My first CF Open; what did I learn from it?
My Crossfit Open - 2014
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| During the 14.3 CF Open Workout |
This is my first year entering the Open. Last year, shortly after I had started Crossfit. I had watched in awe the people at our box performing the workouts - Crossfit Open 13.x. I was just amazed how effortlessly it looked.
So, fast forward it 13+ months; I wanted to see where I stood. I wanted to see how I stacked up to my peers. I'm not expecting to be at the top of anything. If anything, it'll serve as a benchmark for myself and provide me some guidance on what I can improve on. There is always rooms for improvement!!
All my testing were done here..
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| The place where I go to improve myself, and let go of the day to day stress |
Here are my results after each week.
14.1
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| My Results: March 1st, 2014 |
3 reps; yup.. that's 3 Double Unders more than I could every done in my life. I'm happy!
14.2
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| My results; Sunday; March 9th, 2014 |
14.3
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| My results; Sunday; March 16th, 2014 |
Finished the set with 20 reps @ 225 lbs for Dead Lifts and the 15 Box Jump (Step-ups instead). I had 15 seconds left; but I had problems putting on the last 25 lb plate on one side. I really wanted to lift that 275 lb ONCE, but it wasn't meant to be. This 90 reps will serve as my benchmark for this WOD.
14.4
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| My results; Sunday; March 23rd, 2014 |
Rowing: Pace was good, finished 60 calorie row in 3 minutes and 30 seconds with average of 22 strokes/min. I had 10 minutes and 30 seconds to get my first Toe To Bar. I couldn't do it. I even threw away my padded gloves to get a better grip. In hindsight; I should had started without gloves. I'm not sure if that would had helped as each attempted just taxed my shoulders and grip strength.
14.5
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| My test result; Sunday; March 30th, 2014 |
Wow, what a brutal workout!! I started off bad by rushing through the first set of 21. I tried to adopt a 8-7-6 rep with a break in between (dropping the 95 lb barbell). Perhaps I should had adopted a more conservative 5-5-5-6 rep setup. However, after first set of 21, the next round of 18 felt worst as my arms felt like the strength has been sucked out of them. I started to drop my sets down to a much lower number.. 3s and 2s as needed. All I remember was a lot of resting, sucking air and a lot of cheering from people at the Box. Some familar voices, others.. total strangers. It certainly was the encouragement that I needed to keep pushing myself to finish. I think at some point, I stopped thinking and just Do it!
One of the fears that I had running thru my head was... Don't trip over the barbell. I saw a video on YouTube showing someone doing exactly that. Great, eh? What a thing to remember. I wish I hadn't seen that. On one of my burpee jumps, I felt my toes of my shoes brushed the bar. That was a wake up call.
Again, thanks to everyone at the Box for cheering me on! I don't think I would have pushed to the end as hard as I did without all of you!
What did I learn:
14.1
I'll be working on Double Unders (DU). Which I'm sure for all those who were like me that managed to get their first DU; they'll be working on them harder than ever. I want to get to the point that I will be stringing several in a row.
14.2
Chest-to-Bar (C2B); any type of these movement that requires upper body strength will need to be address. This also include the Strict Pull-up. The only solution to this is to work on my upper body strength.
14.3
Need to work on my box jumps (24" step-ups). Deadlifts will increase as I will be devoting a larger amount of time to strength training.
14.4
Toes-to-Bar suck in general; but I know that the only recourse to get better is to practice. I need to improve my grip strength and lose that gut (I know that didn't help).
14.5
Burpees jumps, need to work on having a better spring/hop (probably do more calve raises). Thruster; will need to be more efficient on this with 95 lbs. (Squats)
What I will be working on for the next 11 months:
- Double Unders
- Strict Pull-ups, eventually leading to Chest to Bar
- Toes-to-Bar
- Burpees
- Thrusters
2 Personal GOALS:
- Lose weight
- Get stronger (train and LIFT heavy)
As most of you already know (from my blog); I've already started my Strength training. It's always about identifying where your weakness are and strengthen them.
The CF Open workouts has reinforce what areas I'm weak at. As a heavier set guy, I do not have that strong upper body to support my mass (Strict Pull-ups without assist). While I work on reducing my mass; I will also train with the guidance of my Strength trainer (Bryan Yu) to get stronger.
I haven't given up on my Crossfit WOD. I will incorporate them into routine. For the immediate future; strength training will become my primary focus.
Wisdom:
- Hard work will pay off
- Never Give Up no matter how tough things are
- Identify and Practice the areas you are weak.
- Encourage and cheer on others as they will do the same for you. That is the key to a strong community, a Crossfit Community.
If your curious how our little Crossfit Box did, check out the link below. You'll find my rank and score there as well.
Our Crossfit (Rock Jungle):
http://games.crossfit.com/affiliate/76
Thanks for reading!
- Tony Quon
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