I just posted this article to my facebook, and realized it was worth a quick blog rant as well. I know I mainly just blog my workouts on here, but this has quite a bit to do with me as a competitor. 

There are only a few competitions that I have entered that I can honestly say I were good for my health.   After the Reebok CrossFit Championships this year, I had to stop on the drive home to be physically sick (and this is a pukie visit HOURS after the last WOD). Post-London Throwdown in February, I came down with a horrible flu that left me in bed for the better part of a week. Basically, at every competition, I go "balls to the wall," physically and mentally giving everything I've got, and by body seems to pay for it later. I refuse to argue that CrossFit competitions and the work involved in them are good for me physically because the intensity is just too high, and at the rate I enter competitions, too frequent. 

That rant aside, I still effing love competing. I love fighting for the podium. As I've blogged before, if given the option, I will change my location at a competition so that I can face my competitor. It's sick, I know, but I love it. However, I will not claim it to be the same thing as CrossFit and GPP training. If everyone took things to the competition level (I mean like 4 intense-ass WODs for a sick-ass prize) at every workout, we'd be dead. We change our attitude, and our physical capabilities in a competition. Who hasn't seen a sexy insane PR/PB at a competition and thought, 'how the hell did that happen?!'

Wow, now that I've gone on for multiple paragraphs about how competition is different that training for GPP, I'll address what this article was about and why I think it's cool: it separates the idea of training and competitions. It takes the perspective of looking at CrossFit once again like a sport. For those athletes like myself who are into competition, we train every day on a variety of things that will help us when it comes to competition. By come the big day, anything flies. Good technique is important, and as anyone who has caught that heavy-ass snatch at a ridiculously low depth knows, it's how we get the greatest gains. However, it is also important to acknowledge when efficiency may triumph technique if safety is considered.

After the "Burpee Incident" (more commonly referred to as 12.1) Castro created, he and I have had an interesting relationship. Nevertheless, I really appreciate what he's given us to consider, from both the athlete and the trainer's point of view, in this article. Have a read. Then go do Isabel. I think I will.

http://community.crossfit.com/article/snatch-strategies-crossfit-workouts-and-competitions

Oh, and my WOD today was fast and heavy C&J's, with some double under and handstand practice. My Master's Dissertation is due in three days, so I'm physically taking it really easy. My body reacts poorly to the combination of stress and physical load, so in order to avoid pukie visits, I'm taking a step back on training until hand in :)

Wednesday

After two days off recovering from the South Island Showdown, I finally made it back to the box today. 

Lift:
Bench:
20kg x 10
30 x 5
35 x 5
40 x 5 
42.5 x 5
45 x 3
47.5 x 3
50 x 3

Skillz:
dead hang pull up practice

WOD:
AMRAP 6, 80% effort due to DOMS still happening
10 kb swings (24kg)
5 press ups
5 hspus

Cleaning Heavy Baby!

Power cleaned 77.5kg this weekend at the South Island Showdown in Bournemouth! Will update on the competition shortly...

Friday

Lift:

• Romanian deadlifts

Skillz:

• HS/HSPU practice (getting more reps at strict RX depth)
• dip practice

WOD:
In 3 mintues:
Row 500
for the remaining time as many cleans as possible (40kg)
Rest 1 min
4 rounds

Score (cleans): 8/8/7/8

Snatchtastic

Warm Up:
Row 500: 1:55
Dead hang pull up practice

Lifts:
OHS:
15kg x 10
25kg x 5
35kg x 5
45kg x 5

Trying not to pull early

Snatch (multiple reps of each):
15kg
25kg
35kg
40kg
45kg
50kg (for 2)

WOD:
Row 2k for time: 8:05

Squatz:

Warm up squatz

60kg x 5

70kg x 5

70kg x 5

80kg x 5

80kg x 5

90kg x 5

80kg x 5

WOD:

8 rds for time

10 ring pulls

10 hollow rocks

10 kb swings (@20kg)

Time: 10:37

Another Qualifying WOD

Warm Up:

500m row: 1:54

hand stand practice

double under practice

Today Kat and I took on a WOD called "Grip Strength," yet another qualifier for Four-Nations.

WOD: 
In 6 minutes get as far up the ladder of:

Deadlifts (70kg)
Toes2bar

Score is number of reps completed. Ladder to be completed as 1 Deadlift 1 T2B, 2 Deadlifts 2 T2B, 3 Deadlifts 3 T2B etc until time runs out.

Humbled

Warm Up:
500m row: 1:55
handstand practice
double under practice

I did one of the qualifiers for the Train Manchester Four-Nations Competition, and it truly humbled me. Julie and I did a similar double under/OHS WOD back in June, and thus I figured this wouldn't be to bad. Estimated it'd take me roughly 5 minutes. I was beyond wrong. 

WOD: "Nannie"
50 double unders
15 OHS (@30kg)
40 dus
15 OHS
30 dus
15 OHS
20 dus
15 OHS
10 dus
15 OHS

The session ended with a cuddle session between my sweaty self and the barbell.

Treating myself with Grace

I just love her. I can't get enough. The only thing simpler than c&j'ing an object is snatching it, but Isabel takes longer. Grace never fails to clear my head and lift my spirits!

Warm Up Row: 500m @1:53

WOD1:
Grace: 30 clean & jerks (@95lb)
Time: 2:46 (pr/pb)

WOD2:
*adapted from mainsite:
50-35-20
wall balls (7kg, 9.5ft target)
press ups
double unders
Time: 13:56

This is CFAB, my beloved barbel. She's the "Competetive Female Athlete Bar" at CFH,
the ultimate weapon of choice for modern day Amazons.

