Posted in Athletes on September 30, 2012 by oldcountrystrong
It started out over a year ago.
Roo achieved her Master of Sport ranking in the 20kg Long Cycle at last Novembers IKFF Nationals in Detroit. It was Roo’s second outing in Kettlebell Sport and she reached the Highest Rank she could with with her Bell weight.
What do you do next?
Well the next logical Idea would be to go for her MSIC (Master of Sport International Class) which is the absolute highest rank you could achieve. Roo had a talk with Big John Buckley after that Competition that would change her whole train of thought as to her next goal. You see Roo is an awesome Kettlebeller, but she isn’t solely a Kettlebell Athlete. No she also quite the established Crossfit athlete.
John’s advice to her was very different than simply,“go up a Bell weight and get that Rank.”
No he told her since she didnt train Kettles all that often it wouldnt be smart for her to get after a heavier bell without diverting more of her training to kettles. And since Roo trains so diversely what he said was simply:
“Just get really good with your weight and break a record.” (Well it wasn’t quite that. But it was something along those lines, we were all in full Stage 5 at that point at the hotel bar he pretty much said get really good with your Bell and Fuck shit up.)
So Roo went through a whole Crossfit season training business as usual. Then during this last Season I received a book. The book was from my Coach Jeff Martone. He had written a Kettlebell manual and wanted me to write a review for it. While reading it I came across a write up on Kettlebell marathon Sport that mentioned a lifter I had met from Australia while I was in Russia the year before. It listed a world record she had set in the one hour kettlebell Jerk.
The Bell weighed 35 pounds and she had jerked it 546 times in an hour.
Well now I thought…
Lighter Bell, maybe not exactly what John was talking about, but I figured why not.
“Hey Roo wanna try and Break a World Record?”
And now here we are it’s been a long road.
Let’s go to the Marathon Championships to Break it… Wait they’re in Italy
Let’s Hold a One Hour Charity Event in Seattle to Break it… Wait our Friends Orange Kettlebell Club already do a one hour event (Big Johns Crew)
Let’s uhhhhh… Shit let me ask John if it’s cool if we do something similar.
What’s this? You guys would like to hold your Annual One Hour Long Cycle fundraiser in Seattle? Fucking Sweeeeet, you would like help planning it? Even better. Hey, Let’s have a Relay option this year so people new to Long Cycle (Kettlebell Clean and Jerk if your on the site please try and keep up) can participate too. As you can tell you guys are getting the fast forward model of this particular project.
BOOM!!!!
We are holding the Orange KettleBell Club One Hour Long Cycle charity event this year in Seattle. We will have a Relay Option and Our VERY own Marissa “Roo” Luchau will be taking a run at the One Hour Kettlebell Jerk World Record.
We have assembled at least 1o Relay Teams for the Event comprising of 3 to 5 people and countless other individuals will be showing to support that day.
So how do you Register?
You don’t, you simply donate at least 25 Dollars to the cause and show up to lift. Since this is the first year we are organizing Teams for the event we are keeping it nice and simple for everyone. You don’t have to create an account to donate. Just simply click on the below link.
That link will take you to the “Team Marissa” fundraiser page. This is where we are collecting all of the Relay Team Donations. Simply donate 25 Dollars if you will be competing on a Relay then send me a confirmation email at oldcountrystrong@gmail.com.
Let’s show everyone how the I/C can unite for a cause guys. Lets show everyone when one of ours is going swinging for the fences we stand with her.
Lets show everyone we are Old Country and we are Game…
Posted in Articles on September 27, 2012 by fiman61
Now that Z has dazzled us with his warrior poet retelling of PHC 2012, it’s time we discussed something more important which has resurfaced it’s head after nearly 15 years in the dark. And what pray tell is this important issue? Well it has to deal with one of the biggest movie gaffs of all time in my opinion.
“Of all time?” I hear you whisper incredulously (that little word just got me like 30 points in Scrabble aka Words with Friends for you youngsters). So which movie gaff Nickay are you talking about?
Could he be talking about in Back to the Future II where the Delorean is struck by lightning and goes back in time even though the Delorean needs to be travelling 88MPH to do so (and was doing a smooth 1MPH at the time)?
No, but I like where your head is at.
Could he be talking about how there were two traitors in the original Matrix movie?
Got your attention there didn’t I? How can Cipher log in to go all Judas on Morpheus without someone else to log him him in. That is an essential part of Matrix logic, hell they have characters whose only job is to get them in and out. But no, that is for another time (my money is on Dozer BTW).
No, I am talking about the 2nd biggest movie of all time, the one, the only…
Yep, fucking Titanic. And you all know the scene I talking about, the infamous door scene and the immortal question “Could Jack and Rose have both fit on the door and thus avoided dying?”
