Game(s) Over

Quote of the Day: “It’s not what happens to you that determines how far you will go in life; it is how you handle what happens to you.” ~ Zig Ziglar

2010 Northwest Regionals WOD #1:

3 Rounds for Time:

10 Overhead Squats (135#/95#)
50 Double-Unders

Results

View this photo
View this photo

Results from Friday (Death by 10m Sprints)  View this photo

Results from Monday (5 rds: 400m Run, 30 Air Squats, 20 Push-ups)  View this photo

We are back! First thank you. Thank you to Moe for covering classes, thank you all who showed up and worked out together outside the box when it was closed and thanks for understanding that our annual vacation is a tradition that Michelle and I take each year and literally begin planning and saving up for 11 months before. While we are sad it’s over we were stoked to get the time together (kidless for the first time in a year!) and able to enjoy it with the greater CrossFit community while catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. We are already counting down to the 2012 Games. Only 51 more weeks until we return to Cali for some prime tanning time to watch jacked and tan people do epic sh*t.

Second, the Games are over. In the books. What a weekend! How do you succinctly explain the Games and CrossFit competition experience in a post? I can’t. What I will do though is focus the next couple posts around some of our experiences as fans, coaches and CrossFitters. For this post I want to focus on the Masters events for Pat, the toughness of CrossFit competitions and the positive outcome that comes from putting it all out there.

Props to Pat for qualifying for the Games and competing and finishing in the top 20 in the world! That is something I would love to have on my resume someday. It’s a rare feat and something not to be taken for granted or taken too lightly. With only 20 men worldwide in that age category who earned the right to compete, it’s not quite the same as entering a weekend race or tri that simply means you pay the fee, show up and try your best in a field of thousands.

Pat showed tenacity and courage under fire. He dealt with triumph (the 1RM Clean and Jerk) and adversity (the Muscle-Up and Handstand Push-up workouts) in two action packed days in front of a crowd that was also beamed for all to watch on the internet. While some of the workouts didn’t go well, he pushed to the last second in each and every WOD and left it all out there. That isn’t easy and the unique lessons and experience he takes away from it is something to be proud of, inspired by and motivated to train for. Congratulations Pat! You are a CrossFit Games athlete! 

 

Competing in CrossFit takes guts. Why? Because if you do it then you better expect beyond ANY doubt that what you suck at will turn up. If not that then what you take for granted will go wrong. Guaranteed. It will rear it’s ugly head and bite you right in the ass. That thing you have been avoiding or neglecting in your training will happen. Don’t believe me? Then look at every single Games, every Regional, every Sectional or Open to date. I’ll give some examples:

