The Fittest Games Final Day

I didn't get a lot of sleep going into the final day. I kept replaying in my mind what I could have done on the two workouts I came second in and what the final day was going to bring.  My body felt good and I was really looking forward to the first workout that morning.  I. Love. Power. Cleans. 

5 rounds

9 deadlifts

6 hang power cleans

3 shoulder to overhead

110 pound axel bar. 

They didn't tell us it was going to be a fat bar we would be using but we practiced with one just in case and it didn't feel too bad.  It caught a few people by surprise when they told us at athlete briefing.  When we started the workout it was about 32 degrees and that made it even harder to keep a hold of it. 

My plan was to go unbroken on 6 cleans and straight to the 3 shoulder to overhead.  I really didn't pace myself on this workout, I just went crazy. I knew this would be a good workout for some of the big guys. I wanted to be under 30 seconds for each round and I was able to do that. My time was 2:17 and I won by about 30 seconds on the next guy. 

Confession time.  The next 4 hours really were nerve racking. I had gotten myself a pretty good lead going into the final workout but I knew the final workout was going to be winner take all.  I found out a few weeks ago that I have a torn labrum. Pull-ups and most things feel fine but snatch and overhead squats aren't very good per se.  All I was thinking about was the final workout was going to have HSPU and squat snatch and I would have to try and fight my way through it.  At 12:50 they called us into the briefing and told us the final workout.  I was sitting there trying to keep calm. 

60 double unders (ok cool)

30 alternating DB snatches at 50 pounds (doable)

20 wall balls (sweet)

10 Burpee box jumps (sounds good)

After we finish that chipper we go straight into 

15,12,9

Thruster 75 pounds

Pull-ups (well this is about to be fun)

I was pretty pumped that the final workout had pull-ups. I told myself "I was going to go unbroken on a light Fran to win The Fittest Games" I have seen Brice go unbroken on Fran so many times and there was no way I was stopping with over 1000 people watching.  We were walking out to get started and people were everywhere and one of the guys said "I feel like I am going to throw up."  And I was thinking to myself that I am about to push myself so hard that I am going to throw up like my buddy Conor does after Fran, and that would be embarrassing.  I asked Brice what our game plan was and he said not to worry about that. He said he will be right there and I will just listen to him. 

3-2-1... Go

I messed up on about double under 3 and then finished unbroken after that.  I was a little behind and just went steady on the snatches. I caught up and three of us finished the wall balls at the same time and started the burpees. We all finished about the same time and all picked up the bars for Fran (this is exciting).  Brice said "this is where YOU win."  I was worried about the guy behind me and when I heard him get no repped and put the bar down I just went faster. I was the first one to the pull-up bar and was almost done with my 15 when the next guy got to bar. Did my 12/12 and knew I had it. My judge was getting excited and was saying "no one is close. You are going to win."  I finished the 9 thrusters and on my last pull-ups I decided to do a chest to bar just because I was excited.  I ran to the box and jumped on and won The Fittest Games. I gave Brice and Solange a high five, thumbs up to Chad and pointed to Mai up in the stands and finally relaxed. 

A few things. This was really my Regionals since the CrossFit Games doesn't have regionals for Masters. I knew it was going to be a very well run event, which it was.

For some lucky reason I had the same judge for 3 of the first 4 workouts and he was the perfect judge for me. He kept it fair and made me do good reps, but also was very supportive when I was going. when I saw he was out there on for the final event I just walked straight over there to him.  When we were going over the standards and movements he said "after you finish the last 9 pull-ups, you will go jump on this box and win The Fittest Games". 

It was awesome that we had so many Koda members come all the way down to Austin to watch us. It really meant a lot to us.  When I do these competitions I can just feel everyone back at home pulling for me and it feels like a team win. 

Fittest in OK in 5 days.

Muse out. 

The Fittest Games Day 1

Pretty good day one at "The Fittest Games" in Austin.  Weather was terrible. Winter storm in Austin. What what?  Dooner and Brice did a great job getting us to the venue in the icy conditions. 

The workouts really were pretty good for me on the first day. I am nursing a shoulder injury and all the movements I could do with no pain. 

I was super excited for the first workout. I. Love. Pull-ups. 

5 pull-ups and 5 front squats taken from ground

10 pull-ups and 4 front squats

15 pull-ups and 3 front squats

20 pull-ups and 2 front squats

25 pull-ups and 1 front squats

We could pick our front squat weight, up to 205 pounds and it always had to be taken from ground.  This workout was scored in two ways. Total weight moved and score on workout. I chose 205 so I would have automatic 1st place if I finished. In practice I squat cleaned every first rep but today I powered cleaned and front squated first rep. It was around 29 degrees when we started and I wasn't very warm. I wanted no missed cleans. 

