Moving On

Going into the competition this weekend, I had no idea what to expect. The workouts all looked long and I wasn't sure I would have the endurance to withstand 3 (really 4) excessively leg oriented workouts in 2 days. Luckily, experience plays a huge part in a competition like this, and I was able to apply what I had learned in the past to succeed for the most part this weekend.

The first workout, named the "Stadium Chipper", looked pretty ridiculous, so I played it safe and started it nice and slow. I jogged to the 45lb plates, ran up the stairs and took it easy on the 70 squats. Since I was the last to finish the squats in my heat, I picked it up speed in the push presses which weighed virtually nothing. I still don't understand why they were so light, as they really served no purpose in distinguishing anything between athletes...but oh well. When I got to the thrusters, they felt pretty heavy on my legs, so I had to break them up in 5-3-3-4 but finished them fairly quickly, which brought me back to the front of my heat. Burpees were slow but I made sure I kept pace with the person next to me from the previous heat. I had to walk up the stairs for the the 3rd climb. It wasn't because I was out of breath (I was smiling on the walk up), but your legs become so fatigued that you'd have to be a monster to be able to still run (like Jaala). Last was the Wall Balls which felt light (the "10ft marker" was definitely close to 9ft high) but I was pretty beat so they took me a little while. By the time I got to double unders, I was 2nd in my heat, but luckily I was familiar with the rope from practicing the night before at CFLA so I had an advantage. That advantage quickly bumped me into first in my heat by a lot (I think 2 minutes). Overall, I took 15th in the workout.

As a side note - I don't see the purpose of making everyone use the same jump ropes that CFLA uses, as it was a major disadvantage to anyone who hadn't used them up to that moment in the workout (there were no practice ropes to warm up with). I guess thats the benefit of putting in the work to host the Sectionals.

 

The second workout, called "Double Down", was two short (kinda) workouts separated by about 5-15 minutes depending on how fast you were on the first one.  The first was Squat Cleans at 135lbs and Handstand Push-ups. The squat cleans were easy, and I only had to break them up a little near the end (a stamina issue, not a strength issue), and the handstand pushups were all unbroken. There was a 50m run between the movements which slowed me down a bit as my legs were still hurting from the Chipper. I ended up getting 8th on the first part. Then came the 2nd part which included Squat Snatches at 75lbs, 30 C2B pull-ups, and a 750m Row. My back was pretty fatigued from the squat cleans, and after the 10th rep of the snatches, but back was beginning to cramp a bit. By the time I was at 20, it was really bad. When I got to the Pull-ups, the hardest part was getting onto the box because as I lifted my leg, my back and legs would cramp even more. I split them into 8-7-8-7. Finally, I got on the row. I didn't go fast, but I kept speeding up the entire time, and ended up in 55th for that workout.

Luckily, the workout was programmed in an completely unbalanced way, so that doing well in the first part was WAY more important towards your overall score. Even after doing pretty poorly on the second part, I finished the workout in 19th place, and ended the day overall in 14th.

By the end of day 1 (which ended almost 2 hours after it was supposed to) at 9pm, I was really beat up. My quads and claves kept cramping and my back was not feeling great. The only thing that was feeling good was my complete upperbody, as they were never used much throughout the entire weekend. When I saw the third workout that night, I was laughing because it was more of the same shit! More legs, 18 minutes of total work...awesomeness.

 

I took workout 3 fairly easy at the start. I knew the best scores would come from doing decently in each of the six mini-events, and that hurting yourself on one would just make you do worse on all the rest. I took my time and conserved my energy on the row and deadlifts. Tried harder for the L-Sits, since they wouldn't fatigue my legs too badly. Played it easy on the Overhead Squats, and went pretty hard on the pull-ups, although looking back, I think I should have went for it and got more OHS and Pull-ups. By the time I finished pull-ups, the fact that I haven't done much besides strength work kicked in, and I was NOT feeling good. By the time the run started, I was still feeling terrible, and did terrible (4:03 800m...haha). But by then it didn't really matter, because even with one of the worst (but not THE worst!) run times of day, I finished the workout in 17th place. 

Finally, I found out about 8 hours later (the scoring system crashed when they were updating my info), that I had pulled out 15th place overall for the weekend. I am very happy with 15th as I did no preparing for this event whatsoever. 

 

Now, moving on, the SouthWest Regionals are next. That will be an awesome weekend, that I expect will rival last years games (although hopefully less than 7 events!) The Regionals will be tough, much tougher than this weekend and against a group of VERY well-rounded athletes. Because I don't want to be entirely crushed, I will soon be implementing some more conditioning into my programming (in a few weeks). Probably nothing crazy like double-days, but more than the 1-2 metcons/week I've been doing for the past 3 months. 

My two goals for regionals - place in the top 25 and help Jaala place in the top 20. Let's make it happen!

Comments

[Jaala]

Colin, you did great. Well-strategized and well executed (except for that 800m run, WTF?)! Looking forward to competing alongside you at Regionals. We are going to do awesome!

[CJ]

Jaala, I figured you ran it fast enough for the both of us!

[Katie]

Hell ya Colin ! Awesome job this weekend.

[Marthab]

Great post. Thanks for the details. :-) and again...great job. Wish I could be there to see you both crush regionals.

[Jaala]

I STILL might have been able to run it faster than you if I was carrying you on my back. Just kidding :)

[Jennifer S]

What great reflection and recap. You are beautiful to watch as your form is so distinct. Congratulations again Colin!

[CJ]

thanks for all the support you guys!

[Brandon]

Well said, I like the insight after watching it live. You made those wall balls seem super light, or like you say, the target seem super low.