“There is nothing impossible to him who will try.” – Alexander the Great

Another big weekend, BlogLand!

This weekend, it was time to tackle Open WOD 16.2! I felt okay going into it, all things continued, as I had A Plan.
My goal was to get into Round 3, although that seemed like it was going to be a huge fight, given the fact that knees to elbows was going to be a rough one for my grip and jump rope and I have a hate-hate relationship.
I'm THRILLED to report that not only did I get into round 3, I *almost* finished it!

Starting the WOD, the atmosphere in the gym was great. Something about The Open seems to really bring out the community feel, as everyone is fighting the same battle (It's Us. vs. Dave Castro!). Even better, my long-time Spahten friend and many-race battle buddy, was there visiting. We got our warm ups done, exchanged pep-talks and took our places under our pull up bars.

I was a little nervous, but having thought out a solid plan was really helping me be "okay" with what was about to go down. I admit, part of me was thinking that - worse case scenario - my WOD would only be 4 minutes! WOO!

3...2...1... GO.

I took off with sets of 5 knees raises and was able to consistently bang out all 25 that way, with just a couple seconds in between each set. Right on target!
On to the jump rope, I took a deep breath and feeling good still, I did my two sets - 30 and 20 - right on point. No tripping, no getting flustered. YES.
I picked up the bar for my first set of squat cleans and threw up that 55# bar like nothing (the fact that it was so light caught me off guard a bit! ha!). There are some times that having one skill set like lifting heavy things, comes in handy!
I kept a steady pace and one eye on the clock.
BOOM.
Put down the 15th squat clean and looked nervously at the clock - TIME TO SPARE!!!
WHAAAAT?! I DID IT!

Had to squash that mental celebration a bit, because I knew I'd need all the time I'd banked to keep going, as I started to get tired. Stick to The Plan!

Onto the second set of knees to elbows, and I managed another solid 5 sets of 5 reps to get those things done. It really helped to take a lesson from my Man, the rock climber... don't over grip! There's nothing that's going to burn out your forearms and grip faster than the infamous Death Grip. The Death Grip is often the result of nerves or overthinking... I was not going to fall victim to that! I kept just enough grip to keep me on that bar and made sure to utilize a little bit of the swing momentum ( I wouldn't call it a kip... it wasn't that graceful. LOL!) to help keep moving.
Done!
Onto that damn jump rope!
Definitely starting to huff and puff a bit, but still felt pretty good and strong. A deep breath and on to the jump rope. A little less graceful than the first round, but still manged to pull it out with two big sets. YES!!! Made it to the barbell!
Amazingly, it seemed I was outrunning the clock, noting that I finished the jump rope at the 10:24 mark. A whole minute and a half to bust out like 13 squat cleans!

Now, I will admit (Sorry Robyn!), the squat cleans turned a little more into power cleans and front squats. Weirdly, the fact that the weight was so light (for me) at only 75#,  actually made it harder, as I didn't NEED to get under the bar to clean it. Therefore, I was off and running, up and down!

Looking at the clock, I realized I had started to slow a bit (..can't... breathe... huff...puff...) and had lost some of the time I'd banked. Time to kick it into high gear.
BAM - kick out those touch and go squat cleans!
Putting down number 13, I look at my judge, who enthusiastically smiles and waves me on!

HOLY SHIT. (Yes. That was the actually thought process).

I MADE IT TO ROUND THREE!!

Okay Self, I thought, just keep it consistent!

Grabbing the bar in that third round definitely had a different flavor. I was out of breath and wasn't recovering as much as I needed to. This is where the decision was going to be made, and I wasn't ready to quit yet.

So, 3 knees to elbows in, I drop off the bar. Couldn't quite pull out 5. No problem - I'd planned for this. Now, we're at sets of 3. No problem.

I definitely lost some time here, doing sets of threes, but hoped I could make it up with consistency moving forward.

Back onto that damn jump rope. Definitely less grace on this round, but again (!!!) made it in 2 big sets..... to 49. (D'oh!!!) Lost a little more time busting out that one hop.

I was thrilled to be back at the bar, even though it had gotten reloaded to 95#.

.... but I was starting to fade a bit. It felt like my lungs were on fire, I couldn't breathe.... but I looked at the clock and realized I didn't have time to breathe.

