13.5: Thank God I'm not elite

"How dare you judge me, Steve? You have no idea what I've been through."

"13.5 may be awful, but it's over quickly.  Which is also the line of reasoning I use when attempting to woo Tracey."
-Me to AngDesj, on Facebook. 


I think I've mentioned before that I don't like AMRAPs for the simple reason that if you are better at CrossFit, your reward in an AMRAP is more work.  Talk about a disincentive. 

Well, 13.5 was even worse... but fortunately the only people who suffered the consequences are the people who are super fucking awesome at CrossFit.  

This would come as no surprise to anyone who's spent five minutes watching me do a WOD or reading this blog, but if there was a Venn diagram with a circle representing "People Who Are Super Fucking Awesome At CrossFit," your humble yet sexy blogger would not be inside that circle.  I'd be over in the circle representing "People For Whom CrossFit Is The Thin Line Separating Them From Obesity."

13.5
AMRAP in four minutes:
15 thrusters (100 lbs)
15 chest-to-bar pull-ups.

Here's the evil part:  If you get done three rounds within the four-minute time limit... you get another four minutes.

It doesn't stop there... for every three rounds you manage to complete, another four minutes are tacked on the clock.  So, theoretically, this workout could go on for a long time for those who are really elite.

Since the WOD was announced, I couldn't stop thinking about it and how I would have to get that bonus time or I'd be hugely disappointed in myself.  But for some reason I did the math wrong and thought that getting to that point meant completing 60 total reps, not the 90 it actually is.  I thought 60 reps would be hard, but doable for me. 

I got to the gym on Saturday morning, and Lexi told me no one at CFR had made it out of the first four minutes.  "It's 90 reps," she pointed out. 

Hey, they don't call it MathFit. 

Hearing that was like Christmas morning.  Which I guess means Lexi = Santa Claus. 

My goal was still to get into the 60s.  But now I had the luxury of knowing I didn't have to worry about having to do this for longer than four minutes.

I started the WOD unsure if I would do the first 15 thrusters unbroken.  In earlier heats, I saw a lot of people start fast and fade early. 

Once I got them going, I figured I should just finish rather than eat up precious seconds by resting early and having to pick up the bar again. 

Cary was doing this next to me and he finished his thrusters before me. 

As I moved to the C2B PLUs I was paying attention to his counter more than Steve, who was counting for me.  It probably helped me keep my pace fast, but really, I should probably just pay attention to what I'm doing. 

I got through the C2B fairly quickly and was back at my barbell with more than 2:30 left.  I was pretty sure at that time that I was going to break 60, since I was halfway there. 

I also knew that this set of 15 was not going to be unbroken. 

I picked it up and did 8 reps... I would have liked 10, but I had no choice but to drop it.  I thought I'd do the last 7 in one set, but after 4, I had to put it down. 

When I finally did get to the C2B, I did a set of 5 or so, then turned around so I could see what the clock read.  That helped me get through the last 10, though I did have to break it up into three or four sets, including a final set of 1. 

I was back at my barbell with 45-50 seconds left.  I don't remember what I did for sets, but I just knew I wanted to get to 70 or 72.  I would have been thrilled with 72. 

The gym was yelling at me, so that helped me pick the bar up when I really just wanted to leave that fucking thing on the ground. 

I got to 71 with four seconds left.  I was down in the squat part of the thruster for #72 when time ran out. 

Final score of the final Open WOD: 71 

After I went, I stuck around the gym to watch a couple of the later heats. 

And photobombing.  Hot damn, I love photobombing

There were some impressive performances, particularly Lance, who was the only person at CFR to get to that second four minutes. 

His reward for being elite was another four minutes and a final score (I think) of 124.  It was awesome to see. 

It's amazing to me to think that the top score in the world is more than double that.  Josh Bridges scored a 254. 

Sucks to be that guy... this week at least.

Squat Cleans then Box Jumps and Pull-ups Metcon

Squat cleans

3-3-3-1-1-1

I had never done max squat cleans before, so I started low, but the sets of three kept coming, so I would erase the early sets.

Ended up with

155x3, 175x3, 185x3

The singles didn't go so well.

195x1, 205x1 (FAIL).

I didn't try a third one. My elbows were threatening mutiny.

Then it was time for a little metcon.

30 20-inch box jumps
10 pull-ups
30 20-inch box jumps
20 pull-ups
30 20-inch box jumps
30 pull-ups

I kept up with Blair for exactly one round.

6:46 as rx'd.

I ran out of gas a bit on the box jumps. I'm going to blame some noxious fumes I inhaled when I first got to CrossFit.

On a completely unrelated note, AngDesj, if you are going to DO THAT like a guy, you're going to have to do the guys' weight on future WODs.

.

Saskatchewan CrossFit Challenge

It was held at CrossFit Saskatoon on Saturday and it was a hell of an event. I started shitting bricks about Thursday.

