Warm-up: (10 Push-ups, 20 Double-Unders, 10 Overhead Squats (45/25lb)) x3, Hip Opener (Contract/Relax), Shoulder Mobility

Zercher Squat: 3×5 (light)

MetCon – 5 Rounds for Time:
20 OWLs (45/25lb)
5 Strict Weighted Pull-Ups (50/20lb)

Finisher: Work on Splits

Garage Games Day 2: Once again, Ktown arrived back at the YMCA for the final WODs of the tournament with slightly nicer weather (for about 3 hours). Due to the underestimation of the workout, the day got pushed back with the advanced men finally getting started about an hour after scheduled. In this workout, Brandon and Taylor knew they had to post high rankings to make it into the top 16 males and thus the final championship workout. The WOD was composed of 2 rounds of 10 Ground-to-Overheads (135lbs) in whatever way possible, 20 sit-ups, run 600m, 10 KB swings (70lbs), 20 burpees, and run 600m. To make matters worse, everything but the run was in a giant sand pit.

Brandon started preparing for the first heat of guys, which included some serious CrossFit fire-breathers. The buzzer rang and the competitors were off, slinging weights above their heads like it was PVC. Brandon completed the 10 reps of ground-to-overhead and 20 sit-ups quickly and was about 5^th out to run.

Brandon returned a little under 3 minutes still in about 5^th place. He completed the swings unbroken and got to business on the burpees. Only stopping for a few seconds of air he was onto the run in no time. This time he returned about third, but was definitely fatigued during the 10 reps of ground-to-overhead. Here a few people caught up to him, but no worries for Brandon, he knew he could catch them on the run. And that he did.

Brandon finished 4^th in his heat, only seconds behind the top three men. It was a great finish, but would it be enough to make it into the top 16? Brandon could only hold his breath as the next competitors took their places. One of which was ole Taylor Layman. Taylor stripped to his t-shirt and shorts and warmed up with a couple 135lb snatches which he made look way to easy. Can’t be sure but there also looked to be some conversation between him and a few other athletes regarding the neon shoes they were all wearing. Taylor went the first round of unbroken snatches while other competitors were forced to clean and jerk.

This gave him a lead into the sit-ups which he almost kept. He ended up being about second out for the run. Given some great advice by Brandon, “Use the first part as recovery, sprint the hill, and coast on the way down,” Taylor knew exactly how to game the run. Yet, on the run back he was surpassed by several guys classified by Taylor as, “skinny” and “cross-country.” This must have been his “hell no” moment because after that point there was no stopping him. Taylor busted through the swings and burpees at a blazing pace.

Talyor was out and back for the run in record time for a man of his size, and suddenly spectators began to notice. Then to give them even more to gawk at, he snatched about 7 of the 10 ground-to-overheads and then Clean and Pressed the remaining reps. This gained him a heavy lead for second place which lasted the rest of the workout, and put him 3^rd overall in this WOD.

Next up, and by next I mean several hours behind schedule, Cesar and Doug were ready to compete in the intermediate division final workout. At this point, Doug was super tired (he had gone without his morning coffee) and Cesar was hurting (all icy-hotted up). Both sporting CrossFit Ktown shirts they still stepped up to represent.

I can’t tell you what was going through their minds but it looked like total focus when the countdown began. Doug and Cesar both sped through the 115 lb ground-to-overheads (which they both clean and push-pressed) and the sit-ups and were out quickly for the run.

Cesar excelled at this, like we knew he would, and was back in second, right behind a former Georgia Tech Cross-Country athlete. He and Doug both went through the KB swings (53lbs) unbroken, but the burpees caused some problems since Cesar wasn’t able to “moonwalk” his and Doug had never done them in the sand. (Ask Cesar about his moonwalk burpees…hilarious).

Anyway, the second round went smoothly for Cesar who began to increase his lead over the GA Tech guy, but was never quite able to catch the first place male, who was flying through everything. Cesar ended up second in his heat and 3^rd overall in the event.

