Masters Comp - Day 2

Woke up feeling really good considering what I went through yesterday. Honestly, I can think of plenty of days in my regular training routine where I've been through much worse!

My first heat did not start until after 10:00 so I didn't show up early like I had to on Saturday. That extra time helped me relax a bit and mentally prepare. First workout was a descending 10-1 ladder of Deadlifts, Toes to Bar and Box Jumps. I figured that this was, at most an 8:00 workout and I felt pretty confident that I could keep moving at a steady pace throughout. The one area that concerned me was the TTB's. I know that my technique is not great and I lose my kipping rhythm very easily. This definitely cost me in the second to last Opens WOD this year. Luckily, I got all my reps unbroken on this one and ended up with a decent score which put me in 2nd place on the workout - just missed first by 1 second!

Next up - 3:00 AMRAP of rope climbs. Of all the weekends' workouts this one required the least amount of strategy. You can either get up and down that rope or you can't!! I got up and down 10 times. I started my 11th climb but I had nothing left in my forearms and couldn't make it past 5'. Still, my 10 reps put me in first on this workout and I managed to hang on to first going into the Finals with a pretty good lead over 2nd place.

I was really concerned that the Finals WOD would be a total beatdown involving some heavy squatting movement or some pulling movement that would blow out my hands. There was some squatting but it wasn't heavy and there was some pulling but very few reps. I felt very confident that I would do very well on this workout which was...

3 Rounds of
     - 5 Squat Snatch @ 115#
     - 2 Muscle-Ups

Then... 30' Front Rack Walking Lunge with the barbell

Strategy wise I had trouble deciding whether to go balls to the wall by going touch 'n go with the squat snatches or drop every rep. I decided that I would start out by going touch 'n go and see how things went. I was actually crushing this WOD until my very last muscle-up. In the 3rd round I made my first muscle-up attempt but it was a very ugly, taxing rep and I should have dropped down and shaken it out before attempting my second. Of course, I barely missed my second rep. Let me just say there is nothing worse you can do in a workout than "barely missing" a muscle up. There is probably no costlier failure in the sport of CrossFit. The energy that you spend fighting to get up there costs so much recovery time. I missed one more time and started to get frustrated. Another thing that had happened is that a blood blister on my hand that I had acquired from the Rope Climbs had ripped wide open during my snatches and I had blood all over my left hand, making the ring slippery. On my third attempt of my very last muscle-up, I barely got up and locked it out. I got right to the barbell and started lunging toward the finish line. Mike Giorgio (who had a GREAT weekend) was a few steps ahead of me and I couldn't close the gap. So, I finished third in the Finals but still hung on for the win.

After all this, I feel so relieved and happy to have come out on top. I had been through about 4 other competitions where I finished 2nd or 3rd and I was starting to feel like Phil Mickelson before he won his first Masters (the golf tournament, not CrossFit for old people!). I feared that I would always be the guy who finished second but didn't have it in him to close things out and win.

The reason that I do these competitions is not all about winning and losing. It's about getting better and learning where my weaknesses are. I know that the mental game is always something I need to work on. This weekend taught me the importance of training in uncomfortable conditions. What I mean by that is in a competition, the rings will not always be set up to your ideal height. You should practice different techniques for gripping the rings at different heights. In a competition you don't have a huge gym floor to hop around on when doing double unders. It's usually a much smaller area. CrossFit competitions are loud...and chaotic...and things often happen that are outside of your control. Being able to battle through those conditions is something that can make you an elite competitor.

Other random thoughts from the weekend...

1. TJ's Gym really put on quite a show. The heats all went off on-time, the judging was decent (wasn't perfect, never is!) and the atmosphere was great! It was so good in fact that I am considering making a cross country trip in January to the NorCal Masters event that they run every year.

2. Love the CrossFit community and my favorite part of competing is making new friends and reconnecting with old friends and acquaintances.

3. I hate my programming/I love my programming!!! My workouts are often a miserable grind. I'm talking an hour and a half to 2 hours of all work/no fun. But I totally get it now. The way I have been training had me so well prepared for this competition and I owe it all to my coach Kevin O'Malley who is becoming a master at his craft.

4. Although there were not huge numbers for athletes, the ones that showed up were legit. There were at least 5 guys that had me worried all weekend and any one of them could have won this competition. I need to continue to step my game up.

5. As happy as I am with the overall result, I still find myself obsessing over things that I could have done better. It amazes me that I am just never satisfied. I guess that means one of 2 things - 1) there is just something wrong with me or 2) I am someone who never likes to get complacent. The moment I start thinking that I am "great" at something is the moment that I stop striving to be better.