Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Boston Pro Day Recap

It's hard to believe Boston Pro Day weekend is already over. This was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. I got to work alongside a group of amazing athletes and learned a lot about the process of what it takes to become a Grid athlete. 

Day 1

We arrived at CrossFit Southie in South Boston at noon on Saturday. We checked in, got our numbers and score cards, then Josh Plosker (GM and Head coach of the Boston Iron) gave us a run down of how the day was going to go. There was a representative/coach from every team and the members of the Boston Iron would be our judges for the weekend. We would be re-testing all of the workouts from our Grid Score in a two hour period because the coaches wanted to see how we would perform in a Grid match time frame. This made me a bit nervous seeing as I had done the five Grid score workouts over a period of a few weeks. We had about 45 minutes to warm up for every event. This also made me a little nervous, especially for the 2 rep clean and jerk and muscle ups. I wanted to make sure I worked up to a heavy weight while also being really warmed up for muscle ups. Josh said the order of events would be rope climbs, clean and jerk, metcon, muscle ups, then thrusters. 




Four rope climbs for time
Grid Score- 1:13
Pro Day- :38

I was nervous for this one because I just don't enjoy rope climbs but I was glad this was first so I could get it over with. Spencer Hendel and Lindy Barber were my judges on this, so that was pretty neat. I told myself to push it and to not wait until I felt "ready" before every rope climb. I actually felt really good on this event, I was using my legs properly and sliding down the rope easily. When I finished, I was shocked when Lindy told me my time was :38. WHAT. I was so happy with this! This was a great way to start the day! 

2-rep clean and jerk in :20 
Grid Score- 180
Pro Day- 185

First of all, we got to use new Eleiko bars fresh out of the plastic, so that was awesome yet also terrifying. As I was warming up for this, the weight was feeling very heavy. I cleaned 155 and was shocked at how heavy it felt. I don't know if I was fatigued from travel the day before or what was going on, but the weight was not feeling as comfortable as it usually does. They told us that if we failed anything on this event we didn't get a second chance, but if we easily hit our first weight then we would get another attempt to add weight and go again. I decided to start with 175 because I wanted to make sure I hit both clean and jerks in the time frame. We had to start on the ground, just like the original Grid score. I hit my two clean and jerks very easily at 175 so my judge asked me if I wanted to go again with a heavier weight. I rested a few minutes then decided to just go for 185. It wasn't pretty, but I got it! I hit the second jerk with three seconds left. 


Set up for the 2 rep clean and jerk


For time: 15 ground to overhead @95/10 burpees over bar/15 ground to overhead
Grid Score: 3:23
Pro Day: 3:04

I was dreading this one the most because I knew how badly it was going to hurt. As I watched people do this, a lot of them did the first 15 reps unbroken but then did the second 15 in mostly singles. I tried not to worry about what other people were doing and just stick to my own strategy. When I did this for my grid score, I did 5/3/3/2/2, then all singles for the second 15. When I did it at Pro Day I did 8/4/3, then all singles. The burpees definitely should have been faster and I could have shaved off a bit of rest between some of the singles but I was happy to improve on this one. Spoiler alert: It hurt just as bad as the first time. 

Max muscle ups in :80
Grid Score: 12
Pro Day: 9

This was the only test from Day 1 where I walked away feeling disappointed. I was looking forward to the muscle ups because I do those really well. When I was warming up, I did a few muscle ups and I immediately knew it was going to be harder than I thought. My arms were pretty tired from the previous testing and the rings were the really thin rings. I always do muscle ups on the thick wooden rings and haven't done an MU on thin rings in a very long time.   It was extremely hard for me to get a good grip on the rings and my turnover didn't feel as aggressive as usual. I did 5/2/1/1 then failed a rep right as time ran out. I was definitely disappointed with getting three less muscle ups than my original Grid score, and I was also bummed out about how terrible they felt. Lesson learned: start doing more muscle ups on the skinny rings. 

For time: 20 thrusters @95
Grid Score: :47
Pro Day: :37

Since the muscle ups went poorly, I wanted to crush this one. This was the last event of the day, I was tired but I knew I had to just suck it up and go. I was about 8 reps in when the feeling of "I want to put this down" kicked in, but I told myself to just stop being a Lil B and finish. I ended up beating my Grid Score time by 10 seconds, I was very happy with this. I walked away from Day 1 feeling tired but very proud of my overall performance.

Day 2

We had to be at the gym a lot earlier on the second day. We showed up at 8:00 and Josh said everything was going to run the same as the first day, five tests in two hours. I had practiced all the tests already so I was pretty calm going into Day 2, the only event I was nervous for was the snatch ladder since the weight was feeling so heavy during the clean and jerks. We warmed up the same way, basically hitting every single movement for every test in one hour. 

