FrostFit 2013

The CFR team: Mike, me, Jenn and Tiff

 

UPDATE: 500+ professional photos of FrostFit can be viewed here.  If you see something you like, why not support this dude and buy one of them?  Maybe this one of AngDesj, which captures her very essence ie. she's lifting something heavy, and her mouth is not closed.

 

 

The short version:

Well, I didn't finish last.   Full event results here.

I finished third last, 27th out of 29 competitors in the Rx division.  And that's not so bad.  I actually did as well, or better than my expectations in each event, so I can't really complain.  I knew going in that I'd be swimming in some deep waters. 

This was a fantastic event to be a part of.  Extremely well run, terrific facility, amazing athletes (even by my jaded CrossFit standards - more on this later) and some ridiculously attractive people. 

Part of me questioned my own sanity for making a 13-hour round trip in an aging vehicle across a barren, frozen Prairie to excercise for a total of about 22 minutes, but I'm already scheming how I can be a part of next year's event without actually driving. 

The long, hugely self-involved version:

(I'm gonna assume you know what the events were.  If you don't, read my previous post )

Event #1 - The Clean Ladder

• Stations are set up with barbells of increasing weight.  You get 45 seconds at each station to clean the barbell.  If you can't, deadlift it as many times as possible within that 45 seconds.

I misunderstood this in my description in the previous post.  I thought we did the tiebreaking deadlifts on weights we successfully cleaned.  Turns out, we do the deadlifts on the weight we failed to clean. 

Once I figured that out, it made the decision to go for a PR of 225 a lot easier.  And, actually, I PR'd this in the warm-up room, so I knew I could do it.  But you only had 45 seconds to get set, take a breath and lift. 

Competition time.  Because the order of the athletes was organized alphabetically by first name, I was in the last heat all day, ahead of only one guy: Tyson.  Did I mention that Tyson, from CrossFit 204, is a two-time FrostFit Champion?  It took some pressure off, because I knew no one was looking at me when we were out there at the same time. 

I nailed 185 easy, and 205 no problem.  I stepped up to the 225, confident as hell.  I had already nailed this, easily, in the warm-up room.  My judge, Ulu, alerted the announcer that a PR was coming up. 

I pulled it... and failed.

The fuck? 

I mean, it wasn't even close.  I don't think the bar made it higher than my belly button, and I wasn't fucking around with a squat clean.

Tried again.  Failed again.

Panic.  I've only got 45 seconds total here, how much time is gone?  Only 15 seconds?  Wow.  So, do I start deadlifts?  If I try again and fail again, I'm guaranteed the shittiest possible outcome in this event.  There aren't many guys I'm outlifting to begin with.

I decided to try again.  I can do it.  I know I can.  I just did it like 20 minutes before. 

Last shot. 

I get it.  It went up ugly, but it still went up.  I'm so happy right now I want to kiss Ulu, and he isn't even my type. 

He tries telling the PA announcer that I just got a PR, but the announcer thinks he meant the next weight, 235, will be a PR. 

I slap Ulu on the chest and tell him, "That's okay, because I AM gonna get a 235lb PR!"

Uh, yeah... not so much. 

I fail it once, and start deadlifts.  Turns out, doing as many 235lb DLs as you can in 40 seconds is pretty awful.  I think I do 11, take a break and nail 3 more before the time elapses and I'm done.  I wanted 15, but settled for one less than that. 

Results 225lb clean (PR) and 14 deadlifts at 235lbs

@TylerMcMurchy

@chunstroet peptalk: "Failed twice? You're not a quitter. At least you didn't settle like your wife did when picking a husband." #FrostFit

As it turns out, that was good for 27th place in the event.  The only other guy who failed at 235 ended up doing 13 deadlifts, so I barely beat him.  It was actually the perfect result for me, as I didn't have a single wasted DL. 

 Event #2  Couplet Ladder

• This contained three 3-minute events which were scored separately.  Do one of each movement.  Then two, then three, etc.

2a - Snatch / Muscle-up

As discussed in the previous post, I knew how the first 3 minutes were gonna go.  I would get the first snatch then not get a muscle-up.  And that's how it went.  Since lots of other people did get their very first MU during this event, I did half-heartedly attempt a MU, mostly to show people who might think they could cheer me to one how futile that would be. 

You see that?  Ain't no way I'm getting my first MU here today, mofos. 

I chilled out for 2:30 then moved on. 

2b - Handstand Pushup / Chest-To-Bar Pull-up

Alright, it's go time.  I attack this station with everything I have.  I'm fresh, meanwhile all these other poor fuckers who have muscle-ups have actually just spent the previous three minutes doing CrossFit.  It's like in tag team wrestling when you tag in a fresh partner.  ``Good Gawd Almighty! Tyler McMurchy gets the tag and is a house of fire! He`s stomping a mudhole in this event and walkin`it dry!``

Ulu doesn't have to judge anymore because I was in the last heat.  He's still cheering me on, which was nice.  He and my new judge at this station both seem surprised I can do these well.  Yeah.  Short arms mean I've got less distance to travel before they`re fully locked out.  Fat legs help me generate momentum on the kip. 

