The basics I guess - Cooee had two teams (one Rx, one scaled) entered into the WOD Team Championships - an online competition. From their website:
The main purpose of The WOD Championships is too successfully host a range of online events in which the community can test not only themselves as individuals but also as team members in a team environment.... The WOD Championships will aim to remain the biggest alternative for online competition outside of the Crossfit Open...
I was lucky enough to find myself on a solid, strong and awesomely fun team with Kayla, Pete and Tim in the Rx division. The WODs came out Friday morning so we had all day to plan, prepare and strategize for how we wanted to attack both the order of the WODs and the WODs themselves.
WOD 1
"Get over it"
6 mins of hanging squat clean and jerk (50/30kg) and partner over-unders.
Score = (women CJ + men CJ) x total over-unders
(53+39) * 67 = 6164
Kayla and Tim (both beasts) started on the CJ's while Pete and I partnered up for the over-unders - basically just as they sound - one person on toes and hands while the other crawls under then jumps over and you switch. Harder than you would think and most definitely get your heart racing. I also think I know Pete so much better after this one - at least it was the first WOD and he still smelled good.
Our only strategy for this was to switch both partners (guy and girl) whenever one person who was lifting was starting to tire (but before fatiguing). This worked well, our transitions happened pretty quickly however we probably missed 5 or so over-unders by not finishing the jump over before moving into the transition - oops.
Tim and Kayla did the majority of the lifting on this one while Pete and I switched out for short bursts - 30kg felt heavy for me personally but I managed - my quads however were burning throughout on the squats - pretty sure the over-unders were taking more out of me than I realized.
WOD 3 (did this second)
"Wall Ball KB Swing"
Progress as far through the ladder as possible in 12 minutes
1 x 6kg wall ball (11ft/9ft)
1 x KB swing (32kg/24kg)
2 x wall ball
2 x KB swing
3 x ... etc. Increasing reps each round with each team member staying in the same order
Score = total number of kettlebell swings completed for your team
10 rounds + 20 reps = 240 reps
We ordered ourselves as follows: Kayla, Pete, Jac, Tim and practiced a few rounds of our transitions. The hardest part of this WOD (for me at least) was that you had to catch the final wall ball of the person ahead of you (if it was dropped it was a no rep). For some reason Pete's wall balls came down hard - each one I had to catch felt like a body slam especially by the end when I was too tired to even try and absorb any of it. I was catching it underhanded as well, not even in the rack position. Still, it worked well.
The previous Saturday was the first time I'd ever tried to swing a 24kg KB and this was also only the third time I'd ever done wall balls (only ever in competitions) so going into it I wasn't sure which movement I was more afraid of. Turns out my wall-balls were solid and it was the KB swings that were killer. Somewhere around round 5 my back seized up and made the rest of the WOD painful to say the least. I kept at it though. Ric (from team Body Snatchers) was counting the KB swings for the girls and was amazing at keeping me going - always positive and encouraging even as I struggled for each rep. The best was near the end when Kayla (who was doing wall balls at the time) yelled at me to pick up the KB and get finished as she was coming for it - she was quite loud, aggressive and not exactly PG and I loved it! Got those last two reps out of me pretty quick!
I think overall as a team this one worked well for us. We moved fluidly through out and communicated well during the transitions. The first 4 minutes seemed really long and then the last 8 flew by, really strange how that happens in WODs.
After both teams had completed the first two WODs we stopped for a bit and had a pretty solid (paleo) feast as evidenced by one of only two photos I took on the day.
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| Midday Feast - Yum! And Paleo! |
WOD 2
"Max Tonnage"
24 minutes for max tonnage of:
10 chest to bar pull-ups (M) / pull-ups (F)
20 jump lunges
5 HSPU
1 deadlift
Score = (bar one weight x reps) + (bar two weight x reps) + (bar three weight x reps) + (bar four weight x reps)
Rx - 1425kg = 3*140kg + 3*140kg + 3*105kg +3*90kg
Scaled - 2655 = 6*140kg + 6*140kg + 5*105kg +5*90kg
Each person could choose their deadlift weight however once the 24 minute clock started you couldn't change the weight - I think Kayla and I were pretty close to our deadlift PR's and the boys seemed to realize after that they could have probably gone a bit heavier (not that it was easy on any of us). Each person started at one of the movements and you had to progress through in order each round, only moving on after each person completed their station.
I started on pull-ups having the lowest deadlift weight - we ordered ourselves by overall weight in the instance we finished with partial rotations. It wasn't until we were warming up again that I realized how tired my body actually was - I wasn't feeling particularly sore anywhere except my lower back and yet the hspu's and pullups felt extremely difficult. And we were off...
We started pretty solidly though (not surprising) my pull-ups held us up on the first round as again did my hspu's (though oddly these seemed to get easier for me after this round). We communicated really well as to when to move forward and there was plenty of time to catch your breath before gearing up for one solid deadlift which everyone managed to complete each round - at times with some loud grunts and lots of bar dropping.
In our second rotation Pete started to struggle with the hspu's. He made a very determined effort and managed to complete the 5 reps but it took a lot out of him and his shoulder was rebelling. In the third rotation after much struggle we decided collectively to continue to complete the WOD but would scale the movements - Pete did double the number of hand release push ups as we soldiered on. This was probably one of the highlights of the day for me, where the spirit of crossfit shone - winning is great but that's not why we do this - it's about the camaraderie, the community, and laying it all out there until you just can't any more, every.single.time. There is no quit, ever. It would have been easy to just end the day with those 9 minutes remaining but that's not who we are or what we do - not one of us had to think twice about it - we just moved to the next station and kept at it and it made me really proud - to be part of this team - TOGETHER.
We managed to complete another 3.5 rounds and our day was done. We had left all our energy and sweat and blood on the floor for those three WODs, for our team and for each other and at the end of it all it's what mattered most. We all realized some of our weaknesses throughout the day but I think more than that we realized our capabilities, our strengths. We all pushed farther and harder for each other and that made us great.
Overall it was a great day - I feel that through a collective 92 squat clean and presses, 67 over/unders, 233 wall balls, 220 kb swings, 110(ish) hspu's, 440 jumping lunges, 220 pull-ups and 22 deadlifts and massive amounts of sweat and icy goodness that I know Tim, Pete and Kayla so much better than I did before the day had started. We crossfit all time as individuals but there's something special in competing as a team. We all found more within ourselves as part of a collective than we probably would have on our own and I'm humbled by that. It makes me want to continue to work harder every day along side them for the next time a team comp comes along.
I'm also extremely impressed and proud of the effort of the Body Snatchers (Ric, Neil, Sue and Angie) who pushed just as hard throughout the day and were inspiring to watch. I'm glad we were all in this together.
I didn't need to see two boys in their underwear or Ric ripping his shirt of mid-WOD and I most definitely didn't mean to drive my shoulder into Kayla's boob while practicing over-unders (so sorry) but it made the day memorable. And as Ric so eloquently put it: "Number 1 lesson......do whatever the fuck Kayla says! She is one focused scary/inspiring woman!" - I'd listen to her any day and will always be part of her team. Thanks to Tash and the kids for coming down and cheering us on and to everyone who sent messages and thoughts of encouragement and support. And Badass and Body Snatchers - thank-you for a truly EPIC AND INSPIRING DAY!!
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| Post WOD Feast - well deserved! Also, um, Paleo(ish)! |
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