Well, this past weekend was the Ohio Sectional for the 2010 CrossFit Games. The Ohio sectional was for athletes in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Kentucky. I competed on Sunday and here is a recap of my day.
It was a sadistically fun day. I say that because the WODS (wod= workout of the day) were each brutal in their own way and I couldn't take down a whole lot of food throughout the day, but fruit and the sweet potato blend was my saving grace. Protein was not my friend during the competition and I'd say I only could force down about 4grams of Jerky throughout the day. That is total, not 4grams at a time, my protein intake was terrible. I did manage to crush 2 gallons of water with ease though. I'm currently working on editing the video throughout the next couple of evenings and am trying to get a short video posted in the next couple of days *(I hope). Photos are coming, as soon as they get passed on to me I'll post them.
Here is a breakdown of the day:
When we got there in the morning they announced that they switched events 1 and 2 to accommodate logistics so we did the Sandbag Sprint first. The sprint wasn't terrible, it just sucked. It ended up being 40 yards each way dropping off sandbags going 1 way and running back for another each time. The bags went up in weight 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100lbs. I fell down while unloading my 1st sandbag and that cost me about 3 seconds. I ended up @1:15 which tied me for 64th place, those 3 seconds literally would have taken me to 22nd place in the event and overall I would have finished 14th, stupid slippery floor. This is the only workout that I have a gripe with the scoring system because each second literally cost you 10places or more 7 seconds was the difference between 1st and 64th places.
WOD 2 was the Deadlift burpee (5 rounds for time: 7 DL @225# and 11 burpees, all with a 30# vest on) and I knew I was going to crush this Workout as I did it Friday morning and felt strong practicing it. On Friday I did it with a 20lb vest and hit cruise control after the 3rd round and finished @4:34 so my goal on Sunday was sub 4:20. I finished at 4:12 and I don't know that I've ever gone that hard in a WOD. It felt like my lungs were going to explode and my last set of burpees were absolutely atrocious. I knew I was killing it when HQs video guy was circling me with his camera and that kept me going because I had to keep it up for the camera.
My heat was fast all day long and we had more people in the finals than any of the other heats. 11 of the top 20 that are moving on to Regionals came from my heat! That's insane if you ask me. It was nice though because I knew if I did well in my heat that I was in the tops overall.
After WOD 2 I said that I laid it all on the line and I honestly wasn't sure how I was going to recover for the 3rd WOD because it took over 1/2 hour for me to start feeling normal again.
WOD 3 is my nemesis, it was 2 rounds, 500m row 15 overhead squat 95# 500m row 15 Toes2Bar. I had a bad feeling about it going in and I felt slow the full time. Ended up with a 12:42 and that was good for 82nd place. The good thing is that I still scored over 80 points for that placement and that was a really good thing for me. I fell from 17th to 30th after the 3rd WOD.
When they announced WOD 4 I wasn't sure what to think. The workout consisted of: 15-12-9 reps of Power Clean & Jerks 155#, Chest-to-bar pull ups, and 24" Box Jumps. I haven't ever done a heavy grace(30 clean & Jerk@155#), but I was happy that I had practiced going heavy with C&J in the weeks before sectionals and that gave me a little confidence. My legs were completely smoked after the first 15 C&J and the box jumps didn't come as easily as they normally do for me. I had to do step downs for the majority of them. The CTB pull ups sucked too and definitely cost me a decent amount of time. Once you finished with the triplet, it was a mind (expletive) knowing you had to go and pull a 110lb sled 40 yards when your grip is already completely shot. It felt like the sled wasn't moving at all and when I got the 1/2 way point I was pissed because I wanted to be done so bad. When I finished I looked to both sides of me and saw 9 guys still working on their sleds, I knew I had to beat at least 10 guys in front of me to get into the top 20 and after seeing 9 still working I knew I had a chance at making it. Ends up I finished 12th in the last event and that projected me up 13 spots and back into 17th place over all.
I'm taking a couple of days off and then it's high time to start training for the Regional. Regional competition is being held the first weekend of May and I have a lot of work to do!
PS. Thank you to all who came out to support me, your encouragement really means a lot to me, I appreciate it more than you know.
PPS. My great bud Larry took video of the day and here is a long version of the workouts! It's 30mins, I won't feel bad if you fast forward through it to get the gist of the day. My version will be available when I get the chance, as well as, an edited down short version.
