We arrived in Minneapolis and checked in at the convention center where we got our athlete passes and free stuff (neck pillow! Shoes!) and also had a chance to test out the true form treadmill and check out the warm up area.
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| Awkward team photo after getting our free Reebok gear |
I'm not going to recap all 7 events, so in my typical writing fashion I'm going to make a list of my favorite moments from regionals and also talk about some things I learned along the way. Please enjoy.
2. The muscle up/hang clean event on day 3
My favorite moments from regionals
1. Finishing third in our heat for event 2
For those of you who don't know what the workouts were, event 2 looked like this:
We were all looking forward to this event, we knew it would be a good one for us. The males went first and had to finish all 175 snatches before the females could start on our snatches. While we were doing our snatches, the men were doing the rope climbs, then they moved on to the thrusters while we did our rope climbs, then the females finished with the thrusters. This workout was all about speed and quick transitions. Jessie, Brandie and I broke up the snatches in quick sets of 10. Once we got to the rope, that's where we started to pick up speed and pull ahead. I was first to the rope and my first transition to Brandie was pretty slow (Sorry Stephen) but we got faster after that. We were all quick up the rope and got the climbs done pretty quickly. I was first to the thrusters, then we started splitting them up 7/8/5. It wasn't until I had finished my first set of thrusters that I looked over and realized we were only one of three teams at the bar, everyone else was still on rope climbs. This is when things really got exciting. I could hear Stephen and Pat yelling from the side, telling us to keep moving and to keep our transitions fast. Brandie and I each got no-repped once or twice for not putting our head all the way through at the top of the thruster so I think that put us behind a little bit. We got to our last 15 thrusters and I started with my set of 7. I could hear Alex and Jessie telling me to just do all 15 reps but I just couldn't, I could feel my cycle time slowing down so I dumped it and Jessie finished her 8 reps. We crossed the finish mat in third place, 5 minutes under the time cap. It was such an exciting moment and it was a great way to end the first day.
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| All smiles after a great finish! |
The first event on day 3 looked like this:
The females went first, and the first male could not start on the GHD sit ups until the females had finished the entire workout. This basically meant the event came down to how fast the chicks could cycle through muscle ups and heavy hang power cleans. I was excited for this event because muscle ups and HPC are two of my favorite movements. We had practiced this workout a few times and had finished under the time cap, so we knew we would do well on this one. I was the first female on the GHD sit ups and they went surprisingly well, in practice I had always come off the GHD machine really dizzy and disoriented but this time I didn't feel nearly as bad. I was able to knock out 8 muscle ups before Brandie finished her GHDs and came over to help me. I think we were at 18 or 20 when Jessie came over, and from there we just cycled through one person right after the other. Whenever I would come off the rings, Brandie would be right behind me and Jessie would help her up. We just stayed in that rotation and kept our transitions fast. I fatigued on the muscle ups faster than I thought, I was down to singles sooner than I wanted to be, but we just kept moving. I was first to the bar on the hang power cleans and when I picked it up it felt heavy as shit. I was actually pretty surprised. We broke up the HPC 7/5/3 until the last 10 reps, Brandie did 1 and I was able to finish out the last 9. I was so proud of us on this workout, we communicated really well throughout the muscle ups and we moved the weight quickly on the hang power cleans. It was really fun getting to stand on the finish mat with Jessie and Brandie, cheering on the guys while they finished. They crushed it, and we came in 5th in our heat. A lot of teams in our heat didn't even finish under the time cap, so I was really proud of our performance. This was a good day to start off the last day.
3. Hanging out with my team in Minneapolis
This doesn't really have to do with the competition, it's just one of my favorite things about the entire trip in general. It definitely would have been more convenient for regionals to be in Cincinnati or Columbus like it has been in the past few years, and it would have been a lot cheaper as well. But now we were in a different city together, and after the competition ended each day we would all get lunch and then hang out. It was really fun walking around Minneapolis with everyone and getting to spend so much extra time with my team was really cool. I think if regionals had been in Cincinnati, we would have just gone home after each day was over. Instead, we basically did everything together, and I think it made the trip a lot more fun. I laughed so much during those three days and I really enjoyed spending time outside of the gym with my teammates. We went to some cool restaurants, walked around Minneapolis, and went swimming at the YMCA. Also, I can say with confidence that we've all been bonded for life after the things we witnessed in that sauna.
