Me, Crossfit, & Cancer: The Return

It started early this summer.  It ended last month.  I kept most of the journey to myself as to fool everyone into thinking that it didn't suck that bad.  It's a mentality left over from boxing -- don't let your opponent see your weakness or your strength.  So, I walked through it with a neutral demeanor, but with a smile.  

Crossfit helped a lot.  It gave me strength when I physically had none.  Imagining a sub three minute "Isabel" consumed most of my thoughts; getting back to that would be rough, I knew this.  BUT, I also knew that life challenges are pretty much cake at this point in my life.  As you see from my previous post, I finished "Grace" for Barbells for Boobs in 7:07 while going through chemo.  Funny, I was still pissed at myself for not finishing in under five minutes but was also elated that I even finished the damn WOD at all.  My next WOD would be the first official, cancer-free WOD.  I was contacted by Mike Koslap who is a freelance videographer who occasionally does videos for the Crossfit main page.  He asked if I would like to be interviewed and filmed while going through a WOD and of course, I said yes.  We met a few weeks later at Crossfit OldTown in Alexandria, VA to film.  Special thanks to Jerry Hill, owner, and Melissa Lopes, head trainer, for allowing me to WOD with them. 

More than anything, I wanted to expose the rampant issues of the ego-driven man that believes himself invincible.  Call him out a little, if you will.  The important part of this journey isn't Crossfit, it isn't even cancer, it's understanding when to realize that you have no control, and to accept that beautiful nugget of truth.  That, is where you'll find your true, authentic self. 

Take care, and watch this vid if you have ten minutes to spare. 

Me, Crossfit, & Cancer.

One thing I've missed most about my healthy life is the world of Crossfit and the high that comes from the pain and the camaraderie of your peers seeing you puke openly in public from deep physical exertion. Cancer took this from me for a period of time, but for one night, I told cancer and chemo that they can take a back seat for a few hours. And they listened.

I had the opportunity to assist the women of the world by participating in a breast cancer awareness fundraiser called, "Amazing Grace" under the blanket fundraising effort, Barbells for Boobs, founded by my new friend, Zionna Munoz at Trident Crossfit. Grace is a Crossfit benchmark WOD (Workout Of The Day) and it's 30 clean & jerks @ 135lbs for men and 95lbs for the ladies. I'm familiar with Grace and have performed this WOD countless times over the past six years with my best time being 2:21. However, this time around, it took a tad longer. You see, with chemo running through me, my body just doesn't want to do the things my mind is telling it to. Oh well, what can you do?

This event was an emotional one for a few reasons. My friend Ben Mufti was tragically killed a few weeks ago. In my mind I renamed the event "Barbells for Ben." Another reason is my sweet and dear friend, Stef Woods has struggled a few times with breast cancer, so much so that I can't even begin to do justice in trying to explain what this woman has been through. She was running through my mind a great deal during this event. And finally, my girlfriend, Lisa was in town for the weekend and although a green Crossfitter, she's proving to have a deep badass gene. It was special to have her performing in the same heat with me and being able to share something that's such a big part of my life. Lastly, I wanted to prove to myself that I could still finish a WOD as prescribed, without decreasing the weight. I knew my body still had what it took, but I wanted to make it a physical reality. And after 7:07, I did.

Thanks to everyone in this video who pushed me and believed in me.

Oh, one more thing; apparently "Grace" kills cancer. This past Tuesday, I learned I am now cancer free.

Spring Cleaning Smoothie

It's a little old so forgive the delay. I kind of forgot about it. Enjoy. 

Check out the lovely host, Miss Rachel Demita on Twitter.

This Is A Stick-Up!

Greetings, readers.  I'm going to use this space here to ask for your money.  Not because I'm broke, but I thought some of my loyals would like to help me and a great cause.  Is that enough or do I need to tell you more?  Ok, then.  

As most of you know, I'm an avid crossfit enthusiast and have been for about six years now and the time has arrived again for the annual "Fight Gone Bad" charity fundraiser benefiting the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. The SOWF is this:

"The Special Operations Warrior Foundation was founded in 1980 to provide support and assistance to the U.S. Armed Forces special operations community, which includes:

Army Special Forces (Green Berets),

Army 75th Ranger Regiment,

The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment,

Navy Small Boat Teams,

Navy SEALs,

Air Force Combat Controllers,

Air Force rotary and fixed wing squadrons, and

Marine Corps special operations personnel.

There are two major aspects to the Foundation's mission:

1. If you are serving in the U.S. military special operations community, and you lose your life in an operational mission or training accident, the Warrior Foundation will provide a full college education to your surviving children.
2. If you are severely wounded while deployed, the Warrior Foundation will provide immediate financial assistance and support to ensure your loved ones can be at your bedside during your recovery.

While the Foundation has bestowed college scholarships since 1980, they began providing financial support to wounded special operators in 2005.

Although there are other charitable organizations that give financial aid to wounded personnel and their families, SOWF saw a need for immediate financial assistance. Therefore, the Foundation provides $2,000 in cash to families of special operations personnel hospitalized with severe wounds; which the recipient(s) may use for travel, child care, food and lodging."

So, it's no joke and I'm quite honored to be helping out the cause.  I, as I think all of us, can't begin to appreciate enough the difficulties that the soldiers and families of soldiers have to endure.  Can't. Even. Begin.

Oh, what's Fight Gone Bad?  Well, here you go: 

"Fight Gone Bad is one of the CrossFit benchmark WODs. It was designed to simulate the time domain of a mixed martial arts bout of five minutes of work followed by one minute of rest. It has been used in 3 and 5 roundversions. The workout first appeared on CrossFit.comon 1 December 2004, although a hint of the workout appeared as just a snapshot image on 7 October 2003. It was so named after BJ Penn, a professional mixed martial artist, remarked that it was like a "fight gone bad" when asked how it compared to a real fight.^[1]

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. We've used this in 3 and 5 round versions. The stations are:

1. . Wallball Shots: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
2. . Sumo Deadlift High-Pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
3. . Box Jump: 20" box (Reps)
4. . Push Press: 75 pounds (Reps)
5. . Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of "rotate," the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point."

Taken from Athlepedia.

Everyone at this point knows that I have cancer and have been hanging out with chemo for a bit.  With that said, there's NO WAY I'm missing this opportunity, not only for the cause, but to see if I can walk through what is arguably the most grueling of all Crossit benchmark WOD's...while on chemo.  I'm pretty certain I won't be besting my score this time since I haven't even picked up a weight in about a month but that doesn't matter -- I'll get to be around some Balance Gym Crossfit love and support which, if you guys haven't experienced that, it needs to be on your list. 

Now, back to asking for you hard earned monies.  I have a lot of subscribers to my blog here, many Facebook friends, and even more Twitter followers.  If everyone gave me a dollar, I'd be set.  Well, more than set since my fundraising goal is only $500...and thank you to everyone who has already donated, I owe you dinner. Here's a link to my donation page in hopes that you will follow it and give me that dollar.  

Thanks, guys.  

An Easy Way to Add Kale to Your Diet

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