Deep CrossFit thoughts..

Or, not so much..
The Games have wrapped up and I must say..it was exciting and impressive. I know CF has its share of folks against it..and there's lots and lots of speculation regarding the 'cleanliness' of the athletes..but this year was cool. All the workouts tested every aspect of fitness and there really was no where to hide. I'm happy with the outcomes, as I'm always more of an 'over dog' kind of fan.. I just feel for them with all the expectations placed on them and such.. So I was happy to see good ol Rich Froning pull off an amazing comeback and win. I don't know if Camille Leblanc-Bazinet qualifies as an over OR an underdog.. She's been around for a while, so not an underdog..but it was good to see all her hard work pay off. I was also happy to see a team that I have personally been whooped by a time or two make it up on the podium.. Team Conjugate put together some good workouts at the Games and came out in second..amazing. I don't have much else to say about it, other than it was cool to see it get some live ESPN love.. Though that is also a double edged sword.. With the spotlight, also comes some negative attention.. I didn't see the whole thing, but I guess ESPN did a show focusing on some injuries that have occurred during Crossfit-related activities. All I know is that I came home to my husband being convinced, all the sudden, that I am involved in something super dangerous and that I need to be careful. Of coarse..any sport is dangerous and the advice to be careful is not unwarranted.. But let's keep in mind, my previous sports involved flips on a 4 inch wide board, running long distances on the road and in the woods, riding my bike for hours on the road, swimming in open water.. All of which can be done safely when executed properly and certain safety precautions are taken, but also, all of which carry some risk. So all I'm saying is, of coarse there is risk of injury, but I can't think of much that is worth doing that doesn't have some amount of risk to it. The key is to be informed. Surround yourself with good coaches. Do what you need to do to keep yourself safe, which may, occasionally, mean declining to participate in an event that doesn't feel safe to you. Just like I would withdraw from a race where there were dangerous weather conditions or if the race couldn't offer proper coarse safety, I would take myself out of a Crossfit competition if the workout or conditions didn't feel safe. There are a lot of competitions out there and you never know who is programming the workouts and what they might ask of you. I have personally seen events that included a 1 rep max of a lift complex that a lot of people don't practice often, and being in a competitive atmosphere, they maybe didn't use their best judgement, went for lifts they weren't capable of, and got hurt. I hate to see it. No one wants to get hurt in what should be a fun event. But it really is on that individual to make a good assessment of their abilities and do their best to keep themselves safe. Of coarse sometimes accidents just happen and things can go awry at any time, I'm just saying folks need to take responsibility and make wise choices, even when they are competing. At the end of the day..it's all just for fun. A very precious few actually are in any competition (triathlon, marathon, Crossfit, etc) to make big bucks, so we all need to put the egos aside and take care of ourselves.. No?
Good. Glad we agree.. So let's move on and talk about Sundays workout? My plan, roughly, was to do some running, some rowing, some light squats, and some cleans.. So I started with some running..basically about 2 miles with some fartlek style pick ups. Then on to those squats. I did sets of 5 increasing in weight from 105-175. I'm still working on getting comfortable dropping quickly to the bottom of the squat and bouncing out, so the higher reps and lighter weight was good for that. Then I moved on to clean and jerks, doing just 1 rep every minute.. Starting at 105 and increasing to 165, doing 2 reps at each weight. I just felt like I needed some work on those and wanted to practice good form, but also build to a decent weight.. Again, mission accomplished. Around the time I finished with those, John and I started talking about what a good workout would be for the day.. I mentioned rowing.. He wanted to work power snatch.. I tossed in sandbag carries, for good measure.. And John came up with the plan..
5 rounds
Each of us row 250m per round
Each do power snatch..5/4/3/2/1(wts for me at 110/115/120/130(previous pr)/135(pr!).. Then a bonus rep at 140 for another pr
Each run 200m w 60# sandbag (other person runs along w partner for the run.. So 200m w and 200m w/o the sandbag) per round
It took a long time, but it was a good workout..got a chance to work some weaknesses AND got to sneak in a pr or 2! We'll call it a win.

Now to Monday..spoiler alert..I asked Mike (our coach) if we had done something to piss him off to warrant the workout he programmed for us today..it was a bit of a rough one for me!

Squats- 4 sets of 3 at 85%, so 210#
Snatch + overhead squat EMOM x 15 min- 5 min at 105, 5 min at 110, and 5 at 115
Snatch Deadlift (165), 4 sets of 4/GHDs, 4 sets of 15

Workout..

7 rounds
3 power snatch (115)
9 chest to bar pull-ups
15 wallballs (20# ball!)

This took forever and it felt like it was ALL wallballs.. It had been a while sine we had used the heavier wallballs and they came back with a vengeance! Not particularly heavy..but they take a lot out of me..so maybe it is heavy? Anyway. After 19 minutes, I was done. The snatches and ctb's all went fine, but it had to break the wallballs in 9/6 after the first 2 rounds..and 7 rounds of anything is rough! So that was that..
The boys and I are having a lazy, snugly last day of summer before Mason heads back to school tomorrow.. First grade?! Miles will be pumped to get to see the bus again..but he will also miss Mason once he's gone again.. But we will make it! Now for a little rest time before I head back to the gym to work tonight..