Guest Blogger about My 1st Crossfit Competition: Festivus

Dedicated.  Hard Working. Passionate. These are words that are used to describe some of the best athletes in the world, but they are also words that describe a good mother.  Karen is both an athletic person (she’ll have to tell the story as to why it is funny to hear me say that) and an amazing mom and this was put on display during the 2015 fall festivus games at CrossFit Verity.

It was quite a different perspective being on the other side of the ropes cheering instead of competing but I was happy to be there to support what Karen put so much hard work into.  The day started with us dressing Karen’s two biggest supporters in their mommy shirts and then heading off to Verity.  

When we arrived we met up with some friends we had not seen in a while before Karen started warming up for the first WOD.  We knew going in what Karen’s strengths were but it was her “weaknesses” where she excelled.  

WOD #1/2 was:

6 min AMRAP

Buy in: 20 Cal Row

Then

5 Shoulder to overhead

10 Ring Rows

Followed by a 2 minute rest and then Max Calories rowed in 1 minute.

Karen is VERY good at rowing so I knew she would be one of the first off the rower but I was a little concerned about her ring rows.  Luckily they were pretty lenient in calling out the “kipping” during the ring rows and Karen finished in the middle on this part.  After the rest, Karen pulled 19 calories in the 1 minute which is great after such a demanding 6 minutes.  She finished 15^th in the WOD out of 27 in the division and 7^th on the Row. 

Floater WOD

Back squats were something that used to be a regular part of our workout regimen but since being at CFC they have gone the way of the dodo so to say we were a bit concerned was an understatement. Karen attempted this workout a week before the competition and had gotten 26 reps which she was planning on trying to replicate.  As they say, the best laid plans… well this time it was a flawed plan and she GREATLY improved on what she was expecting.  Karen was like a well tuned watch keeping an incredible pace almost all the way through.  She ended up getting 50!!! This put her in 9^th place for the event. I was flabbergasted and so super proud of her for not stopping and pushing through any discomfort she had felt. It is also worth noting that I think that she chose the perfect time to attempt the floater WOD.  

WOD 2: 3 30 second sets of DL for max weight moved

Math is supposed to be foreign to meatheads but this workout required some strategy.  The premise was that the athlete chooses their own weight and then performs a 30 second AMRAP at that weight 3 times.  Score is the total weight moved. Karen also attempted one round of this the week prior but was not super confident in the weight she had chosen. Karen went with 115 lbs in order to maximize her reps and to keep moving. In my mind I thought that 125 would be a more appropriate weight for her but in the end, as usual, she made the right choice and came in 9^th place on the event!   I would love to say how great it was to watch her on this event but the life of an observer involves taking care of a 3 year old and a 6 month old who required some TLC during this WOD. 

WOD 3: 12-10-8-6-4-2 Plate burpees; reverse lunges; sit-ups

        After much score board watching, and convincing the people running the event that the apostrophe in my last name was mucking up their system and Karen was not showing up on the score board, we knew that Karen was on the verge of cracking the top 10.  This last workout was a burner.  The athlete’s mindset has to be “Just Keep Swimming” and pull through it.  No weight to blame, just simple mental and cardiovascular fatigue.  To be honest, I think Karen could have done better on this wod.  I feel like she mentally checked out prior but she STILL did really well on the workout finishing in the top half of competitors.  It was awesome to watch this event with our almost 3 year old son. 

        It is my hope that he sees how much his mom works and he takes some of that work ethic with him as he begins his own athletic and scholarly endeavors.  The icing on the cake was Shane running up and hugging his momma as she laid on the ground exhausted after a tough day of work. 

Final Thoughts: 

Karen finished the day in 10^th place out of 27 competitors.  She was very well balanced scoring well in all the workouts.  I could not have been more proud and more impressed.  She just kept on fighting and kept on moving. I almost feel like I’m a bad person saying that I know that she has more in her!  With more strength and form work she will continue to improve!  Sometimes it takes her being pushed and in front of people to really put her into her killer mode.  I can’t wait to see what lies ahead for Karen and her athletic goals!