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| Team trip to Whole Foods |
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| Minneapolis is neat! |
And now, an open letter to the unamused treadmill judge
If any of you watched the first event on day 2 (the treadmill/wall ball workout), you probably remember this guy:
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| He is just NOT AMUSED |
Judging by the look on your face, I can tell you were not thrilled about having to stand there for four minutes while I ran on the treadmill at a literal snails pace. I'm sorry you didn't get to judge one of the other 9 female runners who were all 5'9", blonde, and were actually good at running. If we're thinking about it in Lord of the Rings terms, they were all Galadriel the elf queen and I was Frodo the hobbit. But I really tried my best, and that's all that matters. I hope I can come back next year and entertain you with my improved running skills.
Your friend
Chels
Things I took away from regionals
1. I have improved a lot but I have a long way to go
I know I have really improved over the past year. If these events had come up one year ago, I wouldn't have been able to string muscle ups together, I wouldn't be able to do strict handstand push ups, I wouldn't be snatching 145, and my rope climbs would have been extremely slow. I have come a long way in just one year, but I still have a ways to go. There are still a lot of things I need to work on, and the treadmill/wall ball event was a glaring weakness. It took me almost 4 minutes to do 50 wall balls, and that just can't happen. I'm able to move quickly when it's short bursts of moving the barbell or gymnastics movements, but I need to be able to grind through shitty work when I'm by myself on the floor. The wall ball event was a perfect example of how I still need to improve on sucking it up and pushing through the pain. It was a terrible feeling to look up and see Conner standing on the treadmill, waiting for me to finish. I never want that to happen again. I know this event was just one of many, and I'm very proud of my performance on everything else. I'm looking forward to continuing to work on my weaknesses while also improving my strengths.
2. It's very important to trust your training
As we were warming up for the snatch event, everything was feeling really good. I hit my opener (145) three times and it was feeling excellent. Then Jessie and I hopped in with another group and I failed 140. This one missed rep completely shook my confidence. As we were waiting in the corral I was talking to Alex and asked him what I should do if I failed 145. Should I take off the 15s and just snatch 115 so I can at least get in a score? Alex looked at me and said, "Why are you talking about failing lifts? Have you hit it in practice? Then just make the fucking lift." and he was right. I snapped out of it right then and my nerves went away. Why was I questioning myself right before we were about to step out on the competition floor? I had hit 145 in practice every single time and had never missed. At this point I could snatch it in my sleep. So why all of a sudden was I letting one bad rep in warm up freak me out? After that, my attitude completely changed. I went out and snatched 145 easily because I knew I had done it in practice one million times and I knew I was capable of doing it. Regionals is all about trusting your training. We put in the work, we put in the practice, and now it was time to go show what we could do. Regionals isn't the time or place for self-doubt, it's the time to trust all the training you've been doing for the past year.
Regionals was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I can't even really put into words how cool it was to be out on the floor competing with my friends in that type of atmosphere, and I am so thankful I got to be part of it.
Jessie, Mark, Conner, Brandie, Alex- thank you for being the best team. I really couldn't have imagined a better team to share in my first regionals experience. You guys are all incredible athletes and great people. I think what's really cool about our team is that when it comes down to it, we're all good friends. We enjoy each other's company, laugh a lot, and have a genuine respect for one another. It was an honor to compete and represent CSC with all of you.
Stephen- Thanks for being the best coach, as usual. I didn't actually think my goal of going to regionals would happen but you made it come true. Your programming and coaching have made me a better athlete than I really thought was possible. You're the best, and when I discovered your love of cheese my respect for you grew even more.
Dad-thanks for making sure I was able to get to regionals and cheering for me the whole weekend. And mom, for cheering from home!
Now it's the off-season, and it's time to set some new goals. Competing at regionals made me realize I want to go back, and I want to just completely dominate. I'm going to take the next year to really improve my weaknesses and my mental toughness. A lot can happen in a year, and I'm going to continue to work hard, focus on my training, trust my coach, and have fun training with my friends. This year has already been so amazing, I'm excited to see what the next season will bring.
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| Onward |
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