2010 Crossfit Games: Northern California Qualifier, Day 2

Introduction 

After a smooth first day of competition, Sunday was a bit of a mess. Although all of Saturday's scores and standings were available online, no one really knew who was eliminated, who would compete on Sunday, when to show up or when the workouts were. Not until ~11PM on Saturday did a link to a heat schedule appear on the Crossfit Games website in the comments of the day 1 results page. The schedule looked legit - there were timings for the top 186 finishers from Saturday (the other 70 were cut) - but the whole thing looked poorly planned out. 


My workout wasn't scheduled until noon, but I felt bad for those who had their first heats at 8am. The disorder continued when we arrived around 10:30 and found out that everything was massively delayed and my workout had been pushed back to 1:20. I would've expected these sorts of details to have been worked out more smoothly considering registration for the qualifier was $100.

Anyways, after baking in the sun for 3 hours, it was time for the two back-to-back Sunday workouts: 

Workout C1
In 6 minutes, work up to a max squat clean to overhead.
* The bar must start on the ground, you must pass through a squat, and then send the bar overhead in any manner you choose.
* You'll be able to designate your opening weight before the workout begins, and the judge will be able to help you load and unload weights. In addition, you'll have plenty of time to warm-up prior to the beginning of your heat.


Weight completed: 235lbs (missed 245lbs twice)
Rank: 61 (out of 174 competitors)



Once again, Crossfit honed in on another weakness of mine: the split jerk. I could get the bar to my shoulders without difficulty - the cleans were no where near my max - but I just could not get more than 235lbs over my head. I missed the jerk on 245lbs twice, both times with horrendous technique. I'll definitely be practicing this lift a lot more in the future.


Workout C2
At the immediate conclusion of Workout C1, perform the following for time:
25 Burpees
100-yard Walking Lunge
Then 5 Rounds of:
- 15 Dumbbell Shoulder-to-Overhead (40lbs)
- 100-yard Dumbbell Farmers Walk (40lbs)
Then 25 Burpees
Row 500m
Run 450 yards


Time: 21:25

Rank: 101 (out of 173 competitors)


A brutal workout - especially on the shoulder/traps from the combo of farmers walk and shoulder press - but overall, a pretty classic Crossfit "chipper."

Final Thoughts


I ended the weekend in
 61st place out of 256+ competitors. As a software engineer who spends ~10 hours a day behind a desk, I'm pretty happy with a finish in the top 25%. To qualify for the regionals, I would've needed to finish in the top ~8%, but I had too many holes in my fitness. The good news is that I had one hell of a fun weekend: the athletes put up some amazing performances, the spectators were incredibly supportive, I learned a lot from the experience, and I know what I need to work on for next year.


Pictures and Videos
Day 2 pictures
Day 2 videos

2010 Crossfit Games: Northern California Qualifier, Day 1

Introduction


The Crossfit Games are the olympics of Crossfit. They are held each year in Aromas, California and claim the winner is the "fittest person on earth" (check out more info about the Games). Whether or not you believe this claim (personally, I think the Games simply find the fittest Crossfitter on earth), the competition is definitely an awesome test of fitness and fun to watch. In order to make it to the Games, athletes need to complete a series of sectional qualifiers held all over the world. The top athletes from the sectional qualifiers advance to regional qualifiers, and the top athletes from the regionals move on to the actual Games. 

This year, I decided to participate in the Northern California Sectional Qualifier to see how my fitness compares to that of other Crossfitters. The NorCal Qualifier took place on an olympic track at a high school in San Jose over the weekend of March 27-28. This post will describe my experiences on the first day.


Day 1: Saturday, March 27

One of the unique challenges in the Crossfit Games is that you don't know what the workouts will be until a few days before the actual event. Since the workouts can contain almost anything - long distance running, sprinting, olympic weight lifting, powerlifting, gymnastics, rowing, climbing, kettlebells, jumping, etc - athletes have to train all aspects of their fitness equally. For the NorCal qualifier, each athlete was scheduled for two workouts on Saturday. My first workout was at 1PM: 


Workout A

Against a 6-minute running clock:
* Run 800m
* Max rep overhead squats (115lbs)
Scored by total number of overhead squats.


Reps completed: 44
Rank: 22 (out of 256 competitors)




I'm typically a terrible runner, but today I felt great. I heavily paced myself on the 800m, going at a light jog to make sure I had plenty left for the OH squats, but was surprised to finish the two laps in just 2:55. After that, I snatched the weight up and got squatting. My shoulders are pretty tight, so locking out 115lbs overhead for ~3 minutes was pretty tough. However, with the crowd cheering everyone on, I was able to get 44 reps, a 7 rep PR over my attempt in the gym at the same workout earlier in the week. 


At 5PM, I had my second workout:


Workout B

Max rounds plus reps in 10 minutes of:
* 7 Thrusters (115lbs)
* 12 Kettlebell Swings (53lbs)
* 7 Pull-ups (Chest-to-Bar)


Rounds completed: 4 + 7 thrusters + 9 swings (120 reps total)
Rank: 109 (out of 256 competitors)




Crossfit always finds your weaknesses and one of mine is poor shoulder flexibility/mobility. I had some *15* KB swings not counted because I didn't get the KB vertical enough. I couldn't consciously get my shoulders to go that far back, so the only way I got valid reps was by driving the KB hard enough with my hips that its momentum pulled my arms back enough. This obviously took a ton of effort - as did all the discounted reps - and I fell far short of my 6 round goal. Of course, I have no one to blame but myself: the rules were known beforehand and the judging was completely fair.


Standings at the end of Day 1

I ended the day in 54th place out of 256 competitors. In order to qualify for the regionals, I'd have to be in one of the top 20 spots, so I had a long way to go. On the other hand, 54th place was good enough to avoid elimination, so I knew I'd be back for Sunday.

Pictures and Videos

Day 1 Pictures
Day 1 Videos