The CrossFit Games Northern California regionals is complete. Amanda and I are on our way home. It was an epic weekend. Not without stress or disappointment, but a fantastic weekend nonetheless. Amanda is beaten, bruised, burnt, torn and sore. Jill is sore and frustrated. These two women represented us well. Give them props when you see them!

Event 5 had the effect of shifting the pack around quite a bit. Many competitors that appeared to be out of the running brought themselves in striking distance by crushing the snatch ladder. This was a fun workout to watch. The excitement ebbed and flowed as athletes moved up the ladder and failed out. Surges of athletes would push at the previous records. We got to witness nor cal athletes hit loads unmatched in other regions.

Overall for the men it was predominantly the Neil Maddox and Jason Kalipa show. Each of them walking in lock step trading off the first and second place positions until the very last workout where Jason won the event to take first place overall. Top three men representing Nor Cal in the games is Jason Kalipa, Neil Maddox and Gabe Subry.

The women were far more balanced and going into the snatch ladder many of the top 10 athletes had a chance of making the top three. The snatch ladder really shifted the field around a bit to set up the last workout as quite a race. Jenny Lebaw was the only woman going into the final event with a pretty solid games spot. Annie Sakamoto took first place on the last event to place her in second overall for the event. The third games spot went to Candice Hamilton Hester who has been a CrossFit Games veteran out of CrossFit Oakland.

With that, the competition is complete. We can look toward next year for those that are thinking about giving it a go. Get back to training with a general focus again and have some fun. I’m off, going to get some rest and see my family. See you in The Cave.

Event 4 was brutal. 50 Back squats, 40 pull ups, 30 shoulder to overhead. Then do it again, but with a lighter weight and replace the back squats with front squats. Then do it yet again, but with a lighter weight and replace the front squats with overhead squats. The majority of competitors did not complete the workout. Only the top 6 women got through before the 22 minute cap. In the team variant of the workout only two teams completed. In one region this weekend no teams finished.

Ok, so who cares about all of these general statistics. How did Amanda do? She started out strong, but around rep 15 of the back squats she felt her back tighten up. She has a long history of some lower back spasmodic behavior so given the amount of effort she’s putting in this weekend, this is not a surprising turn of events. She reduced her plan and started doing shorter sets and really keeping mindful of her back and fatigue.  Pull ups were not a problem, so she got through those as expected. The shoulder to overhead, an area where normally she would have made up a lot of ground, was pretty hindered by her back so she was reduced to two or three reps at a time. Moving on to the front squats did not help things. Having the weight shifted forward only made things worse. She considered bowing out, but decided to just take it very slow and get done all she could. She finished the front squats and got into the pull ups. 22 minutes came, and it was over. This is the first event this weekend that she did not set a personal best. We got her iced really well, and some TLC in the medics tent where our own Sara La March was staffed for the day. She’s sore, but ready to go for the snatch ladder tomorrow. A top 18 finish would require her to be a top 3 finisher on workout 5, so unless Amanda is suddenly able to snatch 165lbs moving on to event 6 is quite a stretch. She’s been apprised of your support on the blog and facebook so keep the comments coming.

Overall this weekend has been up and down. The team competition has been exciting with RCF and Diablo being dominant. The men’s individual competition has been the battle of the titans Jason Kalipa and Neil Maddox each sharing two first place finishes and two second place finishes. The real battle is for who is going to get the third slot. The women’s competition has been far more balanced. No one has been completely dominant. Not a single competitor has remained in the top 5 on all workouts. Tomorrow will determine who is going to the games, and who begins their training for next year.

Event 3 is complete. This was a workout where just completion was the primary focus of most of the athletes. Settling in and hitting one rep at a time was the key. There were a few athletes that were able to power through this workout and just rep the snatches out. This put top finishers completing in under 5 minutes. Quite an effort to watch.

Amanda started out our competitors again. Going into it having only completed 1/2 the workout in the time cap on previous efforts. She set a solid pace and worked her way through. She did fail a few reps but performed well. She got 21 reps done for a score of 10:23. Another personal best.

Jill headed out onto the field. We knew that this was going to be a difficult workout for her having to heft more than 1/2 her bodyweight overhead with one arm. During warm up she was able to make some snatches and we worked on mechanics to try and improve efficiency. As she headed out to the field and had to demonstrate reps to the judge she struggled. 30 seconds before the workout was to start she was still unable to demonstrate the required movement. As a result she thought that she could not continue and walked off the field. This event had a 10 rep minimum to continue on so Jill is now out of the competition. Everyone send her some love. She’s very disappointed. We’re all behind her.

Event two is complete. The first event was fast and furious. This one started with a 2K row which just sets the tone. Athletes had to complete the 2K with enough leg strength and gas for quite a bit more work. After the row comes 50 pistols. These were performed on a squishy mat which complicated the balance. Many athletes were seen bobbling around and hopping to prevent falling over. Then on to the 30 heavy hang cleans.

Amanda started with a solid row. Her goal was to maintain a sub 2:1o pace for the 2K. She was able to do this and walked onto the pistols a bit back in her pack but in good standing. The pistols gained her some ground. With a nice steady pace and not a hitch she showed that solid balance and strong raised leg control is a huge benefit on this movement. Moving to the cleans she powered out a strong first set, then dropped down to 2 and 3 per set from then on. On the return from the rack to hang on one of the later reps the heat of the day and bar knurling got the best of her thumb. A large rip is now going to be with her for the rest of the weekend. She finished the cleans, and ran to the finish (after a short pause due to misunderstanding the finish procedure) for a time of 16:25. Another personal best.

Jill started the row solid. Using brute force to keep pace with the other athletes we knew that she would be behind after the row. Her height limiting her rowing speed placed her near the end of the pack leaving the rowers (but not last). Walking to the pistols she, like Amanda, showed her gymnastics background and just kept moving through the 50 reps. On to the cleans, which exceed her bodyweight. We knew this was going to be another hard piece for her. One rep at a time she worked her way through 15 of the 30 needed reps to finish with a time of 17:15.  Also a personal best.

Your athletes start tomorrow morning with the DB Snatch, run workout, followed by the Squat, pull up, shoulder to overhead monstrosity. Keep tuned for more updates.