Mayhem in 2015

Let the Mayhem begin

OK, first I should probably bring you up to speed since it's been, oh, six weeks since I've posted.  So here it is: my leg still hurts, I'm still doing CrossFit, and I've inline skated a few times, both on trails and on the oval.  

See?

Note the massive amount of protective gear.

I'm still trying to figure out the leg pain, but in the meantime, since the medical professionals seem to think there's no harm in using the hammy I figured I'd go do a two-day CrossFit competition this weekend: Mayhem in Mankato, version 2015.

Last year, Mayhem in Mankato was my first-ever CrossFit competition.  I competed in the "Rec" class (translation: the class for really bad rookies), had a ton of fun, and actually won my division.  So I figured that Mayhem might be a fun way to get back into competition post-injury--even though it was now a two-day event and no longer had a Rec class.  Fortunately they'd added a Masters class this year (40 and up), though, so I figured what the heck.

After a painful drive to Mankato Friday night--even sitting on a pillow, my hammy only tolerates about 20 minutes of driving at a time before it enters cranky mode, and Mankato is 90 minutes from home--and a hot-flash-infested tossing-and-turning night in the motel, I arrived at the field house Saturday morning ready to do battle with the other old ladies. I started the day with a nice warmup WOD of "Gear Bag Farmer Carry and Bathroom Dash."  I usually have one large gear bag for my CrossFit stuff, but a two day event required two bags, a purse, and a foam roller...and I even brought my butt pillow in to pad the hard bleacher (much to my fellow SISU competitors' amusement.)

No secret which gear pile is mine...

I was excited about the first WOD of the day, a rowing interval workout of six rounds of 40 seconds on/20 seconds rest.  Rowing, I have been told, is my jam, or, as one of the younger SISUites once said, "the Bomb Diggity." (Um, yeah, I ran that one by Urban Dictionary).  Even discovering that one of my five Masters class competitors had been a collegiate rower didn't dampen my enthusiasm.

So the first WOD was six minutes of this...

...and this...

I apologize for the crappy pics; "still captures" from video, compressed

to save data when emailing from iPad to desktop, produces some

mighty lovely images.  

And in the end, although the spectators may have been bored to tears, I was pleased to win both aspects of the WOD--total calories rowed, and most calories in an interval.

The Bomb Diggity, indeed.

After the first WOD I spent a lengthy amount of time wandering around while trying figure out whether it was better to sit and aggravate my hammy or stand and aggravate my heels, which are now rebelling against all the standing I've been doing in the past months.  In between pondering sitting and standing I pondered eating too little and getting faint from hunger versus eating too much and puking during the next WOD.  Although I never did resolve the sitting-versus-standing dilemma, I'm happy to report that I ended up successfully managing the between-WOD food intake.

Eventually it was time for WOD two: 21-15-9 wallballs and Burpees.  I had been worried about this one because, despite the Masters class using the Scaled class (easier) weights and movement standards, we had been told we'd be using the Rx (heavier) weight ball for the wallballs, 14 pounds, and shooting at a target 10 feet up on the rig instead of the usual line on a wall at the women's height of nine feet.  I'd tried 14 pounds and 10 feet in the last few wallball WOD's at SISU and it hadn't gone well.  I'm not sure how it's possible to miss a wall when standing two feet from it, but I did, quite a few times--and I figured heaving a very heavy ball at a little target high up on the rig meant I'd be playing fetch with myself an embarrassing number of times.

As it turned out, though, the GameDay Competition organizers (who, by the way, put on awesome CrossFit events) were merciful and told us we'd be using a 10 pound ball instead of the 14.  With the lighter weight ball  I actually managed to complete all the wallballs unbroken (that is, without stopping to rest), and never missed the target.  

Not quite a bullseye, but good enough.

Oh, and note the fact that I'm now dressing like 

a 4-year-old when I CrossFit...everything is pink. 

I have no explanation for this.

Unfortunately, although my wallballs were unbroken and on target they were also slow.  Very slow. As were my Burpees.  I ended up fourth in this event.

The final event for Saturday was the one I was most concerned about: a "Chipper" (that is, a long event with a lot of reps that you just "chip away" at) consisting of box jumps, deadlifts, and something called Toes to Pole, which sounds like it should involve G Strings and people named Bambi but which is actually a kind of reverse situp.  I was concerned because of the number of box jumps--60--although we'd be allowed to step up rather than being required to jump; and also because of the number of deadlifts--also 60--and the weight, 125 pounds.  My hamstring, although it's functioning pretty well in deadlifts now, still gets sore and cranky from them.  Sixty was sounding like a lot.

As it turned out, the deadlifts were indeed a problem--just not the only problem.  For the box step ups we had to go over the box rather than just up onto it and back down and it turned out that I hadn't practiced my technique quite enough; I ended up stepping up with the wrong foot, turning in the same direction too many times and getting dizzy, and in general just moving too slowly and wasting a lot of time.  The deadlifts, as I had guessed, were painful, but the Toes to Pole turned out to be the worst part of the WOD.  We had to lie on our backs, holding onto the rig pole, then bring our feet up to touch the pole and then lower them again.  We were allowed to bend our legs in the maneuver and it actually wasn't difficult, but it turned out that it stretched my hamstring in a very painful way, and by the end of 40 of them I found myself limping back down my lane to finish my second set of deadlifts.  I was very glad to see the end of WOD three, even though I finished fifth out of six. 

In between my various WOD's I had a blast watching the other classes compete, including the eight or so other athletes from CrossFit SISU.  I haven't been been to a competition that big before (other than watching a day of the Granite Games from my knee scooter), and it was fun to see the different athletes tackle the WOD's and to just generally enjoy the atmosphere of the event.  CrossFit competitions, with their loud music, swaggering extroverts, and enthusiastic cheering, are very different from long track skating meets--where it's not unusual to see two high school age boys playing a game of chess in the warming house between their races.  Different worlds, but both fun in their own way. 

And now I see that I need to turn this into a two-part post, since my hamstring is getting sore from sitting while I type, and also it's bedtime.  Back soon with the thrilling conclusion of Mayhem '15!