My 7th CrossFit Competition - still making progress...

My daughter made me a
poster to cheer me on :)

On 4/18, I did my 7th CrossFit competition. It was my 3rd time doing Festivus, which is a competition "for the rest of us" - specifically novice and intermediate athletes who aren't like regionals-level fire breathers. 

I was bummed to end up in 6th place, and not make the final 5 to get my chance at climbing onto the podium again. Once you get a taste of being up there, you really want it every time! But looking back on my previous competitions, I think I'm still making progress... 

Oct 2013 - Festivus (Novice division - 26th out of 29)
Dec 2013 - No Baby (Scaled division - 40th out of 72)
April 2014 - Festivus (Intermediate division - 11th out of 22)
July 2014 - No Baby (scaled - FIRST PLACE, 7th in country!)
Oct 2014 - Festivus (novice since there was no intermediate - 3rd of 19)
Nov 2014 - Mama Said Knock You Out Mom's Comp (only 1 division - 15th of 41)
April 2015 - Festivus (intermediate - 5th out of 17)

In October, there was not a big turn out for Festivus - only 19 ladies altogether, and only 3 of us signed up for the intermediate division. So the 3 of us decided to drop into the novice division since we felt it was silly to just compete against each other, and none of us were very proficient at toes-to-bar which was in one of the WODs. So I ended up in 3rd that time, but was really only against 2 other intermediate ladies. But this time, 17 ladies signed up for the intermediate division, so I definitely had a lot more competition this time. Plus, there really wasn't any WOD that was really in my favor - I do best at max lift-type WOD, and there wasn't anything like that this time since all the WODs contained strength AND stamina elements. AND I'm up 10 pounds since July 2014, which is not cool... I was 188 then (then, I was up 5# after 5 days of ETP), and I'm 198 now (up 2.5# from Jan after 1 month of ETP - hoping  a little is muscle, but certainly not all). 

The first WOD was a 1K row followed by 50 wall balls. I kept a nice steady pace of 1:57 for the row, and then got my first 20-25 wall balls unbroken. Then I think I did sets of 10 or 5. Should have pushed a little harder on that last set to not take a break, but I felt like I needed that last break!

Next was the WOD I was dreading most: max reps of 95# front squats in 2 minutes. Front squats are not my friend. But, I did better than I anticipated. Got a set of 10 -15 unbroken, then did sets of 5 until I ran of time, for a total of 30 (1st place was 47!). Then, after a couple minutes of rest, we moved onto an AMRAP of 6 95# cleans and 6 burpees over bar. I killed on the cleans, with most sets unbroken, but I was SOOOO SLOW on the burpees. Developed a stitch in my right side that slowed me down even more. Ugh. Just too damn much body to be moving around. Those extra 10 pounds did not help.

Before burpees

After burpees

I'm doing some push presses after
this beast does some rebounding
box jumps

Third WOD was an AMRAP of 65# push presses and 25 step ups (or box jumps if people felt really crazy - most did not). Again, killed on the presses, sucked SLOW AS HELL on the step ups. Always moving, but slowly. Then after resting a minute, you had to get max DUs in 1 minutes. This is the only thing that I had been practicing religiously! While practicing at the end of every WOD for the last couple months, I had worked my way up into the low 60s a couple times, with a couple unbroken strings in the low 40s. However, when the pressure was on, I just couldn't get it going. My rope hit the caution tape on 3 separate occasions, so I just couldn't get any log strings going. Only ended up with 43 when I really wanted to at least pass 50. Boo. 

So, ended up in 6th, so I didn't qualify for the Final Five WOD. Which I felt kind of okay about once I saw the people suffering through it - looked crappy! First, a buy-in of 50 air squats (that would have killed me). Then 21-15-9 of hanging knee raises, hand release push ups, and deadlifts. If I was in 5th, I don't think this WOD would have moved me onto the podium. So, just as well that I spared my quads all those air squats after a taxing day already. 

The final rankings

For nutrition, I ate my control day calories on Thurs and Fri leading up to it, but added an extra 25g of carbs on Friday night. I ate a full breakfast of eggs, sausage, and sweet potatoes on Sat morning. Then I brought 4 servings of protein shake and 4 1-scoop servings of Vitargo mixed with diluted grape juice. I had Vitargo 30 mins before each WOD, and a shake right afterward. Didn't feel hungry at all, and felt like I had enough energy for everything. Also brought a jar of Sunbutter along to snack on, but didn't dig in until after the 3rd WOD. Went out for some drinks with the Relentless crew afterward, and then over to good ol' Pancho Loco for dinner later on. Mmmm, margaritas.

Thankfully, I wasn't too sore on Sunday. My legs were a little sore, but not totally destroyed. My traps hurt more from all those cleans - I did more 95# cleans than in Grace! I ended up taking 4 rest days in a row since I could get back in on Tues or Wed as planned, and I stuck with my control day calories all 4 days. I woke up STARVING the second morning, but wasn't as hungry the following two days. 

On Thursday, I finally made it back into the gym and got a 15# PR on my squat clean for 155#! Woo hoo! That finally means I caught my squat clean up to my power clean (if you don't include the ugly 160# power clean that I finally got a couple weeks ago). So, apparently, 4 days off did my body good! 

I already have my sights set on my next competition: No Baby, Leave the Socks On in August! Very torn about competing in scaled or RX division though... Two of the RX girls who always complete almost made it to Regionals - they're beasts! WAY out of my league!