This past Saturday was the Rivertown Classic weightlifting meet at Myles Ahead Fitness in Petaluma, California. It was also my first time competing in the sport of Weightlifting and only my second time attending a meet in any capacity. Needless to say I was a nervous wreck.
The vibe at a Weightlifting competition is a lot different from a CrossFit competition. Most people are sitting pretty quietly, there's not a lot of commotion or people moving around. It's just an audience and a platform. The announcer says someone's name, they go out and make or miss their attempt and head back to wait for their next turn. CrossFit is all about mental drive to keep pushing forward, form doesn't matter so much as long as you're making whatever movement go from point A to point B. In Weightlifting you have to be incredibly focused, because you only get one attempt at a time and if your form breaks down you're going to miss or get some red lights.
Watching from an outside perspective is interesting as well as entertaining. Making the switch from spectator to athlete however, was rather disconcerting. All the waiting, knowing that you only have 6 lifts with a bunch of people staring at you in complete silence had my nerves completely frazzled. All the people who I would be competing with were sitting and waiting as well, so watching the other weight classes lift gave me no perspective on what to expect or how to gauge myself in my respective field. Waiting sucked.
Once things got moving I was able to settle in. A guy in my weight class had the nerve to make a smart ass comment to my coach in the warm up room, I beat him, but we will get to that later. Who goes to a weightlifting meet in California and doesn't know who Aimee Everett is? Come on! Anyway, being pissed off beat being nervous by a long shot and things felt better from that point on. If only I could harness the "pissed off" emotion on demand, things would be a lot easier as far as daily training and competition go.
Taking your warm up lifts can get complex at a meet. Since you declare an opener your coach can bounce back and forth between the cards and let you know how many attempts you are away and time your warm up sets accordingly. My coach is the shit and I also had the help of Greg Everett, which no one is going to complain about. The weights got loaded and when Aimee said lift, I lifted. I knew what was on the bar, but it really wouldn't have mattered if I didn't. By the time it was my turn to lift I had pretty much the exact same amount of rest between my final warm up and first attempt as I had between my warm ups. And of course I nailed my first snatch like nothing. Unfortunately I missed my second attempt, but came back and made it on my third attempt super clean. So clean in fact that I went ahead and threw a PR weight of 113 on the bar in the warm up room and made that too.
Sweet. Snatches over and no clue what place I was in and didn't care. I made my lifts and was ready for some clean and jerks. For whatever reason I can't jerk for shit training, but competition makes my jerk awesome. After a few warm-ups it was pretty apparent I was going to jerk whatever I cleaned. By the time I got to the platform, Mr. talks back to a national champion was trying to edge me out on the C and J. We both made 125 then he missed 130. Of course 130 went up like nothing, so he came back and did a measly 131 hoping I would miss my final attempt. Wrong! You talked shit to my coach and expected to win by 1 kg? Not happening. 137 for a PR. In your face. Thank you and you're welcome. Go get third place. Recap over.
By the end I was a little pumped, but for the most part it was just a good learning experience and a really good time. Seeing from the inside what it looks like to have good coaching and how much that helps the athlete perform to their potential despite the natural stresses of competition day was a priceless experience. Also, seeing that everyone there might not be expecting to win, but just make some good lifts and hang out was cool too. I'm so hard on myself it's easy to forget that sports are supposed to be fun and most people participating are just there to have a good time, especially at a local meet. There are a few people at Amity CrossFit I'll be nagging to get into the next meet in our area.
Oh and I have to mention that I made the exact qualifying total for the American Open and say thank you to my coach Aimee and everyone else at Catalyst Athletics who came out and made big lifts, helped load, counted cards and shouted "Come on, you got it!"
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Sunday, April 21, 2013
CF open review 2013
So the open has been over for a few weeks now and I'm finally getting around to writing up a little review slash recap of how things went. It goes without saying that it was the most exhausting open for myself to date, seeing as how it's taken me this long after until I was ready to put down in writing how things went. Living in a new area and getting used to training alone often were just a couple of the unique challenges that made the open that much tougher.
In previous years I had pretty consistent training partners. At CenCal in 2011 working out with the other guys and sometimes the classes was super cool. Even though at times we'd all be doing something different, there was a positive encouraging attitude and a need to prove ourselves as the other CrossFit gym in town. At CF 209 training was anchored by games competitor and legend Gabe Subry. He's a beast both physically and even more so mentally and is definitely the glue that holds that group of athletes together. I have a tremendous amount of respect for that guys work ethic and willingness to do what it takes to make it to the next level. No one sweats more than him. Literally. Working out in that group had a huge sense of accountability for everyone involved. And now I have a coach. Workouts are technical and planned, no longer fueled by curiosity or simply done for fun. Often times the worst workouts of all are performed alone in a gym devoid of anyone besides myself. And with all these moves and changes the goal remains the same: advancing through the open, the regionals and to the games.
