CrossFit Open 19.1

I'm not signing up for the open online this year. I am participating in my box's Sunday throw downs, so I'm doing the workouts, but I'm not putting my scores online for comparison purposes. It's $20 to sign up online, and that's a factor, but mostly I just don't feel like I'm in the kind of shape I need to be in to compete against myself.

I've been trying to figure out my health issues so that I can continue to do the things I love, like backpacking and CrossFit, without being distracted by pain. So this year's Open will be a bit different for me than previous years. I'm actually kind of glad that Arbor is doing a format that allows us to participate in the throw down without signing up online. I don't have to make the choice between paying money and participating in a community event.

Probably the move that has been most painful for me in the last few months doing CrossFit has been rowing. Something about the compression really bugs something in my abdomen (yay mystery pain...). So, of course, the first workout was a rowing workout. And, I've never been a fan of wall balls, so they got thrown in too.

19 wall balls, 19 calories on the rower, repeat as many times as possible in 15 minutes.

A very simple workout.

But not easy.

I decided to go scaled and use the 10 pound ball instead of Rx, which for women is the 14 pound ball. I can do 14 pound wall balls, but I didn't want to push myself this time. I actually made a plan with a friend so that neither of us would push too hard. She was getting over a cold, and I've got my mystery pain, so we judged each other in turn, allowing each of us to complete the workout to the best of our abilities without going so hard that we got sicker. I even stopped one of the spectators from yelling encouragement at her, which was funny.

I got through without keeling over, which was my goal. Not the best score, but also not the worst: 196 reps.

Next week, another workout, another throw down. I'm looking forward to it even though I know I'm not going to be performing in the way I'd like. I'm making a choice to ease off a bit in order to come out stronger on the other side, once mystery pain is solved.

I'm very focused on my rowing.

Short person willing the ball to rise!

I didn't realize we were syncopated at the time.

More rowing. I think this is when I realized I had added Laurie's score up incorrectly. 

Cooling down afterwards, watching others compete. 

Sublimating Frustration

I've finished 15 weeks of my Spartan training plan. I don't feel that I'm ready yet, and that's why I started so soon. I mean, most people prepare for their Spartan Race with training 6, maybe 8, weeks before the race, right? But I know that I took nearly 11 months to get my first pull-up with a weekly training plan.

So I knew I'd have to start early. And I also knew, from the previous training, that I'd run into frustration. Sure, I'm slowly increasing my weights, but the changes are slow and incremental. And my progress on the Sunday training is a bit back and forth. I haven't made much progress on the single arm holds or the monkey bars. And I still can't do a single peg on the peg board with any consistency. Or rather, I might be able to move one peg just before my feet hit the ground - no control.

I'm taking a week off of the training to rest a particularly sore triceps on my left arm. I had that happen before, too, when I was first working on getting kipping pull ups. I'm still doing CrossFit this week, but I'll try to give that arm a bit of a break.

Next week I'll be starting week 16, and I know I just have to keep grinding. Progress will be slow, but then I'll get to the obstacle course training class and I'll be able to do more things. Not everything, but more. I'm chipping away at a big block, and it takes time.

I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

Spartan Obstacle Training

Last Saturday I went back to Camp Rhino Boise to do another round of the Obstacle Course Race class. This time, after a vigorous warm-up, we started with rope climbs, and then moved onto a combination of slip wall and Olympus training. On the rope climbs, I was near some nice folks who are also doing the race in Boise in June, and we ended up chatting quite a bit. I was able to help one of the women get an idea of what kind of underwear one should use on race day - not the kind of tip that abounds on Spartan Race how-to's.

I'm definitely improving on my rope climbs. I have a lot more comfort with them than I used to, and I can get up, most of the time, with just three pulls. I'll take that at 5 foot 3. Though I do have a fancy that, maybe, someday, I might be able to do it in two if I jump really high. The woman I was sharing a rope with was a complete beginner to rope climbs, so she worked on standing with her feet in the hold, and I could see her improve as we continued to work.

