Rain and Heat Info

If you haven't already checked yourself, the forecasts are calling for some showers this weekend. The workouts will go on as planned, and if necessary, we can run both Day 1 workouts indoors.

But we want you to be aware so that you'll come prepared, both as an athlete and a spectator. Pack some rain gear.


And now what you've all been waiting for, your heat assignments!

Just follow this link to open the PDF that contains heat assignments for every competitor this weekend (assuming you sent us that email).

Saturday Workout Times PDF


We've also posted the link to the PDF file on the right sidebar of this blog, just below the directions to the Ranch.

A few of you have been asking about the numbers, so here's some data for you to chew on.

• 128 men will be doing Workout A as rx'd.
• 19 men will be doing Workout A scaled.
• 49 women will be doing Workout A as rx'd.
• 3 women will be doing Workout A scaled.
• 120 men will be doing Workout B as rx'd.
• 27 men will be doing Workout B scaled.
• 24 women will be doing Workout B as rx'd.
• 28 women will be doing Workout B scaled.

(Careful readers will notice that the total count for female and male competitors is down slightly from the figure announced a few blog posts ago. This is due to some last-minute withdrawals.)

Here's what you need to check on the PDF:

1. You need to make sure your name is on there and it's spelled correctly.
2. You need to make sure you have an athlete number assigned to you.
3. You need to make sure you've been assigned heat times for both workouts.
4. You need to make sure that your workout times are exactly four hours apart from one another.

Contact us immediately at norcalcfregionals@gmail.com if there are any discrepancies in the list above for items 1-4.


Good luck to you all. It's going to be a great weekend!

Event Details!

The crew from Fuel2Go who will be on hand at the Ranch this weekend


***Reminder***

You only have a couple of minutes left! We need the following information from you by Wed 4/29 at midnight or you will not be placed in a heat:

Name
Age
Gender
Workout A: Rx'd or Scaled
Workout B: Rx'd or Scaled
Name of person who made credit card payment for registration (if other than yourself)

Email us that info at norcalcfregionals@gmail.com by Wed 4/29 at midnight and you're good to go.


And now, onto other matters...

Below is some information you may find useful for your weekend down on the Ranch.

In no particular order:

Food

Fuel2Go will be available at the NorCal Qualifiers! F2G will be there to provide healthy and delicious foods for spectators and participants on both Saturday and Sunday. All of their food is local, organic, and Zone friendly!

The following foods will be available:

Coffee!
Post-workout nutrition bars
Frittata muffins
Hard-boiled eggs & fruit
Persian lime & honey almonds
Paleo kits of jerky, berries & nuts
Heirloom tomato tuna salad with olives
Curried Fulton Valley chicken salad in whole wheat pita
Chicken/Prather Ranch beef skewers with vegetables and whole grain salad
Diestel turkey chili

More on Fuel2Go: http://fuel2go.blogspot.com/


Final Bits and Pieces Related to Day 1 Standards

First and foremost, we've released the PDF that details all of the movement standards for Day 1 workouts. You can find it on the righthand side of the blog (see Day 1 Workout Standards), as well as here: http://www.pennstatekarate.org/temp/NorCal_2009_Standards.pdf

Also, just to answer a question that's been batted around in the comments over the last couple of days, yes, you can go behind the neck for the shoulder-to-overhead movement in Workout A.

There's precedent for this type of allowance, from none other than CrossFit HQ in their "Freddy's Revenge" video:

Windows Media Version of Freddy's Revenge
Quicktime Version of Freddy's Revenge


What about tape and other things you might need for the workouts?

Medical providers will be on site, but only for emergency incidents. We will have a small crew and supplies are limited. Bring your own chalk, tape, band-aids, and antibiotic ointment for you hands. The last two years have seen numerous athletes at the Games tear their hands competing. Bring whatever medication you need, and if you even might need an inhaler, please bring it!

Incidentally, chalk, tape, and even gloves (if you can suffer through the teasing...kidding!) are allowed. Any lifting aids, such as straps, are not.


