Setting the Bar

So I think I'm finally able to move my arms again. That will change again tomorrow, I'm sure. For Open WOD 12.3, we finally got a CrossFit WOD! 18 minutes of box jumps, push presses, and toes to bar. Awesome! And it didn't feel as bad as I thought it would when I did it Thursday. That also means I could have pushed harder. By Friday evening, I started to hurt. By Saturday morning, I was sooooo sore. And for some stupid reason, I decided to try it again this morning. Let's just not talk about that.


The hard part about the workout for me was the push presses. 75lbsx12 per round = real heavy, real fast. The toes to bar was like a break for me. It hasn't always been this way.


I don't know what it is about this move that pisses off so many people. Maybe it's because when athletes are good at it, it looks so effortless. But it does take a lot of effort. Those of us who can do them felt that effort as the rounds added up.


But many people struggle with the movement. All you have to do is a big kip, swing your feet up, and touch the bar, right? Sure! OK, well, not really.


Last year, I judged one of my favorite people in the world. She did her 5 heavy power cleans, then spent 18 minutes trying to get one toes to bar. She did leave and cry at one time. BUT she came back! And she kept trying. This year, she did 34 toes to bar. So proud.


And this weekend, I worked with 2 other athletes who knew they could post a score to the Games site with what they had already done, but who continued to work at getting those toes to bar. And if they keep coming in and working on them, next year, not a problem.


The Open can expose our weaknesses. I'm not good at short workouts. I know this. I like the 10 minute + workouts. I haven't been great at box jumps before, but somehow, they're starting to click with me. I need to work on stringing them together. As long as we work on these things, and KEEP TRYING, we will get better. 


And hopefully, by the time they release 12.4 (double unders and heavy cleans?), I'll be able to move my arms again.

Top 5

I have been feeling uninspired in the CrossFit writing world lately, but I've seen many lists today. Lists I can do. And I watched High Fidelity again recently. Here come some lists.


10 Things I Love About CrossFit
10. I'd rather live an active life than a passive life.
9. I hate certain moves (overhead squats, wall balls, rowing) but instead of avoiding them, I keep doing them so I can get better. They won't go away. Neither will life.
8. I can laugh at myself.
7. Statistics! 
6. You try, you do your best, and everyone supports you.
5. Sometimes it's all business. Sometimes it's like playtime.
4. I'm not really good at team sports. In CrossFit, I'm only accountable to myself.
3. Who knew lifting a bar from the ground to your shoulders could feel so awesome. I love cleans!
2. I get to teach it now.
1. All of you.


Top 5 CrossFit Moves
1. Double Unders
2. Kettlebell Swings
3. Cleans
4. Pull-ups
5. Push-ups


Top 5 Least Favorite WODs
1. Kelly (also one of my favorite people at the box)
2. Karen (also one of my favorite people at the box)
3. The Seven 
4. Anything that involves multiple reps of overhead squats. They make me frustrated. They make me cry.
5. That first wall climb WOD with toes to bar, box jumps and wall climbs. I fell on my face before the WOD and tripped over the box on my first round of box jumps. I spent much of the remaining 30 minutes lying on the floor, wondering what I was doing there. 


Top 5 Favorite WODs
1. Annie (my first leaderboard and my first RX girl workout. I love this workout)
2. Helen
3. This partner one with rowing and push-ups we did about a month ago. I don't know why I liked it so much, but I just felt f*ing awesome afterwards.
4. When we did all the lady WODs super-scaled on a Friday. That was so fun!
5. Probably the Games workout from last Spring when you had 5 minutes to clean and jerk 110 pounds. My previous PR was 100. The first time I tried, I couldn't clean it. I spent 5 minutes struggling. A couple days later, I tried again. 2 1/2 minutes into it, I cleaned it. So many people were cheering me on. And it was f*ing awesome.


Top 5 Albums of All Time
1. Garbage - Version 2.0
2. Depeche Mode - Violator
3. Royksopp - The Understanding
4. The Pixies - Doolittle
5. Radiohead - OK Computer

Games Recap

Eugene Crossfit had a most awesome weekend. Started a little uncertain, but ended with big excitement and big time winners.


Friday
I got there very, very early. I was super excited and ready for some action. I was also supposed to volunteer, but after waiting around and repeatedly asking if there was anything I could do, some other volunteers and I decided to watch the Games. I hadn't really thought about the workouts in terms of action and spectators, but now I know better.

