#crossfitnewry

18.3 is here, and it’s a mixed bag of emotions. We were expecting to see muscle ups this week, but many of us wrongly predicted a 15.3 repeat. There’s a lot of unfinished business from 15.3 that some were hoping to settle. It was a memorable wod for me, I failed to score a single rep and injured my shoulder trying. We learn from every single wod we do and some lessons are more valuable than others. After 15.3, 8 weeks of physio, countless squats, lunges and leggy dominated training I made a resolve... 3 attempts at a move or a lift, if it doesn’t happen, leave it for another day. I’ve more or less stuck to it, and haven’t had an injury since. Another crack at 15.3 would have made for interesting results sheet reading, but we’ll have to wait... 

There’s been a bit of a trend this year, 18.1 was a 20 min grind, favoring those with a good engine. 18.2 teased the strong among us with the chance at a 1 RM clean, but it had to be earned. Cardio. Anybody like me, who regularly works out down on Cherry Farm was gonna struggle to make it to the bar. So it’s all very well being strong af, but to paraphrase something read recently, ‘if the intensity isn’t high, nobody gives a fuck what’s on the bar’.

CrossFit outlines Ten General Physical Skills 

Have a look at the list and consider how many of these were required to get through 18.2 - This is pretty simple programming, simple and hard-hitting, there’s still a little hangover of doms in a lot of quads from this one. 

The other element to 18.2 was planning, if you were one who did make it to the bar, you had to think about how many lifts to make, how much time there was to do them and how to get the bar loaded. 

Athletes and Judges need to communicate, make sure you watch the videos and read the workout descriptions for all workouts. If you’re judging, know the standards100% Talk it out before the start, mid workout is not the place for chat! 

18.3 needs a bit of planning too. Some people will be gunning for two rounds, others might just be hoping to get through the first set of double unders and under that heavier than we’ve seen before weight for the OHS. Some people in the scaled division might be hoping for their very first pull up. I’m hoping to get to the ring muscle up stage, everyone has a slightly different goal and that’s fine, we’re all excited and nervous for different reasons.

Plan it out, be realistic, there’s a load of videos out there for people who are aiming for two rounds, “power snatch the bar” they say, but for some it might be wiser to clean and jerk into a steady position. 

Whatever your goal, whatever your division, this wod is going to massively tax the shoulders, grip and forearms... Open workouts are designed to to leave you in a state of ‘wtf just happened’ there’s a very short window to get it done. You should have a good idea where you’d like to finish up on this one. We’ve all been there at the end of a workout, saying “I could have gone harder” The challenge is do it, go harder the first time, plan it, you’re here to fuck shit up, not the other way round. 

how did 15.1 go for you? 

15.1 is done and we’re all through the first round of the 2015 CrossFit Open with a score on the board.

15.1 was an exciting two part WoD with 15 minutes on the clock, 9 mins for a classic triplet style wod 15.1  the remaininng 6 mins for 15.1a  1 RM Clean & Jerk

RX 15 toes to bar 10 deadlift 52.5/34 5 snatches 52.5/34

SC 15 hanging knee raises 10 deadlift 38/25 5 snatch 38/25 (ground to overhead was acceptable)

15.1a

6 minutes to find a 1RM Clean & Jerk

It’s one of those WoDs that looks not too bad on paper, but as we all now know it was pretty expensive on the grip! Anyone watching the head to head with Froning & Fraser will have seen how early on these guys started to break up the ttb… This is where you should begin to make a plan of how you’re going to attack the Open workouts, when the best in the world are breaking up reps early on, it’d be wise to follow suit. I was sidelined on Friday night due to a week of illness but I was in CrossFit Newry to help with judging.   Everyone had issues with stringing ttb together and this was noted in the number of no reps being called. Every rep has to count in the Open, whatever it is, “No Rep” is not something you want to hear. Doing ttb (or knee raises) in singles might be a little slow but as long as the rep count is going up, you’re doing good. The deads were light, but this is where the burn began to set in, all of a sudden people seemed super aware of grip, just a quick release then on to the snatches. Noticeable differences in members who attend Olympic Lifting classes with Timmy Graham, these guys were flying through the snatches! Perhaps another thing to consider for the future, Oly lifting classes. Every comp I’ve been to over the past 12 months has featured either Snatch or/and Clean & Jerk. Get comfortable with these two moves and CrossFit will become a lot easier!!

Then on to 15.1a

6 mins to find a 1RM Clean & Jerk, same rules for everyone, any kind of clean was acceptable and any form or jerk, push press, strict press as long as the bar finishes over head with the arms hips and knees locked out.

