PA's Fittest Competition Overview

I now have my second crossfit competition under my belt.  It was a bit of a wild ride to say the least.  Lots of highs and definitely some lows as well, but overall it was a fantastic day.  Here is an overview.

WOD #1: The emergence of Senor Denos

600m Row, 30 ring rows, 30 ring dips

Journalmenu.com was there to take photos!  More on them soon!

I got a little thrown off mentally for this wod, I thought it would be 30 ring dips then into 30 ring rows…nope.  No excuses though, it is what it is so just go out there and try and kill it.

It started well enough on the row, I was averaging about a 1:43 per 500m so I didn’t kill myself and I felt good going to the rings.  Then it started to go downhill…. I did 7 fast at first, then I could only do about 4 at a time.  But I made it through them before most of the people in my heat.  Ring row time.  This is where everything started to go wrong.  My blood was already boiling from how poorly I did on the ring rows but then when I started to do the ring dips one of the rings started to slip lower than the other one.  It would have been ok if it was just a little bit, but during one of my dips, it slipped all the way down causing a no rep.

This is where senor denos came out.  I started cursing…loudly.  I was just angry.  Not at anyone in particular, more than likely I was just angry at myself.  When time expired, I had only completed 23 of the 30 rings dips and continued to curse loudly and walk away.  You see, when senor denos comes out, I get loud…I just don’t care.  Some people have quiet disappointment…not me or him (how do you type when you talk about an alter ego?), I turn into a foul mouthed 5 year old who didn’t get his way.

I want to note here, I’m not saying that I would have completed if the ring didn’t slip. There was no way I was finishing that wod in time whether or not that ring slipped or not. At the time I needed to channel my anger somewhere and the inanimate object seemed the best choice.

I believe I finished at about 15th in this event.  It goes without saying that I did not come close to my goal.

WOD#2 Victory for Senor Denos

Snatch time.  This is the event I was most looking forward to.  The Snatch Ladder.  I felt great warming up for this event.  When my name was called, I easily made it through 85, 95, 105 and 115 ….now time to hit up 125.  My nemesis the past 2 weeks.  I HATED 125!  I was angry again.  But this time, I was angry at the bar. I channeled that anger and I got 125 up…EASILY.  Woah..ok that was unexpected.  Surely I would fail at 135…nope.  Got 135.  I actually slammed the bar down at this point.  At a weight that was introductory to the rx division, I acted like I was Jake getting 245.

Senor Denos didn’t care.  It was a 20lb PR for me.  Ok time for 140, I was on a high, I could lift a house right now.  Boom.  140 was over my head like it was nothing.  SLAM!   I’m the strongest man on earth!    Bring 145 to me so I can make it look like a paper weight.  3-2-1 go!  Oh shit..this just got real.  Failed on my first attempt (I should note that I was close on this).  Second attempt, not even close.  Third attempt…I hit myself in the face with the bar.

Yes, you read that right.  I lifted and slammed my face into the bar.  Ouch.  Instantly I remember that there are 300 people here that just saw that.  Do’h.  I’m the dumbest man in the world!

Regardless I hit a 25lb PR on the lift.

Here I do have to say thank you to Jake for having his oly lift classes.  It was a huge help in preparing me for this.  His help along with some pointers from Mike and lifter Chris were critical in helping me get that weight.  My form is still a train wreck but it is miles ahead of where it was because of you guys.

Goal of 125 lbs was demolished.

WOD #3: “Fran” : Senor Denos Hates that Fran Bitch

I’m not going to go too much into this other than to say I sucked.  Plain and simple.  I was not mentally prepared for this workout.  Once I was done that snatch ladder I got too cocky or optimistic or something and just completely dropped the ball.  I finished with a time of 7:57, a full minute slower than just 3 days ago.  Terrible.  The only bright spot was doing the final 9 pull-ups unbroken (it was nice having Molly and Evan screaming at me…there was no way I was coming off that bar).  

This would be a silver on my original goal list but a non-medal on the new goals list.

Final Standing

In the end, I came in 15th place out of 36 competitors in my division.

I will have much more on this event in the coming days, including how I saw some athletes react to judging, the overwhelming support from those not competing, and a little bit more on senor denos.

Fran is a good thing..maybe the best of things.

Yesterday I did Fran.

As posted on the Crossfit HQ facebook page.

