#crossfitgamesopen2016

The CrossFit Open is behind us, again.  It’s hard to believe that this was my fifth year to compete in this 5 week online competition.  

I had a blast....more so than any other year.  I have gotten stronger over the years, but this year I have dialed in several things:  diet and mobility.   I also started working on strength.  I’m not sure which had the biggest impact but I also have noticed progress in the area of mental strength. 

I knew something was different on the first WOD.  It had walking lunges with a 65 lb. bar overhead.  I knew it was gonna be heavy for me.  What i didn’t realize was that walking 25 ft would be SO difficult to stabilize.  I dropped it THREE times in the first ‘walk.’  After the second time I dropped the bar, i turned to my husband and said, “what am i gonna do?  I can’t scale this!”  *that’s code for:   I don’t want to scale this!   Somehow I just kept picking that bar up and lunging.  I may not have adequately warmed up.   I may have lacked the confidence that I could do it.  Sometimes I walked without dropping it.  Other times I dropped it just once.  Either way, I never got upset, and my head wasn’t full of negative thoughts.  #WINNING. 

Week 2-Toes to bar, double unders and squat cleans.  Ok, I can do those!    If you complete your work within 4 minutes you earned another 4 minutes to work.  I greatly underestimated the time it would take me to finish those toes to bar and the squat cleans are close to my max, but since i’ve been working on it, I wasn’t too concerned.  I did my toes to bar, the double unders and some of the squat cleans.  See what I did there?  I stated what I did.  Last year I would have said, “I didn’t get out of the first 4 minutes.”  or “I didn’t finish my squat cleans.”  My language is focused on what I DID do.  (I’m absolutely convinced that this type of focus is part of how my mental strength has increased.)

Week 3-I am pretty sure that most everyone hopes they can do the workouts as prescribed.  I certainly did.  I had recently purchased a tank top from #bolderband.  The message was entertaining but deeply truthful.  

The workout  had bar muscle ups, a skill I do not yet have.  I performed the workout twice. Once as it was written with a low score of 10 (I did the bar movement and then stood there for the next couple of minutes because the bar muscle up was next).  And once ‘scaled’ with a higher score.  I got lots of giggles over my shirt but it was a constant reminder that I am loved, no matter what my skill set.  *I submitted the first score.  

Week 4-55 of the following:  deadlifts, wall ball, rowing, and handstand pushups.  First thought:  Dave Castro doesn’t care about short people!  ;o)  The deadlifts are 80% of my max.  I did them.  I was steady.  Wall Balls...we don’t get along.   They defeat me mentally.  BUT not this time.  This may have been the most successful wall ball experience I have ever had.  I was steady, I didn’t retreat from my space.  I didn’t wanna cry.  This was my lowest scoring workout of the year, but before I ever started the workout I had determined I was going to be happy about it.  And?  I was thrilled.  Another mental hurdle overcome.  

Week 5-repeat workout from 2014.  This was the one workout I had said I NEVER wanted to do again.  I remembered it clearly.  I thought it would take me an hour to complete it, IF i completed it.  2 years ago, scaling wasn’t an option, so you either got a score (based on how long it took you to complete it) or you got zero.  It was a long one.  21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, and 3 of bar facing burpees and thrusters (a squat then a press, up and down....with a 65 lb. barbell).  In case you haven’t done the math, that is 84 of each movement.  I suppose the upside was that I knew I could do it.  I also knew I had to do better than my original score of 24:20.  I did.  By 2:00.  I also wasn’t devastated after, I was sore, and wore out but not SMASHED.  I WAS a bit nervous to do this workout but I was mostly glad knowing I had complete the 5 week challenge.