Bring it on!

Once again playing catch up here with documenting my training but today is sort of like the Christmas eve before Christmas eve... well, read on and it'll make more sense.

The Canadian Regional Crossfit champs are one of the final two opportunities to qualify for this year's Crossfit games. Qualifiers have taken place through Asia, Europe, south america, Africa, and through various regions in the States to select the competitor group thus far.

As the competitions have unfolded, crazy workouts performed, amazing scores recorded, and many many inspirational stories told, the nerves have ramped up for those of us waiting to compete this weekend. It will be a test of all our physical skills over 5 events starting Friday evening and running through til Sunday evening.

What will the exact workouts be??? No competitor knows at this point. With Friday looming three days away, not a word has been spoken about the content of the challenges except that skipping ropes will be provided. The workouts are scheduled to be released tomorrow, which I'm sure will result in most of the competitors repeatedly refreshing the crossfitgames.com mainpage on a 30second rotation until they pop up. That's why today is like Christmas eve - the anticipation of the challenges, triumphs, and tragedies that will surely emerge from the hardest of workouts bubbles and tingles on our nerves. It will surely interrupt several sleep cycles tonight.

Rest assured, these will be tough challenges. The "wide funnel" that was the sectional competitions has narrowed significantly in order to filter through only the most complete crossfit athletes out there. Expect the hardest of exercises - overhead squats, muscle ups, squat snatches, rowing, running, handstand pushups etc etc, and the most devilish of combinations. Expect it to be smartly organized though - different time domains will be tested from very short, maximum force output to longer duration, aerobic power efforts. Expect the unexpected also, as it is very unlikely that any of us will have done the specific challenges that will be laid out before us this weekend.

It will all unfold tomorrow, as the genius programming mind of James "OPT" Fitzgerald (winner of 2007 games and top 16 in 2008 and 2009) reveals the workouts. I await the challenge, and look forward to challenging the hardest of tasks. Let no one's weaknesses go unchallenged, no one's strengths left to submaximal efforts.

Give me the hard stuff. Bring it on.


Training Update:

Friday May 21 - CFZ – “Gandalf” – rounds begin every 4 min – 4 rounds of row 250m, 6 c+j (135lb) then 4 rounds of row 250m, 15 wallballs. Combine worst time for each for score (1:20, 1:25, 1:31, 1:33 then 1:30, 1:37, 1:43, 1:40) = 1:33 + 1:43 = 3:13. Rowed too hard, gassed for the second bit :( learned from this one though about pacing, will have to look hard at this in workouts this weekend - how fast can I go to not lose ground but also conserve energy for the other challenges!

Saturday May 22 - Wts @ uvic – squat snatch – 40x3 , 50x3, 60kg x 2. 60kg x 1 rep every 30s for 6 total reps. Deadlift 2’s – 100, 120, 150, 160kg (352lb) then 100kg x 6 fast, 130kg x 2, 100kgx6 fast
Push Press 3’s – 115, 165, 185lb then 165x 6, 165x6
Circuit – 15ghd situps, 20 double unders unbroken, 10 pullups x 4 rounds untimed - this was a good circuit to push my tolerance of ghd situps and to get some practice in on the double unders. Calf felt good after this which is a good sign!

Sunday May 23 - took a day off, was going to run but decided against it, body needed a rest day!

Monday May 24 - CFZ – cl+J 5x1 (185, 195, 205, 215, 215lb), felt good, jerks were really strong. back squat 4x3 ( 225, 245, 245, 225lb) didn't feel so good today, Half Fran (9-7-5 thrusters at 95lb, pullups) time - 1:17, thrusters a bit wonky. Muscle ups – 4 x 4 reps, pull-ups – 23 reps

Run Uvic – 7 x 1 min fast/1-2 min walk/jog. This was my first real attempt to run fast, started strongly and maintained pace well in the minute intervals. Fitness felt fine, no problems there but calf tightened towards the end. Quite sore (6-7/10) today (Tuesday), not happy about that. Hoping for no real "sprint" stuff in the wods or I could be in trouble as i can't run very strongly off my right leg...

Tuesday (today), a bit sore from yesterday in the hamstrings and upper body, hoping to hit the UVic gym in a bit to get some deadlifts, rowing, and skill practice in!

Another update tomorrow with the details of the competition!!!

Cam