summer smash crossfit competition reflection

If you've been keeping up with this blog than you already know that I competed this past Sunday, if not, well now you know. Being my first CrossFit competition you can imagine I went through an array of thoughts and emotions during the process. Naturally I was quite nervous leading up to the day, in fact it didn't really hit me until the day before. The morning of was hard to eat breakfast without feeling nauseous. What I was so nervous about I'm not entirely sure but knowing myself, I was probably more afraid of falling or doing something wrong in front of all the people that would be there watching and cheering us on. Because if you know me, you know that it is quite possible that I would accomplish something like that. And no, nothing of the sort happened. My nerves completely diminished the minute Megan, the gracious lady who put this competition together, went over the standards of the first WOD. Suddenly it was like I was back at CrossFit Stumptown and we were just going over the WOD that we would be embarking on. Oh, and allow me to add that the entire competition took place outside. They had the road closed off for the day and set everything up outside where there would be more room and the people walking by for the Hawthorne Street Fair could stop and watch. I didn't prepare for it being outdoors and working out under the hot sun all day, but it was a new challenge that I was forced to deal with. I competed in the Women's Scaled Division with only five other women. Here is my breakdown of thoughts on each WOD that day.

WOD #1:
     AMRAP in 15 minutes of:
     1 Power Clean 65#
     2 Over the Bar Burpee
     200m Run (which actually turned out to be 2 back and forth sprints)
     2 Power Clean 65#
     4 Over the Bar Burpee
     200m Run
     4 Power Clean 65#
     8 Over the Bar Burpee
     200m Run
     ETC ETC.
This WOD was awful. It was awful before I had even started, awful even days prior to the competition. I already knew that this WOD would be the one that I would do the worse in. First of all, running is just not something that comes to me naturally. Sure I can run, but I am not efficient at it. I don't stride well and I don't breathe correctly. This is something Joon and Tony have been working with me on. I'm still a work in progress. Anyhow, adding running AND burpees in the same WOD is like a death sentence for my lungs. I prepared in advanced and made sure to use my inhaler beforehand, and planned on just pacing myself during the run. What I didn't factor in was the HOT weather. The power cleans were of no issue, the weight is light for me and so breezing through those were a piece of cake. The burpees got hard fast with the sun beating down on my and trying to breathe over the hot black mats. In the very first sprint I took off way too fast and burned myself out almost immediately! Rookie mistake #1! Needless to say, I came in last in this event.

WOD #2 & #3:
     Establish 1RM of Overhead Squat in 8 minutes, then rest 2 minutes and in 20 minutes complete:
     500m Row
     10 HRPU (hand release push-ups)
     20 Step-ups on 20" box
     30 KB Swings 25#
     40 Sit-ups
     100 Double Unders OR 300 Singles
     40 Sit-ups
     30 KB Swings 25#
     20 Step-ups
     10 HRPU
Ok let me begin with the overhead squat, my weakest of bar movements. I only established a new 1RM on this four days prior to the competition, from 65# to 95#. My goal was to get 90# on competition day, and maybe shoot for 95#. But as I was warned by Joon, the adrenaline will push you to go all out. And so after nailing 70#, 85#, and 90# I decided to get a little crazy and go for 100#. I failed the first two tries and even called good after that. But when 90 seconds was announced as all that was left, I decided to give it one more go and NAILED it! In a matter of one week I PR'd the OHS by 35#. How does this still surprise me? I have no clue. I placed 4th in WOD #2. The 500m row was a part of the 20 minute time cap but was scored separately. I came in 2nd place with the row at 2:06. For the rest of WOD #3 I came in 5th place and I believe a part of me died out there on the asphalt that day. As much as I dreaded WOD #1, this one pretty much killed me. Rookie mistake #2 is not knowing how to do double unders yet, so I ended up wasting time doing 300 singles. You know what that means? I means I am learning how to do double unders ASAP. The rest of the WOD was hard mostly out of being tired. I'm not accustomed to pushing myself to continuously move without stopping for water or breathing breaks. I came close to not finishing it under the time cap, but I did. Thank goodness!

Final WOD:
     AMRAP in 3 minutes of:
     Shoulder to Overhead 65#
I chose to do push presses as I felt those were more efficient for me at such a light weight. Before beginning this WOD I felt that my shoulders felt pretty good, especially since everyone seemed to be complaining that their shoulders felt tired. But after about a minute of doing push presses I began feeling my shoulders burn like crazy. I pumped out as many push presses as quickly as I could go. I ended up getting 37 reps in 3 minutes. I placed 5th in this event.

