With a busy weekend and an even busier week ahead, I was again finding myself anxious about the 16.3 WOD announcement. I typically like to have 2 opportunities to do the workout (assuming I'm able to complete it) so my only option for that was to do the WOD immediately following the announcement on Thursday and then again on Monday morning.
So at 7:45pm on Thursday night I found myself alone at Hydraulic waiting for the announcement. Trainer Matt had agreed to meet me there to judge me (if needed) and funny enough, Travis came wondering in and so the three of us watched the announcement together.
First movement - Snatch (so far so good!)
Second movement - Bar Muscle Ups (Ugh!!!)
Since I can't do Bar Muscle Ups (or regular muscle ups for that matter) all I had to do was 10 light snatches to get a RX'd score of 10, which took about 20 seconds to complete.
Another disappointing WOD, but that's the way the Open works for me. The good news was it relieved a ton of stress and logistics for the weekend.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Monday, March 7, 2016
Crossfit Games 2016 WOD 16.2
With 16.1 behind us I was eager to hear what the next WOD was going to be. I thought it would be funny to record Dennis and I's reaction and the 15 minute video I ended up with is pretty amusing.
I will spare you the 15 minutes of hilarity and give you the last few minutes of when they actually announce the workout:
You can see my excitment pretty much go out the window when he mentions that the 25 T2B, 50 DUBs, and 15 Squat Cleans have be done in 4 minutes in order to make it to the next part of the work out. Once again I had half of the equation. I could DO all the required movements, just not at the speed they were asking.
Towards the end of the video Dennis says he thinks I could get out of the first round, but I am more realistic than him!
Fast Forward to Saturday and the moment of truth. I was as ready as I was ever going to be. 3...2...1...GO!
Toes to bar weren't a huge problem for me. I could GET them, I just couldn't get them fast. I did as many as I could before I had to break them down into smaller sets. Not a huge issue, but time was ticking down fast.
Onto the jump rope. My double unders are not terrible, as long as I didn't get tripped up. I predicted it would take me 3 "sets" to get to 50, (2 if I was lucky) and with about 1 minute and 20 seconds left it was me and the bar.
An 85lb Squat Clean was completely manageable but for whatever reason I decided to do singles and when 4 minutes hit, I had gotten 6. At first I felt like that was a crappy score and I was kinda pissed about it. But as per usual it takes me a while to warm up to things and I decided that it was an ok score.
I knew that I would be opening Hydraulic the next day for others to do the WOD (and for some to redo it) so I figured that I'd give it a whirl if time permitted, but without too much expectation of making it through the 15 cleans. I really WANTED to, but if I didn't shave off at least 30 seconds of my time, it wasn't going to happen.
Let's not forget the year or cardio is still going on and I have certain mileage requirements each week to run. Sunday's are typically my long runs and this day was no exception. I went to Hydraulic an hour and a half earlier than I needed to be there to bang out my run when I learned something. The fitness center doesn't open until 1pm and I needed to open Hydraulic at 1:30pm, not enough time for me to wait for the gym to open to run 4.5 miles. So as much as I DIDN'T want to, I started to run outside.
Luckily there is a new running/biking path along 50 that I decided to test out and let me say it's pretty nice! I'd like to eventually start biking to CrossFit but that will have to wait until the weather is a tad warmer and I am a bit more in shape.
So anyways, instead of giving myself allllllllllllllll the excuses not to run, I just bucked up and ran. And ran, and ran! I ran the whole 4.5 miles (except when I had to wait for the crosswalk light to turn) and I ran it in slightly under 45 minutes. What a HUGE confidence booster for my upcoming 5 mile race in CT!
With the running endorphins already setting I had about 30 minutes before people were going to show up so I did want any other normal CrossFitter would do. I did a 20 minute ROMWOD (I will explain want this is later, but it's basically Yoga for CrossFit) and it was so nice to be doing these stretches alone in the empty gym.