And I will let my opinion be known right now, they both could fit on that door. Me and Z both fit on pieces of drift wood smaller than that when we younger. Now I always thought I was the only one who thought they both could have fit on. But than I heard because of the rerelease of the movie in 3-D, the Mythbusters have offered to test the theory out. Did other people I know believe in the fact that Kate half assed tried once and than looked out for her own English arse? I broached this subject on a test run with my wife and work wife, their responses:
Drea: “They totally could have…she was a door hog” and “All she needed to do was turn sideways so they could spoon and BAM they both fit on the door”
Malisa: “Hell yeah they both could’ve fit! Stingy bitch!” and “I’ll never let go…except when I let go”
That’s what they thought, I want to know what the rest of you the readers think. Sound off on the door scene or one of the other movie plot holes mentioned above if you want. We will be accepting movie “logic” and real world “logic”.
Posted in Competition on September 25, 2012 by oldcountrystrong
That’s Right. If you caught Monday’s post the Finals was gonna to be “short” and “sweet”…
Yes 30 Squats at 225/135 is “short” and “sweet’. It was originally supposed to be 50 Squats (I like volume squatting what can I say and shit I gave everyone a Rack).
And Weighted Burpees? Not so bad, just stand up and jump with them, the weight didn’t even have to go over your head.
But that Fuckin Tire….
That thing was hell bent on ruining some People’s days. What seemed like a tire that moved with some fair ease for even most of our smaller ladies in the first workout was about to get very Shitty…
For Everyone.
First Up our ladies.
Our top Five girls included Catherine Blatner who had won the seeding workouts, Crossfit Rainer’s Strongest Man Female Winner Marisa Liepman, and the three names that had littered our earlier recaps, Carrie, Alicia and still holding onto the top spot after workout 3 was Kelsey.
All the ladies would get after the Squats. None struggled too bad and all completed the 30 rep work load in their own manner. It was that fucking tire… That backwards tire drag left all our girls with a “What the Fuck,” look on their face.
It’d go slow and steady on the way down the field for the ladies. Well slow and steady but there was A LOT of battle cries going on. Ever girl had the same resounding grunt which matched the effort that was going into the grind of moving that tire down to the Dumbbell station. Kelsey along with Catharine and Marisa would use the lean and drag to keep the tire moving while Alicia would utilize some kinda of twist and thrash method to get the tire to the other end of the field. But while she was one of the first to the tire off the squats, our smallest competitor in the finals in Carrie Winecoff was pretty much in the fight of her life to get that tire moving.
And that’d be the story of the Women’s finals. That same tire drag that helped Kelsey win the first event would help her lock in a first place finish in the workout and a 1st overall for the competition. She’d be followed by the thrashing tire pull of Alicia Connors who locked up second place on the podium with the finish. But for the first time today Carrie wasn’t right on there heels. No she’d dig, scream, and yank that tire back across the field. She’d take 5th in the workout but the guts on her tire pull put her 1st in everyone’s hearts in the final Women’s event of the day.
With the Women done it was the Men’s turn. Was that tire gonna have the same effect on them?
Yes, Yes it was…
The day’s overall Leader Jerome Perryman was still holding strong. While first years Champ Ryan Andrews was sitting in second he was closely followed by the previous year’s champ Jordan Holland who had made a comeback after falling short in the opening workout of the day. Derrek Pratt who had been a constant presence all day was in the final five as well followed by the silent Bull in a China Shop, Andrew Slater, who had made the trip down from Canada and had been wrecking shit off the radar all day and left some high caliber athletes on the outside looking in for the final event.
The Squats were Squats (50 still would have been better I think) and the boys all blew through them unlike the 315 pounds that our finalists had to deal with on their backs last year. But it was the look of shock when they all hit the tire that was priceless.
It took about half a length before the boys all started to combine the techinques of Alicia and Carrie. Thrash and pull with your arms just get that fucking tire across the field.
But unlike the women, the guys seemed to struggle a bit more with the weighted burpees. Maybe it was cause the used their upper bodies on a tire drag. Well most of them did. That Silent Bull from Canada sitting in 5th started to make moves. He was back on the tire about the same time as Holland following Perryman down the field (who was Smashing this workout like he smashed the tire workout earlier in the day). As the two went down the field, some last second frantic pulls by Holland would give him the second place finish in the workout followed by Slater.
Ryan Andrews (who hates anything to do with sleds more then terrorists or taxes) would finish 4th in the workout followed by Derrek Pratt.And this turn of events would have an Immediate impact on the final standings. Ryan had 2nd place all but locked up going into the event until Slater decided to jump into the Top 3 finishers in the finals. Well Jerome won, he had an awesome day of competition and it was great having him up. But what of our two former champions?
Well Folks we Had a tie and if you are familiar with PipeHitters…
WE DON”T DO TIES.
For our 3rd Year in a row it was time to go to Sudden Death…
First year we had Grace, last year we got the Prowler out. This year we just said fuck it and loaded up some Barbells with 135# and had us a good old fashion 40 yard farmers walk dash. It came down to the pick up, Jordan kept his bars level and Ryan went with the down hill skier approach (not a good choice in a Barbells Farmwalk foot race). Jordan crossed the finish line first, taking the tie breaker and finalizing our male podium for the year(Shameless 10 Barrel Plug as always).
