Trip Back to Alaska and paid a visit to Revolution Sports Training, Crossfit Alaska

Yay!!!!! I got to go back to Anchorage, Alaska this weekend for a wedding, and I was able to squeeze in two visits to Revolution Sports Training, Crossfit Alaska.

I had a busy busy weekend with being in the wedding so I was only able to go there during the days since my evenings were jam packed.

I flew in Friday and Landed at 10am, my third phone call was to the gym to see what times they had available.

Their Friday WOD:

“Going towards the Light”

10 Pushups, 20 sit-ups, 30 double unders

20 pushups, 30 sit-ups, 40 double unders

&.As many rounds in 20 min as possible

I wound up completing

Pushups Sit-ups Double Unders

10 20 30

20 30 40

30 40 50

40 50 60

50 60 70

34(time ran out)

Grand Total

184 pushups 200 sit-ups and 250 Double Unders.

Very fun WOD, this is one I plan on doing again in 3-6 months to see if I made any improvement. I hit failure a bunch of times in pushups so I can make up time and reps there. Sit-ups I stayed pretty steady and didn’t need to break them up much. I made up time on double unders, I can knock these out pretty quick and link a lot together. Towards the later rounds I did trip up more than I have liked so I could still see significant time improvements here too.

So ultimately, I was happy with how I did. I’m not going to lie, going into the gym my goal wasn’t to destroy the wod, get the top time then do some air humping while screaming out how awesome I am. I save that for back home. My goal was to “not suck” and perform in or near the top group of people. I know cf Alaska hasn’t seen me at their gym since I moved last year and I wanted to make a good showing. This is just an outstanding gym with a lot of hard core crossfitters and elite athletes training there, so even though I’m 37, the competitive ego maniac in me wanted to make sure I earned my Crossfit street credit with them, dammit.

After the WOD I had to go get ready for the wedding rehearsal dinner then the bachelor party. CF Alaska holds an Advanced Crossfit Class once a week on Saturdays at noon, so I told everyone at the gym that I’ll be in for this class no matter what time I finish the night.

So I went out for the bachelor party and we had our nails done, got a facial and consumed a lot of milk and cookies. It was a fun night. You know you’ve had too much milk and cookies when you’re outside a “Chuck E Cheese” at 3:30am and a stranger leaving “Chuck E Cheese” brushes the glitter off your shoulder that must have gotten on you from Chuck E Cheese bumping against you, then the stranger offers you a swig from their flask of milk and you say ok…..Always a bad decision.

I finally get to sleep at 4am-ish, now anytime I consume too much milk and cookies my body punishes me where instead of sleeping it off, I’ll wake up really early so I’m awake for the pain. I wound up waking up at 730am, I actually felt pretty good but that was because I was still feeling the happy effects of the milk and cookies…….as the morning went on it turned from happy Ron to this is the most pain I’ve had since got sick and blew an eye vessel from consuming too much milk and cookies.

I laid there watching t.v. wishing I could go to sleep and debating whether or not to go to the gym. I told Clay and Tony I’d make it in plus I hadn’t seen Sith yet and I really wanted to meet up with him and workout. Ok here is another thing I’m not proud of, while laying there debating on if I should go to the gym or not I tried to find reasons to dislike Tony, Clay and Sith. I thought if I could think of things they did that were mean and bad to me, I’d start to dislike them and then I wouldn’t feel guilty for skipping the gym and breaking my word. It’s dirty but I wasn’t in the right frame to make rational decisions. Unfortunately or fortunately, I couldn’t think of something so at 11am I decided to get up, take a shower and head to the gym.

Now Clay doesn’t like to announce what the wod is for the CF Advanced class until a few minutes before it starts. He announces his regular cf classes the day before but his advanced class gets something special. So I’m there hoping…..HOPING his advanced class will have muscle ups and heavy weights. I wanted to do higher technical skills and heavy weights with less reps than a lot exercises where I’m going up and down a lot.

This is what Clay broke to the crew:

“3’s a Crowd”

3 minutes to accumulate 30 seconds in a free standing hand stand.

