March means Crossfit Open WODs, among other things. If you want to read more about the open, I encourage you to check out Danielle’s blog. Danielle is a trainer at SCF and she actually did the Open, as opposed to me, who watched video of people doing the open. She just posted a recap on her reactions to it.

So, I did do Open-like WODs, as they were the workouts on Fridays this month. I just did modified versions of them. Modified they were still very tough, and I can’t imagine doing the real thing. Maybe I would have tried it in my 20s, but I am decidedly not in my 20s any more, and not that I’m counting but next week kicks off the last year of my 30s. Yowzas. I guess that’s another post for another day.

Here goes …

(Below) My first WOD back from a few days in California. It was actually a nice segway into getting back into the swing of things. Get it? Swing?

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(Below) Ummm. Yep. I did this one all right. And … that’s about all I can remember about that.

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(Below) This was Open 14.2 I did not do the RX. The modified was Front Squats and Pull Ups.

Open 14.2

(Below) And here is 14.3 … The modified was that you didn’t increase weight with each round. Because, you know, increasing weight AND reps is totally, totally, TOTALLY ridiculous.

Open 14.3

(Below)  I do recall wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t recall much else. We did a lot of Cleans this month, probably in prep of the Open WODs. It seems everything was about the Open.

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(Below) Zach and his smiley faces. That doesn’t make it a happy moment. I definitely felt the chest burn on this one.

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(Below) Hello, Open 14.4. What they call a Chipper. I had planned to do the Toes-to-Bar, which I can do. When I got to that point I did about 3 Toes-to-Bars and was like FTS! So I did knees-to-chest instead. I managed to get through the Power Cleans (not RX). With about 30 seconds to go, our trainer, Jess, asked if she should pull out the rings so I could finish the dips (I don’t think anyone planned to get that far through).  I just shook my head, waved my arms, like no, please no.

Open 14.4

The inspiration for this was the 300 KB swings a day challenge our coach was doing. I didn’t think I’d get more than 20 unbroken KB swings, but my top score was in the 80s.

(Below) Forgot my phone, so here is 14.5. Last, definitely not least. So, it’s not just burpees. It’s bar-facing burpees. That is, you face your Thrusters bar. You do a burpee. you jump over the bar, you turn to face the bar, you do another burpee. You do that 21 times, after those 21 Thrusters of course. Then 18 times. Then …

I did the modified version, meaning my Thrusters weight was not RX, and my time was not terrible, right around 15 minutes. Though it was hard to get into a good burpees rhythm, if you just kept yourself moving and didn’t slow down, it was okay.

Open 14.5

The day after 14.5 I did a Trail Run with a couple of other CF gals and Trainer Jess 2 (the ultramarathoner Jess, as opposed to Yoga Jess) We ran around Ravenna/Cowen Park trails for about 50 minutes, in the cold rain. The rain wasn’t bad. The trails were fun. Within the first five minutes, Jess had us doing this interesting descent, what looked like a 30-foot drop in the mud. I ended up squatting and basically sliding down the mud. I later told her I was more freaked out by that descent than I was when I started 14.5. The run was fun, especially as Jess regaled us with stories about Badwater. Bad ass, is what I say.

(Below) Last one of the month. I used the 14-lb Wall Ball for once. I’m short. I do not like Wall Balls.

And … buy-bye March!