Week 1: CrossFit Games WOD 12.1

Want to know who are the fittest people in the world? Follow the CrossFit Games which have kicked off on the weekend!

What are the CrossFit Games Open? 

It's a five week long worldwide competition which includes anything from olympic weightifting, to gymnastics, to kettlebell training and a variety of skills. Each week, one workout is announced (5 am UAE time), which none of the athlete know about ahead of time, and have only 4 days to complete it. Scores are uploaded online and validated by either an affiliate or Crossfit HQ. Through the open, the top 60 women, top 60 men, and 30 teams with the highest score in their REGION, will move to stage two, the regionals. Currently over 60,000 people are competing in the open!

The Workout 12.1:

It was as many reps as possible in 7 minutes of...BURPEES!

Athletes had to touch their chest to the ground
and then jump 6 inches above their reach.

My Experience and Workout Score:

When I found out the workout, I was relieved at first - it's something ANYONE can do. A 13 year old or a 70 year old (and yes, a woman got 71 reps, too!) But...it's a workout that is challenging for me because one of my weaknesses is my capacity.

Surprisingly I did a lot better than I thought I could. Given I had four days to finish the workout, it meant I can do it as many times as I wished to do so. I did the workout from hell, twice.

My first score: 77 burpees in 7 minutes
My second score: 82 burpees in 7 minutes


The Goal, Regional, and International score:

My goal is simple -do the best I can for ME and hope to make top 60 to make it to regionals this year.

Regional Score: My score was changing on the leaderboard during the 4-day period as more people uploaded their scores. At fist, I was in the top 20's, down to 30s, 40s, 50s and my final score after closing of the week one is...81 out of 146 women in Asia.

International Score: Not only do I have a regional score, I have an international score as well which is currently 10764 out of 19789 women worldwide

After the end of week 5, the sum of all five workout scores will determine whether an athlete will move on to the next stage or not. So a score in one workout that is below the 60 mark is not necessairly a disqualification of any sort.


Final Words:

Whether I make it to regionals or not this year, nothing beats the experience of taking part of a big international competition. Not only that I will still have a final score that determines where I stand in terms of my fitness regionally and internationally.

For the next 5 weeks, I will write a blogpost to document the journey each Monday. Also you can follow my progress through my athlete profile HERE.

Yours Truly,

Reflection: Four months training for competition

It's finally here.

Nerves are kicking in, blood swimming in my veins from the adrenaline rush, and my palms are sweaty. But most importantly I feel that I've done all I could to take part of something big.  

The competition that I have been training for and talking about for four months has arrived. A week from today, the CrossFit Games 2012 open will kick off on the 22nd of February, US time.

I have been through a journey in the last four months. Not just physical, but mental. I decided to take my fitness levels beyond the four-walls of a typical gym. I decided to take part in an international competition on a whim after a training session in October.

What's so nerve-wrecking about the competition, you ask me? You don't know what you'll be competing at and against whom. Last year 27,000 people took part, this year it's estimated to be 100,000 people across the freaking globe! and I am one of them.

Stating next Wednesday, each week for five weeks one workout (aka WOD) will be put up online on the Crossfit site, and you only have four days to complete the workout and validate your score. The workouts will include anything from - Olympic lifts, powerlifting, gymnastics, skills (double-unders, wall balls, toes to bar), and met cons (metabolic conditioning, meaning cardio).

They will be paired differently each week with different rep ranges and weights.

Here is the tricky part for me. In four months I have honed all the skills with hard work - from double-unders to toes to bar, to learning more than 20-30 movement patterns. Not only that, I also increased my strength level significantly. Week on week, I was PRing (having new personal records), I was learning new lessons, how to mentally deal with a gain or a disappointment, learned to listen to my body, learned to be in tuned with myself and my thoughts.

