The day is upon us!
For at least the last 7 days (maybe more) I’ve had people inform me each morning as I walk through the door at CrossfitHPU how many sleeps there were to go AND
Today is the day! No more sleeps!
The Crossfit Open is upon us!
By the time I upload this blog post WOD 14.1 will have been released and two elite Crossfit althetes, Garret Fisher and Marcus Hendren will have competed head to head at the “release announcement party“.
I’ve said numerous times that I’m not entering the Open and each and every time I’ve had to quantify my reason/s. Don’t get me wrong, I love how crossfit peeps are so passionate about crossfit, the open and competing in general BUT I am yet to ask a single person “Why?” when they announce “I’m doing the Open”. I figure it’s because they want too.
Coach G almost turned me today when I said
“I didn’t feel the need to give Crossfit HQ my money when I could just turn up to the Saturday class and do them for free, it’s not like I have a chance of going to the Regionals”
He then explained you were paying for a profile (an online record of all your open scores), which would enable you to look back over the previous years and high five yourself about how far you’ve come.
Nice reasoning coach .. like I said you nearly had me. BUT, unless the movements, weights, time domains and order were exactly the same each and every year it’s not a true measurement of progress and honestly do I actually need the open to measure my progress?
Last year I couldn’t kip and now I can. That’s measurable progress.
Yes crossfit has become an actual sport BUT it’s not my sport, in fact it’s not the chosen sport of thousands of crossfit athletes around the world. Chris Spealler (crossfit demi god) wrote an amazing blog post on the difference between training crossfit and crossfit as a sport that I think sums it up really eloquently. In part he states;
“Training CrossFit: These are people that use CrossFit for what it is truly designed for and in many ways it’s a means to an end. They use CrossFit to increase their base level of GPP (general physical preparedness) and this correlates to better performance in their specific sport or life.”
To perform better at life!
I want to be strong enough to pick up my kids when they are hurt and have the endurance to carry them long distances.
I want to be fit enough to run with them, against them, and even around them (as kids have a funny habit of being unable to run in a straight line).
In other words I’m training so that our family has a better chance of survival when the Zombie apocalypse happens. 😉
I wish all the Crossfit Games Open competitors the best of luck, enjoy, go hard but most of all, be safe!
Till next time