The same bar had to be used and the judge could not assist with loading/unloading the bar, most people took at least a minute rest and of all the people I judged nobody had more than 4 clean lifts. The trick was to figure what the final lift should be and work back at a max of 4 lifts. Some very impressive scores in both categories from this section and a lot of new pbs. Always good seeing smiling faces at the end of a WoD and Open WoDs are a bit special, the occasion and the memory tends to linger for a long time.  

Well done to everyone, especially those taking part in the Open for the first time, it can be daunting having a judge standing beside you, but it’s encouraging, it forces good reps and correct ranges, it also means you can give 100% to performance, you don’t have to count reps, full focus on the movement. The pressure is good too, you never know what you’re really capable of until you’re pressured!!

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Thankfully I was rested and recovered enough to do 15.1 before the deadline on Monday. Toes to bar I can do and the deadlift was light, but my snatch PB to date was 33kg and this was the part of the WoD I knew would give me the most grief. Hit the 34 on the warm up and was really pleased.

How you approach warming up has a huge knock on effect on how your workout is going to go, the first few reps of any session have the power to stay with you for the entire workout, miss them and that negativity can follow you, but finding focus and warming up with intent and attention to movement means you’re starting from the best possible place.

I broke up toes to bar right from the beginning, 3 sets of 5 and kept that throughout the WoD, 1 no rep on a snatch in the first round but the rest of the reps were good. In my head I thought 3 rounds would be good for me and I hit exactly three rounds with no seconds at all to spare. In hindsight 100+ reps would have been nice, but I’d have needed to pace a little quicker and not miss that damn snatch. Hindsight. That’s what is so great about the open, the post mortem of each wod and the scrutiny of results sheets, seeing who finished within a couple of reps of you and thinking “if I’d known that, I would have worked harder”. Of course, at the time you’re actually working as hard as you can, if you’re not… Well, you should be!!

Then on to 15.1a. I have questionable technique on cleans, it’s more of a muscle clean than a power clean for me, and for a long time 45kg was a sticking point. Managed to break through to 48kg at Christmas but the clean is a frustrating and emotional lift for me. I knew at best I’d have three good lifts, decided the first lift was going to be the weight already on the bar, then a jump to 45kg, then I left the option of either 48 or 50 on the floor. 45 went easy, I’ve attempted 50 a few times and never managed to clean it, everything else had gone well so with 60 seconds left on the clock, loaded 50kg on the bar and just went for it, I felt the bar rest in the rack position and couldn’t help smiling, PB! Push press and another big smile and I’m done! 15.1 done! I loved it, loved the two parts and have learned a lot from it.  There’s nothing quite like Open season… See you all on Friday for 15.2!!

Why Should You Enter the 2015 CrossFit Open?

Although I do come from a coaching background I am not a CrossFit coach, nor am I currently working in a coaching environment, I write from my own experiences, and mostly from an observational viewpoint.

A little over a year ago I was staring at the CrossFit Games page, wondering about entering the Open or not. I was 36 years old, had been doing CrossFit for less than 9 months and really wasn’t very good. It prompted me to post the question on the CrossFit Newry Facebook page, the responses led to a short discussion and as a result a bunch of us signed up for our first CrossFit Open. Here’s 4 reasons why you should sign up too.

1. You are ready! 

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been doing CrossFit for 2 months or 2 years, you’ll never be as ready as you are right now to enter the CrossFit Open. This year for the first time ever there are two divisions, RX & Scaled. It’s highly unlikely you’ll find yourself at the CrossFit Games standing shoulder to shoulder with Mat Fraser, Rich Froning, Camile Leblanc-Bazine or Julie Foucher, you probably won’t make the regionals, it might be nice to know where you fair competition wise in your own box, but really this is just about you and getting the best from yourself. 

2.  A little bit of pressure is a good thing

Last year 14.2 consisted of Over Head Squat and Chest to Bar pull ups, completed in 3 min blocks. The first 3 mins 10 of each, the next 3, 12 of each, the 3 after that, 14 of each and so on until you fail to complete both rounds. I remember seeing the workout, feeling completely dejected and thinking, “Crap it anyway! …That’s it! The open is over for me.” Chest to bar pull ups wouldn’t have been a problem, but 30kg OHS was 10kg heavier than my 1 rep max. In fact, very few of our girls had hit the RX weight for OHS, I suspected they were all feeling as dejected as me. I walked into the box on that Friday night and was met by two smiling coaches “You ready to rock this?” In the background everyone was warming up, lots of people were already hitting PRs. It was a roller coaster of emotions, I was instantly inspired, hit 3 prs in the warm up and when the buzzer went for 14.2 I managed 2 reps of 30kg OHS inside the allotted 3 mins. On the score sheet it looked like a dismal performance, but no 2 reps have ever made me feel as happy, 3 months previous to this a 7kg bar was a struggle. I also felt incredibly proud of everyone there that night, inside 3 mins we’d all made a huge advancement, it never felt like we were competing against each other, it felt like we were all pushing forward as a team. I was hooked!

