Crossfit Open

So, as many of you know, a Crossfit gym opened in October 2015 down on Mission Street, three blocks from my house.  And last year, the bus I take to school moved right in front of the former auto-repair shop turned gym and for six months I watched people do these crazy things. So I bit the bullet last summer and started going three times a week for a few months working with the owner/coach to improve my flexibility and conditioning.  Then, in August, when school started, I dove in and started going to 6AM classes (thankfully school pushed back first period to 830 AM, so I have time to get home, shower and still make it to school by 750 or so) a few times a week.  But now, I'm DEEP into the "cult" and am going five to six times a week.  I've done my first pull-up (and now can do up to double digits in a row), and I've confirmed the due to my accident that my biggest issue is balance. I've learned about front versus back squats, power clean versus a power snatch, and how really important it is to have flexible hips. I love everything about it, the stretching, the strength pieces and the ending cardio pieces.  These "Metcons" are just essentially circuits of different movements, but I love how if I hate something, I know that I'll be moving onto something else.

This past February, the gym went on a lean challenge and I was careful about what I ate (I mastered the salad bar at school) and managed to love seven pounds in a month.  It was easy, to be honest.  And then, there was the Crossfit Open.  This is a national competition held over five weeks.  If you compete, you sign up online and then a workout is posted on Thursday evening and scores must be posted by the following Monday. Usually, I would be one to shy away from this because a fragile ego. But my college roommate Jeff, in Boston, and I signed up together.  He's been doing Crossfit for years so is ahead of me in ability and skill, but he had never done the Open, so we dove in together.  Of the five workouts, I could do four of them, only the second workout had a skill (walking lunges with weight) that I can't do, so had to score a zero. I hit the time cap on the rest, but I learned so much about my ability.  I realized that the required weight, which were usually more than what I do during practice, were weights I could manage.  I learned that I could be proud of myself for what I can do even though everyone around me was doing more and faster.  I've learned to let go of ego and that's probably the most important lesson of all.  And....I can see physical changes in my body.  I'm hooked.

This is the first open workout.  Didn't finish in the 20 minute time limit, but lifted a heavier dumbbell than I usually do.

Ok, I'm still a bit happy when I get a nice shoutout from my coach!