A #VeryLate Valentine’s Day Ode To My Box

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With the beginning of February also came the one year anniversary of CrossFit Waterbury.

YAY! Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday, RAH RAH RAH!

A whole year of business.

A year of new members.  New passions.  New PR’s.   New shoes.  New friends.  New goals being chased.  New goals being crushed.

But most importantly a year of teamwork, building a new community of wonderfully unique individuals people who have put their health first and worked their asses off to come together as a family that happens to be fit as f***. (peep the casual flex photo next door….)

To celebrate, CFW held an in-house team competition on the first Saturday in February.

Fourteen teams competed in “Couple’s Therapy” or four WOD’s that went as follows…

WOD 1 

Bear It All

7 minute time clock

20 calorie assault bike sprint

followed directly byIMG_9884

Synchronized Bear Complex (yes, meaning both partners had to be perfectly in sync in order for the reps to count)

building to max of

Clean-Front Squat-Shoulder to Overhead-Back Squat-BTK Shoulder to Overhead

WOD 2: 

Don’t Leave Me Waiting

10 minute time cap

Completed in relay race form

Partner one completes 500 m row

Partner two completes 600 m row

Partner one completes 30 thrusters (35#)

Partner two completes 30 thrusters (45#)

Partner one completes 15 partner over-unders

Partner two completes 15 partner over-unders

Parter Over-Unders: 

WOD 3: 

Positive Communication

150 single-unders (each partner completes)

100 Russian KBS (44/26)

50 burpee box-overs (combined)

50 overhead lunge steps (20/14)

20 dead lift (each partner completes w/ max weight from bear complex in WOD 1)IMG_9886

15 minute time cap

WOD 4 (floater)

Rowling

Each partner has one try to row and have the meter counter stop as close to 100 m as possible.

Remember how this was a Valentine?

“WHY MIMI WE HATE VALENTINE’S DAY IT WAS WEEKS AGO I THOUGHT WE WERE FAR AWAY FROM ALL THIS GROSS LOVE STUFF”

Woah. Why’s it gotta be like that, yo?

I love Valentine’s Day and wish that it happened like once a month.

It’s a day all about love where all I wanted to do was smile at people and tell them how wonderful they are.  Exude all the love.

LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Can you tell, I’m the biggest and most hopeless romantic out there?10930846_10153084112698728_2858606819884799726_n

“Couples Therapy” taught me a lot of things and I experienced support and encouragement from the fit family competing against one another.  My partner shared competitive confidence with me through his own work in previous competitions and rocked my Nano’s right off when partner-over-unders sucked even when it was ‘rest’ time.  We finished under the time cap because we supported each other to keep going.  Fourth place is pretty freakin’ phenom if you ask me.

I learned that being no-repped still sucks.  It sucks.

Okay. Seriously. BEING NO REPPED SUCKS.

Just in case you were wondering.

I was awed by a team of two women, new to CrossFit, working like they’d been friends forever, sweating, and smiling– they reminded me why I started doing this crazy thing called CrossFit.

Sometimes I forget how important frequent high-fives are or how much can be accomplished when the only option is team work, and of the selflessness that is pushing yourself so that you don’t let yourself or your partner down.

‘Couple’s Therapy’ showed me all of this all day long.

FullSizeRenderStrength is so beautiful and sometimes it scares me half to the moon.

When I am given the honor to watch other women hit incredible PR’s of weights that I am working towards that on somedays feel like I’ll never get to, inspires me every time I add more weight.

It is something special to be able to watch another woman clean 150#s and to have my mind register this as both gorgeous and graceful.

That lift isn’t just that lift.

It’s the energy that lights the body on fire and the courage that empowers the mind.

It is the tenacity when we’re so hungry for that weight and the respect for our bodies after fail #5 when it’s just not going to happen.

It is the relentlessness that doesn’t leave room for giving up and the being stronger than yesterday.

That’s pretty bad ass.

Fourteen teams doing allluhhhdat

and #killingit.

Happy Valentine’s Day, CFW.