How It Will Go Down Over the Weekend


Saturday, May 2nd

Volunteer Check-In: Begins at 6am SHARP! There will be a main registration booth for both volunteers and athletes. Please check in when you arrive!

Standards Meeting for Volunteers: 6:30am. This is a mandatory meeting for judges.

Competitor Check-In: 6:30am to 8am. Come to the registration tent to sign your waiver, get your athlete card, t-shirt, and competition number.

Competition Begins: We'll be running Workout A and Workout B simultaneously. We'll run both workouts from 9am to 12pm in the morning session. Then we'll take a 1-hour break, everyone will switch workouts (if you did Workout A in the morning, you'll do Workout B in the afternoon and vice-versa) and we'll run the afternoon session from 1pm to 4pm.

We'll be running 12-person heats for both workouts. You'll find out your heat time for the morning session and the afternoon session on the blog tomorrow (we're shooting for getting those details posted by no later than noon).

Saturday Night After the Day's Competition is Over

There will be two major happenings Saturday night:

1. We'll be announcing the Sunday workout, along with a demonstration of the movement standards that will be in place for the workout.
   
2. Pat Barber (4th place, 2008 CrossFit Games) and his band will be playing at the Ranch!
   

Judges: Also take note that we may be calling on you for a standards meeting either Saturday night or Sunday morning.


Sunday, May 3rd

We'll be running the top 40 men and top 20 women in heats for the Sunday workout from 9am to 1pm. A medal presentation will follow at the conclusion of the final heat.

All other competitors will have the chance to do the Sunday workout as well. It's optional, so you don't have to do the workout if you don't want to, but if you don't, you'll be missing out on a workout that will use the terrain of the Ranch in a way that's never been done in Games competition.

For competitors outside of the top 40/20, we'll be running the Sunday workout in two separate sessions:

• From 7am to 8:45am (for all you early birds)
• From 1pm 'til whenever the last heat is done (approximately 4pm if we have full participation in the morning heats)
  

We'll be providing a sign-up sheet for the two sessions Saturday night. Slots will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.


Directions

Address: The Ranch, 275 Dunbarton Rd, Aromas, CA 92115

Google Map of the Ranch


Can I bring my RV?

Yes, but all RVs need to be on the ranch by Friday night.


Can I camp overnight on site?

Yes. But please be respectful of the property and of those hosting this event. It's their land, after all.


What about spectators?

Spectators can come free of charge. Let's pack the house! The more fan support, the better.

The Lowdown on Scoring

***Reminder***

Remember, we need the following information from you by Wed 4/29 at midnight or you will not be placed in a heat:

Name
Age
Gender
Workout A: Rx'd or Scaled
Workout B: Rx'd or Scaled
Name of person who made credit card payment for registration (if other than yourself)

Email us that info at norcalcfregionals@gmail.com by Wed 4/29 at midnight and you're good to go.


On to scoring...

We'll be using a points-based system for the Qualifiers this year, very similar to the system used in the Dirty South, explained here: http://www.crossfitdirtysouth.org/2009/03/dirty-south-event-scoring.html

Basically, you earn a certain number of points depending on your finish relative to the rest of the field in each workout. First place gets a certain number of points, as does tenth place, as does last place.

Here's a snapshot of how points will be allocated for the men's competition (152 men):

Men's Scoring Template

Here's a snapshot of how points will be allocated for the women's competition (55 women):

Women's Scoring Template


And here are some answers to questions that may arise after reviewing the templates.

What Happens in a Tie?

For a workout:

You get points based on how many competitors finish ahead of you. For example, if there's a four-way tie for 2nd place in a workout, those four competitors each get second-place points. The guy with the 3rd place time would get sixth-place points, because there are five competitors who finished ahead of him (the guy in 1st and the four guys tied for 2nd).

For the overall competition (i.e., determining the top 5 males and females):

• The first tiebreaker would be Reps in Workout B/Time in Workout A + C. [And yes, we're giving you a clue on Sunday's workout (Workout C): it will be for time.]