At about 1:30, people started trickling in and it was time to start! I always get so nervous/excited and when it was my turn to go, I knew what I had to do. I had to improve my score by 1 at the least.
Off I went! Toes to Bar no problem, Double Unders as expected. Now for the cleans. 1st go around I did singles, but this time I did 2 before I took a rest and That made all the difference. When time expired I got through 9 (a three rep improvement) and I must have been on endorphin overload because I was bouncing off the walls with happiness!
I wanted more reps, but I wasn't sad about it at all. I immediately thought that I would give it another try Monday morning and was dead set on doing so.
When it was my turn to go this morning, my mine was already made up. My forearms were toast and this was not going to go well. I did 10 Toes to Bar and called it. I was already doing singles after about 5 in a row and that's good for nobody.
So, I have to be grateful that I was actually ABLE to participate in all the movements of 16.2, and hopefully next year my T2Bs are faster than this year, something I will add to the list of things to work on. So with 2 WODs behind and 3 WODS ahead, I am back to being eager and excited to see what 16.3 ends up being!
I will spare you the 15 minutes of hilarity and give you the last few minutes of when they actually announce the workout:
You can see my excitment pretty much go out the window when he mentions that the 25 T2B, 50 DUBs, and 15 Squat Cleans have be done in 4 minutes in order to make it to the next part of the work out. Once again I had half of the equation. I could DO all the required movements, just not at the speed they were asking.
Towards the end of the video Dennis says he thinks I could get out of the first round, but I am more realistic than him!
Fast Forward to Saturday and the moment of truth. I was as ready as I was ever going to be. 3...2...1...GO!
Toes to bar weren't a huge problem for me. I could GET them, I just couldn't get them fast. I did as many as I could before I had to break them down into smaller sets. Not a huge issue, but time was ticking down fast.
Onto the jump rope. My double unders are not terrible, as long as I didn't get tripped up. I predicted it would take me 3 "sets" to get to 50, (2 if I was lucky) and with about 1 minute and 20 seconds left it was me and the bar.
An 85lb Squat Clean was completely manageable but for whatever reason I decided to do singles and when 4 minutes hit, I had gotten 6. At first I felt like that was a crappy score and I was kinda pissed about it. But as per usual it takes me a while to warm up to things and I decided that it was an ok score.
I knew that I would be opening Hydraulic the next day for others to do the WOD (and for some to redo it) so I figured that I'd give it a whirl if time permitted, but without too much expectation of making it through the 15 cleans. I really WANTED to, but if I didn't shave off at least 30 seconds of my time, it wasn't going to happen.
Let's not forget the year or cardio is still going on and I have certain mileage requirements each week to run. Sunday's are typically my long runs and this day was no exception. I went to Hydraulic an hour and a half earlier than I needed to be there to bang out my run when I learned something. The fitness center doesn't open until 1pm and I needed to open Hydraulic at 1:30pm, not enough time for me to wait for the gym to open to run 4.5 miles. So as much as I DIDN'T want to, I started to run outside.
Luckily there is a new running/biking path along 50 that I decided to test out and let me say it's pretty nice! I'd like to eventually start biking to CrossFit but that will have to wait until the weather is a tad warmer and I am a bit more in shape.
So anyways, instead of giving myself allllllllllllllll the excuses not to run, I just bucked up and ran. And ran, and ran! I ran the whole 4.5 miles (except when I had to wait for the crosswalk light to turn) and I ran it in slightly under 45 minutes. What a HUGE confidence booster for my upcoming 5 mile race in CT!
With the running endorphins already setting I had about 30 minutes before people were going to show up so I did want any other normal CrossFitter would do. I did a 20 minute ROMWOD (I will explain want this is later, but it's basically Yoga for CrossFit) and it was so nice to be doing these stretches alone in the empty gym.
At about 1:30, people started trickling in and it was time to start! I always get so nervous/excited and when it was my turn to go, I knew what I had to do. I had to improve my score by 1 at the least.
