A little OC Recap! (Sorry it’s so Long)

 Saturday, January 19

Mobility

50 Double unders or 25 attempts
Super rack stretch with a band
Hip extension with a band
Assisted squat with a band
Ankle Mobility with a band

Group Warmup

Run 400m
10 pause front squats with a barbell
Find partners and set up racks

Classic Strength

Front Squats: 5 sets of 3 reps – rest 90 seconds.

Notes:The athlete should perform 5 challenging sets, working up in weight each set.

Advanced Strength

Front Squats: 1X8 @ 70%, 2X5 @ 80%, 2X3 @ 85% – rest 75 sec.

Conditioning (Same for Classic and Advanced)

8 min AMRAP of:

Run 200m
20 Pistols (alternating)
10 Push Jerks (145/100/70)

-then (no rest)-

3 min ME Lateral Burpees (over bar)

Notes: A pistol scale should be established that allows full range of motion and continual movement. The same applies for the weight of the push jerks. 

Cool Down:

Couch stretch
Pigeon on a box
Cat on a box
10 Wall extensions

OMG! Sandbags! Ahhhh!

Last weekend I had the opportunity to compete against very high level crossfit athletes the two day event started on Saturday at 7 am with a 7k run (part of which was with a 45# sandbag).  The next workout entailed performing several muscleups, then chest to bar pullups and box jumps, then a bunch of muscle ups again, and then the third workout was a long 15 min workout with 3 parts.

I got up at 4:40, and due to a couple hickups on the way, I had missed the debriefing. I was told that in 10minutes women needed to be at the start line. I was confused. At the start-line there was a rebriefing, and next thing I knew the gun fired and we were all running. The sun was not up yet. 5minutes in my fingers were painfully numb. After 1.4miles, we picked up a 45ib sandbag. My hands were so numb that I struggled to pick it up. I immediately wanted to drop the crushing weight. I couldn’t move. Once I found a bearable position, I couldn’t readjust because my hands hurt just too much. My shoulders ached, my legs were killing me, my lungs were on fire. I was horrified. All the girls were passing me. They were very sweet, telling me to stick with them, pick my feet up, lengthen my stride, try putting the bag over one shoulder to free my arm to run. Nothing helped. I was in pain. My sweat crystalized on my face. My hands began to thaw. That burning sensation you get when you put cold hands under warm water…. It persisted for the remaining 35 minutes of that run.

I was shocked at just how miserable that experience was. I simply could not fathom how the girls kept moving. No one quit. This was insane. I did not know if I could handle it any more. It was just too heavy, too cold, too hard. My good friends were supporting me, but they were also overtaking me, leaving me behind. I wanted to cry, simply because I could not understand how I was going through this misery and pain. This girl Dana came up next to me for the last of the sandbag leg and said, “its not worth dropping now, not after all that, we can do it!” We shuffled that 400m together, dropped our bags and were finally free to move, and finish the run. We ran the last leg together. I have no idea who this girl was, but she got me through that race. She expected me to run with her, and she told me we can make that time cut off, but we have to move it. Even-though I wanted to give up on myself, she didn’t and she pushed me through.

I literally felt ill. I was upset, I wanted to go home. We had less than an hour to recover. Still frozen to the core, I was now supposed to perform muscle ups, outside, in the cold. This was ridiculous. I was in the same heat as Kris Clever and Katie Crowe. I didn’t belong here. This was not going to go well. My friend Amani wished me the best of luck as she looked at me with pitty. When I got out there I had to throw my strategy of doing single muscle-ups and dropping from the rings out the door, because there were little blocks under the rings, making it impossible to safely drop. So I either needed to string my muscle-ups, or at least lower myself carefully. I was officially screwed. Kris finished the workout in a little over 3 minutes, and I wasn’t even half way through yet. I was a joke out there. My grip failed, my legs failed me on the box jumps. I just wanted to forget about the whole 7 minutes.

Couple hours later something great happened. I was hanging out with my friends Andrea and Amani. And I honestly need to thank them for changing my point of view and getting me refocused. Firstly, my friend said I am so proud of how you did on that workout. I was mad at her; it was like mockery. I was bottom 10 out of everyone. She pointed out that I had actually gotten further than I intended to. So the competition aside, given these movements, I did really well for me, this was just not a good workout for me. And then she said the next workout was designed for me. They were talking about how well I would do and that there couldn’t be a better workout for me. I started to refocus. They reminded me how crossfit works, that you will be good at some workouts and bad at others. I beat Kris Clever at the 7K run, that does not make me a better athlete than her, that just means that she was expected to do something she is not great at. And in the same way, the muscle-ups were something I’m just not as proficient at. But I qualified to be next to all these other women and I just needed to do my thing out there, because this is what I was good at.

So I was in a much better mood now. All the girls in my heat were summoned for that workout. Loud music was playing, and the excitement started building up. I don’t know how it started, but someone mentioned that if we danced, we would stay warmed up. So we literally all started dancing for the 15 minutes we waited to enter. Next thing I knew we were up. I hardly even remembered what the WOD was. And then suddenly it started. The girls were flying. I had no idea where I was at compared to the others, and then I zoned out. I just kept counting. Rep after rep, I moved on, mechanically. At some point I heard something about paradiso crossfit. Lara is winning the heat. I was so confused. I wanted to scream at them, No, you are mistaken, I’m only on my second round. I just kept moving, counting, staying focused. The only thing I really allowed myself to think about was 1,2,3,4… next movement….1,2,3….. I looked at the clock, 30 seconds left, I finished my clean and jerks, and knew I did not have enough time to climb 20’, but figured there was no point in hanging around, so leapt up to the rope and went for it. And then they called time. I won my heat. I really did catch-up. I really was a round ahead of everyone else. I literally had no idea what just happened. But I was so happy. I had redeemed myself. I belonged there afterall.

So that was my shining moment, and I knew that was pretty much all I had. The next morning we started the day with a clean ladder. I knew this would not go well. I was really sore and stiff. The warm-up bars were set at 35#, 85#, 145# 175#, 195#, 215# and higher. I knew I was in trouble when the girls around me were cleaning 175 for reps. I went for the 145 and fell on my ass. I went for it again and didn’t even get it under it. Then I tried again, got under it, and strenuously squatted it up. With great concern, I girl came up to me and asked if I was injured. No, its just really heavy. The average clean that day would have come out to 209. Yes, girls were on average cleaning over 200 pounds. I can’t even front squat that much. I had the second worst clean there. I hit my PR and that’s all I could have expected. It was just insane to see how strong these crossfit women are.

I was really proud to think that I moved the 125# from the day before at such a great rate, considering it was so much closer to my one rep max than these girls. But I need to be a LOT stronger, I need to be much better at the gymnastics, and I can rely on the fact that I have great muscular endurance. I really appreciated all the support I got from the women out there, my good friends and girls I had never even met before. I enjoyed just singing, dancing and wodding for fun. I did much better when I was pep talked into believing in myself, verses competing in a a state of frustration. My mental space really affected my ability to perform, and I hope to hold onto that bit of knowledge next time I need to compete. It meant a lot to me to have my PCF fan group, and I hope you will all be there again next time. I was stoked about my ranking and now I believe I have a chance at making it to regionals as an individual and intend on making that happen.