With the shake up caused by Slaters finish in the Men’s final, did the Womens final standings change with Carrie’s epic struggle with that fucking tire? Kelsey and Alicia had traded shots for 1st and 2nd most of the day. But Carrie was always right in the fire taking 3rd in all of the day’s events leading to the finals.
I had a lot of pride in my chest when I got to announce Carrie’s second trip to the podium in her last three PipeHitters appearances (she had taken 2nd the first year when she won the Sudden Death Grace tie breaker). She had taken third in the most competitive field we’ve ever had in the PipeHitters Women’s Division. And being one of the smallest athletes of the day I couldn’t tell you how proud I was of her gritty display. She has come so far since when she first walked into my gym as the girl that wouldnt deadlift, I was so very proud of her that weekend.
Everyone competing that day should have been proud of themselves. PipeHitters by nature is supposed to take people out of their comfort zone and just give you a place to beat the piss out of each other. But there’s more to it than that. Yes we have opened talks with people about having some other PipeHitters based events throughout the year. Yes, they’ll have that same slobberknocker anyone can show up if you can lift mentality to them.
But…
Even if the Club starts adding more PipeHitter type events there will only ever be ONEPipeHitters Classic. And I’m proud to say that this year all those that showed up that day helped raise 1,500 Dollars for The Behind the Badge Foundation. This is the Clubs charity of choice for the event and I can’t say how much it means to all of us that support the Foundation.
The Third Annual PipeHitters Classic was in the books with Two new Champions and a list of memories a number of us will never forget.
Posted by: Z
Look for a upcoming PipeHitters Special Athlete Edition: “The WarHorse…”
Posted in Competition on September 20, 2012 by oldcountrystrong
Well with Two of the Three workouts deciding the route to the finalsin the Books, we had seen more change in the Men’s Bracket but ANOTHER steady 1-2-3 from our ladies.
Well “Change” in the Men’s Bracket is quite the understatement. Besides the Fact that Jerome Perryman was still locked in first, there had been quite a change up. A number of the gritty performances in the first workout weren’t match by those same brawlers in the second workout while a couple of past champs had performed well enough in the ladder to jump right back in it. First year Champ Ryan “HollyWood” Andrews had actually put himself into second and last year’s champ Jordan Holland came back from a shocking finish in the first workout to take first in the ladder and would be looking to make a move back into the top 3.
With all the shifts going on in the men’s side of things, you had to wonder what was gonna happen with the women. Well the first women’s workout was separated by seconds with regards to 1st to 3rd, the 2nd workout likewise was only seperated by a single rep.
But this is PipeHitters, anything can happen and there was an aspect of PipeHitters we hadn’t seen yet and I’m sure some people were waiting for.
“When were the Kettlebells coming Back into play?”
Last year’s PipeHitters had a workout that we had nicknamed“The SoulCrusher.” It was9-15-21 of Unbroken Double Kettlebell jerks and Burpees. It had a cutoff that most were shocked to hit. How hard could kettlebell jerks be to do Unbroken? I mean they were only 53/35. Well that swift kick in the nuts taught a lot of people to get use to the punishment that kettlebells can hand out.
So when we Brought out a pair of Bells for the third workout demo most let out a small sigh cause “Here it was”. And since it is PipeHitters, we had some surprises that would leave some less then confident in their abilities to complete the workout.
Let’s go Back down the Rabbit hole…
Workout 3
3 Rounds
6 Clean and Jerks 135/95
6 Double KettleBell Clean and Jerks 53/35
6 Double KettleBell Snatches 53/35
The two Kettlebell Sets had to be completed Unbroken. Failure to do your reps without setting your bells down resulted in having to set the set over.
Have you ever tried to complete Unbroken Kettlebell Sets at High Intensity? It feels like your forearms have filled with acid and your gonna SYLO(Shit Your Lungs Out in Laymen’s terms).
Oh… And What the Fuck is a Double Snatch?
It’s when you Snatch two Kettlebells of course….
More then anything, this added a very fast aspect to this workout. In all honesty, the whole workout could be down fast. Barbell and Kettlebell Clean and jerks at those weights move FAST. And Double Snatches (after some quick teaching over in the athelete area) are more like the Kettlebell swing from hell than the Beauty of the single armed movement.
BUT… The whole workout was guaranteed to make your grip disappear faster then a Virgin on Prom night if your weren’t efficient doing any of the three movements.
Pretty much when Nickay and I were planning this I wanted to avoided any gaming out we saw in last year’ss workout (i.e. People waiting long periods between their sets in the final heat before going after it). No, for this particular workout we were looking for one thing and one thing only.
“Nickay I want this to look like a Demolition Derby…”
Girls were up first and let me tell you it was the most excited I had been watching a competition in quite some time.
Now first allow me to state that atit seemed like some competitiors (guys include in this) had never even snatched a Kettlebell, let alone two. But God Damn I love PipeHitters, NO ONE was backing down from the challenge or weight. Curses and scream were plenty but people were gonna get this shit done.
