364 days

I had an absolute blast watching the 2012 CrossFit Games this weekend. It was crazy to see repeat champions in both the Men’s and Women’s divisions and very inspirational to see the efforts put out by all of the competitors.

This was the second year that I have missed going to the games by a couple positions at Regional’s. In 2010, I was in the South Central Regional Competition which had 4 spot available. I was in 2nd place going into the last workout but the Hand Stand Push-Ups were too much for me to handle and I fell to 7th place overall.

I was deployed for the duration of the games’ season in 2011 and for the qualifying events (the “Open”) in the 2012 games. Since I was in the Middle East for the Open I was required to compete in the Asia Regional in Seoul, South Korea. Asia only had 1 spot available for the 2012 Games. After falling down the leader board after the 1st workout (which, of course, included HSPUs) and having an embarrassing performance in the snatch ladder workout, I ended the competition in 3rd place which was enough to reach the podium but not enough to win a trip to Carson.

What I am most annoyed with is the fact that I had identified weaknesses in my CrossFit game 2 years ago but did not take the necessary steps in correcting them. If I had I would not have been watching the 2012 Games from Mandy’s heavenly white couch. I have re-started this blog for one main reason, to hold myself accountable for this next year of training. I fully understand that Jared and my mom will likely be the only ones to read these posts, but in my mind I am laying myself out to the masses of the World Wide Web.

It should be painfully obvious to anyone reading that HSPUs are a limiting factor of mine. I could attribute this to being 10-20 pounds heavier than the average CrossFitter but let’s be honest, it is because no one likes doing things that they suck at and I suck at HSPUs. My plan to correct the flaw is to hit up HSPU specific training 2 times a week. These workouts will include deficit training (elevating the hands so that the head can go deeper to increase ROM), ring training (for proprioceptive and stability), and interval training (to decrease recovery time). I will track my progress on this blog and report the strategies that I find successful and the ones that I scratch from my program.

It is a little less obvious to anyone but those close to me but my Olympic lifting numbers are atrocious. The funny thing is that I work on the movements quite a bit but do not see much success. I snatched 225 in 2010 pumped full of adrenaline with horrible form. Yet, I have not been able to hit 210 since. My clean numbers have also stalled out despite the large amount of cleans done in CrossFit WODs. In order to combat this I have outsourced the help of Steve Miller for technique. I am hoping that his guidance, coupled with some Outlaw Way strength programming and some hearty EMOMs will get my numbers up. Again, you (faithful blog readers…. AKA, Mom) will be the first to know.

-Brice

Final Day

Waking up today was not fun. I was much more sore than I thought I would be.

Day 3 started out with a snatch ladder. I went into the workout with little confidence. I knew my Olympic lifting movements were one of my weakest areas but I was surprised at just how bad it was. I felt weak, slow, and uncoordinated. I failed twice at 195 and was emotionally defeated. That pulled me down from 2nd to 4th overall behind Dan, T-Rank, and Michael Mogard. It is obvious to me that I need professional help on my Olympic movements. I know that they are weak but I am not clear as to what I need to identify and fix my issues.

I knew that workout 6 was going to be good for me and I needed to seriously step my game up in order to restore my pride and give myself a chance to make it to the podium.

I felt great through the dead-lifts and muscle-ups and moved on to the wall ball shots in the lead. I was able to do the wall ball shots unbroken and broke the toes to bar up into 2-3 sets. When I moved on to the Farmer's walk I knew that I was going to finish this workout. The burpee box jumps were steady and painful. After I finished the burpees I hooked gripped the DBs and tried to make it back to the rings as fast as possible while giving my shoulders a break. I got back to the rings just as the announcer was calling out the 1 minute warning.

I was one of 2 guys that finished the last workout (the other was also an American Military Member who was deployed in Afghanistan, Aaron Gardner) and I had the fastest time in the region. This workout brought me back to 3rd place overall with Daniel Hersey in first and Taylor Rank in second. I can not think of 2 better guys to lose to.

This trip has been a blast and I have truly enjoyed meeting and hanging out with all of the competitors. I missed the cut to go to the games but clawed my way onto the podium, learning a good deal about my strengths and weaknesses.

I can't wait to get back to Koda to train and enjoy the Oklahoma summer. I want to thank all of you who have kept up with my adventure and cheered me on along the way. Having you behind me is a true blessing.

Day 2

Blog

The 2nd day of competition started off with a short DB snatch WOD. I knew that this workout would favor my strengths so I came out of the gate with fire in my eyes.

I made it through each round with unbroken snatches with 1 "no rep"
for not controlling the DB at the top of the rep. The workout came down to the wire with me and T-Rank neck and neck until he pulled away by a few reps in the last round. That kid is strong! It turns out that he is currently 1st place IN THE WORLD for that workout so I do not mind coming in second.

