Another year of the Primal Throwdown was upon us.
It seemed to sneak up on us this year – seems
like only a month ago that the open was ending though it was actually closer to
3.
Funny how fast time flies.
My training heading into this year was much different than
last – last year I had the month of June off from work and there were many more
double day WODs whereas this year there were more WODs overall, heavier and
longer in some cases but less double days so I wasn’t sure how the weekend
would go. I honestly didn’t have much
excitement or expectation going into it – I knew the WODs would be challenging
and (likely) heavy, I knew I wanted to come top 10 again though I knew the
competition would be tougher and that was about it for my mental state. It’s probably best covered in another post
but overall I’m not feeling as strong at this point compared to last year
though I know rationally that I am (by a lot) – my head space has just changed
and it’s interesting to contemplate sometimes though not coherent enough to lay
out here.
So… we all showed up bright (dark) and early Saturday
morning – the Rx division had started the night before in a swim WOD that was
fun to watch but the rest of us only started on Saturday. The first three WODs of the day were posted
when we arrived.
WOD #1
5 rounds
5 minute cut-off
6 axle deadlifts (72kg)
6 broad jumps (1.6m)
4:04 (16th
place)
This was a tough one to lead into though felt good about it
given that we’d had a bit of practice with the axle bars already and I knew
that I could deadlift them though also knew that 72kg would feel heavier than
72kg on a normal bar. The WOD didn’t
look too rough though in the earlier heats you could see some girls struggling
with them. I started off strong going
unbroken in the first two sets of deadlifts – the broad jumps took more out of
me than I expected though – having little legs and needing to clear the
distance meant that I had to give it my all and each rep I landed in a full
depth squat which took a huge toll on my back.
I finished out the deadlifts going 4-2, 3-3 and then 2-2-2. I thought I’d place higher with my time –
having finished it (when it seemed that in earlier rounds many didn’t) but
happy to have it done.
I remember at one point looking at Naydine who was beside me
(she smashed it) and seeing her just step to the line and jump like it was no
big deal – an unfortunately part of being short(er)… oh well, works to my favor
in other events such as WOD #2.
As soon as this WOD was over I knew my back was pretty f$%^ed. Thankfully Cam was kind enough to give me a bit of a rub down with some tiger balm and later on Jas taped it up for me (after taping my shoulder earlier in the day) - super big thanks to her for this as it definitely helped me get through the WODs.
WOD #2
12 minute AMRAP
Burpees
EMOM do 8 x 10m shuttle runs
99 (10th
place)
Seeing this first thing in the morning upon arrival was just
mean. 12 minutes of burpees with a bit
of running rest. Not sure who the evil
genius was that programmed this WOD but man it was a beast. 12 minutes is forever.
We all knew that the runs would be the ‘rest’ and that it
wouldn’t be a sprint so much as a shuffle recovery to breath. It was good that we only had to get one foot
fully across the line (as opposed to having to touch with a hand or whatnot)
but they definitely weren’t fast. I
smashed out 12 burpees on the first round (we had to jump up onto a 20kg plate
and lock out for the rep to count) and then held onto 8 reps per minute the
rest of the way (pretty much). It became
quite clear when you knew to line up for the run or whether you had time to
squeeze in one last rep – usually if there was 5 seconds or more left I could
finish a rep and then run – this made a difference though if you could get in
one more a round.
The biggest hurt I had on this WOD was in my quads (and the
one time that I hit the concrete hard with my knee). Every jump forward and then onto the plate
was tough (after the deadlifts and broad jumps) on my legs and my shoulders
actually didn’t feel too bad (surprisingly though I think this would catch up
to me through the weekend). I really
wanted to get in one more rep for an even 100 but just missed it – wouldn’t
have mattered for my placing though.
It was after this WOD – checking the scoreboard that we all
started to realize that there would be a WOD #4 that was not yet posted on the
walls – it was however in the webscorer and was a 2 minute snatch AMRAP – so two
more WODs for the day.