Each new heat from our ladies got More and More intensity. Be it the Kettles or the Barbells, everyone was out to show Gravity what was up.
I/C locals and those just looking for a good scrap alike were pounding away round after round. Unofficially adopted I/C favorite Martha Woodruff (We’ve had issues with the paper work, her being from Canda and all) was the first to completely handle the workout. This mind you with a busted thumb which had seen her have to pul out of Workout 2 to every spectator’s dismay. In case you dont know this… Martha is Strong as Fuck.
And Speaking of Strong as Fuck, it was a personal moment of pride of mine when I/C squat machine Michelle Beckman was the first Girl to attempt and succeed and going Coast to Coast Unbroken with all her Kettlebells, this included go straight through her Clean and Jerk into her Snatches. Game…
But yet again, it was gonna be the top three ladies in the final Heat that put on the show that day. The top three ladies would be close but the Real battle was gonna come down to Kelsey Nagel and Alicia Connors in this one.
I have referenced Kelsey as a Raw force in the strength division a number of times in these writeups. But I also dropped the tagline on Alicia as the Canada West Buzzsaw at one point. Roo who is a very accomplished kettlebeller has mentioned a blankness she notices in Alicia’s workouts before. This is something you see in high level kettlebell atheletes. The ability to just turn off and go. It’s being gritty and grit is a huge part of PipeHitters.
And when the Demolition Derby in the final Heat started with these two girls it never really slowed down. Both went unbroken through all the movements in their first round before slowing in the last.
Lined up side by side it was quite the spectacle to watch.
It came down to Who would drop their bells first. And after a no rep call on a series of pressed out snatches it would be Kelsey to drop the bells from aching forearms first. While the Canadian Buzzsaw just kept moving to the sound of TIME!!! Kelsey would finish behind her after a recovering from the drop. It was quite the finish between two fierce competitors.
After the show the ladies had put on, were the men ready to answer the horn to match the intensity for this workout? As the Heats began to bang against one and another, the answer was yes for sure.
Unlike with the ladies who were having more issues with the weight of the Bells, it was the grip that was going for our male competitors across the board. But after a number of athletes had gotten knocked quite a bit back after the ladder, now was the time to go for broke.
And they did. Spectators needed to keep their distance as bells were ejected out in front of competitors mid clean or snatch. Guys were kicking Bells, having choice words for judges, and causing a spectacle all over the Place.
A couple of return athletes from last year made up ground on this one though. Chris Schaalo, who was having his first legit competition since a wrist injury would be first done in his heat. And always keeping it Gangsta sans Shirt (but still rocking a belt mind you), Sean Wells of Oregon Crossfit put on quite the display in the Double Snatch.
But much like with the Ladies, it was gonna be the final heat for the boys that was gonna bring the House down. Only 5 were gonna move into the finals and those spots were up for grabs if people didn’t sell out in this event.
And sell out people did….
All method of “Gettin’ it Done” was on display with this one. Some were going for broke on the Bells and breaking up the Barbell. Holland was going with his usual half and half approach of a full sprint followed by a quick rest. While Derrek Pratt (there’s that name again) was the only guy using an outside the knee Clean AND Snatch that I’ve seen since last year’s Kettlebell National Championship in Detroit.
But then there was Ryan Andrews again, Ryan had slowly moved himself back into second place and was chipping away nice and constantly in this workout. Jerome was showing a bit of unfamiliarity with the movements that was keeping him out of the thick of the firefight in this one but that doesn’t mean he was moving slow.
It was anarchy up and down the line of competitors (and I love Chaos). But you could tell which of the big dogs were in their last round. And like what we saw with the girl’s it was coming down to two guys and who would finish first.
Ryan was out in the lead and looking to lock in a first place finish in the workout. He was just finishing up his Kettlebell Clean jerks when the next guy behind him, another Champ Jordan Holland, was just getting to his Bells. Ryan opted to set his Bells down before his snatch, Jordan could hear the crowd yelling for him to pick them back up. Showing a strong back, that does come in handy from time to time< Jordan increased the tempo dramatically on his snatches as he and Ryan raced to finish.
TIME!!!
Who had just taken first? It was so close watches had to be checked. But the quicker finish on the last snatch would go to Jordan, Ryan finishing ONE second behind him.
That was the Demolition Derby we were hoping for.
And with that it was time to cut the field down to 5 Men and 5 Women. Who was going into the finals? Who was close to making it onto the Podium? Was there enough of a point spread for those sitting in first to be knocked off? We’re we going to see our first Repeat Champion at this Years PipeHitter’s Classic? What was the Final workout gonna be?
Posted in Competition on September 17, 2012 by oldcountrystrong
Event 1 was in the books and quite a few things were shaken up on the Men’s side of the leader board.
But it’s PipeHitters Right, Borderline Grimy opening workouts are to be expected.
