this is a FANTASTIC one and Travis is a WONDERFUL coach!