Post Competition thoughts

Full effort = Full victory.

I have been back in town for a couple days since the competition ended. I was fortunate enough to place 21st and will get an opportunity to particpate in the Northeast Regional competition in May.

I am not an especially gifted writer so the following is just a quick way to sum up the weekend and some of the highlights and then a place to put down my individual WOD thoughts.

* It was awesome to meet fellow followers of OPT's blog. For those of us without affiliates that train in our own garage gyms, this is our team. We each wore our "Unbroken" t-shirts at various points during the weekend. We had our on spot on the staging area, where we congregated and discussed the WOD's amongst other things. We had a group with which to discuss strategy and a group to cheer us on.

* A large thanks is in order to OPT and just as importantly the whole community on OPT's blog. Many times another athlete or I have posed a question about form on a lift, nutrition, workout strategies or pretty much any other thing imaginable and I have received spot on advice from numerous individuals on the site.

Another important aspect of the OPT community is the competition. Every day I go out to train alone in my garage, I know I am competing against some of the best crossfitters there is. It is a motivating factor to give it all each day.



WOD 1: As I posted in my pre-competition thoughts, I figured this WOD would be won on the burpee box jumps section. It defintely was. Some early competitors tried to row the first 1k in 3:10-3:15 and then absolutely died on the burpee section. I had the advantage of watching a couple Big Dawgs from OPT go before me and they set the bar with very low 10 min times and gave me some good advice on how to pace the rows. Since rowing and box jumps are stregths of mine I decided I should shoot for a slightly lower time but still keep the first 1k row at around 3:35-3:45. I came off the rower somewhere around 3:40 and did the burpees box jumps at a nice steady pace on got back on the rower and started slow but finished strong. I probably waited a bit too long to start the finishing sprint as I was pulling at a 1:30 pace to finish and probably had 3 or 4 more good pulls at that pace. I finished at 9:55 which placed me in 11th after 1 WOD.

WOD 2: This WOD did not go as planned and was a bit of a disappointment. I finished in 6:39 which ended up moving me to 21st overall after two WODS. For whatever reason I gassed in this WOD after the 30 double under round. My arms just got super fatigued and I couldn't spin the rope. I was hoping for a mid 5 in this WOD and just didn't have it.

WOD 3: I knew this WOD would determine if I advanced to regionals. The WOD was
30 Overhead squats - 95#
30 Chest to bar pull-ups
30 Power Snatch - 95#
30 Toes to bar
30 Sumo deadlift High Pull - 95#
30 squats
30 kettlebell swings - 53#

I was in 21st and the top 30 advanced. The heat consisted of those placed in 19th - 27th, so I knew if I stayed in the top half of the heat I would most likely advance. This all went out the window as the WOD started though. My only thoughts during the WOD were "unbroken" and "full effort is full victory." Did I do any of the movements unbroken? No, but the thought was always there and it lead me to do 10 consectutive rather than 7. It lead me to do 20 instead of 15. It lead me to do 4 instead of 2. I heard fellow Big Dawg, Dave X, shout numerous times during the WOD: Full Effort. It reminded me to leave absolutely nothing in the tank. I finished the WOD and was in rough shape for a little bit, but since I finished 3rd in the heat I knew I would be advancing to the Regionals.

Pre-competition thoughts

As I prepare to leave for NJ tomorrow for the NY/NJ Crossfit sectionals, I wanted to put some of my Pre-Competition thoughts down.

I have trained for this weekend for the past 10 months. I have got out of bed at 430am to work out. I have done doubles and triples to prepare for this weekend. My online coach is the best there is. I have done all of these movements many times. In the past year I have improved my work capacity across broad time and modal domains. The basis of Crossfit, the crossfit mission statement. I feel incredibly prepared for the workouts this weekend. I can only control what I do. If someone comes out and does WOD 1 in 8 mins, I can not control that. I have to stick what I can do and maximize my abilities in each WOD.