As we’ve seen in the Past, one workout can shake things up Fast. And with what was coming next, would atheletes hold onto their current standings? So what was coming next? And were people gonna give this one the due and proper respect some may have overlooked in Event 1.
Just like the tires, people couldn’t help but notice when they showed up there was something else grabbing people’s attention.
A MOUNTAIN of Gnarly Heavy Dumbbells.(And when I say gnarly I mean GNARLY, if you think the I/C’s kettlebells look like they were pulled out of a Warzone, our dumbbells are pretty much exactly what twisted steel and sex appeal should look like.)
But what was this scrap pile of unforgiving weight there for?
Thought you’d never ask…
Workout 2 – The Dumbbell Ladder
Time for shit to get Heavy, you had to know a lift was coming. But let’s stay in the nature of PipeHitters, traditionally untraditional. So how were we gonna change up our lift this year. A Ladder isn’t anything new (I fucking love ladders by the way) and neither are Dumbbells seeing how both were involved in Regionals this year. Well it just so happened some of the Local I/C meatheads were dicking around after training one day and decided to “Run the Rack.”
For those not familiar with the Term, “Running the Rack”is when you Hammer Curl your way down the Dummbbell rack at your gym facility. Sometimes Old School shenanigans can inspire greatness.
Our home Gym has a HUGE Mess of heavy Dumbbells.
I look at Nickay,“Dude we should Run the Rack at PipeHitters….”
The idea took shape after a month of debate on how we would actually pull this off. We were pretty happy with the final result, the format would be as follows.
6 Stations
You would have 45 Seconds at each Station to lift and 15 Seconds to Rotate to the next Station. Each Station would have a pair of Dumbbells at it. In your 45 Seconds you would have to complete THREE Hang Clean and Jerks (we were accepting Presses and Pushpresses for the OverHead Portion as well). If you got Three Hang Clean and Jerks you could move on. If you didn’t, that was the end of your ladder.
We did let people know that you could do MORE then three at a station. The scoring was simple.
MOST Reps at the Heaviest Weight was gonna to determine our Winner
The Women’s weight were as followed
35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 65
And the Boys were slanging some metal around themselves
55, 65, 70, 80, 90, 100
The goal was to get people to try and Run the Rack to the last station and go for broke on Reps for the highest score in the event. People did not disappoint.
Our ladies were the first to go.
The weights may not sound too Heavy until you realize that the final Station would be a independent weight 130# Max Rep Hang Clean and Jerk. Oh wait, did I mention if you dropped or set your Bells down that your set was terminated?
This was gonna be Good.
If I was to tell you I was surprised in the outcome of the First workout for the Men this workout for the Women shocked the Shit out of me.
1st – Intensity CHECK
The ladies GOT AFTER the Ladder. I mean I had NO idea how many girls were gonna get to the last couple Stations. But what shocked me the most was the number of STRONG competitors that weren’t getting the last station. Not even a Clean. Not one single girl was getting the 65’s to their shoulders.
Our top three ladies in Kelsey, Alicia and Carrie were all lined up to go. One of our smaller competitors, Carrie attacked the workout in classic lifting fashion. Pull the fuck out of whatever your trying to pick up and scream. It’d work for her. She’d make pretty decent work of the 55# station before giving it her all on the 65’s but missing the clean to her shoulders.
Right behind her Alicia Connors would have the same issue, BUT, she she was told to go for 4 Reps at the 55 pound station. She was the only girl to do this which would play into her favor as far as breaking a Tie in the event with Carrie.
The last women standing was Kelsey Nagel a VERY established power house lifter who was making her way up the Ladder. Having won the first workout she was the last female athlete doing the Ladder. She knew she had to get that Clean if she wanted take first in the ladder. After being instructed to wait 20 or so seconds before she even touched the Bell, she grabbed the Handles stood, took a deep breath then heaved the Bells to her shoulders to be the Only girl to Clean the final weight and secure another top finish.
With the Ladies it was,“Who was gonna clean the final weight?”
The boys had a different idea, it was“Who was gonna get the Most Reps at that last Station?”
Anyone familiar with the I/C or PipeHitters is probably also familiar with RedNose Original Johnny Winters. John is a good friend of mine who has trained with the Club for almost three years. Johnny has a certain skill set that makes him memorable. First, when he competes he has a Sick Battle Stache. Second, he excels at making Gravity his bitch more often then not.
Johnny had gone with the “Lay and Pray” method in the first workout so he could be one of the first to go in the ladder (Thats my story and I’m sticking with it). And he didn’t disappoint, he was like a big grizzly making his way down the ladder pretty much curling and pushpressing the weight. Johnny even did 4 at the 90 pound station for some Reason. With another 4 reps on the 100 Pound Station Johnny had set the bar.
The only problem with setting the bar early is everyone’s coming for it. And did people try to jump that bar. But if it was that easy everyone would walk around with a massive Mustache tangling over there lips.
