Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Last Open WOD Of The Mohicans

Finally. The end of the 6-week (ehh- I mean 7 week) sectionals road is here. And it ends with a final event that is an evil spin-off of "Fran": 100lb Thrusters & Chest to bar Pull Ups til you fall over and die or seven minutes runs out- whichever comes first. Rather than use the traditional 21-15-9 rep scheme, CrossFit HQ opted to stick with the AMRAP format and make this one a 7 minute rodeo. Your objective is to reach as high as possible into the following sequence 3,6,9,12,15,18,21, etc... The awkward part about this workout is that your larger worksets (12, 15, 18, etc) aren't at the beginning when you're fresh- they're at the end when you're out of mojo. Brilliant. I, being both less than brilliant and eager to get a test run at WOD 11.6, decided to do the workout on Monday at around noon, less than 24hrs after having gone full tilt on Sectionals WOD 11.5 for the second time. As the saying goes: "Shoot first, ask questions later."

I felt it went very well minus the round of 18 when Grant briefly lost count of where I was at with my thrusters. For a second, the wheels almost came off- but I trudged onward and managed to get 9 reps into the 21 thrusters. My score was 135 reps. I haven't submitted it yet because, honestly, I'm hoping to better it here in the next day or two. At least that's the plan.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Stay In The Fight


I love the lyrics in Chris Tomlin's song "Our God":
"Our God is greater, our God is stronger
God You are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, awesome in power
Our God, Our God…
And if Our God is for us, then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us, then what can stand against?"

To me, facing adversity is part of what makes life worth living. Yet many choose to tuck their tails and run from challenges. Their loss is in doing so is they'll never know what might have been overcome. When we find ourselves face to face with a troubling life circumstance, if we trust in God by having the willingness to fight, to sacrifice, or to endure the unknown, HE honors our faith by making a way; even when there seems to be no possible path.

The 6 week Open Sectionals process has been taxing physically, mentally, and even emotionally. But the beautiful thing about it is that each week it has given me the opportunity to face the challenges set before me. I'm given the opportunity to stay in the fight. Whether it's sectionals or life outside of competition - for me, this has meant to trust in the Lord. It has meant to trust in the heart, mind, and ability He has given me. Rankings will forever change...but believing in God to fulfill my life's destiny and purpose is something I'll forever fight for.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Cuz you know I Gotta Git.That. Chip off My Shoulda!


Got some new ink done yesterday at "Hearts Of Fire" in downtown Springfield on McDaniel St. Owner, Ethan, straight hooked a brotha up. This one is of a patch that was given to all American soldiers who fought against the Japanese Army after their invasion of the Philippines. My Grandfather was a guerrilla fighter and fought alongside US Army forces to exterminate the Japs. He was shot twice and eventually captured- but ultimately survived the Bataan Death March which was the forcible transfer of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war across the province of Bataan. It was characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse and murder, and resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon prisoners and civilians alike by the armed forces of the Empire of Japan. Post WWII Allied reports have tabulated that only 54,000 of the 75,000 prisoners reached their destination. Bad deal. But my LoLo survived it, joined the US Army, and brought the family to America. So I know I'll survive this week's "AMAMRAPWAP".

For me, the Open Sectionals Event 2 (DL/PU/BJ) was like an all out, as hard as you can hit me, punch me in the face with all you got-type of WOD. I had to stand there and take it like a man...and whine. Which, of course, I did. For about 24hrs. Then I woke up on Monday AM for the beginning of week 3, looked in the mirror, and I told myself, "Self, If you don't care about qualifying for Regionals then now's the time for you to quit. Be done with it...who cares, right? Wrong! I care! And if I do truly care what will I do? I'm gonna go on attack mode!!! I'm gonna fight, kick, scratch, snatch, and thruster my way into regionals. Redo an event 3 times just to better my score by only a couple points? Yes Please. I'm all in. Whatever it takes. My WOD 2 score dropped me from 22nd overall to 125th in the region. But with 4 top scores in the 4 final events, although it'd be a grind, it could bring me back into top 60 contention. We'll soon see.

Event 4 went well for me and all of CFS as our collective team scores finished us 4th in the North Central Region for the WOD and I managed to finish 10th in the region for the event. I tested Event 5 this morning with top regional contender and CFS athlete, Macy Mitchell. Going head to head gave us both a great push and consequently resulted in great scores (Macy: 361, Jeremy:351). We'll see how they hold up as the week progresses. Just gotta keep on keepin' on!

~COCHISE OUT!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

ME WANNA ROCK!!!

Ahhhhhhhhh YEEEAHHH! Guess who's ready to get back into the training blog game? This guy. I've been hit or miss but now that we're 3 weeks in to the CrossFit Games, The Open Sectionals snowball has officially become an avalanche which has flattened life as I knew it. Now there's no more training routine, no more "what should I hit today?" or "maybe I'll get a heavy lift in"...Nope. Now my weekly training programming is mainly: Perform "AMAMRAPWAP", or As Many AMRAP WODs As Possible. As fun as the first one was to do FOUR times- I'm pretty sure I'll live if I perform the remaining WODs only once each week from here on out. Here's a quick re-hash of whats been going down in Mhire-town.....Jenny is in the 3rd trimester with our still oven-baking baby girl (Emille) due July-ish. We've settled in quite nicely into our new home and have met many lovely neighborly people. I mowed my lawn today and probably scared half of the children in the neigborhood to death. "Mommy is that dark complected guy with the mowhawk and all those tattoos going to kill us?" "No, Timmy, only if you run into his car with your bike." Good news is the lawn now looks beautiful. My 3 year old son, Vincent has been growing up like how kids do....FAST. Holy Crap! Just weeks ago he couldn't distinguish between his butthole and a hole in the ground and now he's coaching me on the importance of leverage, hip drive, and finishing when I perform the Olympic Lifts. Can someone please help me comprehend all this? I do love the snot out of the little dude. He's a funny, funny guy. Enough about him- let me tell you about what a little indian named Cochise has been up to...

2011 Sectionals WOD 1: HomeRun!!! I Did 8+ rounds (363rep) which I think was around the number that you needed to be at to separate yourself from the pack. After WOD 1 I was ranked 22nd in the region and 135th in the world. All good and well but I should have known the storm was on the horizon... 2011 Sectionals WOD 2: A Swing & A Miss. I did 10+ rounds of a WOD where the top tier scores were 11+ rounds. My score was borderline close to keeping me within the regional top 100 contention but as it were I dropped from 22nd in the region to 125th in the region. Blah. I did, however, manage to sleep every night henceforth with a very broad smile accross my face because I knew that at least I never resorted to pathetically worming up my push ups just to get more reps :) I kept'em strict and I'm happy to pay the price of having my rank drop because of it. It is what it is and we all saw alot of push ups in that wod weren't what they were supposed to be. Why even have standards?

2011 Sectionals WOD 3: A Base Hit! 30 Rounds (60 reps) I'll take it. In the video above- I had already performed two reps by the time the record button was hit. It was a tough WOD- you battle the desire to push all out until you crash or pace and stay steady but ultimately die a slow death.

WOD 4 was just released this evening. Its gonna be a nice little treat...10 Min AMRAP of 60 bar facing burpees, 30 OHS @ 120lb, and 10 Muscle Ups. My prediction is 130 reps. We shall soon find out!!!!