Angie and myself headed to Woolongong to watch Tia-Clair Toomey and Andrea Miller and Andrea complete at the 2015 Crossfit Pacific Regionals.We had great seats right next to the competition area and really enjoyed  watching the individual events.

My heart was in my mouth wondering how Tia and Andrea would go snatching directly after the handstand walk – I was hoping that they had not bitten off too much in their weight selection – but they nailed their 80Kg lifts with Tia doing a “competition PB”. and tied for second place in that event.

 

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZllsA4atl0
I started working with Andrea in 2012,  her Crossfit coach Rudy Nielsen  was very supportive in her working on an weightlifting program and she was unfortunate to miss out on a NZ Commonwealth Games Weightlifting Team slot in 2014.

She did very well at the event and came 8th overall even though her preparation had not been the best and an inner ear issue effected her on some events, she is  one of the unluckiest athletes I have worked with and I hope things turn round for her as she is such and kind and hard working athlete with a great supportive partner – Regan Hams.

 

My association with Tia started in Oct 2013 after the Again Faster Semper Paratus Comp when I started helping her the technique and weightlifting programming.

After she competed at the Commonwealth Games Trials in 2014 I really felt that it would help if she had a specific experienced Crossfit coach, I suggested a few names and she chose Coach Rx. We all met as a group for the first time at Cougars in 2014 and starting planning along with her partner Shane how we would work together.

After the 2014 Crossfit regionals her niggling back pain started to become really bad and a scan identified a stress fracture in her back.
We got the physio Andrew McGough  to then plan her 12 weeks progress back to full health with CoachRx programming just enough to allow the healing to occur and prevent her going mad with boredom 🙂

She then starting working on mainly a weightlifting program with some input from CoachRx until the end of 2014 when she made her first Australian Representative spot at the Pacific Cup in New Caledonia.

Then CoachRx took over the programming up to the Regionals with me making a few suggestions on what I would like in it.

As Shane said after her 3rd place at Regionals its been a team effort and it been great to work with CoachRx and Shane and Tia.
Above all its been the huge commitment from Tia  to do the 6h drive from Gladstone for coaching and to give up her shift work job so she could focus on being an athlete.

Without a supportive partner like Shane who also now is a great technique coach I do not think it would have been possible.

July is now going to be a huge month –  she is off to PNG to compete as part of an Australian Olympic Committee Team in the Pacific Games and then a few weeks later off to represent the Pacific region at the Crossfit Games