2016 Open Recap

Well, another CrossFit Open has come and gone. 

It's hard for me to describe the 2016 Open, it was so different from my experience last year in a number of ways. The workouts, the atmosphere, the way I viewed the entire process-all of it was different. From a performance standpoint, this wasn't my best Open. The workouts were tough for me this year and I finished 269th in the region compared to last year's 118th finish. I contributed on one workout for my team as opposed to three last year. My life completely revolved around the Open for five weeks last year and this year it was just another piece of my life. I don't want that to come off like I didn't care about it because I absolutely did, but this year I found myself with a lot more on my plate, in a good way. 

I guess if I could describe this Open I would say it was a huge learning experience. This was the first time I was able to step back from the all the craziness and see how it falls into the bigger picture. My main goal was to put forth my absolute best effort on every workout and I believe I did. Everything else was out of my hands. I came away from this Open with a new appreciation for my teammates, new goals, and a better perspective of myself. 

In my recap last year I listed my favorite moments from the Open. While I certainly had a lot of good moments this year, I want to talk more about what I learned this time around. 

Here's what I took away from the 2016 CrossFit Open

1. The Open is only five weeks out of the year, so don't let it wipe away all of your progress

You know how in Men In Black they use that device called a neuralyzer and it wipes out someone's memory? The Open can have that same effect on an athlete. For some reason we sometimes tend to let the Open completely obliterate our memory of all the progress we've made over the past year. In our minds if we don't perform well on these five random workouts we must not be as fit as we thought, right? Wrong. We don't have control over these workouts because we are not Dave Castro. All we can do is perform the workouts to the best of our ability. Last year, three out of the five workouts were completely in my wheelhouse. Handstand push ups and power cleans? Yes please. A max clean and jerk? Yep. Ring muscle ups? Nailed it. This year there was only one workout I was 100% confident I would crush and it was 16.3. It was the only workout in which I contributed a top three score. Does this mean I haven't made any progress over the past year? Does it mean I'm not as good as I thought I was? No. Even though I didn't contribute on 16.4, if it had come up last year the wall balls and row would have completely destroyed me. Even though I didn't contribute a score on 16.5 I still shaved off over a minute from my previous 2014 score. Don't base your entire worth off these five workouts. Take it as a learning experience and work on your weaknesses during the off season. Don't forget how hard you've worked in the other 47 weeks of the year. 

2. Don't obsess about what other people are doing 

Let's take a trip back in time to 2013. I had been a member of CSC for a little over a year and I decided I wanted to be on the regionals team. This automatically meant every single female in the gym was a threat to me and became my most mortal enemy, at least that's how I looked at it at the time. I was constantly comparing myself to the other females. I would obsess over their numbers, get upset if they snatched more than me, get pissed if they figured out how to do muscle ups, etc. This is actually pretty hard for me to write because I can't believe I was such an unsupportive asshole at one point in my life. The 2013 Open rolled around and I believed this was my chance to show everyone how much I deserved to be on the team. I performed well on most of the workouts but what I remember most about that year is the stress. I would stand there while the other females were doing the Open workouts, my beady little eyes darting around trying to figure out if they were going to beat me. If someone did worse than me I would secretly celebrate. If someone beat me I would get upset. I was a straight up jerk. CSC qualified a team to regionals and guess what? I was the alternate. I didn't go to regionals. Instead of focusing on my own performance and supporting my teammates I was too obsessed with beating everyone and in the end it didn't do me any good. That was the worst Open of my CrossFit career, not because of my performance but because of how I acted. I could have spent those five weeks having fun with the other members of the gym but instead I was childish and insecure. This story brings me to my point: don't obsess about other people. Worry about yourself and your performance. Come in and do YOUR best. You can't control how other people perform, you only have control over your own score. It's not worth the stress and it gets you nowhere. Getting upset because someone snatched more than you won't make you stronger. Throwing a hissy fit because someone beat you in a workout doesn't make you fitter. Put your head down and do the work, that's all there is to it. This actually leads me to my next point...

3. Be thankful for your teammates

I could seriously write one million blog posts about how awesome and talented my CSC teammates are. I could write an entire book on Emily Deet alone. But I'll save that for another time. Every year I am blown away by my friends performances during the Open. We're all used to training together but the Open is a different beast. This is when people push themselves to the absolute limit and it's always amazing to see. "Be thankful for your teammates" has a couple different meanings. Being on a team is probably one of the coolest experiences anyone can have. It's a group of friends who are passionate about the same thing, have the same goal and want to help each other get there. There's nothing better than that. It's a built-in support group. The other great thing about a team is the fact that everyone has different strengths and everyone steps up to the plate when they need to. When 16.1 was announced I knew I probably wouldn't be contributing. I am not a "20 minute" athlete. Lucky for me, there are several other people who are 20 minute athletes. Do you think I was mad about the fact that Megan beat me by literally 70 reps on 16.1? Eff no! I was thrilled. Being aerobic is her jam. She's awesome. If my modest 201 reps was one of the top three scores, our team would not be in great shape. I would actually be extremely concerned. Be thankful when your teammates can pick up the slack when you're lacking. Be happy when you smash a workout but be humble when you don't. Give credit where credit is due. Let your teammates handle their shit. They know what they're good at and they know what their weaknesses are. I know what I'm good at and I know what my weaknesses are. We're stronger together than we are apart. It's like in Power Rangers when they have to come together to fight the monster and they form the Megazord. The Megazord wouldn't work if Billy the blue ranger decided he didn't want to be part of it, because then it would be missing a leg. Every single person is important. Am I a nerd because I made a Power Rangers reference? I think we all know the answer to that question. 