But all the same, plenty of athletes not competing with an upper deck made it to the 100# station. Some were massive modern vikings and some were just taking a cue from Johnny and tell Gravity to fuck off. One of the Club’ss smaller athletes in Brenden Loyer took the challenge. Having your 175 pounds of bodyweight be dominated by 140 of heart pays off sometimes and Brenden got after those Dumbbells.
Jerome Perryman and Derrek Pratt (told ya to watch for that name again) also came to bang on the final platform , both scoring multiple reps with the Heavy Bells. All and all there was more athletes tearing it up on those Bells than I can remember. But there was only gonna be one winner for the workout.
Last years Champ Jordan Holland was sitting in 11th place after the first workout. But 11th place still gave him plenty of time to see the best scores coming in. Jordan knew to get first place in the workout he’d just need a half Rep more then Johnny. Taking a calm approach to the final station, Jordan moved methodically through his clean and jerks watching the clock and waiting to nail a 5th hang clean in the final seconds of his time on the final station.
That half rep not only put Jordan ahead of Johnny, it put him ahead of anyone else as well and gave him the win for the second workout.
Was it gonna be enough to get him back into contention? And where did those Heavy Bells leave the rest of the field after the Brute Squad in the men’s division smashed the the ladder?
We’ll fill you in on that and this year’s Test of Mental conditioning in Wednesday’s post.
Posted in Competition on September 13, 2012 by oldcountrystrong
Three years now we’ve been running PipeHitters Classic.
Every year there are surprises. Every year these surprise show up in different forms. This year the format itself was different. PipeHitters is traditionally untraditional (fuck someone put that shit on a shirt), so in the past we would release some of the workouts and movements before hand. This gave people a chance to get use to some of the weird shit they may see at the event.
Well we decided to can that this year.
The words out, if your doing PipeHitters your probably gonna be lifting and carrying or throwing Heavy Shit. In general we show up to cause a scene. And the event always delivers that.
So when the surly crowd comprised of crews from Oregon, Canada, Eastern Washington and RandomSeattle gym locations started showing up everyone noticed something on the field.
Sleds…
But not just any kind of Sleds, Ghetto Ass Tire Sleds with Rings for handles. It is PipeHitters isn’t? Reebok ain’t putting on the event.
As you can tell from the picture and from the fact Sleds were there everyone was up for pulling that morning.
Traditionally untraditional right? Well even with the cheap nature of our sled construction, sleds aren’t all that odd to see in a competition. And would this be the “Carry” for this Year, “Traditionally” there is always an object carry at PipeHitters. Our First year it was HEAVY fucking sandbags and last year it was the infamous Zercher Walk AMRAP. Was this year as simple as sleds?
I bet some wished it was once we gathered up the crowd for the announcement of the first workout.
PipeHitters is Known for a couple other things as well. You should know your gonna carry some shit, your probably gonna have to squat something, and you KNOW Kettlebells will be involved somewhere if not multiple times.
Now when we were planning the event we figured why not just hit the ground running?
And here we Go…
Workout 1
3 Rounds
Tire Drag
10 Front Squats 135/95
Across the field and Back WAITERS WALK 53/35
15 Minute Cutoff
Now leading up to this years event we had a number of Preseeding workouts sent out to place people in Heats. The workouts cover what we thought would help people in the first workout. They included tests of overhead stability, kettlebell skill and a flat out ability to get really uncomfortable. Besides getting our ducks in a row for Heats, those who placed higher in seeding had a chance to see the first workout performed before they had to do it. That helped when I announce NO one could touch a sled till the call of GO. Meaning no practice pulls to figure out a good strap placement for yourself.
Now those who know me know I’m a Coach. I have a large number of athletes that compromise the I/C’s competition team. Those that have been at any number of the competitions we’ve traveled to probably have heard me drop the term, “Bracket Buster.” When we use that reference it’s talking about someone who came out of nowhere and fucked up the points system. Like where the fuck did that guy come from that just won that workout?
Well workout 1 for the Men was FULL of Bracket Busters. If I was to tell you the number of High Caliber athletes that were gonna get buried in that workout you would have called…
…On Me
Lets address the girls before the men though. The ladies had some Heavy Hitters signed up this year as well. Canada West Buzz Saw Alicia Connors was in attendance. She wasn’t alone though, NorthWest strength powerhouse Kelsey Nagel had made the trip this year along with the I/C’s own tiny Banshee Carrie Winecoff. But none of these girls had locked up the number one seeding entering PipeHitters. Catherine Blanter from Oregon had sealed that up with early submissions that withstood the weeks of times and weights coming in.
Unfortunately for ALL these ladies they would use the same tires as the guys and be dragging them the same distance. Game.
From the start of the first Heat you could tell those tires were not to be underestimated. Though a short distance, some athletes were finding legs tired for Front Squats and Waiter Walks after the initial pump of dragging the tires began to set in. But everyone knew something like this was coming. There wasn’t any quit in any of these women that day.
