The CrossFit Open is here! The CrossFit Open is here!
Does Annie Thorisdottir also have to trick herself into working out most days of the week?
Oh, who cares? I’m on a pretty strict cycling schedule, and pushing myself in the Open is just too risky. I can’t afford to be too exhausted or injured to put in the miles on my bike.
Unless….
Unless someone named Ben decides to let me know that our box’s team doesn’t have enough female members, and if I don’t join, then the team will be DQ’d. But surely Ben could find some other sucker participant, right?
Wrong. Looks like I am now a registered team member.
As much as I promise myself that I will not allow the Open to disrupt my cycling plans, that I’m just doing this for the fun of it and to keep the team in the game, I can’t help but get that extra surge of adrenaline for the competition.
Yesterday we got together to do the first workout of the 2015 CrossFit Open.
Workout 15.1
9-minute AMRAP:
15 toes-to-bars
10 deadlifts
5 snatches
(M 115 lb. / F 75 lb.)Workout 15.1a
1-rep-max clean and jerk
6-minute time cap
I told myself to just take it easy and see what would happen, and I ended up with a total of 118 reps for the AMRAP and 145# on the clean and jerk.
Wait wait what? 145# on the clean and jerk? When my PR is 150#? You’re telling me that I can do a 9-minute AMRAP, then do a clean and jerk that’s only 5 pounds less than my personal record, and that it would feel easy? Unfortunately, that was when time ran out, and once time ran out the adrenaline left my body in an audible rush. I tried 153# just for the heck of it, and suddenly the bar was heavy again. Fail.
So does that mean that if I replicate these conditions, the bar will seem light again? And that I might actually be able to clean more than 150#? Should I try again on Monday before the chance to submit scores closes?
Meanwhile, the cycling training continues. Today being Saturday, it was time for a long ride. The program called for 36 miles. This guy Matt at the gym has been wanting to get into cycling, so we decided to take off in the morning for the Portola Valley Loop. We only did a part of it, since both of us had other commitments to get to, covering only 18 miles. The highlight for me was riding straight into a downpour. I saw the wall of rain as I was coming down a hill and could do nothing but brace myself as I entered the land of stinging-needles-that-get-you-right-in-the-face. Later in the afternoon I ditched my car and cycled another ten miles to get back home, got distracted with stuff, and only when it was good and dark did I get around to doing those ten miles again in reverse to collect my car.
According to Map My Ride, this night ride was the fastest ride I’d ever done.
See how well I can wield a sledge hammer?
So not only do I perform better under the pressure of competition, it seems that I also perform better when it’s dark and I can’t see much around me.
Which brings me to the grand conclusion of today’s post:
I’d make an awesome blind gladiator.
Barbells Bikes Biytes and Bones 