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.