Our main heat of girls started out like Hell Fire on the tire drags than set in for the grind of the Waiters Walks. It seemed like Kelsey and Alicia were pullin away with it until out of nowhere the slow and steady pace of Carrie started to chip away at what seemed like a dominate lead. Kelsey would be the first to finish in the at Heat followed by Alicia then Carrie in a last round push for the finish. What seemed pretty cut and dry was closer then it appeared after a review of the times. Kelsey had won the workout, Alicia had taken second by 7 seconds with Carrie third by another 5 clicks on the second hand. It was gonna be a Dog Fight for the title this year. And the title was up for grabs with neither of the former Womens champions making a appearance at this year’s event.
One way or another there was gonna be a new Women’s champ crowned that weekend.
We KNEW there would be a new Womens champ but what about the Men? We had TWO Defending champions competing this year in that division along with a SLEW of Yard Stompers. Jerome Perryman from Oregon had made the trip this year with multiple Crossfit Games trips under his belt. Oregon Crossfit had rolled in Deep with Garret Wales in toe who had tied Perryman in the seeding workouts. The Canadians had come down in force and never count the Peoples champ Skylar Pond out who was back in action for the first time since a shoulder injury.
Ladies and Gentleman you were gonna have to come ready with a mouth guard to compete in the Mens division this year cause shit was about to get ugly.
But what if I was to tell you that the Big Dogs had their hands full in the first workout? What if I was to tell you that one workout was gonna shake up the entire event. Well thats what happened. What seemed so simple, Drag, Squat and then Carry didn’t look to be going down that way on the field. No, in fact that workout was leaving carnage in it’s wake. And the Big Guns seemed to be caught in the worst of the washout.
Bracket Busters…
I mentioned it earlier but now let’s get to it. As those in the final heat watched the early rounds slug it out, they didnt know what they were in for. Derrek Pratt (that name’s gonna be a recurring theme) seemed to manhandle the workout. And he had stayed off the radar by not submitting score so some may have thought his performance showed this wasn’t one to worry about.
Our Canadian friends didn’t fall for the bait. They attacked the workout with the same intensity as Pratt and made the Waiters Walk seem easier than it was. Maybe those with poor flexibility were the only ones falling behind? It’s so simple Drag, Squat and then carry right?
When the word “Go” sounded over the Bull Horn for the final heat no would could make heads or tails of what was gonna happen. Last year’s Champion Jordan Holland thundered out of the gate. He wasn’t alone though, our first champion Ryan Andrews was looking ready for this one as well. And Skylar Pond and Jerome just looked ready to wreck shop. And they all did, through the first round. Then it happen.
Local names started pulling ahead. I/C boys with nothin more then grit to their reputation jumped out in the lead. Big Matty Brenton, Adrain Strain and Blake Johnson all made moves for the top time. Jerome Perryman answered the challenge and pulled back ahead enough to take first in the workout.
But second, third even fourth in the final Heat weren’t big named Regional competitors. It was guys that decided that if this workout was gonna be a brick wall to throw yourself against they were gonna take the fuckin wall down.
When the standings were reviewed, last year’s champion would be going into the the second workout in eleventh place. If I had told you this is how the day would start you would have called Bullshit on me. The twists just keep coming at PipeHitters and Monday we’ll see what was in store next for our unruly Mob of competitors.
Posted in Competition on September 11, 2012 by oldcountrystrong
I don’t think Bill could have nailed our title any better.
Great Mythology inspires.
But Unique Mythology, now that is the unforgettable stuff.
This is the longest I’ve ever put this write-up off before. Honestly I didn’t know if I was gonna be able to do it justice. The writeup I reference is the one about the I/C’s biggest competition of the year. I’m talking about The PipeHitters Classic.
And the reason I didn’t know if I could do it justice was the pure scale of it this year. We had almost more male competitors then we had people in the entire thing the year before. And unlike the previous year we weren’t slugging it out in the parking lot of a friends gym, no. We were at a rented out field, one with vendors and an athelete tent city constructed around a central arena. It was quite the site. And it was quite the event. I couldn’t have asked for it to go off any better actually. But I couldn’t have have had it gone off so well without constant effort from myself and my whole crew. From my brother and sister-in-law running logistics, to all the judges, and my Ma and Boyka keep those damn dogs of mine in line.
It was this constant effort that took away from that Writer’s Eye of mine (not sure if thats a real term) that’s always watching and recording in my head.
But after having been asked by multiple people (and by that I mean EVERYONE) when the writeup would be done, I have decided to try and sort it all out in my head.
But where to start? The Mythology…
“The Mythology is not only Great, it’s Unique…”
It’s PipeHitters, it’s like christmas for anyone that loves to tell gravity to fuck itself on the Reg(Click Here). And that’s what PipeHitters is all about. Yeah, its a Crossfit Style competition. But it’s not all that geared towards crossfitters. It’s not geared towards strongmen, lifters, kettlebellers or just any competitive person either. If you’re coming to PipeHitters you know you’re coming for one thing and one thing only.
You’re coming for a Fight, its that simple.
