Let the Mayhem Begin

Tomorrow I'm going to do my first "real" CrossFit competition, "Mayhem in Mankato."  The Granite Games qualifiers were all "online" format, meaning that we did the WODs at SISU and then turned in the scores.  So while the Granite Games stuff was definitely a competition that required giving maximum effort (I still have the sore leg from the pistol WOD to prove that), it was still low-stress in a lot of ways.  We were doing the WODs in our home box, with only other SISU athletes and coaches to witness our triumphs and screw-ups.  We had just one WOD to do per day, and we could repeat it if we felt we hadn't done our best.  Basically, although the effort required was something that--no matter how hard I thought I was working--I'd never even come close to before in a WOD, the Granite Games WODs felt like familiar territory.  Tomorrow, though...tomorrow is a vast sea of "I don't know."

I don't know how the schedule works or how they set up the WODs or where and when we warm up or where the bathrooms are or, well...anything, really.  Well, I do know what the WODs will be, because they've posted those...but other than that I'm clueless.

For my first competition I chose to sign up in the Rec (or in my case, perhaps "wrecked" might be more accurate) division.  This lowest-level category has much lighter weights than Rx and Scaled, and completely avoids more challenging movements like pullups and toes-to-bar.  Given my general cluelessness about all other aspects of CrossFit competitions, this seemed like a good idea...but it also means that I'll need to try to do the movements as quickly as possible, since the weights will be a lot lighter.  To help prepare for increasing my speed, as well as to get pointers on all the WODs,  I used my Personal Training time with Coach Jason this week to go through all three of the WODs and get some advice.  For "Burpees to plate," the suggestion was "yeah, just like that...only three times faster."  For snatches--"yeah, that looks...good enough."  Clearly, speed is not my thing and when I do up the speed, my already sketchy technique takes a bit of a hit. But still, I I feel like I've got a pretty good idea of what I need to do and I got some great pointers on how to do the movements quickly...so assuming I don't step up to the bar tomorrow and completely forget everything, I'm feeling OK about the WODs.

As far as the logistics of the day, I've tried to plan out what I need to bring and, in my usual "if there's a remote possibility I might need it, I'm packing it" approach, I have stuffed the rear seat of the Subaru completely full.  Clothes and foam rollers and knee sleeves and lacrosse balls and tape and water bottles and protein shakes and...food.  Lots and lots of food.  There are several of us from SISU doing Mayhem tomorrow; most are my fellow Warriors from last week, so it should be a lot of fun.  I told the others that I'd bring Paleo brownies, so I spent the morning making Paleo granola bars...

...and Paleo brownies...

What?  I had to try one, right?  I mean, I 

can't give people untested brownies, can I?

...and then spent a lot more time packing a lot more food.  Muffins and my usual post-workout lunch of chicken salad (both Paleo, of course) and my "post-workout-carbs," (a sweet-potato-and-fruit concoction that the Hubster insists on referring to as "pus"), as well as some dried fruit and nuts and maybe a few other things if I think of them.  This is in addition to my usual "bag 'o protein bars, Gu's, and applesauce packs" that lives in the car.  If you ever get stranded in a car for a couple days, mine is the car to be stuck in.  If you can find a place to sit, that is...

Yeah, that's an awful lot of crap

for one person for 8 hours...

Anyway, clueless or not, I'm really looking forward to Mayhem.  It should be fun to hang with the other SISU folks, do our best in the workouts...and eat brownies.  Lots of brownies.