Winter Throwdown 2010

The Winter Throwdown at Crossfit 215 was my first ever Crossfit competition, and it was definitely memorable. Much thanks to the 215 crew for pushing me on, especially through the first WOD.

I was in the 5th heat out of 8 or 9 both workouts.  I was right next to a guy who was a little slower than me, but the other guys in the heat were a level above where I am.  Unfortunately, they were too far away to really impact what I was doing.

Here is the recap:
WOD #1
250m Row
40 KB Swings
500m Row
30 KB Swings
750m Row
20 KB Swings
1000m Row
10 KB Swings

This workout absolutely destroyed me and pushed me farther beyond my comfort zone than ever before, literally.  My plan was to work a 1:50 split on the Row until the 750 and then let loose, as well as fly through the KBs as fast as possible.  This started out good, but ended badly.

Did the first 250 around a 1:45 split, I was amazed at how hard it was to slow down my pace, lots of energy there.  Did the first 40KB unbroken, which was probably a mistake.  I should have broken 20-20 with a good 5 breath break in there, not so much because I needed it at the time, but because of what was coming.

Did the 500 in the upper 1:40s, again, it was hard to slow my pace, but I did just fine.  I broken once on the 30KB, I forget when exactly, but I moved quickly through them.  And it was right about then the wheels fell off.

I hopped on for the 750 and started pulling and I was gassed in the first 200m, there was little power in my strokes.  I started closing my eyes and just pulling, but I knew my split was bad.  I got through the 750, then the 20KBs were tough, I broke twice on them, which is probably the only place in the WOD I could have made up time.

After the 20KBs, I was completely gassed, zero in the tank.  I hopped on for the 1000m in REALLY bad shape.  The 215 crew was pushing me on, everyone was great, but I was done.  That was a LONG 1000m Row.  I have no idea what my splits were, I barely opened my eyes, I couldn't see anyway from the sweat.  I am sure it took 4:30, 4:40 on the row, which is dreadful.  I finished the last 10KB swings unbroken and crashed.  It took me about an hour to recover, almost threw up a bunch of times, kept coughing up some nasties.  That was the worst I ever felt after a WOD, EVER.  I initially questioned if I wanted to even do the second WOD..

Finished 15:55, about 1 minute slower than I wanted to.  Looking back, the only time I could have saved was on the 20KB swings, if I did them straight I could have shaved about 15 seconds off that time.  Other than that, the big thing for me was just conditioning.  Not being able to hold even a low 2 on that last 1000m is plain sad.  I gotta get in some longer WODs and get that stamina up.

WOD #2
5 Rounds
95lb Thrusters
7 Burpees
Followed by 30 pullups

The pullups were in my head when I saw this, as they are one of my weakest movements.  Plus, the judges were told to be strict, it was chin OVER bar, no reaching, so I was really nervous about how long it would take to finish.  I watched the first few heats, and guys and girls were really struggling on the pullups.  Seemingly everyone was on the pullups at the same time, the best times were those who finished the pullups the fastest.

I paced myself slow on the Thrusters / Burpees purposefully because I figured the pullups were going to get me, and I didn't want to be too gassed.  I did get through them, but a touch slower than I could have.  I chalked up and did 6 pullups and felt strong, I stopped at least 3 or 4 short of where I could have to rest.  Chalked and did another strong 6 and 6.  After 18, I finished 5, 5, 2.  In hindsight, I could have finished this one maybe 30 seconds faster if I pushed harder on the Thrusters / Burpees, and pushed harder on the pullups.  I finished 7:09, which I was initially happy with, but I knew I had more in the tank.  I want to do this WOD again soon, I know I can beat that time.

Anyway, it was a great event.  I had a lot of fun seeing the old OTG crew.  And a lot of those athletes are amazing, I know I have a long way to go.  I finished 30th overall out of 47 guys, but I figure I could have finished a little higher if I had done that second WOD better.