Battle of Benchmarks Day 2

Starting day 2, I was feeling pretty tired. I always feel like that until 3,2,1 go and then I don't feel tired anymore for some reason. Plus I was looking forward to doing "Jackie" with the 33 pound bar. 

Jackie is 

1000 meter Row

50 barbell thrusters (33)

30 pull-ups. 

I had a game plan going into it and I was ready

I wanted to keep my row pace between 1:45-1:50, and I was able to do that. Bob Cole was to my left and he got off his rower and I had about 100 meters left so I got into 1:35 range to finish it off. He had about a 10 thruster lead when I started.  I knew that we would both go unbroken on the thrusters and we both did. I had about 10 reps left when he finished and I saw him stop and get a drink of water and I knew I had a chance. I finished my last thruster and went straight to the bar.  I got in a good rhythm and saw him have to come off the bar a couple of times. I could hear Mai and Conor yelling at me to hurry and that I had a chance. I finished my set unbroken and finished 3 seconds before him to get 1st place on that workout. I finished with a time of 5:56 which was about 40 seconds faster than my PR with a 45 pound bar.  I told my judge right before I started if he would get someone to stand behind me on the pull-ups. I told him I wasn't coming off the bar unless I fell off.  I didn't fall off, and I really like my new Rogue gloves. 

Even though I had won the last 2 workouts I was still 4 points behind with one workout. With only 5 people going to the finals I would have to win and Bob would have to come in 5th for us to tie. I knew he wouldn't come in 5th so I told myself I was just going to take it easy on the last workout and not go to crazy. Well that didn't happen. They announced that the final wod would be the hero wod "DT". How they announced it was very awesome and inspiring. They brought a triple amputee War Hero out to announce the workout and I knew I was going to go nuts in the finals. I had to fight back some tears when he was speaking, thinking about how lucky we were to be able to do what we were doing that day because of people like him. 

DT

5 rounds

12 Deadlifts

9 hang power cleans

6 push jerks (had to be push jerks)

We used 115 pounds which I knew was a perfect weight for me. 

Brice and I immediately made our game plan as we were walking to warm up and knew we were going to do good.

They had Bob and I side by side again and right before we started I turned around to face him so I could see how fast he was going. I have done this workout before and I knew the first round meant zero. This is a grip smoker so I just paced myself from the beginning. I have a fast way of doing hang power cleans that I have been practicing for awhile and I was excited to try it out. I took my breaks after the deadlifts every round and went unbroken on the cleans and push jerks to pick up a lot of time.  He started the last set a few reps in front of me but I was able to catch and pass him on the cleans and won the final workout with a time of 4:32. I was excited to win that final workout and finish the weekend off strong. Bob was the better crossfitter this weekend and I really enjoyed going head to head with him for the first time.  I hope to go against him a few more times in these Master's events. 

Here is the final workout

http://youtu.be/Y64s6j31Pao

I like this pic that Crossfit Kairos got of me at the event. 

My next post will be about some good moments from the event from our other Koda Competitors. 

Battle of the Benchmarks Day 1

I couldn't decide if I was excited for this event or not. I know how bad I feel after doing Benchmark workouts and doing 6 in two days didn't sound like a lot of fun. Once the workouts came out I saw that they were scaled to a very doable level so I got a little more excited. 

7 days going into the event I had a good day of training and a bad day of training. I did the Fran workout with the 80 pound weight for thrusters and went unbroken with a time of 2:46. The next day of training I did the Diane workout and had a time of 2:09 (9 seconds slower than the first time I tried it). I wanted to do the Karen floater wod because we got to use a 14 pound ball. A few of us did it together and I quit after 85 reps. I don't quit workouts so this was weird that I let myself stop on my last training day before the event. I take three full days off before a 2 day event and 2 full days off before a 1 day event. I mean complete days off. No active recovery. No rowing. Nothing!!  I have found that this works best for my 40 year old body. I didn't let that last day of bad training affect the way I felt about how I would do. I didn't freak out and do the workouts again. I visualized doing good instead of worrying about that one bad day.  I also eat a lot those three days and not particularly clean either (usually a few meals of pasta).  

I was second in the North Central Region in the Open this year to a man from Tulsa named Bob Cole and he was at this event. So I was excited to go against him. 

Day 1

WOD 1

Diane. 30 reps of ground to overhead at 115 pounds. I had a feeling Bob would beat me on this workout (he is a big dude) so I wanted to come in second for sure.  I practiced this one time and got a time of 1:57 which I was pleased with. I did 15 reps and broke it up after that. On this day I had a different plan. Don't stop. I had him in front of me so I could see where he was at. I did 27 straight touch and go reps without stopping and I looked up and he was done. I said "well shit". I dropped it after that and finished it on out. I had a time of 1:43 and was really pleased with that. I got second and was beat by a better man on that workout. I know that was all I had. 

I did the Floater workout a few about 1.5 hours later. It was Karen (150 wallballs with 14 pound ball).  I watched a few of my members go before me on this and one did 150 straight. I knew I couldn't do that. I had sort of a plan. 50,40 and break up reps how I felt after that. Again Bob was in front on me so I could tell what was going on. 

I felt good from the beginning in this one. I did 50 straight and rested as planned. I did 40 and felt alright still. I did 30 and was getting a bit tired in the shoulders. So on the last 30 I did something a little different. I tried to catch the ball at the bottom of squat to save just a little time and to make it an "air squat" instead on a weighted squat. I really tried to go fast on the last 30 and actually was talking to myself to speed up and not slow down.  Those last 30 felt faster than first 30 and I got a time of 4:53. My goal was under 5:30 so once again I was really pleased with that.  That wasn't good enough. With 10 reps to go I saw Bob finish and again I said "well shit".  So I know I have my work cut out for me for sure. 

WOD 3

Diane (21-15-9 deadlifts with 185 and push-ups). This event was the one that I was worried about. I am not a very fast push upperer. I was really hoping that we would have had a scaled handstand push-up and not just push-ups so I had to try and go crazy on this one. The best I did in practice was 2:00 and I knew I had to do better. I went as fast as I could on the deadlifts the whole time and as fast as I could on the push-ups. This was a sprint and I transitioned as fast as I could. I finished with a time of 1:48 and felt good about that until I saw I came in 4th and knew my chance of winning was pretty much over.  I knew I needed to win the next three workouts to have a chance. I also knew two of them had pull-ups so I had a chance. 

WOD 4

Fran (21-15-9 of thrusters with 85 pounds and pull-ups). 

I had to go unbroken to have a chance so I paced the thrusters the first round and tried to go fast on the pull-ups. I saw a few people finished the first set of thrusters before me, but I caught up with them on pull-ups. Second set of thrusters I sped up some but was still behind 2 people going into pull-ups.  I did those 15 pull-ups fast and caught up again. I rushed through last set of thrusters and jumped straight to bar. I had done a few reps and I heard Conor yell "hurry you have a chance" which meant he broke up his last set of pull-ups. I was able to go unbroken on last set and beat Bob by one second with my time of 2:36. It felt good to get a win and I had some momentum to build on for day 2. 

I did something before each workout in the corral areas that I hadn't really done before. I would go into the Yoga position "child's pose" and visual the workouts and the movements. I really felt myself go into a good state of mind before every event and that really helped. 

Here is the Fran Video

http://youtu.be/banrvTxboyE

Here is a shot of some of our group that competed.