Squat Cleans devolved a bit into muscle cleans and front squats - again, lost some time here, but was able to be consistent. With the clock catching up and the community cheering me on, I pushed to try and bang out those squat cleans, as I knew it was going to be close - I MIGHT be able to make it into Round 4.

Sadly, my cardio-(in)capabilities made the determination on this one, and the clock beat me at 12 minutes - with only 3 squat cleans to go.

AWWWW.... Man. SOOOOOO close. THREE left.

I would've loved to crack round 4, but it's okay. Honestly, I didn't think I'd make it as far as I did, so I'm calling this one a major victory.

On finishing, my grip was blown out and I was drenched in sweat and dying a little bit, so I think I left it all out there.

In retrospect, could I have made it through that third round? Yeah, maybe. There were a couple of places I think I could've saved a little time, or pushed a little harder and cracked into round 4. But, isn't there always? I'm really satisfied banking a score of 261 for this WOD. Amazingly - out of scaled women in the Northeast, this was a good enough score to put me smack in the middle of the field! YEAH! (NOT LAST! EEE!).

The hardest part of this whole WOD was actually the aftermath, for me.

I was feeling pretty awesome coming out of the WOD. I made a good showing and pulled out a score that many people would be happy with. .... Then I looked at the pictures.

*sigh*

It is super hard to feel good about what you've just done, when you see the pictures and they don't reflect the way you feel. I know I'm a big person right now, but I worked hard as hell and I really wanted to see the pictures that reflected that success.

Pictures came out and I got some action shots this time.... and while they're not as bad as the shots from the competition a few weeks ago, it's really disheartening to just continue to see the mismatch between how I feel and how I look. UGH.

BUT. *deep breath*

I'm working hard at refocusing on the accomplishment. Gotta keep your head in the game and keep taking steps - however small - forward.
Today, I focusing on the fact that I not only got out there and am competing in The Open, but I'm doing it as a (gulp) almost 300# women. If I can gasp and pant my way through this shit, anyone should be able to!

Now, we rest, foam roll and gear up for 16.3 to come. I'm happy that we've crossed jump rope off the list, no more burpees..... I'm thinking we're going to see a row in there sometime soon. I would REALLY, really like to see something like a heavy barbell ladder, or something I can really dive into. However, regardless of what is to come, I'm happy I stepped out of my comfort zone and have jumped in to The Open.

"Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan." - Tom Landry

So, Blogland.... The Open 16.2 WOD was announced last night.

Yes... I watched it live with equal parts fear and anticipation. After last week's long and grueling WOD, I was sooooooo hoping for something short and heavy - which would play a little more to my strengths.

What happened? Well, I got my wish about barbells.... but, you have to EARN your way to a barbell. Here's what 16.2 looks like (RX):

Beginning on a 4-minute clock, complete as many reps as possible of:
  25 toes-to-bars
  50 double-unders
  15 squat cleans, 135 / 85 lb.

If completed before 4 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
  25 toes-to-bars
  50 double-unders
  13 squat cleans, 185 / 115 lb.

If completed before 8 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
  25 toes-to-bars
  50 double-unders
  11 squat cleans, 225 / 145 lb.

If completed before 12 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
  25 toes-to-bars
  50 double-unders
  9 squat cleans, 275 / 175 lb.

If completed before 16 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
  25 toes-to-bars
  50 double-unders
  7 squat cleans, 315 / 205 lb.

Stop at 20 minutes.

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Well.... T2B and DU's are not in my range right now, so here's the scaled version, that I'll be attempting:

Beginning on a 4-minute clock, complete as many reps as possible of:
  25 hanging knee raises
  50 single-unders
  15 squat cleans, 95 / 55 lb.

If completed before 4 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
  25 hanging knee raises
  50 single-unders
  13 squat cleans, 115 / 75 lb.

If completed before 8 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
  25 hanging knee raises
  50 single-unders
  11 squat cleans, 135 / 95 lb.

If completed before 12 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
  25 hanging knee raises
  50 single-unders
  9 squat cleans, 155 / 115 lb.

If completed before 16 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
  25 hanging knee raises
  50 single-unders
  7 squat cleans, 185 / 135 lb.

Stop at 20 minutes.

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Basically the same, I'll just be replacing T2B with hanging knee raises and double unders with single unders. I probably could've handled a few rounds of the prescribed squat cleans, but lucky for me, since I'm going scaled, I get some MUCH lighter weights. 

