2012 All Cities Open (ACO)

 I cannot believe 2012 All Cities Open (ACO) has come and gone! 2012 is on its way out and 2013 is on its way in! This years ACO was a lot of fun! Having competed a bunch this year, I have gotten to know the "regulars" who show up to theses meets, we have actually all become friends which makes the workouts that much better. On top of my "new friends" I had a TON of Central athletes compete which was REALLY like working out with my friends! 

I traveled to Dallas on Friday afternoon for packet pick up at 6:30pm that evening. After we got our packets at Dallas Central (including our KICK A$$ Warpath jacket) and chatted, we (Jess and myself) headed to Amanda's where we crashed on her couch in her super cute new condo (Thanks Amanda). We were in bed by 9:30pm...which was FANTASTIC! We slept soundly till the alarms went off at 5am, out the door by 6pm, Starbucks by 6:10am.

We got to the high school in Rockwall, TX checked in and claimed a spot for all athletes to Recover/meet in between WODs. During the first Athlete briefing, I looked up and saw my parents and The Duke walking down to the stadium! Not having seen Duke in 2 weeks, I left the briefing to greet him. Geeze I missed that dog! Then Duker and I went back to the athlete briefing. It made me feel good that my fellow teammates greeted Duke as well. 

After the briefing we had to line up for WOD 1. I was in heat 7 so I had some time. WOD 1 was: 

Event 1A: Bench Press + Power Clean Ladder

10 Bars ranging from 185/95# up to 325/185#

- Athletes will have 45″ to complete both Bench and Power Clean at the designated weight at each station with a 15″ transition between stations.  If the athletes fails at one of the lifts and makes the other he/she may move onto the next station and attempt that lift that they made previously.

Dang here we go bench press again. Do I see a pattern? Anyways this was an odd combo which made it interesting. I had a FANTASTIC judge (Heather Reed quality of judge) for this event which made it more fun. I made it to 155# Bench which matches my PR for bench and then I made it to the 185# power clean. I want to say that is my max power clean. If they would have let me regular clean it I could have done it twice LOL!

I had the BEST   judge for this!  (Like Heather Reed good!) She was very motivating and encouraging not just during this event but through out the competition as well.   

 Event 1B: 40 yard Dash 

- Athletes will have one shot and one shot only to sprint 40 yards.

After the ladder it was 40yd dash time...good thing I brought my cleats from The Games. I did a few warm up sprints, got some tips from other athletes because sprinting is NOT my thing. I competed my 40 in 5.5...I was just happy I didn't pull a hamstring. BUT it needs to be faster. 

Event #2: Stadium Parkour

TIME CAP: 10 minutes 

FOR TIME:

400m Run

5 Hurdle Hops + 5 forward roll over 50 yards

Scale the Stadium Grand Stands up and down

5 Hurdle Hops + 5 forward roll over 50 yards

400m Run

After having practice this I thought...when did I get so old that forward rolls make me dizzy. This means I only practiced that part a few times. I did practice scaling the walls, more so of the fact so I wouldn't slip on the bleachers. Again heat 7 which meant the end for the females. I watch my fellow teammates, Jess and Ingrid as well as some of my other friends just DOMINATE this...so I couldn't let them down. We met our judge and lined up on our mat to go. I took off on my 400m but quickly realized I was going to burn out so I backed it down and maintained a decent pace. I made it through all 5 hurdles and forward rolls without throwing up, scaled the first wall, up the first set of bleachers, scaled the next wall, scaled the 9ft wall and BAM my legs got heavy. I pretty much walked up the last set of bleachers, then hustled down the stairs, back down the 9ft wall, over the the wall to the 1st set of bleachers, over the final wall, 5 hurdles w/ forward rolls and off on the 400m. MY LEGS WERE BURNING!! I finished to have a judge (not my judge...because my judge had his back to me eating links when I finished) call time at 5:21. Done and Done...but that was actually ALOT of fun and I really enjoyed it. 

Event #3: Sled/Snatch 

TIME CAP: 6 minutes AMRAP in 6 min:

50 yard sled pull forward with 90/50#

50 yard sled pull backward with 90/50#

10 Snatches at 135/95#

My legs were STILL on fire when we started this event. I did a few warm up snatches but everything in the warm up area was in kgs so I'm not really sure how much I warmed up with but I got warm (especially since Jess, who had already gone advised me to). Fellow athletes were doing about 2 rounds, so my goal was at least 2 rounds. Best so far was one lady made it back on sled during her 3rd. The trick was in the transition time because we had to move our plates AND clips from the sled to the bar, then back to the sled. I pulled my sled alllll the way to my bar so I didn't have to carry them as far. My first set of snatches was unbroken, the last set was 6-2-2 (I think, needless to say I got them done). I loaded my sled and took off. I made it ALMOST all the way back before they call time. My hamstrings just quit and to the ground I went LOL! 

After those 4 WODs we waited to see who was going to qualify for the final WOD swimming madness!! They took the top:

- 16 Standard Men

- 16 Standard Women

- 6 Masters Men
- 6 Masters Women

This meant us 3 CC girls were going swimming! 

They carried us into this BEAUTIFUL on campus aquatics facility (I forget the fancy name for it). It had a few pools and some diving boards. My high school didn't have that type of facility. They did a master's heat as well as 2 heats of standard women and the same for men. At 4:30pm after all athletes changed into our swim attire. They told us the WOD/Madness.

We had 4mins to perform 20 dumbell thrusters (30#) then swim 50m. The faster you went the more rest you got. I was 1st in the water post thrusters but 4th out of the water. Clearly know where my weakness is. After 4 mins was up we had to jump off the platform and swim under it 5 times then swim 50ms. This was kinda "panicy". Trying to figure out when to come up and then ascending was different in the water (without scuba gear). I just moved as fast as I could because I wanted it to be over faster. I got all kinds of bruises from that. After that was a final 50m sprint. We got to do it "olympics style" too...off the blocks...touching the pad stopped the time. It was neat to see that in a local competition. All I have to say about that is, I need to swim more.

I finished 2012 ACO taking the 3rd place and stood on the podium next to 2 wonderful women Ingrid (1st) and Chelsea (2nd). I'm SUPER blessed for all the love and support I had during this competition. I have a zillion new friends that I look forward to competing alongside of. I cannot thank my parents enough for their love and support during ACO. Thanks to everyone who made this event happen. Another great one in the books!