I woke up on Friday morning at my usual 04:00am and didn't quite feel right... As the day went on it clear that I had caught a bug that would leave me not wanting to share details about. This was not the ideal prep before going into a workout that I was already getting butterflies for. I ended up having to cancel my afternoon clients to try and sleep it off.
Saturday arrived, and I felt a lot better than the day before, but still knowing I wasn't as strong as I could be. I ended up posting a score way below par of 57. I took it and thought I gave what I could on the workout that is now known as FRANkenstein, after the famous workout "Fran" that CrossFitters all know very well.
Saturday went past, and the weight of my performance weighed heavy on my shoulders... Overnight the message I had been waiting for came through... "You can redo workout Sunday afternoon if you are keen?" It was like a message from the heavens! A second chance... bring the A game. So after pushing it hard I managed a much more respectable 71 reps in 4 minutes of hell. The sidewalk outside of CrossFit Tokai was testament to the fact that I had left it all out there...
I wasn't sure about CrossFit before I participated in the Open. I thought all they were doing was throwing a few old exercises together, adding a whole bunch of reps to things like pull-ups, and throwing some Olympic lifts into the mix, and that was why people were getting blown away by this "new" fad. I had done the bench mark workouts in the gym by myself, and had always got a good sweat on, and a decent workout, so I thought nothing too mind-blowing here. Then came the trials for the Tokai Games Team before the actual CF Open started... In the weeks leading up to The Open I managed to give myself a mild concussion on a workout called "Diane", and pulled a neck muscle! FUN! My kind of crazy fun! After that did a 3km run and experienced muscle-ups for the first time. OK CrossFit was definitely getting me out of my comfort zone...
The first week of the open arrived, and I left happy with my results, but with my throat feeling bruised from breathing so hard during the workout... (Maybe I wasn't pushing myself as hard as I thought when I was training alone...)
The second week I felt I went backwards. I was confused though because it was 3 skills I thought I was quite good at. Shoulder pressing 50kg, dead-lifting the same weight, and some box jumps. All things I do by myself at much higher weights, and heights...? Lesson learnt...Respect the workout, and always have a game plan.
This was a valuable lesson when I saw the next workout... 150 Wall Balls??? Really?! Who does 150 of anything? However I got through those in about 6 minutes, just to have to do 90 double-unders with numb legs, managed those in about 2 minutes, and then was left to try do muscle-ups. I had only ever done 4 of these before. I managed 6! This is proof yet again that The Open is a great idea. My performances were better every time because of the vibe of people shouting for you. I was on ESPN in my head and thousands were cheering for me to smash out another rep!
The 4th week I realised that it was possible for me to get in the mix for a spot on the regionals team. I had a good week, and was starting to feel where my limits were, and how to keep under my threshold. There are definite tactics in these workouts.
Overall an amazing experience, and a great learning experience.
Skills learnt in 5 weeks
- Ability to do a million Burpees
- Ability to do a million Snatchs
- To be aware of boxes that grow as you get more tired
- Ability to do a million Wall Balls
- To be able to do multiple Muscle-Ups
- Polished my toe to bar technique
- Performed my first multiple chest to bar pull-ups
More importantly I realised that mental strength is something so much more important! Regionals here we come...
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