The 2nd workout of the day was the brutal squat, pullup, and push press WOD. It was easy to see the nervousness of the competitors even several hours before the workout began. I felt good through the first 2/3 of the workout and was on a great pace until I made it to the third round of pullups. I hit the wall and had to dig deep for that one. I took 2nd in the workout with Daniel Hersey finishing 1st.

The two 2nd place finished pull me up to 2nd overall with 25 points. Daniel Hersey is in a commanding lead with with 13 points. At this point it is his competition to lose. I can only make sure I am in position in case he drops the ball.

I am having a blast meeting and hanging out with all the competitors. The CF Sentinel Crew has adopted me and has been looking out for me during the competition. They took me out for Korean BBQ last night and we are headed to a Brazilian steakhouse as I am typing this up.

Day 1

Today started off with a 5:30am wake up call. I made it down to the designated station where Reebok had a bus waiting to take us on the 1 hour drive to the regionals venue.

The campus is breath taking but it is so far out of Seoul that the only people who showed up were the athletes, volunteers, and a handful of close friends and family members. I would say that there was a max of 250 people there today. This was a little disappointing knowing that north central will have several thousand spectators. Hopefully, tomorrow will bring a bigger crowd.

The first workout started out exactly as I knew it would. I stayed calm and broke my HSPUs into several reps. The deadlift was smooth and easy. I PR'd my Diane time even with a handful of no-reps from an extremely quiet judge. I wish I had grown a mow-hawk (I know it would look horrible) but for some reason the Asian judges were counting the tip of a mow-hawk as the top of the head. I got 18 points for this workout as I finished in 18th place (remember, this is like golf, low score wins)

After eating lunch and goofing around for a few hours it was time for workout 2. I kept my row right at a 1:49 pace and was actually pretty excited about the pistols. Except for 1 no-rep (lead foot hitting the ground) I did the pistols unbroken, grabbing my lead foot with my opposite hand.

I was one of three guys to finish WOD2 earning me 3 points and leaving me at 21 points total. That puts me in 7th place overall with 4 workouts to go. My goal was to be in the top 10 at the end of day 1. Hopefully, I will be able to make up quite a bit of ground tomorrow and get myself in a top 3 position.

I have to say that last year's champ and current first place holder, Daniel Hersey, is looking strong and well rounded. Joseph "Taylor" Rank is also putting on quite a showing. I am excited to see what happens in WODs 3&4.

Not Jet Lag and ROKfit

So I was wide awake at, what I thought was, 2:30am this morning. I was mad at myself for letting my nerves get the best of me and keeping me from sleeping the whole night. I tried to fall back asleep for about an hour and then got online.

I was chatting with Eric and Brittany when I finally realized that the clock in my room was wrong. I had woken up at 7:30, a perfect night's rest but laid around for 3 hours, hungry, and thinking that I should be sleeping.

When it finally clicked, I called myself an idiot and grabbed a taxi to CrossFit Sentinel to teach the noon class (death by wall ball shots and burpees)

The class went great and T-Rank introduced me as the "celebrity coach of the day". I believe that the Koda crew wins the strength division but the clients at Sentinel would wipe the floor with us on the flexibility side.

After I was finished with class, Taylor told me that several of his clients were confused about my ROKfit shirt. When they see ROK they think "Republic of Korea". They did not understand why the country would sponsor me.
-Brice

2nd training session at Sentinel

I came back to the gym this afternoon during open time. I assumed that more competitors would come in today but we had the same ones as yesterday.

I will say that last year's champ, Daniel Hershey, was looking very intimidating with his official 2011 games gear on.

I played around with the hang cleans and did a few hang split cleans to make sure that I have them during WOD 2. They felt good.

The Sentinel boys have either taken a liking to me or have decided that it is time I earn my keep cause they have asked me to teach a class tomorrow. I am not sure I can teach at a gym without pastel coloring, but I will do my best.

After the gym I made it to a local suit tailor here in Seoul and am getting a suit made. I hear it is a must if you are in Korea. I guess B&B Sundays are about to get super classy! Heads up.

I also found my new favorite salad. There is a tiny shop here called Green Basket that makes an amazing smoked duck salad. I ordered one to go so I can eat it later tonight.
-Brice

Morning at the Korean War Memorial

I spent this morning at the Korea War Memorial. It was very interesting to see the South Korean views of the war expressed through their monuments.

It was easy to see a common theme expressed. Each monument eluded to the splitting of a family and a longing for a reunion. I imagine that this is what it would be like if the US did not reunify after the Civil War.

It is crazy to think that, after 50 years, North and South Korea are still technically at war.
-Brice