Max 5" deficit handstand push ups in :30
In practice: 13
Pro Day: 17

I was pretty happy about this test, I was looking forward to this one. The HSPU felt very easy, I started slowing down around the 14th rep but I knew I couldn't afford to come off the wall. When I practiced at CSC I think I did max in :20 so I was happy I was able to go the full :30 with no breaks. 

For max reps- :30 CTB pull ups/:30 rest/:30 pistols/:30 rest/:30 toes to bar
In practice: 20/11/17
Pro Day: 20/13/19

I was really hoping to get some more CTB pull ups during Pro Day. Alas, I did not. I got no repped on two of them (oops). I also felt like I wasn't cycling them as fast as I usually do. I did them all unbroken (that's a CTB PR for sure) and came off the bar with the intent of doing more but time ran out before I could jump back up. Pistols were the same as usual- reaaaal slow. I was wearing my lifting shoes and knee sleeves so that made it a bit easier but I still wasn't going very fast. I definitely need to get better at these. I think I did 14 TTB before I had to come off the bar but I was able to get 5 more before time ran out. I wish I would have done a little better on this one. 

For time: Sprint 50 meters then 10 deadlifts @225
In practice: :37
Pro Day: :21

VERY happy with this! When I practiced this at CSC I broke up the deadlifts 5/3/2. When I told Stephen, he said I would absolutely have to do them unbroken at Pro Day and he was right. There wasn't a single person who broke up the deadlifts. The speed differed between athletes but no one set it down. 225 for 10 unbroken actually wasn't that bad, some of it was probably the adrenaline but I was able to bang them out pretty fast. The sprint was cool too, I always enjoy a nice sprint. 

Max reps in :20 of hang cleans @155
In practice: 7
Pro Day: 11

Best event of the day, hands down. This one was awesome. I mentally prepared myself for the possibility of the eleiko bar ripping my thighs to shreds but I actually walked away unscathed! Josh told us we could power clean the first rep and then go from there. The weight felt very light on this, I was never in danger of failing a rep and I was able to bounce the bar immediately off my thighs every single time. This one was fun! 

Snatch ladder (:30 to complete)- 105/120/135/150/165
In practice: 150
Pro Day: 135

This event was a bit disappointing, I really wanted to hit 150. The snatch ladder was the very last event and I was pretty fatigued at this point. As I was warming up, I snatched 85 pounds and my arms felt like jelly so I knew this could potentially not go very well. I warmed up to 125 before we got started. A lot of people looked tired on this. Out of all the females, only one was able to hit 150. A few got pretty close but most of us ended up at 135. I also wasn't pulling myself into as deep of a squat as I should have but I still don't think I would have been able to snatch 150 even if I did completely squat everything, my arms were fried and I'm just not used to making large jumps like that in such a short amount of time, especially under fatigue. But that's the point of testing and now I know what I need to work on. 

Overall, I am so proud of my performance this past weekend. If I'm being completely honest, before I went to Boston I kept fighting with the idea that getting a Pro Day invite was a fluke. I was worried I would get there and completely bomb out and not live up to my original Grid score. I tried to push that thought out of my mind. As soon as I arrived at CF Southie on the first day all those feelings went away. My goal was to trust myself as an athlete and lay it all out there, and that's what I did. I ended up improving on 4/5 of my original Grid test results and also improved most of the Day 2 tests as well. I proved to myself that I did belong there and that my hard work was paying off. If I don't end up getting invited to the combine it will certainly be disappointing, but I know I did my best and that's all I could do. I came away from Pro Day with more confidence in myself as an athlete and a better understanding of what I need to work on over the next year. Hold the vision and trust the process, it works! 

I also want to say thank you to everyone who sent me an encouraging message while I was in Boston, I really appreciated it! I'm also very grateful to my parents for making it possible for me to get out to Pro Day, you guys are the best. Also, I had a great experience because the event was so well-run. Josh Plosker made sure everything started on time and always kept the athletes informed of what was going on. He was always available for questions and was very helpful. The members of the Boston Iron were awesome judges, they were very fair and I could tell they wanted to see us do well and have fun. Justin Cotler, thanks for the constant encouragement all weekend and for being an all around really cool guy. Stephen, thanks for coaching me through all my Grid score tests and for making sure I was prepared for everything. As far as coaches go, you're the tops. I also met some really neat people while I was there-Amanda, Oscar, Liz, Carolyn, Katrina, it was fun hanging out with you guys and it was cool watching all of you kill it throughout the weekend!

Boston Pro Day was a great experience. Now it's time to set my sights on the Open. I'm excited to see what will happen in the next few months! Onward! 


Thanks for the good times Boston



Blog Archive

Followers