Devil In Gold and White

A 5 mile run that looped up and down long hills on mostly paved streets behind the fairgrounds. There were no water supplied to the athletes on this run unless they brought their own and would have to carry themselves. This WOD seemed simple enough, but it had added an element that would surface in the next WOD. Spectators had to go to the top of the hill of the running loop to get a glimpse of this race. You would think that this WOD would be made for a decathlete, but as proven by Spealler, it was made for the athletes who have the highest workload capacity that remained consistent throughout the race. I don’t recall doing endurance hill training, so the unexpected was prevalent. All I had was assumptions of our athletes. With Eric W.’s short strides and ability to withstand a high workload capacity, there was no doubt, he would hold his own on this event. Marie had self professed earlier that she absolutely hates running, so it was going to be interesting to see if she would still do well despite her dismay with it. I was curious to find out how Des would do with her longer stride especially with the hills. Eric finished with a blazing time which was less than 6 minutes slower than the top runners. Marie finished in the top 3rd percentile and Des finished with a strong push especially on her final flat mile home stretch. After CF Portland cheered Des’ home stretch, we came into the arena and noticed Eric with a large amount of dirt over his hairless head and shirtless bod…it was at this moment that we learned that Eric had given one of his hard fought sprints to the finish to edge out the “targeted” runner. In doing so, he hit a dirt patch that gave him a tumble over the finish line in the dirt. Eric at his best. Simply awesome.

Little did the spectators or even the athletes know, this WOD#3 had a HUGE impact on their next event.

TEAM WOD#3

Partner Clean and Jerk 270#/185# for 90 seconds. 2 gals/2 girls. The teams that had the most success approached this similar to the individual WOD#2 Deadlifts. If you recall, this was by keeping a solid pace throughout the entire 90 seconds rather than bursting out for 60 seconds and running the risk of failed attempts for the remainder of the time. The judges were really particular on what they wanted (visible ears on the lock out of arms and stabilized feet before dropping). The ladies started off first with a nice cadence which ended with 7 reps; unfortunately, the first rep attempted had a slight step back by one of the ladies which resulted in a ‘no rep’, so they finished with 6 reps. The guys were up next, and Josh and I were thinking of taking a faster pace which was riskier for failed attempts and required perfect synchronization at the lock out; however, after seeing the judge’s call with the ladies, we decided to stick it up top until we get the ‘rep’ count. This worked great for us. We kept pace up until the 70ish second count and found our weights falling off. After quickly re-adjusting, we heard the final 10 second count, and quickly ripped up 2 reps to finish with 100% on all our attempts at 16 reps. Around the 50 second mark, Josh hit his nose with the barbell and was shaken up but he amazingly fought through the pain and discomfort and showed grit to getting the max amount of reps…all with his lovely wife and kids cheering him on. After the WOD was done for us, we watched the other teams’ strategies and I do admit, it was like watching a circus with the barbells tipping to one side and the bad synchronization overall resulting in lots of missed reps. Our strategy worked and we were definitely a success in this WOD.

Final INDIVIDUAL WOD #4

30 row calories, 30 squat thrusters at 95#/65#, 3 rope climbs 20’/15’, 30 kb swings 53#/36#;
20 row calories, 20 squat thrusters at 115#/75#, 2 rope climbs 20’/15’, 20 kb swings 53#/36#;
10 row calories, 10 squat thrusters at 135#/95#, 1 rope climb 20’/15’, 10 kb swings 53#/36#

As the first heat was approaching, I noticed a lot of dazed/fatigued athletes, especially after the 5 mile run. Hydration and getting enough electrolytes were crucial. After a couple heats, there was a lady that collapsed in exhaustion and the guys were seriously cramping up. Des was in one of the first heats and so her strategy was being watched closely to see what is working and not. She was one of the first off the rower and strategically went to work with the Squat thrusters, breaking up into 4-5 sets. Her Rope climbs looked very easy for her and came off to strategically hit the kb swings up similar to the squat thrusters. She fought through fatigue to make it to the last rope climb before time was up. One thing with Des’ battle was that she never went to the scaled option which was the pull-ups. She showed a lot of mental toughness to not go down the easier path and stuck it out until the end. A definite victory for Des. Marie got to do the last heat for women’s because she was in the top group. She blazed through this WOD with fierce competition breathing down her back and ended up getting the fifth best time. Being in the top 11 overall category going into the final event, Eric was in the second to last heat for the guys. There was anticipation of how Eric will conquer his nemesis with the rope. At sectionals, if you didn’t see the pics, Eric had a battle with the fifth rope climb that came up bloody on leg and fingers.

Thus the reason for having long socks this time. He started off well with the row, squat thrusters, and completed the first three rope climbs with ease. Eric had a solid pace through the next portion up to the 2 rope climbs…and got the 1st of 2, and then got half way up for the 2nd, and the rope started playing tricks with Eric again. Eric listened for the coaching from Scott and Xi and was intent on battling like last time up that dang rope. This is when cramping in his calves begin. Eric went to battle and would get one or two good pulls but then his calf would cramp up. It was like climbing with no feet and Eric kept battling until the clock ran out.

After all was said and done, Eric slipped out of the top 10, Des had a more than respectable placing for her first crossfit experience, and Marie just missed an opportunity to compete in California by two places.