Sectionals Wrap-Up

This weekend I participated in the VA/DC/WV sectional, held at NOVA's Annandale campus. I'm still processing everything that happened and will probably have more to say in the coming days and weeks, but suffice it to say that it was a dramatically humbling, motivating, and educational experience. It was amazing to personally take part, but also to watch so many bad-ass men and women compete on such a high level. Props to all of the PCF folks that took part in the weekend (competitors, obviously, and supporters especially), and a special shout-out to Jen N, Erika, and Chris K for advancing to regionals!

Anyhow, onto the specifics of the weekend: WOD 1 on Saturday was Weighted Cindy, which meant

20 min AMRAP of

5 pullups
10 pushups
15 squats

with a 14# weighted vest. This was easily the least pleasant workout for me - I got frustrated after failing on a couple of pullups in the first round and decided to take the weight vest off. I completed the rest of the WOD sans vest (and have no idea how many rounds I ended up with) , but this meant I got zero total points. Blah, right? In hindsight, though, it was a wonderfully crystallizing experience for me: pullups for me are still a weakness, and I need to spend more time developing both upper body strength and the coordination necessary to kip effectively.

WOD 2, about 4 hours later, was

AMRAP 3 min of

Clean and Jerks (115 lb)

I ended up with 3 as rx'd. Another rep was taken away because I didn't reset my feet after splitting (d'oh!), and 2 other reps weren't counted because I pressed them out at the end. Also it didn't matter for judging purposes, but my power cleans were kind of ugly (I didn't want to excessively tax myself by doing squat cleans). Despite my 3 failed reps, I was ecstatic after this - 115 lbs was my previous 1 rep max, so being able to do nearly 6 of them in 3 minutes was pretty awesome.

WOD 3, on Sunday, was

AMRAP 12 minutes of

20 OHS (75 lbs)
2 laps around court

I finished with 54 total reps, so about 2.75 rounds. Just as with the rest of the WODs, I placed pretty low here, but I was so incredibly amazed that I was able to do that many at all that I was happy.

And last, but not least, WOD 4, which was

AMRAP 7 minutes of

12 box jumps (20")
8 SDLHP (65 lbs)

I finished with 5 rounds and 8 box jumps, which ranked pretty low comparatively, but hell, I was just happy to have not dropped dead. Box jumps are a real weakness of mine: it's pretty clear that the women who had better scores tended to be much more efficient at cycling them.

All in all, it was a good weekend and it was great to get that kind of experience under my belt. I have already started compiling a list of obvious weaknesses and researching ways to help myself improve, but more on that later. Today and tomorrow will be off days - my upper body is so incredibly sore right now that it hurts to shiver, and my ripped hands are still pretty unhappy. Hopefully I'll feel better by Wednesday so I can get back into the box!