Time to devise a plan, as I always feel better going into situations like this if I have a game plan. If your brain knows what to do before hand - so you don't have to strategize on the fly, mid WOD - I find I get a better performance. 

So first, time to identify my strength here - obviously going to be the squat cleans (which can be done as a power clean + a front squat). I know I can clean the scaled weight for all of these rounds, and I know I can front squat much more than that... so, the squat cleans are definitely going to be my excel area. 

THAT said... I've got to do some steady to fast work before I can get to the barbell, which is going to be the tricky part. 

Hanging knee raises are EXHAUSTING for me. Not as much on the actual knee raise part (not saying that's "easy" though...!!), but more that my grip just fails completely. There's a lot of me to hang from a bar, and my grip just doesn't have the strength to hang there through 25 of these things. SO... how do I work around it? Well, in all the CrossFit tips videos, even for the RX athletes, they recommend saving your grip by breaking up the time hanging from the bar. So, my strategy will be to do 5 sets of 5, with a couple seconds of rest (shake out those hands!) in between. Realistically, I'm going to guess that the clock may catch me after 2 rounds (I'm hoping not!), so I think that sets of 5 is something I can sustain for a couple of rounds. 

Moving on to jump rope...... ugh. (WHY, Dave Castro, WHY?!?!!!). 

Jump rope and I have a really tumultuous relationship. I can actually jump rope, I swear. I can even do it for sets of 50 at a time - I know this, because I have done this. HOWEVER, as soon as my legs get a little tired, it all falls apart; I don't jump as high, I trip on the rope and otherwise generally look like a hot mess flinging a rope around. 

But... in terms of this workout, I think I might be okay. First round, I'll get to jump rope relatively fresh, so I should be able to get through them in one consistent set of 50 (that's the goal). BUT, if I need to stop and regroup, it's going to be 2 sets of 25 (we'll have to decide that one on the fly). The cleans are really light for me, and not a huge amounts, so I should still have a good set of legs (that will get a break while I struggle through knee raises) going into round two. Round two, I'm anticipating two sets of 25 for jump rope. Purposely breaking it up into two sets will allow me to stay focused and composed, rather than flustered and floppy if I start getting tired. 

Let's talk about goals... I feel like this looks deceptively "manageable". Like, I'm going to need to bank all the time I can during power cleans, if I'd like to keep making it through rounds. I'm relatively certain I can make it through Round 1 and into Round 2. I'm also feeling pretty confident that I can make it through Round 2 and into Round 3. My guess is Round 3 will be where my grip starts to fail and I get tired (roughly 8-10 min in), and the jump ropes start to get sloppy/trippy. 

Can I make it to round 4? Possibly I could finish all 5?! Possible - Yes. Not sure if that's going to happen, but I'm going to give it a solid go. Just need to focus on banking the "extra" time early on, so I can rest a little more as the rounds progress. 

BlogLand, send your good vibes this way - I'd like to make a little better score at this WOD than with 16.1 (uuughhh!!!!). 

The good/fun news is that I'll have an unexpected visitor for this WOD!  My long lost Spahten friend and battle buddy needs to do an away-WOD while she's up in my area, away from her home box. YAY! I couldn't have asked for a better cheering section, while I beat this WOD into submission. :-)

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” - Michael Jordan

As I rolled out of bed this morning, I had this odd sense of satisfaction, dread and progress, all at the same time. Upon thinking about rolling over, a bunch of my core muscles screamed and reminded me they existed... no big deal, I thought... until I put my feet on the floor and went to stand up. THAT is the point at which my entire posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, lower back) alerted me - loudly - to the fact that we had done some things yesterday that we haven't done a lot of. As such, my hamstrings have decided they will make EVERY movement today difficult, while working with my abs and some back muscles I apparently slighted a bit yesterday, to really make sure I'm aware of what I did to them.  As a result, I had a serious debate with myself on whether I *really* needed to put socks on this morning so my feet didn't freeze, or if I could just deal with it...

But let's rewind. Yesterday was my once a week personal training session with Robyn! Yay! We've been at this like 10 months now (!?!) so have fallen into a pretty good groove. She's well aware of my capabilities and makes sure that she's always pushing me to take another step forward. She also knows when to yell at me to keep moving - something I find incredibly helpful in a trainer!