Before the storm

WOD 1 - Rowing/HSPU/Running
The only thing more boring than rowing is watching other people row. I hadn't really thought about this. For the teams, each member had to row 750 m, then they had to do a total of 50 hand stand push ups, then row again. Sound exciting? Not really, especially when you in the stands have no idea how far they've rowed or how they're doing against the other teams. Our team did good. Here's Sam. He's awesome!

Sisu - remember?

The individual competitors started with a 1000m run, then 30 HSPU, then row 1000m. Kendall and Cheryl did good. The best Crossfit athletes are good at everything, not necessarily experts in one thing. Remember that.


WOD 2 - Thruster Ladder
Uy. Thrusters are the worst. They're even worse than normal when rules are attached to them and if you slip up just once, you're out. Yeah. They're also kind of boring to watch the way it was set up. Friday afternoon was not good for our team. But I feel like I know what we'll be working on soon (keep those feet in place!). Cheryl was called out early on a technicality, which was very disappointing. She finished the day 21st. Boo! But we knew her strengths were ahead and we were looking forward.

Lindsey's tiny and she can lift that weight - I have to work on that (picture stolen from Gabe)

Saturday
WOD 3 - Deadlifts/Box Jumps
This is a 21/15/9 workout where the guy does deadlifts & box jumps (275lbs/30'' box) and then the lady has to take the weights off and flip over the box and do the same thing (185lbs, 24"). I did this workout at a much lighter weight and lower box a couple weeks ago and it knocked me out. Our team did great. Steve did awesome for his part. Then Lindsey stepped up and she's just so small but she can lift so much and jump so high. Truly awesome.


The best part about this was watching the other teams finish. This is where we saw some true Crossfit spirit. About 8 teams went at the same time and many finished in the same general time frame. Some were taking longer. And it was up to the women to finish up. There were a ton of people cheering on these athletes and they finished. Box jumps can be so hard - mentally. It was so great to see athletes and fans cheering on these women to finish the workout.

An athlete from Crossfit Salem finishes while everyone cheers.

For the individual athletes, the workout was the same except the deadlifts were heavier - 315/205. Cheryl made up some places in the standings with this. She finished second with a 3:37 time and started her ascent.


WOD 4 - 100 pull-ups/KB swings/double unders/overhead squats
Seriously, that's the workout. For teams, they had to do 250 reps of each as a team (with chest to bar pull-ups). It was fun to watch, and super awesome performances by every member of our team. Sam and Daren managed to get all their double unders basically in a row, making up mad time. Those crazy kids.


It got ugly watching the individual competitions. Those overhead squats were getting nasty out there. Some of the guys were dropping the bars and getting into other athletes spaces. One guy kept trying to lift it at the end and he couldn't get it and he would wander away like he was going to pass out. That's a lot of working out. Helmets might not be a bad idea for this one.


Cheryl got another second place finish with 19:10 and ended the day tied for 6th. That was big climb for one day. I know in other Regionals, one or two athletes were ahead for the whole weekend. Even though it was stressful, it was kind of fun to have a real competition on our hands. It really could have been anyone going to the Games at that point.


Sunday
WOD 5 - Amanda 9/7/5 Muscle-ups, Squat Snatches
Muscle ups are hard. Not many people can do them. You basically have to hang from rings and propel yourself up using your own force and strength until your arms are locked out above the rings. Like this:

Gabe took better pictures with his fancy camera

This was another big ol' inspirational Crossfit day. When I got there, they were in the middle of their second team heat. The guy on the team was supposed to do 9 muscle-ups, then the girl, then the guy does 9 squat snatches, etc. When I got there, many teams were on their round of 7. One team was still on their first round of muscle ups. This guy was trying his hardest. There was a time cap and that in that time we watched this guy do about 3 muscle ups in 15 attempts. It was brutal. But whenever he got one, the crowd cheered so loud. Another team had similar issues with the squat snatch. The woman walked up and tried and fell. And tried. And tried. When she got one, that crowd roared. Yeah, it was pretty rad.


Cheryl placed 4th. Didn't quite finish in the time allowed, but got pretty darn close. Not a lot of female athletes finished this one. Some just tried to do a muscle up in the time allotted. But they kept trying, in true Crossfit spirit.


WOD 6 - The Chipper
Row 20 cal/30 burpees/40 dumbbell ground to overhead/50 toes to bar/overhead lunges/sprint
This looked awful. But watching Cheryl finish the WOD first was so freaking awesome!!!

