"I need to be less happy during workouts. Seriously, I think I was smiling after every workout at Regionals last year, other than No. 6, the workout I won."
For CrossFit Verve’s, Emmalee Moore, finishing fourth at the 2012 South West Regional taught her a lot about herself as an athlete.
A year later, she’s ready for the podium.
“Last year, I was very pleased with my performance even though I placed fourth,” Moore says. “The reality of the Regionals last time around was that I had only recently finished the fire academy, and I truly was not as prepared as I would have liked. But I went into it understanding that fact and fourth place was beyond my expectations.”
Moore, now a full-time firefighter, works at an extremely busy fire station.
“My job comes first. That’s how this works for now, so I have to train differently than I ever have before based on my 24 on / 24 off schedule,” she says. “Sometimes I am busy all 24 hours and it takes a toll when you are trying to fit training into the equation. My secret weapon to combat fatigue is efficient napping. I have learned that this is the only way I can train at a high level on days after a busy shift.”
At the Regional, Moore walked into the final event in fourth place knowing that to qualify she had to win that workout, and the top three had to under perform. While she did win, it wasn’t enough and Moore remained in fourth.
“I gave that final workout everything I had and came up short even though I finished first,” Moore recalls. “I learned something very valuable from that performance though. I learned that I have more in me than I gave for all of the previous workouts that weekend. I learned that I needed to improve my speed, rest less and transition much faster.”
Moore is more focused on her training and has worked very hard to improve in all areas, including lifting and metabolic conditioning. But all of this training has not helped her combat her true Achilles heel – being too happy.
“I need to be less happy during workouts,” she jokes. “Seriously, I think I was smiling after every workout at Regionals last year, other than No. 6, the workout I won. But really, I’ve had more consistent training this year and I feel great about my chances.”
