California AKA The Games!

On Wednesday July 27th, 2011 I boarded a Jet Blue plane with 15+ others from Crossfit Central athletes headed to California to watch the Crossfit Games and support 3 special ladies from our box; Lisa Thiel, Carey Kepler and Lindsey Smith. When athletes travel in packs like we did, we got LOTS of questions..."what do you do?", "Where are you going and why?" and may more but my favorite was when someone asked what crossfit was. I gave her the run down and then she asked me if it as like Jazzersise...YIKES! Another comment..."there are alot of buff people on this flight". It made it interesting. Since we were decked out in SicFit attire, we got a shout out from the captain which was really cool...almost as cool as the buy one get one free drinks! When we landed we SCREAMED Texas because when walking off the plane (Long Beach is a SMALLLLL airport) there was a breeze and it was kinda chilly. EVERYONE's hands went in the air to feel as much as the breeze as possible. It was pretty comical. We got our luggage and headed to get our rental cars. Then to Radondo Beach where our hotel for the week was. We got settled, met up with others and went to eat at Rudy's across the street where they had gluten free buns and sweet potato fries...SOLD! Yum!

THURSDAY morning, Jessica and I got up got breakfast at the hotel and then went to walk on the beach. After doing handstands on the beach, we spoke with the lifeguard on duty to get a feel of the city. He informed us of the TON of competitions going on that weekend.

When we got done talking to him, we were leaving and ran into a fireman who as playing vball on a beach. Shortly into the conversation we discovered he too crossfitted and told us if we hustled we could make it to the workout at his box, Crossfit Southbay, up the road. So we did just that. We got to a cross street and got confused and while we were waiting on Jess's phone to pull up the address to the box, an ambulance pulled up behind us and our new friend jumped out and told us to get in the back and he would take us. I can only image how funny it looked having an ambulance pull up and 2 girls jump out the back ready to crossfit. It was okay when we rocked the workout!

After the workout we walked back to the hotel so we could get ready for the Crossfit LAX Pool Party! We met up with the rest of our crew (We soon adopted the name #TeamWTF), Melisa and CP, at the party. There wasn't a TON of different affiliates but there was a TON of Central there. You guessed it, we danced our a$$ off for hours on end! After that we all went to eat at Yard Dog then home to bed.

FRIDAY we got up and went to THE GAMES! Since the first WOD was a beach WOD we went to to the Santa Monica Pier. The first WOD went as follow:

For time:
210 meter Ocean swim
1,500 meter Soft-sand run
50 Chest-to-bar pull-ups
100 Hand-release push-ups
200 Squats
1,500 meter Soft-sand run

It looked rough but these ladies ROCKED it! Did I mention that we froze when watching them! It was that cold! :)

After that WOD we raced to The Home Depot Center in Carson to watch these ladies complete the rest of their WODs:

Max L-sit for time (1 attempt)

Max distance Softball throw (2 attempts)
Max distance Handstand walk (1 attempt with 1 mulligan if less than 5 yards)

Athletes will be scored for this event in the same system as the Regional scoring. And they will be ranked in each test with the sum of their 3 rankings determining their final score for the event. Low score wins and will receive the identical points as the other events.

You can guess our thoughts on this...but its crossfit, you gotta be ready for anything! the 3rd WOD went as follows:

For time:
15 foot Rope climb, 5 ascents
115 pound Clean and jerk, 5 reps
15 foot Rope climb, 4 ascents
125 pound Clean and jerk, 4 reps
15 foot Rope climb, 3 ascents
135 pound Clean and jerk, 3 reps
15 foot Rope climb, 2 ascents
145 pound Clean and jerk, 2 reps
15 foot Rope climb, 1 ascent
155 pound Clean and jerk, 1 rep

And that as day 1! That night Jess, CP, Melisa, Meg and Clarkie all went to Joes Crab Shack, I know we didn't drive all the way to Cali to eat at Joes, but it was open. It was home to bed so we could attend Saturdays.

