Start at the beginning or go back to part 2.
I’m fast forwarding to Sunday because we spectated and relaxed on Saturday. I’ll go so far as to say there were some Pay-Lee-Noooooo meals between Friday and Saturday with some meals being better than others. Mark was kind enough to grill some food for us on Friday night, which was paleoish (thanks, Mark!), but we also partook in Reese’s Cups and beer. It was caveman fail, but it was delicious after a day of competition.
On to Sunday!!
WOD 4
50 Muscle-Ups
Carry a 250# 10’ log up and down a 250M hill
100 Thrusters (95#/65#) – One man and one woman per bar
Carry a 250# 10’ log up and down a 250M hill
200 Deadlifts (135#/95#) – One man and one woman per bar
Carry a 250# 10’ log up and down a 250M hill
Justin, Brandon, Kat, and Mackenzie were our starters for this Sunday invite only workout, but if you’ve seen the pictures, you know that one of those individuals didn’t make the cut. Rewinding briefly to Saturday afternoon, our guys saw the logs that were going to be used on Sunday sitting in the warm-up area and wanted to check them out. Justin and Brandon went to lift a log and were able to get it up by themselves. Unfortunately for Team RVA, the practice lift was bad news for Justin. He tweaked his back, which would eventually mean that he would be unable to compete.
Back to Sunday, Justin was confident that he would be ready to go come WOD 4 after foam rolling and resting all Saturday night, so Brian and Clark were in spectator mode. The judges went over the movement standards with the athletes and when it came time to try out the log, Justin found that his back was not going to allow him to compete. Ugh, fail. Mackenzie ran to find Brian to inform him that his services were needed. He was incredulous, but he reported to the log to get some practice in with the squad. After getting some reps done, he trudged back to the car party van to change out of his spectating jeans and into competing shorts. And this is why we fielded a team of six and not four. Just in case something like this happened. Good thing our girls didn’t get hurt, otherwise Clark and/or Brian would have had to put on wigs and dresses to sub in. Don’t dwell on that thought, it’s not a pretty one.
3-2-1-Go. Brandon and the substitute kicked off the 50 muscle-ups, while the girls cheered them on. They established a solid flow, with each working nearly non-stop. Brandon completed more muscle-ups than Brian because Brian is soft and Brandon is a beast. Not that there were any questions about that before we started… Team RVA finished the muscle-ups before all but one team (I think), but that team was engaging in some sheisty range of motion, so I’m chalking up a victory for RVA. On to the log run! Due to the differences in height of our competitors, Brandon and Brian bookended the log with Kat and the Mackerel in the middle. Unfortunately for the boys, that meant the log was resting heavily on their shoulders up and down the hill. It was a whole heck of a lot harder than it looked as it required synchronization of feet, but the first run was completed without incident and the team reported to the barbells.
Thankfully, and not surprisingly, the girls were dominant on the barbell thrusters, while the boys struggled to keep pace. Clark and Justin later commented that the girls were moving about three times as fast as the guys on the barbell. For every one rep the boys got, the girls got three. Way to go girls! The thrusters were finished quickly and it was back to the log walk. 2-1-Lift! Pow. Those shoulders are going to hurt later. A trudge up and down the hill and it was time for deadlifts.
At this point in the work out, Brian was falling to pieces. While Team RVA sprinted back to the barbells, Brian was contemplating lying down to catch his breath. He managed to make his way back into the barbell area before Brandon finished his first set of deadlifts and hopped on the bar as soon as Brandon got off. Once again, the girls moved with mechanical efficiency and speed.
Switching into first person mode for a moment, Kat and Mackenzie really saved my ass (so did Brandon). They worked the barbells like champs while I made sure the ground was still underneath me by kneeling and putting my hands down to feel it (it was still there). Enter feeling of death. You’ve all been there, you know what I’m talking about. Although I was feeling like butt, I was cognizant enough to form some thoughts in this approximate order: 1) Brandon, please stay on the bar longer, 2) are we done yet? 3) close your eyes and keep pulling, 4) are we done yet? 5) I hate Jake, 6) we still have to do another round on the log! Oy vey. Enough of that, back to the workout.
Doing some rough estimations, Kat did about 100 deadlifts, Mackenzie did 70, Brandon did 50, and Brian did 10. Baha! Way to go, Brian! In all seriousness, Kat and Mack held it down with the deadlifts and powered us back to the log. It was good that they finished when they did, otherwise Brian might have died (or puked as Clark was predicting). Log time… 2-1-Lift! Engage log crawl. Team RVA plodded up and down the hill to the finish line and emphatically dropped the log. Bruised and battered, WOD 4 was complete! Dee-you-en. Dun. We managed to finish 13th in WOD 4, which wasn’t enough to move us up in the overall standings, but nonetheless, we were happy with our finish.
Overall Comments
Proud of our girls, proud to sweat and heft weight next to RVA teammates, proud to be done. What a blast. Fantastic athletes everywhere doing more work faster. Let’s do it again.
Although we didn’t finish high enough to garner a spot at the CrossFit Games, we had a great time and we learned a ton. We’ve got an entire year to train to be harder, better, faster, stronger; you better believe we’re going back for more. Train hard, everyone. See you at the gym.