• If still tied, the second tiebreaker would be working back from Workout C. So first we look at time from Workout C. If still tied, we look at reps from Workout B. If still tied, we go to time from Workout A.

• If still tied, then we have the tied competitors go head-to-head in a sudden-death workout at the conclusion of Sunday's competition.
  

What about the scoring for scaled workouts?

Competitors who complete a workout scaled, or who do a workout as rx'd but fail to meet the standard for the cut-off time (in the case of Workout A) or the minimum number of reps (in the case of Workout B) will be placed in the scaled pool for scoring. This means that they will receive points only after all of the rx'd competitors have received points. For example, if 100 men finish Workout A as rx'd (1o minutes or less), then the top competitor in the scaled division would receive points for 101st place (100 competitors are ahead of him). And the second-place finisher would receive points for 102nd place, etc.

What if someone fails to finish Workout A in 10 minutes?

The judge will make a note on the scorecard, indicating which rep of burpees or jerks (hopefully they're not still on the rower) the competitor had completed at the 10-minute mark. This will give us an accurate measure of how they performed for scoring purposes. Any competitors who do not complete all reps of Workout A in 10 minutes will be placed in the scaled pool for scoring (see above).

What if someone fails to meet the required minimum of reps in Workout B?

If someone fails to get 10 muscle-ups and 10 cleans in 10 minutes (Workout B), the judge will make a note on the scorecard, indicating how many muscle-ups and cleans the competitor completed at the 10-minute mark. Any competitors who do not complete the minimum number of reps in Workout B will be placed in the scaled pool for scoring (see above).

What about this top 40 men and top 20 women business?

The top 40 men who complete both workouts as rx'd on Saturday and the top 20 women who complete both workouts as rx'd on Saturday will move on with a chance to earn one of the top 5 spots, earning them a place in this year's CrossFit Games. If fewer than 40 men or 20 women complete the workouts as rx'd on Day 1, then we'll take only the number of people who complete the workout as rx'd. For example, if only 16 men get through Saturday as rx'd, then that's how many will move on to compete in the Day 2 workout for a spot in the Games.

This is a tough standard, to be sure, but we think if we're going to send the five best men and women to compete in the Games, that they should be able to get through the Day 1 workouts as prescribed.

The only scenario in which we'd send scaled competitors would be if we had a number less than five. In that case, we'd send scaled competitors through to Day 2.

Do the scores from Day 1 carry over to Day 2?

Yes. The top five men and women will be evaluated based on their performance in all three workouts.

Will all competitors have an option to do the Day 2 workout?

Yes! This is a topic worthy of its own post, so more on this later. Stay tuned!

Muscle-Ups Revisited

After much behind-the-scenes debate and ultimately, some weighing in by CF HQ, we've changed the standard for the muscle-up to a familiar one to most of you: initiating the muscle-up from full lockout.

We've updated the link in the previous post on standards so that it points to the new standards video.

A couple of important notes:

• This decision had nothing to do with any discussion back and forth in the comments of the previous post.
• This, in our opinion, will not affect the final outcome in any material way. It may diminish total number of reps, but the effect will be across the board and will not result in a re-ordering of athletes vis-a-vis the previous standard.

Because of this change in standards, we're extending the deadline for you to tell us whether you're doing the workouts rx'd or scaled until Wednesday 4/29 at midnight. Remember, we need the following information from you by then or you will not be placed in a heat:

Name
Age
Gender
Workout A: Rx'd or Scaled
Workout B: Rx'd or Scaled
Name of person who made credit card payment for registration (if other than yourself)

Email us that info at norcalcfregionals@gmail.com by Wed 4/29 at midnight and you're good to go.

And because of this late-breaking development, we'll be posting info on the scoring system and tiebreakers tomorrow morning.

End of story. Let's get on with preparing for the NorCal Qualifiers!

