Winter Update and the Beastly Bunch at Crossfit Nashua

Winter?! Where is it? No snow in NH? Really?

Since my snowshoein' race plans were kaput this year, I decided to spend some time at Concord Hospital trying to figure out the hip/quad pain. Several x-rays and MRIs later...nada. No sign of anything seriously wrong. So I can either just stop doing anything for a few months or just suck it up. You can guess what I've decided.

So I've started back running a bit and been trying to swim twice a week. Biking..not so much. No coach this year means I have little motivation to go down to the cold basement and ride. I have been teaching a spin class so I am getting some riding in but not sure that counts.

I also have been making it to Crossfit a few times a week down at Crossfit Nashua. Love this place and Ted and I do enjoy us some Crossfit. So when they announced a Crossfit competition for their members...Ted and I were IN.

We needed another gal and girl (teams of 4 competed - 2F and 2M) and we got hooked up with Kate and Lester, who we had never met but were great teammates. We headed down to the "Box" this past Saturday, kids in tow, and were ready for some FUN (aka pain)!

The competition was 3 WODs (workout of the Day). One focused on Strength - one of the Engine and one on Skills. Here they are:

So as you might guess, Olympic lifting is not my strong suit. I am a wee triathlete runner lass - but part of the reason I love crossfit (other than it's just crazy hard fun) is the strength aspect - since I obviously need to work on it to improve my overall strength - which I am hoping will help my biking (I will never give up!).

WOD #1 had each member getting to their 1 rep max of a couple of olympic lifts in 10 minutes. This was a sad display of strength on my part (um I'll just take the bar with no weights thank you). But I did do a pullup with 5 lbs hangin on me. so that is cool.

WOD#2 was a team effort. Complete AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) of the workout in 12 minutes - with one team member working at a time. I was a burpee and box jump machine. I did a few kettlebell swings at the required 35 lbs too..which was the first time I did them at that weight so very cool! ok so I did about 5 of them...but doesn't look too hard right?

WOD#3 was my kind of WOD - if they had not put turkish getups at 35 lbs right after the run we would have crushed it (wah poor me). Everyone had to run and then 2 team members work at a time on the rest. You could start right away when you got back from the run - but only one M and one F could work on the turkish getup at a time. I had a good run and started into the turkish getups with 35 lbs. ok I did 1. If you don't know what a turkish getup is, google it. It is crazy hard and feels like you work every muscle in your body! 1 was ALL I could do at that weight (and no you could not do an easier weight!). Luckily Lester was a MACHINE on these and did most of them for our team. Then we flew threw the next 3 (wall climbs- love those...pass throughs..I ROCK those...thrusters...not so bad).

Finally we had to complete 600 double unders. That is jumping rope but you have to swing the rope twice for every jump. It is a LOT harder than it sounds..and EXHAUSTING. Kate and Lester paired up and Ted and I got in a groove switching off every 20 reps or so. I started to really get it and even got up to 13 without tripping at a time. Love Ted in the background of this shot:

The cut-off time was 35 min for this WOD and we finished in 29 something...one of the faster teams. WOOP WOOP!

But we lost it on the strength and I actually am not sure where we ended up overall among the 11 teams. But really I did not care..it was just fun to be part of such a great event and to see everyone try their best and compete no matter what their strengths and weaknesses. The competitive aspect of Crossfit really pushes you to keep going and lots of folks had PRs on the lifts (technically I did since I don't think I've ever actually 1RM these. Yay me!). Fun stuff!