Kara Saunders // Journey Back To The Games

I'll make it really simple and blunt are you out to prove something that moms can do this [Music] I know I get goosebumps when I'm asked that I really just genuine like genuinely get excited by the thought and the potential of doing things that maybe people haven't done before and I love the opportunity of just seeing if I can redefine something like can I you know can I have it all pretty much you know can I be an awesome present mom and have my baby with me and teach her things and spend the day with her and do all the monotonous parent things can i still be really healthy can I still run a business and can i still be pretty fit and go and compete and juggle that all at once it's something that's really hard to do and often people kinda like oh no I don't want to do that or something's got to give and I just I really want to see if I can if I can do it all and and yeah just like redefine things for like for a fit bother like people have definitely done it before don't get me wrong I'm not the first person but in what I'm doing I guess you know it's not super common so I just want to see if especially with a little baby and a fully dependent baby you know she's not 2 yet or even you know she's a baby so yeah I just want to see if I can if I can do that if I can be new mum and we could athlete and just kind of nail at all I might fail I don't know but I'm excited by trying yeah home sit up yeah I did if I do something with a biker I have to like run up and down the stairs only cuz I'm too lazy to put it well there's not like heaps of space downstairs yeah but I was always using the bike up stairs anyway but yeah I did like a whole things am I like double under spot and constructions oh there's Matt he's been building this for somebody's birthday we got so 10 in the first couple days because it was like super hot trading outside and then we got her little shade tent that we won't carry out put all their snacks in there so that we can train and she doesn't get sunburned it's like a beach tent and then yeah we've just got like stuff everywhere I was like this was turning into the Recovery Center and now it's like turn into the half messy rock climbing wall gym everything keep all the eggs and the salt stuff under there undercover but then yeah we just brought home like kind of one of each thing and we just like rotate the logistic stuff like everyone trays good like one box well we put a pause and stuff but like yeah we have one set of five one set of 2.5 just like reading stuff grab a couple of dumbbells and then yeah you have to do some things with a water or having a dumbbell but it's not a not a big deal yeah I really wish I had a bought a set of 25 kilos I'm little time though because they're really like my key weight for so many things but in the hardest part of training at home I could see one right now the dog keeps coming like like sheep ooze right near the gym and so I'm like Maddie would've bangs the other days I cause there anything else you need like he's going to get stuff with a rock climbing wall and everything like we had to get a floodlight so that because I couldn't see the assault random monitor because the lights are behind the sauna feels like running in the dark one night couldn't see the monitor so when we floodlight so I'm like at night time we can see we're training and then I'm like I need a really good puse Cooper and he comes home with this like it's the best like peacekeeper I like that's so excited look around so pretty much the highlights of my day is like receiving cleaning products in the mail and getting you super skippers clean the gym I swear as soon as we come out to train she's like I'm gonna prune now right next to the gym and it's like fresh hey yeah it's yuck oh my gosh I the worst start I am so we obviously had the flag event I tried to like watching videos on my phone kept freaking out anyways I think what happened is there was a little bit of a rush so I didn't watch the video there was a little bit of a rush with the fella that was like instructing things he said things one way but I think he got his words twisted there's a way to do it and then he's just accidentally set it back to front and I've gone off his word I'm the only one that went on his word about the whole heads up head down before you go like the queues to start and then the whistle goes everyone's gone and I'm like wait I'm never ready I was totally mister start like couldn't I yep anyway I had woken up at like 4 o'clock that morning super nervous about like diving on my chest and I'm like oh so anyway I got cut fully just mad like just proper angry I'm like this is so frustrating I'm like I've just started like good start absolutely right there anyway so I got super angry call Maddie he just finishing nightshift and he was driving down the coast like coming straight down to be here and I've called him and I'm like I just need to talk to you I feel feral like I'm just angry and I just need to like get it and like you know you're my sounding board I just need to like get it out of my body I'm just angry so I'm blood lovely to him and then he's trying to hook his phone up in his car on the way here gets pulled over gets $1,000 fine for being on his phone on the way and the guy's like you know what are you doing he's like on the phone of my wife and he's like is there a reason like whatever and he's like no man I did the wrong thing I guess I was at work yeah you guys gotta go and then he's like yeah sounds another fire and I'm like all right could start today $1,000 fine I've been cutting the first one come dead last and I'm like there's there's two ways to go like I said you can i I've felt like really defiant like I just mad because it was like a silly like a silly mistake but anyway I sorted myself out went hard on the next event which was the run swim run classically being pretty good in the water and I tried a couple of different things that worked out and went a little harder than I wanted to how to sprint finish haven't done any sprinting since I had a child and like that hurt me a little bit later but I was super stoked that I turned it around and that got me kind of back on track got my head back in the game it's really still like it's all her