Quote of the weekend from OPT – “Don’t leave anything behind”
The 2010 CrossFit Canadian Regionals was a very inspiring weekend for the Zoner’s. We followed our favourite quote from OPT and pushed as hard as we could! I am so proud of the Zone Rangers and the individual athletes that competed.
If you want an idea of what all the athletes experienced that weekend, make sure to register for our first CrossFit Zone Games being held on Sunday, June 27th (8am – 5pm).
I told everyone that I would explain what happened at the last event for the team affiliate challenge, and I’m sorry it’s soooo late! As promised, here it is!
There were 15 affiliate teams competing at the Canadian Regionals. We were all competing for the 12 placements into the 2010 CrossFit Games, being held this July at the Home Depot Center in LA. The Zone Rangers went into Day 3 tied for 10th place. Since the other 2 teams that we were tied with placed higher than us on the first workout, the Zone Rangers were bumped down to 12th place. We went into the last day of the Regionals feeling very positive, strong, and ready to “crush it!” (says Teej). Our team was in Heat 1, all warmed up and ready to go. To get us started, the judge did an overview of the workout and described the requirements of the exercises as follows:
Overhead Squats – Full extension of the hips at the top and hip crease below the “bottom” of the knee cap in the bottom. That was a deeper squat than we usually require at the Zone, but we were all capable of getting down there.
Sumo Deadlift High Pulls – Full hip extension on the high pull, and finishing with the bar to the chin.
**Flashback to March at the Sectionals, and also WOD # 2 that I took part in: Before we got started, the judges got us to do a run-through and checked out everyone’s form to make sure that we knew exactly what was required so that there were no surprises!**
3 – 2 – 1, GO! And the guys took off for a 600M run. As soon as Teej and Dub came through the line, Tara started off in her overhead squats! We decided that she and I were going to do 15 reps each, and then 10 reps, in order to complete our 25 rep requirement each of overhead squats. Unfortunately, Tara lost a few reps (maybe 5) on which the judge found her depth questionable. So, we resorted to doing 10 – 10 – 5 reps unbroken. Once we finished our squats, the guys were up! Teej almost lost a few reps for not hitting full extension of the hips at the top, and then Dub lost a few for questionable depth. I guess the questionable squats that Teej did made up for the reps that each of us lost in the end!
We moved on to the burpees, where each team member had to complete 20 burpees. Tara did 10, I did 10, Teej did 10 and then Dub did 10 (repeat). I had the craziest burpee going on that anyone had ever seen! I could hear the judge yelling, “Get your chest up”! Even though I am almost positive I was straight up and down, I didn’t want to question the judge and lose reps. So, my burpee turned into a huge back arch with a 5 foot jump at the top to really ensure my chest was up! (Apparently Dub’s Dad has a photo of that for everyone to see.) Needless to say, I had lots of compliments after the WOD… lol!
Now onto the most traumatic part of the workout… the SDHP’s! Tara’s first set sounded kinda like this “1, nope, nope, nope, 2, nope, nope, nope, 3” and so on…. She probably completed 10 reps and only 4 counted! Then I was up because Tara was feeling fatigued. The same thing happened to me, and all I could hear from the judge was, “Put your chin down!” I felt like I was pulling that bar up so high it was almost over my head! Why did he want my chin down?! Then, after missing about 5 – 6 reps, the judge said “Touch the bar to your chin!” This was news to me! What kind of standards are those? I have never in my 5-plus years of CrossFit heard of that kind of movement standard. That just seems like an injury waiting to happen! Anyways, once I knew that, I made sure every rep counted by curling the bar up to touch my chin after bringing it up to the required height. Needless to say, as a team the Zone Rangers were not impressed. I am not sure if the guys had as much of a problem as Tara and I, because I was too busy changing from my lifting shoes into my running shoes when it was their turn.
After the workout, Jer and H-Bomb told us that OPT came over and saw my high pulls and commented, “Now that is a high pull!” And then they hear from the judge, “Nope, doesn’t count!”
As soon as the guys finished, Tara and I headed off for our tandem 600m run. Tara was in front of me, and it was like the Cat chasing the Mouse! 😉 We kept a steady pace for 3 laps of the arena until we heard Teej yell at us saying that another team was catching up. I turned around and saw they were really close, so I tapped Tara on the butt and said, “Let’s Go!” We bolted it to the finish line as fast as we could. I think one girl just passed me and made it through the finish line, then I crossed, then Tara, and then the last member on the opposing team came in. We were sooooo excited! We were confident that we had beaten the other team, and that we were going to the Games!
Later on, when I decided to take a look at the standings online, I noticed that the other team was ranked as 12th while we were 13th. We then chatted with the affiliate team who had finished first in our heat, and they were 100% sure that our team came across the finish line first. We were really confused at this, so we brought it up to the Judges at the end of the Regionals. We had a chat directly with OPT and apparently the finish times are determined by what is on the individual judges’ stop watch. So, OPT grabbed the score sheets for us and showed us that the other teams time was .22 of a second faster than ours. He told us if we can find video footage that we crossed the finish line first, he would consider it. Thanks to the CFHQ staff we found video footage and showed OPT. Much to our disappointment, he said that what was on paper is what goes. We were crushed! The worst part was watching other teams do the workout without upholding the same movement standards, and not be called out by the judges when they didn’t. Some judges were letting things go. Important things, like depth of squat, incomplete extension of the hips on the squat, and pulling the bar only to the clavicle instead of the chin on the high pull.
We know for sure that the Zone Rangers left that challenge with integrity in our movement, as well as our dignity! Deep in our hearts we know we pushed as hard as we could and that we really earned that spot to the CrossFit Games. Just wait until next year! We will train harder and smarter to make it to the 2011 Games!
My message to you is, make sure that every rep you do counts! Be accountable and be proud of your performance and results!
Today’s Workout:
Buy In – 3 rounds of: 2 laps trailer run (there and back is one lap) and 10 overhead squats (bar or pvc)
WOD – Five Fingers
this is a 3 part wod:
Part 1. Deadlift 5×5, building up to a heavy 5 reps (touch and go, no drops!)
Part 2. Push press 5×5, building up to a heavy 5
Part 3. 5min Amrap of 5 knees to elbows, 10 burpees, 15 double unders
Add all three scores together for your total
Zone 2 – scale to single skips – 45 per round, double crunch sub for kte
Zone 1 – scale as needed
Cash Out – Follow the leader stretches