I went unbroken butterfly on 5,10 and 15 sets. I broke up set of 20 into 15-5 and last set into a few sets. I squat cleaned the last rep and finished the workout at 3:52 which was 20 seconds faster than practice round at the workout. I won this first wod on time and weight and was feeling good after that start. 

Second WOD was one I was nervous about

30 burpees over paralette 

50 foot overhead lunge with 45 pound plate

300 foot overhead lunge

50 double unders

50 foot OVH lunge

300 foot shuttle run

30 burpees over paralette

In practice this workout killed me

I decided to go ahead and push the first set of burpees and was one of first to lunges. We all finished lunge at the first time and pretty much myself and 3 guys started the double unders at The same tine. Double unders are one of the best movements but I left my rope at home and had to borrow one. I messed up maybe 10 times and was going to have to do good to make up for that mistake. I tried to lunge fast and did shuttle and paced myself on first 20 burpees. With 10 left, about 3 of us were tied it felt like so I just forgot sucked it up and went crazy on the last 10. 

I finished with a time of 7:03. A guy in the first heat got 7:02 and I gt second over all. I was happy with this because I was just wanting to get top 5 on this workout. 

I was excited about the last WOD of the day.  

10 heavy rope single unders

5 toes to bar

10 heavy rope single unders

10 toes to bar

10 JR

15 T2B

So on and so on until 7 minutes is up. My hands felt good after pull-ups so I tried to go crazy on this. On the round of 20, it became tough and I did 4 sets of 5. There was a guy right next to me and we were rep for rep pretty much the whole workout. He ended up with 12 toes to bar in the round of 30 and I got 10 reps in round of 30. He ended up with 147 points and I got 145 and another second place finish. 

After day 1, I had a total of 6 points and 2 guys are at second place with 14 points. I am excited for first workout tomorrow and hopefully I will make the final workout which is the top 5 guys out of the 30 participants. 

Major Bro Session

We got some heavy hitters together yesterday at 1:30 and did some work. 

We started with a really difficult 12 EMOM of:

Even minute: 2 full cleans with 5 second pause at the bottom at around 80%. I did 205 and failed one rep. 

Odd minute: 4 Muscle ups. 

WOD:

I put everyone's name in a hat and picked teams and random. 

Ryan Doonkeen and Kameron Rosenau. 

Brice Collier and Jarrett Rice

Jared Muse and Kip McCarthy 

Drew Hymer and Eric Douglas

16 minute AMRAP of:

7 toes to bar

7 bar facing burpees 

7 deadlift (185)

Kip and I did everything unbroken and got 19 rounds plus 11 reps. 

We rested for a bit and did some more work. 

Not for time. 

5 rounds

5 elevated Ring Rows (2-2-2)

5 bench press

5 slam ball overhead through for hight 

1 partner banded sprint

I didn't do all five rounds and sort of skipped the ball toss. 

Very fun day working out with these guys and we all really pushed ourselves on the partner WOD

Recovery WOD tomorrow. 

Fittest in OK WOD #3

Had a little Brosesh today with Dooner, Falco and Drewby.  We found our one rep max hang full clean.  The little guys got 265 pounds and Drew got 345.  After that we did a 8 minute every 30 seconds workout of 1 Power clean at 225 for the kids and 300 for the Drew.

After that we did:

21-15-9

Kettlebell Swings (70)

Box Jump (30 Inch)

HSPU

Shoulder is hurting when I do HSPU so I did 30-20-10 of ring pushups

Time was 7:19

After that I did Fittest in OK WOD #3

5  Minutes of

1 Deadlift at 185 (Fat Bar)

1 Burpee

1 Pullup

2 DL

1 Burpee

2 Pullups

3 DL

1 Burpee

3 Pullups

etc

I got through 9 Rounds + 10 Deadlifts + 4 Pullups

I will clear 10 rounds on Game day.

CrossFit Athlete Class

I did the CrossFit Athlete class today at 5:00 (crossfit football). We did 5 sets of 5 front squats. I did 4 sets before we ran out of time. I did 215 pounds. 

The wod was 8 rounds of 

3 power cleans (185)

30 double unders

I broke once on the double unders and my time was 8:31. Ed beat me by 1 minute today. He was also keeping track of my rounds so I think he made me do an extra round. #realtalk #heisaknowncheater

CrossFit Real Effort

I went to the noon class at CrossFit Real Effort today with my buddy Falco. Nice working out where nobody really knows you. (Which is hard for a crossfit celebrity like myself). 

The workout was a 14 minute EMOM of 7 pull-ups AND 7 burpees.  I started with 7 and it was taking about 22 seconds so after the 3rd minute Falco told me to move it up to 8 and 8. I did that till the final minute which I did 10 and 10. All pull-ups unbroken. 

After class Falco and I squatted and did some sleds. 

We did sets of 4 

225

275

285

295

After that we did 400 meter sled pull with our body weight

It was miserable as it took me 16:23 at 195 and Falco 14:25 at 185 pounds. 

Muse out.