First off special thanks to the people who helped me get through the Crossfit opens. Crossfit 321
http://crossfit321.com/ , Chris P, Sheila L, Karen W, Sue P, and my beautiful wife Lorica
So Ive been a slacker and haven't updated this in a very long time. Ill explain a bit. But as Ive always said. NO EXCUSES, just move on and get work done.
The open was a 7 week long journey that brought about some very interesting positive and negative experiences.
First off I got sick the night before the first workout was announced. I came down with probably the worst chest cold Ive ever had. I couldn't breathe and my nose would not stop running.
Workout 1- Double unders and power snatches: I performed poorly on this workout, I chalk it up to my head and chest cold, but my double unders were horrible, I will do this one again. Weakness ( technique and endurance )
Workout 2- Light Dead-lift, Pushups, Box-jump. Thankfully I had a full week to recoup from the first workout due to technical difficulties on crossfit side. So my cold was a little better. I performed this workout twice. And improved the second time. I did it at Crossfit 321, and the crowd helped to ignite that competitive fire. ( Weakness- Endurance, Strength- Pushups )
Workout 3- Squat clean and jerk. I loved everything about this workout. Performed it twice, and improved again the second time. ( Weakness- Endurance; Strength-squat cleans)
Workout 4- A horrible combo of barbell facing burpees, overhead squats and muscle ups. This one was extremely stressful and I only performed it once, but again the Crowd at crossfit 321 was awesome. I breezed through the burpees, and the Overhead squats went really fast, then it was time to face muscle ups, I had done my first muscle up only 3 weeks prior and was extremely nervous. My first attempt was wobbly and I missed it, but with metallica blasting in the background and the crowd yelling I nailed my first one, It was glorious, I cannot describe the feeling, it was just awesome. I attempted again and missed, then I finally nailed my second one, and I went bezerk, it was an awesome day. ( Weakness- Muscle up technique, Strength-Determination and mental toughness)
Workout 5- Power cleans, toes to bar, and wallballs. I felt good about this one, it was a long AMRAp so I knew I would tire so I picked a pace and stayed with it. My technique was bad on toes to bar, but I excelled on the other two. It went well and I was very happy with the performance. ( Weakness- Technique/endurance. strength-wallball)
Workout 6- Thrusters and Chest to bar, fran on steroids. I TOTALLY underestimated this one. I thought my strength on thrusters would carry me through this workout and was ground to a halt after I hit the wall on the round of 12. Chest to bar wore me down and I just couldn't get my wind back. But the Crowd at crossfit 321 was awesome. ( Weakness- Chest to bar/Endurance, Strength- Thrusters )
Conclusions and reflections: while the competition was fun, it was also a very stressful seven weeks, constantly shifting your training so you don't injure yourself, or overdue it, and also the anticipation of the next workout, eventually mentally got to me. I learned alot about my capability as an athlete and how to just keep moving. I know I need to improve my Endurance and Cardio, and I will be throwing in many longer met-cons and additional crossfit endurance workouts to help facilitate this. i also need to get my shoulder strength up, my overhead and pullups will be much stronger when I get my shoulders stronger. But overall it was a very good experience and it helped me grow as a crossfit athlete. I finished in the top 5 for Maine on many of the workouts and overall I finished 217 in the northeast not too shabby.
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