Elite Fitness League Comp #2

True Grit

Smiling before the WOD

Pull ups!

Got the game face on

Burpee bar touches

Dumbbell Snatches

Does my butt look big in this?

Because holding both hands up helps with balance!

A well earned drinkie

I did my second local team competition yesterday and am utterly exhausted.  This time we had a team of 4; 2 blokes, 2 girls.  Here's my wrap up:

WOD 1
2 females paired up
6 min of pull ups or burpee bar touches

I started off with pull ups and they felt quite good.  I was doing them in sets of 5 and then Karla would do a set of 5 burpee bar touches.  I did a few sets of pull ups and when I started failing I changed to the burpees and I was really happy with how my burpees felt.  The pre-WOD coffee must have set in at the right time.  We cranked out 100 reps all up.

WOD 2
2 females
10 db snatches (left hand) 6 kg
10 m overhead db lunges (left hand)
10 db snatches (right hand)
10 m overhead db lunges (right hand)

6 kg doesn't seem like much but my legs were like toast halfway throughout this workout.  I'm not sure if it was because the weight was light but I was a bit wobbly in my lunges as I didn't focus on keeping my core on.  I think with heavier weights I brace myself properly before doing lunges.  The other people in our heat left us for dead in this WOD and I was a little disappointed with my own performance.

WOD 6
Indian file
30 cal row
100 m sandbag carry (20 kg)
40 lateral burpees
100 m sandbag carry
400 m run

This was an unannounced WOD that had to be done at some point throughout the day and we decided to get it done early.  I went into this workout with a negative mindset as it had several elements that I struggle with.  I was really concerned about the burpees as I can't jump with 2 feet laterally over something, I was also worried about getting the 20 kg weight onto my back as I have found it hard in the past.  True to form, once I got into the workout I did okay.  The burpees were tough but I got through them without any no reps and the sandbag was quite easy to swing onto my back.  It was a tough WOD but we got through it in 25 minutes.

WOD 3
Male/Female pairing
7 min AMRAP
15 KB swings (20 kg/12 kg)
30 m Sled drag (50 kg/30 kg)

I was paired up with Tony for this one which is great because he is pretty casual and a great partner. The catch was we couldn't hit the tyres that marked the 15 m marks, if we hit the tyre we would get a no rep and have to start the sled drag again.  I was very mindful of this and slowed down on the turns. It was actually a pretty good WOD and I think we got about 4 rounds each.

WOD 4
Male/Female pairing
5 min to find max:
1 Squat Clean
2 Front squats
then
2 min max
Double Unders

We did WOD 3 as Karla and Scott were doing WOD 4 and then had a 2 minute swap over.  Scott has a great squat clean and Karla is much stronger than me so it made sense for them to do that first and it didn't matter if we were fatigued from the sled drag and kettlebell swings. 

I started at 30 kg and progressed to 35 kg while Tony finished on 80 kg (I think) or maybe 77.5 kg and failed his 80 kg.  I had 37.5 kg set up but I let Tony attempt 80 kg again in the little time we had left as that would have put more on the total weight than my much smaller weight.

I hope I made up for my lack of strength in the double under part of the workout.  I couldn't seem to get my rhythm at first.  The workout was done in the sun and my rope felt like it was heavy in my hands, like it was melting in the sun if that makes sense, it felt loopy in the air and I was jumping too fast for the rope.  Somehow it got a knot in it from when I put it down to rest and I didn't undo it which sort of helped maybe by making it shorter.  Once I got going I was happy with how many I was getting at a time.

WOD 5
200 Double unders
40 Thrusters (40 kg/25 kg)
40 Box jump overs (24"/20")
80 Deadlifts (40 kg/25 kg)
40 Box jump overs
40 Thrusters
200 Double unders

The catches here were:

• We had to keep the same order throughout the workout
• Everyone had to do 1 rep of everything (or maybe it was just the double unders but we took it as everything)
• If you failed a double under you had to tag out to the next person

We weren't happy with the last stipulation.  As beginners in a competition that is meant for beginners we thought it was a bit harsh as sometimes it can take us a few attempts to get a run on double unders; with this rule we never got a good start to get the rhythm.

Karla had a few good runs.  She was doing skip, skip, double under, skip, skip etc.  I think Scott was feeling a little bit of pressure due to the rules and didn't find his rhythm throughout the whole WOD.  Tony was doing okay but, again, if he was given a chance he could have found his groove.  It's a sad state of affairs when I'm considered the double under guru of the group but I managed to get a few good runs of double unders.  Each time I ran to my spot I would try and take a breath and focus on a spot ahead of me and it helped more often than not.  Our counter and judge were awesome, they would let me know the number, tell me to relax and let me do my thing.  I fist pumped the air and let out a cheer when I got the last rep but unfortunately we wasted about 10 minutes just on our double unders, we were on a hiding to nothing.

Tony cranked out 10 thrusters, then Karla did about 7 and then Scott smashed out 22 leaving me with one and then I moved onto the box jumps (or step ups in my case).  These seemed to fly by as we only had to do 10 each.  I started on the deadlifts and we only had about a minute to go so I just cranked as many as I could out.  I had a little moment as I was getting closer to 40 reps where I thought that for some reason we only had 40 to do and the rest of my team had to do some reps for them to count so I tagged Tony to finish them off.  We ended up doing 46 deadlifts but we could have gotten more if I kept going.

It was really disappointing that we didn't get further in this WOD but at the end of the day everyone had the same rules as us it just exposed a massive weakness in our team and I know that I have come out of yesterday with a fire in my belly to work on my strength more so it won't let the team down next time.  I hope my teammates aren't disheartened by their double unders and instead use it as motivation to improve in that area.  I do think, however, that the comp committee also need to review the rules if they want to make the workouts inclusive for beginners because doing over 10 minutes of double unders can be soul destroying to some people.  I know they heard from our team our thoughts on that particular rule of having to tag out on a failed rep.

Me, I'm just happy to be there as part of a team.  I've always been the person who was last picked in team sports and then yelled at when I stuffed up.  Being in a team where I feel like I have some worth and we can have a bevvie afterwards is enough for me.