I guess I'll start at 0001. Still a ladies night going on at the house, girls and their giggling... so, not wanting to be a quitter, and still staying out of their way, I'm in the basement playing games. They finally left, and I finally got to bed after 0100. Not a great start to this competition. 0700, I'm awake. Yawwwn. Shower and a 5 hour energy later, I'm at the box, early. 0750.
Taran shows up shortly after 0800... my team mate has arrived, and now we wait. Taran, for those of you who haven't been following, is the guy who's example led to me trying CrossFit for the first time. So it's cool that I have him here on my team. Spent some time showing him around, and introducing him to the On Track folk. Would love to have him here... time will tell. I'm not going to keep it "play by play" style with the times, I promise.... after this last one. 9am gets here, it's time to get going.
The competition is called the Blind Date competition. Teams of two (mere-mortals) and then a person from the On Track team (firebreather). The blind date part being that we have no idea who our teammate is going to be. Bit of nerves for that part. I know... or "know" maybe 10 people on the team, so I've got come concerns about who's we're going to get. I'm sure that all the firebreathers are just that, nasty fire breathing WOD killers, but I'm still hoping to get a name I recognize.
One by one, teams get announced to the group, and I slowly see my internal list dwindle down. Picked the name Future Jockeys for this comp... two reasons. One, I planned on wearing my Soulshine #Junkheadband (has a horse and jockey on it) and two, I'm still a large dude, and Taran's a big (tall) dude... and that makes it dry humor funny, cause there is no way either of us would or could be jockeys.
We're finally up to get our firebreather, near the end of the group of mere mortals, and the two people I was hoping for are still available. Hand goes in the hat, aaaaaaaaaaand the firebreather is.... Katie Mueller. Not at all who I was expecting (I was hoping for Brian or Brandon), but she's on the list, and frankly, she's a beast, so I'm very happy with this. I remember from watching Regionals that she could do some real work, and she was on the team that went from dead last after the first event to missing The CrossFit Games by 6 piddly points. Awesome, happy to have you, lets do work!
Team Future Jockey's!
Now's probably the time to tell you to go get some popcorn... this is going to be a looooooooooooooooong post. No. Really.
We're in heat two for the competition, not sure if this is good thing, or not. Katie had just gotten here, so she trying to hurry through a warmup, and Taran and I are trying not to cool down too much before go time. WOD 1 is as follows:
WOD 1:
9 min AMRAP Relay
Firebreather - 5 Full Snatch @ 135/95
Mere Mortal 1 - 5 Clean (power or full) @ 135/95
Mere Mortal 2 - 5 Clean (power or full) @ 135/95
- 5 Clean CAN be substituted for 10 Deadlift
Heat 1 finishes up, and these cats look tired. Ok, fine, let's go. Katie leads us off on the snatches. Boom, done. Then Taran took the first set up power cleans, then it was my turn. During warmups, I did a few 135lb power cleans, and I had some concerns about my ability to do that many of them... thankfully there is a deadlift substitute if need be. I got 5 cleans done, then it's back to Katie.
We went through the progression again, 5 more cleans, again, 5 more cleans. 5 more cleans. 5 more cleans. I don't know exactly how many rounds we went through, but I didn't deadlift once. I don't know if it's that extra push because of team mates and a competition, or if it's the fact that I'm a lot stronger than I give myself credit for... the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I felt we did well, I didn't feel terribly slow, I tried to let the bar and gravity pull me down every time. Little tired after the round, but feeling good. Break time.
Between the main workouts they had community WODs. There was a buy in (like raffle ticket buy in), and then you'd perform, some prizes awarded for the "winner". EVERYONE is timid... we just got done with this, what could it be? Got a few volunteers, and then the hand went into the hat... 1 minute workout of.... best Golds Gym pose! Wait, what? Yeah, heard that right (you read it right too). I smell a trap, but no, it's just what they said it was. We've got people with dumbbells, taking their shirts, off... is that an infant? Yes it is! Posing with a child in your arms, dastardly. One competitor went and grabbed a young puppy... tough decision now. The winner ended up being a little dude using two dumbbell to flex and pump, and as a bonus, he'd taken his shirt off. LOL! I don't know his name, Ty's kid, but he was kid cute, he wins it, hands down.
The break was nice... I wasn't totally gassed, but the extra time was good. Whats next?
WOD 2:
Chipper (14 min Cap)
Set Order, must attempt (not complete) 1 rep to move on
50 Pull ups
100 Hand Release Push Ups
150 AbMat Sit Ups
200 Air Squats
250 Double Unders
Oh man. This is what I was dreading, and wanting... no, needing a dynamo 3rd for. Taran's good, but he's not team fit (yet), and there's no way I'm going to be of any help with pullups... so Katie is going to get leaned on... harder than I want to, but thats how teams work, you can't all be good at everything... or maybe you can? I'm not there yet... so I'll say it now, thanks Katie, thanks Taran, you guys are awesome.