If you go over 30 seconds then divide by 2 is the stager at the start of the WOD.

Then Perform:

Jackie – 1,000 Meter row, fifty 45 pound thrusters, 30 pull-ups

Diane – 21-15-9 Deadlift 225 pounds and Hand Stand Pushups

Grace – 30 reps Clean and Jerk 135 pounds.

You can do them in any order but must complete it in 30 minutes.

I struggled which one to start with. I dislike rowing the most of all the exercises but thought if I burned that wod hard I’d puke and be worthless for everything else. I didn’t know if I could do a HSPU in my condition, doing anything upside down could be really bad for me. I wound up deciding to do Diane first, my thought was let’s see if I can do a handstand pushups and get them over with right away then see if gravity will help whatever is left in my stomach rush out violently.

I had a 1 minute and thirty second lag before I could start the wod because of how long it took me to get the 30 second hand stand. And funny as soon as they said 3…2..1…GO for everyone else, I ran right to the bathroom and puked before my first movement. YAY me, this is going to go great. I got back just in time for me to start. The deadlifts felt really light, it could have been because I was so focused on the pain in my head and holding in the dry heaving feeling. I burned through Diane in a decent time for my condition, I don’t know how my technique was or if I had full range of motion but I really didn’t care. After I completed my last 9 HSPU I did run outside for a quick dry heave, I really wished I had something in me to come out, dry heaving hurts.

I moved on to Grace, I knocked out 10 reps in a row, I could have done more but the up and down motion was hitting my head pretty hard so I had to break them up 5 at a time after that until the gremlins stopped jack hammering in my head. Once this was done I looked at the rower and started swearing to myself. Why did I save the row for last? STUPID STUPID STUPID. Now on a normal day I’d hit a wod like Jackie and be mad if I rowed slower than a 1:50 500 meter splits for my row time(I’m not the greatest but I’m not the worst rower), todayyyyyyy I was hoping for 2 minutes or faster but wound up being happy with my 2:15 splits :-) hey it was over and that was the best part. Looking at 50 thrusters after the row and at the end of a long WOD with feeling like I did was horrible. I would normally knock all 50 of the light thrusters in a row out butttttt I have no idea how I broke these up, I know I lost count when I was in my 30’s so I honestly did somewhere in the 40’s to 50-ish thrusters. Then I moved onto the pull-ups, time was running out so I was only able to get 10 before the 30 minute cap was over. It’s a long grinding wod I would normally like for a Saturday. I don’t wish I did better, I was just happy I showed up and survived.

It was good to be back at the Alaska gym, had a great time seeing the people from before and the new he and she-studs they are developing.

Oh p.s. Way to go Sith, he was Ripped and killing the WOD!!!! I’ve known Sith for years and we partied in Vancouver B.C. together. Back then his main form of exercising was battle break dancing and playing volleyball vs. elementary school kids. He looked like a modern day bruce lee but just a different nationality with a big cheesy smile on his face………However I'm sure Sith will still battle dance against you in a second. Clay and Tony need to come up with a special WOD for Sith with a mix of CrossFit and Break Dancing, then post the video so we can enjoy :-)

p.s.s. Sorry If I wasn't very talkative Saturday but when I feel that way there is not an ounce of wit, conversation or funny in my body. All personality is gone until I'm recovered

A special Crossfit Moment brought to you today by Heavy Squat Clean Thrusters

WOD: Five rounds of 5-squat cleant thruster, 10 Chest to bar pull-ups.

weights: men 135 women 95

My time: 8:58

This Crossfit moment is brought to you today by “heavy squat clean thrusters”.

Yesterday’s WOD is one of the many reasons why Crossfit and the community separates itself from personal trainers and globo-gyms. I went in excited about the workout but already had it planned in my head that I would scale the weight. I’ve done heavy thrusters before but not 135 pound squat clean thrusters and I wanted to really burn the workout so thought it would be best to scale down.

