CrossFit Open 16.1

It’s that time of the year again.  The time where I pay $20 to have my name on a website and track my progress against a ton of other people who also want to relive their childhood and compete in a pretty much pointless competition of who exercises better. But, as “dumb” as it may sound, it is something I look forward to every year and I get really excited for!  This year though, I’m even more excited. I will have the opportunity to test myself in a new way.  I HAVE to make it through this open doing all the rx workouts, and all the Rx workouts decently well. I recently have become much more consistent in my muscle up abilities.  I have no excuses. I truly think that at this very moment in time I am in the best shape of my life. My lifts are all the best, my endurance is way better, and my weight is well under control.

So that is where my mind is going into the 16.1 announcement. And then it was announced….

Awesome. A movement that I have never done and in a very long setting. Ugh….

I went in thinking lungs can do this, pace…pace….pace

Then the clock went off and I went GO FASTER…HARDER….DONT STOP….then 8 minutes in I had to stop or throw up.  My first attempt yielded 5 rounds+13 reps (143 total reps).   Ugh.  This is not good.  My ego was hurt. My lungs should have been fine here!  This score was not acceptable to me.

I wracked my brain trying to figure out what I could do to improve and here is what I figured out:

1. Find a realistic goal:  For me I thought 6 rounds was obtainable.
2. Set pace to meet that goal: 3 minute 20-second rounds
3. Keep that pace on a whiteboard close and rest until you have to go to keep that pace.
4. On lunges, instead of taking large steps, do the wedding walk. Meaning lunge – have feet meet- lunge- feet meet so on until 25 feet. This saved my legs.

ok, great I have a plan.  But will it help?  The answer is…YES!  YES! it did help. I finished 6 full rounds and the first set of lunges into the 7th round (161 reps).  What a relief!   I am roughly a little bit better than 50% of the RX crossfitters.  This is where I want to be, if not a little bit better.

Now I wait for round 16.2 to see what Mr. Castro has in store for me…..