Fran is a hard woman who you have to go at hard and fast she likes it no other way.  Problem is, you feel like you just went toe to toe with Xena Warrior Princess.  For those not in the know, Fran is a classic Crossfit workout that is a great measure of progress.  The actual workout is 21 Thrusters - 21 pull-ups - 15 thrusters - 15 pull-ups - 9 thrusters - 9 pull-ups.  Done.  Easy enough right?

no

Oh god no.

Every time I do this workout (4 times now) I come to the brink of vomiting.  For 5 minutes after the workout I'm useless to society.     But yesterday...yesterday I did something that I didn't think I would be able to do for another 10 months.  I completed Fran, prescribed (95 lbs), in 6 minutes 57 seconds.  Not elite by any stretch of the imagination (Sub 3 is elite) but what an improvement for me.   Two months into Crossfit I did fran at 65 lbs in 14 minutes and some change.  Then 3 months later I did Fran at 85lbs and pulled a 10:12.  This time I took another 3 minutes off the time to be sub-7.

My thoughts exactly

Will this ever become an easy workout?

No.  The answer is a definitive no.

That is what is great about Crossfit.  Whether you are new or Rich Froning, the workouts are hard, but not impossible if you scale it to your level.  Your time and weight will improve, but it will always hurt the same.  You have to keep pushing yourself to improve.  Ask Molly and Evan and they will tell you the same thing.All the workouts are like that. It is you against the clock and in order to win you have to beat that shadow of the past and push your body to the brink.   Then 6 months later you do it again and hopefully, the definition of brink will have changed for you.

It has for me.  And hopefully it will change again on Saturday and I can push myself through what I did yesterday.

New Goals:

Fran 2012: sub 5 minute
Fran at PA's Fittest:  Gold: Sub 6:30  Silver: 7:00 Bronze: 7:30

Fran Likes it Hard and Fast

Today marked the final piece in the results of the crossfit610 best shape of your life challenge.  We had to do Fran and compare it to our previous Fran time.  Let me tell you something about Fran..she is a raging bitch who just can not be satisfied.  When she's done with you...you look like this:

The point of Fran is to sprint through the entire workout.  You do 21-15-9 of thrusters and pull ups and when you're done you feel like it.  You feel like you just ran the New York marathon.  But because it takes into account strength and endurance, it is a great workout to measure your results against.  

8 weeks ago I tried to handle Fran and did not do a fantastic job of it.  The weight I chose was 65lbs and it took me 14:02 to complete the workout.  (for comparison, the record at our box is 2:13 at 95lbs).  Today I pushed myself a bit more by upping the weight to 85lbs.  It hurt.  It hurt even more because we did seven 100m sprints 3 minutes before starting Fran.  I had a goal in my head of 12 minutes.  Not a great time by any stretch of the imagination, but it would have been a great improvement to knock off time while increasing my weight.  The workout started and I immediately felt it in my legs, I though I could do 21 unbroken, but that just was not the case..I got 12 and had to drop the bar.   The pull-ups just about killed me.  I was hurting but I finished the first round in about 4 minutes.  I don't remember much about the middle round other than to keep breathing and to not puke.  In the final round I was able to get through the thrusters, but then the pull-ups just killed.  I did 3 to start then I had to do them solo.  Not a positive.

I completed the entire workout in 10:12, which was much better than my goal!   Still not a great time, but next time I do this workout (likely in early October) I will do it prescribed and hopefully will be around the 9 minute time frame.  

So below are the accurate before and after statistics.

Fran:  14:02 (65 lbs)   10:12 (85lbs)

Weight:  173.6    163

Chest:  39"    38"

Waist:  36.5"   34.5"

Hips:   36"    33.75"  

I'll try to get the before and after photos soon and have them in this post.

Although the statistics are nice to report, what I care about is how I feel and I'm happy to report that I feel wonderful.  I have yet to get tired of a crossfit workout and even find myself making time to go.  My diet is under control and although I'm not keeping track of points for a contest anymore...I am not veering from my semi-paleo pallet.  I actually love the way the "diet" is set up.  It works...FOR ME.  

I am also VERY happy to report that Karen (digital mustard)  won the box contest for the most weight lost in the 8 week period!  She lost 8.17% of her weight!   She has stuck with the program for 16 weeks now and is still working hard!  I can see her confidence starting to peek through now as she moves more into some of the strength.

WOD

really?  You didn't read anything above did you?   Scroll back up and start from the beginning..all the WOD information is in there.