Ketchup?

Oh, sorry.. I meant 'catch up'.. It seems I lost my writing mojo there for a bit.. Not sure if it's actually back, but I thought I'd test it out.. So, briefly..since my last competition, I had the remaining weeks of the Wodapalooza qualifiers. Most of the week day stuff would be pretty normal, then qualifier workouts would somewhat consume my weekend. For the second week of workouts, I planned to meet up with Nicci Saturday morning and get them done.. This week had one good one for me..and one that I knew I would struggle with.. First up was an AMRAP of snatches and toes to bar.. Looked a lil something like this..
21 snatch (65#)
21 TTB's
15 snatch (85#)
15 TTB's
9 snatch (105#)
9 TTB's
6 snatch (115#)
6 TTB's
3 snatch (125#)
Max effort TTB's until the time cap.. I can't remember what the time cap was..10 min-ish?
Then as soon as you finish that, immediately start the second part, which was an ascending ladder with calorie row and burpees over the rower.. So
3 cal row
3 burpees over the rower
6 cal row
6 burpees
9
9
15...
Until the time cap, which, again, eludes me.. But I do remember the pain! As usual.. I did alright on part of the workout (the snatches and TTB's), but didn't like the results of the second part.. Guess what!? I'd have to redo on Sunday.. I didn't want to, but I knew I hadn't put it all out there for that second part..mi always fall into a trap of trying to go too hard on the rower, which ruins me for any other part of the workout.. So for the second attempt, I planned to do the row as more of the 'just hang on/slightly recover' part and then go all out on the burpees. I improved quite a bit by taking that approach, so I guess it was worth it! So that was that.. I think I moved up to 11th or 12th place after those workouts? So things were looking better! For the final weekend of qualifying workouts, they blacked out the leaderboard, so all you could do was give it your best and hope it would be enough.. I was leaving for family vacation on Saturday, so after discussing a bit with Mike, we decided to do the Wodapalooza workouts on Friday in place of our regular workouts. I never like to miss a workout, but agreed that after a Wednesday workout that took a lot out of me ( heavy-ish cleans, front squats and an EMOTM w 145# cleans, then a workout with 165# front squats.. It was rough for these chicken legs!), it made more sense to just do the active recovery on Thursday instead of trying to cram everything in.. So I came in feeling pretty good on Friday.. Did my strength stuff, which Fridays are relatively easier.. The workouts were:
8 min AMRAP
60 pull-ups
40 CTB pull-ups
20 bar muscle ups
Well. I thought this would go fine.. But I vastly underestimated how all of this would break me down. Pull-ups felt pretty good, but wore me down, so when I went in to the CTB pull-ups, I was on the struggle bus.. It was a mess.. I felt like a mess.. I wanted to do the second workout, too, that am and be done with it, but I felt so awful after that first one.. Pukey, dizzy.. Didn't have enough time to gather myself for the next thing, so I had to go home and come back with Miles a few hours later for the second part.. Oops!
The second workout was another AMRAP..the time escapes my memory, though.. But it was
Deadlifts
Overhead squats
Box jumps
Pistols
Reps increase by 5 each round..so 5/5/5/5, then 10/10/10/10.. Etc..
That one went alright. The DL wt was 135# and OHS was 95#, so not too tough, but it definitely burned.. I kept moving and, though if I'd had the time I probably would have done it again, but I didn't, so just the one go of it for this one.. But overall, even after watching the video, which is normally what causes me to want to redo the workout, I was happy with how I tackled the workout and don't know if or what I could have done differently..other than just be stronger..next time? But. There was the matter of that crappy pull-up workout to deal with.. Our flight out wasn't until 9:55 Saturday morning, or something, so clearly I had the time.. I went to the gym early and got it done. I didn't have much of a strategy change, other than to stick with sets of 10 on the pull-ups (last time I started with sets of 15), sets of 5 on the CTB (first attempt was a mess..3's, 4's..whatever I could get) and then whatever I had left for bar MU. I also wanted to control my rests better.. All in all, I did much better and was happy with my redo. Biggest accomplishment?? My hands held up through all of that?! Hands of steel, I tell ya. I do occasionally rip, but for the most part, these calloused hands are pretty tough.
So from Saturday morning, I'd have to wait until Sunday night to see if my workouts were good enough to keep me in the top 20.. Luckily I had my vacation to help keep my mind off of it! We went to Hilton Head and stayed in a really nice home with a pool on one of the many golf courses.. We met up with my parents, Matt's parents and his sister to stay for the week. Lots of fun! But finally.. Sunday night came and I checked the standings.. I was in 6th! Not bad.. So we will be off to Miami in January and I'm pretty excited about it. We haven't worked out the specifics and logistics yet.. Will my husband come.. Where will my kids be.. But we will figure it out! So.. Wodapalooza, here I come! Let the training begin..
I must give a shout out to the gym that I trained at for the week that I was in Hilton Head. It was Conviction Training Facility (formerly Hilton Head CrossFit, I think) and they have a really nice program! I enjoyed all of the coaches, the clients, the classes.. They do a great job of mobilizing, doing some warm ups, a strength piece and then a workout. I felt like the workouts were well done and thoughtfully planned out and offered a variety of skills to work on through the week. I had originally planned to mostly just follow my programming by using their open gym times, but I enjoyed the classes so much that I would just go in to do my strength part and then join in with their class. They also deal with a LOT of visitors and they always handled every visitor with respect and care and always made sure each one of us felt welcomed and at home. I would absolutely send any other Hilton Head crossfit travelers their way!
Today was a catch-up day, just doing those workouts from our programming that I had missed suring the week. I won't go over them all here, but in all, I did 4 workouts.. Got to work snatches, muscle ups, bar muscle ups, double unders, box jumps, pistols, rowing, HSPU.. I think that about covers it.. Oh, and how could I forget the squat clean thrusters? Those are a treat.. And now I'm off to go collect on a prize from the Naptown Bracket Buster at Lululemon! I don't currently own any of their fine apparel..but I think that's about to change! We also won a prize from Reebok that was waiting for me when I got home from vacation..a nice (and very soft and comfy!) long sleeved, hooded shirt! I'm so  fancy.. Pimpin ain't easy!