Throwdown but Don't Throw Up

So this past weekend was the Crossfit Tri-State Throwdown. There were three divisions, Masters (for older competitors), Recreational (for fun, with scaled movement options), and Competitors (hardcore/kickass). The coaches at my box told me that I should do the Competitors (or “Rx”) division, even though I don’t really have all the staple movements down yet. For example, at the time I couldn’t do pistols (one legged squats with leg extended in front of you) or double-unders (jump rope with the rope passing twice under foot per jump). They said not to worry, and to do it Rx’d anyway. I said screw it, and decided to go in the Competitors division. As I mentioned in my last post, I was nervous heading into the competition. Excited, yes, but still nervous. I even made a Facebook post “My stomach is doing flip-flops...never competed before and was talked into doing the Rx division. Fuck it, go big or go home right? I'm excited!”

I want to say this first: THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO MADE THIS COMPETITION POSSIBLE! Thank you to the coaches that pushed us in the weeks and months before the event and had faith in us. Thank you to those that organized the event and did all the work behind the scenes, without you we wouldn’t have been able to compete. Thanks to the judges and equipment movers who volunteered their time to help make the event happen and run smoothly. Thanks to the other athletes for the maximal efforts that everyone put forth, and for the excellent conversation and advice and help. Thank you to the spectators and fans, family, and friends, who showed up to cheer everyone on. The positivity and enthusiasm that was present all day was phenomenal! I’m so glad to have been part of this wonderful event!

Before the event I had to pick up some dried fruit for snacking between WODs so I head to the supermarket. I pick up some dried blueberries and apricots, and some dried apples and start to head to the checkout line. I’m dressed in workout clothes, and wearing a hoodie, carrying dried fruit, and headed to an athletic competition. As I’m walking out, I see a man in one of those motorized cart things. The man must weigh at least 340lbs, and has two cases of beer in the cart. We obviously have different priorities. On one hand, I’m glad I’m in my position, and have made the choices I’ve made, but on the other, I know nothing about this man or his story. In my mind therefore, I wish him luck and all the health he can have, and move out to my car and on to the competition.

So, I get to the event, and the first WOD was an 8 minute AMRAP. I can handle this. Movements? 9 box jumps at 30” then 6 handstand pushups, then 3 front squats at 185lbs. Boom, this is mine. I can totally rock this out. I’m worried about the box jumps because I know I get winded easily, the rest should be pretty simple. 185lbs is a heavy front squat, but it’s only 3, and my legs are strong. Handstand pushups? Not worried at all, I can rock those out like it’s nobody’s business.

3,2,1, GO!

I’m off. I rocket through the box jumps, flip upside down and blast through the handstand pushups unbroken, without a kip. Boom. Onto the front squats. I squat clean the first rep, and slightly lose my balance. No problem. Adjust. Finish the two reps, back to box jumps. Blow through those, this might not be bad. It’s only 9 of them at a time, I can manage this. Glance at the clock, holy crap I’ve just broken a minute, I have tons of time to go! Handstand pushups, here we go! The first rep is no problem. The second is much more difficult. The third I can’t get. I try to kip. No luck. I curse, stand up and shake it out. Try again. No go. My arms won’t work. I try again. I kip harder. I can’t seem to lock out my arms. I’m pissed off, I can normally do this no problem. I try again and fail again. My judge is urging me on. I pause, try to breathe, try to focus. Upside down again, down and touch my head to the ground, PUSH! I don’t move. My head is still on the ground. I don’t know what’s going on, and fall over. I glance at the clock, only 2 minutes down, I have 6 to go. Come on, Tommy, you can do this. Breathe, feet up, head down, kip, PUSH!! Elbows lock out and YES! My judge yells out “Three!”. Three? Damndamndamndamndamn I need to do another three to move on to the next movement. Glance at the clock, 2:16 down. This is going to be a long AMRAP. I’m fired up, I’m aggravated, I’m angry, I have to keep going! I try for another rep and fail again. This is ridiculous. Either I’m sweating more than I thought, or I’m crying in rage because I keep failing (I pray it’s sweat, a grown man crying is never good, we’re going to say it’s sweat stinging my eyes). I feel sick, like I'm going to throw up. Don't throw up. Don't throw up. DON'T YOU DARE THROW UP.  I don’t know if I can manage another three reps, but I’m not here to stop, I’m not here to fail, I’m here to kick some ass, so I fight it and manage to push out another 2 reps (totaling 5) of handstand pushups before the clock sounds and the first WOD is over. I stand up, lightheaded, sweaty, and red-faced from effort and the time upside down. I sign my scorecard and move to make way for the next heat to start up. Wow, that was rough. I still have 3 WODs to go. This is going to be a long day. I brush it off, and psych myself up for the next WOD. I’m not out of this competition yet. It’s still on!

