Conviction CrossFit's Abdominal Snowman Competition

I signed up for this competition online several weeks before and hadn't been thinking too much about it because of the upcoming CrossFit Games Open that is set to start in March.  Some people were curious as to why I would be doing a local comp so close to the world wide open.  I have always been someone who gains a great deal from competing.  I was looking at this like one final chance to knock off some cobwebs from being out of the game for several months.  My last four competitions I had some form of injury or illness so I was very excited to be going into this one healthy.

Cuspis Crew

The workouts

CF Conviction had the workouts posted on video two days prior to the event.  To be honest, when I first saw the workouts I was a little deflated.  There was nothing for guys to lift over 95lbs and it appeared as if all of the time domains were the exact same.  Furthermore, there was two original movements that most of the competitors had never seen before (Weight plate get ups and reverse wall ball).  Now this is just my very humble opinion but I believe that the main point of a CrossFit competition is to find out who the fittest athletes are on that day.  By throwing movements that only possibly athletes that go to the host gym have been exposed to and then programming the same time domain 3 times may not be the best way to do that.  Again, just my opinion.  That said, I think that each one of the workouts on their own were great.  

WOD 1

3 Rounds for total reps of...

1 min hang power snatch (65/95)

1 min push ups

1 min back squat (65/95)

1 min rest

I believe I completed 232 total reps.  As I watched the heats after mine I noticed that several athletes were not being held to the same standard on their push ups.  This happens, some judges will be more lenient than others.  As a spectator I have NO BUSINESS calling out a judge.  It is their call 100%.  If a judge calls something a rep in a competition then that is what it is.  Don't be that guy that stands on the sidelines and argues with a judge, it's quite tasteless.  

WOD 2 

AMRAP in 8 minutes of...

6 burpee box jumps

9 med ball sit ups

12 reverse wall balls

I got to the wall balls on my 8th round.  I had the fortune (or misfortune depending on how you want to look at it) of being lined up next to a fire breather.  We essentially went rep for rep for the first 7 minutes.  I think that a couple of no reps on his part allowed me to pull ahead slightly.  When I first saw the "reverse wall ball" movement I thought it was stupid.  However, after doing them in competition I kind of became a fan of them. That's right, soak it up everyone, Leo is admitting that he talked shit a little too soon!  The movement is great for accuracy and hip extension.  I won't be programming it in a workout anytime soon but it may find its way into a warm up in the future.  

WOD 3

200m. run buy in 

4 rounds of...

12 sandbag clean to back squat

9 toe to bar

30 double under cash out

(10 minute time cut off)

I liked this one the most.  The weight and rep scheme was light/low enough to go unbroken throughout which meant that heart rate would stay up.  

Floater WOD

2 minutes, As many Reps as possible of..

weight plate get ups (25/45)

Here was another place where I saw some athletes being judged/scored differently.  Some athletes were "no repped" for not having their arms fully locked out at the top of the movement when the video standard and pre-event demonstration stated that they didn't have to be.  

The event as a whole ran very smooth.  I believe that all of the heats started on time with maybe with the exception of a couple minute delay at the very end of the day.  Heat times were conviently posted in two locations so athletes knew exactly when to start warming up.  There was a decent sized area designated for athletes to warm up.  They had coffee and I never once had to wait for the bathroom.  The prizes for top finishers were more than generous.  Reebok donated a pair of Nanos for the first place finishers and sports authority hooked up a killer gift card!  It was cool to see a local company like SPN (Simply Pure Nutrients) with a table at the event.  Had I known that the Paleo Wagon was going to be at the event I would defiantly have ordered from them instead of packing a lunch. 

All in all this was a well put together, fun competition.  It was my first time visiting Conviction and I would certainly return for a competition in the future.  The people that were hosting were all super friendly and ultra helpful.  It was clear that they cared about the athletes and the community. 

The Score....

I am rating the CrossFit Conviction Abdominal Snowman Competition a score of....

An extra large frosty glass of chocolate milk! 

The New Guard, CrossFit Sanitas

No matter the size, location, time in business or name of a CrossFit gym I never get tired of stepping through the front door.  It is like unwrapping a present.  Most of the gyms that I have visited have been either modest or came from very modest beginnings and grown over time to their present size.  There seems to be an emergence of CrossFit gyms that have significant financial backing.  The result of this is a much more polished initial product.  What does that mean for the CrossFit community?  Do these models threaten the smaller garage style start up gyms that have been the staple of CrossFit facilities for the past decade?
I had the opportunity to visit one of these "globo boxes"  this week to see for myself.