It’s like being back in school the first day that Bully tells he’ll see you outside after class. You can watch the clock, you can drag your feet out the door but sure as hell it’s coming. And the point of PipeHitters isn’t that you’re gonna knock the bullies teeth out. No, in fact you might go into that fight knowing he’s bigger and stronger then you. That he’s been in more fights then you. That you know he’s a better fighter.
But you don’t care.
That’s what we reference as RedNose. Knowing going in that your more than likely to come out battered, but that bully ain’t walking out without a blackened eye either. That’s Game, that’s PipeHitters.
No one showing up that day knew what was gonna happen. None of the workouts had been released. There was the first ever preseeding competition that took place before you ever even stepped on the field. No one knew what was really coming. The only thing you did know was there were yard stompers every where you looked.
I’ll try and do it justice in the series of writeups I’ll be putting out for all of you. But if I was to sum up the attitudes of the competitors that showed up in August it’d be this.
There wasn’t gonna be a single person walking out without a Black Eye.
Posted in Articles on September 9, 2012 by fiman61
So I have been noticing something lately. Basically it seems the whole world, my own personal sphere and the world as a whole is trying to tell me something. That I need to regrow my beard? No. That the Huskies/Seahawks are going to break my heart this year? No but getting warmer. No, the world it seems is trying to tell me that I’m old. Now maybe I am overexagerrating this but my Spidey Sense is tingling, this is a real threat. You know what? I don’t like these accusations, don’t like them one bit.
I don’t mind getting older, it is part of life. What I do mind is when I get called out as old when I clearly ain’t. This is a multi-prong attack too. Lets look at the culprits.
1. My Kids
Ok I get it, kids call adults old. And Fox and Lulu are only 5 & 4 respectively. But they dont act like I’m older like their dad is an adult, they act like I’m this guy.
Editors Note: Nickay is neither an archeaologist or a Nazi.
They dont call nana or papa old. They don’t call their mom even though she is older than me. This is terribly vexing.
2. My body
I tore my tricep tendon almost 3 months ago. Some have argue that this could be a sign that body is starting to break down. I think of it as a freak occurrence. Because if that truly was a a sign I needed to stop lifting well than I’m going to have spend a lot more time with the surgeon. I’ve got a comp October 20, 2012 and like the Body…
Editors Note: Wanted to use the “Are you hurt or injured clip” from the Program but I actually was injured.
3. Music
This is the one that really hurts. I was running to my physical therapy session for my tricep (again just a freak occurence) the other day and I switched from sports radio to the KUBE 93’s old school lunch. And what song are they playing on the old school lunch? Mariah Carey’s “WeBelong Together”.WHAT THE FUCK! The song came out my first year of law school and now it is considered old enough to be play for the people reliving their past during the lunch hour. What criteria are they using here? In my opinion a song has to come before my nephew was born to be considered for the old school and he is almost 11 years old.
In error I tried to redeem my hope in society later that day. I was listening to my ipod on random when a paralegal walked into my office. I decided to test myself. and ask a paralegal when she came in my office who was singing this song.
The paralegal said Alicia Keys. I said no and said it was Toni Braxton. The paralegal responded with a “Who’s that?”. My face showed my immediate disdain and shock. It is the same face I give people when I hear they haven’t seen the Star Wars movies.
Editor’s Note: To the younger audience, I listen to your music, be it good or shitty, have the same courtesy.
Conclusion
My odometer might be running up the miles but my year of manufacture ain’t that long ago. I may have rolled around with a tape deck but I didn’t roll around with an 8 track player. I ain’t old and wouldn’t be for a while, so everyone who thinks that can shove it.
Posted in Articles on September 6, 2012 by oldcountrystrong
What is the most Difficult aspect of the I/C model for Depth Programming?
The Long agonizing Sets of Volume or Tempo Squats?
The Lactic Conditioning Workouts?
Maybe the constant stream on Bodyweight chains or Barbell Complexes?
No. No, these thing round out a program that has taken many different forms over the years. But there has always been a constant in the Program. Something that set us apart and also made it at sometimes a herculean challenge to attempt to follow us while outside the walls of our home gym.
If you were ask someone involved with the Program they’d tell you one word.
Kettles…
Kettles are what we refer to our kettlebell training as. In our minds its the furnace that any RedNose Yard Stomper is forged in. As the Club has expanded demand for our style of kettles has grown as well. In response the Clubs coaching staff has expanded our Seasonal Seminar schedule. We will our announcing the following dates and are open for MAYBE one or two more Clinics before we shut down towards the end of December.
September 15th –BaseCamp, Seattle Wa October 6th –Excellence Health and Wellness, Seattle Wa. October 13th –Gravity Janes, Issaquah Wa. October 27 & 28th –Jodi Boates Athletics, North Vancouver CA. November 10th –Crossfit Absolute, Sherwood Or.
Our Schedule is nearly closed. Anyone still interested in booking a seminar our attending an upcoming clinic can email me at oldcountrystrong@gmail.com.
“Hey Roo wanna try and Break a World Record?”
Old Country Strong: Life and Lifting 
