A Pride Check with a Side of Redemption

I'm back in the blogosphere (at least for tonight) and decided that it was necessary for me to comment on my experience at sectionals this past weekend in St. Louis. I am just warning you: There were some highs, and there were some definite lows.

Personally, I always like to start with the bad news first. (It's the whole rip-off-the-band-aid-quickly mentality. The faster you go, the less it'll hurt.) The bad news is that I got crushed by the first WOD of the competition. For those of you who aren't familiar with this little number, let me spell out it for you:

The Airforce WOD*

• 20 Thrusters (30 kg)


• 20 Sumo deadlift high pulls


• 20 Push jerks


• 20 OH squats


• 20 Front squats
  

*Every minute, on the minute, the competitor must complete four burpees.
*20:00 DNF

Guess who DNF'd?

Um... that would be me.

I did my first set of burpees and thrusters like a damn maniac; however, the weight started to catch up with me and the clock started ticking faster and faster, I lost momentum and found myself doing far more burpees than any person would ever like to do.

In the end, the OH squats did me in (I swear they are taking pull ups place as my ultimate enemy), and I found myself (very upset but) glad that the clock buzzed, indicating that my performance (or lack thereof) was over. I then retreated to the stands where I could hide amongst the rest of the crowd to await my second beating of the day, which consisted of a 5:00 AMRAP of clean and jerks at fifty kilos.

In short, I was not confident about the second workout at all. At that point in time, I hadn't cleaned over 56 kilos and the first WOD hadn't really boosted my confidence about my abilities as a CrossFitter. Regardless (because I'd rather have someone break my legs than quit for no reason other than pride; I am that stubborn/determined/possibly not very smart), I made my way out onto the floor, telling myself that my main goal was to get ten or more and to not waste any reps.

Well, I actually exceeded my expectations. Although I did fail two reps, I was able to get sixteen clean and jerks before the time elapsed. I was personally happy about what I had accomplished, albeit it was far from impressive in comparison to many of the beasts that were there. Little did I know that I would soon redeem myself at least slightly on the third workout.

The third workout was the 54321 WOD. We did five minutes of rowing for calories, four minutes of box jumps on a twenty inch box, three minutes of squat snatches at twenty kilos, two minutes of wall balls at thirteen pounds and one minute of handstand push ups. My numbers looked something like this:

• Row: 65 calories


• Box jumps: 115 (I was a box jumping machine.)


• Snatches: 15 (Eh. I rested with these.)


• Wall balls: 25


• Handstand push ups: 0 (I can only do two on a good day, and my shoulders were cashed from the day before.)
  

Total: 220

Now 220 may not seem all that impressive, but I did manage to win my heat. I also tied for the twelfth best female score in the third workout. Not too shabby for a girl who got her ass handed to her the day before if I do say so myself. Personally, though, I think it was the fact that I didn't wear a shirt that made me do so well. Garth may be onto something... (PS: I have zero idea as to what I'm looking at in that picture. Lord knows why they put it on CrossFit TNT's site.)

Overall, I did not qualify (let's get serious); however, it was a good experience. It was exciting and I loved being able to watch everyone else compete. Everyone from the Fort did an excellent job, and I'm so proud that I get to associate myself with CrossFit Fire [CFF] and the people that go there (yes, this is the overly sentimental part of my post). Plus, I'm even more excited that Pete and Stacy get to move on to Denver. There will be more good things to come, I'm sure, for both Pete and Stacy and for the rest of the firebrethers at CFF. And with that, I'll leave you with the words of a wise elder: GFO (That's "game f8&^in' on", for you non-CrossForters).

"You can cry, but you can't quit..."

Monday, was awful. Although I wasn't necessarily that sore on Monday, I was definitely still feeling the effects of the three WOD competition on Saturday - that and I suck at all three of the movements scheduled for Monday: OH squats, pull ups and push ups.