Then we headed over to the slip wall, which is an angled wall with optional ropes. The ideal is to just run up it, but it is acceptable to use the rope to walk up it. I wasn't sure I could just run up it, but I did, albeit with less grace than some other folks. Once we reached the top, we were supposed to drop on the other side, and make our way across a small distance and climb back up, then walk down the slip wall. The other side is on its way to becoming an Olympus, which is an obstacle in Spartan Races that has a very slightly angled wall with a variety of handholds. The idea is to get up on it in a squat and use the handholds to traverse across without dropping to the ground. I am not good at that - yet. I'm hoping better shoes will help out, but for now I'll just keep working the strength angle.

All 15 participants went up twice, and then we headed back to the ropes to finish off the class. When the instructor asked who would be staying for Obstacle Course Boot Camp, a session that was not offered the last time I went, I asked if I would need to use another punch. He said no, so I decided to stay.

I had brought a sports drink and an apple to snack on after the class, but I decided to leave them in the car. I guess so they'd stay cold? That meant I didn't have them to eat between the regular class and the boot camp, and on that decision I blame how much I dragged in the boot camp. Pro tip: have a snack before the boot camp!

Saturdays are usually a rest day for me, and I don't consider the Obstacle Course class to be a "workout" though it is to an extent. But the boot camp is like a combination of a CrossFit Endurance class with obstacles sprinkled in. It was HARD.

Partner workout, split reps as seen fit, work at the same time: 100 air squats, 80 wall balls, 60 burpees over the bar, 40 calories, 20 dumbbell box step overs, 10 thrusters, 5 pull-ups and 5 dips each, 5 pull-ups and 5 dips each, 10 thrusters, 20 dumbbell box step overs, 40 calories, 60 man makers, 80 wall balls, 100 jumping air squats. Oh, and after every set, do two obstacles.

My partner, a young woman, and I, got through the air squats with dispatch and then came the hard part. See, this was only my second visit, and I'd only ever done three obstacles before. There were some that I simply didn't know how to do. So I kind of made her take the lead on picking which ones to do. As we made our way through the torture, she got, I think, a bit frustrated at that, and we did end up splitting up on some of them. For example, I did a rope climb, and she did something else.

But the cool part about the boot camp was that it gave me an opportunity to work on obstacles while fatigued. And I made it across both the flat monkey bars and the up-and-down monkey bars in the middle of that workout. I was even able to go single handed on the flat ones, which I am particularly proud of, because that hasn't been a part of my skill set ever before in my life.

I also got to try a traverse wall, the cargo net a-frame, a net climb thing where you roll over the top and then drop down to a bar and then to the ground, a slack line, log balance steps, and two different weights of hoists. We also did the 4 foot wall a few times when we couldn't think of anything else to do.

We didn't make it through the whole workout in the allotted 50 or so minutes. We ended in the man makers; I'm not sure how many she got through of the 30 each we had, but I got through 13. It's definitely something that I'll do again next time, with a little better planning.

I didn't notice this until I got home and felt it stinging. I'm not entirely sure what caused it, but I'm guessing it was the lip of the slip wall from the first time I ran up it and didn't get my whole body to the to at once... 

I went hand to hand across these narrow diameter black bars. 

It was hard to see where the bars were in my original picture, so I added some highlighting. I had to put both hands on each bar to get past this one, but I did it, which was pretty thrilling. 

Workout Review: Day 3 Open Hour

I had to take a week off of my workout, because I had some things going on. Also, not this past Sunday, but the one before, after I had completed the workout of the day, I found I was in too much pain to keep going. I usually do the workout first, and then do my Spartan preparation workout during Sunday's open hour at my CrossFit box, but I felt like I was going to vomit and I went home instead.

So, I took a week off, and the numbers I put up this last Sunday, the last day of week 13, were not exactly where I wanted them to be. But they do look a lot better compared to week 1, so I'll focus on that.