4. At the end of the day we're all just a bunch of friends working out together, so let's have fun

The Open is temporary. Regionals is temporary. The training process is ongoing and constant, so try to enjoy it. I love training. I actually get a little bummed out during the Open because I start to miss regular training. There's nothing better to me than working out in the gym shooting the shit with my best friends. It's just the coolest. Training and getting stronger is so fun to me. I love the daily process, even if it boring sometimes, because I know I'm taking steps every day to improve and get better. During the Open it's very easy for people to get caught up in the competitive nature of the sport, especially if they're gunning for a team spot among multiple talented athletes. But I hope you don't get so swept up in it that you forget to support and encourage your friends. The Open is temporary but your training partners and friends will always be there. Have fun, enjoy watching your friends fucking crush it, take everything as a learning experience and apply it to the off season. I can't imagine CSC without all the awesome people that go along with it. When it's all said and done we're all just a bunch of hilarious, fit people who enjoy lifting weights together. Don't forget to enjoy the training process and the company that comes along with it. 

I don't have any regrets about this Open. I gave 100% effort on every workout on both attempts each week. I can't ask for more than that. I'm proud of my efforts and I'm proud of my friends. As usual I want to thank my coach, Stephen, for his top notch programming and coaching. He really is the best at what he does and I don't know where I would be without him. I'm going to take what I learned and apply it to my training in the off season. I'm going to continue having fun at the gym and enjoy my training, even though I know I have a lot of burpees in my future. Hold the vision, trust the process. 

Onward. 

3/28/2016

30:00 easy pace of:
10 assault bike calories
3 wall walks
50m light reverse sled drag
10 ski erg calories
3 dead hang to inverted
100 50 single unders with heavy super heavy rope 

complete
70# on sled


I knew training was going to be rough today, I was feeling extremely heavy after all the pizza and ice cream I consumed over the weekend. HASHTAG NO REGRETS. 

Jump ropes with the super heavy rope got pretty tough, Heather and Jenn had a good laugh while they were watching me do it. I'm definitely looking forward to a few days of chill recovery. 


And now, a segment I like to call "Why So Serious?" It's the part of my blog where I start to talk about my thoughts and feelings. Please enjoy.

While I was coaching the Monday evening classes, Duprie was redoing 16.5. He knew he needed to shave of some time from his previous score to put himself in a better spot for the Master's Qualifier. Whenever it was time for Duprie to do burpees, Conner would hop off the assault bike and do the burpees with him to keep him on pace. I'll be honest, I actually got a bit choked up watching this. I was watching one teammate helping out another teammate because he wanted him to succeed. Conner was not doing the burpees with Duprie for selfish reasons, he didn't refuse to help him because he was afraid his score would be beaten. He did it because he's a good teammate and a good friend. While this whole thing was happening I wanted to just yell, "THIS is what sportsmanship looks like. This is what it means to be on a team"

I'm going to be honest here, because this is my blog and these are my feelings. Over the past five weeks I witnessed some really disappointing and borderline infuriating behavior from one individual directed towards our most humble and hard-working male athletes. It was actually hard to watch. People don't seem to realize that just because you contribute every single week or even get the top score on a workout, it doesn't mean you'll crush the regionals workouts. People who smash the Open don't necessarily make great Regionals athletes(not always, but sometimes) and people who destroy regionals workouts might not always perform well in the Open. This isn't true 100% of the time but it definitely happens. The workouts at regionals could be very different from the workouts in the Open. 

Also, WE'RE ALL ON THE SAME TEAM. All of us. Every single person from CSC that signs up for the Open is part of the team. Every single person has the ability to contribute, depending on the workout. The Open is not a "me against them" situation, it's a "CSC against the region" situation. So the fact that I kept hearing someone tell our nicest, best athletes that they should plan on having the second and third best scores, and that calculations were being done to ensure they would be beaten by one rep, that's just insane to me. These are your teammates, your training partners, your friends. I can't imagine walking up to Emily or Megan and telling them I was going to redo the workout just to beat them by one rep or one second. I can't picture those words even coming out of my mouth. They are my teammates and best friends, and I want them to succeed. I want them to do better than me! If I'm contributing on a 20 minute workout then I would be scared for our team. I know when I'm going to do well and when I won't. We're all in this together and it's crazy to me that someone would actually hope people do worse just so they have a better chance at a top score. Regionals is a TEAM event and from what I saw, that was just completely lost. 