Individually I did alright in most events, especially for it being my first time. I went into this competition wanting not to place last but after WOD #1 I came to terms that I would more than likely place last overall. And you know, I was surprisingly ok with this. I mean at least I signed up and knew I was giving my (almost) all. The end result was I placed 5th overall. This was a pleasant ending to my first competition. Now the bigger question is, what did I learn from this experience?

Well, I absolutely learned that I really need to learn to be a more efficient runner. So much so that I will begin taking Tony's running clinic Saturday mornings in September. I learned that I need to learn to do double unders. And the biggest lesson learned is to give myself enough credit. I am strong. I am capable.

This photo was taken from Pinterest.

whoa! these muscles are getting stronger...

Last night's WOD wasn't anything spectacular. We've certainly done harder and more intense WOD's before. But it was one of those nights where we'd get through it quickly and capable of doing the majority of it with minimal modifications. What was unexpected was how much I'd be able to notice how much I have improved. I would have never imagined the simplicity of this WOD would help me gauge where I am after 3+ months of grinding it out. So you understand what I mean, we had to do this: Strength first, Tuesday nights are dedicated to the Press. I am happy to announce that I was able to Press more #'s than last week! And then the WOD was AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 12 minutes of 12 T2B (toes to bar), 12 HRPU (hand release push-ups), and 12 Air Squats. That is all. It's something just about anyone can do.

I haven't got the core strength quite yet to do a true T2B, my modification is facing a wall and raising my feet as high as I can. I typically pick a spot (or hole) on the wall and aim my feet at that. I try to do this particular exercise at the same bar each time so that I can gauge how much higher I am getting than the previous time. Last night I was feeling a tad bit under the weather, and as I arrived to class I contemplated turning around and heading home instead. But I decided to grind it out, and my coach, Tony, said to just take it easy- so I intended to. The problem with CF WOD's are, no matter how much you try to just focus on yourself and do what you can do, you always look to your neighbor or someone else near by and want to stay pace or go faster then them. I don't know if this is necessarily true with everyone, but it is for me. Maybe it's my competitive nature. Anyway, I tried to keep pace with the girl next to me (which so happens she and I have a mutual friend outside of CF). When doing the T2B I found that the spot I kept hitting on the wall was about an inch higher than the last spot I hit the previous time we'd done T2B. You don't understand what a big deal this is for me. My feet are literally reaching above my waist, no longer parallel. I almost jumped off and did a victory lap over this! And to add to my excitement, I was able to do 6 or more at a time before stopping for a rest. Another feat!

Moving on to the HRPU, I found myself being one of the first people moving on to this move. Don't be fooled, I'm in no way stronger and faster then my CF companions. Having done a MOD for my T2B allowed me to move forward quicker. The rest soon caught up and either stayed paced or passed me. I am unable to do a proper push-up. It's something I have been working on for some time now and it's slow going. I do what they call "girl" push-ups, where instead of being on my toes, I am on my knees. Doing HRPU this way is still fairly hard though. To do a proper push-up you keep your back straight, not allowing any sway in your back or you butt to lift higher. I can do this without going all the way down to the floor, as I am still not strong enough to lift myself completely back up. But with HRPU, you are required to go all the way down to the floor, release your hands off the floor, and then lift yourself back up. Eek! Unfortunately for me, there is some slight sway back in my movement. I'm working on it.

And then on to the last movement, the lovely Air Squats. When I first started CF, my squats were extremely weak. A true squat would have your thighs going below parallel with the floor, I was doing above parallel. In CF you'll quickly learn that in many of the exercises you do, there is some form of squatting almost always. Seriously. In the beginning I hated this, my Quads were always sore and my knees constantly hurt. (Later I learned I need to stretch more afterwards, and now the Foam Roller and I have become best friends.) Anyway, I noticed my squats were improving when we worked on our Back Squats. And most recently when I did a 140# Back Squat and found that I went below parallel I was shocked (and wanted to do backflips... and if I knew how to, I would've). So last night, when it was time to grind out the Air Squats, I found that I busted out all 12 squats without stopping for a rest (like I had in previous WOD's) and I was doing them pretty quickly. When I was back to my T2B, I again was one of the first ones to be up there.

I find that I am beginning to keep pace with some of the stronger CrossFitters, even the ones that do the WOD's RX (prescription, opposed to MOD, which is modified). My movements are becoming more fluid and stronger. I feel stronger. And all this in a little over 3 months. :) So for those who are curious, I finished my WOD in 6 rounds + 5 T2B in 12 minutes. I had one round more than the average round! Now just to master the PU and T2B...