CrossFit Open Update

This one is going to be short and sweet. I had intentions to continue the story from last night but it’s 11:11 (always one of my favorite times) and frankly, that’s going to have to wait for another day. I’ve been hacking on Rails tonight trying to get a working first cut of a new pool for The Sports Pool Hub and time got way. So since every one of my 3 readers has been dying to hear about how my experience with the Open is going, here it is.

Tonight was 14.3, the third workout of 5. So far, I’ve been happy with the workouts but not my performance in them. Nothing has come up that exposes any of my weaknesses too badly but I’ve had some troubles actually taking advantage of that during the workouts. 14.1 was double unders and 75lb ground to overhead. I had trouble with the double unders which hurt my overall score. Last week, 14.2 saw 95lb overhead squats and chest to bar pullups. Again, neither of those things are troublesome for me but I couldn’t figure out how to balance the bar on the OHS and it cost me.

This week, 14.3 was AMRAP in 8 minutes of deadlifts and box jumps. Of course, it was slightly more interesting than that. The box jumps stayed the same throughout the 8 minutes, 15 reps to a 24inch box. Step ups were allowed and this was the route I took. The deadlifts on the other hand had some fun built in. Round 1 was 10 at 135 lbs. Round 2 was 15 at 185. Round 3 was 20 at 225. Round 4 was 25 at 275. It continued from there though I didn’t get far enough to worry about a 315 lb deadlift.

This week, instead of having high expectations, I went in with the hopes of completing 2 rounds. We had to change our own weights out each round and my judge and I worked out the math for three rounds. Even though I had low expectations, I was happy to see deadlifts instead of something like clean and jerks. I’m short and I have a strong back/posterior chain so deadlifts are a strong point. Box jumps aren’t my favorite but with step ups being allowed, they didn’t worry me especially since they didn’t increase in number.

To make a long story longer, I flew through 3 rounds in 5:36 and actually felt pretty strong. I knew I wasn’t going to finish the round of 25 at 275 without having a hernia Still, I managed 7 reps at 275 which is within sight of my all time high deadlift. My total was 97 reps. Of course, even been really good at deadlifts, I’m at a disadvantage over guys who are 50 pounds bigger than I am. The box jumps won’t hurt them much and they’ll be able to keep lifting 275. But given my bodyweight (155), I’m thrilled with the result.

It’s been a lot of work this year to get to this point. I’ve put in over 45 workouts in the first 70 days of the year, undoubtedly a record for me. I’m doing many of the regular CrossFit workouts as prescribed. I feel as strong and fit as I ever have. Even though the first two workouts were substandard (or at least sub expectations), I think I’m in the top 50% of all competitors in the Masters division which is definitely something I’m proud of.

Of course, given the fact we haven’t had a workout with something I’m terrible at yet, all this rah rah stuff will probably result in muscle ups and wall balls next week. Still, 60% of the way through, I’m happy with the result. My goal is to finish in the top 50% of the Masters division so I better get to working on the muscle ups.