On a regular day I’ll go into the gym and look at the white board to see everyone’s time. I’ll look through and use someone as a guide to what times to shoot for, what weights to use and who to try and beat for time and score. This guide helps me to really get that extra little push and intensity, I’ve been doing it since day one I started cf but then it was don’t come in dead last and month after month I’d pick someone higher and higher to shoot for.

You can walk into a cf gym go up to someone and ask “what was your weight or time”; you can’t do that at a globo-gym or personal trainer.

Here are a couple of conversations for you, first one at a globo-gym:

Me: Hey what did you curl over there

globo-nerd: I did 35 pound dumbbells, eight reps. My guns got a good burnnnnn

Me: Dude I’m going to totally smoke you and do 10 reps because I’m AWESOME!!!!!

globo-nerd: Get away from me dumb a$$ I’m going to work on my pecks then hit the tanning bed.

Now if you go up to someone in a cf gym and have a similar conversation:

Me: What was your time today?

Crossfit addict: It’s tough one today, I got 8:57

Me: Not bad, I assume I’ll get 8:56 or better because I’m AWESOME!!!!!

Crossfit addict: Hahahaha you dummy, not a chance you’ll gas after the first round.

The difference is they’ll stay around and watch, cheer you on to beat them, be excited if you do beat them and be just as excited if you don’t, then after you can still talk trash, have fun and grab a beer.

So back to yesterday, I went in thinking I’d scale the wod then looked at the white board and saw Levi did level 3, when I saw that I said to myself “Fu**ing levi, A$$ Face, Butt munching, pain in my junk” Now I’m not taking anything away from levi, he’s a stud, but weighs a lot less than me. I originally wanted to scale but since I saw he did level 3 at 135 pounds, I felt obligated to do it too. Which was a good thing because I had a good wod, got it completed in a decent time. So ultimately that whiteboard again helped push me to something I wouldn’t voluntarily do on my own.

Again, this Crossfit moment is brought to you today by “heavy Squat Clean Thrusters” and Fu**ing levi, the “A$$ Face, Butt munching, pain in my junk”

p.s. and yes, I beat Levi's time(cough cough by over 3 minutes cough cough), not that it's important to point that out butttt I'M AWESOME!!!!!!!

Valdosta Georgia www.crossfitvaldosta posted by Erin

I went to Valdosta, Georgia to visit my very good friend Tracy and her family. Of course my husband being the freak he is said that I had to visit a Crossfit gym while I was there for a few days. Sure I was going to do it anyway because both JT (Tracey’s Husband) and Kayla (their daughter) train at Crossfit Valdosta and secretly I love doing Crossfit too so I’d even go on my weekend of hanging out, wine drinking and gossiping with Tracy :-)

I arrived Friday morning and had some time to kill during the day. It was about noon and I wanted to burn off some energy so I decided to go for a run. I told Tracy I was about to go running and she called me absolutely crazy and that nobody goes running in Georgia during June at noon. I might actually explode into dust. I laughed it off and went anyway……….HOLY CRAP IT WAS HOT. I used to run . . . a lot! I ran 6 days a week. I’ve ran 5K and 10K races. I ran a half marathon and was training for a 110 mile team relay and hoping to do a full marathon. Needless to say, I love running but I made it about 1 mile and had to stop. . . yes 1 mile! Then I noticed that there were no people on the street. Being from Seattle you are used to seeing people biking, walking, running everywhere. I was literally the only person on the street. When I got back to the house everyone was just laughing giving me a lot of I told you so’s. They thought it was so funny that when they introduced me to other people they opened it with “this is our friend Erin from Seattle can you believe she tried to run outside at noon, hahahahahaha”.

I made plans with Kayla and JT to visit their box, www.crossfitvaldosta.com, on Saturday. Saturday is when their gym does the Hero WOD’s and longer, intense Crossfit wods. The owner of the gym, Trebor Marple, gave Kayla and JT a warning about bringing me to the Saturday WOD and emphasized this is a longer hard wod, are you sure she’s up for it. This freaked them out wondering if they were up for it. They have been in Crossfit for a year and never did a Saturday workout before. They were now questioning if they were ready for a Saturday WOD. JT was sweating the whole time worrying how wrecked he’d get from the wod.

