CrossFit Ireland Invitational

Had a week off after the Glasgow Half Marathon, then an easy week leading up to the CF Ireland Invitational. Wanted to be fresh for it, but tweeked my back on the Monday of last week, so wasnt sure how it was going to hold up on Saturday

Flew over early Friday morning and spent the day in the gym helping Colm get it ready.

Cinema and Ice Cream on Friday night seemed like great preparation for the fun and games ahead.

On arriving at the gym, I could see a few faces I recognised from Facebook and frums etc, but also a lot of faces I didnt know. I also spotted a lot of nervouse faces too. There were 18 people taking part on the day - 16 guys and 2 girls. After regiserting and saying hi to some new people and some old ones, it was time for the formal introductions and movement standards from Colm.

The first workout was -

7 rounds

7 overhead squats 45kg
7 pull ups
7 wall ball

Time limit of 12 mins

I managed to get 6 rounds plus 2 wall ball, with the last set of OHS killing me, just couldnt stabiles it over head. This got me tied for 5th place.

Next event was -

As many reps in 3 mins of

75kg ground to overhead



Was feeling good for this one, but wasnt sure how my back would hold up. I started off doing push jerks, but after 5 or 6 got a pain in my back and had to unceremoniously dump the weight and recompose myself. I managed another couple of reps but changed to split jerks ( which I should have done from the start ). Got 9 reps in total for this event which moved me up to 3rd place overall.

The last event was a suck-fest -

5 rounds of

400m run
15 clapping push ups
15 double unders
15 overhead lunges with 10kg plate

The runs were ok up to round 3 , the last rounds were a right slog. I managed to do most of the lunges without getting too many not counted. The double unders were nice and smooth too Now...the push ups sucked a fat mans ass as H.Q's Karl Steadman would put it. Every set broken, down to singles on most of the sets, but thankfully no face plants

So over all, I finished in 4th place. Im so chuffed that I managed to get such a high placing as there were some fierce competitors there, especially the guys from CF Ireland. Colm is making some future monsters.

Saturday night was a meal at Captain Americas in Dublin, followed by a pub ( cant remember the name ) but I was so tired, I was nearly sleeping standing up!



Sunday morning was not pleasant, with almost everything apart from my hair hurting. Colm, Ruairi, Peanuts and me sat and watched a couple of episodes of That 70's Show before Colm gave me a lift to the airport. Flight was a bit delayed but managed to get home for 3pm.

I had a fantastic time, with great people and some great workouts.

This is why I CrossFit!