Lift:
Back squatz

WOD:
12 deads (60kg)
run 400m
20 kb swings (20kg)
run 400
50 sit ups
run 400
20 kb swings
run 400
12 deads 

Time: 12:39

Warm Up:

• double under practice
• hand stand practice (still trying to get better without the wall!)
• max dips on dip station (working my way to strength on the rings)

WOD:

AMRAP 12:

Run 200m

15 weighted sit ups (10kg)

15 kb swings (20kg)

Score: 5 rounds (17 seconds over)

Olympic Fever!!!

DEFINITELY got my cardio conditioning in today! Went to watch the Olympic semis in men's football at Old Trafford, but the day was manic and we ended up sprinting from Brighton to Manchester (more or less) to get all of our ticket issues settled and make the match. We made it, and it was an UNBELIEVABLE experience, but I definitely felt a few cramps in my calves from all the running... seriously.

Over Head. Again. And Again.

Warm Up:

• double unders
• handstand holds
• hollow rocks

Today was about lifting overhead, starting with the shoulder press, then the push press, then the jerk. That's a lot of shoulder action, but a cool progression nonetheless.

Shoulder Press (in sets of 1):
20 kg
30 kg
35 kg
37.5 kg
40kg
42.5kg

Push Press (in sets of 3s):
20 kg
30 kg
35 kg
40 kg
45 kg

Split Jerks (in sets of 5s):
20 kg
25 kg
35 kg
40 kg
45 kg
50 kg (I did this set twice because I'm either brilliant or didn't up the weights when I thought I had)
55 kg 

Here's a video me doing the jerks. I'm really glad I filmed it because I can see I was moving much faster than I thought. As I was doing the actual movement, I felt like I was taking forever to come out of the split, when it appears the case is actually the opposite. I'm not stable enough yet to be coming in. I believe this video is of the set of 45 or 50kgs, so perhaps it's not heavy enough for me to need to establish stability yet, but nonetheless I should have been. 

Oh, and rotate computer for proper angle. Another case of brawn over brains. Can't figure out how to do it on here. Winning. 

WOD: 

Row 1k, Run 1 mile (CFH loop)

Time: 4:04 (10 sec to get out of straps), 9:03. Total: 13:17

Kat's Bday WOD

Kat turned 37 today. Below programming adds up to 37 ;)

WOD:

3.5 minutes max double unders

10 ring push ups

10 C&J (37.5kg)

10 HSPUs (mat + 5kg plate)

3.5 minutes max burpee box jumps

Score:

12:42 (double unders: 137, burpee box jumps: 30)

31 Gone Bad

We had a bit of a social at the box today. Below was our team WODs, followed by about 2 hours of Volleyball on the beach.

1 min burpee buy in, then
6 rounds, 1 min of each (FGB style):
thrusters
rope climbs
box jumps
sand bag run
rest

...and I'm back!

• HSPU/ regular HS practice

Bench: 

25 x 5

30 x 5

35 x 5

40 x 3

45 x 5

50 x 2

WOD:

100 double unders, then:

5rds for time:

5 ring pulls

7 box steps (17.5", 12.5kg dumbells)

10 lunges (12.5kg dbs)

Finish with 100 double udners

Kenz: 12:19

Kat: 13:21

 


Did this WOD with Kat, and we are both still in a lot of pain from the comp on Sunday. We each had to pause multiple times to stop our lower backs from seizing up, but knew going into this WOD we were going to try to do it at about 80%, as we're still recovering. It was good fun though, and I always love WOD'ing with Kat, as she keeps me on my toes!!! 

Strongman Competition- 2nd Place

Kat, Karl, and I competed in our first Strongman competition on Sunday. I was in the female heavyweight category, and the events were as follows:

1) Log Clean and Press @ 35kg, max reps in 75 seconds: 23 reps


2) Trap Bar Deadlift @140kg, max reps in 75 seconds: 3 reps


3) Farmers Carry: Kenz distance unknown


4) Tug-o-war competition: 2nd place


5) Medley: prowler push + duck walk + sled pull + two sandbag carry: Kenz place unknown

The official scores have not yet been released, so I'm uncertain of exactly how I did on some. The second event was by far the worst I've ever had in a competition. I don't use straps or weightbelts at all in the box; I don't really like too much supplemental support and want to try to develop my core and grip strength through my lifts. However, I was stupid. I should have used these tools on the second event. There wasn't much in the way of a warm-up, so I just stepped into a trap bar (which I'd never used before) and picked up 140kg. Stupid. I had more missed reps than good reps, bled all over the bar because I couldn't keep the grip with my torn hands, and then lost all lumbar support and form in my back in desperate attempts to get more reps. Stupid. Lesson learned.


Despite the failure that was event 2, I still managed to get 2nd place in the competition. Again, the official individual event scores still haven't been released, but I think I was just consistent enough in the other events to secure a podium position. I know for a fact I won the log C&P (I snatched it, which definitely gave me an edge), and think I did well enough in the others to redeem my second to last place position on the deads. 


While celebrating my surprising victory, I will be taking the bulk of this week off. There is no skin left on my palms, and my back still hurts (can't get into a full squat yet, and I'm writing this four days after the competition).

I may be walking like a grandma right now, but I can tell people I am a strong(wo)man.