EDITOR’S NOTE:
Journals will be posted at 3pm Pacific:
Mondays – Ingrid Kantola of CrossFit Central
Tuesdays – Peter Egyed of CrossFit Fury
Wednesdays – Michael Winchester of CrossFit Central
Michael Winchester – Athlete Journal 2/29/12
(Read Michael’s Bio here)
The Open, 12.2
From 7 minutes of burpees to 10 minutes of snatches!
I can’t say I was excited heading into 12.2. As I have mentioned before, the snatch (and Olympic lifting in general) is not my preferred CrossFit lift. In my three years as an athlete and coach, I have not put in the requisite 10,000 hours on the bar in order to move myself closer to mastery of the movement, and it shows.
This is not to say I thought this WOD was a “bad” one – quite the opposite – I thought, once again, it was a brilliant move on the part of CrossFit HQ to balance the playing field and give the stronger, more technically proficient athletes their time to shine.
I felt confident going into this WOD even though I am by no means a master of Oly-Lifting. I hit a big snatch PR (for me anyways) at 185# the Monday prior to 12.2 – and my body in general is holding up very well and feeling good. My 3x/weekly Bikram Yoga practice and weekly A.R.T. appointments at NextLevel Chiropractic here in Austin, TX are without a doubt keeping me in the game.
After watching Rich Froning and Dan Bailey CRUSH the WOD demo online, I knew it would not be as easy as they made it seem. The fact I have never snatched more than 185# further solidified the idea in my head I would not be going 90+. My strategy was simple: sets of 10’s for 75#, sets of 3’s for 135#, and then knock out as many singles at 165# as I could muster with the remaining time.
I executed perfectly and made it to 165# with two and a half minutes remaining. I power snatched the first two, and then started to fail (miserably). My counter and coach, Travis Holley, demanded I start to drop under the bar and SNATCH. I did so and once again found my groove, getting 6 more reps in 90 seconds for a total of 68 reps.
This score combined with my burpee score of 121 leaves me sitting at 107th in the South Central Region – exactly 47 spots out of the top 60 cutoff.
This week will be a HUGE week not only for me, but for the South Central Region as well. There are tons of top competitors and ex-Games athletes not in the top 100 – and this week’s WOD is sure to see another huge shift in the leaderboard.
My training has been very solid up to this point. The only difference between the last two weeks of Open WODs and my normal training is I have been taking Wednesday’s light. Normally I do not do “light days.” I am either going 100% or I am resting 100%. All or nothing. But I have found that moving through workouts slowly and at a scaled weight on Wednesdays has actually put me in a great state of mind and left my body feeling better than normal.
Last week I mentioned the concept of “one and done.” My philosophy of the Open is different than other’s, to be sure. I am of the point of view you should go into the week’s WOD with one goal in mind: to crush it. No second chances.
I feel this way because like others, I am training for Regionals and the Games. At Regionals and at the Games, you have ONE opportunity to do everything you can to win. If you falter or fail, you are out. Period. When in life do you get a second chance to do something right – or best? Once in a blue moon…? Never…? In what sport do you get to play the game twice?
I understand that during the Open, anyone is allowed to perform and submit their workout score as many times as they wish, I just do not agree with that policy. I think once you submit your score, that is the score you keep. A card laid is a card played, so to speak.
My training and nutrition will continue on as it has for the past month, as this seems to be working for me up to this point. I feel great and am performing very well despite not sitting top 60 at the moment.
Let’s see if we can’t change that this week. Good luck in 12.3.
