Tamaryn's CrossFit Blog

Tamaryn Venter

Tamaryn has a long history of competitive sport, first in swimming and hockey then surf lifesaving and recently flat water kayaking, representing NZ in competition. She specializes in youth training, improving the strength, endurance and athletic ability of our future champions, in a manner designed to maximize safety and enjoyment. She has a BSc majoring in Sport Science and Psychology and has been a contributor to popular print health and fitness magazines as well as a guest lecturer for various academic institutions.

Brisbane

Just got home from spending a week in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast! In a nutshell, Matt Swift from CrossFit Brisbane is one awesome man/boy (he behaves like a 12yr old most of the time!) who kindly filled my head with loads of interesting and fun facts to help make CrossFit NZ greater and myself a better coach!

Matt sweats a lot!

Also got to spend some quality time with Rach (the physio! ha) at her home in Maroochydore....First time to the S.Coast, it was great, wish we could swim in the ocean in the middle of winter in NZ without developing hypothermia! Rach did a full muscular balance assessment on me and now I can confidently move forward with my rehab and training knowing she has my back (literally!). Watch out :)

Goals for the next few months

The latest scoop is that I am still yet to do a CrossFit workout, my back is still hurting, I am currently itching from head to toe with delayed posion oak attacks and I need to stop eating!!

I have absolutely no desire to perform a snatch or a wall ball any time soon but I really want to squat, clean and perform HSPU's!! I am forcing myself to have a whole month off CrossFit. I am on week 3 and I have been in my kayak 3 times and run once! I am having treatment for my back about 3-4 times a week. It is definitely looking promising, until I decided to do 100m repeats in my kayak!!! Ummm possibly not a good idea.....I kept telling myself that rotational loading was fine and it was flexion I needed to stay away from, apparently it is all movement done at high intensity!

So the plan from here is head to Brisbane and help out where I can at their Hard'n Up Challenge and hopefully get some Oly Lifting tips from Coach Swift :) From there I am going to work on getting stronger and make sure I stay healthy in doing so! I am going to enter a 10km Kayak race in September and train twice a week in my boat leading up to this. I also thought I might do some sprint regattas later in the year (also on minimal paddling) and see what the result ends up being. I have no expectation of being the fastest, just curious to see how awesome CrossFit really is :) Kind of like my own guinea pig!

Still no decision on weather I will pursue CrossFit Games 2010, but definitely not ruling it out either :)

oh and won't be eating anything like this again....Fo sure!!!

Post Games High!

What a weekend! I don't think I can really put my amazing experience into words but I will give it a try :)
Firstly I can't thank everyone at CrossFit Santa Cruz enough for their amazing support before and during the Games, this, without a doubt had a huge influence on my performance. Knowing I was being coached by incredible coaches really helped my confidence levels going into the Games. Thanks to Patrick and pals for helping me stay so relaxed during my lead up, I almost forgot we were competing until the day before when it dawned on me we had to run 7km and perform a max dead 40min later!!!! Thanks to Jobst and Eva T for their friendship and support, these are some REALLY cool people :) Thanks to Donna for her magic fingers, she was a lifesaver and to Matt for bringing kiwi (the pug)....sorry Ginger, you weren't cool!

Darren arrived in town ( a little worse for wear!! What did you guys do to him?) on the Thursday and we all headed out on Friday to register and catch some of the Affiliate Cup Games. Santa Cruz had an awesome team competing and ended up in 17th place out of about 99 which is an incredible performance. It was jaw dropping to watch Annie Sakamoto  from Santa Cruz Central crank out 30 deadlifts at 60kg in warp speed (she probably weighs about 54kg!). The atmosphere was a great taster for what was to come on Saturday and I was super excited to be amongst it.

I had a game plan going into each event and made sure I stuck to it. The only thing that didn't go as planned was the last wod where i not only pulled my back severly after the first few reps but also smacked myself in the head with the bar!!! I think I was just saying to someone the other day...'How do you hit your head during a snatch?' Turns out, I know how.....

The run was without a doubt the hardest thing I have ever done to date. Beat the sand dune run hands down. I can't remember how many hills were involved but there were a few and they were steep and long and steep and long :) This is what I did about 5min after completing the run....

Patrick looks like he is about to pass out! Thank god you can't see my face!

Forty minutes later I pulled a PR deadlift of 112kg. Couldn't have asked for anything else but deads are a real weak lift for me so I knew I had to really push the run to get ahead in the points. I was stoked to finish 14th in the run. However my 49th place in the deadlift wod brought me back into about 20 something place. The 170m sand bag hill sprint was probably the highlight for me....That might have been because it was over in 1.11min, or maybe because I seemed to have had quite a good race and ended up with the 7th fastest time ;) I was in 16th place going into the row/sledgehammer wod.

Yes this hurt my neck!!

