Alpine CrossFit hosts "The Legends Competition"

First I have to admit that I have done a workout at Alpine prior to this.  Alpine is one of my favorite local gyms for several reasons.  The people there are genuine and well educated.  The standards are well known and always implemented.  Robby has a clean, well stocked facility that is a great place to train.  I was fortunate enough to come out and watch the Olympic lifting competition that he hosted a few months ago so the expectations were high for his Legends Competition this weekend.  Let me say this, he didn't disappoint.
There was an athlete village with several tents, cool vendors, free water bottles for all the athletes, online athlete tracking, and a designated warm up area.  The set up couldn't have been better.  Everything flowed very well all weekend. 


Let's talk about how to program for an event....
First event is a 2,000m run.  Immediately following the run the athlete has 3 minutes to achieve a 1RM Jerk from the rack.  At exactly 20 minutes following the start of the run the athlete is to complete 100 seconds of bear complex (Clean, front squat, push press, back squat, push press) at 135/95#.  This was scored as three separate events.  Personally I thought this was absolutely brilliant.  Give the small fast guys a chance to score some points then give the bigger, stronger athletes a chance to come right back. 
The way the heats were broken up and the amount of racks and weight ensured that everything ran very smoothly.  Hindsight I would have requested to be in a later heat to see what some other guys were putting up.  I believe most people work harder if they know what benchmark they have to hit. 

Event 1, 2, & 3 results....
Run- 7:48 ; 2nd place
Jerk- 250# ; 7th place
Bear- 47 reps ; 11th place

The second day starts with 8 minutes of nasty!
2 rounds of....
1min max rep hang snatch @ 95#
1min max rep box jump
1min max rep handstand push up
1min max rep front squat @ 95#

My goal was to average 20 reps per movement per round.  Honestly, I went out a little hard and averaged 25 across the board in the first round.  Grabbing the bar in round two was terrible.  I fell off considerably and ended up with 152 total reps which was good enough for 5th place. 
This was a GREAT competition set.  Upper, lower, upper, lower.  It didn't favor a specialist, it favored someone who was good at CrossFit. 

I was looking forward to WOD 5 since it was posted.  A fun new twist.  As if doing a lateral burpee over a 24" object isn't tough enough, let's put it in a sand box!!!  ohhh wait, that isn't going to blast people enough.... let's pair it with 245# deficit dead lifts!!!   This WOD was a pain in the ass, literally.  My glutes were on fire by the last round.  Loved it!  SO EPIC!
3-6-9-12
Deficit Dead Lift @245
Lateral burpee jumps @ 24" (IN SAND)

Time- 3:09, Place- 2nd

WOD #6 was a mixed bag for me.  I love the workout Cindy, and I love double unders but I have had no exposure with an atlas stone.  I was excited to try something completely new in competition and see how my body responded. 

6 rounds of...
5 chest to bar pull ups
10 hand release push ups
15 air squats
Then....
20 ground to shoulder with a 115# atlas stone
60 double unders
120m stone carry.

Everything was going great until the stone carry.  My hamstrings completely seized up.  I had to stop 3 times.  It was nasty. 

^^^^ YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG ^^^^

Time- 10:42, Place- 4th

Point total by the end of the weekend was 43 which put me 1 point from 3rd place overall.  I said going into the competition that I would need to put up less than 40 points total to be successful.  This was a great opportunity to go head to head with some amazing athletes.  Sean Turner came out for a second place finish to bring us to a 1-1 tie for the month.... I'm sure I will be seeing him again soon.  Kevin Ogar is a monster. The guy looks like Juggernaut from the X-Men movie, the funny thing about Kevin is he is one of the most laid back, funny guys out there.  I think that is why making the transition from triathlon to CrossFit competitions has been so easy.  The people competing are fun to be around, they understand that they are competing to see who the best is at working out.  No one takes it overly serious but everyone gives it everything they have. 

I joked with Robby that after that ass kicking I would rather volunteer to be a judge next year, but in all reality there is no way that I would pass up an opportunity to compete at such a well organized fun event.  And next year I get to be in the 30-40 age group!! 

