The Crossfit Open – Realisations
The Crossfit Open officially drew to a close on Tuesday 1pm NZ time.
I managed to finish in the top half of my age group (in viagra canada both the Australian Region and the World) but couldn’t keep up with the younger and indeed some cases older, fitter folk and finished in the bottom half of “all individual women” who competed.
Most people I’ve spoken let out a loud sigh of relief exclaiming they were glad it was all over ..
Me? Not so much much. In fact I’ve enjoyed each and every emotion ..
The anticipation of what is to come,
The excitement leading up to the Friday afternoon announcement
The stress prior to “testing day”
The camaraderie on “testing day” and;
The exhaustion, determination, ache, pride and/or lament afterwards.
So now it’s all over things feel a little flat. It doesn’t help that at HPU our programming has moved more towards team WOD’s in preparation for the play-offs. I’m not much of a team sport kind of girl and although it’s cherry picking I’ve stayed away from the teams WODs and concentrated on lifting heavy stuff, which although I enjoy it does get a little lonely 😉
But enough about my short comings. Today I want to share things I’ve learned about myself from competing in the Open
I am more proficient than I think I am ..
Firstly not only did I post a score for every WOD (13% of my fellow old folks did not) but I held my own amongst the other masters competitors (those who actually compete) at HPU. Granted I came last pace on the leaderboard (even Lou who only posted 4 scores beat me) but looking at the results head to head (apart from 14.1 which was a dismal failure) I wasn’t too far off the pace and even managed not to come last in 3 of the 5 WOD’s.
I enjoy competing ..
I know I’ve stated over and over again I’m just not that competitive and to a degree it’s true. Competing is not on my agenda at this point in time, I’ve got other things I’m more interested in doing (like get strong, proficient and fit) but I’ve enjoyed seeing how my best on the day stacks up against not only my friends but people around the world.
I need to go back to basics
Although handstands and pistols look cool, they are a totally useless (but extremely photographic) skill to possess. I need to learn how to skip (and string kipping T2B’s).
Shit’s going to start getting scary
It’s official I can no longer avoid hoisting a bar above my head and squatting with it. Yes I know that 2014 was the first year the overhead squat made an appearance in the Open and it may not show again for another 3 years BUT I do know that the snatch weights got way above what we had to lift this year, one must be prepared .. back to Oly class, el pronto!
I’ve seen many people mention how the open has shown up areas of weakness in their “arsenal” and I obviously have weaknesses too (quite a few in fact), but I knew about those way before entering into the Open.
In fact the Open has done the exact opposite for me, it’s highlighted the areas where I am strong and it’s given me a bit of a boost. I recall vividly Anna telling me that I constantly underestimate myself .. she could in fact be right.
Till next time