The row/sledgehammer wod was pretty comical! Watching the fittest men and women in the world taking wild swings at a tiny stake was pretty demoralising and mildly humorous at the same time! I thought I had a pretty good run with my stake, however I was wondering why no matter how hard a smacked the thing it didn't seem to be moving? Turns out that the middle athletes were consistently slower at hitting their stakes in than the outside athletes? mmmmm....bummer for me! I still managed to get 26th place in this wod despite my less than average rowing and hammering skills :)

Sledgehammer anyone?!

Going into the last wod I was in 18th place. I was pretty happy to be in this position given the huge bias towards stronger individuals throughout the day. I was mentally prepared for the wall ball/snatch wod but physically I was barely holding on with my teeth! I had tweaked my back earlier in the day on a deadlift attempt and it was manifesting into something quite nasty several hours later. Getting timed out of wod 5 with about 7 reps to go was pretty devastating but given the circumstances I feel like I pushed it as hard as I could and really couldn't do anymore! This train wreck took me right back to 38th place!

My worst nightmare!

The atmosphere and people during the weekend were amazing! Highlights for me were (in no order):

• making a whole new bunch of friends
• watching Charity Vale smash the last workout
• Starting the 7km run with 139 other CrossFit athletes
• Competing in front of such an awesome, supportive, excited crowd!
• Jolie's LEGIT burpees
• Jason Khalipa clawing his way back to top 10 after passing out on the run!
• Chris Spealler is the nicest man alive...its official!
• Watching Patrick smash his sandbag run
• Being amongst the fittest men/women alive!!
• Tanya Wagner is a top chick!
• Mikko Salo....enough said :)
• Nadine's deadlift!
• Nadine :)
• Danielle and Hollis from Santa Cruz...best coaches.
• Darren for pushing through his illness to support me
• Surviving Day 1
• Caning the sandbag hill sprint.
• Deadlift PR
• Donna's massage table (and Donna :))

I have spent the last week in a carbohydrate coma, which is now the norm for post competition! My back is feeling a lot better and think it is going to be fine with a bit of treatment and rest. I haven't made any sturdy goals for the coming year but I am really enjoying being home chilling and coaching our wonderful crew at CFNZ. They have been getting super strong behind my back so good thing I came home to do something about that ;) Thanks to Amanda for holding the fort while we were away, I hear she did a stellar job...you rock!

Two more sleeps....

Hey peeps, sorry about the gap in updates. Not a lot going on in the last few days, just been chilling out and keeping the body guessing with a few short wods and rested with some laxing on the beach!

So turns out I will be running 7.1km off road trail run. Should have done those xterra's with ya'll after all :) It is going to be super painful but thank god there are 74 other girls who will be suffering with me! Second wod is heavy deads, not my strength but I am gonna give it my best shot and hopefully pull a PR in the process :) That's if my legs are still working after the run....40min is not a lot of rest!

Darren gets in today, he sounded rather stressed on departure. I am sure once he got on the plane though he fell straight to sleep....that guy doesn't sleep :) Will be great to have his support.

Well I am not sure if I will post again but let me just say that no matter how I go in these games I have had the best two weeks of my life and learnt so much as an athlete, coach and affiliate owner that I will be bringing back to share with you all. Oh and not to mention the new gang of friends I have made...turns out American's aren't all douche bags :) There is a little cameo of me on the games site from a few days ago if you want to check it out here

Ice bath and hills

I have settled in to a pretty sweet lifestyle here in Santa Cruz. Sleep in, drink coffee, do some work, eat breakfast, do some more work, lie on the beach, catch up with everyone, eat lunch, train, eat, do something cool like play beach volleyball or badminton, bed. Went to Eva T's house for BBQ a few nights ago and somehow ended up in an ice bath? Lucky there was a hot tub right next to it!! I'm not in this, but here's a vid of her last victim. It was freezing but my hip flexors were thanking me after getting beaten up by Michael on Tuesday!

Yesterday Pat and I decided it would be our last day of structured training. Pat has some very steep hills round his house as well as access to Tony B's gym which has the original CF headquarters pullup bars in it!! We did some snatch practise and then headed up the hill a couple of times. It gassed me, hills suck!

Today our friends from MaD CrossFit are coming into town to spend 4th July with me. Really looking forward to catching up with them and their pugs kiwi and ginger!

Just under a week before we compete, will be trying to chill and rest as much as I can :)

Learning new skills

Since I have been here, which is about 6 days now, I have learnt how to kip in my HSPU, deadlift more efficiently and now as of yesterday perform a glut ham raise (not very well yet!). Happy I came two weeks early.....ahhh yes! I think that is the beauty of CrossFit, no matter where you go you will always be able to pick something up that you didn't know before or perhaps you thought you did but really...you didn't :)

Patrick, myself and Jonji after Michael yesterday

I went for a swim Mike. Won't be doing that again in a hurry! It was freezing and kelp everywhere. Im looking forward to my day off tomorrow, the body is feeling a little beaten up :)

Jetlag

Have been trying to lay low for the last few days as jetlag caught up with me in a big way! Got a little excited and attempted three wods over two days. It was only when I had to get vertical for multiple reps that I realised my spatial awareness was not in good shape and felt an overwhelming need to vomit! I finished the wod (just) and lay down for the rest of the day!