So Saturday finally comes around and we’re doing:

"The Seven"

Seven rounds for time of:
7 Handstand push-ups
135 pound Thruster, 7 reps
7 Knees to elbows
245 pound Deadlift, 7 reps
7 Burpees
7 Kettlebell swings, 2 pood
7 Pull-ups

They started the timer with a cap of 35 minutes. I didn’t think I’d need it but it was nice to know it was there because workouts always look so much more fun and easy on the board. So we’re in the workout and after round 3 I felt my hands start to rip, normally if they get bad at my gym I’ll stop and modify my pull-ups for pushups because once their torn Im pretty worthless. I didn’t want to look like a pansy so I just kept plugging on feeling my hands get worse and worse. Plus, Trebor, the owner of the gym was working out with us and from what I know, had been severely injured when he was hit by a car while training for a triathalon and crossfit helped him recover, he’s a beast. Here is his a link to his bio http://www.crossfitvaldosta.typepad.com/trebor_marple/ . I couldn’t very well bitch about my little ripped hands while this dude is killing the wod right next to me. The time limit was coming near and JT, Kayla and I were still going, we mentally high fived each other because the workout was almost out of time. I was finishing up my thrusters as the time neared so instead of moving to knees to elbows I skipped to the deadlift because I didn’t want to just quit but I didn’t think my hands could endure any more, then I went onto the burpees and kettle bell swings. I had another three rounds to go when the timer ran out and then Trebor yells “Don’t stop, don’t worry about the time limit just keep going” ……….WHAT THE WHAT! I was trying to hide the pain on my face as my hands ripped open more and more and now to finish the round I had to do my knees to elbows and pull-ups back to back. I threw on gloves but that didn’t work. I ripped those off. One of the guys who had finished grabbed some tape and tried to tape up my hands but between the blood and sweat, that easily fell off. They were nice enough to let me finish my knees to elbows on the rings instead of the bars to help with the sliding. I was finally on my last round of pull-ups and as Kayla was standing there cheering me on a piece of my hand skin fell off and floated ever so gently passed her face to the floor. I was literally holding back tears. Everyone in the gym was very cool as they finished they hung around and were cheering us on, I have no idea how they all knew my name but I kept hearing them yell “push it Erin, go go” So no stopping now, push through the pain.

Finally I finished. I’m so happy I moved on but I knew I wouldn’t be able to do a pull-up or anything on the bar for a couple of weeks. My hands were ripped up really bad.

I had a great trip visiting friends. The box was awesome, Trebor and Kate were great, Trebor was a rockstar and a great coach. After he finished his WOD he grabbed his gear and started doing reps next to the group to try and push them through the end.

Kids Bored at the airport

Northwest Crossfit Regionals and Salmon & Sweet Potato vs a Wallet left out in the open

What a fun weekend. I’m reaching a new level of “nerd”, I had so much fun watching the Northwest Regional Crossfit Games and I wasn’t even participating.

Crossfit is becoming more popular and mainstream so people are training harder each year plus more world class athletes are joining, so the level of fitness in these competitors is reaching the levels of comic book superhero’s.

I knew a few people competing in the games so Erin and I were cheering on people from our old stomping grounds in Alaska, My friend Jared who was competing with a rival affiliate team, the gym we train at, Crossfit Bellevue had an affiliate team and Matt was competing in the individual competition.

Matt had an injury within the month leading up to the games, I know he took some time off training so I’m not sure how that affected him overall. He still performed like a beast and he was very impressive even without qualifying. Our affiliate team did great, unfortunately they didn’t qualify for the Crossfit Games and the Crossfit gods messed with me because they placed one spot lower than the affiliate team I had made a bet against. It was literally one spot in the overall standings difference and now I have to take Jared and a friend of his to dinner and I don’t get my free babysitter…..uggggh. Oh well nothing I can do they performed great; I was very impressed with their effort.

