Game Day: CrossFit New England Masters Competition
I woke up on Saturday feeling as physically prepared as I possibly could. All my various aches and pains - back, shoulder, knee - were not a factor and I had no muscle soreness from anything that I had done prior in the week.
Mentally, I was one big ball of anxiety. I've competed in many CrossFit competitions, some of which were on a much bigger stage. But with this comp. I think I had just heaped such big expectations on myself that the fear of failure was almost paralyzing. I had come so close to winning the last few competitions, in fact I felt like I dominated most of the events. However; there was always that one workout where something would suddenly, inexplicably go horribly wrong. I told myself this time would be different. The WOD's were all straightforward. Nothing tricky and nothing that I wasn't prepared to do well in. So here is how things went...
WOD 1: AMRAP Thrusters in 1:00 @ 95#
- I had done this one last Saturday and was surprised and very pleased to bang out 30 reps. I knew that this number would keep me in the game and perhaps even be good enough for first. I hit 31 and it was good enough to tie for first! My form was great, my pace was great, my breathing was great and when I was done I did not feel destroyed to the point where I couldn't do the second workout.
WOD 2 (immediately after WOD 1): AMRAP 6:00 of 5 Pull-Ups, 10 Power Cln.@ 95#, 15 Double Unders.
- Now when I look at this workout, the movement that would concern me the least is Double-Unders. D/U's are really one of my top 5 strengths and I was not concerned in the least having them thrown into this WOD. Well remember how I said that in the other competitions, something would go horribly wrong? Well, the Double Unders were that something today. Got through the first rounds with the D/U's mostly unbroken. In round 3 I screwed up repeatedly and wasted precious time. After completing the Pull-Ups and Cleans in Round 4 I came to the D/U's with about a minute left. In this minute I managed 2.....2 (!!!!!) Double Unders. This was good enough for a score of 3.17 on WOD 3 which placed me 16th in this event. For reference, this score was almost 2 full rounds worse than what I did last Saturday!!
- I have thought a lot about what caused my epic failure. Simple explanation is that my legs were smoked, my forearms were smoked and it threw my timing off. But I think it was more than that. I think it was the building frustration from each missed rep. I think it was not being able to relax. In short, it was the perfect storm and it could not have happened at a worse time. One friend who was watching said they read my lips and saw me say to myself "Why now?".
WOD 3: Work up to max load of 1 Snatch + 3 Overhead Squats in 2:00
- This one was all about strategy and setting a good goal weight. 2:00 is not a lot of time and it takes at least :30 to load an empty barbell. 2:00 is barely enough time for 2 quality attempts with one weight change.
- So my goal was to lead off with 165#, hopefully hit it on the first attempt and then go for 175#. 165 would probably place me in the top 5. 175 could place me in the top 2-3. Due to my brain fart in the second WOD, it was a longshot to think that I would win this comp. I could probably place with a strong performance on the last 2 WOD's. So I stuck with my original strategy, trying to salvage something out of the day.
- I snatched 165 without much trouble and took my time on the 3 OHS's. So far so good. I changed out the plates and set up 175. Missed my first attempt due to lack of aggressiveness in the 3rd pull I think. Took about :10 to regroup and then got the snatch....now only about :20 remaining. I was painfully aware of how little time I had and I think that I rushed a bit on the first OHS missing it coming out of the hole. So that was it. 165 was my score. Not bad, not great. I think that I could have gotten 175 if I had led off with it but I just wasn't willing to accept the risk of missing that weight and coming out with the big goose egg.
WOD 4 (immediately after WOD 3): 6:00 ascending ladder of Burpee Box Jumps, Wall Balls, Toes to Bars
- This WOD was changed at the last minute so I never got to practice this version. I had gotten over 6 rounds with one less minute and a different variant of the BBJ's (old one had us jumping over the box and coming down in a second burpee...much harder!) so I figured I'd get at least 7 on the newer version.
- My score was 7 rounds plus 17 reps. I moved pretty well through this but lost my kipping rhythm on the TTB's the last 2 rounds. Aside from that, I was pretty content with how I did on this. There were some good scores on this one and I ended up in sixth place.
So after all this, I ended up placing third overall in the 40-44 division. I was in 8th place after the 2nd WOD so I did battle back and salvage something. Still though, I walked away disappointed. My goal was to finish first and dominate. I didn't do either and that is partly a testament to the level of competitors. This field was the deepest of any Masters comp. I've been in, just solid guys top to bottom. But I also feel that in a sense I beat myself. If I hadn't choked on those double-unders, I could have taken this thing. Somehow I've got to get stronger mentally and be more confident in these competitions. I feel like I can perform great in an empty gym with just me and a barbell. But throw 50 people in there with crowded quarters and loud music and I tend to lose focus. I will chalk this up as another tough learning experience and try to be the better for it. Bottom line is always to get my ass back in the gym and work harder.
