Open WOD 12.3

This is a special combo post of both the practice and official WODs or I will never ever catch up with my posts.

So here we are.  12.3 was longer and included more than one type of movement.  The work out was:

18 minute AMRAP:

• 15 box jumps (20")
• 12 push presses (75# is the standard for women)
• 9 T2B

For the practice on 3/8 I scaled this work out.  The box jumps I have a handle on now, although the standard for the Open was to gain control at the top instead of bouncing back to the ground, so that took a small mental adjustment.  Fortunately I have only really done box jumps once for real so I don't have a lot of habits ingrained yet.  One my first round I did my push presses at 45#, but I felt like my form was suffering so I stripped the weight down to 35#.  The toe-to-bar I have not yet conquered so I just pulled my knees up as usual.  I got 4 solid rounds during the practice (144 total reps).

The official judged work out was different.  Not just because of the crazy atmosphere of the competition, but because there was no scaling.  You either did it or you were disqualified.  I was ready to just register a 15 reps for the open- the entire 18 minutes were going to be my 15 box jumps and then maybe I would scale the rest and just not count it.  

But as with WOD 12.2, my awesome coach wanted to see me push myself and get just one more rep.  So we decided I would do my box jumps, then go over to the side away from the other competitors and work on my form for the push press.  During my warm up I managed a 55# push press and felt like I would not be able to do very many of them, so I was not feeling very confident as Lori set up a 65# bar for me to work on.

My heat started.  I got through my 15 box jumps- not with grace or style, but with success.  And my pants wanted to fall off, but they managed to stay up, so that was a success as well.

Then I headed over to the weight.  I managed to clean the bar into a front rack and then over my head.  I managed it twice.  And by God, we added those 10# back on to get me up to 75#.  Suddenly, my reps for the day were 16, not 15.  And I kept going.  More often than not I would fail part way through the motion and have to drop the bar (and twice I tried to lower it gently and managed to catch it on my leg.  I anticipate that it will soon be a bruise the size of my head).  Nearly every attempt was accompanied by my roar of pain and effort.  And every attempt was met with a chorus of shouts of encouragement and advice for my form from everyone around me.  I also managed to break two weight clips dropping the bar.  

I don't know how, but I finished 12 reps.  Every day at CrossFit, I accomplish something that I never thought was possible, and this is never more true than during the Open.  

As soon as I dropped the bar from my final rep, Lori ran me over to the bar to attempt my T2Bs.  I swung and kicked and swung and kicked, but alas, my rep count for the competition stayed at 27.  It looked pretty pathetic next to the other names on the board who were all in the triple digits.  But I am pretty damn proud that two months into this, I am somehow managing to haul weights like that over my head!  And I am sporting a pretty sweet bruise on my sternum as proof of all the times I racked that bar into my chest.

Now I just need to figure out toe-2-bars...

A real scream

Sometimes when you are making a large effort, you make some kind of vaguely embarrassing noise as a part of that effort.  You hear it in tennis (and hear complaints too), and you will DEFINITELY hear it in a CrossFit box.  Especially when weight lifting is part of the WOD.  And today, I got to be that person who makes a noise somewhere between a grunt, a scream, and a roar.  Repeatedly.  Good thing we always play loud music- that way all our effort noises just become part of the ambient sound.

2/20/12 WOD #16:

• Warm up: 500 m row
                  2x: 10 burpees
                        10 push ups
                        10 pass throughs
                        10 OHS
                        10 jumping lunges
                  30 ft HS walk (I just practiced my HS walk a couple of times)
• WOD: 2*2*2*2*2 shoulder press (meaning you do two shoulder presses with increasing weights until you hit five tries or you hit failure, whichever comes first).  35*45*55 MAX (attempted 60 and failed)
             10 rounds for time: 5 push press (35#)
                                          10 walking lunges (35# bar across shoulders)
                                          Time: 16:48

I actually started at 45# but barely made it through my first set of lunges so I pulled my extra 5# weights off.  I would have been tempted to drop more weight, but I was at the lowest I could go and still drop the bar when I was done with a set (for those who don't know, we use giant rubber weights rather than the small metal ones so that we can safely drop our weights on the ground without breaking anything.  It also makes the weight look much more manly because even 10# weights are huge).  And in case you were wondering where the roaring took place, it was definitely during the walking lunges.  Usually on the second set of 5 steps when I went down and needed to add some primal rage in order to get back up.  I'm pretty sure it helps.