Despite all that, my fear since the day I started and until today is always going to be weights. It's always going be my "goat", because no matter how strong I am as female who weighs 50kgs (110kbs), to be able to lift as much as other female crossfitters will always be my challenge. And that's okay - because strength is built over time, not overnight.

I have faced a lot of stumbling blocks in the past few months.  Some were harder to get pass through, some were just a "typical bad day," but each time I got up and took a step forward nevertheless.

Challenging areas:

My mobility - which I have been seeing a physiotherapist for week in week out to ensure I work on it and get my body to work in harmony, and this process is still on-going. Boy, 4 months ago I couldn't overhead squat 10kgs, now I can do so with 35kgs!

Olympic lifts -I have been working on my Olympic lifts on weekly basis with an Oly coach Ikaika Paakaula, who has 15 years experience. In just four months...I was able to improve my Olympic lifts technique and I can do a clean with 42.5kgs, which is REALLY close to my own bodyweight!

Diet -  My eating habits has always been off and on. But recently I did something that although saddened me in a way, it also helped me a lot at the same time. I have done my "Allergy test" to see if I have any issues with certain food items. 36 out of 300 items were marked as "intolerant" from a not so-severe to extreme intolerance. Through that list, I have changed my eating, added new items, removed a few items. It's still not 100% yet, as everything is a process and takes time to sink in and adapt.

Mental - Mental challenges are the worst - not the training, not the sweat, or not the muscle burn you have during WODs. It's the thoughts that swam in my head. But with time I am slowly, I repeat, SLOWLY, learning how to deal with my negative thoughts. Thanks to great coaching by @CandiceHowe, I am much better at dealing with mental breakdowns.

I owe it to her and CrossFit LifeSpark for making me a better well-rounded athlete, physically and mentally. When I first made the decision to take part in crossfit, oh boy, little did I know what it takes... but I made it this far and hopefully I will make top 60 athletes in the region!


Starting next week, I will write a blog post about each workout, how well or not so well I do, and where I rank worldwide. So stay tuned!  

Strongmen Championship in Abu Dhabi

 

The UAE never disappoints...and this time around, it was yet another a great sporting event.  

Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, the World Strongmen Championship 2012 was held in Abu Dhabi, khalifa park from 11-13 Feb.

25 athletes were being asked to test their physical strength through lifting heavy weights and objects, and those who were not strong enough were eliminated in event 2 and 3. 

Some of the movements included were farmer's walk, log lifts, truck pulls, tire flips, apollon axle, below are the movements and weight used.

February 11 (25 athletes)
Apollon Axle; max
Farmer’s Walk: time, 160 kg, 50 m
Deadlift: 300 kg, for reps
Tire Flips: 320 kg, time, 8 reps
Duck Walk Medley: 220-, 240-, 260 kg

February 12 (15 athletes)
Arm-over-Arm: bus; time, 20 m
IronMind Sandbag carry: 120 kg for distance
Super Yoke: time, 350 kg, 25 m
Manhood stone: 180 kg, reps
Log lift:125 kg for reps

February 13: Final (8 athletes)
Apollon/’s Axle for reps
Farmer’s + Duck Walks: time, 50 m
Truck pull: time, 25 m
Tire Flips: 320 kg, time, 8 reps
Mas-wrestling

Mark Felix looking solid in his first rep in the
apollon axle

This guy had the best technique out of all,
kept repping 'em!

One of the funny moments that I came across... as I was standing at the back among the athletes, I saw a person, pretty much 3x my size hovering in front of me who said "Where did you get these from? (pointing at my vibrams)"

He stood there for a good few minutes trying to figure out what I was saying, which was "Go sport," maybe he understood it as me cheering him...who knows! Then one of the organisers came and told him, "later buddy!"

Too bad, could've taken a photo with him! 

Anyway, I had to leave before the event was over, so I am not sure who won the title. The team will departure on Tuesday.

For more information, visit IronMind website for the results, HERE.

Or visit the event's Facebook page. 

Yours Truly, 

A weights-junkie.