The 2015 Reebok CrossFit Games Open workouts are now underway and you could argue that no one is working harder to post some crushing times and results right now than two-time female Games champion Annie Thorisdottir, who is eyeing a comeback after a spinal injury last year to reclaim her title as fittest woman on Earth.
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Love them or hate them, CrossFitters are a breed of human not to be messed with, and this 25-year old from Iceland – whose surname literally translates to ‘Thor’s daughter’ – trains dirty (and eats clean) six days a week for 5-6 hours a day, and uses her rest day for “active recovery”.
Watch the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 female CrossFit Games champions square off Thursday, on http://t.co/Yx6TrOqE6I. pic.twitter.com/5z0kcP5DtH
— The CrossFit Games (@CrossFitGames) March 25, 2015
Her parents are even competing in the Open’s skill category this year too. As Reebok is celebrating its fifth-anniversary partnership with CrossFit, we were given the opportunity to chat with their star athlete.
KM: How are preparations for the Games going? What are you currently working on?
AT: It’s going really well, mainly because I’ve stayed injury-free and have been able to train a lot more than I was able to in the previous two years. I’m really happy and feel like I’m really improving.
Right now, I’m working on my leg strength mainly because I wasn’t able to do that a lot during injury. And Regionals are coming around fast so once the weather in Iceland starts getting a little better I’ll be working on more endurance, running more…
Are you resorting to any ‘off the beaten path’ training methods this time?
Not necessarily but my coach is really making sure that I’m hitting all the right elements and that I’m doing everything that I need to be doing. I’ve got really good programming, particularly my Olympic weightlifting programming. I’m also meeting up with coaches for my running, my swimming…
What I’m also doing that’s maybe a little bit different is I’m working a lot with a heart rate monitor, making sure that I’m hitting all the right metabolic pathways. I’m being more specific with my training.
So what do you think about the first workout? pic.twitter.com/lgOZOYg0dg
— Annie Thorisdottir (@IcelandAnnie) February 28, 2015
I use an Omegawave (software that tests and finds limiting factors for central nervous system, cardiac and metabolic systems in order to open ‘Windows of Trainability’) every morning to ensure that I’m recovering properly. I’m also trying to make sure it’s a little more fun this time.
How often are you training?
I would say I train every single day but one of those is more of an active recovery day so I just do a lower heart rate piece just to get the blood flowing; stretching and mobility work.
I train twice a day five days of the week – the morning session is usually 2-2.5 hours and the evening session can go up to three hours. The other day I usually do running or swimming, something outside of the CrossFit gym and training.
Okay! Do you ever just chill out, go to a party?
[Laughs] I love meeting up with my friends to take my mind off training, yeah… but I don’t know. I’m more into having family dinners, having my brothers coming over with their kids, relaxing on the couch for a movie with my boyfriend (Frederik Aegidius, a CrossFit athlete who shared the podium with her at last year’s Dubai Fitness Championship). I like relaxation for the mind, where you don’t have to think about anything. I might party once or twice a year.
15.2 in the books-once and done+no tearing! So great full for the people I have in my life and the support! pic.twitter.com/TcOAtGcXE2
— Annie Thorisdottir (@IcelandAnnie) March 7, 2015
I’m getting a sense that you’re a 25-year-old whose brain is constantly switched on. Are you feeling any pressure to win this year’s Games? Where is your head at?
Yes and no. I do feel I’ve, since the injury, learned to deal with the pressure differently. That made me think and I am just so happy that I’m actively competing again. Right now, I’m doing everything that I can to be in the best shape that I can be at the Games and obviously my goal is to win again but my goal is also to be able to enjoy the competition. Right now is the hard time, this is where I’m putting in all the hard work, and then at the Games you get to see where it takes you.
There have definitely been times when I did not enjoy this – when I won in 2012, that was the most miserable Games ever because I put a lot of pressure on myself believing that anything less than first place was a failure. And that’s kind of insane. I was actually thinking ‘I never want to do this again’.
The first two days of competition were one of the worst ones I’ve ever had but I was at least able to eventually snap out of it. Once I realised I was so far down the leaderboard and probably didn’t stand a chance I just said ‘okay, let’s just try to enjoy the rest of it’. Then things just turned around and I did well and won.
Now I know that what I have to do is just be myself and remember why I’m doing it – not just to win it but because I enjoy CrossFit.
Do you see yourself competing still 10 years from now? If not CrossFit, then what?
I do believe I’ll be doing CrossFit the rest of my life. Competing though, I’ll do as long as my body allows me and for as long as I enjoy it; hopefully that’s for a few more years.
And I don’t know what I’d be doing otherwise! I started doing CrossFit in 2009 and at that time I had put up a goal map to get to the Olympics as a pole vaulter. Maybe I would just have stuck with that. I’d probably also be in medical school at the moment – I’ve been kind of postponing that because of CrossFit. Either way I would still definitely be in sport.
Are you inspired by any particular male or female athlete?
There are many athletes I find incredible but… this is cheesy but I think my biggest role models are my parents – they’ve taught me that I don’t need to have a specific role model as long as I know what I want to do and am willing to put in the work; then I can be capable of anything.
#tbt to slam ball – deficit HSPU event at the 2012 Games event-one of my favorite – What will show up tonight? pic.twitter.com/TvOGF79Ip0
— Annie Thorisdottir (@IcelandAnnie) March 5, 2015
If you were to get a tattoo devoted to your career in CrossFit and the sport, what would it be or say?
‘Enjoy the journey’.
Reebok and CrossFit have been in partnership now for five years – how have you seen CrossFit grow since this partnership began?
So much, it became more of a sport rather than just a fitness thing.
It became more of a science too even, getting people thinking about technique and functional training and how we can get better at everyday living actually (because that’s what functional training is about).
Athletes aside, Reebok have really brought awareness to the benefits of doing functional training and more people are doing it now, training for their daily life, which is amazing.
Also they’ve really evolved with the shoes – I used to go through my shoes so fast as they weren’t made for CrossFit, which is such a varied sport. They reinvented the shoes so that you can go for a run, climb a rope, do gymnastics and lift heavy weights in just one pair. They’ve done such a good job giving us what we need.
What’s the first thing you’ll do after the Games are over, win or not?
Go to the Cheesecake Factory, get a dessert, an appetizer… and relax with my family.
