Gearing up for the Games

Today, participants in the upcoming Saskatchewan CrossFit Games (co-organized by the Regina and Saskatoon affiliates) were invited to do two workouts, one at 9am and the other at noon, in order to begin to get used to what it's going to be like in a couple of weeks.

9am

Three rounds of:

12 x 115 lb overhead squats
12 x 24" box jumps
12 x chest-to-bar pull-ups

We were given a 15 minute time limit to do this, and each competitor was assigned someone to count our reps and make sure our form was perfect. I was lucky to have Ferrah do mine. She provided just the right amount of steady encouragement throughout.

The worst part of this was the overhead squats. Actually, getting the 115 lbs overhead with a snatch was very tough, so it actually probably helped my time in a way, because it made me more reluctant to drop it. The first set of 12, I was able to do all of the squats uninterrupted. Getting low enough without losing my balance was a big challenge. I did end up falling on my ass during the second set. Always fun.

Somehow, I managed to finish with a time of 8:18, which was the best time of the day. I attribute it mostly to Brad Flood being next to me. I was finishing my squats a bit faster than him, but then we'd move to box jumps and he was popping up and down like it was completely effortless. (Note to self: Do more box jumps) It was everything I could do to just try to stay ahead of him.

12pm

At 9am, all we knew about the noon workout was that it would involve a salt bag. I joked, "Hey, after the 115 lb overhead squats, a 45 lb salt bag will feel light."

I should have known better.

With two saltbags in an oversized army surplus duffel bag:

400m run (yep, carrying the 90 lb bag anyway you like, without using the straps).

30 clean and jerks with the bag. ("Grace")

Climb the rope and ring the bell (thankfully, not carrying the two salt bags with you.)

I was placed in the second heat, which means I had to count for one of the competitors, James, who's an absolute animal and one of CFR's most elite athletes. That's when it hit home just how frickin' hard this workout was going to be. James's weighted 400m run was faster than a lot of people's regular 400m time, but he looked like he was going through Hell on the C&Js. He finished in just over 10 minutes, which was pretty incredible. Here's a video of BrianB doing C&Js with the bag. BrianB is in awesome shape, so watching this should tell you how tough this workout was.


After ripping up my hand on a rope dismount a few weeks back, I wasn't thrilled about the idea of a rope climb. But after seeing how the other competitors did in the first heat, I figured that I probably wouldn't finish the 30 C&Js before the 13 minute time limit, so it wouldn't be an issue.

When it was my turn, I had a pretty good time on the 400m, but it was very tough to get any kind of speed on the C&Js. I was taking way too long between the reps, but James was very good at keeping me going, making me aware of the time and giving me advice on the best way to keep the bag jerkable. He said my form got better and faster as I got toward the end. Part of that was just me wanting to get done so I wouldn't have to do it anymore.

I finally got done the 30 C&Js at around 11:00, so it was time to climb the rope. I took a quick drink, chalked my hands, and got on the rope. If I was fresher, I would have tried it no-hands, but today I needed my feet, too. Although I'm not sure how much spreading my knees out bowlegged and pinching the rope between my feet really helped. When I finally got to the top, it took a fair amount of willpower to get one hand off the rope to ring the bell at 11:50. This time, I climbed down and emerged free of any hand trauma.