Another CrossFit throw down in the books

Did the Festivus Throw Down on 4/19/14, and had a blast! It was so nice to have both Brian AND my sister Amy there competing together! Loved seeing them push themselves to the limit!

This was my 3rd throw down. Definitely  seeing improvement:

• 10/19/13 - Festivus (Novice division - came in 26th out of 29)
• 12/7/13 - No Baby, Leave the Stockings On (Scaled division - came in 40th out of 72)
• 4/19/14 - Festivus (Intermediate division - came in 11th out of 22 - top half!)

The WODs:

• WOD 1:
• 1k row for time. 6 min cap
• Once the running clock hits 6 minutes move on to WOD 2:
• WOD 2
• Athlete must establish a 1 Rep Max clean in 6 minutes.
• This will be scored as 2 separate WODs. The athlete may rest as needed after finishing row before the 6 min mark. If an athlete does not finished the row in the 6 min they will be penalized :01 for every METER under 1k
• WOD 3:
• •10 KB swing 53# male/35# female (intermediate) and 35# male/26# female (novice)
• •20 sit ups
• •30 Box overs 24″ male/20″ female
• •8 min AMRAP
• Score is reps
• WOD 4:
• 2 minutes max wallball 20# male/14# female (intermediate) and 14# male/10# female (novice)
• Rest 1 minute
• 2 minutes max double unders (intermediate) and singles (novice)
• Rest 1 minute
• 2 minutes max burpees
• Score is total combined reps from all 3 movements

I started off really strong since the first event was a 1K row for time. I'm a pretty decent rower, so I decided to go all out to see what I could do. I finished in 3:45. By the end of my heat (which was the 5th heat), I had the #1 row score - woo hoo!!! Then 2 girls in subsequent heats beat me by a few seconds, so I dropped into third. But I was pretty psyched about that while it lasted!

But I think I used a little too much gas in the row since I couldn't hit my current PR in the clean, which is 140#. In fact, I only got to 125#, which I was a bit bummed about. I tried 135# twice, and just barely failed the second time. A fellow boxmate asked to borrow my 2.5# plates, so I couldn't try for 130#, which I think I could have gotten. If I'd gotten to #130, I would have tied for 10th place (and landing in 9th because my row time was better). Oh well. My friend hit a new PR which is pretty awesome.

The box overs in the 3rd heat killed me. Although I was happy that I was able to do them at all since my left knee had been bugging me for a couple months. It was finally feeling decent enough to do these just a few days prior, and mostly thanks to the Rehband knee sleeves (these things are life savers!!!). One of my favorite coaches, Jill, was my judge, and she kept cheering me on to go faster, but I just couldn't. Maybe if I'd been able to practice the technique over the previous couple months... So got a pretty crappy score on that WOD (3rd to last). 

However, I was thrilled to watch my sister do WOD 3. She'd been having quite a hard time stepping onto a 20" box with her short legs and the amount of body she had to get up there. Since starting CrossFit 4 months prior, she'd been stepping onto piles of plates, slowly working her way up to 20". She'd just finally stepped up onto on 20" box a few days prior, but with a little help from a coach to catch her hands at the top. So, Coach Tim ("Mr. Festivus" himself) allowed her to step up onto a 20" stack of plates instead of the box (after he put the kibosh on her attempt to withdraw from the Games for fear of this very WOD). And she did! Again and again!!! It was definitely mind over matter. And the more times she did it, the more confident and faster she got! So many people were gathered around to cheer her on - it was awesome. Huge physical and mental progress for her!

In the 4th WOD, I was pretty happy with my wall balls (almost completely unbroken) and burpees (unbroken), but the DUs were not with me! So frustrating! I'd been practicing DUs quite a lot over the previous 2 months, and had gotten to the point where I'd hit 30+ unbroken a few times, and could consistently do runs in the teens. But they just weren't coming together. So, that dragged my score down a bit. 

So, in the end, that row really saved me in the rankings to get me into the top half (BARELY since I was tied 11th of 22, but just edged ahead since my row time was the tie breaker). I was really concerned about entering as a Intermediate instead of a Novice since I certainly don't meet all the Intermediate criteria (can't do pull-ups, can't deadlift 1.5x my body weight, just barely 6 months of CrossFitting, >10 min mile...). But, in the end, I think I was in the right division. I would have taken 1st in the first 2 WODs, and done really well in the 4th WOD doing single unders. The box overs still would have slowed me down a bit though. But I think I would have ended up in 2nd place, and feeling like I shouldn't have been there when most of the other girls I WOD with regularly were in the Intermediate division.

I really enjoyed watching my husband compete too. That was the part I really missed when I did the Stockings competition since it was only girls and he stayed home with the kids instead of coming with me. I liked sharing the day with him and watching him, and having him cheer me on too. And having my sister there made it even better! My Dad even stopped by, but he just missed our heats in the first 2 WODs, and didn't stick around log enough for the next WOD. Oh well. 

So, all in all, another great event. Looking forward to moving into the top quartile in my next event (Baby, Leave the Socks on in July!)