I get through the round of threes.  I may have failed on one HSPU because my feet came off the wall before lockout. The round of four is a struggle.  I fail at least one more time.  I divide the HSPUs and C2Bs into twos.  I`m resting upside down, standing only on my head, shaking out my arms.  I fight through the fives, Ulu yelling encouragement, then start the round of sixes with less than 30 seconds left.  

I get one or two.  I don`t know. 

Okay.  Here comes the suck. 

2c - 155lb Thrusters / 30" Box Jumps

I've done three minutes of work, and I'm tired.  Now I've gotta see if I can do a 155lb thruster.  I'm pretty sure I can.  Well... kinda sure.

I fail my first attempt.  Are you KIDDING me?  

Let's try that again.  I get it up.  It was not easy.  The box jump is a nice break. 

Two more thrusters.  I string them together.  Not sure if that's a good idea.  Box jumps.  I notice one of the official photographers taking pictures, so I do a little bow a top the box after the second. 

Quick break.  I only need a couple minutes rest or so.  Oh, shit, there's less two minutes left. 

Back to the thrusters.  These will be one at a time, thankyouverymuch.  I squat clean the bar so I can go right to the thruster.  It's not fun.   In between reps, I tell the bar how much I hate it.  I'm only a few feet away from some spectators, so I'm pretty sure a few of them heard me do it and are laughing at me.

I get through the thrusters.  Three box jumps. 

Yay, time for more thrusters.  Only 30 seconds left. 

I get one up and fail on my second attempt.  There's no time to try again.  I'm done. 

2a - One measly snatch.

2b - Five complete rounds plus one or two HSPU.  So 16 HSPU and 15 C2Bs . 

2c - 7 thrusters, 6 box jumps.  Well, sure, when you put it like THAT it doesn't sound like very much. 

@TylerMcMurchy

Okay, #FrostFit event 2 lived up to its horrible billing. BTW what's the number for 911 in Manitoba?

Event #3  KB Jerk  and Row/T2B

@TylerMcMurchy

#FrostFit. I just practiced a few 55lb kettlebell jerks in advance of Event #3. Observation: I am screwed.

• Five minutes of KB jerks.  Do max on one arm, then the other.  Your score is the lowest of the two totals. You can only put down the KB once, to switch arms, and you can only hold on with one arm.  
• Then another 5:00 period.  Row 1000m, then do as many toes-to-bar as possible in the remaining time.  These are scored separately as well, but the T2B are weighted for more.   

I seriously thought I was not going to break double digits on this one.  Once I got going with my left arm, I felt a little better.  I knew I was gonna hit 10 and was hoping I'd get to 20.  After around 14, every single one was a fight.  I got no-rep calls, which suck because you're putting out the same effort, or more if your technique sucks like mine did, and you get nothing but frustration. 

I wanted 20 so bad.  On my 18th one, I lost control and I had to drop it.  So that was my max possible score, if I could match it with my right arm, injured shoulder and all. 

I let the KB sit on the floor for probably close to a minute.  When I picked it up, the 18 came pretty easy. 

Minute rest, then time to row. 

I was rowing right beside Tyson, who, by the way, had easily finished in first in the first two events.

By the way, the row was the only event all day that Tyson did not finish first in.  He took second.  It's probably my fault, somehow.  Perhaps my unique strain of mediocrity is contagious. 

I think I might have started out a bit fast.  I slowed down after a minute or so of that nonsense.  Took a breather around 500m, which riled up the crowd.  These are CrossFitters.  They don't stop during a little 1000m row. 

You people don't understand.  This shit is hard for me.  Fine, fuck, I'll row some more. 

At my judge's suggestion, I turned the damper down a bit and that allowed me to get through the rest of the way.  I honestly don't know how fast I finished it, probably between 3:40 and 3:50, but by the time I got to the bar, I only had about a minute.   No jumping to an eight-foot bar for me.  I slide a box over to step up. 

I'm only gonna need it one more time, anyway. 

I hate toes to bar and I resent people that can string them together bang-bang-bang.  Mostly because I am not one of those people.  If I was, I'd probably get t-shirts made and start a social club or something. Organize pub crawls, that sort of thing. 

Here's how I do toes to bar:  I do one, swing back, do another one, awkwardly lose any rhythm, and shit gets worse from there. 

I figured I'd get 12-15.  I did 9 (I think) before having drop off.  I waited until 20 seconds left and hopped back on.  I did 5 more for a total of 14.  

