CROSSFIT IRELAND FITNESS INVITATIONAL 6 FEB 2010
think Iâ??ve finally recovered enough to give my account of the Crossfit Ireland February Invitationalâ?¦
The week leading up to it wasnâ??t a great one for me. I was stuck down in rural Mayo with work in a small hotel with no pool or gym. Normally I donâ??t do full deloads but this one was enforced. I was stiff as a board by the end of the week because I was sitting down all day and then had almost a 4.5 hour drive back thanks to traffic jams. The only actual â??exerciseâ?? type work I did for the week was 2 nights of stretching to try and keep loose.
Got back in to Dublin at 7.30pm on Friday and was back in town for 8.30 for a work reunion party. Told myself I was only having 3 drinks. Ended up having a 3x that amount, and a bit on the way to a brilliant night with lots of laughter and stories, so it was worth it. Decided the best was to counteract the alcohol was with copious amounts of water, so 5l was consumed between 11.30pm and 2am when I eventually made it to bed.
Was on the road to CFI at 8.15am feeling remarkably fresh. It was nice to get there a few hours before the WODâ??s commenced, gave me lots of time to wake up properly and get stretched out.
First WOD was a Tabata mash up (20 seconds on, 10 rest for 8 rounds of each);
-Deadlifts w/ 100kg
-Chest to bar pull ups
I knew I was going to kill the deadlifts, but would probably suffer on the C2B pull ups so I gamed accordingly. I averaged about 4 pull ups per round, slightly less perhaps, but managed to score 113 which was good enough for first. I think second place came in at 107. So I woulda pulled 89 deadlifts during the 8 rounds â?? 11 per round or a deadlift every 2 seconds, fairly happy with that.
I generally donâ??t do recovery well. I have absolutely no problem turning off that little part of my brain that tells me to stop, but I usually suffer for it afterwards because I canâ??t move. I knew that coming into the day so sandbagged the first workout a bit. Call it 95% effort to try and keep a bit in reserve for WOD 2 and 3.
By the time WOD 2 rolled around I still wasnâ??t feeling 100% so thank god I took the first one easy. It was max rounds in 10 minutes of;
3 snatches w/ 40kg
6 toes to bars
9kcal row
I scored 7 rounds plus 1 snatch and promptly fell on my ass attempting the second snatch right as the clock ran out. That was good enough for 3rd place. It was a tough WOD but manageable, mainly thanks to the cycle time of the snatches and the strapping in and out of the rower giving an extra bit of time to catch my breath. The hardest part of the WOD was the toes to bar. My left shoulderâ??s extremely dodge and tends to try and subluxate if I spend any time handing or kipping on a bar. I can bust out a strict set of 10-12 when Iâ??m fresh without any trouble but as I got fatigued my ability to lock my shoulder down just disappeared, so even tho the 6â??s woulda been ok, I had to drop off mid set each time and shake my shoulder out. I wouldnâ??t have gotten thru this WOD as well as I did if it wasnâ??t for 3 reasons â?? chasing Dominic beside me, Garvan shouting abuse the whole way thru and having Will give constant encouragement and tips, so thanks a million for that guys. Will had to take a few snatches off me for not hitting full extenstion (musta been 5 or 6?) and I dropped the bar on my head mid way thru. Good fun other than that.
I was joint first after all that, and staring down the barrel of a straight slug off with David S in the final WOD.
WOD 3 was always gonna suuuuuuuuuuuuck. I just knew by the look of it that itâ??d be my weakest event by a mile, and probably Davidâ??s strongest!! Total reps scored decided placings, it was 3 rounds of;
-1 minute of thrusters w/ 45kg
-1 minute of box jumps to a 24 inch box
-1 minute of KB swings with a 24kg â??bell
-1 minute rest
Decided my best option was to try and get my reps on the thrusters and swings, and I was right â?? I nearly fell off the box about a million times trying to get up onto it, left some of my skin on it too. Myself and David were dead even coming into the final round, Iâ??d won the first by 6, he won the second by the same margin. During the last round of KB swings is probably the single hardest Iâ??ve ever pushed myself in any Metcon. Iâ??m pretty sure I was out on my feet for the last 5 reps. All I remember is blurry tunnel vision, a big crowd screaming encouragement, and pain, that horrible burning pain EVERYWHERE. I could see David all the way thru outta the corner of my eye and could sense myself pulling away a bit on them, but I didnâ??t know how many box jumps more he had done than me so I just pushed as hard as I could. As soon as time was called I didnâ??t even bother trying to stop the swing of the â??bell, I just let it go between my legs and got catapulted forward to the floor. I donâ??t think I moved for about 20 minutes after it. I didnâ??t feel even 90% for a solid 2 hours afterwards either.
In the end, David edged me out by 4 reps. 162 versus my 158. Speaking to him afterwards, I got 1 more thruster on the final round, and I think 3 or 4 more swings. The bloody box jumps got me in the end!! Fair play to the guy tho, I pushed absolutely as hard as I could, and came up short.
A thousands thanks to David S and Dominic B for being such hard ass competitors (and really nice guys too!), I donâ??t think any of us woulda done what we did without us all being so close together, thanks to Shane for keeping his top on and to all the other competitors and spectators for making it a great day. Thanks to Tony for spotting me in WOD 1, Will in WOD 2 and Stephen (Special K) in WOD 3, I wouldnâ??t have gotten thru the workouts as well as I did without their help and encouragement. Same goes for the crowd all the way thru. Hitting WODâ??s with a wall of sound behind me gives that extra 5% that isnâ??t always there in the gym on your own.
As Iâ??ve said elsewhere, thanks to Colm, Will and Tom for organising, Amy for keeping things running smoothly, Louise and Marianne (I think?) for their treats (which I barely got to sample, but all reports said were delish) and to anyone else Iâ??m forgetting (sorry!!).
I canâ??t wait to see the videos and photos of the day!! It was great meeting everyone again, and getting to meet others for the first time. Not gonna single anyone out at all, because youâ??re all worth a mention for one reason or another!!
In summation, I went from 13th as a fat 110kg powerlifter with like a 41 inch waist and 21mm calliper reading at the May â??09 Invitational to a 2nd place finish as an almost lean 95kg powerlifter with a waist under 34 inches and calliper reading of sub 10mm on Saturday. Iâ??m stronger, fitter, in better condition and in much better shape now than I was then, and you can bet your life on me coming back even stronger, leaner and with a much higher level of conditioning on May 22nd for the next one.
