Phew! Well that was a crazy week! With the CrossFit London Throwdown happening on February 11th/12th next year it was time to decide who was going to actually get to compete!
The organisers (Jack from In2CrossFit Clapham and Tom from CrossFit Bold) released 3 WODs the Sunday before last and everyone then had a week to give them a go and register their scores, being officiated by myself, Holly or Barney.
There was a slight twist to proceedings as you could give the WODs a go in any order, as many times as you liked and the first two with slightly different rep ranges depending on your preference! It definitely made things interesting!
The WODs were:
WOD 1
75 x Thrusters (25kg women/35kg men)
75 x Burpees Bar hops (both feet together)
75 x Pull ups
These numbers could be done in any order and with any rep range you preferred. More on that below.
WOD 2
Output - 800kg women / 1200kg men Power Clean
5 x rounds of:
5 x Shoulder to overhead (40kg women / 60kg men)
7 x Front Squat (same weight)
9 x Toes to bar
Output - 800kg / 1200kg Power Clean
The output meant your weight choice and reps were of your own doing.
So for a man going for 1200kg, he could do 20 reps @ 60kg or 30 reps @40kg for example.
WOD 3
100 x Double unders
30 x Knee to Elbow Pull ups
30 Hang Squat Snatch (25kg women / 35kg men)
100 x Double unders
It was some really good programming on Jack and Toms part as WOD 1 was definitely a massive lung buster, WOD 2 was more about strength and WOD 3 was definitely the technical one which i bet caught a lot of people out.
As far as WOD 1 goes there was a lot of talk on the FaceBook posts about how best to tackle those numbers. A few people went for 3 lots of 25 reps. Some were swearing by 7.5 rounds of 10 but perhaps the most popular one seemed to be 12,11,10,9 etc down to 3.
I myself did WOD 1 three times (yes, i know im mental!!) and tried three different variations. My first time with 20,20,15,10,10 was 16.44. My second attempt with the 12,11,10,9 etc was 14.50 but the last time i did it with 15 rounds of 5s and managed 13.45. For me that was definitely the best option. Small sets that you didnt have to rest in and you got your breather between the exercises if needed.
The key to WOD 2 seemed to be not dropping the bar between the presses and the front squats as picking it up again cost you lots of time. And WOD 3 was all about the double unders and if your grip strength held out!
It has been awesome at the box this week and we are very proud of everyone who gave these WODs a crack, be it if you were registered to compete or just did one or two of them to see how you fared! It became a real eye opener for people to see what scores they clocked up and then just how good the scores were coming in on the constantly updated league table (nice touch guys, that was cool!). You might see yourself climb up ten places only for the end of the day to come and you dropped back down again! It definitely made you want to repeat the WODs to try and hold your position. I tell you though....im never doing WOD 1 again!
Also, it must be remembered that the guys and gals who are posting the top scores have been CrossFitting for a good few years now. We as a box have only been open since March this year so are in our infancy when it comes to getting our athletes competing. Its been great to see just how far everyone has come in such a short amount of time as there are so many different skills you have to learn to be a truly rounded CrossFitter. And yes, some of those posted times do really seem superhuman!! There are some beasts out there!
I hope this will only drive everyone on to become better and push yourself towards an even higher standard. I know my own training has really ramped up over the last month in preparation for these games and despite the fact of being way off the pace of the top guys i have definitely improved my own times and scores because of it. Thats what it is all about at the end of the day. Bettering yourself. Dont feel dejected that you couldnt possibly compete with the top scores. Train hard, practice, keep motivated and who knows what the next 6-12 months may bring? Take a look back through your training diary and see where you were 6 months ago if you dont believe me! Are you better now? Of course you are.
Lets take a look at our whiteboard this week:
We had 8 athletes register to take part in the actual qualifiers although this came down to 7 due to a badly timed torn callous infection for poor old Lina! :( We are proud to have also seen so many others at the box want to take part in these WODs for, ahem, 'fun'!
So how did we get on?
Holly Gehlcken - 15.49 / 19.11 / 15.35 = Total of: 50.35 (40 out of 110)
Barney Gehlcken - 16.04 / 18.31 / 14.15 = Total of: 48.50 (211 out of 378)
Dave Draper - 13.45 / 9.58 / 9.49 = Total of: 33.32 (66 out of 378)
George Carlo - 18.42 / 18.46 / 17.16 = Total of: 54.44 (243 out of 378)
Simon Welling - 18.04 / 14.46 / 23.38 = Total of: 56.28 (250 out of 378)
Ami Ruff - 23.08 / 18.54 / 23.35 = Total of: 65.37 (64 out of 110)
Matt Evans - 18.23 / 19.44 / Did not do = Total of: 38.07 for two events. (332 out of 378)
It was only the top 60 male and female competitors that would proceed to the finals at Brunel University in February and with 488 registered athletes this was going to be no easy task! Im pleased to say though that Holly did an amazing job to finish in 40th place. And this was despite the fact she didnt get to repeat one of her WODs due to a pesky cold!
We also now have the opportunity to enter a team into the competition made up of two women and three guys. This is to be decided over the next few days.
Back to some regular training now this week. The buzz it created at the box was fantastic and dont forget we still have the UK Series Competition on the cards for those of you still keen to log your scores against others.
Again, a massive congratulations to all those who shed blood, sweat and (perhaps) a few tears over these WODs. Just wait until February when the weekend will go off with a bang and show you just how much CrossFit is exploding in the UK! I for one cant wait.............
Dave
http://www.londonthrowdown.com/
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