Day 1 Workout Standards

Before we get into the standards for the Day 1 workouts, we want to post a reminder about the information we need from you before Tuesday 4/28 at midnight. If you don't get this info emailed to us at norcalcfregionals@gmail.com before the deadline, you won't be placed in a heat. This is a firm deadline.

Email us this info:

Name
Age
Gender
Workout A: Rx'd or Scaled
Workout B: Rx'd or Scaled
Name of person who made credit card payment for registration (if other than yourself)


The Standards

We've put together a couple videos that show you the standards. These videos are photos along with text.

In addition, we've also included a PDF file describing the same standards (again, photos along with text), for those of you who prefer to read such material.


Here's the video for the Workout A movement standards: http://www.vimeo.com/4348856

Here's the video for the Workout B movement standards: http://www.vimeo.com/4369034

Here's the link to the PDF file for Workout A & Workout B standards: http://www.pennstatekarate.org/temp/NorCal_2009_Standards.pdf

Enjoy!

Day 1 Workout Details!

Can you believe it...we only have one week to go!

And here is the lowdown on the workouts for Day 1. Please read through this post in its entirety. We're asking you to provide us with some information that's critical to your participation in the Qualifiers (you'll find this information at the end of the post).

***Important***

Detailed exercise photos and descriptions will be posted later today. The video tutorial we post will lay out the standards for the workouts. Please check back later today for that information.

So without further ado, here are the two workouts for Saturday, May 2.

Day 1 Workouts

Workout A*

For time:

Row 500m
30 Burpees
10 Shoulder-to-Overhead (Men: 165#, Women: 95#)

It's up to you to decide on the technique to employ for the shoulder-to-overhead movement (shoulder press, push press, push jerk, etc.). Efficient technique will be rewarded.

Scaled Version:

Row 500m
30 Burpees
10 Shoulder-to-Overhead (Men: 105#, Women: 65#)

* There will be a ten-minute cap for this workout.


Workout B

Max reps in 10 minutes of:

Muscle-Up
Ground-to-Shoulder (Male: 185#, Female: 105#)

It's up to you to decide on the technique to employ for the ground-to-shoulder movement (power clean, squat clean, deadlift-and-curl, etc.). Efficient technique will be rewarded.


Qualifier for male athletes – 10 reps of each exercise must be completed
Qualifier for female athletes – 4 reps of each exercise must be completed


The qualifier number means that for the workout to count, you must complete at least that number of reps for each exercise by the time the workout is done. If you cannot get the qualifier number in 10 minutes, the workout will not count as Rx'd. You can think of the qualifier number as a buy-in amount.

You can allocate reps between the two exercises however you want, as long as you meet the qualifier number for both exercises (e.g., you could go for all ten reps of muscle-ups first, then go for cleans, or you could alternate between the two exercises until you get ten of both, or do any number of other scenarios).


Scaled Version:

Jumping Muscle-Up
Ground-to-Shoulder (Male: 115#, Female: 75#)


Other Important Details

Workout A and Workout B will be run simultaneously. The first heat for both workouts will begin at 9am and run in 20-minute increments thereafter. There will be a morning session from 9am to 12pm, followed by a 1-hour break. Competitors will switch workouts and the afternoon session will then run from 1pm to 4pm.

The top 40 males and top 20 females from Day 1 will move on to compete in the Day 2 workout. The Day 2 workout will be announced at the end of Day 1. No scaling will be allowed for the Day 2 workout.

Heat assignments will be posted on this blog on Wednesday night, April 29. This means that you'll know exactly when you'll be going. Workouts and heats will be randomly assigned.


What We Want from You and When We Want It!

We need to receive an email from you with the following information:

Name
Age
Gender
Workout A: Rx'd or Scaled
Workout B: Rx'd or Scaled
Name of person who made credit card payment for registration (if other than yourself)

You need to have this email to us by Tuesday 4/28 at midnight. That's a hard deadline. If we don't receive an email from you, you won't be placed in a heat for the workouts.

Our email address: norcalcfregionals@gmail.com

Registration is Now Closed!

Registration for the NorCal Qualifiers is now officially closed.