This year there was some really stiff competition and it’s an eye opener for the years to come. There isn’t a weak link in these competitions. If an individual or team want to qualify for the next level they have to be a superstar and completely well rounded. There are too many people falling in love with Crossfit and getting into the games. I think this is a huge sign of its popularity and future of how strong people will be getting year after year.

Here were some highlights of the weekend.

#1. Chris Spealler………Who the Fu** is this guy!!!! I don’t have the complete collection of Crossfit bubble gum cards with all the competitors’ stats so I’m still learning who the mega studs in the sport are. I noticed him during the first WOD of 3 rounds: 135 pound overhead squats & 50 double unders. The field is full of machines and if you got a sub 5 minute time in this WOD you’re doing really good because this is a rough and heavy WOD. I’m in the stands and I see this guy throwing the weight around like it’s nothing plus I’ve never seen anyone do double unders so fast. He didn’t break rhythm at all and was running from the exercises instead of walking or taking any rest. He wound up killing that first WOD at 2 minutes 39 seconds. Chris Spealler also wound up winning 3 of the 4 individual events. If you don’t know who he is, here is a link to his profile: http://games2009.crossfit.com/competitors/athlete-profile-chris-spealler.html
Here is what caught me by surprise, the guy is only 140 pounds!!! The heavy weights didn’t slow this guy down, he crushed all the WODs, it definitely makes you go back and remind yourself there are no excuses in Crossfit. Size doesn’t matter it’s about your input into the training to get the super hero output.

#2. Tony Reishus in the deadlift. For this WOD the men had a choice of 263, 303, or 353 pounds then perform as many reps they can complete in 90 seconds. Most of the competitors chose the 263 or 303 weights and I think Tony was the only competitor to go for 353 pounds (correct me if I’m wrong). He knew going into it he had to complete 37 reps at 303 pounds or 31 reps at 353 pounds to win. Most people would go for the lighter weight and hope to knock out more reps but Tony went big. When people saw all the weight on his bar they started to crowd around his area. Tony wound up completing 25 reps and when I talked to him afterwards he sounded a little disappointed because he almost completed 26 reps but didn’t lock out his 26th rep in the time limit and that one extra completed rep would have moved him from 19th to 9th place. Plus it sounded like he was second guessing his strategy because he felt confident he could have gone the entire 90 seconds dead lifting 303 pounds without resting and keeping a faster pace. I still like the fact he went big and it was very impressive watching him deadlift 353 pounds 25 times.

#3. I wanted to point out one or two women but the reality is my wife and I were in shock at how many she-studs there were in the field. The weights they were lifting are heavy for men and they were crushing these WODs like machines. I like the barriers the women break with how they are pushing their strength, endurance and still staying very fashionable and hot :-) hey it’s my blog I can be happy for the women being sexy beasts. Crossfit women + Lulu = Very happy eyes for Ron.............not that I was looking, I'm a happily married man to a hot crossfit woman :)

#4. One of the funniest things at the games was when a member of the Crossfit Bellevue Affiliate team, Gabe Desgarennes, came running up asking if anyone had seem his Salmon. I asked where he had left it and he said the Salmon was sitting right next to his wallet in the bleachers. WTF??? So Gabe had left his cooked salmon and his wallet on the bleachers completely exposed, he left for a good hour or two in order to compete then when he got back, his wallet was sitting there but his salmon was gone. It got us talking that it was silly of him to leave cooked salmon out at the Crossfit games, however leaving a wallet or a bundle of cash in the open would be very safe because nobody will touch that. So money and credit cards left in the open are safe but if you leave salmon, cooked meat or a sweet potato out in the open …….it’s free game and doesn’t stand a chance.

I had a great time at the Northwest Regional Games, there wasn’t a weak link out there. I’m thinking of going to the Crossfit Games in California to watch and see the best of the best go at it. I’m excited for the next level and the years to come.

Northwest Regional Crossfit Games and a new bet

SWEEEEEEET!!!! May 15 and 16 are the Crossfit Northwest Regional’s and Affiliate Cup Team Competition. I’m not competing but I’m psyched to watch this event.

