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.