If you've gone up to one of your fellow athletes and told them you're going to redo the workout to try and beat them by one rep, you're doing it wrong. A good teammate will ask you your score not because they want to try and beat it, but because they hope you did well. A good teammate will support you and encourage you. A good teammate will do 84 burpees with you when you ask them if it means it will help you. At the end of the day, we're all just a group of friends working out together, and I really hope everyone remembers that. 

3/27/2016

30:00 easy aerobic work

40:00 hike @Ault Park w/Heather

Spring is here!

3/26/2016

A. Hang power clean, build quickly to a crisp triple 

+

For time w/a partner @easy effort- only 1 working @ a time:

80 toes to bar

1600m row

240 double unders

80 kettlebell swings

800m run

+

10:00 mobility work of choice

A. 165

+

17:38 w/Main Street Deet

+

complete

Came to the gym feeling extremely sore this morning. Lats, shoulders, legs, you name it. It all hurt. 

It felt good to do heavy cleans, although I know 165 is pretty pathetic for a triple. This was as much as I could muster today. 

It was really fun doing the partner workout with Emily. We traded sets of five on the toes to bar, traded 400s on the row, sixty on the double unders, ten on the kettlebell, and 200s on the run. This was one of my favorite class partner workouts we've done so far. 

3/25/2016

AM
16.5 movement prep

PM
16.5

AM
complete

PM
13:24 (1:10 faster than 2014)


The final Open workout is finally here! Honestly, I was really bummed there weren't ring muscle ups in 16.5. I really thought there would be muscle ups and/or a max lift of some sort. But alas, it was another aerobic workout with burpees. I decided to go into this with a good attitude and a goal of beating my time from 2014. 

I broke up the thrusters into sets of two. 11/10, 10/8, 8/7, 6/6, 5/4, then the 6 and 3 were unbroken. I actually felt really good all the way through the set of 15. I was trying to focus on breathing and staying steady on the burpees. I could hear Jenn telling me to keep breathing and I was thinking to myself, "I'm actually doing really well on this!" and then the set of 12 hit. I totally hit a wall on the set of twelve burpees, they slowed down so much. The set of nine thrusters wasn't too slow, I know I probably rested too much between the set of five and four but the nine burpees were SOOOOO SLOW. I couldn't imagine finishing these, it seemed like they were going to last forever. I should have picked up speed on the set of 6 but I slowed down even more. I was able to kick it into gear for the final three burpees. This hurt just as much as I remember it, if not a little more this time around. 

I know this is not a stellar score, but I'm happy with it. I took over a minute off my previous time, so that's a huge improvement. I won't be redoing this again. There's no way I'll contribute on this workout and I'm happy with this time, even if it isn't competitive. I feel good about being one and done on this one. 

It's hard to believe the Open is already over. This Open was so.....weird. And different. It was the complete opposite from last year in both the workouts and atmosphere. Overall, I'm happy with my performance. I only contributed one week, but it was the week I knew I would contribute. The workouts just weren't good for me this year and I've accepted that. I know what I have to work on for next season and my plan is still the same: have fun with my training and work hard as usual. I'll be writing a much longer blog post in the next week about my overall Open experience, but for now I'll say I'm glad it's over and I'm ready to get back to normal training. It's always a good learning experience and I always love seeing my friends crush it. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. 

3/24/2016

10:00 bike @Z1
+
10 sets:
:30 bike @high aerobic effort- sprint the last :15 of the last set
:30 bike easy
+
10:00 bike @Z1

complete
+
complete
+
complete 

3/23/2016

AM
30:00 airdyne @Z1
+
15:00 mobility 

PM
A. Squat snatch, build quickly to a single @80-90% 1RM
+
3:00 @90%
1 muscle up
3 thrusters, 85
2 muscle ups
6 thrusters, 85
3 muscle ups
9 thrusters, 85
and so on...
+
:60 rest
+
3:00 @90%
box jumps w/step down
+
:60 rest
+
3:00 to build to a tough (not max) overhead squat triple from the ground

AM
complete
+
complete

PM
A. 145
+
40 reps
+
50 box jumps
+
145


Snatching wasn't great today, I was still really tight from 16.4 on Monday. Lower back and hamstrings were still really sore. I was able to build to 145 in three lifts but it wasn't the prettiest snatch I've ever done. 

The muscle up/thruster workout was tough, thrusters felt really heavy. Muscle ups were easy as usual but I was resting too much during the transition between thrusters/MUs. 

Box jumps were not great, my lower back was totally blown up for this. I know this is a pretty pathetic number but I tried to stay moving. Everything was just so tight.

The overhead squat was hard, although I should have started heavier. I did one set at 125 and one set at 145. I wish I would have started at 130 or 135 and gone to 150.