Category: Events

"Big Balls and a Good Snatch"

Vulgar maybe. Accurate, yes. Welcome to our week of the Games! Each day will be a WOD inspired by this year’s CF Games. Today is CrossFit Games WOD #4.

3 Rounds for time:
30 Wallball (20#/14# ball at 10 ft. and 9 ft. target)
30 Hang Squat Snatch (75#/55#)

Results

The (squat) snatch, hang snatch and power snatch are all pretty new movements. So is the Burgener warm-up. What better way for you to learn them than to pile them on in one day! As Lyndi said “I should be better after 90 of them.” Everyone did well today learning a highly technical lift. Many scaled to get the technique down and for most the hang power snatch was the norm over a squat. That’s great too as we will be doing plenty of these in WOD’s to come.

The bigger challenge was the heat. It was Africa hot. Or Aromas hot (site of the Games). It was oppressive. It sucked it out of you. It was almost a third part to the WOD. In tonight’s class I had the privilege of watching all of you overcome the effect of it. Curtis ignored it and simply asked “what weight did Michelle do?” and then gutted it out with power snatches. Jorge asked for more weight each round despite being gassed, and Amanda fought off a bout of nausea for the last two rounds and did not give up. It was inspiring to say the least. Only four more days to go and Wednesday is supposed to reach a 100.

High Five Naptime for Jorge
Here’s a slideshow from today:
     

Notes:
Saturday WOD for all. It will be the final WOD for “Games Week”. We will meet here at the gym and head over to the site on foot. Don’t worry, it’s really close.

Don’t forget to register for the Snoqualmie Railroad Days Race (either the 5k or 10k) on 8/22. We have a bunch of you now committed. To register go here. Potluck BBQ at our place afterwards and we will show “Every Second Counts” the CrossFit movie, let the kids run amok, and all share in some paleo beer and mixed drinks (Paleo only because we will hunt for alcohol and gather to drink it).

Let The Games Begin!

This week will be WOD’s inspired by the 2009 CF Games. A little tinkering here and there due to equipment limitations such as 20 loaded deadlift bars, the lack of a GIANT 7.2km hill climb, no sledgehammers and spikes to drive, and other minor details have led us to get somewhat creative.

Don’t worry though. We promise you will get a workout, have fun, and not do them all over two days! 

Log Squats
Picture taken by Curtis after a great family hike to Twin Falls.

"Harder Than It Looks"

This was the unanimous quote today.

5 Rounds for Time:

20 Box Jumps (24″/20″)
20 Kettlebell Swings (54#/36#)
20 Kettlebell Sumo Deadlift High Pull (54#/36#)

Lots of fun with the kettlebell (subbing a dumbbell also works). Congrats to Lucy for moving up to the 20″ box jump! And Jim for using the 54#. This one was no joke.

Amanda KB Pain Lyndi Box Jump
Travis SDHP M Resting

Notes:
This September (9/26) we are planning to participate in the Fight Gone Bad Challenge. Affiliates across the country are going to all host this WOD on the same day and raise donations to help Athletes for a Cure and The Wounded Warrior Project. As a SRCF team member all you need to do is show up on that day and workout. Pledging for a good cause is a bonus.

Details can be found at the FGB IV site.  Donations to the SnoRidge CrossFit support for the cause can be made here.

We are planning to have a park team WOD this Saturday if enough of you are up for it. If you want to swap a day from this week to come Saturday it’s looking like 10am will be “Go” time. Plan to meet at Swenson Park (down the street from the gym in Deer Park). Let us know if you are in.

The Proof Is In The Pudding

“Every time I suffer I am a better man because of it.” ~ Lance Armstrong

Pre Race

I have a new found respect for trail running.  Particularly trail races.  Today I ran the North Face Endurance Challenge 10k in Bellingham with a good friend.  It was no joke.  Basically for me it was an hour long WOD. Kind of like “Murph” without pull-ups and push-ups but the trail pounded my body anyway. It was a beautiful course, highly challenging, fast and constantly winds it way up and down. I think I prefer this type of running to pavement.

The course description was “Elevations bounce between 200 and 2,500 feet, but do not include any huge, sustained climbs. Rather, the course is always heading up or down. Traverses of broken ridgeline require nimble feet while highly technical sections demand mountain goat skills. Overall, an impressive trail-running test that delivers a balance of fire roads, single track, and double track”. 

I would agree with all of that description except the part about not including any huge, sustained climbs. If you say a section of a mile and half of steep, sustained, hill climbing midway into the race that induces the effect of having just completed 100 squat cleans doesn’t count as huge and sustained then you must be one of the people who ran the marathon and ultra marathon distance!

That said I wanted to write this post really to share some observations I received and my reflection on how CrossFit benefited me. Previously being a more disciplined runner that tried to keep my running schedule and weekly mileage consistent I have recently found less time to run daily or to run far.  I have relied more on CrossFit for the cardiorespiratory endurance benefit it provides knowing that it would serve me well when needed.  

I finished well with a time that for myself was pretty satisfying (40th place out of 179 runners at 1:01).  I was smoked at the end of the race with pretty tired legs from the pace coupled with the pounding of flying down sections of trail to try and either catch my running partner or briefly keep him behind me. He easily beat me by a minute and was a very respectable 33rd.  The difference between us is he doesn’t CrossFit but is a long distance runner.  He most recently was training for a marathon and had up until a couple weeks ago been logging very heavy mileage preparing for a race.  I was not.  This is not to take anything at all away from him as a runner.  Actually it’s the opposite.  He really dominated the race well.  He is runner that excels in longer distances.  The fact that I could keep up with him is a testament to CrossFit knowing I have been relying on running from WOD’s sprinkled with the occasion 2-4 miler here and there.  

Which is what leads me to the point of this post, CrossFit works.  It specializes in not specializing.  It prepares you for a wide range of physical challenges.  It’s ability to increase your functional fitness and work capacity such that you can tackle a race, a sport, or physical challenge is amazing.  The effect the daily WOD has on your mental toughness is powerful.  CrossFit prepared me well enough as an athlete that I was able to accomplish this race today with minimal running preparation and to do it competitively.  When I needed it today it was there. 

Notes:
That said, we have Curtis and Deb in for the Snoqualmie Railroad Days Run with us on August 22nd. Who else is with us? Race info is here.