you know what I mean like I can make sure she doesn't go near mum when mums training and things like that but she's with us pretty much 24/7 every single day at the gym hanging out getting played with like getting into mischief getting my mom when I'm not there and yeah it's just it's just a constant juggle so for her to be able to do what she does at the level that she does it's I honestly think is one of the greatest sporting achievements of ever seen or anyone anywhere because it's very very difficult the only thing we've had to take off-site I think is um the sled really hey I would take I'd like keeper sled drags to do like 12 sets of 75 metres led drags if my coach is like oh can you do like smaller laps and you know at home in your yard and I'm like I've probably got ten meters I'm like I'm not gonna do seven and a half like turn around turn around turn around turn red have to do if myfarmers carries for like two or a couple laps it does your head in like talk about mental training having to turn around that many times yeah so I'm like no we can take this out to the field so footy field just like down the road yeah and then just do the sled drag say are you going getting more blueberries so your training been much different to what it only would be if you had the gym available is it no it's pretty on point I think like Nick just pretty much programs for me as he would and then I just if I need to change something change something's been very very rare it's like just some certain things like I said with weights or whatever like that but it's been pretty much spot-on for what looks like it's coming up now anyway like having rogue the like rogue invitation or go online means that you know we're not going to be doing any like crazy outside stuff we're all those kind of things so I don't really need to be training out right now but I mean I'm training all the stuff I think that I would normally do anyway of I mean I'm lucky enough to have the rig yeah I'm lucky enough to have the rig that a lot of people don't have in their backyard so you know I still have a wobble target low rings high rings rope like the fact that because we had just changed over our rig at the gym to have that we get outrigger things so he actually put a rope on it otherwise I would never rope at home so I pitched one of those off the upcoming rig and I see I've been pretty much I've pretty much been able to do most things but yet I have to do like lots of laps of farmers carry and sometimes I have to run up the stairs in the middle of a workout to do bike or like just random things like that but I figure that's not really hindering training at all anyway like if I'm in a workout and I have to do like a stair run it's like a second you know it's like 10 seconds to get up there and it's kind of good practice for uncomfortable fast transitions anyway yeah so yeah we know I want to do pretty much pretty much everything I think which is good as much as I can train on time and is that I was like yeah it's gonna be like super easy training at home because you know like it's obvious in the backyard and it's definitely perks to it I can put my washing on in my rest breaks which means that I'm like a little bit more efficient on that time which I need but there's like a thousand more hazards here for a child there's like compared to like in the confined space of like the gym that I can sort of block her off and all that kind of stuff like we're in the backyard she climbed the stairs she comes those stairs we had to put baby gates everywhere she finds rocks and random things to put in her mouth and so he's like constant like when Maddie's at work it's really hard if I have to do like a two-hour training session or whatever but um looking that I have to train in asleep so getting anything else done in those days is not so easy but the best life eating those blueberries that's why hey I stopped in the corner as well is that a homemade gun yes a homemade ice bath you do like him other than everything like we made it Maddie was like on the hunt for ages and then finally found a place that closed down and sold that was selling that cheap it's like 700 liters Hey yeah it's huge and then did have been a research bought probe for like less than $250 or whatever it was set up ready to go and it's always plugged in we literally just had the electrician come and put an extra power point like outside for it like a special one because everything I had the sauna and my washing machine and the dryer and everything all hooked up on the same thing I'd try and multitask and kept like shorting out the house so just everything go off so we had to get like extra power points on a separate thing put in then um yeah I haven't been getting in that cuz I'm a chicken and I tested it because I'm like still breastfeeding Scottie the cold was like shutting off like blood flow and stuff and so I'm like I can't really do it in the day so the only time I could do it is like when I put her to bed so then you know I don't need to be sort of like flowing milk as frequently but I don't want to do it before bed because it's really cold and the weather is getting cold so I just have a so on her instead [Music] well it's been a pretty incredible watching her do this like I was there when she was pregnant no I'm their adopted son I think we got to call it I'm the older adopted son older than both of them but yeah sitting with him like hanging out with them last year when she was pregnant I remember when a bouncy ball trying to get that baby out we're eating spicy pizza she's like I can't wait to get this baby out and she's like but even before that she was in Bali with us snatching 90 kilos with his big belly and it's just incredible to how passionate is and also like how fine-tuned she was with everything she actually looked at like she did everything just I don't know right it looked good and she was still didn't neglect things she didn't neglect the things that she knew that might not that could be dangerous and it was really smart about it and she liked to obviously capture that on her vlogs and stuff which is really cool and then seeing her a few months later after she had the baby and then just seeing her like smashing it you know and then training with her a bit before