Wah Wah Wah Wah....

 Chatty Cathy, chatterbox, windbag, gabby, yapper, yacky, motormouth, jibber jabberer, bionic mouth...the list could go on but these are just a few of the terms of endearment given to a person who is graced with the gift of gab.  In some social situations these nicknames would be considered a badge of honour.  Out there in the jungle the ability to small talk with your husbands coworkers at a office party, chat your way through a long wait at Tim Hortons, even kill an 80 minute English class when your lesson plan has fallen through would be considered an asset. 

Growing up I was one of four girls so I had seventeen long years to hone and master my craft before I left the nest. To me being chatty was a trait that would ensure my survival in a variety of circumstances unfortunately for me the gym is not one of those places. It was brought to my attention this past week that I tend to be a bit of a "social loafer", to quote one carrot chomping coach.  Granted I had been at the gym for a good part of half an hour and still hadn't started my warm up, but really to call Nurse T my enabler, we hadn't seen each other in over a week:(  . 

Why is it always assumed that if you are a gabber that you are slacking off.  I have been a talker for a good part of my thirty years and I have developed a keen ability to carry on a conversation and be productive at the same time.   For example; I can do cook dinner and clean the kitchen while W and I debrief after a day at work, I can catch up with my sister on the phone while feeding, changing, diapering even entertaining the kids, heck I can even maintain a serious conversation about current affairs while hanging from the bar doing knee tucks.  I can imagine its hard to understand for the Crossfitters of the male persuasion that a person could actually do more than one difficult task at one time.  News flash gentlemen, women are born multitasking! 

Every social circle has to have at least one Mouthy Marty...and isn't that what we are at Ignite, its our social network, a group of people who enjoy doing something together as a collective.   The way I look at it....if I am going to put my body through this torture with people around me, I should probably get to know them a little bit better! There are many good reasons for all the talk and if you think about it one of the most efficient ways to share information and transfer knowledge is by talking.  There is a lot of stuff you need to know and understand when it comes to Crossfit, could you imagine if we couldn't talk about it?  Its not like we are heading out to the local pub for carb rich beer at Happy Hour anytime soon so we may as well have a good visit before the WOD because god knows there aren't too many of us who will be in any shape to chat it up after! Besides like many good little Libra's I enjoy being social and of course popular, and I can't be those things UNLESS I can visit.  

BOTTOM LINE: Just because I am talking doesn't me I ain't doing and I am smart enough to know who NOT to chat to during the middle of fifty fifty!!!! But I am all about an authentic Crossfit experience. and conversation builds relationships, relationships build community and isn't that why this stuff is so magical....So how bad can that little bit of yackyity yack be?

Burpee Bonanza

We are a third of the way through the 60 day burpee challenge and its never to late to join the crazy!!! Buy in is only 192!!! Come on take the bait and get your burpee on!!!!

Insipration

This was a commercial from Crossfit HQ for the 2010 Crossfit Games...something to think about!

Train for performance not asthetics...

It was definitely a man who said that...A man who never had the pressure to fit into his pre baby jeans, wear a swimsuit to mom and tots swim class two short months after birth or struggle to drop that last 10 baby pounds that seems to have permanently camped out in the hip area. 

In theory you workout and eat well post baby so that you can live a healthier longer life in which you can enjoy your kids, but in reality a large number of  Mommy's are getting into the gym and on the diet train because they don't want people to inquire about their due date long after its past.  No matter how you slice it, we are a society where thin is in and us mommas are under just as much pressure as anybody to drop the poundage in record time.  Images are all around us of tight and toned twenty somethings, fit at thirty working women and even sexy and svelte sixty year old grandmas.   And now we are seeing how 'trendy' it is to lose the baby weight in one quarter of the time it took to put it on.  Heidi is on the Victoria Secret catwalk weeks after baby number four, Posh spice doesn't even look like gave birth to four children herself and you would never know that Kate gained over 70 lbs with her first baby.  

My kind of yummy mummy!

How come we think to be a yummy mummy you have to be slimmer and sexier than you ever were even before the rug rats came into the picture?  Why the added pressure to be the mom with the great bum? Will the men in our lives love us less? I recently read an article where researchers found that North American men actually thought a women who carried a little extra weight was more attractive than a women who was on the "skinny" side.  The same study found that North American women were actually the ones who thought skinner was a more attractive body type.  Interesting right?  Makes you really think...who do you workout for?    Are you in the gym to get tighter, look better and avoid being mommy judged by the other mommy's at music class .  I mean it would be nice to eventually get out of the maternity section of your wardrobe before the baby hits kindergarten but who and why do we really diet and go to the gym for?

Inspiration

This video was actually passed on to me a while ago...

                    
               ...reminds me of how important your "peeps" are

I think the Burpee challenge just began

DAY 11 and it suddenly hit me....I am going to have to do a whole bucket load of these miserable things!!!!! Game on you little bastards, Game on!

Fran-tastic?

It was a short but painful first meeting today.  The buzz in the gym was electric and the times being posted were inspiring.  I knew she was coming, Coach IA² had made subtle hints that when the new gym opened up the ol' bitty would be probably be making her appearance.  And on this fateful July day without fail there she was staring anyone straight in the eye who came to christen the new gym.  She came with the intention of humbling us all and she didn't relent, a worthy opponent for even the most fit of the Ignite family.  For the first time since I started out in pursuit of conquering FRAN I could picture her.  No longer a faceless enemy she took shape in my imagniation.  Built like a brick house, leathery skin, stringy dyed blood hair with that rode hard put away wet look. A mouth like a sailor and a hard as nails attitude.  The kind of women who thinks someone, no strike that, anyone, should pay for the hell she has been through.    

It seemed too soon to face off against my worthy foe but at high noon on the count of three I had no choice. Every good general knows you don't send in your troops unprepared even if you know they might not come out alive so W and I talked strategy and laid out my "battle plan". Prescribed wasn't going to happen yet BUT I could get a feel for the type of barrage FRAN had in store for my mind and body.  The plan was simple thurst 35 lbs and do jumping pull ups, go as hard and fast as you can, try not to stop or break reps for at least the first 21.  Push yourself mentally, get an idea for what it feels like metabolically (seriously I don't even really know what that means but sounds good right?), feel the fatigue and fight through it, leave it all on the bar and finish so that you drive home with the CF cough. 

So on the word "go", I pressed forward and struggled through 45 hard reps and much like I thought today's WOD proved to be a war of attrition.  I did what I set out to do I beat her in my own way and now I know what it is going to take to come out the victor.  

You know what they say "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer".  This won't be the first or last time we meet....until then...