OC Throwdown 2012

Great venue, great athletes, lots of weight AND BeachSide CrossFit. Sounds like a recipe for a good time…………………

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The stage was set. With over 240 athletes, 3000 spectator tickets sold and a venue that was promised not to dissapoint. We arrived by 7:30am Saturday morning to sign up for the floater (Flaoter WoD is a WoD that has NO set time for heats, but must be completed within the day). The first WOD was out and the excitement value had gone up a few notches. We made our way inside the Venue. The Hanger at the OC Fairgrounds The Hangar is the Fair’s newest complex with 23,000 square feet of exhibit space under a 50-foot arched ceiling. Displayed was a Giant OC Throwdown Banner, Giant Screen, streaming the athletes live, and here we sat in the bleachers with a rundown of the WoD1:

1-3-5-7-9
Muscle ups
Clean to Overhead
225-205-185-155-135
10 min cap

the Floater:
15-12-9
2 min rest
12-9-6
KBS
Lateral Burpee
9 min cap

WoD3a

2 min to establish Max Back Squat
1 min rest
2 min to establish Max Press
1 min rest
2 min to extablish MAx Deadlift
1 min rest

WoD3b

2 min to establish Max Box jump Height

Overall well programmed, challenging and fun. And O good lord was I nervous for WoD1. The excitemnt that I first felt when hearing about the WoD, quickly turned into anxiety as we began to watch the heats throw “Zach” down. Heat after heat “Zach” was taking competitors down. Mee Lee was the first to take it on (weight scaled and Chest to Bar pull ups). Mee looked great with a 135# clean and jerk, the pull ups started to get heavy as the bar loading decreased but the sets went up, and at the 10 min mark time was up and with 2 reps left “zach” had called its first casualty out of our group.

Next up was Jay (quick interlude, for those who do not know Jay, or have never scene Jay, Jay was one of BeachSides 1st core members , but military service relocated him down South, but we still count him as part of the team).  The first muscle up was cake and the #225 clean and jerk looked as though it only weighed in at #155. Needless to say he popped right up with the bar and quickly organized himself and jerked it overhead. The round of 3 at 205# got done and then things started to look hard. Prying to get through the round of 9 muscle ups. time was up

Dillinger was at it next with the same ferocity and effort 10 minutes ended while he was 2 reps shy of finishing is round of 7.

Now my stomach felt as though it was the butterfly reserve, making my way back to the athlete warm up area was a funny scene. A lot of very athletic strong dudes, on various barbells, doing various lifts with various weights. These last 3 heats were filled with known CrossFit athlete monsters and I was among them.  Only the noise of bumpers hitting the ground was constant. From there my heat number was called and we lined up wating to go out to center stage. I have to admit the entire warm up, walk out process was very invigorating . With that made our way out to the floor. A barbell loaded with 225# set down next to a pair of rings various lights, a giant screen. Only thing to do next was start, at this time the nervs had calmed and only the task at hand was the issue. You dont really see anybody, the noises of people cheering you on are only background noises. The fact that I was in a heat with Reebok CrossFit Games Athletes no longer was part of the scene, but made it very cool. And so it began, the 225# felt good, muscle ups like a dream. 205# x 3 felt a bit taxing, but everything was still in good perspective. After the 5 muscle ups my bod started to ask for oxygen, but no time for that, only time to pick up the damn bar. After what seemed like a very hard set of 5 , it was back on to the muscle ups, now the body was desperately asking me for oxygen, but again I would only do my best to ignore the request. the set of 7′s were miserable and at this point i was only on auto pilot. Into my set of 9 muscle ups i lost count and after 7 went back to the bar to lower the weight to 135# and finish my last set of 9 Clean to Overhead. I think the clock was at about 7.5 minutes. My judge tapped me to let me know I still had 2 muscle ups to do. I thought “shit” but quickly thought “thank god, i am almost done with this”. Finishing up my last 2  muscle ups and it was back to the last set of 9, “just go 5 unboken” i told myself and at 3 the bar came down, my stupid body just did not want to do what my mind had asked. At this point i dont think i was getting enough oxygen to supply my vision, everything  hurt and I just wanted this to be over with. At rep 5 I was called for a “no rep” (looking back at video this was obviously a dumb call) and with tht simple thing the inertia and momentum just went a way, it felt as thought I was just pushed back 3 miles. Auto pilot, “do the rest unbroken its only 5″ i thought but again my body would not do as told, I did 1 and dropped it another 2 unbroken. Only 3 left, certaily i could do these 3 touch n go. BUT nope dropped the first one. Picked it back up and completed the last 2 unbroken. 8:56 .Good God was that hard.

All while that was happening  Jay and Chris D were at the Floater pit playing with kettlebells and lateral burpees and only soon later would I have the chance to find out about such pain. 

When I had originally signed up for the floater, I had it all planned out 2 hours rest after WoD1. As things would have it the event was about 1 hour behind due to some scoring conflicts SO that put my grand idea for a floater and the rest between in shambles, still a bit shaky from WoD1 about 45 mins later it was time for the Floater WOD. It did not seem too bad, well at least I knew it would be short. After the standards were said (which had been changed from earlier) it was time to go and in this tpe of WOD no time for anything but go-mode. And so it was, and 6:26 later I have not felt so bad in a long while. I was crushed.

So rest time for a few hours and it was time for WoD3. Jay hit huge numbers on the deadlift hitting a 10# pr by Pulling #445!!!  and jumping 47 inches.

Chris finished with a beaslty total of 847#  pulling 415#  and hit 46 inches on the box jump.

