A few days of RECOVERY have allowed for some REFLECTION on an incredible experience at this year's Southwest Regional competition. First, I would like to say that as a leader of this community I am extremely proud of what every single one of us has done and we should all be thrilled about what LALANNE FITNESS has accomplished. Second, as a fellow competitor I'm proud of my personal accomplishment as well. Given the chance to line-up with the best CrossFit athletes in the world is an opportunity that I truly appreciate... one that I'll never forget. In the weeks leading up to the competition, you keep your fingers crossed, hoping that the event organizers don't expose weakness(es) with certain movements or workouts that you suck at. Several days before the competition when the WODs were announced, I was pleasantly surprised... no double-unders! The first WOD of the day... tire flips and log carry stuck to the CrossFit functional movement creed of... "move large loads quickly." I had never done either of these moves before and WOW, this was tough! My forearms are still sore from that flippin' tire which weighed about 250 pounds. My time of 7:22 was in the middle of the pack 30th out of 62. TONY crushed this one at 6:08 in 5th place. Check it out HERE (Saturday, May 8th / 10:44-11:44 PDT - @ the 20:40 mark) on the live web cast.. the commentators loved talking about his athletic background as a "bartender."



About two hours later I was faced with the "Floater WOD"... 20 chest to overhead with 185 pounds and 40 barrier hop burpees. I actually felt good about this one going in and got through the overheads fine but the burpees on scorching hot asphalt really slowed me down. Finished with a time of 5:08... the fastest time of the day on this was an impressive 2 minutes and 42 seconds. My last WOD of the day, five rounds for time of: 5 muscle-up, 10 power clean, with 135 pounds and a 220m run. My muscle-ups have improved quite a bit over the past year but I was still concerned about finishing under the 15 minute cut-off from the moment they had posted the events on Wednesday. Pretty spent from the previous 2 workouts but had to get after it so I taped the wrists, chalked up... 3, 2, 1, GO. I was on pace after the 3rd round until the muscle-ups and running caught up to me. Got cut-off with 1 muscle-up left in the last round. At the end of day one I had come to a conclusion. Watching some of the top guys sprinting 220m and ripping off 5 muscle-ups in a row, it became clear to me that if I was going to compete with them next year, I must get more efficient with body weight and met-con movements. After a good nights sleep at the Marriot Newport Beach, we woke up Sunday morning to discover that the final WOD had been announced... for time: row 100m, 30 overhead squats, with 135 pounds and a 1,200m run. YES... I was jacked on the drive back to UC Irvine. I had a good feeling going into this one. Rowing and overhead squats were no problem and I just ran my ass off. My best performance of the weekend! The live web cast caught me winning my heat HERE (Sunday, May 9th / 11:55 - 12:55 PDT - @ the 43:50 mark) crossing the finish line with a time of 12:10, 17th place on the day... Redemption! The entire weekend was a tremendous learning experience and I can't wait to go back next year. I definitely have some goals that I'll be working toward. THANK YOU to my lovely wife Maribel, my teammates, our students and everyone that continues to support our community!



Workout of the Day
Weighted Pull-Ups
10 sets of 5.
-break
"Fight Gone Bad"
Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump, 20" box (Reps)
Push-press, 75 pounds (Reps)
Row (Calories)
In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of "rotate", the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.