"I was amazed at how much the squat snatch took out of me," Peschong said.
Photos courtesy of Tyler Rau.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Amanda during the CrossFit Games season.
Amanda debuted at the 2010 CrossFit Games, and returned the next spring as a regional event.
The workout of 9-7-5 muscle-ups and squat snatches was created to honor 2009 CrossFit Games athlete Amanda Miller, who died of skin cancer at 24.
Although the couplet has been featured twice in past CrossFit Games seasons, 61-year-old Jerry Moylan admitted he had never done Amanda before the Masters Qualifier.
Other athletes had done this benchmark in the past, but knew they had to go hard this time around.
Rafael Guijarro, who will be 40 in May, “hadn’t done Amanda in a long time, but I knew I had to go all out during it.”
Both Moylan and Guijarro had similar concerns from the start: How should they strategize the gymnastics portion of the workout in order to stay consistent?
Moylan, whose division had chest-to-bar pull-ups instead of muscle-ups, decided to break them down strategically into six and three, four and three, then four and one.
“I wasn’t sure how long it would take me. I knew I could do the chest-to-bars unbroken, but it might tax me too much for the squat snatches,” he said. “I was able to stay consistent with short breaks and finished exhausted, but strong.”
Moylan finished with a time of 7:05, placing him in 44th for Event 2. He finished in 40th overall at the close of the Masters Qualifier.
Guijarro tried to remain persistent.
“My strategy was to break up my muscle-ups and stay consistent with my snatches. I knew I had to keep calm and keep moving,” Guijarro said.
Guijarro’s strategy earned him a time of 4:45, which landed him in ninth place in his division for Event 2, and brought up his overall position to 16th, earning him a ticket to the Games.
For Andre Peschong, 46, the muscle-up portion of the workout was nerve wracking.
“I had only recently been able to string muscle-ups together. I’ve been dealing with an ongoing shoulder issue, which has always made muscle-ups challenging,” Peschong said.
He saw the mental challenge as the biggest obstacle.
“My strategy was to make sure I did not miss any muscle-ups. Once you start to fail, it gets in your head and makes them increasingly harder,” he said.
He stuck with his game plan of strategic sets.
“I wanted to get five in a row on the first nine, and then do them two and two, which I was able to do,” he said.
Although the weight for the squat snatch was not challenging for Peschong, rep after rep proved to be far more difficult than he initially imagined.
“I was amazed at how much the squat snatch took out of me in terms of my engine,” he said. “I really struggled to catch my breath on those, and spent more time than I care to admit leaning against the wall or the rig.”
Peschong finished Amanda in 11:45, placing 95th in his division for Event 2, and 110th overall upon completion of the Qualifier.
For CrossFit RXD owner Bryan Wadkins, 41, this was not his first rendezvous with Amanda. He had done it at least three times since its release in 2010, he said, and he knew exactly what his strategy needed to be.
“At the start, I went unbroken on nine muscle-ups and started the snatches. One, two, three, four … I felt good and the weight was manageable, so I just kept going,” Wadkins said. “Nine unbroken snatches later and I was on to the next round. I broke up reps very minimally on the round of sevens and fives, with one missed snatch.”
Wadkins, who placed seventh overall in the 40-44 division at the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games, set his sights on securing a spot to return this July.
“I remember, and later saw on video, that I touched my chest during the workout and it felt like my heart was ready to leap out of my chest,” he said of his Amanda experience. “Moments later, it was over and I pulled off a huge PR with a time of 3:55!”
He came in second place in the event, behind Shawn Ramirez.
