CrossFit… I love that stuff

So as you may or may not know, Darrick and I have become total CrossFit nerds. We love it! This year, we both signed up for the CrossFit Games Open competition. (During the Open, a different workout is posted each week, and you compete in these workouts in an attempt to get to Regionals.)  Since I'm still pretty new to this stuff, and not nearly good enough to be even slightly competitive, I hadn't planned on signing up. That is, until I read an article called The CrossFit Games Open for Beginners. There were two things that Aaron said that hooked me:

… the weekly requirement to perform as prescribed forced me to push harder that I would have otherwise.

Participating in the same workouts as everyone around the world in the Open increased my awe. In what other sport can you watch the competitors and then try your hand at the same thing?

And this weekend was the perfect example of this! Let me start by explaining the workout for this past week:

CrossFit Games Open Workout 12.2
Proceed through the sequence below completing as many reps as possible in 10 minutes of:
30 Snatch (M 75 / F 45 lbs)
30 Snatch (M 135 / F 75 lbs)
30 Snatch (M 165 / F 100 lbs)
Max Rep Snatch (M 210 / F 120 lbs)

A snatch is basically taking the weight from the floor to an overhead position in one explosive motion.

Below is a video of last year's "Fittest Woman on Earth" doing Workout 12.2. She got 109 reps (!!!!), which means she did 30 reps at 45 lbs, 30 reps at 75 lbs, 30 reps at 100 lbs, and 19 reps at 120 lbs. If those numbers don't mean anything to you, trust me that it's insanely good. 



 
Before Sunday, I had practiced the snatch once and I did it with 35 lbs. (Yes, you read that correctly. And yes, I was a little scared of this workout since it starts at 45 lbs.) Needless to say, as we got ready to head to the gym Sunday afternoon, I was telling Darrick how stupid it had been for me to sign up for the Open since I was going to embarrass myself with this workout. Regardless, I was going to attempt it, so we went to the gym and got warmed up with a few other guys who are also competing. During the warmup, the idea was to get 1 or 2 reps up of each weight (up to our max, of course). I was able to snatch 45 lbs fairly comfortably (I am definitely stronger than I was the first time I learned the snatch), but I couldn't get the 75 lbs overhead. Oh, well. Let's do this anyways…

Our amazing friend and coach GoGo counted for me, and with her guidance I did my 30 reps at 45 lbs, shakily (I was nervous!) switched out the plates to 75 lbs, and then… I did 10 reps at 75 lbs!!! I cannot tell you how amazing that felt! No, it is not impressive in the grand scheme of CrossFit, but it was freaking awesome for me. And just like Aaron said in the article, I "was forced to push harder than I would have otherwise." Had I not signed up for the open, I would have been sitting on the sidelines, still holding onto my 35 lb max snatch.

And then there's my hubby. His previous one-rep max snatch was 125. Guess what his score was in this workout? 60!!!! That means he did 30 reps at 75 lbs and 30 reps at 135 lbs. Holy canoli!!! I am a mighty proud wife, let me tell you. Plus, he's so good looking when he's doing work. :) Here's a little video of his first few snatches at 135 lbs:

 As Annie Thorisdottir said so perfectly at last year's Games:

“This is definitely CrossFit, and…I love that stuff.”