The third run (after the 10 ground-to-overhead and 20 sit-ups) proved to be all mental for Doug as his whole body screamed at him to stop, but did he? No, never! He finished the third run and then cranked through the final KB swings and burpees with Megan hollering for him all the way…and finishing up the last part of the run with him pushing him to go harder, faster.

Doug and Cesar finished the competition holding their heads high, knowing how well they had both done and hopefully how proud of them we were. Suited with icy-hot 8 hour back patches, some food and water, and lots of pride they were able to enjoy the rest of the games.

Another few hours later the announcements were made for the top finishers in the men’s intermediate category (Cesar got 5^th!!!) and the top 16 advanced males and females who would compete in the final WOD. Taylor came in at number 12, but Brandon was left out…coming in at number 17. Until they realized a calculating error had been made and Brandon was in fact number 16! The Ktowners went wild. CBo was sprinting up the hill to find Brandon, G was yelling in the phone and at people, and I was jumping up and down with a ridiculous smile on my face. We couldn’t have been more excited.

Finally, after a ridiculously long wait and about an hour before nightfall the advanced men’s championship WOD began.  The workout was announced: 45lb overhead walking lunges up a 250m hill, 30 muscle snatches at 95lbs, 120lb sandbag clean and 350m carry, 50 wall balls at 20lbs, and top it off with 50 burpees.

Before I tell you how well they both did, let me explain to you the unfortunate circumstance they were in. The Garage Game staff decided to stagger start times for the final WOD based on a point accumulation system. Example: If you finished the 7kish trail run in 15^th, you got 15 points. (Therefore the lower the points… the better). Well, Taylor had 67 points built up and Brandon had 76 points accumulated while the first place male had only 15! This would not have been so terrible if it were only a second or 2 second difference between starts but each point made for 5 seconds of difference. Therefore Taylor started a good 4 minutes and 15 seconds behind the first place guy and Brandon began a massive 5 minutes after. Basically, this gave them no hope of catching the first few males to place in the competition. Hopes may have been down, but nobody told them that!

Taylor cranked through the overhead walking lunges passing several people and went through the snatch passing even more. Meanwhile, Brandon having to start so far behind was doing his best to catch up.

Brandon muscled his way through the snatches while Taylor had moved on to the sandbag carry. Taylor then successfully completed his wall balls with a vengeance trying to catch as many people as possible.

Brandon then trudged to the wall ball station as Taylor was just finishing up. At this point Brandon had almost overtaken the 13^th place guy and Taylor was moving up in rank as well.

With me screaming my guts out at Taylor, and him probably not hearing a word, he hustled through the burpees in sets of 10. He finished with a time of 17:23, placing him 8^th overall in the games. Not to mention, if the 4 minutes and 15 seconds of down time was subtracted, he actually beat the 1^st place finisher!

Brandon was onto burpees about the time Taylor finished them up and was cheered on by about 25 people. All of the Ktowners, plus photographers, film-makers, and random people who had been watching his efforts were yelling to “go, go, go!” Pushing through the pain in his body Brandon finished in 22:54 placing him 14^th overall in the competition. Once again, subtract the 5 minutes and he completed the WOD in more like 18 minutes, which was full of his personal goats.

So congrats to Brandon, Taylor, Doug, and Cesar for manning-up, competing, and representing Ktown so well. Thanks again to all the supporters who came out to cheer on our athletes, and if you missed these games make sure to come to Sectionals.

Sectionals are March 6^th and 7^th, cost $50 to spectate, and are in Huntsville, AL. Coach G and myself will be there, he’s the head judge (name-drop), and CBo and Brandon are both competing. These Sectionals are the first grueling competition to try and make it to Regionals which then leads onto the HUGE CrossFit Games in California (aka the CrossFit Olympics). Once again, we need supporters and I know there is a price tag to this one, but you make all the difference. If you are interested in volunteering (so you can go for free) go register on the CrossFit Games 2010 website.