The second WOD was also rough. It was 3 rounds for time, with an 8 minute time cap, of 20 chest-to-bar pull ups and 10 clean and jerks at 135lbs. Pull ups are my thing. I can rock those out for ever. Clean and jerks? Not so much. But I have this. Here we go. I rock out the first 20 pull ups unbroken, and on to the clean and jerks. These really knock the wind out of me for some reason. I finish the 10 reps in more than double the time that it took me to do the pull ups. That’s ok. I move back to pull ups and rock out 10 no problem. Pause, another 5, pause, and finish up the last 5. Glance at the clock, damn, I only have 2 minutes to go and still need to do another round on top of the clean and jerks from this second round. Ugh. Here we go. One down. I can’t breathe. I pause and suck wind. I really wish my aerobic capacity was better, I’ve been working on it but my lungs can’t keep up with my muscles right now. Not the time to think about that, however, time to pick up the bar again. I get through some more reps, and need to break to breathe again. I can’t believe this is so difficult. I can do this. I squeeze out the last reps in round two with seconds to spare. I get back on the pull up bar, and get one pull up before the buzzer sounds. I “DNF’d” (Did Not Finish) the WOD, but I’m proud of how I did, that was a difficult workout, with a lot of weight, and a short time cap.

Time goes by, and they restructure the heats according to rankings. I have lots of time before my next WOD, and I talk to lots of people. People from my box who I haven’t met before, and only know via Facebook, now become new and actual friends. I meet new people from all over. We talk, we joke, and we compare scars. I feel better about myself talking about the WODs because others seem to be struggling as well. We discuss training, and life outside of Crossfit. We talk about jobs and school and all sorts of things.  We trade recipes for stuff, and I munch on jerky, almonds, and dried fruit.

Then it’s time for the next WOD...

This one I’m really excited for. It’s mostly a brute strength test. That’s one thing I’m good at. We had 6 minutes to find our one rep max (1RM) axel clean and jerk, followed by a 4 minute break, and then a 6 minute max distance row. I’ve never touched an axel before, but I’m pretty sure I can do this. I’ve seen the video showing the proper technique and am fairly confident I can pull it off. Rowing is going to suck, but if I can remember to breathe, I should be fine. The buzzer sounds, and I’m stacking weights on the bar in preparation for my first attempt. I figure I can make maybe 3 or 4 attempts in the 6 minutes, so I plan accordingly. I know I can probably hit 195lbs easy, and based on my previous 1RM with the normal Olympic bar, I think I might hit around 245lbs tops. I go for 205 straight off the bat, and miss. My technique was off and I lost balance and control of the bar. I gather myself up and attempt it again and completely nail it. I throw on another 20lbs, deciding to go for 225. I pause, giving myself time to recover before trying the attempt, knowing I have to put forth some serious effort. I take a deep breath, keep my back straight, and power through the movement. I wobble a bit at the top of the jerk, but that’s ok, I made the rep. I look at the clock and notice I only have a minute and a half left. I have enough time for one more lift. I look around for more weight, but only see either 5lb plates or 35lb plates. I didn’t think this through correctly, and would have to change more plates to go up to 245lbs, and I don’t think I have enough time. Crap. Oh well, I’ll just use the 5’s and try for 235. That last one was pretty difficult anyway. But here we go. 20 seconds left. The MC of the event has seen that I put up 225, and now comments that I’m about to try for 235. I set up, take a deep breath, and explode from the floor. The bar comes up, I catch it, switch my grip, and get it up to the front rack position. People cheer. New breath, tighten up the entire core and body, dip-drive and put forth as much effort as possible. The weight goes up, my elbows lock out, and I stand up straight. My judge yells “Down!” and I drop it and scream “YES!” as the MC announces that I’ve got the high score for my heat, and the highest male score so far. I’m really happy and proud of myself. I think that if I had more time I probably could have got 245lbs or maybe more, but I’m happy with it, and excited that I’ve finally done well in the competition. I move on to the row, and push through it. By the end, I can’t breathe, but I’m still riding high from the axel clean and jerk, and manage to push through it, fall off my rower when the buzzer sounds, and gasp for air. I drag myself out of the nice sweat puddle I’ve created, and move out of the way of the next heat.