Yesterday I took a cruise down to the boardwalk, there was a huge volleyball comp on as well as a woodies car show. These cars were saweeeet!


I love people watching! This place is one big melting pot of diversity, I love it! Am still yet to take a dive into the ocean, the water is freezing - colder than NZ on a cold day! Can't not go for a swim though, maybe after a long hot workout :)

Day of rest today, has been great - feel ready for the week ahead. Am going to hit it hard so I can rest up the week after that.

Cycling in Santa Cruz

This place is very bike friendly, there are bike lanes on all roads. That's good news for a bike novice like myself who can sometimes get her lefts and rights mixed up! Went to CrossFit Santa Cruz Central yesterday morning and met Annie and Michele, they were great! The wod was Tabata this but they both suggested I modified it as it was not the best workout to be doing this close to the games (thank god!) - Tabatas suck! I did dead hang pullups, 5 pushups then held plank for remaining 20sec and back extensions for squats. It was just the right amount. Still feeling a little light headed from flying. Janelle had left me a bike to get home on. All I can say is thank god for google maps on my phone! I took the leisure route around the coast. This is a sweet town!

Did some exploring on the bike and searched out a whole foods market, which I was later told is the most expensive shop to get good food so won't be going back there in a hurry!! (It was paleo paradise though!!)

Had a little lie down, then around 7pm Janelle dropped me off at Santa Cruz for another session. Was met by the happy/friendly Pat Barber and his tiny dog Falcor! Pat placed fourth at last years Games so he got automatic entry into this years. He is a tough competitor. I also met Hollis and his sister Danielle who run CFSC. They were awesome, Hollis is a great coach and helped me on my OH squat tech. Pat also taught me how to kip with the HSPU, stoked! Pat and I did a short wod that involved OH squats and L-Pullups while the rest of the group did a team workout to get ready for their upcoming affiliate Games.

Pat dropped me off at Janelle and Mark's place for dinner where I met both their parents, who are visiting from NZ. Great to hear some kiwi voices, I have been given quite a bit of stick all day about my accent :) Late night but I get to sleep in so it's all good!!

P.S. Craig, haven't met Eva yet. I think I briefly met Shari yesterday though.
Sorry no photo today, keep forgetting I am tourist and need to be snapping everything!

USA day 1

I am sitting in my sweet pad in Santa Cruz that I pretty much have all to myself for the next few weeks drinking coffee that is surprisingly pretty good :) I can hear, smell and pretty much stumble onto the beach from my doorstep and momentarily have forgotten why I am here!!

 

I was met at the airport by Janelle and her husband Mark (fellow kiwis). It was great to see a few friendly faces after not speaking to anyone for about 15 hours. Janelle handed over three packs of organic jerky and a bottle of water when we got in the car, I nearly cried with thanks......It got better, when we got to my new sweet pad (I will refer to it as that from now on) I had a fridge full of blueberries, chicken, salad, eggs, milk, avo.....and yes Daz 72% chocolate :) They have also lent me a phone and a push bike to get around while I am here. These people are very very awesome...I don't think a CFNZ t-shirt will really cut the mustard as a thank you gift!

Today I am off to train with Annie and the crew at CrossFit Santa Cruz Central  then this avo I am meeting up with Patrick Barber to train at CrossFit Santa Cruz

Cath ya'll later!

P.S. What's with the toilets here huh!!

One week to go....

One week today before I head out to California! O.M.G....

The strange alien swelling has disappeared from my knee, no-one really knew what caused it? Could be meniscus, maybe its tendonitis, this, that - who really knows! What I do know is that I can squat, deadlift and run again so thank sweet baby Jesus for that! I will deal with the pain later. Who doesn't have an injury right?

To help fund raise for my holiday...oops I mean World Games trip we put on a little challenge at CFNZ with the help of CF Auckland. It was a hit! Everyone who thought they loved CrossFit before this event, now want to make little CrossFit babies they love it so much! I'm not going to lie to you, they are a diabolical nightmare to organise, but as soon as I see everyone getting amongst it and supporting each other, it's worth it.....that's why I do it! The CrossFit community is small but strong here in NZ and we look forward to seeing it grow. Thanks to everyone for your kind donations and entering our event, the support is overwhelming, we are so lucky to be apart of such a fun, caring community! Oh and I won't have to eat McDonalds when I get to California now - thanks guys!
I don't think Lou knew what she was in for when she landed me as her judge! :)