(Very) full report after the jump:
Sadly, I didn't get to spend hardly any time in the city itself as the competition was held on a military base in Lyngby (even though it looked much more like a country club). I arrived Friday evening with my box of game day paleo-friendly refueling foods: mashed sweet potatoes, applesauce with whey protein, organic baby food and some whole fruits and veggies. Happily, customs was not an issue even though I'd bet mashed sweet potatoes look fairly suspect. After some public transportation, I arrived at the hotel that I was sharing with some of the other competitors from London (though different gyms).
Saturday morning was driving, registration and setting up camp in the athletes' lounge. It all felt very, very similar to my years in wrestling tournaments around the country. There were 200 athletes competing from all over Europe. Everything was staged in heats based on current standings (first place group went last). There were cuts after each round of about 50% of the remaining field.
Workout 1: Skills test. View some video footage (I don't think I'm in it) here
We had about two minutes at different stations to prove we could do the following movements: 20 foot rope climb, ten hand-stand-push-ups unbroken, 30 unbroken double-unders (jumping rope where it passes underneath you twice betwen in each hop off the ground), 20 pistols (single-legged squat without weight or assistance), row 500 meters in under 1:35 and 7 muscle-ups (hang from gymnastic rings, pull up and then use momentum to raise yourself into a dip so that you go from hanging from the rings to pressed above them). Fairly difficult, but I managed a perfect score along with about 15 other athletes.
Workout 2: "Strong Rasmus" Video here
About 20 minutes after workout 1, we went outside into the cold rain. We had 7 minutes to do the following circuit as many times as possible:
1. snatch a 32kg kettlebell from the ground to overhead 10 times. That's 5 with each arm.
2. Pickup a 30kg sandbag and carry it 60 yards to the other side of the field
3. drop sandbag and perform 10 burpees
4. Pickup sandbag and run back to the kettlebells
5. repeat (I completed 3.5 rounds and had another minute to spare before I walked away from it as I didn't want to burn myself out early in the day. I knew I had completed enough reps to move on to the next round)
Workout 3: Strength test Video of the Insanity here
They gave us 9 minutes to find our heaviest possible weight in 3 lifts:
1. Bench press
2. Clean: bar is on the ground. Use an explosive movement to get it to the front of your shoulders and catch it
3. Overhead squat: bar held overhead with arms locked out and perform a squat
I ended up with a 125kg bench, 110kg clean and 110kg OHS which put me in a tie for 5th place witha total of 345kg. Could ahve done a little more but we had a time and attempt limit and the environment was insane. Several hundred people crowded around and screaming while you attempted your lifts.
Workout 4: Bear Complex. View the video of this workout here. My friend/roomie for the weekend Jami is up first, I'm very near the end.
A bear complex is the following set of movements done without ever setting the bar down: clean, front squat, overhead press, lower bar to behind the neck, back squat, rack jerk. They set up bars starting at 60kg and increasing to 105kg. You started at 60kg and moved to the next barbell after completing the lift. You had 45 seconds to complete each lift. I was one of 7 to do the entire set up to 105kg. In a bit of competition-induced excitement you can hear me scream in the video "Give me 110!" after completing the 105kg lift. Apparently that was pretty funny.
Workout 5: The Final View the finals video here
This was an evil, evil workout that looked very simple. Perform the following workout as quickly as possible:
Row 400m
10 Ring Dips
20 Goblet squats (32kg kettlebell held in front of the chest while performing a squat)
Row 400m
10 Ring Dips
20 Goblet squats (32kg kettlebell held in front of the chest while performing a squat)
10 Chest-to-bar pullups
20 32 kg Kettlebell swings
400m run
10 Chest-to-bar pullups
20 32 kg Kettlebell swings
400m run
Absolute hell. Leaderboard was wiped clean for the final, so it was winner-take-all. I finished second behind a guy (Mikko) that is an absolute stud. He passed me somewhere about midway during the goblet squats and never looked back. I collapsed at the finish line and could swear that I wasn't breathing for a good 5 minutes after that. It had taken me 12:06 to finish.
For my troubles I won a 32kg and a 24kg kettlebell as well as two sandbag systems and some extremely high quality fish-oil. Several hundred dollars worth of prizes for sure. I wasn't going to be able to get the kettlebells home easily, so I traded with the third place finisher for some really nice gymnastic rings. All in all, it was a really fun experience. I got to know a bunch of great Swedes, Fins, Brits and Danes and also got to re-live my competitive ambition for a bit. I am definitely feeling the consequences yesterday and today.
I fell asleep at the dinner table on Saturday night after steak, salad and two beers. I polished off a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey on my way to bed as a victory celebration. Here are a few pictures of me on the podium: (and more pictures here to get a feel for the general event)
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