Can’t wait for the next competition,
<3 Coach Miss J

Warm-up: FW circa building (50/35lb), 15 OWLs (45/25lb), 20 (each arm) 1-arm KB swings (35/20lb), Row 300m x2

Snatch: 3×2

MetCon – Griff:
2 Rounds for Time
Run 800m
Run 400m Backwards

Finisher: 60 second L-sit on parallettes

Garage Games Day 1: CrossFit Ktown and company arrived on the scene in Woodstock, GA at the outdoor YMCA facilities at approximately 8:30am for registration and such. Cesar, Brandon, Taylor, and Doug were all gearing up for their first event.

Taylor and Brandon, in the advanced men’s division, promptly took their spots at 9:00am for the 7kish treacherous trail run while Doug and Cesar got to chill for a couple of hours until their first intermediate men’s heat in the wall-ball and KB swing AMRAP. (And when I say chill I literally mean chill…temperatures were hovering right around freezing all day and with the wind whipping it sure felt below freezing. We even had some windburn casualties.) The trail run was not viewable for spectators, so us Ktowners tried to keep entertained and warm while awaiting their return.

How the trail was for sure I cannot say, but we did hear horror stories about it later on. With the rain coming down the trail became soaked and muddy with your feet sinking in a good inch with every step.

There was also a bridge crossing that caused several tumbles from all competitors, Ktowners (Cesar and Brandon) and non-Ktowners alike. Thankfully, Taylor didn’t have a problem with the bridge; he just tossed it aside and drank up the stream. At least that’s how I imagine it. Another hazard of the trail was the once trickling stream but now raging river that had athletes running through water up to their waists. Remember that it was freezing outside so the water was well below. This event led to compound fractures, bruises, bloody noses, scrapes, twisted ankles, and numerous other injuries (thankfully none too serious to Ktowners), thus making it the most perilous event at the Garage Games.

Brandon came in first of the Ktowners at 28:51 placing him 16^th overall with Taylor following soon thereafter at 30:04 in 25^th. It was a good showing from our boys, especially with some very experienced runners participating.

Close to the time of Brandon and Taylor finishing up the run, Cesar and Doug began warming up for their first event.

With 12 minutes set on the clock to get as many rounds of 10 KB swings (53lbs) and 10 wall-balls (20lbs), Doug and Cesar lined up beside each other and grabbed onto their kettlebells. “3…2…1… GO!” the announcer shouted and they were off. This workout seemed easy on paper, like most CrossFit WODs, but turned out to be pretty brutal, especially in the rain. The wall-ball targets were higher than normal at 12ft which only momentarily threw Doug and Cesar off. When the buzzer sounded to end the workout Doug finished with 8½ rounds and Cesar with a full 9.

With the first workouts in the bag, we all went to hang out with the CrossFit Memphis folks in their cabin and out of the cold. Unfortunately, Brandon didn’t have much time to rest since he was in the first heat of the wall-ball/KB AMRAP. Even with heavy, tired legs and some numb fingers Brandon did well completing 10½ rounds in 15 minutes with a 70lb KB and 20lb medicine ball, scoring 23^rd overall in the workout.

Taylor competed in the second-to-last heat right when it began snowing and scored 2 reps shy of 10 rounds putting him 29^th in that workout. Regrettably, Taylor got the Nazi judge of the competition who didn’t count a whopping 25 or so of his wall-balls.

Next up was Cesar in the sandbag/Deadlift event. He was the guinea pig for the workout in the very first heat. The workout consisted of cleaning a sandbag (80lbs) to the shoulders and sprinting/running/jogging/walking up a hill, power cleaning it 10 times, running back down the hill, dropping off the sandbag, and then deadlifting 225lbs 20 times. Sounds like a blast, right? Cesar killed this workout finishing in the top 5 guys at a blazing speed of 2:34. Thanks to his massive deadlift, he was able to go unbroken in the workout.

