I started off my first competition ever by meeting up with the rest of team CFCC at Hybrid in Stamford, CT, around 8am. We weighed in, drank coffee, ate primal pacs (ok, well, I ate a primal pac - those things are GOOD), and did some general people-watching while we warmed up.
(Let me tell you...there were definitely some great people to watch. Everyone was ridiculously strong, but...yeah. Sometimes people take themselves real seriously. And sometimes they wear Tapout gear and use epic amounts of chalk for things that I didn't realize chalk could be used for...like front squats. But whatever.)
I was all suited up with my new tiger knee socks, hoping they'd help me PR my clean & jerk.
Things started off very promptly, and I was pumped for the first event. I was in the women's middleweight class - 131-155lbs. First event was a "carrying medley:" 50' farmers' carry (125lbs each hand/250lb total), 50'' keg carry (125lb), 50" backwards tire drag (90lb). Don't let the relatively light weight of the tire fool you - that shit was TOUGH. This event was in the 50% or so of the day that I felt confident about, and I loved it.
YEAH KEG.
There was a 90-second time cap - my back hit the wall in the tire drag around 1:12. In retrospect, I wish I'd run with the farmer's carry, since I definitely think I could have - but that's for next year.
Next up - yoke walk. My yoke was loaded with 320lbs. 90 seconds to get max distance.
It wasn't that heavy, but I felt a really sharp pinch in between a couple of vertebrae near the top of my spine/base of my neck. I'm not familiar with yoke walking at all, and I have no sense of whether that was an uncomfortable-but-not-serious pain, or a sign of possible injury, so I voluntarily backed out after my first 50' walk. I tried varying my setup per a teammate's recommendation, but the neck pinch was still there, so I left it alone after that. I do this shit for fun - I'm not going to risk real injury. Since I was very unsure of this in general, I consider it a success.
Third event was Atlas stones. As I mentioned last week, I trained with stones ranging up to 115 and 135lbs. I got the 115lb stone up to my shoulder easily, but could NOT MOVE the 135lb stone. So, the 130lb stone I needed to move for Hybrid was about a 50-50. Either the adrenaline would kick in, and that 5lbs would make a difference and I'd get it up (probably for reps)...or I'd struggle mightily and not budge it.
I stared that fucker down HARD.
And tried and tried and tried to get it up...and didn't move it.
My no-rep was not unexpected so it didn't get me down. Our fabulous coach Erin bought a bunch of stone molds while we were there, so you better believe I'm going to get that 130lb stone...and the 145lb stone...real soon.
Next up was the press medley - 60 seconds to get five implements ground-to-overhead however you could. I faced up with an 85lb sandbag, a 65lb dumbbell, a 105lb axel/fat bar, a 115lb log, and a 145lb barbell. Of these, I was confident about the 65lb dumbbell and knew I stood a solid chance at the sandbag, the axel and maybe the log. The barbell was 27lbs over my max clean & jerk - hence my prayers to the tiger-sock-god.
Turns out I should have asked my socks to help me get under that sandbag. I spent the entire 60 seconds trying to get it over my head. Motherfucker.
Finally, it was time for the front squat ladder. AMRAP in three minutes, racking after every round - i.e. - 1, rack, 1-2-rerack, 1-2-3-rerack, etc. My bar was 125lbs, and even though that's a pretty significant percentage of my max to date (155lbs), I felt real good about this.
And bam. Even though I gave up my belt halfway through to share with a teammate, which ate up a little time, I still got through 5 rounds + 4 reps, for a total of 19 125lb front squats. Not too shabby.
The CFCC team, post-competition and pre-stuffing our faces with beer and french fries:
Thanks to PhillyGuy and Erin for the pics of me looking strong and generally beastmode.
And then we drove home and I slept forever. Didn't wake up until almost 8:30 this morning - a solid hour later than I usually sleep. Hamstrings were REAL sore, my quads were all kinds of jacked up with scrapes and bruises, and my shoulders were bruised from the yoke...but I didn't feel like total death.
PhillyGuy and I started our day slowly and fabulously. We ate take-out eggs from Famous Fourth Street (my omelet was the size of my head and stuffed with veggies - I added some smoked salmon for extra protein), watched Kevin James standup, and played scrabble.
And then it was back at it. Off to CFCC for some really light oly (clean & jerk only, focusing way more on form than weight and never getting above 93lbs), followed by my seven-minute AMRAP burpees for the open.
I could swear I did more, but my official score is 75. When my judge called out 50, I wanted to cry - I thought I was at 60, and I was feeling really good...but it wouldn't be the first time I screwed up counting. That was kind of a gut-check. But 75 isn't anything to sneeze at - particularly since I did it the day after Hybrid.
Next on the agenda: training up for the South Philly Rumble team competition at Crossfit South Philly. Go team!
