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Full Effort and Double Podiums
Some of our teams from the weekend!! will upload more pics to Facebook soon :)
Hey all,
The Fraser Valley Throwdown was an amazing experience, with tremendous effort all round by our athletes. With tons of divisions including masters and teens, the FVT is one of the premier CrossFit competitions in BC and has something for everyone.
We had great representation across the divisions with teams in the following categories:
Individual Elite: Coach Meg
Individual Intermediate: Joeslon Popoff
Scaled Trios: Jason, Dreadlock Dan, Aiden and Cara, Maria, Emily
Intermediate Trios: Michelle, Breton, Krista and Alan, Tom, Kevin
Elite Trios: Zeke, Jacob, Sean and Mika, Katie, Rachel and Coach Mike, Erik, Tanner
We would have had even more athletes out there however we had a few late withdrawals due to injury or other commitments.
The individual competition is no joke. You are out there alone, facing 4 to 5 demanding workouts designed to test your fitness to the maximum. Individual competition is very stressful but can be very rewarding and is the most true test of your individual abilities.
Joelson did extremely well in his first competition, showcasing great strength in the clean (275, nearly 295!) and winning his heat in the Bodyweight Ninja event. 7th place out of nearly 40 athletes is a strong finish!
Coach Meg competed in the Elite division, which was a tough group of talented and strong ladies. Showing true grit, skill, and perseverance, she did us proud, especially in the strength event (125lb x 10 overhead squat and 135lb snatch right after) and the last event where she passed several athletes during a brutal set of 30 thrusters.
In the team event, it was so good to see our athletes working together to develop strategies and put them to the test out on the floor. Team events require super fast bouts of work and strong communication in order to get the best result.
The scaled teams performed very well. Jason, Aiden and Dan hadn't had much time to prep together, but lifted strongly and worked hard out on the floor, and I'm sure will be back for more. Cara, Emily, and Maria had an outstanding result, as one of our podium teams (3rd place!!). They all PR'd their cleans by 10-20lb in the strength event, and showed good transitions and rep speed in the metcons. Word is they had a great weekend also, with a trip to Ikea and a Christmas Market, so well done all round!
In intermediate, we had a men's and women's team competing. Our women's team boasted a couple of veterans from Vic City's regionals past in Michelle and Krista. Breton joined them as a rookie competitor, but more than held her own with an impressive 150lb clean and some very strong rope climbs under fatigue. Krista and Michelle showed their strength also with 170lb and 150lb cleans respectively, and gutting out some tough reps in the metcons.
On the men's side, we had Tom, Kevin, and Alan, who not only looked good in the wods, but also repped our brand new These Fists Fly Vic City shirts with style. They had a well balanced team with lots of different skills and abilities and I'd say those came together the best on the rope climb event. I believe there were also some PR cleans from that group!
In Elite Men's Trio, we had Coach Mike, Erik, and Tanner who absolutely smashed the first event (run 2k then amrap of rowing and handstand walking). Unfortunately I was not there to see it but I'm sure Erik's rowing was outstanding, along with the handstand proficiency from Tanner and Mike. Unfortunately they had to withdraw from the competition after an injury.
On the women's side, Mika, Katie M, and Rachel took on a talented group of teams in the Elite Division. I think my highlight for them was watching the synchro toes to bar and thruster workout. Synchro anything isn't easy, and toes to bar is especially tough with different leg lengths and kip rhythms. These ladies did an excellent job of using small sets of reps to keep accurate and crisp. They finished so strongly with a double overhead walking lunge (35lb per hand!!) which was a great way to end the weekend.
Also in Elite Trio we had a team of Zeke, Sean Haylow, and Jake Janisch. I have to say that watching these guys do the last event (synchro ttb, thrusters, and walking lunges) was one of my highlights of the weekend. Such great smoothness, a solid rotation of reps, and wicked speed on the thrusters brought them home in 2nd place in that event. They also hit some huge numbers in the strength while very nearly getting taken out by an opponent trying to save a wayward overhead squat. When the dust settled, this group had secured our second podium of the weekend, also with a third place medal!
Thank you to all the competitors who represented our gym so well. This really is a great competition to attend and compete in and I'm sure we'll have a whole new crop of athletes looking to take it on next year. We'll keep you in the loop for registration etc!
Thank you also to the people who came along to cheer on our competitors - it means so much to have your support.
Lastly, thank you to Coach Tia who was a fixture in the warm up area, helping teams with strategy, technique, and keeping things light when the tension ramped up. Tia was slated to compete but had an unfortunate injury the week before the event. In spite of this setback, she came over and supported all of our athletes to help ensure that they got the most out of their competition experience.
Cam
TRAINING TUESDAY
WARM UP: Five minutes of Cindy (sub hanging knee raise or TTB for pullups)
WOD: ESCALATION
This is a very tough "tester" wod. The idea behind this one is that you get a solid indication of your general work capacity. For the most part, these are basic movements and you should select a barbell weight that you can keep unbroken.
Complete as many full rounds as possible and get any additional reps into the next round for tiebreaker scores!
Each interval is FOUR minutes long. Each interval, you add another round of the exercises until you can't complete the designated number of rounds in the 4 minutes.
Rx:
In 4 min: 1 round of: 5 hang power snatch (65/95), 5 burpees, 5 box jumps (20/24).
In next 4 min, 2 rounds. In next 4 min, 3 rounds and so on. Completed rounds plus reps is the score.
FG2: 55/75
FG1: 35-45/55-65, jumping pullups, box step ups
CP1: 75/115
CP2: 95/135