Anna Tunnicliffe fourth at mid-point of 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games

by Anna Tunnicliffe on 26 Jul 2014 Twice Rolex Sailor of the Year and Olympic Gold medalist, Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) alternates between sailing aboard Alinghi in the Extreme Sailing Series, and chasing a serious ranking in the world of CrossFit.

She skipped sailing aboard the Extreme 40 Alinghi in the Extreme Sailing Series in St Petersburg, Russia. But she will be back aboard as tactician for the next regatta in Wales

Born in England, Tunnicliffe moved to USA at the age of 12, and pursued a promising track career before giving that away in favour of sailing, where she won a Gold Medal in the Womens Singlehander in 2008 and won the Womens Match Racing event at the 2011 ISAF World Championships in Perth. She represented USA in that event at the 2012 Olympics but did not make the medal podium.

CrossFit is becoming increasingly popular amongst sailors as a way of physically preparing for the sport, as it is less monotonous than other physical training processes and better replicates the physical sailing activities on board a racing boat.

July 25th, 2014, Carson, CA

We are half way through the CrossFit Games. Today was a pretty good day, although I don't know my exact overall standing. (S-W: Anna is now 4th overall)

We competed in four events today, the triple 3's, sled 1, sled 2, and 21-15-9 complex.

The first event of the day I was super excited for. It was a 3000m row, 300 dubs, 3 mile run. We entered into the event with a strategy for the row, and then a plan for the dubs and a run to go as fast as we can.

The row started out quite well. I led by a few meters for the first 1500m and then slid back to second but only by 15-20m by the end. In the double unders we were instructed to break on the 100 mark, 200 mark, 250 mark and the finish. I knocked out the first 100 and went into the second set of 100. I tripped one or two times but tried to keep a good pace going. When I hit the end, I was surprised to find out I was in the lead.

On the run, I left the row/double under area about 5 seconds ahead of second place Kristin Holte. We ran the three one-mile loops shoulder to shoulder passing the guys along the way. On the last 400m we started to pick up the pace and then after the final turn I picked up the pace to try and drop her off my shoulder. We were stride for stride all the way down the final stretch, and then it went pear shaped for me. I've been struggling with my foot after changing footwear, a condition of the CrossFit Games competition and on the run, something popped in the bottom of my foot about 30m from the finish. I had to pull back and ended up finishing second in the race. I was really disappointed with my foot and how it all went down, but the race was great and Kristin did an amazing job all around and deserved the win! Taking second in that event moved me up the leaderboard a little as we headed into the next events for the day.



The break was spent looking after my foot and trying to keep it ready for the next events, two 60-yard sled pushes. The foot was extremely painful, but once the competition started I focused on pushing as hard as I could. The event went OK, again not sure of my finishes. The sled push was challenging in the sense that the grass was uneven making the friction on the bottom of the sled quite different. There were moments where you could fly and then all of a sudden you hit a tough patch and your sled basically stopped. After we did the first push, we had a one minute rest before we pushed it back again. The second push was so much harder because your legs and butt were already on fire.

Right after this event, we went to find out what our last event was. The event was a 21-15-9 complex. Here is the break down...

8 deadlifts @115lb
7 cleans
6 snatches
8+7+6=21

8 pull ups
7 chest to bar pull ups
6 bar muscle ups

6 deadlifts
5 cleans
4 snatches
6+5+4=15

6 pull ups
5 chest to bar pull ups
4 bar muscle ups

4 deadlifts
3 cleans
2 snatches
4+3+2=9

4 pull ups
3 chest to bar pull ups
2 bar muscle ups

...and it got spicy quickly!

I was in the top heat for this WOD so I got to go against some very fast people. It was a great push and I finished 6th in my heat. Although this WOD didn't involve running, it actually hurt more than the sled WOD because of the push-off from the heel needed for the cleans and snatches. And that is my last whine about my foot. It is what it is and we will keep battling hard regardless.

Today, a lot of friends and family from CrossFit Mt. Lebanon showed up and it was awesome to have a huge cheering squad there pushing me through WODs!

You can follow along live online and see scores and updates at the event website games.crossfit.com

Thanks everyone for their amazing support! And, I have to thank my sponsors Inov-8, Skins, NormaTec, SpiderTech, Theromega Sports, RxSmartGear and FitAid for your continued support! #committed.
Thanks for the cheers,

Anna

4D's: Dream;Desire;Dedication;Determination SM
3P's: Passion...Progression...Perfection SM