This day's workout is grip intensive, and it starts with a bang. A tabata of alternating single arm holds. That's 20 seconds on, 10 seconds of rest, 8 times, which makes 4 times each arm. I'd have to say that this one is a pretty big struggle. The first time I tried it, I was able to do okay, maybe hang on the full time once with each arm. But after that, I found that I wasn't able to hold on very long and I ended up going onto my toes for support. At this point, I try the first round for each hand as long as I can, and then go to toes for the remaining rounds. In week 12, I managed to complete those first two rounds, but last Sunday I was not. It's a hit or miss kind of exercise for me right now.

Next, I use the two staggered height bars to do some monkey-bar'ing. I go forward and then back down, and completing both of those counts as one rep. For this, I've definitely improved my form. I can feel that I'm stronger in my ability to stabilize with one hand low and one high. But I haven't really grown my number of reps. I can get two pretty easily, but then I get tired. I got 5 once. I've been thinking about trying to turn around so I'm facing forward going down, but I haven't quite gotten the nerve up for that yet.

Then I spend some time trying to hold onto the bar with my arms bent (L's). Ideally, I should be able to monkey bar with L's, but I'm not there yet. But I have improved my hang time from 11 seconds the first week to 30 seconds. And one of my friends took a picture of me hanging from the bar like that because she thought it looked cool.

Next, I attempt to hold onto a climbing rope for as long as I can with my arms close to my chest, not straight and extended. The first week, I maxed out at 4 seconds. Week 12, I got all the way to 19 seconds (a mere 14 seconds last Sunday). I have lately been having issues with this one because my hold squishes whichever index finger is under the other hand. Squishes it so much it stays squished for like 30 seconds after I let go, so that's not pleasant and I need to figure out how to adjust.

Then I do 1 to 5 rope climbs. Well, that's the plan. I started doing 1, and then moved to 2, and in week 12, I did 3 (using only 3 pulls on each climb, which, if you don't know what that means, is really good for a short person). Last Sunday, I only did 1, because I kicked myself off the rope on my first attempt and figured I shouldn't push myself. Have I mentioned I also have a cold/sinus thing going on?

Peg board holds come next. I don't have any illusions that I can actually climb a peg board, but I can hold onto the pegs. I started this one using straight arms, but my times were getting pretty long, so I started incorporating bent arm holds as well. My first straight arm hold came in at 36 seconds. The last one was 84 seconds, and my longest bent arm hold is clocking in at 39 seconds.

I do actually make an attempt to move the pegs on the board, but I haven't gotten any farther than moving a single peg before falling. Yet!

Two grip carry exercises come next. First, a farmer carry with kettle bells, and then a pinch grip with plates. I started with the 53 pound kettle bells, but now I'm using the 70 pound ones, which makes me feel like a badass. I mean, that's almost my body weight I'm carrying for a good 70 or so steps. With the plates, I'm still working on the 25 pound plates. They are thick enough that the pinch grip is hard to hold with my small hands, so they remain a challenge. I also try to use that grip to carry weights during everyday workouts, because I'm weird.

And, finally, it's time for GHD sit-ups and GHD back extensions. I started with sets of 10 and have been steadily increasing by a single rep at regular intervals. Week 12, I was up to 14, but last Sunday I scaled back to 10 because of not feeling one hundred percent.

It frustrates me that I can't just do all the things I want to do. But by looking back at this, I can at least see that I have improved. Even when I was feeling sick, I still increased most of my hold times. And the monkey bars are feeling easier, even if I lack stamina. I really need to find some good monkey bars to practice on, but most parks don't have the kind that go up and down, or ones with thick bars like the Spartan Race has. Still. The motion should help.

I also need to get out there and practice the spear some more, but I figure that can wait until it's not quite so cold. And once it starts getting light out around 6 in the morning, then I'll start doing some running after CrossFit instead of stretching.