I have been very lucky to find a community that finds the definition of our muscles and being as strong, if not stronger than men an empowering and beautiful thing.
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| Shevez during the 400m spring of the pentathlon event Her pants say, "Not Just A Pretty Face" |
Pentathlon (Event 1)
Our first event was called "The Pentathlon." It consisted of an agility course, reverse shot put throw, vertical jump, tire flip ladder, and 400m sprint.
The agility course had cones we have to weave through, duking under polls, and jumping hurdles. I think the best part of "The Pentathlon" was the tire flip ladder.
We had 45sec to try and flip 7 tires, each one increasing in weight. For every one we did not flip there were penalty points that added on to out time.
The frustrating part came here in the competition. I was originally scheduled to start event 2, "Power Breather" at 1:30pm. I didn't end up doing this event until 3pm Saturday.
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| Laying down during the long break between Event 1 and 2 |
"Power Breather" (Event 2)
The power breather was one I wish I would have done better on, but dang those DUs (double unders). I had to keep my body fueled for the day so I packed meals and snacks: chicken, cubed cinnamon sweet potatoes, peanut butter cookie larabar. On this event my main concern was the wall balls, it has always been a weakness of mine. And I think I went to the bathroom 5 times before this event just to make sure I didn't run into having to go to the bathroom during DUs. If you have never done a DU before it always makes you go to the bathroom.
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| Powerbreather event 10min AMRAP 3-6-9-12... wall balls pull ups 10-20-30-40 DUs |
Power Breather was an ascending ladder for 10 minutes of wall balls, pull ups and DUs. Each time you went through the movements, wall ball and pull ups, you added 3 reps
(3, 6, 9, 12, 15, etc) and the DUs increased by 10 every time (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, etc)
So all in all the rep scheme went like this...3/3/10, 6/6/20, 9/9/30, etc.
My first difficulty came in finding my position to it the target exactly where it needed to go. I didn't hit it my first couple of reps which wastes time. I could knock out the pull ups and my judge realized that. He even told me at one point that it was what I excelled at during the WOD; I guess 8 years of gymnastics pays off.
I had to keep taking breaks during my DUs because, yes even though I went to the bathroom 5 times to make sure I didn't have to go to the bathroom during this WOD (workout of the day), I still somehow had to go. There is a workout shirt that says, "Will you pee for it?" My answer...NEVER!
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| Rocking out some pull ups during Power Breather |
"Repeatable" (Event 3 & 4)
This event was by far I think the worst event out there. It was our Event 3 and 4.
3min to complete
10 TnG (touch-and-go) snatches
25 cal on air assault bike
rest 1 minute
repeat
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| Sam Kerns busting out some calories on the air assault bike. |
For the workout there was no set weight for the snatches, as we could pick which weight we used both times we went through it. The air assault bike is a little different from and air dyne. On an air dyne you can just use your legs; on the air assault you had to use arms and legs or you were going to be working extra hard, not that you weren't going to already. I knew in this event that it was going to take a lot to keep up with these girls. The girls ahead of me were I would say at least 30lb heavier than I am and with different training programs I knew that they were going to be able to lift more weight than I was. What was on everyone's mind was not making it through all the assigned calories on the assault bike. And let me be the first to say, that thing SUCKED!!
I didn't complete all my calories the first round, I had 2 left. I was breathing so hard and my lungs burned so bad. I wish I could describe the feeling. I guess the only way I could say it is that I was breathing really hard and deep but my lungs would never completely fill with air so I could catch my breath. The second time through...
Unfortunately I got DQ'd!! I bar couldn't rest on the floor or in the hip pocket any longer than it took us to regrip the bar or for longer than a couple seconds. If that happened we were done. On my second set of snatches I was on the touch and go portion and on the way back down the bar slipped from my hands. Part of me was happy because I wouldn't have to embrace the suck of the assault bike again and the other part wasn't happy because it really affected my score.
I finished day one in 10th place. Next day was all about pushing myself and playing catchup to everyone in front of me. I was looking forward to the next two events we had before finals.
Day 2 was going to consist of "Oxygenated" and "3-in-1." "3-in-1" hadn't been announced yet. But "Oxygenated" was a good endurance WOD which is what I'm good at, pacing myself which at times can be bad for the other WODs.
But where is the clash of beauty and strength? It is not a clash in a bad way by any means. It is the clash that being a strong woman in the weightlifting world and how much of an empowering and confident feeling that it gives you that makes it beauty. It gives any person who tries this sport confidence in so many ways. So welcome to the world of being a strong and beautiful woman all at one time.
Our Clash is that our strength comes together with the beauty we already have to make it even more beautiful women! It is our confidence in ourselves that makes us beautiful!