Thanks to all who signed up--it's going to be a great competition!

Look for posts within the next week or so on workout details, the check-in process, and anything else you may need to know about the weekend of May 2-3.


The Skinny on T-Shirts

We've now sent out two emails for t-shirt ordering. The first one was sent out to everyone who registered through April 1; the second one was sent out after registration closed to everyone who has registered for the NorCal Regionals. If you didn't receive either of the emails, please send us an email at norcalcfregionals@gmail.com with the gender and size specification for your t-shirt (e.g., men's large, women's medium, etc.). Or if you did receive the email, please reply with the same information.

If we don't hear anything from you by Sunday, April 19, you'll receive a large t-shirt if you're a male, or a medium t-shirt if you're a female.

1 More Day Left to Register!

Just a quick reminder to everyone out there who like to wait until the last minute: Registration for the NorCal Qualifiers closes tomorrow night (Friday 4/17) at midnight. That gives you about 18 hours to get to it!

Spread the word and let anyone who's on the fence know that they need to get on it.

Look for posts in the next week or so concerning workout details, when competitors need to show up to sign in at the Ranch, and a ton of other FAQ topics.

It's getting close. May 2-3 is just around the corner!

NorCal Athlete Profile: Bobby Lopez

Bobby Lopez

Age: 21
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 202.2lbs
Affiliate: CrossFit Campbell
Fran: 2:54
Cindy: 23 rounds
Grace: 2:17
Jackie: 6:44
Press: 215
Squat: 405
Deadlift: 440
Clean and Jerk: 275
Snatch: 185
Favorite WoD: Grace
Least Favorite WoD: Tommy V.
Favorite Zone Snack: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

NorCal Athlete Profile: Lake Culpepper

Lake Culpepper

Age: 34
Height 5’10”
Wt 165#
Started CF: July 08
Affiliate: Crossfit KMSF
Angie- 12:36
Cindy – 25 rounds
Mary – 14 rounds
Helen – 8:41
Karen – 4:25
Filthy 50 – 18:18
Deadlift – 335#
Back Squat – 315#
Front Squat – 200#
5k – 18:37
Favorite WOD – Filthy 50
Least Favorite WOD – Helen or Fran

Lake comes from a background of competitive running and cycling. He is a former member of the 82nd Airborne Division’s QRF, whose father taught him how to field strip a M-16 at the age of 5. His hobbies include, when not crossfitting, spending time on the shooting range, running shirtless in 30* weather at 8k feet and cinematography.

NorCal Athlete Profile: Brian Huberty

Brian Huberty

Age: 32

Height: 5'7"

Weight: 180 lbs

Affiliate: CROSSFIT MODESTO
Crossfitting since July 2006
Fran: 3:13
Elizabeth (squat cleans): 6:47
Diane: 3:23
Grace: 2:16
Mary: 13 rounds
Isabel: 4:21
CFT: 900
Least favorite wod: 30 muscleups. It used to be my favorite. It just messes with my head when I miss one (which I always do).

NorCal Athlete Profile: Cubby

Cubby

He is only known as "Cubby". He is CrossFit Redding's mascot!
Age: 19
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 180lbs
Fran: 3:06
Grace: 3:04
Helen: 7:40
Cindy: 23 rounds
Deadlift: 415
Rear Squat: 315
Clean: 245
Affiliate: CROSSFIT REDDING

Cubby is getting "Fit as F**k!" He is just about ready to "Bring the Ruckus" come May 2-3rd. Everyone at Crossfit Redding is looking forward to see how he matches up against the big dogs. Cubby is 19 years old and has gained about 20 lbs in one year of doing CrossFit at CrossFit Redding and has been ramping it up the past few months. He is highly self motivated to train hard as well as help others become better at CrossFit. He is a former high school wrestler and was on the swim team. Currently he is going to school and is a Level 1 certified trainer as well as part owner of CrossFit Redding. He is really looking forward to mixing-it-up with the big dogs in Northern California and really wants one of those 5 slots available!