That's her - alone in first.

We had a huge group cheering her on. She dominated this one. Then, after she finished, she encouraged the other athletes. Total awesomeness.


So she's going to the Games again. Moved from 21st to 3rd. I saw so many amazing athletes and people this weekend. And shirts. Some favorites:


"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. I ran out of bubble gum."
"Wheat is Murder. Go paleo."


And I got to hang out with these people, which isn't a bad weekend at all.

Don't mess with us. We work out.

More thoughts soon. I have some ideas. I might share later :) But I am ready to workout tomorrow! I've been sitting all weekend!!!

Mantra

LOST WOD:

(AMRAP 108 minutes)

Sprint (distance will change depending on what's  chasing you. You may rest if you find a place to hide for a couple minutes)

Rope Climb (to  escape the polar bears)

Sled Drag (to move your shelter. must do this if the Others find you)

Get to the top of a large hill as fast as you can, but it's OK to wander down when you don't get reception

Sledgehammer Swings (RX is shirtless, because that's how Sawyer does it)

Row (Try to do 1K, but you might not make it that far)

Don't look at the clock. It might move forward or backwards at any given time.

This Is Pretty Much What We Do at CrossFit

Seriously. This is what we do.

The Cheering Section

On Wednesday, I was lucky enough to do the Filthy Fifty. This is a workout that's truly .... filthy. It goes a little something like this:

For time:

50 Box jump, 24/20 inch box

50 Jumping pull-ups

50 Kettlebell swings, 1/ 3/4 pood

Walking Lunge, 50 steps

50 Knees to elbows

50 Push press, 45/35 pounds

50 Back extensions

50 Wall ball shots, 20/14 pound ball

50 Burpees

50 Double unders

The second numbers are the women's RX. But someone in the morning decided that the womens' RX kettlebell should be 1 pood, so that's what I did. We'll get back to that.
Anyway, I've done the Filthy Fifty twice before. The first time, I did the scaled version, "The Dirty Thirty," which was brutal enough. The second time, this summer, I did all 50 reps of everything, but I scaled it to my level (I think I stepped up on some of the box jumps and used a 10# wall ball). This time, my goal was to RX it, ideally in under 30 minutes. This was the intention anyway.
The box jumps were fine. The jumping pull-ups were fine. When I got to the kettlebells, I was still upset that I had to use 1 pood, which was the same weight much stronger men were using. I usually use 1 pood during a workout, but we usually don't have to do 50 in a row. And I knew, I knew, that the RX for women was 3/4 pood. Whatev. Enough complaining. I'll let it go now.
Lunges will suck any day, but the most deceptive move came next - knees to elbows. Since I've done this workout before, I know that this is the hardest move. You basically hang from a bar and swing your knees up to your elbows - 50 times. It's a core workout, but it kills the grip on your hands and it doesn't feel great on the shoulders, which were already smoked from the KB swings. I could only do 4 at a time, so I made an executive decision. It's my workout, my conscious, so I modified them. I did them on the floor. Doing it this way meant I wouldn't put an RX next to my name, but it wouldn't take me an hour. It still hurt and it still took a while. Damn those knees to elbows.
Because I'm so weak, the push press also sucked. The back extensions are like a mini-vacation. You know how I feel about wall balls. I threw one 14# in the air and decided to use the 10#. I had already scaled it, so I didn't care at this point. I just wanted to finish. Then came the worst part of the WOD. There were only a few of us left when I started the burpees and the next class had started to trickle in. After a couple minutes, I was the last person doing burpees.
One of the great things about Crossfit is that you have a community of people cheering you on. I often appreciate it. It really helps me through some tough workouts. Sometimes, it works against me. When people started cheering me on during the Filthy Fifty, I still had 40 burpees to go. I know how long it takes me to do 40 burpees and I really didn't want a bunch of people standing around yelling at me for 5 minutes. I was also getting upset because I kept losing count. I didn't want to do anymore burpees than I had to. So I made it clear that I did not want encouragement during the WOD; I just wanted to finish on my own. So that's what I did.
I feel bad when I yell at people who have good intentions, but I know how I can get through these workouts. Often times, I yell at people when I'm trying to finish my pull-ups. I know how fast I can do pull-ups. Cheering won't help when my shoulders give out. But I still appreciate the cheering most of the time and I'm happy to cheer on my friends. But if I get that look, I know to shut it and cheer in my head.