There is of course copious material on the CrossFit Games on their web site and elsewhere, so I'll limit my comments here to Nicolé's experience.

My previous posts from the scene were cryptic and a little dis-jointed I know (I was submitting them from my cell phone, typing onto a screen I couldn't even see in the bright sunlight), so I'll try and fill in some blanks here and give you my final thoughts on the event.

Saturday featured 5 events - some single-station movements and some circuits - intended to weed out the bottom tier of the field through 2 elimination rounds. As I previously mentioned, Nicolé survived both of those in spite of a single-rep deadlift event which is clearly not her strongest event. She did enough in the others to keep her in the game through the end of the day. The last event of the day was a wicked wall ball and barbell snatch combo in which half of the remaining women did not finish in the allotted time. No surprise; it was the end of a 9-hour day containing more work than most people get in a week. Nicolé came up a few reps short herself, and thus ended her run.

I can't tell you how proud I am of her and the effort that she gave to this competition. She was most of all smart. She used her experience and intelligence to every possible advantage. Next, she was prepared. No surprises (except for the sledgehammer station) and very little about the outcome that wasn't predictable based on the chosen work and her natural attributes. The only thing left then is heart. And she had it in truckloads. Willing to subject herself to high levels of discomfort for the goal. You have to admire that.

And I am proud of the work we did to get her there. That showed up as great technique and the fact that she exited the competition due to failing capacity and not injury. She is an extremely well-balanced athlete that deserved to be there.

I hope you will all let her know that you followed her adventure and are proud of the courage it took to participate in this merciless competition. She is deserving or our greatest respect and admiration.

The end of the day Saturday was a bit of a whirlwind, which explains the lack of posts until now. Here's a brief review of the last hours of the day:

The specifics of the final workout for Saturday came out at about 4P. I think the individuals that were making that decision were becoming concerned about the shear amount of work that had already been demanded of the competitors and the extraordinarily high level of competition, not to mention the waning day. It was decided that the final workout would be scaled back a bit, and the result was 3 rounds of wall ball (14#/20#, 30 reps) and barbell snatches (45#/75#, 30 reps). The other item of significance is that the wall ball targets were slightly higher than the previous standard, at about 11 feet.

They placed a cutoff time of 20 mins; a deadline which roughly half of the competitors couldn't meet (probably by design). The end of this workout would produce the final cut and reduce the field to 16 men and 16 women from an original field of 150 total.

Nicolé had survived 2 cuts to the field already, and was put up a great effort in this final workout. Time ran out on her with about 20 snatches remaining. This is where her Games competition would end.

I have much more to say about this experience and I will write more about it in a summary blog in the next day or so. But right now I knew that I needed to bring those of you who were following this blog all up to speed as soon as possible. We will be flying back together to Seattle on Sunday, and I'll be back in the gym as usual Monday morning.

The 3rd event is still running, so we're still a waya away from the final event of the day. And there's still some question about the event. We know it will consist of wall ball and barbell snatches, probably 5 rounds for time. But we do not know the rep count for each station. We do know that the snatch load is well within Nic's capacity, so her remaining stamina is the only issue. It has been long hard day already, but she's tough and my confidence in her is high. Her spirits are good.

4th event is done. Row / sledgehammer combo. She rocked. that's just a seat of the pants assessment and I don't have an official standing. She'll definitely finish out the day - then we'll see. Back soon.

3rd heat is done. Nic completed the sandbag run in 1:30. don't know how that will affect her standing yet. she was great. still healthy, but tired. She's already done more in 1 day than anyone should. 2 more heats. check back soon.

On the first heat Nic was nothing short of amazing. among the 70 or so fittest woman on the planet, Nic placed 13th.

The second event was a progressive deadlift. The rapid pace of the lifts makes this a relatively dangerous event. Nic's max to date is 242, and my biggest concern was getting her thru this event injury-free. I'm happy to say we did that. She lifted 225; a load that will drop her standing but leave her in good shape for what's coming.

Next up is a sandbag run - short but uphill. She'll carry 35#. This ought to be another strong event for her. More soon.

On the first heat Nic was nothing short of amazing. among the 70 or so fittest woman on the planet, Nic placed 13th.

The second event was a progressive deadlift. The rapid pace of the lifts makes this a relatively dangerous event. Nic's max to date is 242, and my biggest concern was getting her thru this event injury-free. I'm happy to say we did that. She lifted 225; a load that will drop her standing but leave her in good shape for what's coming.

Next up is a sandbag run - short but uphill. She'll carry 35#. This ought to be another strong event for her. More soon.

from my cell phone. ain't tech grand. Nic is in a pre-comp meeting. she's feeling good and ready to go. first event, a 5 mile trail run, is less than an hour away. More soon.

Saturday is Nic's first day of competition, but today was not the relaxing day I had anticipated. First off, I had expected to post my first blog from the Games site earlier in the day. That plan was scrapped when we arrived on site and discovered that our base of operations was in a different location than I had been told. The new location had no power, and was lacking in amenities such as tables and chairs. Since I had no secure place to park the laptop, I opted to leave it tucked away in the car. Beyond that I got pressed into service almost immediately by Chef By Design - Nicolé's sponsor - as a grill master when their on site team staffing the food booth became overwhelmed by the crowds. Bottom line, no time for blog posts until now when I am safely back in the hotel room.

Nicolé's traveling entourage includes Steph Aardal, Greg Shugarts, Ceci Lauerman, and me. We arrived at the Games site at about noon, and I escorted Nic immediately to the registration tent. We then proceeded to the medical area to get her photographed and checked over. Her responsibilities for the day were then pretty much over. She spent the rest of the day wandering the site and learning more about her challenges tomorrow while Greg, Steph, and I staffed the BBQ grill for CBR.

Those challenges are now well known: a 7.4K trail run, graduated deadlifts to failure, a 500 meter row / sledgehammer task / 500 meter row combo, another 170 meter run with a 35# sandbag, and finally, a wall ball / barbell snatch couplet. More details on these tomorrow.

I'll try to update this blog from my cell phone if possible, but at the very least I'll provide my own perspective of the day for you at about this time tomorrow.

Picture above is an overview of one of the competition areas with Nic dead center of the picture in the striped shirt. See more photos here.

Wish her luck. And stay tuned.

2009 CrossFit Games Report #1

This is departure day. In a couple of hours a small group of us will board a plane bound for California and, eventually, on to the Games site. I will use this space to provide reports back to the GJ community on a regular basis between now and Sunday. I will include pictures whenever possible.

It was in January of this year that Nicolé first discussed competing in the Games. Right now my thoughts are focused on how grateful I am that Nicol? has endured these several months of training injury free and on a continual upswing in performance. Her energy is good and she appears remarkably stress free.

I will quite content if she returns home on Sunday in the same condition - no matter what else happens. I'll post again when we arrive tonight.