Grinder Recap

Turned out to be a rough day of competition in Elk Grove. The Grinder lived up to it’s name as all the athletes were whipped by the end of the day. I have to give it up to Aaron and CF 916 for programming a great series of events and running a clean competition. The WODs were as follows:

1) 12 minute capped time:

800 meter run

1 OH squat (75lb/45lb) /1 lateral burpee

2 OH squat/2 lateral burpee

3 OH squat/3 lateral burpee

etc…

2) 50 tire flips for time/every 30 seconds jump through the tire and back

3) For Time:

100 meter tire drag

10 inverted burpees

100 meter tire drag

20 hang cleans (135 lb)

100 meter tire drage

30 toes to bar

100 meter tire drag

40 deadlifts (135 lb)

100 meter tire drage

50 double unders

100 meter tire drag

Of these WODs, I found #1 to be the most grueling by far. My legs were absolutely screaming trying to jump over the bar between each burpee and mentally there’s no point during the workout to relax. You’re constantly having to push against a failure that’s getting more and more intense. Props to Gabe from 209 (above) for posting the best number on this one…12 full rounds plus 10 OH squats. I came in 5 behind (in a heap below) at 12 + 5 oh squats.

The tire flip WOD was completely different. The tire we were using wasn’t very heavy so it wasn’t an issue of failure to flip, only an issue of time. You literally flipped the thing as fast as you could until the 30 second call came to jump. Now, I will say this. By the last 10 flips my hamstrings and glutes were burning at HIGH temperature and I almost clipped my toes trying to jump through the tire at the 2 minute mark. So the intended effect of intensity did take place, just a much different version than the first WOD. I won this event with a time of 2:17.

The final WOD was a twist on the more standard finishing chipper. The 100 meter tire drag was written in to break up the other elements and add a bit more pain. We were dragging a semi tire—not sure how heavy it was, but the run was awkward. The way to do this type of WOD is to have a strategy and stick to it, regardless of what is happening around you. My strategy was to keep an easy pace on the tire drag and break every one of the in between movements into sets of 10. So the cleans were 2 x 10, the toes to bar were 3 x 10, and the deadlifts were 4 x 10. The inverted burpees and double unders I did straight through. This proved effective as I kept myself efficient and working at a high level without pushing into oxygen debt until I needed a push at the end. Gabe and I were literally side by side almost the entire WOD. This made things extra exciting since the winner of the event would win the overall, but also more difficult to concentrate on the plan I had set out. Things turned when we got to the double unders. I had a slight lead when I picked up the rope and began my count. He had trouble getting his rhythm started and that allowed me to get on the tire with about a 15-20 second cushion for the final sprint. I finished in 9:33.

Overall this was a fun day full of tough workouts. Can’t say I really enjoyed the actual training, but honestly I rarely do at these things. The workouts just hurt too much. As usual, the rewarding part of the experience was the time between events, chatting and laughing with the other competitors, trading ideas and phone numbers, and mutually dreading the next event. If you’ve never been to one of these local throwdowns or competed in one, I highly recommend you sign yourself up. It’s worth the experience.