Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The Battle of the Sexes rages at CFOT...



So, today I got up and headed off to CFOT like a happy little lemming, ready to get my daily dose of ass whooping, but was unprepared for the MADNESS that ensued today. Before I get into that though, I apologize for the delay in the ramblings... I had a goal of something I was trying to accomplish today, and I had to work tonight, so my ramblings were waylaid. Anyhoo, back to the topic at hand.

When I got to the Blue Room of Pain this morning, Jerry said today was going to be a rematch. While I was out of town a few weeks ago and was busy trying to muscle my way through "Tiger", CFOT had a raging Young Gunz vs. Old Timerz workout. Old Timerz squeaked out a win at the end, and after realizing what Jerry meant, I thought today was going to be a great rematch. But then, from the peanut gallery came a voice. A voice which so clearly said, "Or we could just do boys versus girls" and oh shit, it was on like Donkey Kong. Adrienne's one little spark, set off a freakin' prairie fire. So here's how this all went down. Jerry did some number crunching, so I'll include that at the end as well.

Certain exercises were worth a certain number of points... we'll start with the highest one...
6 points for 400 meter Farmer's Walk 25lbs for women
5 points for 1200 meter run

2 points for all of the below
OHS X 20 45 for women (changed after my first set from 65)
Knees to Elbows X 20
Burpees X 20
Bullwhips X 100
Abmat situps X 40
Row X 500 meters
Wall Ball X 30
Ring dips X 20
Muscle ups X 10
HSPU X 10

During the last 10 minutes of the battle we were allowed to team up with a teammate. Adrienne and I rocked through sets of situps like it was our job. We also hit some ring dips there at the end. We were lean mean fighting machines. Jerry, being the number cruncher that he is, crunched numbers throughout the whole day to see how this was going to break down. Going into the 1700 class, the women had a marginal lead... although I had though after the massive showing at 0645 today that we had lost the huge lead we had, but we hung in there! So, my contribution today to the team was... 33 points. Not too shabby. I did the bullwhips though, and 2 sets of OHS... they took me awhile. So anyhoo, numbers, right... gotta love Dick, er... I mean Jerry... ;)

At 0600 there were 7 people
4 Women scored 144 - 3 men scored 100

At 0645 there were 18 people!
8 Women scored 273 - 10 men scored 343

At 0730 there were 10 people
3 Women scored 97 - 7 men scored 238

At 0900 there were 4 people
1 Woman scored 31 - 3 men scored 87

At 1700 there were 14 people
7 Woman scored 226 - 7 men scored 255

Final:
23 Women scored 771
30 Men Scored 1023

Women 33.5
Men 34.1

.6 points! I honestly think that this says a lot about the women at CFOT. We have some serious fire breathing men out there, and for us to hang in there with them shows just how tough we are. I am very proud of all the ladies who jumped into the fray today! Speaking of Battle of the Sexes, and ladies and girl power and all that... I saw this article the other day and it just seems to fit so well with the post today. This is courtesy of Jon Gilson at Again Faster. It resonates with me at the moment.

"If I were feeling a little more lawless, I’d gather all the copies of Cosmo and Seventeen, douse them in kerosene, and strike a match. I’d throw in reams of print ads from Calvin Klein and watch with delight as Kate Moss’ stick-thin image was reduced to carbon. I’d add copies of Shape and Runner’s World until the flames reached toward the heavens, and then I’d crank call the editorial desk at Muscle and Fitness until they stopped publishing pictures of women on steroids.

I’d get the master tapes of America’s Next Top Model and dub over them with “Nasty Girls”, broadcasting the results on every television station in America. I’d skywrite “CrossFit.com” across the Boston skyline, and gently admonish the hoards of long distance runners trotting along the Charles River—with a bullhorn.

I’d take every woman with mass media-induced ideals of beauty, and I’d show them what it really means to be beautiful.

Beautiful women are strong and powerful. They are athletes, capable of every feat under the sun. They have muscles, borne of hard work and sweat. They gauge their self-worth through accomplishments, not by the numbers on the bathroom scale. They understand that muscle weighs more than fat, and they love the fact that designer jeans don’t fit over their well-developed quads.

They know that high repetitions using light weights is a path to mediocrity, and “toning” is a complete and utter myth. They refuse to succumb to the marketers that prey on insecurity, leaving the pre-packaged diet dinners and fat-burning pills on the shelf to pass their expiration date.

Beautiful women train with intensity. The derive self-image from the quality of their work and their ability to excel. They don’t wear makeup to the gym, and they wouldn’t be caught dead with a vinyl pink dumbbell. They move iron, they do pull-ups, they jump, sprint, punch, and kick, and they use the elliptical machine—as a place to hang their jump rope.

They spend their weekends in sport, climbing walls, winning races, and running rivers. They laugh as they sprint circles around the unschooled, turning the image-obsessed into benchwarmers. Beautiful women don’t care if they’re soaked in sweat and covered in dirt, if their nails are chipped or their hair out of place. They care only about quality of life.

Beautiful women are happy, healthy, and strong, and they’re right there beside me, tossing conventional beauty on the ever-growing flames of what used to be.

Be beautiful."

I wish Jon would have added in there that he would also be replacing shows like the Real Housewives of Orange County with tapes of Fran, and pictures of torn calluses. You don't need to wear a $1000 dress to be beautiful and you certainly don't need plastic surgery. Strength and determination are beautiful. Tell me it doesn't take determination to push through Angie with 3 torn and bleeding calluses... I gotta tell you... I hope that there is a fire station close to Jungle's, cause the ladies of CFOT are smokin! They are strong and beautiful, and men, don't worry... we'll get you in the rematch. You better all sleep with one eye open... ;)

9 comments:

Diarist said...

Wow!

I wish there was a CF gym near me, its hard to measure up when its only you training!

Your WOD sounds intriguing, some things I've not heard of.

I'm totally with you on the aesthetics too. Its rare to find a woman who actually exercises like an athlete sadly, they'd rather go on dumb diets and curse those who get up off their butts! Well, at least in the UK.

Anonymous said...

YES! I read you blog a couple of times because it is so amazingly true. Stay strong Katie!!

Adrienne said...

Amen to that brother. I knew I liked Jon Gilson!

This has sparked an idea for a post for me.. It'll be up later this afternoon.

Katie said...

See Adrienne, I told you you'd like it... ;)

Brendan said...

Sweet workout katie. 33 points is pretty BA. And nice grab on jons article. He is one of the trainers up here at CF Boston so I have the pleasure or working with him daily and I absolutely love that article of his. I suggest reading some of the other stuff, some of it is really good and motivating.

Peace,
Bones

Lars said...

As always Katie, your writing is excellent. And 33 points from that, cool!

Jerry Hill said...

SWEET!

A great day at CFOT and another great recap and post by you Katie!

Happy 4th!

Katie said...

Brendan! Nice to see you again... you still need to work on that blog... ;) I think it's awesome that you get to work out with Jon everyday. He's got some great stuff. I hope he's as good of a trainer as he is a writer.

Thanks Lars, although, to be fair, half of that writing wasn't mine... ;)

Katie said...

Thanks Jerry! I always love it when you drop by! Happy 4th!