Photo Credit 918 CrossFit
As most of you know, The CrossFit Games Open finished last week (can I get an Amen?). This year brought about some changes, to say the least. We had the scaled division, which allowed for the WODs to be tougher, heavier, and a lot more mentally challenging. There in lies the rub… I suck at mentally challenging! I am an average athlete, as I have mentioned before. It’s my thing, the title of my blog, so on and so forth. I’m not the strongest. I’m not the fastest. I’m somewhere comfortably in the middle. Well, this year’s open was not kind to those of us comfortably in the middle. The scaled division was too light, too easy, and not challenging enough. I’ve done The Open before, and I wanted something that would force me out of my comfort zone. So, I signed up for RX and went on my merry way.
The first week brought a workout I could do. Toes to Bar, sure. They were not fast, but I was never “no repped”. 75 pound deadlift, you betcha! 75 pound snatch… eh. Do-able, but more of that mental stuff I’m not so good at. I finished the WOD with a decent amount of reps, did my clean and jerk and reveled in the fact that week 1 was done! The second week brought about chest to bar pull ups. I’m not great at those, but haven’t really worked on them either, so I can’t complain. I managed to bang out a few, beat my score from last year, and considered it a win. Week three brought muscle ups… WHAT?!?! How dare you Dave Castro! You can’t START a WOD with muscle ups. What about the rest of us… those “non-elite” athletes? We regular folks? You suck and this whole thing sucks. So, I stood under the rings for 14 minutes, made a few feeble attempts at swinging from the rings, and called it a loss. Sure, I could have done the scaled workout, but if I wanted a regular workout, I would have just gone to a regular class that day (read: I’m stubborn). I recorded a zero and dropped off the scoreboard… SUPER! Week 4 I faced down a heavy (for me) clean. Physically, I could probably do a 125lbs clean, but mentally that’s a no. I knocked out three handstand push ups and made numerous attempts at the clean. One was very close, but apparently that only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Whatever. Week 5 was all do-able. Not fun, but do-able. I completed the workout, not quickly, even though my score did not matter, as I fell out of ranking week 3. It’s over. I finished.
Somewhere around week 3, when the muscle ups came out, I was pissed!! I feel like I am not alone in this sentiment. We cried and lamented and complained. We wrote nasty messages on the HQ Facebook page and we cursed Dave. However, here’s the thing. The Open is not necessarily for the average athletes. Yes, yes, it is billed to be all inclusive, but the purpose is the find the world’s best athletes. Is that me? No way, Jose! You found me out! You uncovered my weaknesses. I’m not going to pick up my ball, and storm off the playground shouting, “We’re not best friends anymore!” I’m going to shrug my shoulders, work on the things I can work on, and try to get better for myself. Do I think I will ever make it to The Games? Not in a million years. Do I do CrossFit to go to The Games? Nope. I do it because I found an inner strength I didn’t know was there. I do it to have the life I want to have. So, you got me Dave Castro. You win. I’m not the fittest in the world. Nor am I the fittest in my gym. I may be the fittest in my house, but my 8 year old is giving me a run for my money. So, to The Open, until next year.