Off I went! Toes to Bar no problem, Double Unders as expected. Now for the cleans. 1st go around I did singles, but this time I did 2 before I took a rest and That made all the difference. When time expired I got through 9 (a three rep improvement) and I must have been on endorphin overload because I was bouncing off the walls with happiness!
I wanted more reps, but I wasn't sad about it at all. I immediately thought that I would give it another try Monday morning and was dead set on doing so.
When it was my turn to go this morning, my mine was already made up. My forearms were toast and this was not going to go well. I did 10 Toes to Bar and called it. I was already doing singles after about 5 in a row and that's good for nobody.
So, I have to be grateful that I was actually ABLE to participate in all the movements of 16.2, and hopefully next year my T2Bs are faster than this year, something I will add to the list of things to work on. So with 2 WODs behind and 3 WODS ahead, I am back to being eager and excited to see what 16.3 ends up being!
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Crossfit Games 2016 WOD 16.1
I am so happy about participating in the 2016 CrossFit Games/Open this year for multiple reasons.
This is the first time I've signed up since 2013 (for various reasons) and this year was finally different. Our lives have finally fallen into a perfect routine and since October 2015 Dennis and I have been on a mission. No more dicking around with our goals. With the year of cardio 2 months in, along with our 4-5 weekly WODs, and with focus on our food, we were finally in a place where we could justify signing up. (As average athletes mind you, with zero expectations of qualifying at all to regionals).
I knew that I had a milestone coming up. I was on the cusp of getting my first pull up(s) and I thought that if one of the Open WODs required them, I maybe would be able to get a few in. So that was always in the back of my mind.
This was Hydraulic's 1st ever open! How cool is that to participate in the box's 1st ever Open? (ok so we were also at SMCF's 1st Open too, so we've now popped 2 boxes cherries) Even with only being open since October, we got 20 members signed up and ready to compete. All ranging in ability, and I knew that almost all of them would surprise themselves on how they did.
As per usual, the suspense for the 1st workout in the Open was killing me. The work outs are announced on Thursday evenings and then you have until Monday at 8pm to submit a score. This goes on for 5 weeks. There was SO much buzz about what the WOD will be, all I know is that I wanted pull ups and nothing more.
And then this happened:
I was totally ok with EVERY part of this, except for the last line. C'mon man!
The next day was less than fun while my CrossFit friends went back and forth planning, doing research, and exchanging ideas about strategy and things of that nature. Why? Because I already knew what my score was going to be. 18. I'd get 18. No planning needed.
Then came the debate about doing it RX'd verses Scaled. If I did it RX'd I would place higher than every body doing scaled, but my physical workout would be lame. If I did it Scaled, my ranking would be lower but my workout would be intense. Since I wasn't a fan of the scaling option in the open to begin with, I treated it like I would have any other time and went for the RX.
Dennis was hopeful that I'd get a Chest to Bar, but I told him he was dreaming, but I would try my best.
3...2..1...Go!!
The Overhead Lunges were no joke, but completely manageable. The only really strategy here was not to stop until you got to the end of the 25 feet. 8 bar facing burpees, no real problem there and then boom back to the Overhead Lunges.
Now that I was done with 16.1 forever (or so I thought), I took the time to really observe how my fellow boxmates were doing, and let me just say I witnessed some pretty amazing stuff. People who were sick for 2 weeks were cranking out impressive scores, a former Regional Qualifying athlete ripping through the lunges like it was nothing, notorious rushers setting their perfect pace (Shawn), and then there was Dennis. Ah Dennis, what an interesting breed you are.
Once all the heats were done a member wanted to do the WOD Scaled for Funsies so I agreed to do it with her. Not sure if this was smart or stupid but the WOD (even the scaled version) was no joke. I was happy when the 20 minutes expired, and hopefully we never see this WOD again.
