Don't Take it for Granite

The instant I crashed to the pavement on my inline skates last August and the pain in my leg told me that I would not be competing in the Granite Games CrossFit competition in September, I started looking ahead to this year's Granite Games.  Everyone assured me that my hamstring should be fully recovered within nine to twelve months of the injury and surgery, so I felt confident that I would be recovered enough to compete in September of 2015. And since qualifying had not been difficult last year, as I worked my way through rehab and recovery these past months I was honestly focused more on the actual competition than on the qualifying

Oops.

Last year there were 18 competitors in my age class and I ended up qualifying for one of the 12 spots in the competition--I was in a three-way tie for eighth at the end of the qualifier WODs.  And although my hamstring is nowhere near fully recovered (that's another topic for another post), I'm back to lifting pre-injury weights in most lifts and have added a couple more skills to my (somewhat limited) repertoire, most notably kipping pullups and Toes 2 Bar.  So I figured what the heck, I'll most likely qualify and can then focus all summer on training for the actual competition.

Which leads me to the bad pun in this post's title.  Turns out that taking qualifying for granted was very premature.

This year, the Granite Games folks have upped their advertising campaign and the end result is that there are now 81 competitors in my age class, from as far away as Tasmania (that's in Australia, apparently).  And these old chicks are good.  Right now we've done three of the four qualifier workouts, and based on the scores so far I expect to end up somewhere between fortieth and fiftieth.  Which is a problem, since only the top fifteen athletes in each Masters age group qualify for the competition.  So my Granite Games experience this year will be ending with the end of the qualifier.

Dismal results aside, though, I've been having fun doing the qualifer WODs.  And I'm learning things.  Things like "get someone to count reps for you,"

Stopping to write down your reps mid-WOD 

is not conducive to maximum speed

 and "my Burpees are really slow"

This is how slow old ladies do Burpees

and "yeah, I still suck at dubs."

No photo of the dubs, but trust me--I still suck at them.

I have one more qualifier WOD to do next week--and I might re-do this week's WOD on Monday--and then the Granite Games stuff will be over for me (unless I wander up to St. Cloud to watch the event in September, which I probably will).  I've got a couple more fun competitions lined up this summer, though, and I'm having a blast working out, getting stronger, and improving my skills, so even though I'm disappointed that I won't be going to the Granite Games, it's still a fun summer so far, CrossFit-wise.

As for skating, well, that--like my leg--is another story for another post...