My favorite (posed) photo of the day:
Saturday was the 2nd Annual Resolution Revolution, hosted by Stoneway CrossFit.
Last year, Jared and I competed at the first annual Resolution Revolution (along with some other teams from Mercer Island CrossFit), but I was so new I had to scale significantly, and Jared wasn't feeling well, so we didn't finish. This year I've come a long long way in my strength and skills, and Jared and I are better at communicating and teamwork, so we knew it was going to be an awesome event.
We were in the first heat and wanted to make sure we had good parking and plenty of time to do mobility and warm-up, so we ate breakfast, packed extra clothes and a bunch of food, and left our place at 7:30. I started to feel nervous walking out the door, but reminded myself, "This is just like going out to run a road race...except more fun!"
We found a parking spot right by the box and were the first athletes on the scene. There were some awesome Stoneway shirts (still gotta get me the pink one!) and some vendors as well!
I called these the Foam Rollers of Doom - don't they make you want to cry just looking at them?
I was impressed with how seamless the sign-in process was for atheletes. We also got a sheet showing who was competing in which heat - really helpful if you have friends to cheer for!
We went upstairs to do some mobility. Our heat wasn't for an hour, so there was no reason to start warming up right away. Sara and Ray were in the first heat as well. It was fun to chat with them while doing mobility work!
I mixed mobility with several trips to the bathroom. One hope for next year: that they rent some Porta Potties. While Stoneway is a good facility for an event of this kind...they have ONE bathroom that had to be shared amongst 80 competitors (not to mention any spectators or volunteers). Jared and I finally started warming up about 15-20 minutes before our heat. (So glad we had 45 minutes of mobility beforehand!) My warmup included a 400 meter row, pass throughs, inch worms, squats, and leg swings.
We headed downstairs and outside for our heat! We met our judge, Ravit, who was really sweet and explained to us the movement standards for the workout. Here's how the workout broke down for RX Lite (our division):
There was a 45 minute time cap, and except for the hill runs, only one partner was working at a time. You could break up your reps any way you wanted, with one caveat - you shared a bar. So in theory you could trade off every other rep (some teams did this with burpees) but anytime you switched partners on the lifts, you had to strip weight from or add weight to the bar. This obviously made it strategically better to get as many reps as you reasonably could before handing off to your partner.
Our plan was to have me start on all the movements. Jared thrives under pressure, so for example, if he was the last one doing the squat clean and jerks, he'd be stoked to speed up so we could get on with the run. Plus I would get a rest before heading into the run, which was a good idea for me.
3-2-1...Go!!!
The double unders were the hardest part for me - I totally should have warmed up my calves which I didn't do at all. My score was actually pretty decent (for me) - 70 reps with a rope that doesn't fit me. Thank God!
Then Jared came and kicked some serious butt with 148. It was so excited to realize Chris, Heidi, and Joel had come out early to cheer on the 9:15 teams! Jared's mom came out to watch us, too!
After our four minutes of double-unders, we got to go right into the squat clean and jerks (SQ&J). We realized that neither of us had warmed up with the bar before the WOD. Oops.
For rep scheme, we had decided to have me do 15 SQ&J, then Jared for 15 reps , then 15 for me and the final 15 for Jared.
This ended up working out really well for us...we got decent room to breathe while the other person worked, and we didn't have to waste a bunch of time changing the weights in and out a million times. I tried to smile before each rep which helped me relax, get my form set, and remember that we were there to have fun!
We could really watch Ray and Sara much but thankfully Heidi got some great shots of them - they were in the RX division with #155 for the guys and #105 for the girls!
Before we knew it, we were on to the hill repeats. I expected this to be pretty quick and easy since our division didn't carry any weights on the run, but I had kinda hurt my calf from a lack of warm-up before the double unders...and the hill is CRAZY steep.
For the RX division, guys had to carry a #25 plate and girls a #10:
Jared was totally running the hill - he encouraged me a lot and said at one point, "come on, let's jog!" but I was so slow jogging up with my calf that I ended power walking because it was faster. Yikes. Gear note - my Nanos had surprisingly good traction for this, especially the downhill part - even in the rain!
After we came down the hill for the fourth time, we ran back for my favorite part - BURPEES!!! (Yes, there is probably something wrong with me but I have already been to therapy...so...)
