First of all I wanted to say Hello and Welcome to all the new visitors from SkinnyMeg and Fit and Free With Emily! I absolutely adore both of those ladies and I am honored to be featured on their sites! If you are stopping by from either of their pages leave me a comment and let me know! I love meeting new people! Also – I have a pretty sweet Sparkly Soul giveaway going on, so make sure to enter that!

Now, on to the juicy part… The part where I show you pictures of 2 amazingly fit guys working out (shirts optional). Last night I got to be a part of the live audience for the Announcement of CrossFit Open Workout 13.4 For those of you who are new or unfamiliar with CrossFit, check out my post “What is The CrossFit Open?” – Summarized version: The CrossFit Open is a 5 week world wide competition. A new workout is released each Wednesday for 5 weeks. They do these announcements live in different CrossFit Gyms around the country. Then immediately after the announcement two elite athletes compete head to head in that week’s workout… This all eventually leads to the CrossFit Games in July.

So, last night’s announcement was at a local CrossFit – about 30 minutes from where we live. So, of course, we were going to be there!

We had heard that previous Open WOD announcements had lines of people waiting to get in and running out of space, so we arrived extra early to make sure we got a good spot. The doors were going to open at 5:30 and we got there at 3:30. We were 8th in line. Yes, we are crazy. A little after 4 the line started to get pretty thick.

Once we got inside we got an awesome seat right in the middle on the second row of bleachers. They had free food and beer and everyone was just hanging out having fun. CrossFitters know how to party, y’all. Miranda Oldroyd was there. I love her! She has an amazing story about how CrossFit literally saved her life on her blog. You really must read it, it is unbelievable. They had a few contests between the trainers of the host gym as well as a strict dead hang pull up contest. Miranda busted out 18. That is crazy. EIGHTEEN STRICT DEADHANG PULL UPS. Check out the muscles on this girl…

Sidenote: Miranda is probably one of the more “bulkier” women in CrossFit. A lot of women are afraid to lift heavy because they don’t want to get bulky. I used to be that way. This physique would be something I previously thought was a little too muscular for me, but now I know the work it takes to look that way so I respect it. This did NOT come from casual lifting. She trains competitively. This is NOT from putting 5 pound plates on the end of her barbell. She easily took 135 pounds from the ground to overhead yesterday. So don’t use not wanting to get bulky as an excuse not to lift heavy. End Rant.

Then it was time for the Athletes to arrive. Facing off in the workout would be Six Time CrossFit Games Competitor Chris Spealler and 2010 CrossFit Games Champion Graham Holmberg. They spent some time warming up and getting in the zone.

Before they started the workout they had to find out what it was! With much anticipation it was time for the announcement. Open WOD 13.4 would be:

So it was a 7 minute timed event. The male athletes had to do 135 pound clean and jerk (Bar goes from ground to shoulder, then from shoulder to overhead) and Toes to Bar, which Julie Foucher is demonstrating in the picture above.

Literally just a few minutes after hearing the workout the timer started 3…2…1….GO!

It was a 7 minute frenzy! These guys were incredible. Spealler, the crowd favorite, pulled ahead during the round of 12 by going unbroken on the Toes to Bar. He kept the lead until the end winning with 110 reps over Holmberg’s 102. One of my favorite things about CrossFit is exemplified in that last picture of the collage above. Both men were spent. Both men gave their all. But they, even in their exhausted state, took time to congratulate each other on a job well done.

After the camera’s turned off people were flocking to meet the athletes, poor guys were still spent though.

After we got to walk around and meet everyone Dave Castro announced that Rory McKernan and Adrian Bozman would go head to head too. Apparently they have been doing it each week after the announcement and Rory was in the lead by just 3 points. Until Last night.

Rory was ahead for the first half but eventually fell behind and Boz took the win! Watch the footage here

The whole event was such a blast. I can’t tell you enough how much I love the community that is CrossFit. Jason Khalipa said it best when he said nothing brings you closer to someone than suffering through the same thing with them. That’s what we do day after day, WOD after WOD. I’m so glad to have found such an amazing sport and community to be involved in.

These guys are my biggest supporters! I don’t know what I’d do without them!

Have you been to a live event like this? Did it pump you up?
Who are your biggest supporters?

So if you have been following any number of CrossFitters on blogs or social media you have probably seen the terms CrossFit Open, 13.1 , CrossFit Games or something similar. If you are new to CrossFit or don’t CrossFit at all you’re probably wondering

What Is The CrossFit Open?

So basically the CrossFit Games are the super bowl of CrossFit. Except, instead of having to be drafted on to some team the CrossFit Games are open for anyone to get into. You just register online, it cost $20. The road to the CrossFit Games start with the CrossFit Open. It is 5 weeks long, with one workout each week. In true CrossFit fashion the workout is not announced until the week you are to do it. There are like 130,000 people registered to compete in the open. They have from the time the workout is announced on Wednesday until Sunday evening to complete the workout and submit their results on the CrossFit Games Website (results must be verified by a Certified CrossFit Affiliate or filmed and submitted for verification). The first workout, 13.1 (no, not miles… it stands for 2013 season, 1st workout), was announced last Wednesday… and man, is it a doozy!

The first weight is the mens prescribed weight, the second is the women’s. Burpees are horrible, but anyone can do them. The snatch is a pretty technical olympic lift. Those weights are no joke, especially after that many burpees. A lot of the elite athletes are getting between 190-199 reps on this workout. That means they got all the way to the last weight and was able to complete a few of those lifts before time is called. I am not registered for the open, mostly because I didn’t want to pay the $20 when I can’t do an unassisted pull up… but I can do the workouts without registering to see where I stack up. I got 125 reps. That means in 17 minutes I got through the first set of 40 burpees, the set of 30 snatches at 45lbs, the set of 30 burpees, and I got through 25 of the 30 snatches at 75lbs. I was honestly surprised with my results, considering my previous 1 rep max on the snatch was 80lbs!

Shout out to my Animal Sock Twinsie Tracy! We went ANIMAL on that WOD!

Every Wednesday for the next 5 weeks CrossFit will release a new workout for the Open Competitors to complete before the following Sunday. The whole point of CrossFit is to cultivate a General Physical Preparedness for whatever life may throw at you – it’s often referred to as “Functional Fitness.” They want you to be prepared for anything, which is why they don’t announce the workouts beforehand. There are 17 different regions, and the top competitors in each region will compete in a 3 day Regional Competition. The top 3 competitors from each region will then move on to compete to the CrossFit Games at the end of July. The top male and female in the games will be crowned the Fittest On Earth!

I love that with the CrossFit Open throughout the CrossFit Games there is such an energy and excitement among the CrossFit community as a whole. Competitors cheer each other on. People want everyone to do their best. Whether you are like Neal Maddox and get 199 reps, or you can’t get through the first set of snatches you still get cheered on. While it is about competing with others… for most people, at least for me, it is about competing for myself. Did I ever think that I would know how to snatch? Let alone get that 75lbs from the ground to overhead 25 times? Not at all. But will I try to beat my own record as I train throughout the year? You bet.

Do you like to compete? Is it more for the competition against others, or yourself?

Tag: crossfit open

CrossFit Open 13.4

What is The CrossFit Open?

What Is The CrossFit Open?