Joe T at the Ohio Crossfit Sectionals 03.07.10 (full) from Larry Palazzolo on Vimeo.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Recent Journey: Fort Wayne Center for Learning benefit, "The Brain Game"
Our Regional Director once started a not for profit organization to help students receive the educational help they need. That organization is called The Fort Wayne Center for Learning. The FWCL is a great organization that makes learning accessible to all students. Depending on the student's families income level the cost is on a sliding scale and the FWCL has never turned a child away. They hold two major fundraisers every year. The first of the year is "The Brain Game." The second is an event in the fall called Ft. Wayne: Through the Beers, and is a great event with lots of great beer. The BG is an event that companies buy slots for teams of four individuals to battle it out with all the power in their brain. The Chef's Academy has been represented the past 3 years now, and we have never made it out of the first round, I guess chef's have "other" smarts, like how to make people happy.
This past Saturday was this years BG. I had been volunteered to be part of TCA's team this year and I was not overly excited to play as I'm not the biggest fan of trivial pursuit type games. Useless knowledge is just that to me, Useless. Let me take you back to my post on my winter afternoons: I also had a middle school wrestling tournament in the morning on Saturday. I had to leave the tournament early to make it to the BG. Let's just say that the tournament was not a smashing success. Have you ever had a parent threaten to take you outside? Yeah, it was one of those days and I was not in the mood to go receive a lashing of the brain after having to bite my tongue with the previously mentioned shenanigans.
After exiting the tournament, I caught up with my bro and we headed to Ft. Wayne. The full way there I was still in a funk and not really in the mood to be around people when the unthinkable happened: We got to Ft. Wayne early and stopped at Stoner's Fun store. For those of you not familiar with Stoner's, next time you are in Ft. Wayne it is a must. Lucas like small magic tricks and he was looking for something new and I was just gazing at all the funky masks and such when Mr. Stoner came over to lend a hand. He started an impromptu magic show taking us through many of the tricks they sell. I was immediately upbeat and happy. There really isn't much that compares to watching an aging man (clearly in his 70s or beyond) mystifying you with his many tricks. There is just something about magic that makes you 8 years old again. I had a goofy smile on my face the rest of the night. Thank you Mr. Stoner, I really needed you Saturday afternoon.
Lucas picked out a couple of new tricks and we were on our way to the BG. The BG is a large event and all the teams dress up in funky costumes and is a generally fun time. We were to go on stage a little later in the evening as there were 4 or 5 divisions of preliminary rounds. You have to win your preliminary round to move on to the finals. The rounds before ours I was slaying all of the questions and had more than 80% of the questions correct. Then is was our turn. The questions literally went from:
"How old was Michael Jackson when he died?" (50)
to:
"What California city did the last Pony Express ride end in?" (Sacramento)
Sorry, but there is a big difference between those two questions. But I guess that's how the cookie crumbles. All in all the BG WAS a great event and I am happy that I was a part of TCAs team. I am more thankful for our stop at Stoner's fun store though, as it made my weekend.
This past Saturday was this years BG. I had been volunteered to be part of TCA's team this year and I was not overly excited to play as I'm not the biggest fan of trivial pursuit type games. Useless knowledge is just that to me, Useless. Let me take you back to my post on my winter afternoons: I also had a middle school wrestling tournament in the morning on Saturday. I had to leave the tournament early to make it to the BG. Let's just say that the tournament was not a smashing success. Have you ever had a parent threaten to take you outside? Yeah, it was one of those days and I was not in the mood to go receive a lashing of the brain after having to bite my tongue with the previously mentioned shenanigans.
After exiting the tournament, I caught up with my bro and we headed to Ft. Wayne. The full way there I was still in a funk and not really in the mood to be around people when the unthinkable happened: We got to Ft. Wayne early and stopped at Stoner's Fun store. For those of you not familiar with Stoner's, next time you are in Ft. Wayne it is a must. Lucas like small magic tricks and he was looking for something new and I was just gazing at all the funky masks and such when Mr. Stoner came over to lend a hand. He started an impromptu magic show taking us through many of the tricks they sell. I was immediately upbeat and happy. There really isn't much that compares to watching an aging man (clearly in his 70s or beyond) mystifying you with his many tricks. There is just something about magic that makes you 8 years old again. I had a goofy smile on my face the rest of the night. Thank you Mr. Stoner, I really needed you Saturday afternoon.
Lucas picked out a couple of new tricks and we were on our way to the BG. The BG is a large event and all the teams dress up in funky costumes and is a generally fun time. We were to go on stage a little later in the evening as there were 4 or 5 divisions of preliminary rounds. You have to win your preliminary round to move on to the finals. The rounds before ours I was slaying all of the questions and had more than 80% of the questions correct. Then is was our turn. The questions literally went from:
"How old was Michael Jackson when he died?" (50)
to:
"What California city did the last Pony Express ride end in?" (Sacramento)
Sorry, but there is a big difference between those two questions. But I guess that's how the cookie crumbles. All in all the BG WAS a great event and I am happy that I was a part of TCAs team. I am more thankful for our stop at Stoner's fun store though, as it made my weekend.
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