NEMOGEDDON...A SNOWCALYPSE

THE PAST

As you may have guessed by my title i live on the east coast of the United States, specifically the east end of long island, new york. On Friday Feb 8th 2013 we were beaten down by a Snow storm named "Nemo" which delivered 32 inches of snow in Port Jefferson/mt Sinai (where i live) in less than 24hrs. The last time we were pummeled this bad with a blizzard was 1978 ..i was a Junior high school student and school was closed for a week...who wouldn't remember that. I lived with my parents in commack, NY...in a  town park called Hoyt Farm Park. The reason we lived there, my dad was the Park Ranger/Naturalist/Educator. My family lived on the park property in the Hoyt House which was built in the 1770s, the park is 133 acres. In 1978 we had a blizzard that delivered 24 inches of snow in 24hrs with wind gusts of 60 miles per hour..very similar conditions to Nemo. I remember our power went out in the Hoyt House and my mom cooked on a  wood burning pot-bellied stove ( a Franklin stove )...god bless my mom! My brother, sister and i spent all our time in the kitchen because it was the only warm spot in the house...God bless Ben Franklin! The town didn't plow us out for a week, my dad had to use snow shoes to check the animals we had (chickens, geese, goats, cow, pony,  domestic bunny rabbits) and keep an eye on the rest of the park.  The snow drifts were so bad my brother and i couldn't make it thru the snow to the front of the park where the big hills were to sleigh ride, so we made our own sleigh run right outside our front door...into the amphitheater below, where my dad gave lectures there in the spring to many LI school children. Great memories!

"NEMO"

What the weather forecasters predicted for Nemo was rain in the morning, a little snow, changing back to rain and then heavy snow was to start at 7pm with the brunt of the storm to be overnight with snow totals of 12 inches in the morning of the 9th...DID NOT HAPPEN! I woke up 1pm, and there was a good 2 inches on the ground with VERY large flakes comming down fast...hmmmm. I imediately texted my high school age kids and by 130pm they were on school buses heading home to their dads house. My oldest daughter works in a grocery store i made sure that morning she went to work with an extra set of  warm clothes, water bottle, snacks, a blanket and a shovel...the girl scout, emergency room nurse, mom, and crossfitter in me, was thinking "always be prepared,  and expect the unexpected" . My Kaite barely made it home, it took her an hour to drive a 20min drive and she got stuck coming into our developement and this was at 450pm! My landlord plowed out the street so she could get  into the driveway...Kaite watched movies, i put on a pot of chicken soup and we waited.   When i got up in the morning like a kid waiting for santa, i ran to the window....OMG!! I couldnt get over how much snow there was (32 inches), my deck and my backyard had the same level of snow! My heart sank and i started to get discouraged...how am i going to be able to dig out?

"IT"S A CHIPPER"

I took a deep breath  and listen to  the crossfitter in me " you got this girl, break it down, just like a chipper wod,  break the HUGE workload into smaller manageble workloads, keep chipping away at the task alittle at a time" I went and made myself my typical crossfit/paleo breakfast, drank my coffee, put on my big girl crossfit panties and began this seemingly impossible task!! I dug a path from my sliding glass door, across my deck,  down the steps ,  straight to the back of the house, along the length of the back of the house and reached the door that houses my washing machine and dryer, then  across my backyard out to the fence. When i got to the fence,  of course i couldnt dig straight out to my car because of a small downed tree all over it(no damage to my car), i had to dig half-way up the fence then out to the street.  it took me 1 and a 1/2 hrs to make it from my house to the street. It took another hour to dig out my daughters car and clean it off but we were free!

"A LESSON LEARNED"

 Coach Greg Glassman, the founder of Crossfit, describes Crossfit as "strength and conditioning program based on constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement".

Every single squat, deadlift, clean, snatch,  burpee, run, pull up, box jump, lunge, wallball i did over this last year at  PortCrossfit...made my task of shoveling 32 inches of snow easy and fun! Crossfit not only prepared me physcially for this overwhelming task  but mentally too.  The psychological challenges we face every WOD build your mental endurance. There is nothing like looking at the white board and seeing the WOD consist of some kind of maximum strength work(deadlifts, cleans, snatch, front squats, back squats, bench press) and then having to do 200 walking lunges or 100 burpees for time. Mentally you just want to shoot yourself in the head but you cant walk out of the class and quit so you start to stratagize, hmmmm ok if i break it down into groups of 10s, or 20s then the Wod is possible.  I  truly couldnt believe while shoveling i was not short of breath at all, i was not tired, my arms, shoulders, back, and legs didnt ache, wow, i AM fit!  I totally enjoyed the sun on my face, breathing in the cool crisp winter air, seeing the glistening snow covered trees, hearing the sounds of children laughing, remembering my  childhood snow days and knowing i had the physcial ability to pick up my shovel and move the snow from one place to another all by myself. Wow, i am mentally fit!  Snow WOD done! Thankyou Coach Glassman and of course my Coaches Ryan, Kyle, Mike and Tyler, luv you guys!!

ps PortCrossfit just wanted to say i didnt copy your blog, its just great Crossfit minds think alike! lololol