This past weekend, the Englishman and I participated in our first official crossfit competition hosted by our own box, Crossfit Vibe.  We “technically” participated last year, but had to do the workouts in advance as we were in Maui on our honeymoon on the day of the event.  It was an awesome, humbling and exhausting experience.  And while we finished nowhere near the top, we both felt proud at the end that we made it through.

Here are some things I learned from my first crossfit competition:

1. Prepare to be humbled.

We registered for the “fun” division, and while I know I’m not the best crossfitter out there, I was incredibly humbled by all of the amazing athletes in the fun and RX division.  The way they flew through the movements with ease when I was struggling through my front squats was crazy.  I definitely have a lot to work on.

2. Doing 3 WODs in a day is hard.

Normally at crossfit we do 1 WOD (work out of the day) at 6am and then we are done.  This was 3 WODs broken up over the course of a day and while all of them were quite short (12 min or less) it was still challenging to gear up to do your final workout at 1:30PM when you are used to working out first thing in the morning.  Not to mention by that point you are pretty sore!

3.  Resting and refueling is key.

When I run races, they are always first thing in the morning so normally I don’t each much and then refuel after.  When you are doing a crossfit competition, it’s an all day event so you have to time your eating in between workouts.  The Englishman and I still have a lot of work to do on this, but we experimented with protein shakes and easy digestible foods like eggs, granola bars and some fruit.  I don’t like having a ton of food in my stomach when working out so it was definitely a bit tricky.  Plus, in between cheering for everyone you had to make sure you were resting/warming up for the next event.

4. Having a good partner is crucial.

I feel so lucky that the Englishman and I could compete together as a team.  We were able to brush off nerves and just have fun with it.  Communication was key during some of the workouts so we set up a game plan ahead of time so when we were in the thick of it we could just power through.  Also: coming up with a good team name is important (ours was Titus Andromedon).

5. The crossfit community is awesome.

I was so inspired by how many people came out to cheer us on.  It was awesome to have the support from our own friends and box, but to have other people cheering for us during the workouts was great.  And fun!  It’s truly a great community and it’s so nice to know that people have your back, regardless of if you finish first or last.

So there you have it! Our first crossfit competition is in the books and it was a great learning experience overall.  Fellow crossfitters: have you competed before?  Any tips and tricks for competition day?