Last Friday, a small group of us went down to Seattle to compete in the 3rd annual Pipehitters competition hosted by Old Country Iron. Pipehitters is a Crossfit comp that focuses on the heavy stuff so naturally Jeremy Bomhof and Adrianna signed up, for reasons I am still not sure of, I did too. After an awesome sleep that involved an air-conditioned room and no snoring dogs, I was ready to go Saturday morning. Unfortunately the cabbie was not and I just about didn’t make the registration time line but got there with about a minute to spare. The first workout was demo’d and it looked like a fun one. Tire pulls, front squats and waiter’s walks. For three rounds we performed:
- Tire pull – half width of a field
- 10 Front Squats – 95/135
- Waiter’s walk (one arm up, one down. There and back across the field) – 35/55
Adrianna went in the second heat of girls and put up an excellent time, finishing mid pack. Jer was next due to some weird seeding that placed him in the first heat. He crushed it, winning his heat and ending up with a 3rd(or 4th?) place overall. I was up in the second heat. I finished the tire pull with everyone else and was last off the squats, the waiter’s walks though were fairly easy and I passed my entire field. I kept up a pretty good pace and ended up 2nd in my heat, and a surprising 8th overall.
The second workout was a dumbbell clean and jerk ladder. This started heavy and maxed out at stupid. Adrianna again stepped up and knocked out a solid effort. I don’t know her placing on this but up there. I was towards the end which was comical, there were guys in front of me with 405 widow makers and 250 shoulder presses…..I am pretty sure I finished dead last in this. I got up to the 80lb dumbbells but my brain/body messaging system didn’t want to work and I couldn’t seem to drop down enough under the weight. Jer stepped up and rocked out up to the 90s, not sure where he finished but it was high.
The final event was simple:
- 6 clean and jerks @ 95/135
- 6 double kettle bell clean and jerks @ 35/55
- 6 double kettle bell snatches @ 35/55
The neat little trick with this was that all the KB work had to be unbroken. If you put the bell down then the set didn’t count and you started again at 1. All three of us grunted through this one, we didn’t set any records but we all put up some great efforts. It was interesting to watch as some much bigger guys than me were not able to finish the workout….just didn’t have the technique to get these movements done.
The day concluded with a wod for the top 5 only. Again there were tires to drag, back squats and weighted burpees to make sure everyone felt like death. It was fun to watch and we saw some fantastic efforts by the men’s and women’s finalists.
The evening concluded at a BBQ shack for dinner, followed by karaoke in the back of a run down Chinese restaurant where the free pour rule was very liberal. We sang and danced and literally had to drag Colleen off the dance floor so that we could some how stubble home. The next morning helped to remind me that I am no longer 25 and headaches and feeling like junk are the new norm. Fun times everyone.
A big shout out to Adrianna and Jer for some great performances and to Old Country Iron for a fantastic and well organized event. I will be returning next year for sure.
Sean
Today`s Workout:
Buy In – Coaches pick a fun dynamic warmup
WOD – Saturday Fun!
AMRAP: 12 Minutes
P1: Sit Up 20 reps
P2: Box Jumps (20/24″) (Score)
P3: One Arm Snatch (35/55) (Score)
Score = total reps of box jumps and one arm snatch
Games Prep – 24/30″ box
Zone 2 – scale KB/DB to 20/35lbs, scale box to 12/20″
Zone 1 – scale as needed
Cash Out – Full Body roll out