Torian and her just crushing it through the open I was just like I got a judge around a few things with most nerve-wracking thing I've ever done making sure like the film wasn't getting although it fell over yeah it was just awesome Anand it's really really inspiring to see like someone trained like that because it's she just she's so passionate but then she's like you turn around and she's like back to his mom thing and she's just like the best mom ever then she's like I'm at my mom and it's just like I was like man I could barely tie my shoelaces and run a business so it's really incredible I'm proud of her and it's cool to be friends with them and I stay in their little apartment every time I'm town so it's pretty cool they've adopted me officially they're like a big spring peas mine like a week ago I need it by 64 but I don't want to lost oh I'll put it on my Instagram my oldest son it really really wants one of these yeah he's gonna get some mole he's coming stay there that's going to get more you had to pull up isolation see you still got your performance legacy I was so sore and so tired I was like the last day I think cuz it just had like maxed out you know what I had done I just kind of maxed myself out more in regard to the like the duration of working out not necessarily like the intensity of the workouts or the volume although we did do we did do a lot of workouts 13 yeah like 14 something in four days like intense but it was more just like I hadn't worked out that many days repetitively so on this Sunday I started to get like a scratchy throat like just start to feel like I'm rundown which is pretty common in competition anyway and then yeah I think I think I'm about a week or two I had like just sinus you know like just like rundown so I was he kind of think so I was like I just was slow afterwards I think I had a week off or just you know just chillin anyway yeah I I kind of came good I was like I was bit just yeah rundown from just kind of doing something I hadn't done in a really long time which is why I needed to do the competition yeah but yeah performance wise and stuff it was it was all pretty good I think with that yeah though there were definitely opportunities like there were highs and lows though opportunities in there where I needed to push okay push and be uncomfortable like say something like that double-under workout I was like super intense and then there were times where I could cruise a little bit and that was nice but I think it was good for a start but then going into like you know the next stage what I would need to practice is being uncomfortable more and not really having the opportunity to chill out like I need to you know when I'm how say in a nice way but you know as you kind of work up and sort of other competitions where all of the the top girls are all in the same place at the same time or whatever it becomes much more uncomfortable everything's a fight that's now the next challenge where you know I won't get to have moments where I'm like last wait I'll just pull back a little bit now because I'm ahead and sweet and chill but yeah obviously it was good that I could do that for the first time because otherwise I would have been even more cooked if I had to go out of my skin for every single workout especially with that volume of workouts and for days [Applause] even though trainings not everything you do still have a reason now that you never never used to have like you know she that money gets to be able to go to study she has to set a good example for study to show that you know what people tell you is not necessarily able to be done can be done and she gets to show that to her and B Scott his role model as opposed to being able to go into someone like look what this person can do on that person condition though I've done this like you can do it too so I think there's a massive driving forces just to show on her that whatever she wants to do she can do it now April meant to be doing the next comp next month yeah in a couple of weeks time I probably would have been in the u.s. by now or yes soon probably like within a week but it's kind of nice getting to stay home and do that competition from home and have one less trouble overseas but I don't love it like I love competing and I love getting over there but obviously that travel is gnarly on your body and just in general and you know doing it with a child wash on land with an 11-1 well in travelling a jet lag and being on the plane and mobile hell she is like she doesn't stop all day long literally all day long she just eats and eats and eats they like so she goes to daycare one day a week and just to like give us one day and then she has one day just to like oh and learn new stuff or whatever and the lady there's like we have to order double the food for Scottie so she has to morning tdys two lunches to afternoon teas otherwise she yells at them that's why I said she yells or that I think when the hardest things is like I did this like had Scottie worked my butt off qualified you know like went so hard I'm in I'm in the season let's go and then there's like this anticlimax if that's that that's gone now like I don't know if there's a games even if there is a games it feels different and kind of feels a little bit like forced and rushed at the moment you know like it doesn't feel it's gonna have to be different and yeah we're just so it it's just like uncertain so i I've definitely had moments where I want to keep training and I can keep training well but I'm like what you know is the season gone you know yeah I'm like it sort of feels like at times you like man do I just like step back now like step back stop fighting for the games or something that's not gonna be there train and enjoy it and do the other stuff that I need to do like work on my company that's launching and you know my studies and her and all of that kind of stuff like I definitely have these moments yeah just a little bit but it's yeah but that's Maddie totally not to so I know how to complain distress but the yeah it's that creeps into my head a lot when I get overwhelmed with being like really busy I just go like wow you know why am I putting so much like physical and mental energy into that for potentially nothing when it's not gonna go