I think I can speak for a lot of us when I say, “Phew! The Open is over!”
It’s always fun to get going and build up to the Open, but then it’s always nice when it’s done.
Regardless of how much we do or do not care about our annual 5 week test of fitness, it is still a stressor. The sheer anxiety of having a stranger announce the workout you’ll be doing in theatrically dramatic fashion every week is enough to drive anyone mad. (Sidenote, Dave Castro was a BUD/S instructor, so he is quite well versed in methods of inducing mental strife).
Every year, we experience a wild ride of emotions. Sometimes people achieve or do better than they thought they would. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes people rise to the occasion and get their first ______’s. And sometimes they don’t.
*It should be noted that 5 random workouts that are comprised of moving targets do not define who you are as an athlete or CrossFit participant. It’s an incredibly diverse Sport that is unlike anything else in the world. In no other venue do you not know what you’ll be up against. Even if we can narrow it down to 10-15 movements, we have no idea whether they’ll be heavy or light, what they’ll be paired with, how long or how many we’ll have to do of them, what implement they’ll be utilizing, etc, etc. It makes it quite complicated to determine success or failure.
In other words, if we were training for an 800m track event, we could map out a very, very specific training plan that would either get you better or worse by next year. In this venue, it’s not that easy.
Point being, try not to get too high or too low regarding your performance in The Open.
If, however, you’re working on a skill or strength that you were disappointed that you could not do this year, focus on that. If it’s that important to you, you need to take responsibility for it and work towards it. Don’t wait around till next year and go through this all over again.
It’s up to you to get better and focus on it if its a weakness of yours, and your coaches are more than happy to help you. Our program is very, very balanced in a way to move the needle across all movements and domains of fitness. If you have a certain area that you need more work on than others, it’s going to take specific attention and dedication to get better at.
On a separate note, I’d like to comment on how proud I am of everyone. Every single participant should have very positive things to hold their heads high about. Whether it was just signing up for our Intramural, doing the Scaled workouts as prescribed, doing a workout at RX, doing all the workouts as RX, taking a spot on the podium, getting a first _____, etc, there isn’t anyone on that list that did the Open that can’t say a few great things about those things. Embrace those. 99% of the world will never step outside their comfort zones like you did for the last 5 weeks. Most people are terrified of the word CrossFit, let along throwing their hat in the ring in a competitive sense. Make sure to recognize how awesome you are.
Regarding a recap of performances in our gym, the final week saw Emily’s Black Team pull out another 1st place finish to cap off their season victory. Bill’s Orange Team put up a valiant fight and almost pulled it out in the end. Unfortunately for Bill, he’ll have to pass the torch to Emily until next year.
On an individual level, we had a lot of really stand out performances and saw a lot of people really rise to the occasion. Some that come to mind are Aleya’s bar muscle up clinic on 17.2, Tennille’s incredible ability to ignore pain and some of the worst hand tears I’ve ever seen in 17.3. Kelli continuing to perform and come in 1st or 2nd even while being quite pregnant. Zac’s performance and utter obliteration of the field on 17.3. Jen’s sprint to the finish on 17.4, completing 9 handstand pushups in like 30 seconds. Melissa’s fantastic execution of a plan on 17.5. Val taking a years worth of dedicated work on linking toes to bar and turning them in to a huge set of 12 when it mattered on 17.2. Etc, etc. (If I left you out, I’m sorry, just trying to do a quick recap, not a pick favorites.)
But I think we can all agree that the MVP of the whole series is Terry McGuirk. Yes, she ended up like 250th in the world, which is incredible, but more than that, she took the last 5 weeks as her own personal mission to conquer fears, weaknesses and destroy things that stood in her way. Before the 2017 Open, she had never done a Toes to Bar. Sure enough, they showed up. After doing the workout scaled, she decided she was going to do it RX’d instead. So, she came in on Monday morning and we played around with some technique, looked at flexibility and worked to make them happen. Sure enough, by 9:30 on Monday morning, she had not only done her 1st Toes to Bar, but she had done her first 30. Bad ass.
On 17.3, she had a bit of a miscue on her strategy, coming out of the gates a little faster than we planned. We talked and decided she would come in and do it again, according to plan this time. She came in Monday morning, executed the plan perfectly, and ended up doing like 15 snatches at a weight that is only a few pounds under her all time PR. It should be noted that she spent the last 6 weeks before the Open working with Bill on her Weightlifting.
On 17.5, she had never done a Double Under before. Sure enough, she spent the whole weekend practicing and driving her family crazy. Monday, she came in and continued practicing. By the time cap, she had done 174 Double Unders in the workout.
Terry’s awesomeness has never been a secret, but sometimes it’s expressed in ways that exceed anyone’s imagination of what’s possible. Thanks for being such an inspiration Terry!
And thanks to everyone for participating! On to next training year! Look for a post in the next few days about where we’ll be going from here.