The workout looked a little like this:

Strength: "Power Snatch"
1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1

30 - 35 - 40 - 41.6 - 42.6 PR

Not that my snatch PR was all that significant (my old PR was 42), but I do think that it affected me just a bit when it came to the WOD.

WOD: The Trifecta of Evilness

21 -15 - 9 of:

• OH Squats (35 kg)
• pull ups
• clapping push ups

Now, I'm not really sure what the hell I was thinking but for some reason I decided to do the weight prescribed. And during the first portion of the workout I felt okay about it. I completed eleven reps right out of the gate; however, as soon as I went to snatch the bar back up to complete the remaining ten, I knew that I was in for a long one.

Long story short, (and this is a hey-uge understatement) I struggled through the rest of the workout, so much so that I was nearly crying by the end of the WOD. Both the boyfriend and Jennie told me it was painful to watch: It was painful to live through too. What was good about the experience is, that despite the fact that I hated my entire being through the majority of the workout and I was on the verge of tears throughout my last nine OH Squats, I pushed through the suck and finished the damn thing. Because it's just as Bill told me once: "You can cry, but you can't quit."

I'm not a player; I just crush a lot... (Part 1)

I was quite the player this week. I did two of the Nasty Girl WOD's: On Tuesday, I did "Nancy"; on Wednesday, "Helen."

Nancy

5 rounds for time:

• 400 meter run


• 15 OH squats (30kg)

16:17 (at 25 kg)

When I arrived at the Fort on Tuesday, I had every intention of doing Nancy prescribed. Sure, my OH squats are not my strongest lift, but I figured I could make up time on the 400 meter run. I practiced a few with just the fifteen kilo bar and then then brought out two five kilo plates to test it out at 25 before moving up to thirty. As I practiced my OH squats, Bill wandered over to my lifting space under the loft. He watched me intently, taking note of my form, as I held the weight overhead and then squatted beneath it. After completing a few reps, I set the bar down and anxiously waited for the assessment. Bill would determine whether or not I was ready to move up to the prescribed weight.

"Your OH squats are getting better," he told me.

Heck yes! I thought, trying to contain my excitement. I was going to be able to do this WOD prescribed my second time ever doing it and at forty pounds heavier.

" But -"

Dammit, the voice in my head grumbled. There had to be a "but."

"... your knees are still shaky sometimes. I wouldn't do more weight than that."

"Okay," I responded dutifully as I watched my prescribed Nancy dream shift itself back into the "undone" column on my mental Nasty Girl Rx'd checklist. Bill knew better than I did.

Who was I to argue? So I set myself up, promising that even if I didn't get to do the WOD prescribed, I was at least going to crush it.

And (kind of (okay, not really)) crush it, I did. I say "kind of" and then "not really" because obviously I would have liked to do better and I can admit that my time was not that impressive. I am slow at OH squats because I'm preoccupied with my stupid knees and I wasn't able to make up that much extra time on my runs.

What was good was that I was almost able to do all of my OH squats unbroken. I crushed that dream too when I dropped the bar with two reps left on my last round. (Two stinkin' reps). Luckily though I was able to get back on the bar quickly and crank out the last two before my time crept any further.

Overall though, I was able to practice some good OH squats without dropping the bar on my head (yay) and was able to keep Stacy on pace, who did do the WOD prescribed and now holds the women's record at the Fort (atta baby!). So all was not lost - and unbeknownst to me, I would be able to prove myself on Wednesday and to a group of spectators, nonetheless.

At Least it Wasn't Kalsu

This morning I woke up to complete the following evilness:

1000 meter row

5 rounds for time:

• 10 pull ups
• 15 OH squats (40/30 kg)
• 20 kettlebell swings (20/16 kg)

1000 meter row

I finished this WOD in about 29:00. I don't recall the exact time because I started 5:13 later than the first group and I couldn't remember how many seconds followed my 34 minutes. Regardless, I did finish under 30, which is good, but we can both agree that my time is far from impressive, especially with scaled OH squats.