I don't know why, but very early on in my CrossFit "career" I decided I was gonna love burpees and be really good at them. It does help that I am a little person to begin with, but I've worked on my form for these a ton and it has really paid off. Plus I just think they're fun!
I wanted to be the first burpee-doer and we were going to trade off every ten reps. I ran into our station and started in, but it was so loud with all the cheering that I didn't hear Jared and Ravit saying, "Meghan, you have to touch the bar!" until I'd completed 3 reps. Dang. I got up, touched the bar, and started over. I'd asked Ravit at the beginning if we had to clap on each rep, and she said we didn't, but we did have to make sure both feet left the ground every rep. To save energy, I decided not to bring my arms overhead, but while I was mid-burpee, Ravit clarified that I did still have to get my arms up - we just didn't have to clap.
Thankfully instead of getting frustrated, I maintained my "having fun" mentality and carried on. (It sure helped that Ravit made sure we heard her and communicated right away if she noticed something was off.) One thing that was really odd was that the judge in the corral next to us started commenting on my burpees and telling me I didn't complete reps. Weird. I blew it off and just focused on Ravit.
The first 10 (or really 15, but 10 towards the score) I did directly on the pavement, which kinda hurt my hands, so while Jared did his first ten, I grabbed my warmup shirt to put under my hands for my last 40.
It was so nice to know we each had to do a set amount of reps and that we had a judge keeping track! It allowed me to really focus on what I was doing and not have to worry much about thinking and counting. We really flew through these, and only the last two or three felt difficult. Then it was deadlift time!
We lucked out because Jared's weight for the SQ&J was my weight for the deadlifts! By having him finish with the SQ&J and me start with the deadlifts, we saved ourselves one time of dealing with setting up the bar. (We passed this on as a tip for Chris and Heidi.)
I expected the 25 deadlifts at #115 to be a piece of cake, since my one rep max is at #205, but after all the other work, they were hard! I did 15 and then added weights for Jared. He knocked out all 25 in a row, and then stripped the bar for me. I made the final 10 and we were done!
Our total time for the workout was 33 minutes and change, but our time not counting the double unders was under 30 minutes! I was so excited to see we'd done so well. I really had been focusing on form and having fun, so it was cool to see that pay off with some speed!
After our heat we rolled out and got some much-needed Progenex. Heidi and I did some partner calf foam rolling...I almost cried and Heidi said at one point, "I thought you were my friend!" Boy that stuff hurts. It worked out nicely that no MICF teams were in the 2nd heat, so we got to chat and offer strategy thoughts and recover.
I like competing but I also love snapping photos and cheering! It was awesome to watch Heidi and Chris in the RX division with such killer weight.
They really encouraged each other, and had some help from a CrossFit Amped competitor in the next station who went head to head with Heidi on some of the SQ&J reps.
The next heat was our buddy (and resident physical therapist) Joel! We couldn't get any other Mercer Island gals to jump in and compete, so Joel got paired up with Alison from Stoneway who also needed a partner. Joel had hurt his calf the day before, so he had fancy tape and Jared to do the hill run for him!
He toughed it out and did the final hill, though!
We left before the final heat because we'd been there so long and had gotten to see all our box's teams compete - it was a really fun day with Allegra (also from MICF) and her sister joining in the fun as spectators!
Someone joked with us as we were taking off: "Don't leave! You might have won!" We laughed.
We showered up at home and I limped around while Jared made us a killer post-competition lunch of sweet potato fries, sausage, and beer. I texted a friend: "Being athlete is hard work!"
Then I got a text from Coach Allison telling me WE PLACED 3RD IN OUR DIVISION and she'd bring our prizes to the box on Monday.
I was so surprised and happy I cried! If you know me at all you know I am the theatre girl who has always sucked at everything athletic. I've had a lot of emotional ups and downs this year with CrossFit, seeing improvement but getting impatient and feeling like I'd never really be good at it.
I told Jared as I blubbered away, "I feel like I'm legit now!" I'm like a real athlete. So crazy. Oh, and we won the foam rollers of doom!
A huge thank you to Coach Scott and Stoneway for putting on this event, and for all the volunteers who made it so smooth, and all the boxes who showed up to compete and make this such a great community! Can't wait till next year.
Now of course we want to do more competitions - so tell me if you know any good ones coming up! Also tell me what you've done lately that surprised you. And whether your friends curse you for foam rolling their calves.