There were more than 80 athletes from Regina, Saskatoon, and a handful from Alberta.

WOD 1
800m run
50 45lb sandbag thrusters
30 burpee pull-ups to an 8'5" bar.

12 minute time limit.

Here's a video explaining in detail.



I just wanted to get done this. With the time limit, there were plenty of good athletes who didn't get done in the earlier rounds, and I really didn't want to get a DNF. 12 minutes isn't a lot of time for this. There's no shame in a DNF, but I really, really wanted to finish this one.

I was one of the first ones in from the run, did the thrusters in sets of 25, 10, 5 and 10.

The last part was the worst. Burpulls to a fucking 8-foot-5 bar. That's like Nature taunting me for being short. I'm 5'9" with no vertical, and actually missed my first fucking jump, and at least a couple others.

I finished in 10:57, I think. That was good for 9th place out of the Division 1 men.


WOD 2
Anyway Overhead

You get three lifts. The heaviest weight you can take from the rack, onto your shoulders and then overhead counts, whether it's press, pushpress, push jerk or split jerk.

Demo video:

I haven't done enough weightlifting to know my max, and I didn't warm up because I'm an idiot who doesn't pay attention enough to know when it was almost our time. First lift was 135. Second was 165. I almost asked for 180, but went to 185 on the third and got it. I may have been able to do a bit more, but not much. There were some really strong dudes in Division 1, so 185 was only good for 14th in that event.


WOD 3
Three rounds of
1 minute Row for Calories
1 minute 95lb Snatch
1 minute Double Unders
1 minute 75lb KB swings
1 minute Rest

Demo video:


It's scored like a Fight Gone Bad, so maximizing reps was everything. The way this was structured, if someone is good at DUs, they were going to do well... as long as they had something left in the tank by the time they got there. Good news for me, who can do them, bad news for awesome athletes like James who just don't do them that much. I borrowed Hardcore Ange's speed rope and did okay on them.

Those 75lb KB swings were just inhuman. See the picture at the top of this post. The rest was basically just enough time to get back into the rower. It was good for 5th place in this round.
After everything was said and done, I finished in 8th place out of 19 guys. I have absolutely no problems with that, and feel lucky to have finished that high. Hell, Robin and Flood finished in 8th in their divisions, and I'm flattered to be in the same company as them.

Christian was the top CFR rep in Division 1, coming in fifth place. We had five guys in the top 10, though. Kelly and AngDesj were 1 and 2 in the women's podium. BrianB got third in Division 2, though he should have been in Division 1, and probably would have finished higher than me.

I was so grateful to have my wife Tracey and the Boy cheering me on in events 1 and 3, taking pictures and making sure I got plenty of good nutrition before and after. I am sure that I wouldn't have done nearly as well without her coming with me. Tracey was completely supportive and she was on "Mom" duty for the better part of the weekend so I could focus on the SCFC events (and then the afterparty). Yeah, I'm not sure what I did to deserve someone so awesome, either.

The Boy (two years old) even showed off his burpee technique in between events and won a few fans.

I also consider myself fortunate that I was able to go to this great event with an awesome group of people from CrossFit Regina. There were no assholes and no egos, just strong, supportive people who cheered on their fellow athletes. We even got visited by Nick and Christine, awesome CrossFitters themselves, who drove up just to cheer us on.

It was a great weekend.

"Barbara"

For time, five rounds of:

20 pull-ups
30 push-ups
40 sit-ups
50 squats

Rest three minutes in between rounds.

Total time, including the 12:00 in breaks was 38:44. My round times were:
4:23
5:14
5:39
6:04
5:24
_____
26:44 total work time.

The problem with this one is the math. If you think about the total number of reps you have to do, it's pretty daunting. Of course, since looking on the CrossFit Regina website last night, it's pretty much all I could think about.

During the workout, my pull-ups were fairly bad and my push-ups were atrocious. By the third round, sit-ups were like torture.

AngDesj was chasing me the entire time, and she kept letting me know about it. The last round, despite my head start, she made up a lot of time on the pull-ups and then passed me on the push-ups. But she's got an issue with sit-ups, so I thought I could catch her.

It was weird, something came over me during the sit-ups. It wasn't really a second wind, but more like I was suddenly filled with an inner peace that relaxed me and let me just do the work without feeling a lot of pain from my abs. I just closed my eyes, went to work, and was able to do 25 straight, and finish the rest pretty quickly. I also did better on the squats in the final round than any other round, doing 30 straight, quick breather, then two sets of 10.

Afterward, I felt like death. I was semi-concerned that I was going to pass out on the drive home.

Michele and BrianB kicked ass on this one.

I found a video of a "Babara" workout on YouTube. I particularly enjoyed how the dude in the muscle shirt isn't doing full pull-ups. Full extension on the arms, fucker!

Oh, are they anchoring their feet for the sit-ups? Yes they are. Are they sitting all the way up? No they are not. Someone needs to yank this gym's affiliation.