Another competition has come to an end but I must admit that I never really got in to this one. The Athlete Games format is to push out the 3 WODs and then give you a deadline to complete them all by. Personally, I prefer the CF Open format but this is what we have for this one. In typical fashion, I left everything to the last minute and ended up cracking 3 WODs in 4 days, all alone and in isolation at CF Plymouth and in the base gym (video’d).
WOD 1
20min Time Cap
100 x Over Rower Burpees
Row As Far As Possible
Score = Metres Rowed = 2771
I tried to pace the burpees here, breaking them down to about 12-13 every minute but this soon proved impossible and I was down to 10s and 8s by the end. I completed the Burpees in about 9:30, leaving me 10:30 to get the rowing cracked (well, about 10mins after I’d eventually go my feet in!). Not sprinting off, I knew this would have to be managed carefully and I stuck to just under 2:00/500m throughout, as much as possible. For whatever reason, and I can’t remember how much pain I was in at the time, I didn’t sprint the last 1min as I have done in the past. I guess I must have just been hanging out by that point and was unable to. Where could I have made up more time? I could have paced the burpees better but actually over-rower-burpees are a BITCH. It’s a big jump each time and I was doing them laterally in order to save time turning around each time.
I could have pushed harder at the end but I don’t think I can be hard on myself here; I worked bloody hard.
WOD 2a
6mins to Complete
150 x Double Unders
30 x Pull Ups
As Many Muscle Ups as Possible
Score: 180
Wait 2 mins
I completed the Double Unders in about 2.5 mins, breaking at 90 and 150. Given the state of my left Achilles right now, this was a significant achievement. I was expecting the pull ups to then take 3 mins but I misjudged and destroyed them in about 1.5mins. I broke them in to a 15 and 3 x 5 to try and give myself something in the tank for the Muscle Ups. This left me with 2 full minutes to complete some Muscle Ups. Epic Fail! There was absolutely nothing left in my arms and I couldn’t engage properly to get myself over those rings. 2 mins completely wasted where I just had to laugh at myself for flailing around on the rings, aimlessly. Definite area for improvement here. As soon as I finished WOD 2b, I got straight on to the rings and pulled out 4 consecutive ones!!!!
WOD 2b
10min EMOM
1 x Power Clean
For this, you had to pick 1 weight and stick with it all the way through. I chose 80kg but this proved too light by about 2.5-5kg. I wasted this part of the WOD through poor gamesmanship. I haven’t competed for so long and am hardly the most experience competitor anyway. Had I thought about it properly, I should have pushed for perhaps 85kg; 82.5kg was definitely within my capability. Up to 50kg of scoring wasted here. Nevermind. By the end of this WOD it all felt a bit weird because I wasn’t out of breath in the way common for competition WODs.
Score: 800kg
WOD 3
8min AMRAP
8 x Deadlift (100kg)
16 x Wall Ball (9kg / 10’)
16 x Box Jump (24”)
Score: 4 rnds + 4 Deadlifts
By far the most enjoyable WOD for me and the one I performed best in on the leaderboard. I was proud of my efforts on this, completing the whole lot nearly unbroken. For the first time since being on ship, the voice was in my head to just keep pushing, to take no breaks and plough on. I was particularly proud of the deadlifts, especially when I saw the video playback. Form is everything and form was good throughout on this.
So how did it all work out? Well, in 2013 I took part in the Battle Of London (the predecessor to this comp) and I finished 1034 out of 1120; a placing in the bottom 8%. Given the spread of age groups at the time, I was still some 10 years away from the Masters category and was gutted at this placing. These competitions are different from the CF Open in that typically the Open is a genuine “all comers” competition with a true spread of all CrossFitters. Internal competitions like this seem to attract only those with experience and some talent. Therefore, I’m always going to place higher in the Open than in a competition like this (you would think).
This year, the Athlete Games included a few new Masters Categories too and I fall in to the 35-39 category. This time round then, I placed 185 of 263, in the bottom 29.5%. The two results are not really comparable in this regard and so it is hard to see if I have improved. On the face of it, as I have known for a year or more, by ‘engine’ is getting better but the raw strength is just not there and hasn’t progressed. Still, I enjoyed taking part in a competition again and have a little confidence going in to CF Open 15 that while I won’t hit my target of top 25%, I will improve on my top 33% at least.
My Nomadic CrossFit Experiment 