Recap: WOD Warrior

Most of you knew that I was kind of nervous absolutely terrified to do my first crossfit competition on Saturday. I really appreciated everyone’s kind words and encouragement. When I rolled out of bed on Sunday I almost didn’t even go. I told Mr. Healthy Diva that I was just going to stay home and crawled back into bed. He kept asking me if I was sure I didn’t want to go. I had to be checked in by 8:45. Finally at 8:00 am I decided to go. I probably would have stayed in bed if it wasn’t for all of you. So, thank you for holding me accountable and encouraging me to step outside of my comfort zone.

Through the entire 15 minute drive I felt like I was going to throw up. I think that Mr. Healthy Diva found this humorous. I kept telling him, “…..but I am going to get my butt kicked!” All he did was laugh at my stupid comments. He finally looked at me and said “have you ever won a marathon?” My response was obviously “no”. He then went on to say, “exactly, you have never won a marathon, you have gotten your butt kicked, BUT you have trained harder for a marathon than you have for this crossfit competition”. Wow, thanks for the awesome words of wisdom/encouragement Mr. Healthy Diva.

We arrive and the parking lot was FULL and it is a big parking lot. All I said was “holy crap!” The entire time I am getting checked in my heart is in my throat and my stomach is wrenching. We walk into the gym and I am in awe. There are so many people! It was overwhelming! I had no idea what to do, where to go, or even when I was starting.

I went back to the check in desk to inquire which heat I was in and the lady said she didn’t know that the PIC was still figuring it out. This was at 8:45, 30 minutes before the competition was set to start. I heard numerous people & judges say what a cluster this competition was before it even started. That is not something you want to hear when you don’t even know what to do!

Shortly after 8:45 the PIC called for an athlete’s meeting to go over how the rounds would run and how they would be judging the lifts. Looking at all of the other athletes up close made me really, really nervous!

Part of the set up for the AMRAP- row machines and kettle bells

The third area for the AMRAP- pull up torture fun

I got lucky and was in the 2^nd round of the women’s novice 20 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible). It made me more comfortable being able to see some of the other competitors go before me.

The AMRAP length was 20 minutes with each round incrementally going up by 6. Seriously what sick person does that? Do you give a better idea of the torture fun I went through, here is what I completed in 20 minutes:

Round 1	300 meter row	6 KB swings	6 jump pulls ups
Round 2	300 meter row	12 KB swings	12 jump pull ups
Round 3	300 meter row	18 KB swings	18 jump pull ups
Round 4	300 meter row	24 KB swings	24 jump pull ups
Round 5	300 meter row	+ 15 KB swings	0

The round seemed like the longest 20 minutes of my life. I was dying. My hands hurt from both the KB swings and pull ups. My knees were throbbing from the jumping up and down on the pull ups. I could feel my body breaking down, but I knew I needed to keep pushing forward. I was ready to be done when I still had 10 minutes left! I think that the longest AMRAP I have ever completed at Farmgirlfit was 15 minutes, which is still a long time to be moving at top speed. One thing I have learned about crossfit, if it looks easy it will be really hard. I probably had a total of 10 pull ups and 8 KB swings that the judge wouldn't count because my form wasn't correct. They said they would be strict about this in the athlete's meeting and they were!

Rowing- I am second in. Jury is still out on the lady in red Mr. Healthy Diva questioned her gender...

Yes, I realize the KB is over my head. :-)

Correct KB swing form is arms locked w/the KB stacked directly over your head.

How to do a proper KB swing from beginning to end

Following that round I felt like my legs were going to collapse. I gingerly sat down next to Mr. Healthy Diva and proceeded to chug my entire water bottle of Nuun and inhale my rice crackers w/hummus. I was scared to go over and see which event I had next and at what time it would be taking place.

Of course I stayed hydrated with my favorite beverage- NUUN! 1 fruit punch tab + 1 Nuun All Day Grape Raspberry tab = Hydration Bliss

Nuun does crossfit!

My next event was only 30 minutes away and was the suicide sprint + airdyne bike + wall balls. The sprint consisted of line runs where we had to grab a flag and bring it back down and drop it at the start and repeat until we had collected all four flags. Think basketball line drills. After the first suicide sprint was complete we had to ride the airdyne bike to 50 calories. I was first going into the airdyne, but made a “novice” mistake.  I had never used an airdyne bike before so it took 25 calories to figure out the faster I moved my arms the quicker the calories racked up. UGH. I was second off the airdyne bike and had to complete another set of suicide sprints. I had noticed before how slow competitors were moving on the second set of sprints. There was a good reason! You legs felt like mush! I felt like I was moving in slow motion. At the end of the last sprint we finished the 6 minute set with wall balls. This is where I did awful and was really annoyed with myself. They were really, really, really picky about your form. On the wall balls you had to squat below parallel for the wall ball to count. We had to use 15 lb wall balls and hit the 10ft target on the wall. Out of my 10 + attempts, only 4 counted. L I think if my legs would have been fresh I might have been able to squat better, but you live and learn. Definitely something to improve upon in the future.

I had an hour until the deadlift + burpee round. This is when Mr. Healthy Diva realized that the Seahawks game was on at 11:00 am our time and not 1:00 pm like he was thinking. Dum Dum! At this point we could have stayed the hour and I could finish, but he would miss his game or he could drive me all the way home for me to drive back just to finish my last set if I made it in time. I knew that he really wanted to watch the game so I made the decision that we could leave. Yes, I am ticked off at myself now for not finishing the last round, but it is okay because I got out of the competition what I wanted. There was no way I would ever placed, even in the novice division. Over half of the female competitors were way above the novice level and were killing it. Not fair to us beginners if you want my honest opinion.

My main objective for signing up and going was accomplished. I had fun, I learned a lot about myself AND I can cross my crossfit competition off of my 2013 goal list. For not even wanting to get out bed and go to the event, I think that I was pretty successful. I learned that I like the competition aspect of it, but I love running much more. I am not ruling out future competitions, but I am not planning on another either. I can see where Matt was coming from when he told me only one competition between now and Windermere. If I decide to maybe do another event in the fall I know where my weaknesses are. There is always room for improvement.

My shirt- I actually kind of like it!

Questions for you:
Ever compete in a crossfit competition?
Do you like KB swings?
Have you been a participant in a competition where other competitors clearly were competing below their level?

--Tasha