CROSSFIT OPEN 17.4

It's finally Friday! They announced 17.5 last night but I am going to recap you on my 17.4.1 and 17.4.2 ... yes I repeated, AGAIN!

When I finished 17.4.2, I told a couple people to remind me to not REDO 17.5, unless I am on the edge of my goal of the TOP 100. :)

Well, 17.4 was a repeat. Every year Dave Castro announces a repeat so you can compare yourself to a workout from last year. We all knew it was coming, you just never know exactly which workout it will be. This year he repeated 16.4 which was the following:

13:00 AMRAP (as many rounds/reps as possible)

55 deadlifts (155#)

55 wall balls (14#/9' target)

55 calorie row

55 handstand push-ups

For 16.4, I had a tiebreak time of 8:32 and I only finished 36 handstand push-ups by 13:00. This year I wanted to get back to that deadlift bar but I definitely had my doubts with my handstand push-up ability. I have done hundreds of strict, kipping and deficit handstand push-ups over the past year but was it enough? NOOOOOOOOOO! Ok, I am being dramatic but I did not reach my goal!

I went in the second heat at our Friday Night Lights at CrossFit Harrisonburg and was feeling good. I was slightly worried about the deadlifts due to my back locking up the week before but knew I just needed to focus on form (I had Ryan keeping me in check on my form throughout the deadlifts) and stick to my plan.

The plan: 5 sets of 11 deadlifts every :30, 30 -15-10 on wall balls, steady pace on the rower and just do the handstand push-ups based off how I feel when I get there.

Well, I stuck to the plan! I finished my deadlifts by 2:18, wall balls around 4:28, the row by 7:53 and wasn't feeling exhausted going into the handstand push-ups. If you calculate that, I had 5:07 to finish the handstand push-ups. Yeah, you read that right FIVE MINUTES AND SEVEN SECONDS! I finished FIFTY FOUR, UGHHHHH!!! FIFTY FOUR! One rep short of getting back to that deadlift barbell. I had two no reps on handstand push-ups (I came off the wall before I was fully extended) and those two simple no reps held me back from finishing a full round. Well, those two reps and a lot of resting between handstand push-ups attempts, oops!

When I finished the workout, I was not extremely disappointed because I had gotten "fitter" since 2016, 40 seconds and 18 reps to be exact, but not as fit as I wanted to be. I knew since I was only ONE REP away from finishing one round that I would try and redo the workout on Monday.

I decided to workout pretty hard on Saturday, one of those days where I questioned myself in every part of the workout, and use Sunday as recovery day. Well, I am not sure I let myself recover enough!

In my redo on Monday, I was sucking wind/slightly feeling the workout by the time I finished the deadlifts, but was still on my Fridaypace! I knew I had to have about the same time off the rower to have a chance to finish and that I did not do. I got off the rower about 25 seconds slower than Friday's pace and when I flipped up on the wall, I knew it was going to be HARD to beat my score. I gave it all I had but came up 10 short of finishing a round. But hey, even the redo was "fitter" than 2016 ... let's mark that as a success!

Again, my "back room homies," my dad and Grady were by my side supporting me every rep along the way because THEY ROCK! They knew my plan and helped me stick to it Friday night and tried to get me to stick to it Monday. Seriously, these guys are the bomb!

Today, I take on the FINAL open workout to close out 17.5, hopefully a one and done. However, I am going into this week in 106, I dropped two spots from my 17.4 score but I am still close enough to possibly make that goal of TOP 100 in the Mid-Atlantic Region. LET'S DO THIS!

Best of luck to everyone else taking on 17.5, too. ENJOY!

#ohhappyday, T