Back to Dennis: He's basically his own worst enemy, but I will let him blog from his point of view hopefully this week. However, I will leave you with this gem of an after picture of him later that day:
This is the first time I've signed up since 2013 (for various reasons) and this year was finally different. Our lives have finally fallen into a perfect routine and since October 2015 Dennis and I have been on a mission. No more dicking around with our goals. With the year of cardio 2 months in, along with our 4-5 weekly WODs, and with focus on our food, we were finally in a place where we could justify signing up. (As average athletes mind you, with zero expectations of qualifying at all to regionals).
I knew that I had a milestone coming up. I was on the cusp of getting my first pull up(s) and I thought that if one of the Open WODs required them, I maybe would be able to get a few in. So that was always in the back of my mind.
This was Hydraulic's 1st ever open! How cool is that to participate in the box's 1st ever Open? (ok so we were also at SMCF's 1st Open too, so we've now popped 2 boxes cherries) Even with only being open since October, we got 20 members signed up and ready to compete. All ranging in ability, and I knew that almost all of them would surprise themselves on how they did.
As per usual, the suspense for the 1st workout in the Open was killing me. The work outs are announced on Thursday evenings and then you have until Monday at 8pm to submit a score. This goes on for 5 weeks. There was SO much buzz about what the WOD will be, all I know is that I wanted pull ups and nothing more.
And then this happened:
I was totally ok with EVERY part of this, except for the last line. C'mon man!
The next day was less than fun while my CrossFit friends went back and forth planning, doing research, and exchanging ideas about strategy and things of that nature. Why? Because I already knew what my score was going to be. 18. I'd get 18. No planning needed.
Then came the debate about doing it RX'd verses Scaled. If I did it RX'd I would place higher than every body doing scaled, but my physical workout would be lame. If I did it Scaled, my ranking would be lower but my workout would be intense. Since I wasn't a fan of the scaling option in the open to begin with, I treated it like I would have any other time and went for the RX.
 |
| Thank you Adam for Capturing this Extremely Awkward Moment |
Dennis was hopeful that I'd get a Chest to Bar, but I told him he was dreaming, but I would try my best.
3...2..1...Go!!
The Overhead Lunges were no joke, but completely manageable. The only really strategy here was not to stop until you got to the end of the 25 feet. 8 bar facing burpees, no real problem there and then boom back to the Overhead Lunges.
Then to the Chest to Bar Pull ups. I took my time, gathered all my strength and attempted....and failed. Tried again, failed. Repeat that about 8 times until I finally threw in the towel. The bad news, that ended my 16.1 WOD, but the GOOD news was, in all my attempts trying for a Chest to Bar, I was actually getting REAL PULL UPS! I lifetime PR for me!
I wish it happened a different way at a different time. It was so disheartening knowing that I was cranking out pull ups (a goal I had physically written on our goal board and something I'd been chasing over years) was receiving an audible sigh of disappointment from the crowd. HELLO! I was getting Pull Ups for the FIRST TIME EVER!
So when a brush of disappointment, this concludes my 16.1 WOD with a shimmer of excitement declaring that I got my 1st set of pull ups in the open.
Now that I was done with 16.1 forever (or so I thought), I took the time to really observe how my fellow boxmates were doing, and let me just say I witnessed some pretty amazing stuff. People who were sick for 2 weeks were cranking out impressive scores, a former Regional Qualifying athlete ripping through the lunges like it was nothing, notorious rushers setting their perfect pace (Shawn), and then there was Dennis. Ah Dennis, what an interesting breed you are.
Once all the heats were done a member wanted to do the WOD Scaled for Funsies so I agreed to do it with her. Not sure if this was smart or stupid but the WOD (even the scaled version) was no joke. I was happy when the 20 minutes expired, and hopefully we never see this WOD again.
Back to Dennis: He's basically his own worst enemy, but I will let him blog from his point of view hopefully this week. However, I will leave you with this gem of an after picture of him later that day:
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