(Incidentally I used to think CrossFit was actually like this.
No wonder I put off trying it for so long.)
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Last year, Jared and I competed at the first annual Resolution Revolution (along with some other teams from Mercer Island CrossFit), but I was so new I had to scale significantly, and Jared wasn't feeling well, so we didn't finish. This year I've come a long long way in my strength and skills, and Jared and I are better at communicating and teamwork, so we knew it was going to be an awesome event.
We were in the first heat and wanted to make sure we had good parking and plenty of time to do mobility and warm-up, so we ate breakfast, packed extra clothes and a bunch of food, and left our place at 7:30. I started to feel nervous walking out the door, but reminded myself, "This is just like going out to run a road race...except more fun!"
We found a parking spot right by the box and were the first athletes on the scene. There were some awesome Stoneway shirts (still gotta get me the pink one!) and some vendors as well!
I called these the Foam Rollers of Doom - don't they make you want to cry just looking at them?
I was impressed with how seamless the sign-in process was for atheletes. We also got a sheet showing who was competing in which heat - really helpful if you have friends to cheer for!
We went upstairs to do some mobility. Our heat wasn't for an hour, so there was no reason to start warming up right away. Sara and Ray were in the first heat as well. It was fun to chat with them while doing mobility work!
I mixed mobility with several trips to the bathroom. One hope for next year: that they rent some Porta Potties. While Stoneway is a good facility for an event of this kind...they have ONE bathroom that had to be shared amongst 80 competitors (not to mention any spectators or volunteers). Jared and I finally started warming up about 15-20 minutes before our heat. (So glad we had 45 minutes of mobility beforehand!) My warmup included a 400 meter row, pass throughs, inch worms, squats, and leg swings.
We headed downstairs and outside for our heat! We met our judge, Ravit, who was really sweet and explained to us the movement standards for the workout. Here's how the workout broke down for RX Lite (our division):
4 minutes (2 each partner) to get as many double-unders as possible
after the 4 minutes are up...go right into this WOD for time:
60 squat clean & jerks (30 each partner) at #115/#75
4 hill runs together
100 burpees (50 each partner)
50 deadlifts (25 each partner) at #145/#115
Our plan was to have me start on all the movements. Jared thrives under pressure, so for example, if he was the last one doing the squat clean and jerks, he'd be stoked to speed up so we could get on with the run. Plus I would get a rest before heading into the run, which was a good idea for me.
3-2-1...Go!!!
The double unders were the hardest part for me - I totally should have warmed up my calves which I didn't do at all. My score was actually pretty decent (for me) - 70 reps with a rope that doesn't fit me. Thank God!
Then Jared came and kicked some serious butt with 148. It was so excited to realize Chris, Heidi, and Joel had come out early to cheer on the 9:15 teams! Jared's mom came out to watch us, too!
After our four minutes of double-unders, we got to go right into the squat clean and jerks (SQ&J). We realized that neither of us had warmed up with the bar before the WOD. Oops.
For rep scheme, we had decided to have me do 15 SQ&J, then Jared for 15 reps , then 15 for me and the final 15 for Jared.
This ended up working out really well for us...we got decent room to breathe while the other person worked, and we didn't have to waste a bunch of time changing the weights in and out a million times. I tried to smile before each rep which helped me relax, get my form set, and remember that we were there to have fun!
We could really watch Ray and Sara much but thankfully Heidi got some great shots of them - they were in the RX division with #155 for the guys and #105 for the girls!
Before we knew it, we were on to the hill repeats. I expected this to be pretty quick and easy since our division didn't carry any weights on the run, but I had kinda hurt my calf from a lack of warm-up before the double unders...and the hill is CRAZY steep.
For the RX division, guys had to carry a #25 plate and girls a #10:
Jared was totally running the hill - he encouraged me a lot and said at one point, "come on, let's jog!" but I was so slow jogging up with my calf that I ended power walking because it was faster. Yikes. Gear note - my Nanos had surprisingly good traction for this, especially the downhill part - even in the rain!
After we came down the hill for the fourth time, we ran back for my favorite part - BURPEES!!! (Yes, there is probably something wrong with me but I have already been to therapy...so...)