3. Set some real goals

The thing that’s great about CrossFit is the constant goal setting, be it working hard to hit RX weights, learning or mastering skills, there is always something to work toward. The Open is a great reference point, we talk about it all the time, “remember last year in the open, we couldn’t do that/lift that/string those together” there are still lots of things to work on, there always will be, but this is a clear line in the dirt of where you are, it will give you motivation and grit to keep pushing on and getting better.

4. It’ll be fun

The open runs for five weeks, each workout will be released on Thursday and athletes will have until the following Monday to submit their score, last year we did the workouts on a Friday evening (don’t worry if you can’t make a friday evening there’ll be planty of opportunity to complete it before the deadline) the atmosphere each Friday was fantastic, a mixture of excitement and nerves and lots of banter. You’ll meet new people and make new friends. If you don’t sign up, you’ll probably be doing the workouts anyway as they’ll be running in the classes, there’s no escape, just sign up, get in the middle of it and make 2015 the best open ever!

Registration closes on Feb 26

14.1

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14.1 is done, anyone who has done it will most likely have a story about it, I'm a little late posting mine, but here it is anyway. 

I did it on Friday night. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just a little nervous about the announcement of 14.1 

I'm very much bridging the gap between scaled and RX and there's lots of skills I don't quite have and weight requirements I can't quite hit. 

I can't do double unders. Well, I can do 1, sometimes. They're frightfully frustrating. If you've never said bad words before or are new to swearing and keen to expand a vocabulary rich in profanity I'd highly recommend having a go at double unders! 

Snatch is another thing I've still to get to grips with, but thankfully the standards for this workout stated "ground to overhead anyhow" and 25kg is an achievable weight. So I figured in 10 mins, I'd at least manage one round, maybe even 2! 

CrossFit Newry had arranged to run Fridays 6:30 class as a group session for 14.1 and the first of us arrived around 5:30 - I love that tingle in the air, that little bit of excitement/nerves, and all the chat, tactics, gear, tape, chalk, shoes, top... on, or off. (I kept mine on). Our box has been opened for just over a year and this is the first Open for all of us. Think of the first 10K or 5K you ever did, your first triathlon, first fight, first cycle race, adventure race, football match or any performance, interview or important exam, those jitters before hand. That's what this was like. And, I'm hooked! 

The workout was tough, way tougher than it looked on paper. I managed, what possibly was the ugliest display of double unders in the history of CrossFit... One, then stop, then 'no rep' then stop, then one and so on for what seemed like an age before the judge shouted "30" Then the snatch, I decided before the workout I'd clean & press and along with many others I decided to break it down to 3 sets, 6, 5, 4 truing to rest no longer than 5 0r 10 seconds between each set. 25Kilo on an Olympic bar means using 2 small 2.5 kilo plates, requirements state if using smaller bumper plates the bar must go below the knees but didn't have to touch the floor. Rather than risk a no rep, I opted for a 7liko bar and two full size 10kilo bumpers. A little bit over the weight, but at least I'd be confident of getting the range correct. By the end of the first set my shoulders were hot! Deep shoulder muscles, way in behind the shoulder blades, hot! Second set of DU's and they were burning! Second set of snatches (or clean & press) felt a little uglier too, but all of a sudden to a backdrop of shouting and cheering from fellow teammates we were back on the DU's again. My goal was two rounds and there's sometimes a temptation to stop when the goal is reached, but temptation is fleeting and the shouting doesn't stop so neither do the competitors, we just keep going until the clock beeps and there's a collective cheer of "TIME" 

Red face, dry mouth, calves burning, shoulders BURNING, brain desperately calculating reps, smiles, high fives, swearing, sweating and the tall figure of our coach, grinning and asking "don't you just feel awesome right now?" Awesome? heh... No, not yet, but give me a moment and I will. 

There were some very impressive scores on the night and some members managed to better their scores on Sunday morning. Stephen Forbes is currently placed 6th in Northern Ireland and we've a number more inside the top 40. Fantastic going for a group of people in their first 12 months of CrossFit. 

It’s lashing with rain and I’m drinking a cup of tea, Moss is asleep on my feet and I’m listening to The National. It’s all just about about perfect, even that two day hangover is drifting off nicely. I could drift off myself, except that it’s Monday and Monday evening is team training evening. What’s on the boom menu this evening?

Rope Climbs Muscle Ups (which I’ll be scaling down to pull ups) Handstand Push Ups Deadlifts

Oh and 7 min burpees. What’s that? Burpees, for 7 mins. As many reps as possible.