ahead I could spend these months on the other staff and then still have plenty of time to pick up where I left off still train hard and all that kind of stuff but not to the same extent and focus on the next one and go like okay sweet just let that be what it is I qualified I did really well when I want a sanctioned event you know I proved to myself that I can do it and then just like take the pressure off myself a little bit and come back in for the next round that definitely pops into my head yeah pretty much every time I get like overwhelmed and stressed which is like every second day um and then yeah that that I would say that's probably where I'm at at the moment you know it's like oh it's so close to the games but still kind of so far and we still don't even know what we're doing you know still don't even know if it's like worth it and but obviously it's my job yeah so that's that's what I'm a bit like lolly there at the moment I'm still just like showing up so just like getting the training done and doing well but it's it's kind of hard to stay focused on that prize not even knowing if it's there I just would like to know whether to like let go or charge on you know and there's always I'm like what do I do because I just need to be efficient with my time at the moment that's probably the that's probably like the stuck place but everyone's in that position right now too you know people own gyms like are we gonna open don't know is it gonna be next week is it gonna be in a month is it gonna be next year you know all businesses are all doing the exact same thing so all in that limbo land so we say let go which I join you means let go of this season or let go together know just like oh of this season you know like just because there is still it just means that I could in a critical time because this is a critical time for me and my business and everything and I'm on the hustle like I'm maxed out like every minute every cell of my body is like maxed out on what I've committed to and the Maddy said to me last week I think it was he's like you've bitten off more than you can chew but you've already swallowed half so I'm like okay oh um and that's 100% I have a hundred percent bitten off more than I can chew but I saw it off I'm so I'm like in it now but yeah I'm like man I could really like I could like cut myself a break in this opportunity if the games didn't go ahead if we just knew but then at the same time I've already come this far that I'm like well I'll kick on if we're gonna kick on I'm not gonna be the one that doesn't and then everyone else goes ahead like I'm not gonna quit if it's going you know but it would almost be a slight blessing for me if I'm being totally honest if they were like hey we're just gonna push it back a couple of months or you know whatever I don't know do it online or something if we just knew that it would potentially just open up a little bit more space time and energy all that kind of stuff so it wasn't such a grind [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Jesus tie-in and she's more chill with me come on yeah pretty heavy you know I don't like quads a little bit heavy dollar anything today I was like when you do well in other events you work more than other people to come in more cook to like I do more reps but uh anyway I was like look I can I can work through saw it's like tired and under Mohammed you know if you don't eat right supplement right don't do all the recovery protocols and you end up legally or crashing that's really hard to work with so for me I was like Soros or it's just discomfort but it doesn't do anything else so just learn to be comfortable maybe my GM I'd be like oh is that Scotty okay stop can't do that here yeah so this is the first time that I've really had to show up multiple days in a row multiple events in a row and also on someone else's watch so that's probably the hardest thing to be honest is you know I can not know the workouts and I can keep trying to show up and do the workouts but somewhere in there I have to still be mum still feed my child figure out putting her to bed and you know like packing her lunch and you know even today I'm doing my best to eat enough food and do all that kind of stuff but my priority priority is making sure that she has food so I just kind of take you know second priority and then you know sometimes you get to warm up and sometimes you don't so that just always has to come first and I just can't be as precious about my process like I normally would do so sometimes certain events you know they might just be a little different or a little bit harder than they normally would be but I definitely think the hardest part is just the logistics of the timing of it all obviously and I'm learning for the first time what the demands are like on my body so having to like produce milk work out hard still like have my muscles recover and do all that kind of stuff like that's always been a big task is so far it kind of feels a little bit like when I very first started competing and I remember like a couple of days you know I was like I am floored like how do I keep showing up and then I got so conditioned that I could see out of games and be like I could go another day if I had to like I'm I'm okay but I'm back to that kind of like rookie phase where I really just have to like show up here because that that will show up a little bit better than my body will I think at the moment yeah yes son really well she's been crushing it so I was a good little compter trying to get herself back in before you know really going in against the big girls and I'm throwing down with them she's just just doing her thing obviously she's coming back from not competing for two years pretty much that's a long time and then you know from having zero training that is what an athlete would be doing for that first nine months and then it build up and then you know realistically it's probably only about four or five months that she's actually been able to dedicate to the training that she was doing so having that and doing all that in such a short time like it's been really good to get all competition like this and see where she's at where question wants to work on and things like that and obviously the biggest thing is well for