Weekend Competition

Today I competed in a local competition. There were about 20 teams of 4, 2 men and 2 women, for 4 work outs. I enjoy team work outs because the work is split up between everybody and you can pick and choose which exercises/ work outs people should do, so it's everyone's time to shine. Unbroken, steady paced reps are no longer going to win it, they have to be FAST! And I love speed. I like the competition atmosphere and how it brings the community together. It's a weird concept for a lot of my friends to grasp whenever I say I have a competition, they always think, " You mean, people go and just watch other people work out?"Yeah, pretty much except it is a lot cooler.

Competitions are a great way for me to prove to myself and others the hard work and progress I have made throughout my training. It is a good tester for the "unknown." For example today there was an atlas stone ladder, similar to that of the Regional thruster ladder. I lifted 116# from ground to shoulder without too much of a challenge, but the next stone was 142# (picture) and I could not complete the lift. Before today, I had only briefly lifted stones once, now I am confident that the next time I get my hands on the bigger stone, I will be able to lift it. It is interesting to see that no matter what I am doing in my training, I will be prepared for anything thrown my way without necessarily practicing it.

Competitions are a whole different game. I always try hard in my training and give it my all, but the competition atmosphere adds some extra nerves and adrenaline that I am not used to. Another thing I need to remember is that competition days are LONG. It is so hard to remember to eat and get my hands on food that I would eat on a regular day. I usually bring plenty of snacks but I forget the fact that I am outside all day and probably need to eat one or two full meals. I need to do a lot better job on staying on top of my fueling on days like this because I get get mentally and physically drained way too early on.

Anyways, my team and I finished first this weekend which was exciting, we each got a cash prize and a gift from Lulu Lemon. Here is a video of the first event which we won. 21-15-9 Snatch(95#/55#) and Pullups. Ladies went first followed by the guys. Each person had to do at least one of the exercises but the rest of how to break up the reps were up to each team. I did the snatches while my partner did pull-ups until the set of 9 where we broke it up in halves. I think this was smart because in this work out, pull-ups are her strength and the light-weight snatches are mine, also it limited our transitions making for a faster time.