Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Surf City Civil War



This past weekend I participated in my first CrossFit competition in Huntington Beach.  A local Box hosted an event called the “Surf City Civil War.”  It allowed co-ed teams from various SoCal Boxes to compete against each other in three different WODs.  Surf City CrossFit did an amazing job running this competition.  They were very organized and kept the long day moving at a pretty consistent “on-time” pace. 



I paired up with Alex Petrie from my gym.  This guy is a beast and an all around amazing person.  His passion for health and fitness are impressive - he is my Paleo guru.  At first, I was ridiculously intimidated to be competing with him.  Our athletic abilities are no where near the same level and I hated the thought of slowing him down.  But as everyone kept assuring me, this was supposed to be a fun event.  We even had matching socks!



The first WOD was entitled “Cannon Fodder.”  This was a two part workout. 

Part A (25% of the total score):  Each team will have 4 minutes to establish a max snatch with the total score being the total of the max weight lifted by the male and female. Only one athlete may attempt a lift at a time. Should either athlete or both athletes fail to establish a successful lift the athletes will use 90% of the highest weight attempted for Part B.

2 Min Rest and Transition Period

Part B (25% of the total score):  Using 90% of the highest successful lift from Part A each team will have 4 minutes to establish as many reps as possible of snatch. The score for Part B will be the total of the max reps from each athlete. Only one athlete may lift at a time.

Alex maxed out his snatch at 200# (as I said earlier, he is a beast!) which meant he was repping out 180#.  I sandbagged it and maxed out at 75# (85# is my actual 1RM) which gave me a 70# snatch for the rep portion.  Let me tell you - that got heavy, quick.  I actually got a "no-rep" (thanks Joey!) about 4 times.  We did well in this WOD.  Our combined weight was 275# and we repped out 50 snatches! 




The Second WOD was “Ironclad.”  It was a 5 min AMRAP of rowing for calories and thrusters (65#).  

Watching the teams finish this WOD was not a good idea.  They were completely wiped out.  Alex and I had originally planned that I would row and he would thrust, yet at the last minute, he decided to switch it up.  Thank god he sprung the news on me about 5 minutes before our heat began.  I didn’t have time to stress out.  Have I mentioned that I hate thrusters?  Anything involving overhead squatting is pure evil in my book. 

We actually did amazing on this WOD.  Alex (the beast) rowed for 121 calories and I got 48 thrusters.  It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.  I literally faced my mirror (Jamie Cannon) and listened to her yell at me “three more sister, you can do three more.”  I put my WOD face on (which let me tell you, it’s not a pretty one) and thrusted as hard as I could.  As Alex always says, “learn to feel that suck.”  Trust me, I felt it. 

The third and final WOD of the day was called “Bull Run” and it was an evil 10 min AMRAP Chipper.  50 deadlifts (205#/135#), 50 bar-over burpees, 50 box jumps, 50 KB swings (1.5 pood/1 pood), and finally (when you are completely exhausted) 50 toes-to-bars.  

This is what killed us…or rather, what I killed for us.  Toes-to-bars are my enemy.  Not only am I slow at them, I’m also still recovering from a popped out rib.  The fear of the pain aftermath made me even slower and more hesitant.  I only got 4 so poor Alex had to carry us with 46.  We ran out of time before we could get to the deadlifts again.  Watching Alex get his "game face" on is an impressive thing to behold.  Nothing stops him. 

The bummer part is that we were in the top 3 after the first two WODs.  If I hadn’t been so completely useless at the toes-to-bars, we probably could have made the podium.  Unfortunately, we lost our lead and slipped down to 10th place.  

After getting over my initial anger and disappointment with myself for losing and letting Alex down, I realized that we did pretty well.  10th place out of 40 teams is a solid performance for my first competition.  



Our gym (CrossFit 714) put up an awesome showing.  The owner and his beautiful wife hung onto 1st throughout the entire competition, but ended up slipping down to 4th place when all was said and done.  The weights they put up in the first WOD were incredible.  The other 2 competing teams in the Intermediate Division snagged 6th and 16th place.  Rachyl and her partner took 1st place in the Beginner division, and our team in the RX division took 6th. 

I’m not sure if I want to compete again.  On one hand, it felt good to push myself beyond my comfort zone, yet on the other hand, the anxious “I’m going to puke I’m so nervous” feeling really sucked.  

I do know that my new goal is to tackle toes-to-bar and kick it’s ass!

p.s.  My my mom and sister surprised me by flying down on to support me at the competition.  I honestly couldn't have done it without them.  My sister knows me better than anyone.  With that knowledge, she was able to help push me to get "just one more."  Thanks guys! 

p.s.s.  And a special thanks to my incredible hubby for wrangling our spawn all day and taking a bunch of great action shots.  He captured Alex's beast face perfectly!