My motto for the weekend will be something coach has instilled in us "Full effort is full victory." If I leave the weekend knowing I laid it all on the line and gave my absolute best in each WOD, regardless of where I end up in the standings, I can be happy. "Full effort is full victory."

The past year I have improved my pull-ups, my clean my deadlift, my OHS, my burpee abilities, my front squat, my diet, my strategies. It is time to perform.

MY strategies for each WOD are below. I have many heats before me so this strategy could change after I observe some heats , but this is how I will attack them now.


WOD 1: listed in previous post. The strategy here is simple. The workout will be won by the fastest time in the burpee section. A nice steady row pace at approx 80% effort for the first 1k, get to the burpees and continously do reps. Get back on the rower and start pulling, get into a rhythm the first 500m and almost start to feel better, then the last 500m go with everything I got. This wod needs to be in the 9-10 min range I would suspect.

WOD 2: This is by no means an easy WOD. But I don;t believe there is much strategy to it. All the FS need to be unbroken. Do not want to have to clean that bar twice in a round. Double unders are what this workout is all about. The goal is to do these unbroken as well. Stay focused and relaxed on the DU's. If a miss happens, which it will, stay composed and get the next reps done right.

New York/ NJ Crossfit Sectional WODS

Here are the WODS for the sectional. I will post my pre competition thoughts later.

15 Min Cap
Row 1k
30 Burpee Box Jumps 24" Men/20" Women
Row 1k

Event 2
15 Min Cap
For Time:
10 Front Squats 155#/95# - Bar is cleaned from the floor to a standing rack position. A Squat clean would not count toward the front squat reps.
20 Double unders - Jump Ropes will be provided. You are welcome to use your own.
8 Front Squats
30 Double Unders
6 Front Squats
40 Double Unders
4 Front Squats
50 Double Unders
2 Front Squat
60 Double Unders

Sunday March 28

Heat Assignments announced Saturday night

Event 3
Time Cap - 17 Min
30 OHS (Over Head Squats) 95#/55#
30 Pullups Chest to Bar (chest must make contact to bar)
30 Power Snatches 95#/55#
30 Feet to Bar
30 SDHP (Sumo Deadlift High Pull) 95#/55#
30 Air Squats
30 KBS American 24kg/16kg

Power Clean at 235lbs on 3-16-10 (PR) from pat skinner on Vimeo.

This post falls in line with yesterdays post and the need to stay patient with fitness and fitness goals. This is personal record (PR) for me on the power clean at 235lbs. The progress has been slow and steady. My previous PR was 225 on 12-31-09. So 10lbs is progress. Nice and slow, incremental gains.

Patience is a virtue when looking at fitness goals.

Patience

I like this article, especially the first paragraph. It is sometimes difficult to remember that achieving fitness goals takes time. Not everything will happen overnight. This is something I try to keep in mind during my training as difficult as that can be.

A few examples:

A 100m sprinter will train for months and years on end and consider it a great success to take .2 sec off their 100m sprint time over a period of time.

On a personal level, when I started crossfit almost 2 years ago I was amazed at other crossfitters abilities to perform seemingly countless reps of pull-ups. I was frustrated by only being able to complete 6-8 at a time. Over time I put in the work and now pull-ups have become something that is very easy to me.

BUT THE KEY IS IT TOOK TIME. If you are "out of shape" it will take time to get back in shape, it won't happen all at once. BUT IT WILL HAPPEN, with goals and proper workouts. One day at a time is all you can do.

The following are words from someone else but I feel the same way.

"CrossFit to me was originally a quick way to get an awesome workout, but it has slowly become a part of life. I often find myself stunned at how excited I get when someone asks me what CrossFit is and I get to explain it to them."

Say no to long slow distance running

http://www.crossfitinvictus.com/blog/2010/02/tuesday-february-23-2010/

An excellent post about why LSD(long slow distance) running can sometimes be the enemy when trying to lose weight, become more fit etc;.