Summer Slam Reflections

29
Aug

Summer Slam Reflections

One of the best parts of CrossFit is the friendly competition.  The sense of community, for sale of working hard together, of getting your limits pushed in a friendly, safe way is what makes the training method, and to a degree, the sport of CrossFit, fun.

Yes, it can be not fun.  People can take it very seriously and can suck the fun out of the room in their quest for exercise greatness.  I hope that when people come to CrossFit Oakdale, they get an understanding that we believe in working hard, the right way.  To me, that means a sense of fun with all the sweating and grunting.  It means taking IT serious without taking YOURSELF too serious.

When people let go of all those expectations and just be, it can be magical.

I think we saw that at SummerSlam in out women’s RX finals.  We had 4 serious girls trading punches all day – CFO star Sarah won the gymnastics ladder, Krista (from Resident) won the Squat Clean ladder, and Sidney (from CrossFit Merced) won the Row/Burpee event.  Jolena from Sav Up was right there on each work out, pushing the pack as well.

All 4 girls went in to the finals with tired bodies and hands that, to be polite, were sensitive.  One might say they were a bloody mess.

The final workout was Hanging DT – a round of Deadlifts, Hang Power Cleans and Jerks, followed in round 1 by 15 Toes to Bar, Round 2 by 15 Pullups and in Round 3 by 3 Bar Muscle Ups.

The girls in the final had worked past the early day jitters and embraced the workout like a team.  Although with ripped hands, they knew this was going to be no fun.  All the girls had bar Muscle Ups, but with all the work, and with hands that had been through a meat grinder, they were concerned about what was going to happen.  We discussed the time cap, and I told them if they were all failing muscle ups, I wasn’t going to force the issue.  We would go back to the tie breaker time and cap the workout.  They all agreed.

As they flew through the early rounds, you could see how hard they were pushing.  Krista flew through rounds of DT, only to have Sarah or Sidney catch her on the Toes to Bar.  Giving no ground, Krista came back and was the first athlete to the Muscle Ups.  She took her time, lines it up and stuck her first attempt (and her third MU in her life).  Once Krista hit her first, it was like a light went off.  All the ladies steped up to the bar, cheered each other on and grinded through reps.  Sarah won the final event by getting all her muscle ups ins.  Jolena and Sidney could have just sat it out, with hands that were out of Friday the 13th, but they both stuck Muscle Ups late.  There was so much energy and positive feelings, it was just another reminder of how great CrossFit can be.  In 5 years of being a part of CrossFit Oakdale, that was perhaps the coolest thing I’ve seen.  Effort, joy, camaraderie.  Beautiful stuff – thank you ladies!

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Workout of the Day

100 Doubleunders

50 Toes to Bar

100 Wallball Shots

50 Toes to Bar

100 Doubleunders