« Thursday June 27, 2013 »

Competing by Coach Audrey

This weekend I competed in the CAPITAL CITY CAROLINA CLASH. I signed up for it on a whim while watching Michael prep for Regionals, just got the itch. It consisted of a strength WOD and 2 Conditioning WOD's.

Event 1: 6 rep max front squat, from the floor

Event 2: 4 minutes to complete 200 Double Unders and as many kettlebell snatches as possible 35# in the remaining time.

Event 3: Three 4 minute AMRAPs:
Part 1: 6 x 185# Deadlift and 8 x abmat sit ups
Part 2: 6 x 115# Hang cleans and 8 x air squats
Part 3: 6 x 105# Shoulder-to-Overhead and 8 x hand-release burpees

I was excited when I found out the WOD's a few weeks ago. I was capable of completing all 3 and it was a good atmosphere. The girls I was competing against did as good or better than me in the Open. I PR'd in event 1 and 2 in comparison to how I performed in practice. I PR'd in Part 1 and 2 of Event 3 and then ran out of gas.... The burpees were tough, but this is the beauty of competitions, they show you where you need to work harder so you can be better.

From the Clash I have some positive take-aways:

1. My olympic lifting work has paid off and I was able to preform well in WOD 1.
2. I still the love the kettlebell we will be BFF's for life.
3. Don't ever underestimate the burpee. Sure you just fall down and get back up, but sometimes it feels so good down there on the ground, you don't really want to get back up and that was my problem. My burpees were sloooooooow.
4. Also, need to work on longer WOD's. The one I slipped on was 14 minutes, with the "rest" minute just giving you enough time to change plates.
5. In addition, I think a limiting factor that can go unrecognized is the mental aspect of a WOD. I was perfectly capable of doing those burpees and the shoulder to overhead felt light. It was my mental game that failed me. I wasn't fully invested and let the pain sink in. The best competitors are those who can keep the pain at bay, ignore it, or use it as fuel. 6. I finished 6th, 9th, and 10th. So overall I am happy that I was consistent.

Putting yourself in this type of situation - competing in front of a crowd, throwing it all on the line - can be intimidating. You maybe thinking, "I can't do that," but you can and you will be glad you did. You will learn so much about yourself and your training.

Plus, there was a scaled version of this competition. The women/men still did WOD 1 the same but were scored separately from the Rx men/women. They completed WOD 2 but with 200 single unders and a lighter kettlebell. They completed WOD 3 with the same rep scheme but lighter weights.

Don't worry I have already done the research for you....

July 13th Superfit Games at Crossfit Invoke in Raleigh, NC
This is a PARTNER Competition with Rx and SCALED divisions for men/men, women/men, or women/women teams! I would love to see some Locals compete in this. http://www.rxcompetitions.com/2013/03/superfit-games-team-superfit-raleigh/

Find a partner and get after it!

Workout of the Day:

A.
Within 20 mins, establish a max for each of the following:

L-sit
Toes-to-Bar
Muscle-ups (or C2B Pull-ups)

B.
For time:
Row 1000 Meters
10 Shoulder to Overhead (135/95 lb)
20 Squat Cleans (135/95 lb)
30 Burpees Over the Barbell

Lateral jump over is fine, but must be two foot jump and two foot land. Post times to comments.

L2: 105/75#

L1: 75/50# & Power Cleans

Comments

[Mike S]

This was a burner... yet again I use Clan Fedoriw as the rabbit (Andy this time) and again it proves to be good motivation! Squat cleans were the hard element for me. I expected burpees would be, but the cleans were way worse than I thought they would be. 10:32 Rx. Thanks to Audrey and Zach and Branson for the cheers!

[Mike F]

Zach challenged us this morning to go outside of our comfort zone and reach for something more challenging than simply higher numbers of reps or time. For T2Bs, I practiced them with varying sizes of medballs between my feet. Got up to 16#. Definitely a lot harder than the standard movement. For L-sits, I had to do it with my feet hovering above a medball (vs. simply off the floor). WAY harder for me as someone with inflexible hamstrings. I don't think I made it to 10 full seconds. As for muscle-ups, well, we continue to observing the terms of a separation. I hope that one day we can reconcile but today was not that day.

WOD as Rx'd: 13:40. Squat cleans were the foil here. I felt like I had no lower-body strength today and it showed as I struggled my whole way through these.

Happy Birthday to Sarah! You wish you were as old and distinguished as me.

[Alan]

WoD was hard. I wasn't able to string together my cleans and about 1/2 of them were really "power clean + front squat." Also, the platform gets pretty slick from sweat on the burpees.

Happy Birthday SarA.

Also, if anyone is interested in seeing high-level Ultimate Frisbee tonight, my former club team, Ring of Fire is playing an exhibition game against the NexGen College all-stars touring tonight at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary. Last year it was a pretty good game and it's the highest level game you'll see (well, until next week and the US Open in Raleigh).

http://www.nexgentour.com/2013-schedule/ring-of-fire