Battle of the Boxes

So I did it!  My first crossfit competition, Battle of the Boxes was this past Saturday.  I was slightly nervous, but less than I expected.

My workout was a min Helen.  It was two rounds of a 300 meter run, 14 kettlebell swings (35lb) and 8 pull ups.  I was surprised at how young and fit the other three women were in my heat and was even more surprised at how dang fast they took off for the first run.  I did my best to not fall behind and we all four entered the door together.  Two pulled ahead at the pull ups and were out the door before me, but I had a good lead on the fourth.  I ended up finishing in 5:04, which was okay.  There was an 8 minute time cap, so at least I finished well ahead of that.  But overall that put me in 16th place of 24.  I guess considering many of those girls were half my age, I should be pleased.

Then we moved on to the strength portion.  It was the Crossfit Total.  There was a 7 minute time cap for all four team members to find their 1 rep max of: back squat, shoulder press & deadlift.  My three teammates are WAY stronger than me so it was decided they would hit their max on the back squat and then as we stripped the plates for shoulder press, I'd hit what I knew was close to my max.  It ended up not giving me much time but I ended at 165 which was a 5# PR, so I was fine with it.  Then I hit the first shoulder presses.  I got two presses in.  One at 85 # and one at 90#.  That was an 7.5# PR, so I'll take it.  Deadlift I got three pulls in.  My last max was 225#, and on this one I hit 245# and then let them take over.  I didn't want to waste their time when I knew they'd kill it at over 300, the boys up over 400#'s!  We ended up finishing in 8th place overall, which I think was the highest for our box in the intermediate division.

So all in all I had a great time seeing such amazing competitors out there, and being there to cheer on my friends.  Watching the advanced division just brought it to a whole new level.  So impressive!

And now Monday morning, I get to go hit a full Helen!  What?! Yep that's our WOD today.  I'm still sore from Saturday, but it'll be interesting to see how it goes.

Have any of you ever participated in any other crossfit events besides the Open?  How did it go, and how did you do personally?

Today's WOD

I'm starting to get nervous.  I went to workout this morning and just before the WOD, we go over upcoming events.  The next Whole Life Challenge starts this Saturday.  I know it'll be good for me to cut out the dairy and Mexican food again, so I'm looking forward to this.  But I know it's tough to get through all eight weeks, so I'm a bit nervous.

Then there's the Battle of the Boxes that I agreed to compete in.  It's teams of four, two men, two women.  I never planned to compete, that's not why I crossfit.  But it seems they're always short women at our box and I know it'd be fun.  So I got talked into joining an intermediate team.  But it seems everyone else on my team would be fine in the advanced division.  That I'm just not ready for.  But I don't want to hold them back either.  So we'll see how this plays out.  Either way, I'm nervous about doing my first competition.  1 rep max lifts are not my thing, but at least now I've tried every lift so I know what I'm in for.

Lastly there's the open.  Again I have no desire to compete.  But last year our box did every open workout on Thursday and again on Saturday.  I happened to go every Thursday back then so other than the first week when they only did it on Saturday, I ended up doing every workout anyway.  At that point I thought I should've just signed up to see where I fell against others.  Now here we are again and I'm not sure if I want to sign up or not.  I'm old enough to now qualify for the masters division.  But even at that, I see women every day in that category that kick my butt.  So while it'd be fun to see where I fell (and yes I mean that literally!), I'm wondering if it would just be more money out the window.  I guess I have a little bit of time to think on this one.

I'd love to hear from fellow crossfitters why you will or will not participate in the Open this year.

Oh just to finish it off, our WOD today was: Diane with a finisher of max reps toes to bar.

I did Diane in 7:45 but subbed handstand push ups for 30# push presses.  And got 23 toes to bar.

Nope not me in the photo, just a great shot of toes to bar & it had credits.