Since I sucked up my fear and signed up to do this year's CrossFit Open, I guess today was going to be a little bit of prep and a little bit of a trial run to show me how this will work. We did some warm up time - rowing, some sit ups, etc. - to get my body moving, and then on to the real work. Today's skill work was working on my power clean, as later in the workout, we'd be looking for a 6 min, one rep max on the clean and jerk.

Blogland, let me tell you, my brain has not entirely gotten on board with complex lifts like this yet. I 100% get all the individual parts. I know how to generate the power to move the bar. But, maybe it's the speed part (dropping under the bar), maybe it's linking it all together, maybe it's just a lot of muscle memory I don't have yet, but I have to think harder about accomplishing these things than I do about balancing my checkbook! Nonetheless, I do enjoy lifting and gave it a full effort to get to a practice weight of around 123# for a solid clean and jerk. I was sweating like I'd just been chased by rabid lions, but felt okay, heading into the main portion of our WOD for today.

To prep a bit for trying The Open this year, Robyn had me do the scaled version of 15.1 (the first workout from last year). It looks like this:
9 min AMRAP
15 knees to elbows
10 deadlifts (55#)
5 snatches (55#)
THEN, right into 15.1a:
6 min limit to find
1 RM Clean & Jerk

Before we started, I looked at this and thought, "This won't be so bad...", thinking I'd hit maybe 6-7 rounds in 9 min.
.... and then it began.
Since the dawn of time, my weakest area has always been my upper body - particularly my grip strength. There was a while where I was rock climbing a lot that dramatically improved my grip strength, but as it stands today, it's not so great. I remembered that fact immediately upon jumping up to grab the bar to begin my first set of knees to elbows. It was not the core that struggled, it was keeping my hands on that damn bar! Ultimately, I had to do this in sets of 5, because my hands just fatigued too quickly (to be fair, I guess they're trying to hold up a significant amount of body weight at the moment).
After slogging through that first set, it was on to the deadlifts - YAY! This is definitely my wheelhouse, particularly with such a light weight like 55#. Busted through 10 like a boss. That first set of 55# snatches went up pretty easily, so back to the bar it was, for more knees to elbows.
I snuck a glance at the clock and that's where the evilness of this WOD hit me... it'd only been like a minute or so. I had a lot of grueling minutes left to go, and it looked like several rounds, and my hands were already ALL DONE with this idea.
Ohhhhhh boy.
That's where it becomes a mind of matter workout. Did I want to do sets of 5 knees to elbows, no. I really only wanted to do 1 or 2 at a time.... but, I just told my brain, "we're doing sets of five."
Plus, this is where it helps to have a coach motivating you. Somewhere, about halfway through, I was seriously sucking wind. My lungs were imploding, I'm sure of it. I finished another round of K2E and Robyn was telling me to "get right back on the (lifting) bar". She apparently was confident that I was not going to die from lung-splosion. :-)

I finished that 9 minutes with 5 rounds, 4 reps and was on to the 6 minute to build up to a 1RM clean and jerk.  Turns out, 133# was what I had in me, after the previous wod. I'm pretty happy with that, as C&J still feels like an awkward movement to me. The jerk is not the problem (oddly?), just getting under that rising bar to clean some bigger weight! It is a work in progress.

After all that, I definitely earned a couple of minutes starfishing on the gym floor, remembering how to breathe.

When I got home, I couldn't resist comparing my scores to people that did the scaled division last year. Mostly, I wanted some perspective on how far towards the bottom I would be this year, and how much I had to talk myself into it being just a good activity marker for right now.

As it turns out - it was much better than I thought! Of people that did the scaled 15.1 wod last year, I was smack in the middle for rounds/reps (50th-60th percentile).  For the clean and jerk, I was (amazingly!) in the 75th percentile! So, maybe I have something to bring to this after all (at least in the scaled division!).

Honestly, I admit, that was a big confidence boost for me. I was really anticipating starting the Open (next week?) and bringing up the bottom of the pack every week. I guess it's the same fear that makes you think you're going to come in last in your race, etc. While I might be the slowest one in my gym, or the least reps, or whatever it is, Nationally - I'm not last. Contrary to the fact that my mind likes to remind me of how fat, slow and out of shape I am... I've been working hard, and I have something to show for it. It may not be a muscle up, or a clean set up pushups, or a 5K run with no walking.... but I've been working, and dammit if I've not COMPETING in the Open this year.

Now, with that, I'm off to cry on my foam roller a bit, because my hamstrings are cranky bitches.