something like this is learning how to juggle having a baby and breastfeeding in between events and then for anywhere to put Scottie to sleep as opposed to you know resting and recovering and things like that so it's definitely a good one to start that one hit the way that he the job that he works and what he does and how he is allows us to co-parent like just the dream team you know we're exactly 50/50 there's roles that I need to play as mum and then there's for everything else like there's Maddy you know he's there holding her feeding her doing whatever he needs to do aside from obviously milk that's me and certain things like would go to bed or whatever but other than that like I couldn't I I couldn't I just don't think I could want to like I couldn't get that last little bit to be able to do this kind of thing without having him there it's just you need a support network and yet luckily we can just team and support each other through the whole thing which is amazing for Scottie as well because you know to have both parents and we offer really different things so it's really good for her [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] yeah I had like a mitt and it changes so much - hey because obviously like parenting changes for the first time you know like you don't know what each age brings what that commitment is all that kind of stuff and even the same with business I've always said I'm kind of like on the I'm on a transition phase but I'm still in it I sort of roughly roughly had in my mind you know like maybe three or so years of competing like seasons up competing after her and sort of like but reassess everyone obviously along the way as to what capacity that is because obviously like I still like what I'm doing it just comes down to like the commitment and time and I'm at that age where I do need to consider my future as well and where I'm putting my energy in that and as amazing as it is I've lived a better part of a decade being an athlete and you know getting paid like my job is to work out and go to these cool competitions and do all that stuff which is awesome but it has a timeline your body has a timeline you know all of those kind of things and if you know I think a lot of people make the mistake and not looking forward and I don't ever want to not be prepared for that next stage have it come and then like struggle have this like big crash which just athletes in general do but you know the CrossFit Games is just not everything and like it's not realistic to put all of your eggs in that basket and think it's going to carry you through until you're 80 because that is just not realistic even the winners right now like people doing whatever and making you know the big bucks there right now like that it's still going to end like you you haven't planned for something you haven't set yourself up in another way which is part of the reason why I study - and why I have companies and things like that is because I'm diversifying so that I have the opportunity to provide can to equally provide obviously with Maddie like for our family for long-term and to also have something that is mine and to do other than competing working out what I can't do that all the time but yeah it's I'm definitely thinking about that a lot more which is why it's really important to be efficient with my time right now in my business because I don't want to miss that opportunity and then have like who knows what'll happen with the CrossFit Games like so much has changed already then like the world gets hit with a pandemic like you don't know what's coming and you know I think I have a I have a little bit more control over other aspects if that makes sense to be successful to be I guess comfortable in life and just be able to do that so I think I could still keep working out for quite a while as I'm still competing but I've always been like 100% committed to the top level so committed to the like the winner potential I don't know if that would exceed three years you know what I mean like I don't think I can't see myself being like briggsie I'm not as she's held on held on for like ever like this it she'll be there when she's 80 like beating 20 year olds like I'm still good no I'm just not briggsie uh-uh-uh yeah I'll be a little bit more tired before that and then maybe like I don't know if the games are still thing it would be like I'm just still really good and I still train really hard and I go and do that and still be a part of it because obviously it's cool but not as my primary yeah things just shifting from primary but I think she has a goal honestly like as weird as that is to say like the goal was just to show up and do her you know what I mean like as opposed to go I want it being on top three or top ten or putting a number or anything like that on it I think at the moment she just wants to to like be happy to do her have a good time and you know obviously love on Scottie while she's around and only young for a little bit so yeah I don't necessarily think she's putting anything on it but in the same token she's a competitor and she's a fierce one so she all she'll just keep doing what she's doing and whatever she wants to do always be there for her so we don't know what's to come but we know the potential outcome we know that they could be acrostic games and they could be events very soon so I will just keep charging on doing what I'm doing prepare be as prepared as possible for the possibility and if it doesn't come then I gained some strength and some fitness in the meantime and essentially I don't really have anything to lose so I'll just keep charging on until someone tells us what's going on and then we get to show up which hopefully we do I'll be there with bells on ready to really go hard [Music]

Channel: alphafitaus

Views: 72,148

Rating: 4.9132419 out of 5

Keywords: Kara Webb, Matt Saunders, CrossFit Kova, AlphaFit, CrossFit, CrossFit Games, Athlete, Australian CrossFit Championship, Sanctional, Australian Sanctional, ACC2020, Scotti Saunders, Dave Driskell, Fit Mum, Postpartum Training, Active eyewear, Nike, Assault Training, ROMWOD, ATP Science, Bear Komplex, ESC Soundns, Brute Strength, Nick Fowler, Fit Mom

Id: zNHmVRkq5tM

Length: 35min 44sec (2144 seconds)

Published: Sat May 02 2020