I’ve been training with the Crossfit Bellevue team, http://www.crossfitbellevue.com/, for the last couple of months so I got to witness the dedication and hard work they put in to get prepared for the games. I wasn’t able to keep up with the people competing but it was nice to train right along with them and get in better shape.

Today the Northwest Crossfit workouts have been announced: http://games2010.crossfit.com/blog/2010/05/nw-regional-events-announced/

I know people at various Crossfit gyms and everyone was nervous & excited for the announcement of the competition WOD’s. Now they are official and people are getting pumped and it got the trash talking started.

I’ve mentioned in earlier posts about my friend Jared, he is the person that introduced me to Crossfit. He’s an elite athlete that’s been in martial arts since he was a kid and has been doing Crossfit for the past 2-3 years. Jared is a close friend of mine that I coached for many years, we were training partners and he was a groomsman in my wedding.

Jared has won Mixed Martial Arts events, Pro TKD tournaments, National and International Olympic Style Sport TKD Tournaments too. So he has a phat martial arts resume and just this year he has focused on the Crossfit games. Jared is a stud, well rounded and just recently scored over 400 in fight gone bad. He’s competing on an Affiliate Cup Team with a competing Bellevue Crossfit gym. So we’ve been having fun talking trash back and forth on who will do better. Then when the Northwest Crossfit Games WOD’s were announced he text me.

And this is how the conversation went:

Jared: Sorry man……

Me: Sorry for what?

Jared: I’m apologizing early for how bad our team is gonna beat your team. LOL

Me: LOL, right. Have you done any of the WOD’s yet? The girls at our gym already have been practicing them and they have the clean and jerks down……and killed it. I think the women on the teams are going to be what pushes teams over the top. Our women are studs, how are your girls?

Me again: Better yet, we should make a wager. Your Bellevue team vs. the Crossfit Bellevue teams I train at.

Jared: Hmmmm a bet? Quite possible.

Me: If your team places higher than the team where I train, then Erin and I will take you and a friend to dinner, if CFBV places higher than the team you’re on then you’re babysitting my kids one weekend night(remember I have 3 kids)

Jared: Can I wait to verify that one of our girls gets over a bug she has?

Me: LOL really so this one girl is the entire life support of your team

Jared: No

Me: Sure, I’ll wait since you’re not that confident with your team

Jared: I was just Bull$hitting……..bets on

Me: LOL giddy up!

I love that I have a Crossfit challenge going on and I’m not in it :-)

I hope both teams do well and qualify for the next level of competition but I just hope Crossfit Bellevue places at least one spot higher.

GOOD LUCK TEAM CROSSFIT BELLEVUE
Jon
Gabe
Bill
Janice
Jen
Christina

You’re going to do great.

No pressure just go out and kick A$$.................otherwise you’re pitching in for dinner :-)

I can't believe I received my first "not win" sniff sniff

<------Jon L. At Washington Sectionals. Ok I’ve dragged my feet long enough, I’m finally updating my blog about my heads up challenge vs. Jon L. I’m very sad and still in disbelief that I did not win. I know, right…………………………..I didn’t win?????? This “non win” is messing with my head because I haven’t talked in third person since this happened. I’ve used “me” and “I” a lot. Here is the background to the challenge: http://crossfit50states.blogspot.com/2010/03/sometimes-im-put-into-situations-where.html

The original WOD was supposed to be:

10 rounds for time5 chest to bar pull ups5-135 pound Clean and Jerk200 Meter run

Jon is training for the Crossfit Games but I still believe that with the right WOD anyone can beat just about anyone if you use the right strategerie with WOD selection. I planned to use the above WOD but was still looking for advice to put me in the best position to win.

Dan, the Crossfit Bellevue gym owner, chopped up my WOD saying the right thing would be to do that WOD but cut it in half, so the challenge WOD was:

5 rounds
5 chest to bar pull-ups (chose chest to bar because my quickness will be an advantage for me compared to Jon who’s 6’6)
5 135 pound clean and jerks (chose this because I enjoy doing clean and Jerks and the last time I did Grace in October 2009 I did it in 2:59)
100 meter run.(for those that want to duplicate this WOD and compare times make sure you add in 2 flights of stairs because for us to run we have to run down 2 flights of stairs and back up them each round……..FYI stairs during a WOD suck!!)