Rules being the rules, we each have to at least attempt a rep. Katie led us off, and somewhere around 10, she hit her elbow on something, came off the bar. Acted like she'd been bit... thought she might have hurt her elbow (liked pulled something type of hurt), wasn't the case, thank goodness (not just for this now, but getting hurt just sucks in general right?). She's good.... For my attempt, I jumped up on the bar, and pulled with all my might. I think I elevated an inch or two, but that was it. Cool thing, I popped several vertebrae.... then I hopped down. We did that for 2 rounds, then finished up.
Our brief pullup debacle cost us some time, we're dead last moving to the hand release pushups. I did 5.... and they're close to being legit, real deal pushups, handed off to Katie, who handed off to Taran... we're all tired already. It's a lot of Dan to pushup still, and what they lack in my size, they've both made up for in effort. As we get further along, the numbers get less "neat". We're picking them up at 8's and 6's and 3's... I ended up doing the last 10... I'm trying man... I want to take as much of it as I can. I can tell that taking that last 10 was a good thing for Katie. Not that she was struggling, but with 10 left, she asked if I was good, and I was like yeah, I've got these. She hustled over to the abmat to get ready for stiups.
She took off too. All of this stuff sucks for me, body weight exercises are just not a strength yet. And even situps take a lot of extra oompf. I don't rembmer exactly how we split this up, but yet again, I am in the debt of the team. I finished out the last set of 20, didn't want to have to have Katie do anymore, but Lawd they were painful, as soon as I got it though, we're on to the air squats.
Finally, something I can try to contribute to. Well... maybe. Katie was banging these things out. So much power, she was practically leaving the ground with every one. I mean her feet were moving around, she was creating so much force on the way up that her feet weren't exactly in the same place when she came back down. I don't have that problem yet :) We kept the same familiar formation, going going going. Taran didn't move around quite as much... but all this raw power, wish we have a little bit more barbell work. During one of my turns, I almost fell on my face. LOLOL I was so worried about speed and power, I ended up on my toes, and I had to throw my arms out and windmill a bit to get back to normal. Katie got in my ear about picking a spot on the wall and focusing on that. Helped. Yet again, got the last 20 reps, and then Katie takes off on the doubleunders.
She's good. Not an out and out jump rope goddess, but very good. She banged out 70 without missing a beat. Taran looked like a beaten man. He tried a few times, got a few reps in, and he was frustrated. I tried... almost sorta got one. I looked at Katie, her eyes we're a bit less imploring than her words, she was like try some more. Sure. I tried again... I could barely jump. My quads... or whatever is right above the knee, on the inside of the leg... absolutely shredded. Not getting any useful bounce out of these bad boys. Tried again.. no. Katie was about to take off... time. Hit the 14 minute cap.
Oh wow. I'm done. Taran's done... idk, maybe Katies done... na, she still looks fresh. I want to get on her level. At this point, I'm trying to "walk it off". Airsquats did me in. It's ok though, break time. Got a few more volunteers for this break WOD... and it was a 1 minute AMRAP of.... double unders. Lots of suckers... er people in this one. Going to be rough for anyone who just got done in heat 2 of the chipper. The winner ended up at 117. Pretty good if you ask me.
Third and final event. Two part WOD. Complicated setup:
WOD 3:
2 Part Workout, 2 separate scores
Part 1
Firebreather Static Holds for 1 min while Mere Mortals complete Burpee Box Jump Overs, one working at a time. Reps only count while the static hold is being held.
5 min: FB
1 min Flexed arm hang
1 min Handstand Hold
1 min Top of Ring Dip
1 min Bottom of Squat
1 min Plank
5 min: MM
AMRAP Burpee Box Jump Overs (20/16)
- one person working at a time
+
7 min AMRAP
20 Toes to bar w/ 1 partner in a bar hang
25 Partner Deadlift - 255/185
20 Handstand Push Ups w/ 1 partner in a handstand hold
25 Med Ball AbMat Passes
20 Synchronized American KB Swings (70/55 for FB, 55/35 for MM)
50-ft Crab Walk
50-ft Crab Walk
50-ft Handstand Walk
Max reps Muscle Ups w/ time remaining - partners can complete muscle ups any way they want, including assisted!
Follow all that? Cliff notes, first WOD, Katie holds the static holds, Taran and I do burpee box jumpovers. We had a good break... actually, we had an extended break, we've actually had to change the format to 3 heats, due to the second half of the workout, and we're in heat 3. Lots of time to watch... and wait. Finally, it's our turn.
