Wodapalooza 2013

Last weekend was the second annual Wodapalooza competition at Bayfront Park in Miami hosted by Peak 360 and its owners Guido and Virginia Trinidad. If you weren’t able to attend I’m sorry because it is a very special event. They had 3 stations running WODs simultaneously all weekend long and possibly the coolest venue of any competition I’ve been to with a view of the Miami Bay. No wonder after last year it attracted 549 athletes! I can’t say enough good things about the volunteers and owners in charge.

It’s also a special event to me because last year I was able to do something pretty unprecedented there, which was compete with the guys. Only 2 Rx women signed up so they threw us in there and much to the guys surprise I came in 3rd. The entire write up can be found here on my blog and the Outlaw blog.

This year was more organized and definitely a grander scale event with way more athletes. The programming was very well thought out, and provided a nice and thorough test, balancing each facet of the athlete’s capabilities. I’ll get more into that as I run through the workouts…

WoD 1
A Triathlon! (with a twist)
600m Paddle Board
5,000m Watt Bike
100 Double Unders

The only thing I was nervous about on this was jumping on (and staying on) the paddle board because I’d already seen a guy out in front after the run, fall off into the water and waste a bunch of time chasing his board and paddle. Luckily, I made it to the board first, ever so gracefully mounted, and then got passed by Lindsey Gallucci, getting to the bikes 2nd. The bike was about 8 minutes long and just hurt. I was expecting it to though which I think makes it hurt less (unless it’s burpees). Nice and steady power output was the way to go. The real test would have been running afterwards, but alas that was cancelled due to rain, so the double unders took less than 2min. I won my heat on that one and got 2nd overall.

The start of the triathlon, running with our paddles. Notice the look of concentration on other’s faces, Lindsey looking happily excited, and me like I’m going to kill someone with an oar! How embarrassing…

Regular Gondoliers we were! Flawless form! I wouldn’t even know actually…

All I’m thinking here is, “just keep pedaling at this pace” and “I can’t believe Guido just came over and asked me with 1,000m to go if it hurt yet. Next time he’s in a comp I’m totally doing that to him!”

WoD 2
1 complex without setting the bar down of:
3 Hang Cleans
3 Front Squats
3 Shoulder to Overhead
You have 1min to complete it, 2min rest in between, and 3 tries.

The devious brilliance of this test is it was done after the all out Watt bike which fried everyone’s legs about an hour prior. It sounds much easier than it is. I really only had one good attempt in me. Many people opened too light and already felt it catch up to them on their second set which would have normally been an attainable weight. I opened with 185 and got it. Knew I only had one more good try in me so I skipped the second attempt and went for 195 on my third, but failed on the 2nd front squat. Akinwale also got 185 on her first try and then missed her second attempt at 205. She did one more dead lift after her first attempt (the tie breaker) and I got 2nd on that event too.

I like how in sync Anna behind me and I are on these.

I had a little down time at this point to visit with my home girls in the South East: Sarina Woodsworth (owner of Sarina’s quads on Facebook. If you’re not friends with them yet you should be.) Lauren Brooks and the golden one Jaime. We were discussing the real reason the lifts were hard was because we didn’t wear our singlet like this guy:

WoD 3
5 Rounds For Time
5/3 Muscle Ups
10 DB Snatch 85/55
15 Box Jumps 30/24″

For me this wod was all about keeping my heart rate under check by pausing on top of the box so I could do muscle ups unbroken. The dumbbell was pretty light for me so I don’t think I slowed much from the first to the fifth rounds. We got to do it at night with the lights and the crowd which was cool. I got 2nd on this one too. Are you noticing a pattern here?!

Me and my friend Kristin. She was with a large group of friends from Naples who were right in front of me screaming on this one. It meant so much to have them there to get to see what I work so hard to do. Hopefully they’ll all make it to regionals. Wink wink, hint hint…

Day 2!

WoD 4
Alternate
15-12-9 Handstand Push Ups
21-15-9 Overhead Squat @105
Then – 100 DU Buy out

This one was a real shoulder tester. I moved through it well breaking each set of OHS once when I started to feel my shoulders struggle coming out of the squat. I got to the double unders and onto number 38 when Cheryl started. I knew I had to go but my engine just isn’t there yet. She went UB and beat me by 1-2 seconds. That pissed me off. I see double unders in my future. Again another 2nd place. At least I’m consistent!

WoD 5
Nasty Little Chipper
30m Burpee Broad Jump
25cal Row
20 Toe to Bar
15 Burpee Pull-up
10 Back Squat 145#
5R/5L leg Split Jerk 145#
Then go back the other direction thru 10-15-20 etc. again.

I knew all of the body weight stuff in this might get me. I’m just not in tip top burpee shape yet. I took my time thru the first of this and caught up on the weighted barbell movements. Cheryl, Anna and I were neck and neck thru the burpee pull-ups and they just out enduranced me on the row and burpees at the end. Again I say, time to get in shape 😉 Anywho, Amanda also passed me on the row and was ahead on the burpees until the very end I made a push to catch her and take 3rd. At least it wasn’t 2nd again, ok not really. I was on the ground in dead animal pose for a good while after that one. Definitely more of that coming in the gym in my future!

This must have been the beginning of the wod when I was trying to pace to hold off the inevitable total blow up of my cardiovascular system!

This is probably my favorite picture of the competition. So what if it doesn’t fit in a dress, I’ve worked for that back!

Form’s improving, what what!

Split Jerks on our bad leg. Oh Guido so devious!

Thinking here, “somebody shoot me now this girl is passing me on the row and I’m going to try to out burpee her next”.

The start of my epic burpee comeback. Yes I was so tired I look like I was doing a downward dog.

It hurt good, but I’m probably most proud of catching this girl than anything else in this comp cause it hurt the worst!

WoD 6
8min AMRAP
Buy In:
30 lunges with a 45# DB in one hand and 35# sand bell over the other shoulder.
150m (or there abouts) farmer’s carry with the same weights
Then:
10m Handstand Walk
1 Legless Rope Climb to 10ft.

By this time I wanted to win one! So I gave my game face stare again at the start and went for it. I honestly didn’t know I looked like this until this photo, yikes!

It worked though, I got my first win of the weekend with 6 rounds of the HS walk and rope climb and actually tied the male winner Noah Ohlsen. He probably don’t know that though! I had fun on this one and some of the pics are funny too…

This makes me laugh, Weee…

Slightly more impressive looking!

At this point in time we had a little down time before the final and took some pics. Here’s me with Kristen Curry, Katie Russell, and our coach Doug Katona. Dave Leys was part of the team as well but probably off plotting his attack at the rope climb himself.

Tent time

There was an unfortunate accident during the final and it had to be stopped. We didn’t want to end the competition on a bad note however, so Kristen, Katie and I did an exhibition team Wod against Jaime, Anna, Amanda, and Gabrielle. The crowd enjoyed it and it was a good way to end the entire event. Doug was also glad our team won, of course he was trying to win right?!

Overall I won the competition, which was really fulfilling after finishing 3rd last year.

Thank goodness this year none of my competitors had beards!

I’d like to reiterate what a great event this was in case you couldn’t tell from the pictures! And also say thank you to all my judges, volunteers, south east friends, friends who came to watch, coach Doug Katona, organizers Guido and Virginia Trinidad, and all the photographers I stole all these pictures from!

Moving forward from this competition tomorrow marks 40 days until the open! I’m hoping not to see 7 minutes of burpees, but if I do at least I’ll be doing lots of them for the next 6 weeks and I don’t plan on having a broken rib this time!

Here are a few more pics with other competitors and spectators from the competition…

5 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI