Last Friday I did two things that pushed me WAY outside of my comfort zone..
1) Registered for the CrossFit Games Open.
2) Completed the first Open workout and achieved a new snatch PR…13 times in a row.
Let me back up. Many of you have probably seen the CrossFit Games on ESPN. There is a long road to get to that level. The competition starts with five weeks of Open workouts where athletes around the world complete weekly workouts and record their scores online. The competition is broken down by country and region. I am in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Performance in the Opens determines who will compete in Regionals that run from May 17-June 9. Top performers at the Regionals proceed to the actual CrossFit Games which will be held July 22-28. It’s quite a process.
Clearly I am not aspiring to compete at a higher level but we encourage all of the athletes at our gym to register for the Open because it’s fun to complete the workouts together and to see where you fall in the grand scheme of things. I was really on the fence about whether or not to sign up for the Open this year but took the plunge at the last minute and I’m already so happy that I did after the first workout. The workout was announced on Wednesday and you had until Sunday at 8 p.m. to report your score.
CrossFit wasted no time getting right to business. The first workout was a crazy combination of burpees and snatches that got progressively heavier as the workout progressed. Do you remember how last week I was really excited that I was able to complete a workout with 55 pound snatches for the first time? Well, this workout included 75 pound snatches in the second round of work so I pretty much figured that I would be done once I reached that point.
We separated into two heats because CrossFit requires that someone count your reps and make sure that you hit a target 6 inches above your reach for the burpees. I was in the second heat and walked around taking photos of the first heat while I got more and more nervous about whether I would survive the workout. Soon enough it was time for me to go. I didn’t feel adequately warmed up or stretched out but I told myself the burpees would get me plenty warm. Let me tell you, jumping up to a target takes burpees to a whole new level. My quads burned like crazy from the extra jumping effort.
This is Heather from Multiply Delicious jumping up to a target just to show you how that worked. I was okay during the burpees. Bodyweight exercises are kind of my thing so I kept a pretty steady pace through the first set. I broke them into two sets of 20. The first set of 45 pound snatches were no problem and I did those in sets of 5. I finished the first round of burpees and snatches in 6:23. I knew I had 10 full minutes to get as far as I could with the workout so on I went towards the 75 pound snatches and completed the second round of 30 burpees. I think I broke them into three sets of 10.
And then it was time to put 75 pounds on my bar and pray to God that I could at least get it up once. My first attempt went nowhere and I immediately turned to my friend and co-worker that was scoring for me and said, “This is not going to happen.” She immediately replied back, “Yes, it is. Try it again.” I walked around, got back to my bar and told myself it was going to happen…and it did! It wasn’t pretty but I got it up.
And then managed to complete 12 more in the remaining time. I actually started to get stronger and stronger with my form and felt more confident with every rep that passed. When the clock ran out at 17 minutes I was beyond excited with my effort. I came in 2,243rd in my division but I could care less. The personal feeling of accomplishment was incredible.
We popped open beers immediately after finishing.
And took a big sweaty group picture. Had I been on my own in the gym trying to do this workout there is no way that I would have performed as well as I did. I don’t think I even would have gotten the 75 pound snatch once. I am so thankful for all of my fellow athletes and that we motivate and push each other. I can’t wait for 13.2!
Fellow CrossFitters…who did the Open workout? How did it go?
