Competition Mode

*Not me (duh), someone much stronger but…good pic, right?

I wasn’t going to do a run down of yesterday’s 13.1 Crossfit Games Open WOD but since I’ve been thinking about it all day, I really want to.

And, by the way, if you had told me two years ago that I’d have no problem watching several hours worth of Crossfit competition at a time, I would have told you were crazy.

Today, I watched two of the top Crossfit male athletes complete 13.1, as well as Julie Fouche and my partner at yesterday morning’s WOD at Trident. Here’s what it is:

By the way, guess who excels through the roof at making videos? The Crossfit Games people. They put out new videos constantly and all of them are enamoring and inspiring. What IS it about this sport that I just love so much?

So this morning I went in slightly nervous. Not sure why considering I’m not close to qualifiying for anything whatsoever but, still.

Actually that’s what I love about this whole thing — ANYONE can compete. As they say in one of the opening videos, the Crossfit Games starts in backyards, garages and small the large boxes all over the world. Over 120,000 people signed up this year (that’s 50,000 more than last year, by the way) and there is really no requirement at all. Just go do your freakin’ best. Here’s the video recap from last year:

I wasn’t sure how my body would handle the WOD. I mean, I’ve actually never done a workout with so many burpees. Somehow I’ve sailed by without the torture. I heard last year the first Open workout included 7 minutes of burpees. UGH!

So, this morning we had partners and one person documented the other person. I kind of wanted to go first but so did my partner so I figured I’d just check out how others were doing and use it to my advantage. After tracking her for 17 minutes, it was my turn. Nerves!

By 25 burpees in, I was like…wow, this is going to suck. Normally I think snatches are really fun but I couldn’t believe how hard they seemed after the burpees.

During the course of 17-minutes, these are a few things that went through my head:

• I am very uncomfortable
• Why can’t I get my heart to stop beating so fast?
• Why were burpees invented? 
• I’m struggling with this weight, I look like a weakling
• I seriously cannot do more than 2 reps in a row right now

Honestly, after I was done, I felt kind of silly. I think I was snatching like a total of 55 pounds, which is ridiculously light. Normally I do more than that but I just couldn’t do anymore with all the burpees. Since I had nothing much to compare myself too, I wasn’t sure if I was stopping too much or what.

After watching the top athletes complete 13.1 on video later in the day, I realized my stopping was actually fairly normal and I should have been easier on myself. I also should have split my snatches up into groups mentally so I wasn’t just constantly counting up to 30.

Here’s the video of Julie doing it (notice her breaks):

I could have done those burpees a little faster if I took my head out of it and just went steady but hard. Lessons learned…

I am discouraged that I still can’t do a pull-up. It seems like I should be able to by now. But, I’m not gonna give up. I’m still gonna excited about the next Open WOD and keeping doing my best!