5/3/12

My lower back is extremely tight and my shoulders are painful to the touch. I planned on doing day 1 of regionals today. Once I got in the gym and I didn't feel recovered I didn't want to do day 1. But my buddy showed up and we went for it.


Workout 1 (1100)

'Diane'
For time:
21-15-9
Dead-lift (225#)
Hand-stand Push-up

My time was just under 12 minutes. This is obviously a terrible time. I got to the 9 minute cutoff with 9 HPSU left. Those last 9 HSPU took me another 3 minutes. My shoulders just gassed out. My HSPU just turn off mid-way through the set of 15. I tried to pace it, 6-5-5-5 for the first set, 5-5-5 second and 3-3-3 for the last. This plan went to hell during the set of 15. I think if I was fresh I could go a little faster. To put things in perspective, a year ago I couldn't even do RxD HSPUs. So despite the fact I'm awful at this workout, I need to put things into a realistic perspective and realize I'm making progress; this was a 2 minute PR. I might not be good at this workout, but it's my weakness and I've got a lot of work to do on these in the coming months/years. Someday I will do this workout in under 4 minutes.

Workout 2 (1400)

I felt pretty awful warming up. I did not want to do this workout. 225# felt really heavy when simply warming up.

2012 Regional Event 2
For time:
2000m Row
50 Pistols (alternating)
30 Hang Cleans (225#)

I came off the rower in 7:11. If I'm rowing a 7:11 I'm obviously not recovered, this 7:11 felt much harder than the other day when I rowed a 7:00 flat. I was just not feeling it today. I got through the pistols quickly, got to the hang cleans at 10:30. I wanted to link them, but that plan went out the window after the first power clean. My back is super tight, even the dead-lift of the 225# felt heavy. I started squat cleaning after about 5 ugly power cleans. I can usually get 225# up to my rack position without any dip, that didn't happen once today. I just didn't feel good or confident, I just got rocked. Ended up with 13 more reps at the 17 minute time cap. This is a lot worse than I wanted to do today. At regionals I really hope I can actually finish this workout in the time cap.

Overall today was a really sobering and discouraging day. I've come extremely far with Crossfit. When I started in 2008 I couldn't do anything RxD for about a year. Then I started going RxD on some workouts and had extremely slow times.  By 2010 I started doing RxD everything, except workouts with snatch (had to scale down loads), muscle-ups and hand-stand push-ups. In 2011 I got muscle-ups and HSPU under control, although HSPU are still my weakest movement. Since the end of the 2011 Open I've improved my snatch and overhead squat a lot, put 65# on my snatch and 90# on my overhead squat. I've come a long way. It's been a ton of hard work, consistency and effort. I've learned a lot about myself, life and how to balance things in life (I learned mostly from not balancing things enough). I qualified for regionals in 2012. There is no way around it. I know every rep I did during the Open was legit. The numbers don't lie, I deserve to be there. These workouts are no joke. There is no room for error, hesitation or weakness. In a way at first it was discouraging to get my ass handed to me by these workouts (specifically the time caps). But it's also changed my perspective on Crossfit in a positive way. I've taken my fitness to a level I literally didn't know existed by age 23. What's the point? Why be the best at exercising? I could just do crossfit, whatever is on the board, 5 days a week, be fit and healthy and not get stressed. Although that is tempting, being humbled by these workouts makes me want to redouble my efforts. I'm back to the drawing board, going to get stronger and keep hammering out my weaknesses/skills this next year. 2012 will not be my year to win anything. All the PRs I've set and things I've accomplished are part of my journey. This is not the end. I know everyone (most people) in the crossfit community are positive and supportive, but I'm going to be humiliated at regionals (primarily in my own mind). I am a perfectionist and extremely hard on myself. My constant self-deprecation  is something I've been working on for years, it just doesn't seem to get better though. Through this lense I am stressed. I'm stressed for the mental weight I'm going to put on my mind for not being the best. I'm trying to tell myself to just go as hard as I can and learn from the experience; but primarily to have fun. Crossfit should be fun. I have lost sight of that. I've been too stressed and consumed. I am on a journey and will continue to get better. I'm so excited for regionals to be over, to start lifting and to start eating to gain strength again.

So in conclusion, after venting out these ideas in my mind. All I can do is go as hard as I physically can. Where that will put me on some scoreboard in some niche sport that barely anyone will actually look at or understand, doesn't matter this year. I'm just going out there to put as much exertion on my body as possible. I love pushing myself beyond perceived limits, it's why I got into crossfit. The 2012 North West Regional will simply be a venue for me to attempt to push beyond my perceived limits; nothing more, nothing less.

Workout 3 (1830) 


I was so upset with my performances today I figured I get another workout in. Nothing like some running to loosen up my mind. I had a couple other athletes to train with, nice session in the Seattle rain.

'Death by 10 Meters'

EMOM - Sprint 10 meters, complete 1 the first minute, 2 the second, etc until failure.

I reached 18 rounds, came through a second late. I sat out the 19th minute. Then did the interval on the 20th. Overall a solid session. I felt a lot better than I thought I would. The change of direction killed me. As a former distance runner I'm more used to just going in one direction very hard, not changing direction. I didn't plan on doing this workout, but I'm shuffling around my rest days this week and ended up sneaking in this workout. It was a solid workout and made me feel a lot better than the first two workouts.