All in all, I kind of hated (and was absolutely terrified of) this WOD. I saw Bill put it on the board last night before I left and then spent the night dreading the next morning. It was kind of a mind f*&%. It also didn't help that I was tired from all my busy-ness yesterday. I will admit, that even though I did kind of hate this workout, I was glad that I didn't have to do Kalsu.

A Short CrossFit Fairy Tale

Once upon a time (today), we did the following WODS; this is how I did:

Overhead Squats
3-2-1-1-1

30-35(1)-35(2)-37.2-40

"Isabel"
30 snatches for time

5:22 at 35 kg

To be brief I still need to work on my form. In regards to the OH Squats, I need to focus on locking out elbows and my core rather than worrying about my squat form so much. As for the snatches, I need to really focus on my pulls, jumping the bar overhead and dropping underneath it (weird I would have that problem with dropping underneath it *screws face up into fake confusion*). However, I was practicing my snatch form a little bit after the WOD and, strangely enough, they felt stronger than when I was actually doing the workout. Apparently my fairy godmother was helping me out after the fact, which I suppose is okay.

The End.

The Rundown

It's official: School is taking over my life. As a result, I have not had a lot of time to write my blog. So... here's the rundown on this past week:

Friday, I did "Helen" prescribed for the first time. I completed the WOD in 11:18. Needless to say, I was very excited.

Team Saturday, we did 200 meter partner carry and then three rounds of 2:00 of muscle-ups, power cleans (bw), and air squats and then another 200 meter buddy carry. Lisa and I teamed up for this and she was nice enough to carry me for about 300 meters. In the end though, we did not come out on top but we did get 200 reps. Yay for us.

Sunday, I played with my new toy I received for my birthday. My toy, the iPod+Nike chip, fits within my new kicks and measures my pace, calories, distance, etc. It even lets me play a power song to get me going (bet you can't guess what it is...) Anyhow, I decided to jog a 3K, which I completed in a little less than 15 minutes. After running my 3K, I decided that it wasn't enough and then jogged for an extra 20 minutes. According to Phil (the voice on my iPod), I ran 2.5 miles. I'm not going to argue with him.

Monday, we did two rounds of 500 meter row and AMRAP pull-ups. Essentially, we were paired with someone and competed against them. While one person rowed, the other did pull-ups and vice versa. Jennie and I were partnered up (guess, who won?) My rows were far from impressive (around 2:00 each) and I was able to crank out 20 pull-ups both rounds (which I was fairly happy with considering pull-ups are my arch nemesis).

Tuesday, we first did overhead squats [OH squats] (3-3-3) before moving onto "Karen." True to form, while OH squatting, I nearly dropped the bar on my head and fell on my ass. However, I did OH squat 25-30-35 kg. I'm not even sure if 35 kg is a PR or not. Personally, I was just glad that I was able to practice my snatch form.

Onto "Karen." Also true to form, I lost count, got confused, and I'm almost positive that I did at least 10 extra reps. Regardless of my counting ability, I did manage to crank out the workout (however many reps I did) in 10:00, which was 1:46 better than my previous time.

Finally on Tuesday (Tuesday was a big day for me), I did a rowing WOD. I completed three rounds of 1:00 on, 1:00 off, 1:00 on, 1:00 off, 1:00 on, and 1:00 off. All in all I rowed 2252 meters (or something like that).

Today (Wednesday), I took a rest day. I wanted to workout in the morning but, like I said in the beginning, school has taken over my life. Instead, I decided to read student papers rather than CrossFitting. Of course, I would have preferred to do the latter but you can't always get what you want.

To Hell and Back - For Time

The CrossFit Games are this weekend. Hundreds of athletes are travelling to Aromas, California, to duke it out in the desert in order to determine "The Fittest Man/Woman on Earth" as well as the top CrossFit Affiliate. The team from CrossFit Fire is leaving today to participate in the Affiliate Challenge, which includes three qualifying workouts on Friday of: A 500 m Run Relay, Max Sets of OH Squats and Pull Ups WOD, and The Stadium Workout, a WOD that includes wall balls, rowing, the push press, kettle bell swings, box jumps, and deadlifts.