CrossFit LoDo was so very well represented all weekend.  Such a great group of ambassadors for our gym.  Diana, Jenny, Caroline, Young, Adam, Todd, and Donny did all of the coaches and other athletes at LoDo so proud.  Their positive attitudes were infectious all weekend.  Diana and Todd both brought home 2nd place finishes!

The SHIRT
 the T-shirt was seriously cool!  I expected to see a little more green to be honest but I like it.  The price was perfect, Free for athletes!  BOOM!   I rocked it at the noon class at LoDo today. 

I give Alpine CrossFit, all the volunteers and The Legends Competition a......
335# Jerk after a 5 minute mile run!

CrossFit 719 Grand opening!

It is always really cool to be able to say that you were one of the very first people to d a workout in a brand new gym.  I had that opportunity at the grand opening of CrossFit 719 in Colorado Springs on June 9th.  Josh C.  (Proud new papa of 719) called my coach GA and let her know that there was going to be a competition in conjunction with his gym's grand opening.  The first thought that I has was that he must be a serious glutton for punishment.  I have opened two gyms and the amount of work that goes into just getting the doors open is incredible.  Add to that the coordinated effort required to put on a competition and it adds up to several nights without sleep.  Josh handled it with grace and great composure. 
When we arrived there was a palpable excitement, a nervous anticipation of all the great things to come.  The gym was like a brand new pair of climbing shoes, fresh and without the marks and sweat stains that tell of great struggle and accomplishment.  The competition was held in the parking lot.  It was hot!  As a friend of mine would put it "It's Jabuti Africa hot out here!"  There was two workouts and a "Floater" which means that you could do it at your discretion anytime throughout the day.  The floater was 90 seconds of max rep thrusters at 85# for boys.  Now, if you know me then you know that I hate thrusters, they are the bane of my existence.  I was not happy when I heard I would be doing this.  Here is how the day broke down....

WOD #1
3 rounds for time of...
10 power cleans @135#
20 Kettle bell swings @55#
30 Lateral bar hops.

I was in the second heat and finished at 4:57.  Sean Turner went in the first heat and put up an impressive 4:58 while Hunter Lea was in the third heat and finished in 4:56!  So there was less than two seconds of separation between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place! 

I am not too proud to admit that I spent the next 2 hours with ice in my armpits and groin, throwing up under a tree. (Sorry laundry mat on the corner, I am sure that I scared away some of your patrons)  I had to do my Thrusters before the second WOD and I was not pleased, so much so that I decided that flip flops would be appropriate foot wear. 

I think I did 38 in a minute and a half.  I honestly didn't care.  It is a terrible terrible attitude to have I know.  But like I said before, I had been puking for hours and I HATE thrusters!  don't get me wrong, it is probably one of the best movements in CrossFit due to the sheer number of muscle fibers that are recruited and the complexity of the breathing pattern associated with it. 

 The second WOD started about 30 minutes after my thruster shit show.  In warming up for event two I vomited two more times.  I knew at this point that I had a pretty severe case of heat exhaustion.  My head was tingling and I was seeing spots before we even started.  I knew what I needed to do though.  I knew that pretty much everyone scored better than I did on the thrusters.  I needed to flip the switch. 

WOD #2

15 bar facing burpees

20 box jumps (24")

25 dead lifts @ 225#

400m plate carry run @ 45#

25 dead lifts @ 225#

20 box jumps

15 bar facing burpees

Finish time 6:40.  It was good enough for another 2nd place finish and 2nd overall in the competition. 

A great event put on by some terrific people!  The athletes that participated were all amazing.  I got the chance to meet several Crossfitters that I have known about for some time.  Sean and Hunter are two of the coolest people.  Tom Ashby is always a class act at every local event, cheering for his fellow competitors.  And even though Robby Z. refused to do my thrusters for me, it was still really cool getting to hang out with him and some of his crew from Alpine.  I tried to get him to divulge some of the workouts from his upcoming "Legends" Competition but being the fair and honest guy that he is he just smiled and said "You'll do fine."  I'm not much of a writer so consider that as my segue into my next post which will be on The Legends Competition by Alpine Crossfit.