March 12, 2018

18.Three Amigos

Written by Adam Neiffer

Holy Cow there were SO MANY inspiring efforts and incredible moments during the CrossFit Games Open Week 3! The only thing more challenging than those darn double-unders is choosing from all the worthy CFV stories to highlight this week!

Redemption Monday was in full effect yesterday. Strong John, Jeff, and Randy don't typically train at the same time. In fact, 18.3 is the first time these three have worked out together. What they all have in common though is a desire to do their best. This is their story. It's the simple tale of three men on a mission to test their limits see what is possible with a little jump rope and a lot of hard work.

STRONG JOHN

Strong John entered week 3 sitting in a solid top 50 spot worldwide in the Masters Men 40-44 division. He smashed the first two weeks of competition in every way. We affectionately refer to him as Strong John (not Gymnastics John) for a reason though. Moving all those muscles over a virtually weightless rope hundreds of times and getting them over a couple wooden circles hanging from a bar over and over isn't exactly an easy task!

After a super respectable score of more than a full round on Saturday, John came in on Monday afternoon and flat out did work. He's been training hard this year and it shows. He looked more like a heavyweight fighter taking swings at those rings than a gymnast, but it was effective. Good thing he's the nicest guy in the gym, because I'd sure hate to make this guy mad! Strong John fought hard during his 18.3 Monday rematch. After nearly completing the overhead squats in rounds 2, he currently sits 55th worldwide and 6th in the West Coast Region in his age division. STRONG work John!

DR. JEFF

Jeff is an ER doc by night and CrossFit Ninja by day. During last year's Open, he decided to do his first bar muscle-up. He's done many more since then and even has ring muscle-ups now too! Because the overhead squat weight on 18.3 wasn't something Jeff is super confident with, he made the tough decision to take on the scaled version of this week's workout. I think that by making the harder decision, Jeff set a great example for the rest of the community: instead of putting himself in harm's way by trying to hack away at a weight that wouldn't be wise, he set his ego aside and went for the scaled workout. He owned the decision too and set a goal to finish all 928 reps.

On Friday, Jeff gave it his all and came up just a few reps short. After back-to-back night shifts over the weekend (imagine trying to catch up on sleep during all that sunshine!), Jeff came in on Redemption Monday and once again set out to finish the (almost) impossible workout. He dug deep the whole way and knocked out the final pull-up with 19 seconds to spare! All of Jeff's movements were so clean and crisp and his chin-over-bar pull-ups would probably have counted as chest-to-bars at a lot of gyms. Thanks for setting an awesome example for the rest of us and congrats on a fantastic week 3 Jeff!

"THE" Randy Richardson

The third and final fellow in this photo is Randy Richardson. Where do we even start with Randy's story? If you ever come to 5:00 or 6:00 AM classes, you already know Randy is quite the character. Years ago, before Randy even started training with us, he'd show up every Friday morning during the Open and absolutely punish himself during the workout. Can you imagine not doing CrossFit regularly but choosing to do the Open workouts? We're talking straight up reverse-curl power cleans, strict everything, thrusters with nothing anywhere close to a recognizable rack position, and gloves for everything. Crazy, right? Wrong. The crazy part is Randy would come right back in the very next morning and do the very same workout! After a knock-down, drag-out Friday morning fight, he'd return every single Saturday for the exact same torture- and he'd improve every time!

Fast forward to a few years later when Randy decided to start doing CrossFit on a regular basis. He got really good, really fast. Nobody outworks this guy, he traded his Etsy fingerless gloves in for some leather gymnastics grips, and now he can even kip! He gets better in the Open every year and he even took home 2nd place in the 45-49 division at this year's CrossFit Fort Vancouver Championship. One thing Randy hasn't changed a whole lot over the years though is his Open schedule. He still always does the workouts on Friday and Saturday mornings, and if he feels it's necessary to get his best result, he'll do them at other times too. Randy performed 18.3 not once, not twice, not three times, not four times but FIVE (yes 5) times! But at least Jeff set a good example for the community, right!? His first four attempts, Randy got stuck somewhere in the muscle-ups. Fifth time's a charm though! His results are listed below:

Friday, 5:00 AM: 227 reps (7 ring muscle-ups)
Friday, 6:00 AM: 230 reps (10 ring muscle-ups)
Saturday, 10:00 AM: 227 reps (7 ring muscle-ups)
Monday, 5:00 AM: 230 reps (10 ring muscle-ups)
Anyone see a pattern yet?
Monday, 3:00 PM: 450 reps! (all 12 ring muscle-ups + the next 100 double-unders, 20 DB snatches, and 98 more double-unders)

Randy's fifth and final attempt was quite the sight to see. Not only did he break the wicked spell and finish all 12 ring muscle-ups, he picked up his jump rope right away and did the next 100 double-unders UNBROKEN! He's the only person in the gym that I saw get those 100 double-unders done in one single set! Talk about CRAZY!

On second thought, Jeff wasn't the only one setting the example in here on week 3. Randy did too. His lesson is called perseverance. Fortitude. Grit. Craziness? Call it whatever you want but Randy, you've earned all of our respect time and time again. Thanks for showing us how it's done!

There are so many more amazing Open Week 3 CFV stories like these that need to be shared so stay tuned for at least a couple more. Then it's on to week 4. Three down, only two to go! I sure do love this place and all these people, and I'm continually inspired and humbled by all of your efforts in the gym and your trust in us as coaches to be a part of your lives. THANK YOU and see you in the gym!

-Adam

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