I don't know why, but very early on in my CrossFit "career" I decided I was gonna love burpees and be really good at them. It does help that I am a little person to begin with, but I've worked on my form for these a ton and it has really paid off. Plus I just think they're fun!
I wanted to be the first burpee-doer and we were going to trade off every ten reps. I ran into our station and started in, but it was so loud with all the cheering that I didn't hear Jared and Ravit saying, "Meghan, you have to touch the bar!" until I'd completed 3 reps. Dang. I got up, touched the bar, and started over. I'd asked Ravit at the beginning if we had to clap on each rep, and she said we didn't, but we did have to make sure both feet left the ground every rep. To save energy, I decided not to bring my arms overhead, but while I was mid-burpee, Ravit clarified that I did still have to get my arms up - we just didn't have to clap.
Thankfully instead of getting frustrated, I maintained my "having fun" mentality and carried on. (It sure helped that Ravit made sure we heard her and communicated right away if she noticed something was off.) One thing that was really odd was that the judge in the corral next to us started commenting on my burpees and telling me I didn't complete reps. Weird. I blew it off and just focused on Ravit.
The first 10 (or really 15, but 10 towards the score) I did directly on the pavement, which kinda hurt my hands, so while Jared did his first ten, I grabbed my warmup shirt to put under my hands for my last 40.
It was so nice to know we each had to do a set amount of reps and that we had a judge keeping track! It allowed me to really focus on what I was doing and not have to worry much about thinking and counting. We really flew through these, and only the last two or three felt difficult. Then it was deadlift time!
We lucked out because Jared's weight for the SQ&J was my weight for the deadlifts! By having him finish with the SQ&J and me start with the deadlifts, we saved ourselves one time of dealing with setting up the bar. (We passed this on as a tip for Chris and Heidi.)
I expected the 25 deadlifts at #115 to be a piece of cake, since my one rep max is at #205, but after all the other work, they were hard! I did 15 and then added weights for Jared. He knocked out all 25 in a row, and then stripped the bar for me. I made the final 10 and we were done!
Our total time for the workout was 33 minutes and change, but our time not counting the double unders was under 30 minutes! I was so excited to see we'd done so well. I really had been focusing on form and having fun, so it was cool to see that pay off with some speed!
After our heat we rolled out and got some much-needed Progenex. Heidi and I did some partner calf foam rolling...I almost cried and Heidi said at one point, "I thought you were my friend!" Boy that stuff hurts. It worked out nicely that no MICF teams were in the 2nd heat, so we got to chat and offer strategy thoughts and recover.
I like competing but I also love snapping photos and cheering! It was awesome to watch Heidi and Chris in the RX division with such killer weight.
They really encouraged each other, and had some help from a CrossFit Amped competitor in the next station who went head to head with Heidi on some of the SQ&J reps.
The next heat was our buddy (and resident physical therapist) Joel! We couldn't get any other Mercer Island gals to jump in and compete, so Joel got paired up with Alison from Stoneway who also needed a partner. Joel had hurt his calf the day before, so he had fancy tape and Jared to do the hill run for him!
He toughed it out and did the final hill, though!
We left before the final heat because we'd been there so long and had gotten to see all our box's teams compete - it was a really fun day with Allegra (also from MICF) and her sister joining in the fun as spectators!
 |
| Team Martin! |
 |
| Sara and Ray! |
 |
| Team Matson |
We showered up at home and I limped around while Jared made us a killer post-competition lunch of sweet potato fries, sausage, and beer. I texted a friend: "Being athlete is hard work!"
Then I got a text from Coach Allison telling me WE PLACED 3RD IN OUR DIVISION and she'd bring our prizes to the box on Monday.
I was so surprised and happy I cried! If you know me at all you know I am the theatre girl who has always sucked at everything athletic. I've had a lot of emotional ups and downs this year with CrossFit, seeing improvement but getting impatient and feeling like I'd never really be good at it.
I told Jared as I blubbered away, "I feel like I'm legit now!" I'm like a real athlete. So crazy. Oh, and we won the foam rollers of doom!
A huge thank you to Coach Scott and Stoneway for putting on this event, and for all the volunteers who made it so smooth, and all the boxes who showed up to compete and make this such a great community! Can't wait till next year.
Now of course we want to do more competitions - so tell me if you know any good ones coming up! Also tell me what you've done lately that surprised you. And whether your friends curse you for foam rolling their calves.
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