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).

Cindy & Mr. Tuesday

During my first official week back at the Fort, we've been having fun with AMRAP workouts. Monday, we did "Cindy" and Tuesday, we did... well I don't know what his/her name was but s/he sucked. Anyhow, back to Cindy.

For those of you who have forgotten dear Cindy let me re-introduce you:

"Cindy"

In 20:00 AMRAP of:

• 5 pull-ups
• 10 push ups
• 15 squats

Now, I hung out with Cindy not too long ago and was able to complete, ten rounds - five pull-ups and eight push ups. When I realized that Cindy and I would be hanging out again so soon, I was adamant about matching my previous number of rounds, if not beating it. Lucky for me, this time I wasn't pressed with the task of counting my rounds (I have number issues, if you couldn't tell) and was able to simply mark my rounds on the whiteboard. While this wouldn't seem like a big deal, it was for me in the respect that I was able to just zone out and focus on pushing through all the suck and getting as far as possible. In the end it paid off: I completed twelve rounds plus five pull ups. I matched and exceeded my goal. Yay for me.

Now onto Mr. Tuesday (that's this WOD's new name; I just made it up). Mr. Tuesday looked something like the following:

In 20:00 AMRAP of:

• 5 thrusters (40 kg/30 kg)
• 7 hang power cleans
• 10 sumo deadlift high pulls

This workout was hard. I had made the mistake of coming in early for rowing practice (joined the CrossFit Fire rowing team; we'll talk about this later) and then had to watch the women's class go through this workout prior to my own. The whole scenario was a combination of flushed cheeks, sweaty faces and angry "I-f*^&in'-hate-this-workout" looks in everyone's eyes. Needless to say, this did not instill me with much confidence. So when Stacy asked me whether or not I was planning to do the WOD prescribed, my answer was more or less: "Do I have to?"

Well, I sucked it up and did the prescribed women's weight. I set my bar up between Zach "The Mayor" Mitchell and Clark (I don't have a fancy name for him. Sorry.) and across from Brian (No fancy name for him either), and then waited for the "3-2-1-Go!" Again, I was nervous but I was set on gutting out as many rounds as possible and drawing on all the man power surrounding me.

You know what? It worked. Wild Bill was yelling at The Mayor throughout the majority of the WOD, letting him know when he could and could not rest; Clark was beside me being his bad ass self (In the end they both completed over eleven rounds. Can we say "impressive"?), and Brian was across from me, zoning out and pulling out round after round. Not wanting to be completely outdone, I drew on their energy and focused on getting as close to ten rounds as possible (Bill constituted this as the number we should shoot for).

In the end, I completed seven rounds plus five thrusters and six hang power cleans, which I was fairly content with. Eight definitely would have been better but I was on my way. Next time though.