The Crossfit Open – 14.1

WOD 1 of the 2014 Open

30 double unders
15 power snatches @ 25kgs

Although I’m not “officially” doing the Open I had always planned to do the Open WODS each Saturday morning with the rest of the HPU crew.

It’s quite the set up!

We get together as a group and watch the Crossfit Open standard video and Coach G answers any questions before Graham from the Corrective Clinic puts us through WOD specific mobility. Finally the coaches put us through a warm up and go over technique before the first heat gets underway.

I was dancing around during the warm up (The Grease soundtrack will do that to a girl) and Amit looked over and said “Julz you’re way too happy”. You see most of the Units were quite nervous, they were doing “Crossfit as a sport” (and quite a few for the first time) however I wasn’t under the same pressure. I was just there “training crossfit” so that . Sure I was a little nervous, but amazingly calm considering I was about to attempt 30 double unders.

J was in heat 1, even though he hadn’t signed up for the Open he expects a lot from himself. I was talking to him post wod and he exclaimed “I hate it when I think I should be good at something and suck” I guess that’s the difference, I knew I was going to suck at this WOD so I didn’t have the same high expectations. But I’m proud of him for keeping it together and not throwing his toys (or his rope).

Skipping IS NOT my forte’ so I was just hoping that I’d get through one round. After all it took me 7 minutes 30 the other morning to get through 50 and my achilles tendon is uber sore from practising double unders (catch 22 really), however Jojo gave me a quick “how to skip” lesson and her pointers will help me become proficient much quicker than if I’d been left to my own devices (however proficiency wasn’t going to come today) 😉

I was in heat 3, even with my zen like calmness (because Jojo said that would help with my skipping prowess) I fluffed the first skip and I think I did the first 20 in sets of 1 but I stayed calm and just kept trying to jump high while keeping my arms down and forward (see I’m a great “in theory” skipper).

I’m quite glad that the WOD contained 2 movements that I’m not hugely familiar with, it let me complete WOD 14.1 but without a tonne of pressure to do well. I ended up doing better than I expected and finished 2 full rounds and got through 14 of the 30 du’s in round three, so although not a high score compared to the rest of the crew one I was still rather proud of.

However I have to say that I still have no idea what it’s like to do the open because although I did the same WOD at the same weights I don’t have the same pressure as those who are actually competing. I’d hazard a guess and say I may have come closer to my 1 round goal if every rep was actually going to count (for real).

14.1 complete. 14.2?

I’m going to predict it includes pull ups. It would be cool if it’s pull ups and hspu but it’s probably more likely to be a horror version of Fran.