Holy crap am I psychologically crushed. The first workout for the CrossFit Games Open Sectionals was announced last week, and after thinking through it all, I decided I should realistically achieve somewhere in the 8 round range. I prepared my workouts, get myself mentally there, and walked in Saturday feeling mostly ready. I say that I felt “mostly” ready because I was coming of limited sleep thanks to a 4 hour bus ride, then a 6 hour plane ride the day before. Because of that, my fueling process was a little off (totally my fault with not being prepared on the plane ride). I then walked in Saturday with only a banana and a soy latte in my stomach and I am sure that affected me at least a little. This is by no means an excuse, I gave it my all for what I had that day, 7 rounds, 30 double unders and 9 overheads, I am just SO convinced I have more in me!
I had a strategy to it too. I would go with power snatches until just before I felt I needed to dumb the bar, then I would move to clean and jerks and opt for slower movements, but less breaks. In the end, I broke up those overheads a bit more than I expected (all double unders went unbroken), and that led to the score above.
With the additional week, I planned out my workout schedule to get in a second attempt. That attempt would be workout #1 today (I would get heavy back squats then track work later on). Well, it was all planned out perfectly, Brendon (head coach at CrossFit San Mateo) would be there, and then I had two others willing to come in as well. I would have a support crew big enough to get me fired up and I was feeling very confident as of last night. But, early this morning I got a text letting me know that Brendon’s daughter was really under the weather and he wouldn’t be able to make it in. Another coach at CFSM, Tuan, couldn’t make it in either. I was left with a collection of options here: do the workout with just the support of one member of CFSM, or wait and do the workout another day with a massive support crew!
My eagerness prevailed on this one and I opted to just get the workout in. Geeze, it’s crazy, even as I write this I am getting more and more frustrated at myself for making this choice. I mean, how hard would it have been to just tweak my programming and do it Thursday, Friday, or even Saturday? Why did I have to be so hotheaded and stick to something that really had no good reason to be followed? No clue people, just that sometimes the mind can get so caught up in an idea that it’s impossible to get out of it, no matter how illogical it might actually be.
I felt good going into it, but my transitions were slow. I stuck with power snatches for all the rounds and was able to go unbroken for 4 rounds, then got 10 before breaking on the 5th round. I tripped up my double unders a couple times, but I wasn’t very worried about that. But I realized that when I messed up, or when I was moving between exercises, I was taking up WAY too much time. When Praveen (my support for the workout) announced I had 2 minutes left is where I lost my focus completely. I was struggling through the end of the 6th round and I knew I would not be able to get two more rounds in in those two minutes. I psyched myself out and my energy level just crashed. I finished with 7 rounds and 4 double unders.
All the signs led me to not doing the damn workout today, but I forced my way through and learned my lesson. I have written on many occasions about listening to your body and mind when working out and pushing when pushing is necessary. But this was something else; I personally felt ready physically, but things were not aligned. I was not listening to the world around me. I was dissociating myself from the world, and that is just as bad as dissociating yourself with your own mind. I think we have a damn close energetic connection with the world around us and that connection plays a huge roll in how we function n a day-to-day basis. It may be an extreme example, but if there’s a blizzard outside, your car won’t start on 4 attempts, there’s a broken down car blocking your driveway and the store you want to go to is closed; perhaps you should NOT attempt to drive to that store. Everything was telling me to wait a little and do this workout another day, but I refused to listen, and I paid the price. Luckily I did not get hurt, that’s for sure!
So for the million-dollar question! Am I satisfied with 20th place in my region (as of now that’s where I stand), or do I re-work my programming and go for that 8+ round goal at the end of the week?
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
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