The last WOD is announced and my heart drops. It involves the two things I can’t do: pistols and double-unders. It’s three rounds for time of 7 dead lifts at 275lbs, 14 pistols (7 per leg) and 21 unbroken double-unders. It’s not that I can’t do double-unders, it’s that I can’t do more than 2 or 3 in a row. This WOD calls for 21 unbroken. Crap. Oh well, I’m going to go out there and try my best anyway. I may even manage to pull it off somehow. I get some hints from other competitors on how to do pistols, and I practice before the heat, and manage to get one with each leg (that’s a PR!). I can do this! The buzzer sounds, and I’m off. I blow through the dead lifts, and move onto the pistols. I don’t care about 3 rounds. I just want to get through one. I slowly do first one pistol then another. They’re not pretty, and I wobble and struggle through each one. I’m close to the crowd, and I have several friends there cheering me on. They know how much I’ve struggled with these movements and their yells of encouragement push me forward. I get no-repped, which means that I didn’t complete the movement fully, and have to do it again. I grimace and do it again, and this time the rep counts! I have tons of time, and I push through the last couple pistols. My friends are yelling and I’m absolutely stoked that I did it. Now on to the double-unders. I do a couple singles to warm up, and then spin the rope and manage one rep before I catch the rope with my shin and stop. Damn. I try again. And again. And again. I hit 2 in a row. Try again. HOLY CRAP I GOT FIVE DOUBLE-UNDERS IN A ROW!!! That’s a new PR! I can’t believe it, I’m stoked, my friends are yelling and smiling, and it doesn’t count for the WOD but I don’t care. I keep trying, I hit myself with the rope over and over again, and manage to get sets of 4 or 3, but mostly 1’s and 2’s. It doesn’t matter. I’ve done more than I was able to do before and that’s all that matters.

Overall I hit several PR’s at the competition:
1. 235lb axel clean and jerk (never touched an axel before)
2. 14 pistols! (could not get 1 before the competition)
3. 5 Double-Unders in a row (could only get 2 beforehand)

I ended up coming in 44th out of 53 athletes in the Competitive Division. I’m hooked. I think I caught something at the Tri-State Throwdown. It's pretty bad, and I'm not sure if anyone else came down with the same thing, but I wanted to raise awareness that it was there. However, I'm not talking about an illness, (though some may ignorantly call it that) I'm talking about a new addiction. I think I drank the competitive Kool-Aid, so to speak. Even though I got my ass royally kicked on Saturday, I can't wait to compete again!






That's it for now,

Tommy

Excitement and Competition Ahead!

So I know, I don’t really blog much. I’m a busy guy doing important things, I’m sorry. Kidding. I am just really bad at sitting down and actually DOING something when I have a free moment. I feel like I’m on the go so much that when I get some down time I just completely turn into the laziest person alive. I will sit and stare at the wall sometimes, which can be a bit awkward. But here's what's going on with me now

Anyways, I want to write about some stuff that’s been important to me lately. I’ve had a really good couple weeks in terms of a lot of things. I’ve been PR’ing left and right when it comes to lifts. For example, I hit both a 245lb split jerk PR and a 245lb squat clean in the last week or so. I can’t wait to put those together into a clean and jerk. As I mentioned in my last post, I hit my first muscle up a couple weeks ago. I have now managed to string together 3 in a row, and am that much closer to my goal of being able to do 10 in a row by the end of this 90 Day Challenge. I’m stoked.

I’m going to be competing in a Crossfit event or “throwdown” this weekend. It will be my first time competing in anything Crossfit related, and will by my first time competing in any sort of athletic event since high school. This should be interesting. Here are my thoughts on it:

1. There will be competitors from all over the Northeast competing, some (probably most of them) with much more time Crossfitting than me. Some of them are well-known competitors, others are not, but all are ambitious and hopeful. Their experience will do them well, but my inexperience might help me push myself harder (and thus do better) than perhaps I previously could have thought possible. Who knows, we shall see though.
2. I’m slightly nervous about this competition. I’ve never done more than one WOD in a day, let alone 4 in one day. Usually I’m exhausted after one WOD. I’m both excited and worried to see how I fare. No matter what, the days following the event should be interesting in terms of recovery.
3. I know I’m strong, but my cardiovascular/aerobic conditioning is still not what I would like it to be. I have no idea what the WODs will entail, but I hope that the number of movements remains low or I will be seriously sucking wind over the course of the day.
4. I’M EXCITED! I really want to do well this weekend. I can’t wait this should be nothing if not a good time.

I need to make sure I am mentally prepared for this endeavor. It will severely test not only my body but my mind as well. I can only pray that my mental fortitude will be strong enough, as it has not been tested in this manner before. I will not hesitate. I will not falter. I will not fail. I. WILL. TRIUMPH!!

Boom!

Until next time,

- Tommy