2011 and 2012's variety, and lack there of, created enough confusion in my mind that I didn't even have a guess as to what was coming out of the hopper that first Wednesday at 5:00 pm. Who could have known that the first workout would have been a combination of the previous years first two workouts? Not me, thats for sure. But I sure as shit wasn't complaining when I saw power snatches. I loved this workout, although my conditioning was just starting and the burpees altogether destroyed me, I know how to snatch and I have an aggressive turnover in the power movement. There were plenty of much stronger athletes that didn't score as well on this one because of the extreme benefit of quality form in a movement such as the snatch. This workout turned out to be the most heavily loaded (weight-wise) workout in the open and also my best finish. Guess those days of being a skinny-cardio guy are over.
Knowing my conditioning wasn't spectacular had me a little nervous leading into the next week. But it was ramping up and my 12th place finish on a heavy workout made me feel pretty good about this years open. Week 2 didn't like me being in such a good mood and successfully derailed my positive attitude. A super simple triplet of light weight and box jumps devastated me both physically and mentally. Tight back muscles and bleeding lungs slowed me down and left me with a finish decidedly lower than anything I had received in the any open workout to date.
Fighting back from that point was a pretty sweet experience. And being able to do it with only one try on every workout was great as well. Replicating the wall ball/double under/muscle up workout with a slightly lower finish - stupid double unders; and discovering that swinging a 70 lb kettle bell constantly makes toes to bar easy as shit because your grip is like a vice were both inspiring and relieving. And of course the drinking game style, suffer more by winning, final workout was great. Not since my level 1 certification where I did Fran over a mile above sea level had anything hurt like that. Shit. Hopefully that's one they leave in the locker next year.
Finishing the open lower than in previous years isn't awesome but I did climb forward on each subsequent workout after 13.2. It was hard. The days in between were filled with doubts, confusion, and every other emotion you can imagine. Thoughts creeping into the back of my mind asking if I'm still a high level competitor. Wondering if the other people are just that good. Convincing myself everyone must be full of shit and either on steroids or out right lying about their scores. And finally taking a step back and realizing I'm making PR's on lifts and workouts every single day. I'm better than I've ever been. No matter what happens, my family, coaches, and sponsors aren't going to kill me or disown me. I have busted my ass to get to this point. My reps are clean, my scores are legit and my training is just getting harder as the regionals approaches. When the time comes I will be ready.
In previous years I had pretty consistent training partners. At CenCal in 2011 working out with the other guys and sometimes the classes was super cool. Even though at times we'd all be doing something different, there was a positive encouraging attitude and a need to prove ourselves as the other CrossFit gym in town. At CF 209 training was anchored by games competitor and legend Gabe Subry. He's a beast both physically and even more so mentally and is definitely the glue that holds that group of athletes together. I have a tremendous amount of respect for that guys work ethic and willingness to do what it takes to make it to the next level. No one sweats more than him. Literally. Working out in that group had a huge sense of accountability for everyone involved. And now I have a coach. Workouts are technical and planned, no longer fueled by curiosity or simply done for fun. Often times the worst workouts of all are performed alone in a gym devoid of anyone besides myself. And with all these moves and changes the goal remains the same: advancing through the open, the regionals and to the games.
2011 and 2012's variety, and lack there of, created enough confusion in my mind that I didn't even have a guess as to what was coming out of the hopper that first Wednesday at 5:00 pm. Who could have known that the first workout would have been a combination of the previous years first two workouts? Not me, thats for sure. But I sure as shit wasn't complaining when I saw power snatches. I loved this workout, although my conditioning was just starting and the burpees altogether destroyed me, I know how to snatch and I have an aggressive turnover in the power movement. There were plenty of much stronger athletes that didn't score as well on this one because of the extreme benefit of quality form in a movement such as the snatch. This workout turned out to be the most heavily loaded (weight-wise) workout in the open and also my best finish. Guess those days of being a skinny-cardio guy are over.
Knowing my conditioning wasn't spectacular had me a little nervous leading into the next week. But it was ramping up and my 12th place finish on a heavy workout made me feel pretty good about this years open. Week 2 didn't like me being in such a good mood and successfully derailed my positive attitude. A super simple triplet of light weight and box jumps devastated me both physically and mentally. Tight back muscles and bleeding lungs slowed me down and left me with a finish decidedly lower than anything I had received in the any open workout to date.
Fighting back from that point was a pretty sweet experience. And being able to do it with only one try on every workout was great as well. Replicating the wall ball/double under/muscle up workout with a slightly lower finish - stupid double unders; and discovering that swinging a 70 lb kettle bell constantly makes toes to bar easy as shit because your grip is like a vice were both inspiring and relieving. And of course the drinking game style, suffer more by winning, final workout was great. Not since my level 1 certification where I did Fran over a mile above sea level had anything hurt like that. Shit. Hopefully that's one they leave in the locker next year.
Finishing the open lower than in previous years isn't awesome but I did climb forward on each subsequent workout after 13.2. It was hard. The days in between were filled with doubts, confusion, and every other emotion you can imagine. Thoughts creeping into the back of my mind asking if I'm still a high level competitor. Wondering if the other people are just that good. Convincing myself everyone must be full of shit and either on steroids or out right lying about their scores. And finally taking a step back and realizing I'm making PR's on lifts and workouts every single day. I'm better than I've ever been. No matter what happens, my family, coaches, and sponsors aren't going to kill me or disown me. I have busted my ass to get to this point. My reps are clean, my scores are legit and my training is just getting harder as the regionals approaches. When the time comes I will be ready.
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