Just a week ago I was hanging out in Madison watching the elite of the elite crossfit athletes workout and it.was.awesome. I was lucky enough to snag a couple tickets to this year’s Crossfit Games and even though it wasn’t the most opportune time, we made it work and I am so happy we did! The Crossfit Games to Nick and I is like the Super Bowl to most Americans. Imagine seeing your favorite NFL star up close and personal or just walking around right in front of you. That’s how this entire event was for us. I may or may not have had a couple fan girl moments!
Even though it was a rest day for the athletes we headed to Madison Thursday and went straight to the venue. We walked the entire event space to checkout where the workouts will be, went to all of the vendors and ate all of the free samples of course, checked out a couple food vendors and watched the day before events on the jumbo tron. That might not sound like a fun day to most of you, but I loved every second of it. Since there wasn’t too much else going on that day we headed out to find a gym to get in a workout. We don’t actually belong to a crossfit box so we decided to find a fitness center instead to get in a good lift. We ended up going to a YMCA near our hotel and it had everything we needed to get in a good workout.
Right away Friday morning we head right to the venue to catch the first workout of the day. These athletes are absolutely insane when it comes to their fitness level. Their job is to workout on a daily basis. Like, how cool is that? In between workouts we did some more walking around which is when I had my fan girl moments. I first saw Christmas Abbott. She is pregnant and is just a few weeks behind me. I was waiting in line for the bathroom and of course didn’t have my phone and Nick wasn’t anywhere near me so I totally missed out on a photo opt with her. I was bummed. I’d be lying if I said we didn’t then walk around the entire grounds looking for her… Later in the day we saw Julie Foucher (4 times Games Athlete) and I wasn’t going to let another photo opp pass me by so I walked straight up to her and asked for a photo. She was just the sweetest. She stood there and we chatted for a bit and I just wanted to put her in my pocket and take her home with me. When I see these women on social media or TV they look much bigger than me. Muscular wise they absolutely are, but I am taller than many of them and they make me look like a giant. We ended up staying at the venue until almost 9pm that night just hanging out and watching people workout. It was incredible.
Saturday we had to head home for a wedding and we may or may not have contemplated skipping the wedding. We were able to see the first workout of the day, though. It started in the lake with swimming and paddling so we walked a good mile to the lake. This was the closest we were able to get to the athletes all weekend. So rad. It would have been so awesome to stay the rest of the weekend, but hopefully we can go back again next year!
Each day they had a workout posted for fans to do so I jumped on that opportunity, because why not? When else am I going to be able to say I worked out at the Crossfit Games? I ended up doing a scaled version of the workout because running just wasn’t going to happen. I thought about doing the weighted thrusters, but I was still pretty sore from workouts earlier in the week and didn’t want to overdue it. The RX (as prescribed) workout below was taking people about 8-12 minutes to complete and I completed the scaled workout in 4 minutes something. One thing that I absolutely love about crossfit is that you can get in a body crushing workout in a short amount of time. However, if I were to do this workout again (which I just might) I’d do at least 4 rounds or give myself a time cap to complete as many rounds as I can. Pick one of these workouts below and give it a shot!
Crossfit Games 2018 Workout RX
– 400m run
– 50 barbell thrusters (50lbs for men and 35lbs for women)
– 30 chest to bar pull-ups
Crossfit Games 2018 Workout Scaled
– 400m assault bike
– 50 air squats
– 30 ring rows