Competing as a “non competitor”
On Saturday I rocked up to my first ever individual crossfit competition – The Crossfit Masters.
I signed up what seems like a millennia ago deciding that it would be the perfect goal to train towards, after all it would be just the spur I needed to kick myself up the arse and get fitter and leaner ..
Well yeah, that didn’t happen lol – although I am leaner thanks to starting the Ludus Transformation Challenge 3 weeks ago, but I figured that I’d pay to enter AND I would have to train that day anyway so I may as well rock up, get my competitors t-shirt and treat it as a training day with a “fun” twist. As I’m carrying a few niggling injuries I didn’t have any expectations which is probably the perfect way to go into your first competition anyway!
The day consisted of three WODS (work outs) and my division was scheduled as one of the first heats on the floor each time (yay). The first event was Jackie (1k row followed by 50 thrusters and 30 burpees to a plate with a 10 minute cut off point). When I did a practice run last week I only managed to do 6 of the 30 burpees before I timed out so I didn’t think I’d come close to finishing, but I hoped that I’d get swept up in the moment with people around me.
I’m not really built for rowing as long limbed is not how anyone would describe me but I managed to stay near a 2 minute pace for the entire 1k and came off in 4:08 (third in my heat and 10th overall) which I have to say I was somewhat surprising, I guess it just goes to show how fast you can actually move “when it matters”. My goal for the 50 thrusters was a) to not put the bar down and b) do no less than 5 reps before resting and I managed to both of those things – in hindsight I probably should have aimed for sets of 7 as I went from third in my heat to 6th BUT I was pleased that I had enough left in the tank when I got to the burpees to speed up and I got through 23 of the 30 burpees before being timed out.
WOD2 was a deadlift ladder and this was the workout I knew I wouldn’t do as well as I could have because of my hamstring (which incidentally I hurt doing yoga – go figure!) anyway I’d hoped to finish the ladder at 80 kgs but I felt my hamstring about 10 kgs prior (it didn’t hurt, but I could definitely feel it) so after picking up the 80 kg bar once I bailed out and finished well down the the field in 19th place.
The day was already running about an hour behind schedule by WOD2 and the deadlift ladder went on for aaaaages (I mean J and I went on our usual 2k walk and still had a tonne of time to kill sunbathe). Honestly the only reason I stayed (because I was pretty tired and over it by then) was because I was keen to have a play on the fat bar that was programmed in WOD3. Thankfully the event organisers announced that they were amending the final WOD of the day so that we could all get out of there quicker, however it went from an event that was pretty much in my wheelhouse – 2 x 5 min AMRAPs with a 1 minute rest to something completely outside of it – 2 x 3 min AMRAPs with no rest.
WOD3 (part one) was to do as many rounds of 9 deadlifts, 7 hang cleans and 5 shoulder to overheads as you could in 3 minutes and although the weight was pretty “light” the fat bar was so hard! Holy forearms! I managed to get through 2 rounds relatively successfully only breaking on the 8th deadlift to change my hand positioning from a switch grip to a clean grip but on the third round I really struggled on the cleans and dropped the bar twice only just finishing the third round by the 3 minute time cap.
Then it was just a matter of sucking it up, moving as quickly as I could across the gym floor to the next station and getting through as many rounds of 5 medicine ball sit ups, 7 box overs and 9 kb swings as I could in the remaining time. I probably could have strategized this WOD a bit better BUT I was pleased with how hard I pushed myself and placed 17th overall for the Fat Bar AMRAP and 12th overall for the KB amrap.
I ended the day in 18th (of 21). My highest placings were in the “cardio” events and my best placing of the day was 10th was on the row! Go figure, I never would have thought that I’d do better in a cardio event than a strength one … I guess all that running I’m doing for the Transformation Challenge is paying off in more ways than one. 😉
All in all it was a fun day (well the WODs were fun, the waiting around not so), you see it’s a pretty small venue and almost impossible for you to see anything that’s happening on the floor so you pretty much spend most of the day doing this ..
I am extremely grateful that the sun was out and that James came to keep me company. I won’t categorically state that I’ll never do another crossfit competition, after all I said that about the burpee mile and look how that turned out BUT I’m definitely in no hurry.
Till next time