Personally, I'm anxious to hear about the relay (still love running) and what kind of terrain they will have to run on and can't wait to do the Stadium Workout sometime. If there was ever a workout made for me, the Stadium Workout may be it. I pretty much love every aspect of that WOD except for maybe wall balls, which I only like as a friend. As for the max OH squats and pull up WOD, I'll leave that workout to those who can crush OH squats and pull ups because I am not that girl. Regardless, I am excited for our team (who I'm sure will do phenomenal – we've got a great group of people out there now) and just a little bit sad that I am only able to be a part of it from the sidelines.

For those of you who don't know this, I tried out for the affiliate team. As evidence by this and previous posts, I obviously did not make it because I am not heading for sunny California, and I did not make the team for good reason. I got smoked in the tryouts by the two other women. It was like being Slowpoke Rodriguez in a race versus two Speedy Gonzalez's. Guess who won. Regardless of this fact, I was still amazed and pleased at what I accomplished at the tryouts, which I will explain in further detail momentarily.

We completed the following WOD's for the women's tryouts:

One round for time of:

• 10 Clean & Jerks (60/40)
• 1 Sled Drag (20/15)
• 8 Clean & Jerks
• 1 Sled Drag
• 6 Clean & Jerks
• 1 Sled Drag
• 4 Clean & Jerks
• 1 Sled Drag
• 2 Clean & Jerks
• 1 Sled Drag

One round for time of:

50 Double-unders

21-15-9 reps of:

• Overhead Squats (40/30)
• Box Jumps (24")
• Pull-ups

50 Double-unders

And we were supposed to complete a third workout, which was:

Three rounds for time of:

• 500m Row
• 21 Burpees
• 400m Run

Long story short: I had never done 40 kg cleans or 30 kg OH squats in a workout. The load was just a little too heavy for me in both instances (before I had only done about 35 kg cleans in WOD's, 45 kg cleans at a max 3 rep and 25 kg OH squats). Also, if you've ever read my blog before, then you already know that pull ups and I do not get along. (I seriously don't know what their problem is. I try to be nice and they just mess up my hands). In addition to the heavy weight and my arch nemesis, there was blood (I put a big gash in my leg when I dropped the bar while I was OH squatting and tore calluses on both my hands during pull ups), there was sweat (a given), there were no tears, almost (almost doesn't count though people), and I did hate my entire being several times throughout both WOD's (see the picture below for proof). Despite all of this: I completed both workouts. I did it.

Let me say it again just because it makes me feel good: I did it. I was apprehensive about both of these workouts even before I did them because neither played to my strengths. The row, burpee, run WOD was more my style; however, I did it (I know, I keep saying it...). I cleaned and OH squatted more than I ever had before. I was setting PR's in a workout. Can we say "awesome"? I also didn't stop doing pull ups even when I finally noticed that both of my hands were bleeding (surprisingly it took awhile). And don't even get me started on the people that helped me get through both WOD's. Their support was instrumental in my finishing. Through it all though, all the blood, sweat and almost tears, all I could think about was finishing and getting to that point where I could say I went to hell and back and did it for time.

In the end, my only complaint was that I didn't get to complete the row, burpee, run WOD, even though I understand why we didn't do it and appreciate that Bill did not want me to die. However, I will do that workout. And Bill, if you're reading this, I want that WOD on my birthday (August 28th - mark it on your calendar) and to have "The Eye of the Tiger" played on repeat throughout the duration. Okay, maybe not throughout the whole workout, but at least one time.

Oh... and one last thing: I don't plan on cheering from the sidelines at next year's Games. I don't care if I have to look like that picture below everyday to get there either.

Me hating life during my last set of double unders in the second WOD.