On Wednesday I dropped in on the 9am class at CrossFit Sanitas to join them for a workout.  They had only been open for a couple of weeks but you absolutely wouldn't know it when you stepped in the front door.  The space is vast and feels incredibly open.  A gentlemen noticed immediately by my wide eyes that it was my first time in.  He was exceptionally polite and welcoming.  The front desk was similar to what you would see at a larger health club. He had me fill out a liability waiver and inquired about my CrossFit experience.

I am directed to the locker room and on my way back Caleb introduces himself to me.  His energy and enthusiasm is palpable.  The website was down so I had no idea what the workout was going to be, which made me nervous considering I had a competition in a couple of days.  I was relieved when Caleb told me that we would be doing sled pulls, push jerks and double unders.

The locker room was well kept and once again similar to what you would expect to see in a corporate type facility.  I can't speak for the women's facilities but the men's locker room had three showers as well as an abundance of storage for your gear.

There was a "Base Camp" class starting at the same time as ours.  Base Camp is CF Sanitas' version of an elements or on ramp class.  At a couple of minutes before 9am Caleb took control of our group and had the others go with their respective instructor.  We had about 10 people in our group and it looked like Base Camp had close to 15.  Caleb's military service was made apparent in the way that he controlled the group and described the movements; using terms like "cease fire" instead of stop.  Before the workout we performed the CF Standard warm up which includes squats, pull ups, dips, sit ups, and hip extensions.

THE WOD

Partner based.  5 Rounds for repetitions.

Person "A" pulls a weighted sled 20 feet while Person "B" does 10 push jerks (135/95).  If person "B" finishes the jerks before "A" finishes the sled pulls then they will use the remaining time to do double unders.  The workout was scored individually.  The objective is to allow your partner the least amount of time to accumulate repetitions.  There was no other time component.


This was a gasser, no doubt.  Like most people I have a tendency to use one movement, or the transition between movements as a rest period.  Any slowing would result in a higher score for someone else.  As the semi competitive person that I am, I worked a little extra hard to make sure that didn't happen!  I think my partner had a little of that competitive GFY because by the last two rounds of the workout I wasn't even getting through the 10 reps.  He was pulling that sled FAST!  While it would be difficult to score a workout like this at a competition, you have to love any training that brings out that level of increased competitive drive in someone.  (See Why we Compete) 

The post WOD skill development was cool.  Caleb had us practicing a handstand transition from bakasana (crow pose) on the astro turf.  Yeah, I said astro turf.  CF Sanitas has it's own astro turf!  Following our handstand skill development we worked on shoulder mobility.  All in all it felt like we got a lot done in an hour.

The equipment 

This is going to be short, Sanitas is not short on anything.  I have never seen a gym so well equipped in it's first month.  Judging from the box after box after box that was being brought in from FedEx during our workout I am guessing that they still only have a fraction of their toys on the gym floor.

So are the rest of us small box owners in trouble?  Are gyms like Sanitas going to steam roll us by having deeper pockets?  I don't think so.  There may be a paradigm shift at work, however.  Gyms like Sanitas provide a certain level of transitional comfort.  For most people who have been working out in a traditional "globo gym" for years are typically pretty surprised and put off by the idea of spending 2-3 times as much to train in what looks like a garage or warehouse.  By creating an environment that is similar to the gyms that these people are accustomed to it increases the likelihood that they will give it a shot, further expanding our community.  The service that they provide is really quite similar to that of any other gym that has highly experienced and trained coaches, the difference is there presentation.  I understand better than most how tight a budget can be for a new gym and how difficult it can be to provide all the little extra amenities that you want to.  That said, I believe that small gym owners would do well to look at what gyms like Sanitas are doing.  I have always despised statements like, "It's a CrossFit gym, people don't mind if the walls are beat up and the floors look like shit."  As our community grows, so should the expectations and quality of our facilities. There will always be a place for the garage gym, there will always be people that want that grit. Hell, I am one of them.  My favorite gym of all time remains my CrossFit OG training partner Jess Fisher's barn gym. Sanitas, however, is setting the bar very high and appears to be leading the way for "The New Guard"

The Score

For it's progressive approach in staffing, business operations, marketing and athlete development, I am going to give CrossFit Sanitas a score of......