SATURDAY we got up and Jess, Melisa and Myself headed to the hotel's "fitness room" for a workout. Since we don't use machines we did The Rapture (I added 200 squats on the end and Melisa did sprints). We showered and then headed to The Home Depot Center for the workouts that day.
WOD 1 was:

For time:
5 Muscle-ups

165 pound Deadlift, 10 reps

15 GHD Sit-ups

Sprint 50 yards

5 Muscle-ups

165 pound Deadlift, 10 reps

15 GHD Sit-ups

Sprint 100 yards
5 Muscle-ups
165 pound Deadlift, 10 reps

15 GHD Sit-ups

Sprint 150 yards

5 Muscle-ups

165 pound Deadlift, 10 reps

15 GHD Sit-ups

Sprint 200 yards

Our girls ROCKED this workout! I have never seen Carey's or Lisa's Muscles Ups look so easy and smooth. It was so fun to watch! The 2nd WOD for Saturday was:

1 rep max weighted Chest-to-bar pull-up for load
1 rep max Snatch for load
Jug carry for distance in 60 seconds

Each athlete has 2 minutes to establish a 1 rep max chest-to-bar pull-ups, 2 minutes to establish a 1 rep max snatch, and then will have 60 seconds to carry 2 weighted water jugs, as far as possible.

Athletes will be ranked in each test with the sum of their 3 rankings, determining their final score for the event.

This was interesting to watch too! These ladies are beat down and still kicking a$$! After this workout, we found out that our ladies were not going again until 6pm. So we left and went to the hotel to get our swim suits. Then we went to one of our friends houses that they rented to hang out. We had every intention of going to the beach BUT it was really chilly so we all sat around and chilled then we went back to The Home Depot Center to watch the 6th WOD.

Three rounds for time of:
155 pound Front squat, 7 reps

Bike 700 meters

100 foot Monkey bar traverse

You read that right...monkey bars! I hope they all paid attention when they were kids. Little did they know that this would reappear in their lives LOL! It was really fun to watch, some of the athletes would do it without stopping. NUTS! When this was over we headed to dinner at a place called The Underground. We then attempted to do the night life in Hermosa beach but it was CROWED every where we went....as well as the lines to get in were HORRIBLE! We finally went back to the hotel. It was this night that we found out that only Lindsey would be competing on Sunday. HOWEVER I'm beyond proud of our ladies and their accomplishments. They deserve this opportunity and everything it has to offer.

SUNDAY we woke up and went running along the strand! According to Melisa we ran somewhere around 4.5/5miles! We decided to explore the town. We went to breakfast at Rudy's then shopping in the beach shops. Then we found a place that allowed you to rent chairs and surfboards. Jess got a surfboard and CP, Melisa and myself got chairs. While Jess, bless her heart, attempted surfing CP, Melisa and myself enjoyed the beach from our chairs...I took an AWESOME nap, wearing my sweatshirt. It was that cold on the beach.

We then at a cute place on the beach that had sangria and tapas! Next we hustled home to get ready for SicNights hosted by SicFit. This night was soooo much fun! We got all dolled up, headed to LA ready to party! Rumor has it they sold 800 tickets pre party and then 100 tickets at the door. It was party full of crossfitters...it was AWESOME! Think of all the connections/networking! I only left the dance floor 1x and that was to take off my heels and put on my red boots. That night was a blast!!!

MONDAY

We got home WAAAAYYYY past my bed time, took 1.5hr nap and got up and I took Melisa, Jess and CP to the airport so they could catch their flight back home. I wasn't leaving till Tuesday morning. I came back to the hotel took a nap woke up and walked to the beach and sat there and read my book for a good hour or so. I then met back up with Jen who was staying with me that night. We then proceeded to sleep for 4 more hours waking up to eat and go back to bed. Needless to say we were tired!

TUESDAY we woke up and caught a 9am flight back to ATX with 15 others from Central. Let me tell you, it was a good thing I like Austin because going from upper 70s/low 80s to 3 digit temps wasn't easy at all! Getting off that flight as rough! Thanks to Jess for picking me up, I came home and was able to be very productive getting ready to go back to work.

Summary:

This trip was AMAZING! I cannot wait to go back next year...as a competitor. Watching these amazing women has changed my perspective on training and how serious I need to be! It starts now and I will be doing everything I can to make sure I'm ready. The weather was awesome, I have a "new level" bond with my fellow coaches. I loved every second of it! The only thing I would change is I would stay directly on the beach next year with a kitchen for my own cooking. Other than that I cannot think of many things I would do to change how things went.