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The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/Assleanx on 2023-11-01 15:52:34.
Very rare to see a Crossfit competition report here so I thought I’d throw my one in to the ring. I’ve written a much shorter reflection on my Instagram if you don’t want to read through all this
Background and Training
I’ve been doing Crossfit for about 2.5 years now, with a view to eventually competing at the semi-finals level. To that end I’m currently 25 and going into this competition was weighing 94-ish kg which was much lower than what I wanted. I work as essentially a Crossfit coach in a sports resort in Spain which means I’m more active than I have been in the past so eating enough to support that can be a struggle! This isn’t a complaint as my strength numbers have been increasing during the run up to this competition, I set a 10kg deadlift PR (with some left in the tank) and a 100kg power snatch, which I think is also a 10kg PR. Nutrition is variable, my salary is pretty low so it consists mostly of something quick and easy to eat in the morning such as porridge, the lunch that we get provided on days we work which is admittedly not too bad and there’s lots of it, and then dinner in one of the restaurants we have on site. I wouldn’t recommend it but the staff discount makes it hard to resist when my cooking facilities are pretty basic.
This was my first in-person Crossfit competition in 15 months due to various reasons, and my first individual Crossfit competition. But I spent over a decade as a swimmer, reaching some reasonably elite levels so this isn’t my first time at any sort of competition like this
The programming I follow is set by my coach who follows an Opex methodology. This is, from what I understand, a lot more structured than more traditional Crossfit training programmes can be. It has a larger focus on building strict strength in movements then building them by progressing to non- antagonistic couplets to more and more antagonistic couplets. So as an example, strict handstand push ups with Concept2 bike, progressing through doing them with a SkiErg and eventually something like strict handstand push ups and thrusters. This is how my training should work in theory.
The Build-up
I struggled during the build up to this competition. This is due to a few reasons. One is that I only moved to this job in the middle of July and such a massive change is pretty mentally taxing. The other is my colleagues and friends, some of whom are just ridiculously good. And in the sort of unique environment I work and train in, it’s very hard to not compare myself against them. My coach had to re-work my programming multiple times during my prep as I was nearing burn out and really struggling with motivation and discipline around training. In short, I just wasn’t really enjoying it, and needed this competition to relight my fire. So my sessions were changed so that if any one of them were skipped it wouldn’t matter so much. It wasn’t an ideal prep but it was the one I had so it was the one I made use of.
In the immediate run up to the competition the flights from where I live aren’t ideal at all, I think I was travelling for 12.5 hours only a few days before. This meant that nutrition and hydration were pretty cursory, and going to a country that is nearly 30 degrees colder than where you live isn’t great on the lungs either. But on the bright side the hotel my and my friends stayed in had the best hotel breakfast I’ve ever seen and tasted. At least for a chain hotel, I’ve never stayed somewhere like the Ritz. But for the Norwegians among us, the breakfasts at Thon Hotel might be up there as one of your crowning achievements.
So my friends were coming out from the UK, some to compete and some to support. I flew on Wednesday and met them Thursday mid-morning to transfer to our hotel not far from the competition venue. Then we had a couple of days exploring Oslo with a final dialling in session at Crossfit Oslo which was amazing and surprisingly cheap to pay for drop-in.
Competition Day 1
So after registration and briefing on Friday night, Saturday dawned with a lot of cortisol running around my blood stream. This is fairly normal for me and as soon as the first event is out of the way I can calm down significantly and focus on what’s more important.
Workout 1
4 rounds for time
15 wall balls with 9kg
15 chest to bar pull ups
5/10/15/20 burpee broad jumps
9 minute time cap
My score: 3 rounds, 15 wall balls, 7 chest to bar pull ups. 27th place
As a first workout this was ridiculous. Everyone was coughing afterwards, from the top, semi-finals level guys all the way down. I’m still coughing slightly now. The burpee broad jumps were a real killer. It was basically a bar-facing burpee but you had to jump over two lines spaced a full metre apart. After the wall balls, which by themselves are not a hard movement especially at 15 reps, this really blew up my hamstrings. Not a workout I specialise at and after that performance I’m going to see the doctor about some sort of bronchodilator.