20 pound Snatch PR. 

Ohhh..... the shirt!   I got set up with an American Apparel long sleeve thermal, which was perfect for enjoying a post WOD coffee on a chilly Boulder morning!   well worth the $25!

CrossTown ThrowDown

Normally I would attempt to bait you with some interesting line about competitive drive or a thought provoking nugget regarding tiny shorts and baby oil.  Well guess what, I'm not going to do that.  I'm not going to promise pictures of highly fit, half naked people in this post (Don't worry, I wouldn't dare leave them out)  Nope, all I am going to say is, Competing at CrossFit is fucking RAD!  Gather around the camp fire kiddos and let uncle Leroy tell you about the time that he threw down at the CrossTown ThrowDown.

No shit there I was....

It is 24 hours before the start of my first individual competition since last July and wouldn't you know it, I have a bout of something that makes food not stay in your body so well.  I am convinced that it was some form of food poisoning (my clever friend informs me that it was a virus but he went to a half rate medical school so I don't pay him too much mind)  Regardless, I loose about 12 pounds in a 36 hour period, I can't keep anything down, I can barely stand up and it feels like I've been hit by a Mack truck.  So it is only logical that I would do a competition that entails multiple high intensity workouts in a single day.  

The CrossTown Throwdown was being hosted by CF Stapleton.  Any one who knows me knows that I often speak highly of this place.  I have done workouts here before and I am always impressed by the coaches knowledge and professionalism.  That said, I had high expectations going into this event. I hate to spoil the end of this little review for you but those expectations were exceeded.  Let's hop right to the meat of this samich...

WOD 1- Run 1 mile.

WOD 2- (Begining within 4 minutes of finishing WOD 1)  Clean and Jerk ladder starting at 135#

WOD 3- 4 rounds of- 250m row, 7 thrusters (95#) max rep double unders (in two minutes total) rest 1 minute

WOD 4- 30 snatches (115) 5 rope climbs, 50 wall ball, 30 toe to bar, 25 burpees

FLOATER- Max rep unbroken pull ups

Typically I would discuss my results and where I could improve but I am going to forgo all that and say that I performed as well as could hope for having food poisoning.   In fact, less than a minute before the one mile run I was still actively vomiting.  (Sorry guy in heat 3 whose shoes I Spackled)
It's no secret, I am a programming geek.  So much of how I rate a competition is based off of how it is programmed.  Here is why this competition did better than regionals to determine who was actually the fittest athlete there.

How do we determine the fittest athlete?  A broad range of tests.  The ThrowDown had a heavy pulling and pushing component, a max repetition effort component, a mono-structural component, and interval based metabolic component and an chipper that stressed oxidative phosphoralation. Athletes with proficiency in high skill level movements like double unders, rope climbs and snatches were clearly rewarded but were punished for not having high end strength or capacity.    So many competitions (Regionals included) test the same thing over and over again.  I understand the logistical restrictions that are placed on competitions but with just a little thought those things can be overcome.

Programming isn't the only thing that makes a competition.  Having a (close to) up to the minute online athlete score sheet was an very cool touch.  I have competed at other events where this has been used and it is very cool to be able to email a link to your grandma so she can see how fucking bad ass you are!

The throwdown had coffee and water bottles for athletes as well as one of my favorite eateries, The Paleo Wagon, dishing up lots of amazing food that my stomach wouldn't have been able to tolerate given my condition.  The shirts...... you knew it was coming!  The shirts were very cool.  I honestly wasn't expecting to get one since the entry for the event was so low.  The flag on the sleeve was a super cool touch.  Honestly, as someone who has put these events on I don't think that they made a dime off of there hard work.  There was simply too much offered for such a low price.

The only suggestion that I would give for next year is to possibly have a designated athlete warm up area for competitors.

Somehow, despite being sick, I managed to make it to the podium.  The prizes were rad, I came in second and got a brand new 30lb slam ball and Rage Fitness speed rope which have both already seen use in my new gym.

Based off of having videos posted of all workouts before hand, excellent programming, great prizes, and how smoothly the entire day went, I am giving the CrossFit Stapleton's CrossTown ThrowDown a score of All you can eat steak and potato dinner!