On October 9th, 2011 Mandy and I had the opportunity to compete in the first ever OPTathlon in San Diego, CA. The event was put on by my coach for the past 2 years and 9 months, James Fitzgerald.
James won the 2007 Crossfit games and has been an incredible ambassador and coach for the sport of fitness. He is well respected for his program design and for constantly searching out answers in regards to fitness and fitness testing. He has wrote a detailed workout program and posted it to his blog daily since January 2009. The blog has been a gathering point for fitness enthusiasts across the world to come get their workout for the day, do the workout, and report their scores. The community created on the blog is hard to describe but it is exceptional. Top level Crossfit athletes and fitness enthusiasts from across the world follow the blog and report their scores on a daily basis.
James had the wonderful idea to have all these like minded competitors come to one place for a true test of fitness. The test of fitness would be a one day event, with lectures and presentations from those in the fitness and health community to be held on Saturday.
The test of fitness involved six workouts and used a completed scoring system similar to that of a decathlon. The idea is that these tests of fitness would measure more than just work capacity, it would measure strength, speed, power endurance, ability to adapt to new tasks and that nearly anyone could participate as the movements were relatively easy to complete.
The events were as follows:
1. clean and overhead (1 Rep max in 10 minutes)
This means pick up the heaviest loaded barbell and get it locked out overhead with control. Each athlete had ten minutes to do this. I was able to get 260 lbs from ground to overhead, which represented a 15 lb personal record, and quite honestly exceeded my expectations for this event. This event was adjusted for each athletes weight.
2. standing triple jump (3 attempts)
Start from a standing position and complete a triple jump. Each athlete got three attempts. On my final attempt I jumped 26' 5". This was something new and something we had not trained for. It was a good single leg test of power.
3. row repeats (500m row rest 90 seconds on rower, 500m row)
By far the most painful workout of the group. If you have not rowed a true all out 1k on a row or repeats on a rower the pain is indescribable. For this workout my first 500m was completed in 1:27.4 and the second 500m in 1:30.0. This is a huge strength of mine and I placed 3rd overall for this event. I could not get off the floor for 3 minutes after this workout and walking was painful for a full 25 minutes after. I was not ready to even consider workout 4 until one hour after this effort.
4. unknown circuit (the circuit was announced as an AMRAP in 7 minutes of 150 double unders to start the workout and then max rounds and reps of 7 wall balls and 5 burpees jumping to touch 1 foot over max reach. )
This workout represented my worst showing amongst all the workouts. I completed the 150 double unders rather quickly and got through 2 rounds quickly before hitting a wall where every burpee was painful. I completed 7 rounds but this was outside of the top 25 and in the end this poor performance keep me out of the top 15. A stronger mentality to push through pain is needed for these workouts for me to progress as an athlete.
5. reverse overhead shot toss (16# shot)
Throw a 16# shot put overhead in a reverse manner as far as possible. This workout was a near nightmare as I faulted on my first throw and threw the second shot too high and achieved a low score. My final shot went 31' 1" This was not a great score but it kept me in shape for a top 20 finish if I performed up to expectations on the 3k run.
6. track run (3000 m)
Just as simple as it sounds. Except that a 3k run is a tough distance to run. One mile and under you know to push the envelope from the start and try and hang on. Over 2.5 miles you know you must set a pace and can't go balls to the wall from the start. 3k is right in that middle ground, where you don't want to get too comfortable at a slow pace but you can't go all out from lap one. I finished this in 11:46. This was good for ~ 10th place and while I was hoping for about 11:30, at this point of a long day I was ok with this effort. I may have got sucked into too slow of a pace early and probably should have made an earlier effort to force the pace I wanted rather than settling in.
At the end of the day I finished in 17th place of 73 competitors. My important I learned some things about myself that I can apply to future workouts and competitions and life in general. All in all the weekend was a tremendous experience and I look forward to the chance to compete, learn and test again.