Jerks - 18.  Good for absolute last place in the division in this event. 

Row - Finished in a tie (with Harvey Woo) for 11th in the event. 

T2B - 14.  A three-way tie for 17th place in the event. 

And, just like that, my day is done.  And I'm so happy.

Events #4 and #5 (Tyler is a spectator) 

For the top 16 in each division, they had to do Event #4, a last-man-standing, on-the-minute ladder.  Starting with 10, increasing one per minute until there is one person left. 

Oh, these weren't just regular burpees, either.  Here's how they wanted you to do them: jump off a plate, backwards behind a line, hand release, touch the plate, jump back on the plate. 

Video demo here.

Anyway, I watched it and this got ugly fast. 

@TylerMcMurchy

Good Lord, #FrostFit Event #4 (a last-man-standing burpee ladder for top 16 only) has me glad I finished in the bottom 3.

Event #5, for only the top four men and women in the RX division was some of the craziest shit I've ever seen.  Start with a 25 foot (or so) handstand walk.  Two sled drags of 185lbs (for the men).  30 front squats.  Two more sled drags.  Finish it with another handstand walk. 

Oh, did I mention there was a 10-minute time cap?  If I had to do it, after already competing in four events, I'd still be there. 

TylerMcMurchy

#FrostFit Event5 for the top 4 men and women involves handstand walks, sled drags and 30 GODDAMN FRONT SQUATS. This'd literally kill me.

There was some CRAZY drama in the women's event.  The lead bounced around, because one girl was wicked at the handstand walk, another killed the sled drag, and a third was awesome at front squats. 

The entire gym was LOSING THEIR SHIT in the final part, as one girl who was better at handstand walks desperately tried to make up a huge lead.  I don't know any of these girls, but I was cheering myself stupid at their incredible heart.  The atmosphere was just tremendous.

In the men's event, the lead was never in doubt.  Tyson walked on his hands like it was nothing. Pulled the 185lb sled so quickly the front end repeatedly jumped off the ground.   He looked like he was reading a phone book as he hammered out front squats.   He finished this thing in just under 5:00

Basically, this guy isn't human.  My theory is that he was sent by Skynet from a post-apocalyptic future in order to kill the leader of the human resistance.  If I'm found dead in the next few days, you'll know I was right. 

But the crazy shit came down to the battle for third place.  Jason from Synergy and Justin from Undefeated CrossFit.  Going into the final handstand walk, Jason had a half-gym-length lead.  But Justin had better handstand walks and was making up ground fast. 

It came down to a photo finish.  I had a good view and I'm certain Jason beat him by a fraction of a second, but they ruled it a tie.  After the effort Justin put in to catch Jason, I can't really fault the officials for calling it a tie.  It was a fraction of a second difference.  There really were no losers in this one.

Seriously, I wasn't really pulling for anyone, and that was almost as thrilling as the time I saw the Riders win a home playoff game with a come-from-behind, last second touchdown.   I have a few favourite memories associated with CrossFit, and this is one more. 

I really had a great experience at FrostFit. It was good to spend some time getting to know the other CFR athletes Mike, Tiff, and Jenn, plus the others who made the trip, Drew, Daniel and Coach Keenan.   Keenan drove up by himself just to support us, which I think is cool as hell. 

It was also awesome to see and hang out with the former CFR coaches who now comprise the "B-Squad": Nolan, AngDesj, Mandy and Christian.  Noles and AngDesj were competing (he took fifth and she took seventh in their respective Rx divisions), and seeing them reminded me of how much I miss seeing them all the time at CFR.  Nolan says he's gonna organize a back alley competition of some kind this year.  Of course, he also said he was running for mayor of Regina in the last election.

If he does organize something, though,  I'm definitely gonna take part. 

After all, the bottom five wouldn't be the same without me. 

Bonus Section: Assorted #FrostFit Tweets

@TylerMcMurchy

It's #FrostFit day! It's kinda like Christmas, only instead of presents, you might get rhabdo!

@TylerMcMurchy

Barbell cleans. Chilly gym. Coach Keenan: "Don't catch your nipple on the bar." Me: "I'm more worried about my floppy man-tit behind it."

@TylerMcMurchy

Overheard at #FrostFit - "How're you feeling?" "Dude, I never puked so hard in my life." "Nice. I wish I had that kind of passion."

‏@TylerMcMurchy

Overheard @ #FrostFit - @thegingernurse: "I didn't warm up enough." @chunstroet: "Still, not your WORST decision." (Points to @dbfossum)

 @TylerMcMurchy

@chunstroet is there to coach the B-Squad & eat celery. And he's all out of celery. http://yfrog.com/h3rm3gglj

@TylerMcMurchy

Overheard at #FrostFit: "Do you have a camo water bottle?" "I don't. I do have camel toe." Guess who? (Hint: it was @HMS550)