WOD #3
6 minute cut-off
400m row
30 KB clean and jerks (16kg – 15 consecutive each arm)
20 pistols (any way)
10 pull-ups
6:10 (8th
place)
I was actually looking forward to this one and hoping to
make it into the pull-ups (my goal was just 1 pull-up). I felt solid on the row – just maintaining a
steady pace between 1:50-1:55/ 500m split while breathing and getting ready for
the KBs. I had done a few warm up reps
to decide which arm to start on and decided to start on my left as my right
(though stronger) was feeling sore (and was taped for the weekend). I had a game plan of going 6-5-4 for reps on
each arm but when I got to 6 on the left I kept going knocking out 8. The second set I managed to get through the 7
and followed this up with the same on my right.
It felt good and I found I wasn’t using my legs as much because they
were hurting (which later would turn out to be a bit of a downfall for
me). The pistols were a bit wobbly. I did more of them on my right leg than my
left after bouncing through a few on my left and taking too much time to lock
them out. I had one where I hopped around
and came so very close to falling off the mat (a no rep) but managed to hold on
and saw Coach Clare smile at me.
Heh. I finished the pistols with
about 5 seconds or so on the clock and ran to the bars, jumped up and didn’t have
enough time to complete a rep which was unfortunate but was happy to even get
to it, not quite my goal but close. Would
have needed two pull-ups to jump up on the leaderboard at all so in the end it
didn’t matter but there was a little disappointment that I didn’t get to bust
out the pull-ups especially given the judging looks coming my way by a few specific
(non-crossfitting) girls.
Love these photos that Bruce captured of Steph and I doing our synchronized KB clean and jerks.
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| Synchronized KB's (photo stolen from Steph and Bruce) |
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| Synchronized KB's (photo stolen from Steph and Bruce) |
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| pistol time (photo stolen from Steph and Bruce) |
There was a lot of sitting around through the day – long waits
between WODs which was tough on my body – I was in the last heat for WOD #1 and
then heat 4 on WOD #2 so a fairly quick turnaround before another long way
heading into WOD #3. The same went for
WOD #4 being in the last heat again – which wasn’t until almost 6pm (after
arriving for 7am). I think this all caught
up to me on the last WOD.
WOD #4
2 minute AMRAP
Snatch (30kg)
9 reps (12th
place)
For the intermediate division we had the option of power
snatching and then doing an OHS – having to go through the full range of motion
in some form. My intent was to squat
snatch the reps and I did a few solid ones in warm up and again once we got on the
floor but I’m not sure if it was fatigue or adrenaline but the first rep of the
WOD I didn’t reach full depth on the squat snatch and had to OHS it
anyway. I think I tried to
overcompensate on the second rep and dumped the bar over my head – I just
couldn’t catch it – and landed on my ass.
I then lost my confidence and went to power snatches and OHS the rest of
the way. I did a few touch and go and
then when I would drop the bar I’d try and pick it up again right away. The power snatches were ugly – no technique
at all – getting my legs wide rather than low because I was tired and
sore. I’m happy with the number I go
though I’m sure I could have gotten a few extra if I didn’t mess around so much
on the first two reps (which took almost 35 seconds). One extra rep would have brought me up to 10th
place, two would have got me 6th so it definitely emphasized the ‘every
rep counts’ mantra. Want to focus on doing
more EMOM sets especially when I’m tired to focus on keeping better technique
when it’s needed.
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| concentration - (photo from Alphafit's facebook page) |
I finished off day 1 in 8th place overall so I
was happy with that. Wanted to be in top
10 and after working my way back from the deadlift WOD managed to get there
after WOD #3 and stay there the rest of the day so solid effort though my body
was definitely hurting. Went for Nando’s
to refuel and then home to shower and spend the night sleeping in compression
gear on my heating blanket ready to wake up and do it all again.