Workout 2
100 Double unders
40 calorie ski
100 double unders
40 calorie row
100 double unders
40 calories bike
9 minute time cap My score: 16 cals on the bike, 23rd place
There’s a famous competition workout called Acid Bath, and this is basically a worse version of that. On paper this should have been my best workout because I’m most conditioned on the machines, but the addition of the double unders just make it so much worse than it should have, and they were what really slowed me down.
Workout 3
3 seated legless rope climbs
1 snatch, 1 hang snatch, 1 overhead squat @80kg
2 seated legless rope climbs
2 snatch, 2 hang snatch, 2 overhead squat
1 seated legless rope climb
3 snatch, 3 hang snatch, 3 overhead squat
6 minute time cap
My score: 1 seated legless rope climb in the round of 2, 21st place
This was by far the most frustrating workout for me. I made it to the second legless rope climb (5th overall) and just didn’t go anywhere. If I’d made it past that I could have done really well, but I was just sitting looking at that rope for like 4.5 minutes. I was not the happiest person upon walking off the competition floor. But it wasn’t the end of the world.
Competition Day 2
Day 2 dawned with a lot of pain. I thought I was feeling ok and then tried to go downstairs to breakfast, when basically every part of my body felt on the verge of cramping. Tried to choke down as much food as I could, which wasn’t a lot. Couldn’t even really manage bread and nutella which is unheard of for me. Still, two more events to get through, and neither of them would be easy.
Workout 4 3 rounds for time:
21 toes to bar
15 strict handstand push ups
9 front squats @100kg (starting from the floor)
10 minute time cap
My score: 9 strict HSPU, 14th place
When these workouts were announced this was the one I was looking forward to the least. Toes to bar aren’t exactly a strength and, while my strict HSPU are pretty good, they’re still not my best movement. But this ended up being my best finish by a long way, even beating a couple of the guys in the top heat. The issue is basically shoulder endurance. This isn’t surprising, but it was annoying as I thought going into this that I might be able to finish it. The boards we used for HSPU weren’t exactly the best placed for a guy like me at 1m85.
Workout 5
10 hang dumbbell snatch @30kg
10 box step overs, 30kg dumbbell in goblet position, 51cm/20" box
20 hang DB snatch
20 weighted box step overs
30 hang DB snatch
30 weighted box step overs
10 minute time cap
My score: 8:25, 23rd place
This was the final workout for anyone outside the top 6. And it was hard. Basically just meant to see who is willing to suffer the most. And reader, I was not willing to suffer the most. It is utterly heartbreaking to finish the round of 20 and realise you’re only halfway through the workout. Basically everything was in agony by the end, but I desperately wanted to finish one workout and did everything I could to get it done. I wanted to just stop and die at the end but went over and cheered on the last few people to finish.
Final results and thoughts
In the end I came 24th out of 32, of whom 5 didn’t manage to finish the weekend. I’m reasonably happy with this result although I’m a bit disappointed as I think with a better prep I could have done much better. Basically I didn’t do the stuff that would have conditioned me better to truly hurt. But that’s fine. The main take aways from the weekend are that the things we were focusing on before are still the things we need to focus on after. This is pretty much building capacity at race pace as my initial paces are really fast, it’s just building the ability to stay there. Also I’m amazed that, considering 18 months ago I could barely do 10 strict HSPU in 5 minutes, they’re now a pretty decent strength of mine. In all, I’m very happy with my results and how the competition itself was run. For such a new competition it was very slick. I’ll be back next year as one of my target events, as well as trying to go to French Throwdown and Liege Throwdown. But for now, just need to get my head down and get ready for some truly disgusting training.