Nancy with Iceland Annie
It wasn't until day four of my Iceland vacation that I made it to CrossFit Reykjavik for the first time. I was in total CrossFit withdrawal... and hoping to catch a glimpse of two-time CrossFit Games champion Annie Thorisdottir.
I walked in the door - and there she was. She was coaching. Now, I'm not usually the type to get starstruck, and I really wanted to play it cool, but this was HUGE. I was ecstatic. I had this silly grin on my face that I could not for the life of me tone down. I had been at a Reebok party in NYC maybe a year and a half earlier that she and a few other elite athletes attended, but I had chickened out of saying hello in that setting and totally regretted it later.
Annie made me feel right at home. She told me to throw my stuff in the locker room. She would put me through a warm-up, check out my overhead squat and then I'd do Nancy (5 rounds of a 400m run and 15 overhead squats at 65# for women). It was Sunday, so there was a very relaxed schedule and no formal class times.
I was pumped and also really nervous. I really didn't want to make an ass of myself in front of Iceland Annie.
When I first got there, a few people were finishing up the WOD, but no one else was warming up. I had Annie's undivided attention. (EEEE!) She watched me squat, first with a PVC, then with the bar, and then she started adding weight. At the risk of sounding mathematically challenged, between the kilograms and my performance anxiety, I truly had no clue how much weight I was using. Had I been at home at CrossFit Metropolis, I would have done the WOD Rx'd, but I didn't know what Annie would select for me and clearly I was going to defer to her judgement.
I was beyond psyched to have Annie to myself for the warmup - she touched my shoulders!- but also relieved that by the time I was ready to start the WOD, two other people were, too. Nancy alone would be brutal. Annie counted down 3, 2, 1, go, and I went after it.
As I got back from the first sprint, I eyed the plates on the bar and figured that since I was using give or take 50#, I'd snatch the bar up overhead. For the first two rounds, I was on fire. By round three, I had to break up the squats, and while I was able to snatch the bar up for the first set, I wound up cleaning the second (and on the last round, the second and third). I wound up finishing at 21:23... way past my goal time. I was too jazzed about the whole experience to care too much, though.
And then Annie congratulated me on doing the WOD Rx'd. I re-checked my math, and she was right. I'd used just over 66#. That made my day. And I knew what I had to do. "I know this is super cheesy," I said, "but could I get a picture with you?"
I went back to CrossFit Reykjavik three more times that week. My drop-in experiences were great, but I never saw Annie again. I couldn't have asked for a better Iceland Annie encounter, though, and I will remember this WOD for the rest of my life.
-Gym Belle-