• This year it was obvious that one team in the finals had an athlete who was weak at ring dips. She fought and struggled for a solid 15 minutes while her team watched helpless in front of a packed crowd to get through them while the 5 other top teams flew threw the final workout. 
• In an event as laughable as a softball throw it quickly showed who can’t throw as well as who can’t think. When given two chances to land a ball within a 5 yard gap as far as you can throw it, it blew my mind to watch a few athletes try to throw it out of the stadium rather than “get on the board” with their first throw and go on to get zero points with two off the mark throws. 
• The swim WOD was another example. 2 females DNF’d the swim while one top male had to be rescued and another favored to win it all had a freak swimming accident that ended his 11 month quest to return to the podium due to a wave taking out his ear drum. While ocean swimming may have been a twist, swimming period should not as the clues were there; it has been talked about the last two Games, the main site has listed a swim WOD this year and the Games site listed the pool and the Home Depot Center as a venue for the past several months.
• In 2010 the current champ Rich Froning lost that year’s Games and came in 2nd because he couldn’t climb a rope. Rope climbs should not have been a surprise to him yet he was the only athlete who couldn’t use his feet. I remember him looking into the crowd for advice on how to lock his feet in that final WOD. (He obviously fixed that deficiency this year). 
• In one of the 2011 Regionals AJ Moore (a favorite to win that region) was considered a “lock” until it showed he had not trained his kettlebell swings to the standard published (which I saw video of). He also showed he couldn’t adjust on the fly and fix his swing or ask the judge clearly what to fix as he was no-repped over 80 swings and fell out of the podium placement after a final tie-breaker for 3rd with Spencer Hendel.
• In 2009 reigning Games champion Jason Khalipa showed he didn’t take running seriously as he struggled to finish dead last in the opening 7k Trail Run event and almost passed out 100m from the finish line. Watching him bounce off the railing and stagger around was a massive surprise to all in the crowd. Watching him climb from dead last after event 1 to finish in the top 5 was even cooler.
• In 2009 newcomer Annie Thorisdottir showed up to the Games in Aromas and quickly established she was a force. Right up until the final chipper that had muscle-ups. While she was able to get her first ever one to a roaring crowd, she was eliminated by virtue of a DNF. 
• In 2010 Mikko Salo showed that he didn’t train his weaknesses in the pistol/double-under WOD as well as in the opening “Amanda” workout in which he was outclassed by the likes of Speal and Froning in snatches and muscle-ups.
• At the NW Regionals I competed in during 2009 I remember it had two events; a deadlift/press 1RM event and a classic triplet of muscle-ups, wall-balls, and sumo high pulls. I remember an unknown named Tommy Hackenbruck crushing the triplet but struggling on the strength portion and missing the cut. (He went on to nab a spot in the online “last chance” qualifier and then proceed to place a surprising 2nd in the Games to Mikko)
• At this years Regionals (for Mark with the handstand push-up workout), last year’s Strongman event at Rainier CF (for Moe with the farmer’s carry) and in the 2010 Regionals (for me) all of us experienced our own massive disappointment in WOD’s that we essentially took for granted or expected to go better. 

For me personally in the 2010 Regionals I deliberately dismissed how hard the opening workout was that year with heavy overhead squats and double-unders. I thought that my strength in overhead squats would allow me to “hide” my suckiness with the jump rope. I will never forget stressing out the night before and right up to the WOD about those f*cking double-unders. I will also NEVER forget how embarrassed and frustrated I was when I then proceeded to bolo the workout when things just fell apart. I had a judge who counted much differently than most people (as in 28, 29, 27…), and a rope that was literally one or two jumps away from falling apart as it was slowly getting longer and longer without me knowing it, leading to even more snags and frustrating failed reps. When I finally finished I was was dead last in my heat. “Welcome to Regionals” I thought! That all changed as each workout proceeded to go a little better and I tried to put it behind me. I remember Pat telling me to “just have fun” over the wall right before my final workout which helped me relax the nerves and win my heat and claw my way to climb back up in the standings.

Today I programmed this WOD since I was thinking last night about the Games and reflecting on experiences. Three months after the Regionals in 2010 I subsequently held a rematch with this WOD and PR’d by a huge margin. I also have since put a lot of work into my double-unders over the past year plus.

For all of the examples above I could write easily a dozen more. The Games and qualifiers are competitions where each CrossFit athlete is out there to be judged and to throw down. It will always be tough and grueling, and will always find your weaknesses. That is how the events are designed. They are searching to select the fittest at every level. If it is programmed correctly it should find and select those athletes who have the most work capacity and the least skill deficiency. The question is if you don’t make the cut how will you handle it? Will you be prepared enough for it next time, fight through it and come out stronger either mentally or physically? Will you get back to the gym and train for the next time vowing to do better? Will you just add to the never ending list of skills to work on? For me I know that answer is a solid yes. Game ON!

Notes:

Chris Spealler: a great example of an elite athlete overcoming adversity and training his weaknesses (smallest competitor and always fighting the CrossFit tendency of favoring strength based events)

2010 Northwest Regional Event 1

Video of him crushing today’s WOD in 2:39 at the 2010 Regionals I competed in and talked about above: