Garage Games One - Brought to You By Blog Slacker

Guess who’s uber behind in posting?  That’d be this working professional.  So much has gone on in the past month and a half, between my company being bought (thank God I’m still employed), the end of the Paleo Challenge at CrossFit Music City and not 1, but 2 CrossFit Competitions full of V-card losing, Kill Cliff, Paleo Bison Chili (Yes you read that right – and yes you should be jealous if you haven’t had it), Spider Monkeys, and crazy good times.

So it’s time for a long overdue update, starting with....

Garage Games One

Oh where to begin with this weekend o’ freezing fun.  CFMC brought some fresh meat to the competition with Shaunna Williams, Daniel Hightower, and Jamie Jarbeau all being competition newbies.  Rebecca Brown, Brandon Koechlin, and Rob Murden brought along the experience.  And well Elizbaeth, Trevor and I?  We brought our pom poms. 

Give me Meat!!!

Veteran + Newbie

Monkey acting normal....but just wait

Event One: Run.  Run hard.  Run over obstacles.  Run through puddles.  Run over walls. But Run!  As Rebecca can attest – this one every year is a doozy.  It doesn’t matter if you’re an excellent runner, this event will punish you for every ounce of ego that you made the mistake of bringing instead of bringing pure game.

Crystal - just running...and running...and running

Emily awaiting her turn on the wall for the obstacle run

Event Two: 21-15-9 KB Swings (70/53 – Rx, 53/35 – Scaled), Over the Bar Burpees, Push Press (95/75 – Rx, 75/45 – Scaled). 

I love a good triplet.  I love KB Swings.  But man oh man was I glad that I was just being a cheerleader.  Because that frozen cold ground + rain + wind + pain takes such a mentally strong game, I don’t care how awesome your shoulder strength is and that you’ve never been injured in your life.  If your will is weak, so will be your performance.  Guess whose will definitely wasn’t weak?  That’d be Shaunna.  Watched her attack this wod and never stop.  NEVER.  Yes she’s strong and can through 120# over her head.  So 45# and 1 pood are nothing.  But this ended up being one of her last events, and that girl was going to show that event who was boss!

Rob Going Rx on the Triplet

Event Three:  Clean & Jerk Ladder

RXmen - 135, 165, 185, 205, 225, 245, 265, 285, 305, 325

RXwomen - 95, 105, 115, 125,135,145,155,165,175,185

Scale men = rx women weight

Scale women - 75, 85, 95,105 115,120,125,130,135,140

Very proud that Daniel got all the way through the Scaled men ladder!  Sadly, Jamie decided this was the appropriate time to try and blow out his back – whoops.  But like a true champ he let the miracle of ice, rest, and sheer will power get him through the rest of the competition.

Good Lift Jamie

Easy Peasy for Daniel (Not Danielle, as I kept calling him in emails trying to coordinate the weekend)

Event Four: Hill Sprint w/Sandbag

Apparently the CrossFit military love must be brought to every competition – because sandbags slung across the shoulders and sprinting up and down a steep hill is definitely not an infrequent occurrence. 

What is infrequent and thus, caused all the spectators hearts to just melt is when someone who is not even competing jumps in for support.  It was the very last heat of scaled men.  Travis Mayer (that would be THE Travis Mayer, winner of the 2011 Garage Games Series) was sitting this competition out on injury.  The last guy was struggling to finish the event and what does the 2011 champion do?  He runs up the hill to run the rest of the event with this contender.  Just like in the military, CrossFit instills a belief that we never leave a man behind, we never let our friends finish alone, and we never quit.  Travis is sadly still injured (fractured L-5), but that does not stop him from being an inspiration and a truly amazing champion.

Event Five: This was called Sled.  Poor naming.  Like someone naming their child Petal.  What it should have been called (Simon and the rest of the GG crew take note) is Field of Death.  Seriously.  I expect better next year. 

3 Rounds of:

Sled Pull: (Rxmen 90#, Rxw/Sm 70#, Sw/Bm 45#, Bw 25#)

Stone Carry: (Rxmen 116#, Rxw/Sm 67#, Sw/Bm/Bm 35# dumbbell carry)

Burpee Broad Jump: down and run back

Distance is about 150ft down and 150ft back

This WOD was so awful that they had to reduce it to 2 rounds.  That should seriously tell you something. 

Dragon heading back to the sled (Dragonslayer - aka hubby Trevor, is screaming right behind the camera)

Oh Kristen - did that one hurt?

Best time to watch this event – Women’s RX.  You have Mariah Provost, Emily Leighton, Kristen Johnson, Crystal McCullough Rebecca Brown, and Kathleen Henderson all going amongst some other bad ass women.  Why does this particular event become exciting when these women compete?  Here’s the top reasons:

1.     Mariah burpee broad jumps like it’s her job.  Correction, she burpee broad jumps like it’s what God put her on this earth to do.  That’s it.  All she is supposed to do is burpee broad jump.  She doesn’t stop.  She doesn’t pause.  She just goes – down and up and forward.  She was several feet behind woman number 1, and after each round of broad jumps she was way out in front.

2.     Emily and Kristen are stone experts.  They often train with Cole and KLowe at AddFit/CFCG/We do wicked crazy stuff that only people on acid can come up with.  Which means when it comes to odd objects, especially heavy odd objects – these girls are the bomb dot com.  (And you know you wouldn’t have read that how I wanted you to if I put thebomb.com)

3.     Rebecca is a dragon.  She stays covered under this giant blanket (her lair) until the very last second, and appears out of nowhere going full beast mode.  True story.  Come to CFMC and you will see that these are not mythical creatures – there are real true to life firebreathers out there – they’re just all hiding until the time is right.

4.     Crystal and Mariah racing it out until the end.  Both amazing women.  Here’s how amazing – Crystal, goes on to do team competition the next day because 10 wods in 2 days is just how she rolls.  Mariah, goes so hard across the finish line for a first place finish that she immediately collapses forward to start puking.  Now I have mixed feelings about Pukie.  But you KNOW she was going hard.  No one can doubt that. 

Oh and guess what folks.  That’s just Day 1.  There’s a Day 2 for Teams.  Sadly, most of CFMC had to head back for jobs (work – so silly), but Shaunna and I stayed to volunteer.  What does volunteering get you?  Free awesome hoodies, more time with my favorite Spider Monkey (including judging his team of Monkey, D-Rob, McG, and Cobra Commander through double unders), FREE Paleo Bison Chili (is the jealousy back? Yah I figured it was), catching up with Irving and Kost (sad face – only for a minute) and quality time discussing the newest ongoings at Iron Forged Athletics with Nate & Emily Schrader.

At it again - day 2 for Crystal

Shaunna & Rich

Spider Monkey and Schrader

The leaders of Iron Forged

My awesome athlete - Shaunna

McG, D-Rob, Shaunna, and Baker

McG, Spider Monkey, & D-Rob

Some normalcy

And Spider Monkey doing what he does best

Overall, awesome weekend, even in the wicked cold. Super proud of all my athletes (you're no longer virgins!!!) and friends.  And a special shout out to the awesomeness that is Spider Monkey, Cobra Commander, McG, and D-Rob for winning team, even against some crazy impressive teams such as Mousclestache, Games Badass ( Froning + Bailey + EZ + Bret), World Camp Beast Club (three incredible female Games contenders + the man that dared to wod with them).  

I promise I will catch y'all up on the other ongoings asap.  But for now - the money calls, and we can only ignore wall street for so long.

Tower of Awesome