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Oh my goodness… where do I start with this Blog…

I have been completely overwhelmed by my first competition experience. Leading up to the event I was worried that my expectations where set too high.

What was my expectation level? Great question… thanks for asking…

My goal or expectation was to NOT finish last and don’t die. That’s all I wanted. Just don’t be last.

As I talked with people and they asked about how nervous I was, I would respond that I’m really nervous and my goal is to simply not finish last. The majority of people smiled and then responded that in their first competition they finished last. My eyes would get big and I began to doubt my lofty expectation of not bringing in the bottom of the results page.

What have I gotten myself into?

The days leading up to the event, I was nervous and basically walking around wondering where I went wrong in life. I slept great the night before and woke up to a mix of great excitement and nervousness. I had gone through all the events leading up to the competition and felt good about the movements. We had our Barbell Voodoo clothes on, Jamie had shared a food plan for the day, and Enter-Nous set me up with all the food for the day according to the plan… I was as ready as I could be.

My amazing partner Justin (You might remember him from past blogs) and I had our matching team shirts from Barbell Voodoo… we felt good and looked good.

Team Vicious and Delicious was ready to kick it!

Those of you who might be unfamiliar with a CrossFit competition, it’s basically people competing in exercises… sound a little weird and dumb, but really pretty amazing! The competition involves four different workouts. (Two before lunch and two after lunch) Each event has a way of keeping score and a judge to make sure you are keeping movement standards, counting reps properly, and following the rules.

The First workout was: Two minute Tangos – presented by VersaLifts
Rope Climb
Alternating DB Snatch (50/35/20)
Deadball Over/Unders (100/80/60)
Overhead Squats (135/95/65)
Double Unders

Each team will have two minutes to perform as many reps as possible at each station. There will be a 1 minute rest between stations. Athletes may switch as needed.

The Second Workout: Big Frog’s Chitty Chit Bang Bang
For time (12 min time cap):

Partner 1
250m Row
15 KB Swings 53/35/26
25 burpee over rower
15 KB Swings 53/35/26

Partner 1 & Partner 2 Share (see rules below): 500m Row

Partner 2
15 KB Swings 53/35/26
25 burpee over rower
15 KB Swings 53/35/26
250m Row

The Third Workout: Karen goes for a Ride!–presented by Smashville Mobility–
For time of: (12 Min. Time Cap)
150 Wall Balls 20/14
200 Calorie Air bike for M/M divisions, 175 cals for M/F divisions, 150 cals for F/F divisions

The Fourth Workout:

Barbell Voodoo’s Complex to the Max

Each team will have 12 minutes to complete a max total combined weight of each member’s heaviest successful complex. Athletes must complete the entire complex unbroken for the lift to count. No lifting straps may be used.

1 Deadlift
2 Hang Cleans
3 Front Squats
4 Shoulder to Overhead
3 Front Squats
2 Hang Cleans
1 Deadlift

After the first workout, we were in 11th place (Out of 13 teams)… so far so good. In the second workout we got 12 place… right in front of the team that didn’t show up. haha! That’s right, we were guaranteed not to finish dead last because a team didn’t show up. That’s a confidence booster!

We ate lunch and came back in to do battle… everything was about to change and we didn’t see it coming. In the third event, we went in feeling confident about finishing, even though it appeared that very few teams were able to complete to work in the allotted time. The plan was for me to focus on the bike… and bike like hell! Justin was to focus on knocking out as many Wall Balls as possible and we would break up the work by switching once he completed a big set of Wall Balls. I only did sets of 10 Wall Balls at a time and he did 20+ every time. The crazy thing is that we finished that thing and the crowd went NUTZ!!! Really… it was an unbelievable moment. People all over the gym were blow away by what we just did. We completed the work in 10 minutes and 16 seconds. (Remember there was a 12 minute cap) This might have been the closest I’ve been to catching the game winning touchdown… Justin and I were PUMPED!!! We were the ONLY team in our division that finished the work. Absolutely amazing. To add a little more perspective… the RX division (The really stellar athletes) only had four teams complete the work faster than our time. Freaking unbelievable! I’m still jacked about it! That was our jam!

The final workout was a max complex were you couldn’t put down the bar. We finished fifth in that one and I maxed out at #180. In total, we were about 40 LBS away from finishing in first.

All and all, It was one of the bast days of my life. I did things that I didn’t think were possible and did way better than any expectation I could have had for myself. Over all we finished in 7th place… right in the middle. I’ll take that all day long!

Here’s the take aways…

1. Stop using your body as an excuse to not do something. Just because your body doesn’t look as fit or you aren’t seemly in shape like everyone else, doesn’t mean you can’t come in and kick butt! Show up and do you… you are enough and you will surprise yourself with what could happen.
2. Work hard at what you CAN do and do the best you can at the things that might be challenging at the time. We were at the bottom of the pack until we hit a sweet spot.
3. Believe EVERYONE when they tell you how much fun competitions are… they are a blast!
4. The CrossFit community is still a great community even in the midst of competition.  I was nervous, not because of the movements, but because people would see me working out… they could see things shake and move. They would be able to see me struggle, see my weaknesses, and see me fight for everything. There’s no hiding in competition. What I saw was the same thing I see everyday in our local boxes, a community that wants to see you succeed… to go beyond what you thought you could do and get into the place where you magic happens.

What’s next… Vicious and Delicious is already signed up for our next competition on October 14th in Florida. It’s going to be awesome… watch for more to come.

In the mean time… KEEP GOING!