Leading into and during competitions I have the tendency to struggle with, "Why do I do this?" "For fun?" I kept feeling that throughout the day on Saturday. I went through this back in December and have acknowledged that the answer is simply to determine what I am capable of in that moment. I think it goes back to the first CrossFit slogan I was exposed to by the guy in my class who regularly wore a CF.com shirt that said, "It doesn't have to be fun to be fun." There is something about the challenge and chasing my desire for self-actualization that makes it fun in the end. The jitters leading up to and during are all part of the experience.
Winter Open
Event #1
“An Extra Step On The Ladder”
Clean + Front Squat + Jerk
Females - 125 – 135 – 145 – 155 – 160 – 165 – 170 – 175 – 180 – 185 – 190 – 195 – 200 – 205 – 215
I was expecting the front squat to be my limiter here, but those all felt good. I made it to 170lbs and missed the jerk. My training focus has more been around improving my snatch and the jerk hasn't been worked on in awhile so I certainly felt a bit rusty. 170lbs is my 1RM so I'll take it. Ended up 7th here. Always amazing to watch the women who hit over 200lbs...one day!
Event #2
I can't deny it. I was dreading this event from the moment I saw it. I would get my mindset to shift here and there replacing my negative thoughts of my dislike for the airdyne and thrusters with "this is a good test for me to work on my weaknesses."
“A Strict Compromise”
2 Minutes of Handstand Push-Ups for Max Reps
I was excited for the HSPU. I do well with these and wanted to win the event. I opened with 10 and then did 3 sets of 2 (I think) but it may have been 2, 1, 1, 2. I know I hit a double as time expired. It's always amazing how quickly these get so tough. I tied for 1st with the 16 reps.
Rest exactly 60 seconds, and then . . .
B.
“Pain Tolerance Test - Part One”
2 Minutes of AirDyne for Max Calories
I was on a model that I was not familiar with and apparently neither was my judge. When I started nothing was happening on the monitor, but thought that maybe something would eventually happen-at the 15s mark when nothign had registered I pointed it out to my judge that nothign was happening. He called over the head judge and at the 30s mark they got it to start. I thought they were going to give me another 30s at the end, but when everyone's 2 minutes ended my 90s ended and that was that. I was a bit flustered, but had to put it behind me and deal with it later. Ended up with 29 cals for 17th.
Rest exactly 60 seconds, and then . . .
C.
“Pain Tolerance Test - Part Two”
For time:
30 Thrusters (95/65 lbs)
10 Pull-Ups
20 Thrusters
20 Pull-Ups
10 Thrusters
30 Pull-Ups
Oh thrusters how i struggle to love you. Opened with 15, 8, 7. Then 10 ub pull-ups. For the 20 I think I did 12 & 8, but don't really remember the middle round of thrusters or pull-ups. I was positioned across the room from the pull-up bar and my OPT teammate Meghan Sweet was always to the pullup bar as I was walking back over so I focused on catching up during the pull-ups. I did 10 ub thrusters on the last set and did 12 pull-ups and then a bunch of short quick sets to finish out the 30.
I was most frustrated with myself during this second workout. I completely messed up my fueling. For whatever stupid reason I didn't have a recovery drink after the clean ladder as I had the dumb idea that I didn't need it. I ate anther banana and had a couple pieces of turkey but then it ended up being close to 3 hours or so before I started the second workout and by then I was feelign empty. I thought about doing a pre-shake but was nervous to have anythign in my stomach so I just went into it empty.
As soon as I came down from the first set of hspus I felt dizzy and dealt with that woozy feeling for the rest of the time. It wasn't so bad that I felt like I was going to pass out, but hard to get myself to want to push.
Despite feeling this way plus the negative thinking I was battling I also had positive thoughts of almost disbelief particularly during the thrusters. It started during the first set of 30 when I got to 15 and dropped it-thinking "that wasn't so bad....should I have done more??" During the set of 20 I was feeling the same way, & I remember having the thought, "I'm getting better at these. I'm in better shape than I realize." But then not having the extra motivation to want to string them together ub. By the last set of 10 it was like, "alright, this is almost over, stop feeling sorry for yourself and knock these out".
Afterwards the SicFit crew did a quick interview with me asking me about my "come from behind" in that heat as I knocked out the final set of 10 with seemingly no problem. I think I just pointed to my head, but I was thinking, "I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and just do the work." Ended up 2nd overall in this one.
Event #3
Was a lot of fun! It was outside on a football field lined up with kegs. Women's keg was ~85lbs. We had to carry it 10 yards at a time and then run back to the start where we touched a DB and then ran back to the keg and advanced it 10 yards at a time always running back to the start until we had moved the keg the full 100 yards and ran back to the start for time.
I was in a heat with Leslie Johnson from CrossFit Works who Meghan had made the comparison of the two of us being similar CF athletes in that we're both small and fast so I made a point to line up next to her for this event. It worked out well b/c she pushed me the whole way. She was a field sport athlete (lacrosse/soccer??) and she got out ahead of me early on simply being faster over the many turns and short sprints. I was closing on her at the end when we had the longer straight-aways to run, but there was not enough time and I took third overall in 4:48.
At the end of event #3 I was in second overall headed into the final.
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