So that was the thought process with the WOD selection.

I’m happy we went with fewer rounds because 5 rounds was a beast and gave me “Fran Cough” so I couldn’t imagine what 10 rounds of that would have done to me.

The First round I went as fast as I could thinking if I can get a good enough lead then when I hit that wall and gas out, hopefully it’s the 4th or 5th round and my lead will hold up because I know Jon won’t run out of gas. So I went out the first round and threw all technique out the window, instead of clean and jerking the weight I was trying to go too fast and cleaned it then pressed the weight above my head instead of jerking it. It was fast but uses too much muscle, this would come back to kick me in the A$$ in the later rounds. I knocked the chest to bar pull ups fast then went to run my 100 meters. I have a significant lead at this point and hope I’m in his head so he knows I’m a gamer and here to win…………But Because I’m an idiot, I ran past the 100 meter mark by about 30-40 yards…..so the significant lead I had built up, I lost almost all of it in the first round because I ran too far.

Going into the second round I’m not far ahead but I kicked this round in the butt and I’m still in the lead. This third round is when all the stupidness of running too far and pressing the weight instead of jerking it slapped me right in the face. I hit a wall and hit it hard. I thought I was going to vomit on the spot and my chest was about to explode. This is where Jon caught up to me and moved ahead going into the run. This was a huge mind screw because if he’s passing me so early in the WOD I’m in trouble, big trouble. I’m tired and I know he won’t get tired in round 4 and 5 so I need to pick it up or it’s over……………it was over, I had nothing left in me to move faster and try to catch up. I was in survival mode to just complete the WOD.

Dan had the entire gym do the same WOD before Jon and I went, so they stayed around to watch Jon and I go at it. When Jon moved ahead of me I heard all the shouts and cheers for me to catch up and move but unfortunately I didn’t have it in me. That really sucked not being able to pick it up with everyone being so supportive.

When I was in the last round I did my best to just keep moving and get the best time I could because I knew Jon was too far ahead of me to catch up. I ran up the last flight of stairs to complete the WOD, I was excited it was over then collapsed and laid there completely exhausted.

I laid on the concrete panting trying to catch my breathe and Jon walks up to me, gives me a high five, then says to Dan walking away, “That was fun and I’m not even tired”

If I had any energy left in me, I would have slapped him in the junk.

The final times were:

Jon completed the WOD in 8:18
I completed it in 10:30

I did get the third overall time for the day. The only other person to beat me was Matt, who is also training for the Crossfit games, he completed it in 9:16. But still I picked and created this WOD so I should have won.

I’ll also add that I love how after the WOD Challenge was over, that’s when I get great advice on exercise selection to beat Jon. It’s completed and I lost then people come up and go “you shouldn’t have done clean and jerks, Jon is just too good at that exercise”, “oooh you should have done burpee box jumps, Jon doesn’t like them and you’re fast”, “You should have done double unders you can both do them but you’re much faster at them than Jon” and “you should have done sit-ups you’re much faster than him”. They have all known of this challenge WOD for the past month and decided to give me their very valuable information now when it’s over?????………….Thanks A$$ Hats :-)

This brings my record to 2 wins and 1 loss.

My next challenge is vs. Gabe. I’m pretty sure Ron will wipe the floor with him…………….hey I just talked in third person, that must mean my swagger is coming back. Watch out world Ron’s ready to kick A$$ and take names.

p.s. I am not thrilled with how I performed. I threw away all technique trying to go too fast, ran too far in the first round and burned myself out too early in the WOD. I plan on doing this WOD again in 1-2 months and my goal is to beat 8 minutes and 18 seconds. I don’t plan on going against anyone; I just want to do it for myself. It won’t repair my loss but it will give me something to shoot for, plus this was a very fun WOD.

p.s.s. I will be posting a video of the heads up challenge in the next week or two.