Sunday August 18, 2013

"GAMEDAY"

Garage Games Team competition at CF Newton 

Training has been going really well lately and I felt very ready for this comp. If anything, I was overconfident as I didn't think that doing 4 workouts in one day would be a big deal physically. I have to admit that this day was much tougher than I ever would have imagined!

First, the mental fatigue of being at this event for almost 13 hours was pretty draining. Second, the programming for the workouts was....interesting. I'll leave it at that!

WOD 1: All 4 members complete 50 Cal Row/25 Front Squats/75 Double Unders
     - For some reason I thought this one would be harder. It may have actually been the easiest WOD we did all day. I led off for my team and finished my Double Unders somewhere between 4:30 and 4:45. Messed up only once on D/U's which cost me maybe :05. My team finished somewhere in the middle of the pack overall.

WOD 2: 30 Heavy KB Swings/25m walking Lunge/50m sprint/25m walking lunge/Heavy KB Swings
     - Almost everyone who did this described it as a "bloodbath" and the "toughest WOD" of the comp. I guess I'd have to agree. That last 25m of lunges was pretty miserable. It was even more miserable because I was paired with She-beast Bridget Constantino who was flying through the lunges! I thought that I would finish my lunges before her and have at least :10 of rest before starting my swings!! Boy was I wrong. My team did well on this one and finished top 10.

WOD 3: 25m sled pull x 2 / 60 Deadlifts / 25m sled pull x 2
     - This one worried me a little bit because I just didn't know how it would feel to drag that sled over rough and uneven terrain. My first few steps were all over the place as I struggled to get control of the sled. I also had a mental FUBAR when I forgot to turn the sled around for my partner and cost us a few seconds. The deadlifts really weren't bad. This one seemed all about the sled pull and the teamwork required to change plates. Again, we did real well on this one. The ladies especially did great!

WOD 4: 20 Burpee Box Jump Overs @ 24" box / 40 Toes to Bar / 20 Burpee Jump Overs / 40 Snatch or Cleans
     - Not much strategy required here other than to break the reps into manageable sets. If anything slowed us down it was probably the TTB's. Those are tough if you don't have a solid kip or if you lose your kipping rhythm in the middle of a workout! Strict TTB's are 10x harder! Everything else went as planned and we placed well enough to qualify for the final WOD. Not sure if that's a good thing(???)

WOD 5 Finals: 10 Rope Climbs/ 75 HSPU/ 75 Pistols / 75 Pull-Ups / 75 Thrusters @ 135/95 / 10 Rope Climbs
     - My first reaction to this workout was "you've got to be F-ing kidding me!!". My second was giving serious consideration to just calling it a day. I could tell some of my teammates were pretty worn out as well and I thought if I planted the seed, everyone else would quickly fall in line! Glad I sucked it up though. The workout was nowhere near as hard as it sounded. We would have had a shot to finish except for the fact that the HSPU's and Pistols exposed some team weaknesses (and I am DEFINITELY counting myself as one of those weaknesses!).

Not sure exactly where we ended up placing but it really doesn't matter. Everyone on our team had their one shining moment. I'll never forget the look on Jessi's face when she completed her first rope climb! And Bridget was cranking out the Pistols as if she'd been doing them for years. Dillon did about 50 of our team's HSPU's, lol!

So, as with all CrossFit competitions, all the anxiety and suffering that happens before and during are forgotten and what you remember is the sense of accomplishment and the great friendships you take away!