Doug went a few heats later, and blasted his way up the hill, being one of the first guys to the top. He cranked smoothly through the first few cleans until about rep 5. Rep 5 was a nasty bugger and Doug fought not to lose it for a good 15 seconds. In a short workout this time made all the difference. Doug never gave up though and showed true Ktown spirit by coming back to beat several guys out of his heat and even more so overall. Let me tell you that there was a time limit to this workout, and many fellows ended up with DNFs by their names (DNF=did not finish), so just finishing was a huge accomplishment for all our competitors.

Crazy as it may sound there wasn’t much rest between Cesar and Doug’s heats to Brandon and Taylor’s final workout of the day. Yes, all the advanced men workouts were scheduled pretty close together. Brandon was the sample for this workout being in the first heat. He was unlucky in that respect. The differences for advanced athletes compared to intermediates were a 120lb sandbag and a 315lb deadlift. The hill remained the same as did the number of deadlifts. Let’s just take a second here to think about a 120lb sandbag. It’s like a person…a 120lb person of dead weight. It’s not an easy thing to pick-up. Brandon made the mistake, which was discovered after watching numerous heats, of sprinting up the hill. With that heavy of a sandbag he was totally gassed at the top of the hill, so much so that he had to stop a lot more than usual between the cleans. It didn’t matter though because he came back and popped out his deadlifts nice and quick placing him 27^th in the workout. Brandon even got a congratulatory high-five from a random lady who was inspired by his “awesome comeback.”

Taylor went in the very last heat of all the men. (Yeah, thanks for making us stand out in the cold even longer, Taylor). As all of you could probably guess, this workout was made for him. He crushed it with a sub 5 minute time placing him 9^th overall in this event and scaring lots of small children and old folks in the process.

The day lingered on and finally Cesar and Doug got to warm-up for their last event. The 7kish trail run that I already mentioned was terrible! Sprits were high, as were nerves, but Doug and Josh were determined to lighten the mood.

About 30 minutes after the run began Cesar came barreling in at 27:49 setting him in 3^rd place in the event. Yep, his time was crazy fast and would have even placed top 10 in the advanced division. Doug came in at 40:06, thinking that this would probably be his worst event, but instead he rocked it being on pace with his pavement, not-through-mountains-hills-and-water, 5k time. Not to mention, the final 250m were all up a steep incline and out of nowhere Doug came sprinting up to cross the finish line like a champ. It was quite inspiring.

Thus concludes Day 1. Stay tuned tomorrow for Garage Games Day 2.

You guys better enjoy this because it took me freaking forever,
<3 Coach Miss J

Warm-up: CFWU x2, Hip Mobility

MetCon – Sort of 2 Minute Defense:
10 Rounds for Time (135/95lb)
1 Power Clean
2 Hang Cleans
3 Jerks
100ft Run
(Rest 2 minutes after the 5^th run but let the clock run)

Due to the time factor, I will make a very long winded Garage Games post tomorrow full of updates, pictures, videos and what not. Tonight you will have to remain in suspense if you still don’t know what happened. Surprisingly, Taylor still came in to work out today. Crazy…yes. Dumb…maybe. Just kidding Taylor, we are just jealous. Congratulations to all the competitors! You all kicked butt and made Ktown proud. And even more, thanks to all the Ktown supporters that went out to stand in the cold and cheer on our athletes. It makes a huge difference when your friends are yelling and cheering for you, and it definitely doesn’t go unnoticed.  There were people who came up and asked about our gym just because of our screaming fans. We also want to send a huge thank you, to CrossFit Memphis who let us take-over and chill in their cabin all weekend. We heart you! Lastly, a big congrats goes out to our fellow affiliate, CrossFit Knoxville, who sent one of their athletes, Derek Robinson, there to compete. Derek killed the sandbag deadlift workout and definitely represented Knoxville CrossFits well. Great job everybody!

Get ready to read tomorrow,
<3 Coach Miss J