2011: Year in review

So it's the first day of 2012, and I thought it would be appropriate to look back as the past year.  There were a lot of changes, but let's look at what happened.

In January, I competed for the superfit competition and got 66th out of 73.  Def not the best, but i really enjoyed the time spent with the other CFOTers, will always remember wandering around in the cold looking for a place to eat that was open (I was introduced to "Hungry Harold", who is a rather impatient person).  I was introduced to bourbon barrel beer (heaven in a glass!)

In February there was a crossfit-life changing experience, where I started to see that crossfit may not be the end all be all I thought it was. Where I started to realize that if I wanted to lift heavier with the squat, deadlift, and press then I needed to work on those with a program that used periodization, not muscle confusion.  You got to change it up to break through plateaus, but there are programs that can produce linear results (for a while) that will lead to stronger lifts then what I could do after 3 years of xfitting. This is also where I started to see the dangers in some exercises, like the kipping pull up.

April was also a big month.  I was on the paleo diet in earnest and was starting to reach my dream in terms of physique, and I moved from Alexandria to Barrington, leaving my crossfit home/family Crossfit Oldtown. That was a really tough move, I knew CFOT was irreplaceable and was going to miss everyone.

May was when I met Bobby for the first time, dude is amazing and led to me figuring out all kinds of things that have been going on with my body.  I now sleep on my back.  That's a huge deal and has really helped with my shoulder pain.

I also join the oly lifting program at Crossfit Rise, and am hooked.  I realize that I've been lifting with my back, not my legs, and this is a huge step to lifting heavy and safely.  I train for a competition and it is awesome and eye-opening.  Mostly I realize how I only need to lift heavy with like 5 reps, and not have to do many reps of such complicated lifts.

At the end of August I competed, and it was an awesome experience, the adrenaline rush was awesome.  I really felt like I accomplished something. Unfortunately, I also injured myself in the process, pulling my groin and doing something else in the process.

The remainder of the year I've been doing pilates, swimming and rehab on my pulled groin.  The groin gets better, but there is still a lot of pain.  I figure out it's my psoas again, and it's tight because it is trying to protect some soft tissue damage.  That, in turn, has led to prolotherapy.

This past year has been pretty amazing, but it's hard to imagine I've been injured for like four months now as I try to figure out what is going on in my hip.