Taran and I worked out a deal... he'd do 4 to my 2. This is great for me, keep me fast, but is going to hurt Taran later... Looking back right now, I should have listened to my gut and done more burpees in a few spots. What I'm saying is that there were a few times where I should have done 4 instead of 2, and give Taran an extra break. My bad man. This was a nasty 5 minutes too. Katie was a champ, only struggled on the ring dip holds... other teams were struggling with holds everywhere, she was a champ. Wish we could have gotten more reps for her efforts. Thanks for the stellar work KM.
One minute break, and really, it was just Taran and I pulling ourselves together, and then it was the toes to bar with one partner in a static hang. I don't have a good hang, but I volunteered to go up with Katie, her doing the toes to bar. "I've got you for 5"... She does 5, then we're both down. That 5 count was awful. It held as long as I could, and by the end of it, I had blackness coming in on the edges of my vision, like no exaggeration I thought I was going to fall down and wake up somewhere else... it would have been scary if I wasn't in survival/go mode. Taran and Katie go up, Taren gets 5 T2B himself, they come down. Katie looks hungry, ready to get this over with... alright lets go. We jump up. I'm determined to not let go till she's done... and the only thing I focused on, was getting air in and out. I took the deepest breaths I could, in, out, in, out. No blackness... and it wasn't soooooo awful. Katie got her 10, and we're off the bar. Really wasn't that long to be on the bar, but I feel like it was probably the longest I've ever held on... maybe time since the workout, along with the o2 deprivation are playing tricks on me and my memory. Katie is fast... so it probably didn't take all that long...
Partner deadlifts... not terrible heavy, and if Taran and I ever got fully on the same pages, we'd be ridiculous. We set it down at 10, and then we got to 20, and walked away. Judge was like waaa??? WAIT, you've got to do 25! CRAP! The whole time (1-20), I think Taran thought I was dying... and maybe I was, but this wasn't so bad, we banged out that last 5 quickly, and then it was on to the handstand pushup/hold.
The handstand pushup... ended up being our Achilles heel. I don't have these (yet) and I've never tried to go upside down... I'm scared to try it now... endorphins, adrenaline, caffeine... I have my concerns that this concoction will lead to me breaking my neck, so it's really up to Taran and Katie. This... is our teams biggest "needs improvement". Taran is spent, and he's struggling to hold up more than two reps at a time. So frustrating to watch, wanting to help, but not being able to. We finally make it work (really, probably more "bro-reps" than anything), and we're done. Praise the Lawd!
25 Abmat med ball passes... I jogged over, and Katie took my que, she's there too, and we're going. I think we got to 15 or so, and Taran wanted to take over. You got it bro! He finished off the set, then it was on to the three person synchronized KB swings. 55lbs is heavy for me, I don't do it often in WODs (yet). We all grab the KB and start. Man alive, this sucked. 5, 10... and then it got interesting. I wanted to set it down, take a break, but no one else was stopping, so I kept swinging. Got to 15... break? Nope, kept swinging. Made it all the way to 20. Dropped the KB at the end, don't think I've ever dropped a KB before... My grip was gonzo. Found out after the workout, Taran had wanted to stop as well, but saw me keep going, so he kept going. I'm sure there is a term for whatever that is, pushing yourself further cause you don't want to let the next person down, but I don't know if off the top of my head.
Taran dropped down for the crab walk after that, and got maybe 7 feet before we hit the time cap. I don't think I've ever been so happy to have hit time. Finally. Finished.
So tired....
We didn't get first... or second... or third. I wanted a top 30% finish, but frankly, I'm somewhat excited that we finished at 12 of 17. Not terrible for my first time out. Happened to be Tarans first competition too. Good times.
I did get this for my troubles. After the team winners were announced, they had extra awards for sweat hogs, best team spirit, best costume, and a few other thing. I got the first award. I'm On Track FAMOUS now!
No, the honest jerk side of me is looks at lit like a backhanded complement, but the majority of me is like yeah... I pushed harder than I've ever pushed before, did more than before, and kept moving forward, so this is freaking sweet!!! I even took a bow after accepting my cert, prize, and all the goodies that came with it. Might as well enjoy the spotlight while I'm in it. :)
Alright, thats all I've got for the competition, we had a pot luck after, lots of great jobs, fist bumps, high fives. Yet another thing that makes getting off the road my #1 priority right now....
Out of competition memories at the moment, if I think of more, I'll edit them in.
One bit of "other news", took flights on 3 different models of airplanes this week. Didn't need a seat belt extender on any of them. So awesome. Vindication. Hard work paying off. #HWPO YESSIR.
Thanks for reading, I'm tired, I've been working on this off and on for a while now (tv is so distracting). I'm going to bed. Thanks for the great day Diana, Brian, and the rest of the folks who made this possible at On Track!
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