Mee Lee 195# back squat, 75# press and 235# deadift, and hopped on up to 36 inches

Now the warm up area was dark and only the size of bumper plates gave away there true weight. And this is a scene to humble me, I am first to admit my overall strength is average and in the warm up area most of the guys in my heat were warming up with weights way over my maxes, and my biggest concern was my back. My back has been uber tight and injured for some time. Only lately being well enough to start pulling light weights but have not pulled anything over 315# is over 2 months, so i knew my deadlift would be nowhere close to my last competition pull of 435#. In fact I would have been happy to pull anything over 400# but even that seemed like a long shot. Out on the floor 2 minutes quickly becomes not alot of time to establish a max, success at 335# failed at a #345 back squat, failed at #185 press but got 405# deadlift on the floor, it was ugly, but it got up. Ended with at total of 915# On to the box jumps quickly and pretty easily hit 45 and decided to go to 48 inches, and failed and failed and failed and failed. Go big or go home I suppose, who would know in the long run that box jump would count as much as WoD1 in the end tally of score.

Beat up, tired and confirmed what i need to work on, the day ended. But what really made the day cool was we had a chance to introduce a  few  BeachSide Peeps to CrossFit competition.

Day 2 was cut day, only some would make it to WoDS 5 and 6. But before that was WOD 4:

5 ring hand stand push ups (standard for woman and advanced males)

10 overhead squats @ 105#

15 pull ups

x4

6 min time cap

Mee Lee, Dillinger and Jay had all gone at it and the handstand push ups were proving to be, annoying.

The anxiety was not there, nor was the nervousness, this wod I knew would not hurt as much but really would all come down to the Ring handstand push ups. And this would prove to be the problem, I have been alright with my RHSP in the past  doing at least 12 in WODs with out too much trouble so I was sure I could get into the last round. The timer started  and the first 5 went up with no problem, followed by the OHS and finally the pull ups. Right into round 2 and the first 4 RHSP went good, and it happend. The wall, not mental but physical. My shoulders just did not want to push me up any longer, they had enough and i spent the next 2 – 3 minutes struggling to get that last handstand in round 2, with only 1 min to spare i got through the OHS and Pull ups. Not exactly what i was hoping for but damn was I happy when I got that last RHSPU in round 2, it was like i had been relieved of looking like a struggling fool, and I WAS relieved!

I left knowing my weak points and will again focus on them in the future. Just more commitment and hard work. For all those out there working on your fintess goals, I am right there with you working on mine, day in and day out.

As things would have it, that would wrap up my time competing at the OC Throwdown. They brought it so many top athletes from all over the competetion was nothing nice. But what WAS nice was watching Dillinger, Mee Lee and Jay compete, they all did amazing things and as always I watch and am always surprised by what it is they are capable of. It is always fun to compete with my friends at CrossFit FAST, there coaches Mike and Dan Tromello, great athletes and great people. And all while having a good size BeachSide Crew there to support us. That is really the deal breaker for me and the reason I love what it is we do so much. All of the is name of fitness, friends and community.

Here is the lowdown on the final scoring, The OC Throwdown crew had some problems with the scoring and are now in the middle of scoring everyone again. FINAL SCORES and RANKING to come soon. ALONG WITH…a sick ass video! coming soon.. stay tuned

 Latest word about final scores 1/17/2012 (Info From OC Throwdown FaceBook)

I want to keep everyone in the loop. Here is where we are at. As of this morning the people of WODTIME have given the scoring back to us. We were responsible for hiring them and now I have asked them to step away from the project. The OC Throwdown is taking over the scoring. WODTIME just emailed all of the raw data to us and have overnighted the hard copy score cards.

As we speak we are working on getting an accurate leaderboard up. We have done it for the past two years events and we will do it again. One thing is certain it will be done right and this will not happen again.

OC Throwdown

day 1

Athlete                           Heat                      WoD1                WoD2                 Floater
Mee Lee                          5                               9:51                     2:18                      ???
Jay                                 9                                10:42                  3:06                     ???
Dillinger                         12                              11:21                   3:42                      ???
Nathan                           18                             12:39                   4:54                      ???

Jan 14-15th OC throwdown. Get your spectator tickets here…We have 4 peeps competing under BeachSide CrossFit. Dillinger, Mee Lee, Jay and myself. 4 peeps is not bad for a Box our size, considering over 1500 people participated in the qualifiers….

BSCF REPS-  Myself, Chris, Jay, and Mee Lee will all be in for this 2 day event that should be the most entertaining outside the CrossFit Games: Dillinger 81 (will compete advanced), Ginger 148 (out of over 333 woman) the D.O.C. 220 (out of over 330 woman), Herb 30th (out of over 60 masters male).what can I say, we brought it! there are ALOT of Boxes in SOCAL, and ALOT bigger then us that did not have any competitors, To every athlete who put it out there. Greatness. Competetion can be fun……Myself 26th (will compete Elite)..

Information:

The 2012 OC ThrowDown will be held January 14th & 15th.  Last year’s event was a huge success and we’re looking forward to giving you another hardcore CrossFit competition in 2012.

The 2012 OC Throwdown presented by Life AsRx is HERE! We are going into our 3rd year of throwing down the LARGEST independent XFit comp in Southern California. In 2010 we saw 125 athletes and 400 spectators come out. In 2011 we had 210 competitors and over 800 spectators in attendance! This year promises to be even bigger and better. Bigger venue, more people, stiffer competition, and bigger trophies.

Location:
The Hangar at the OC Fair & Event Center