CrossFit Showdown at CrossFit Beaumont

Yesterday the CrossFit Katy crew and I traveled to Beaumont for the CrossFit Showdown at CF Beaumont. Beaumont isn't that far from Katy so most of us opted to drive in the morning of, but man 5:30 AM drives to Beaumont are NOT fun! :) At least Neal and I had plenty of company on the ride (thanks Lezlie and Adam).
When we got to Beaumont, we checked in and got to find out which heats we were in. Luckily for me, I was put in a heat with Adrian Sanders (one tough chick from CrossFit Houston). It's always good to be put in a heat with a top competitor because it pushes you to be your very best. I was also pretty excited that all the other CF Katy athletes were in different heats so I got a chance to watch everybody perform. The day consisted of three WOD's with no eliminations. Points were awarded to athletes according to how they finished. (First place gets one point, second gets two, etc.) At the end of the day, the athlete with the fewest points wins it all!
WOD #1 looked like this:
5 Rounds of
5 Ground to Overhead (75#)
25 meter Overhead Carry (75#)
It looked simple enough but those overhead carries got pretty crappy pretty fast! Anything overhead is always a problem for me because it emphasizes my lack of mobility in my shoulders. I have very limited range of motion and to overcome that, I compensate by arching my back to stabilize the weight overhead. Yes I know....NOT a good idea! I desperately need to improve my mobility and I am working on it, though relatively half-heartedly lately. But I know that if I want to improve as an athlete it must be done! Anyway, I finished the workout second in my heat (right behind Adrian) and ended up second overall after the first WOD.

WOD #2 was
4 minutes to find your Max Clean then one max set of pull ups (for every pull up, two pounds is added to your clean weight)
Pull ups aren't my best CrossFit skill but I LOVE the clean. For an early birthday present, Neal bought me a pair of sweet Pendlay 2010 Weightlifting shoes and yesterday I got to try them out for the first time! I PR's with 175lb clean....AWESOME! I actually got under 180lbs but couldn't stand up with it. Looks like I'll be working on my front squat in the near future! I only got 15 pull ups so I wasn't too happy about that but my clean weight was still enough to put me in first place for that event.
After the first two WODS I was sitting in first place but only by 4 points! If I wanted to keep that position, I was going to have to book it in WOD #3.

WOD #3 consisted of
10-15-20
Deadlifts at 135#
Burpees
Kettlebell Swings
For some reason, the deadlift has been giving me some serious trouble ever since I maxed at the BCS Games in College Station and my burpees haven't been that great lately either, but the weight was really light for me so I was pretty confident that I could rip through this workout pretty quickly. I think there's this unwritten CrossFit rule that the easier a workout looks, the harder it is because this workout gassed me! My burpees were slow and that set of 20 deadlifts was tough! I definitely need to work on more lightweight, high rep metcons because I barely made it out of this WOD in the top 4!

Amazingly enough, even with my slower performance in WOD #3, I managed to squeak out a #1 finish! After all was said and done, I won the CrossFit Showdown at Beaumont by ONE point...right behind Adrian! It was awesome! Neil Riley and the whole crew at CF Beaumont put on a great competition and all of the athletes did an incredible job. Special congrats go out to my CF Katy crew. Teresa and Lezlie both finished in the top ten! Michelle competed in her first ever CrossFit Event and did a great job! She even got a new PR in her clean! As for the guys, Ed cranked it out in another tough comp and Adam H. made the top ten in his first individual competition. But I have to say I'm most proud of Neal for taking 6th place and getting a PR in his squat clean by 15lbs! This was his best finish in a CrossFit competition and I am so proud of him!

As for me, I had a blast, revealed some weaknesses and some strengths and am newly motivated to kick butt in my future competitions. The next one on the books for me is the All Cities Open at Dallas CrossFit Central on December 11th and it's going to be epic! All the top competitors will be there and I can't wait to see how I stack up against the best!