An Intro To Our Marketing Director, Lauren Metcalfe
Nobody likes writing in third person about themselves. Not even Marketing Directors. So, I'm chiming in here about our ruthless, badass, Marketing girl, Lauren Metcalfe. Recent winner of the 2016 Crush Games down in Miami, FL (Women's RX Division) and former gymnastics athlete turned-CrossFitter extraordinaire.
I think from the photo I don't need to tell you that Lauren is an exceptional athlete. And from our perspective, it's awesome to A) Have a sponsored athlete as part of our team (She is sponsored by Livesore). and B) Have another female as part of the VoyEdge RX team.
Now, before I get to Lauren's full intro and background story, I wanted to mention we're in the process of finishing our global itineraries for 2017 and also integrating a finalized payment platform. You should be able to book a trip starting early next week, so please subscribe at the bottom of the page! Hope to see you on some trips in 2017!
Now, for Lauren's full intro. She is from Dallas, Texas and currently resides in New Braunfels, Texas. Here home box is CrossFit Jääkarhu in Austin, TX.
Keep in mind - as she dives into her past, that she overcame an enormous list of injuries to win this year's Crush Games...
If you want to follow Lauren on IG, then simply click any of the images on the page.
A little history of my CrossFit career so far.
I've been CrossFitting for about 4 years now, BUT the first 3 years I was out for at least 6 months each year due to old injuries from gymnastics that came up when I started to transition into lifting weights and doing less body weight movements.
List of injuries/illnesses:
(a plethora of rolled ankles and torn tendons I lost count)
1. Shattered Ankle at 14 - Surgery x 2
2. Stress cracks in the base of my back at 16 (broken back basically)
3. Torn ACL, PCL, MCL, Meniscus in my right knee (basically destroyed it) at 17 - ended up in surgery...
4. Broke my back again at one of my first CrossFit comps at 24, forced me to quit gymnastics and strictly do CrossFit, from then on ending my 20 yr career as a gymnast. I was out for 9 months at that point.
5. Surgery again on right knee for more torn meniscus and a cyst at 25 - out for 6 months
6. at 26 I went into adrenal fatigue and almost went into kidney and liver failure that year, but luckily I found a great functional med doctor that discovered I had Mono or Epstein Barr syndrome during 2 surgeries (knee surgery and sinus surgery). Out for 6 months
At that point (last year) I knew I was a mess...it was tough to overcome. Wanting to be an elite athlete but always hitting a string of injuries.
As of last September 2015, I made a butt load of life and lifestyle changes. I was 180 lbs, unhappy, and lethargic due to the illness. So, I set some goals for myself in 2016:
1. Get healthy and tone up
2. Travel a lot more and do what I love, CrossFit.
3. Join a new gym to help me reach my goals. A competitive one to bring the best out in me.
In Feb this past year, I made the move to Crossfit Jaakarhu in Austin, TX. And as it turned out, it was the best decision I could have made for my CrossFit career. Prior to this, I had take the last four months to get healthy and start dropping weight by working with a nutritionist. I lost 15 lbs. pretty quickly thanks to her. I still can’t believe I had that much to lose!
And earlier this year, after The Open was over, knowing I wouldn’t do that well this year, I set out to work hard and I picked 3 major competitions to do: Granite Games (St. Cloud, MN), Crush Games(Miami, FL), and Wodapalooza (Miami, FL). Each of these competitions required qualifiers in order to earn my spot on the competition floor.
Going into the Crush Games qualifier I was feeling pretty confident. The tough part being that it's really hard to do these qualifiers on your own with no one to support, or tape you doing them. Max lifts and rowing are my jam and the Crush Games qualifiers ended up being those exact two WOD's as a base score going into game day.
(Quick Flashback into the Crush Games workouts)...
Day one I entered the comp in second place with a 10 point gap to 1st.
WOD 1 - yellow tank
20 Clean and Jerks at 95#
24 pull ups
15 C&J
18 pull ups
10 C&J
12 pull ups
I was talking to my judge and trying to figure out my game plan. Go unbroken or break it up? Thats always the hardest question to answer because you never want to go out guns a blazin’ because you will burn out half way through. Originally I thought to go 10 and 10 for the first set of C&J. Well, I got done with 10 and was like, this is so light I’m just gonna go for it. Sure enough it put me in the lead with a hole minute to spare to the second place finisher. Workout one ended up bumping me into a first place tie.
WOD 2
15 axel dead lifts 90#
12 bar over burpees
9 shoulder to Overhead
I knew going into workout 2 that me and burpees DO NOT get along. My aerobic capacity isn’t all that great and I like to have the most inconvenient asthma attacks when I try to do these fast. Game plan was to rest on the bees and try to go as fast as I could on the rest. I quickly noticed that the 9 Shoulder to overhead was what kept my in the lead for my heat so I made sure not to drop that bar at all! Another 1st place win for that workout which was a big surprise since burpees are a weak spot for me.
WOD 3
160 yd sprint
into
80 yd atlas stone carry 65#
4 ground to shoulder w. stone #65
60 yd carry
4 ground to shoulder w. stone #65
40 yard
4 ground to shoulder w. stone #65
Again, I’m a lifter not a sprinter, but I ended up taking 3rd and 4th in this two part workout.
Day one was over and I was holding first place. It was a great feeling, but also a lot of pressure going into day 2 to try and hold my title.
Day 2 began with my jam, Handstand pushups and toes to bar. Gymnastics is my forte.
WOD 4 - 'Merica outfit
21-15-9
power snatch 85#
HSPU
TTB
I ended up with the same judge I talked game plan with for the 1st workout. Again, unbroken or break it up? We agreed that going as unbroken as possible was what got me 1st the last time so, yup, 21 power snatches unbroken it is.
The game plan worked and I took first for that workout as well. Next up was lunges and sled. I know that this would cause some knee pain, but I figured I would push as hard as I could because the day was almost over. The last two workouts were really hard on my bad leg, but I was happy to have them at the end. WOD 6 involved pistols and if you see in my picture, I had to lift my heal up due to a massive bone spur in my talus that blocks my range of motion and in turn drives the load into my knee causing some not so nice knee pain. All I had to do was stay in the top 10 for that last workout, So thats what I did. I got 10th for the last workout, but you can see in the picture of me rowing, I know I had it in the bag, I just had to finish!
All in all, I never went into this competition thinking I was going to win. Top 10 was realistic, but not 1st place. Luckily for me, the other competitors weaknesses were barbell cycling and overhead strength so I made sure to give those workouts my all once I saw that trend.
Now my eyes are set on Wodapalooza in Miami. I decided to compete in the Intermediate division so that I wouldn’t burn myself out for the open this year since I plan on making the regional team at my new gym. Intermediate is still no joke when competing at WZA, they still do muscle ups!
I'll be sure to chime in with more blog posts, info about trips and other bits of info from time to time, but your best bet is to follow our VoyEdge RX team on social and subscribe to our email blast down below.
We'll post content about travel, CrossFit, nutritional info, books we're reading and just about everything else that involves fitness and traveling. Our mantra is to cultivate a lifestyle community based on pushing past our physical limits and achieving a life well traveled.
Speaking of...will we be seeing you in Iceland this July? There's five spots left. Click the link below to find out more about our itinerary and all our other tours.
Till then. Happy Travels. Shoot me an email at: Lauren@VoyedgeRX.com with any comments or questions!