CFGOpen

The Open….

To preface- The Open is a worldwide competition where ANYONE can sign up and see how they compare. It costs $20 and you have to sign up online via games.crossfit.com and this is also where you log your scores every week. The Open is a 5-week competition where every Thursday, a workout is announced online and then every athlete has until Monday at 5pm to submit their scores online. You can perform this workout in your garage, your crossfit gym, or if you are traveling- you can drop in somewhere and do it there also. So, with that, let me tell you my CrossFit Games Open journey—-

I can’t explain to you what the open means to me until I start from the beginning. In January of 2013 I joined CrossFit and on March 6, 2013 the first workout of the Open was announced. The workouts are coined names such as 13.1 which means the 1^st workout of 2013. (13.2 is the 2^nd workout of 2013, 14.3 is the 3rd workout in 2014 etc.) 13.1 was a workout that involved burpees and snatches and at that time I had never snatched over 70lbs and for some reason during the workout I decided to split-snatch. Never do this. It’s ugly and awkward.

I did the workouts that were announced and every week I logged my scores. Every week I shocked myself and pushed myself harder than ever before. That is when I realized I was hooked on CrossFit. For me, it wasn’t about where I placed among others, it gave me a baseline to do better in 2014, and then better in 2015 and this year I hope to do even better. You have to have goals to keep pushing and The CrossFit Games Open is my own personal baseline. Better than before.

Fast forward to 2015. This was the first year they announced an Rx version and a Scaled version. This was also the first year that Muscle Ups were at the start of a workout (for Rx). So, if you didn’t have muscle ups, you had to do the scaled version to get a score. Last year I was determined to do all workouts Rx no matter what my score was. 15.3 was announced which started with Muscle Ups, and I had never in my life got a muscle up before. I practiced.. and practiced.. and practiced.. and no luck. Saturday rolled around and I had to not be so stubborn and I did the scaled workout instead. Right after finishing I decided to play around on the rings while the next group of people performed their workout. First attempt. Fail. Second, third, probably fourth attempt- fail. But then. Holy-f*in-shit I got a muscle up. And then two more after that before the time cap went off. What a rush.

Again, every year I surprise myself. In 2013 I PR’d my snatch, in 2014 I went unbroken on all 5 rounds of double unders and was sponsored every week to compete, in 2015 I got my first muscle up. From February 25-March 28 the CFG Open will be going on at our gym and I cannot wait to see everyone sign up and push themselves and to be better than yesterday.

BootCamp

You want to kick your own butt while having someone coach you? You want to get bikini ready for summer? You want to drop that last 10lbs before your high school reunion? Well….. I found something that may work for all of that, plus some.

Last night I attended my first Boot Camp class that my gym hosts. I am hesitant to say that CrossFit South Denver hosts it because the term “CrossFit” scares people away. But this is just the SPACE they are using. If you are someone who is looking to do more body weight movements, not pick up a barbell, and to get a good 20-30 minute workout in with an intimate group of people, then I am not joking, you need to try out Boot Camp at CrossFit South Denver.

To give you an insider tip- here was what we did last night, but know that each time you step foot into Boot Camp expect something new. Shelby, the instructor led us through a warm up, workout, and cool down all within one hour. The workout consisted of body weight movements, but we also incorporated a box and a kettlebell. Each person was able to scale to their ability and each person was sweating at the end of the workout.  If sweating, scaling to your own ability, and fitting it all in within an hour appeases you, on Tuesday nights at 6:30pm and Saturday mornings at 10am come join Boot Camp for $25 per drop in, which includes a shirt.

14.3Recap

With St. Patrick’s Day this past weekend, Dan and I both knew we wanted to celebrate on Saturday downtown, so we decided to give 14.3 a shot on Friday. This was before we had listened to any tips or tricks on how to tackle 14.3 which I liked because I could go about it my way. Come to find out- my way isn’t always the best way. 14.3 went like this — 8 minutes of — 10 Deadlifts (95lbs) 15 box jumps (20”), 15 Deadlifts (135lbs) 15 box jumps (20”), 20 Deadlifts (155lbs) 15 box jumps (20”), 25 Deadlifts (185lbs) 15 box jumps (20”), 30 Deadlifts (205lbs) 15 box jumps (20”), 35 Deadlifts (225lbs) 15 box jumps. I got through 8 deadlifts at 185lbs before the clock hit 8 minutes at my time was up.

 

My original game plan was to do box jumps, but then stop off the box (because our gym doesn’t teach bounding – so I am unfamiliar with this) and then for the first set of deadlifts to go unbroken, break up the second set into 5’s, and then do singles. Thennnnnnn Dan and I watched The Outlaw Way “14.3 Strategy & Tips” Vimeo video and decided to do the workout one more time on Monday using their tips. For my second go around I did step ups – jump offs for the box jumps and tried as hard as I could to not do singles at all – which went great until my set at 185lbs where I did singles because I was so tired and the weight felt so heavy. I ended up getting six more reps on my second try with a final rep count of 106 and a tiebreak time of 4:38. Thanks Outlaw. It helped.

 

Also, for the workouts, different brands are being represented when I do the workouts and this week I wore a shirt from Your Life Extraordinary (YLE). I am participating in a 90-day body composition challenge with YLE and am half way through! I have seen differences in the way my clothes are fitting and in my all-around well-being. Go check them out at yourlifeextraordinary.com, or find them on Facebook by searching LifeYLE.  A quick bio on them is right here:

 

“Your Life Extraordinary (YLE) provides employee wellness and retention strategies for companies that are looking for a unique user experience, personal coaching for each employee and continued enthusiasm past the first month of implementation.” YLE also “offers individual personal training sessions and nutrition coaching.”

 

I hope you all enjoyed 14.3! Only two more weeks of this madness!!

 

With Annah Borak – CoFounder of YLE

WinterWODFest

Quick back story: a woman at our gym registered, but could not participate in the Winter WOD Fest that CrossFit Eminence puts on – and wasn’t able to get a refund, so 16 hours before the competition I took her spot. Winter WOD Fest is a two-day competition that involves three workouts on Saturday and two on Sunday and what I come to the realization of is that it is no joke, and it is a competition you don’t just do on a whim. A few words to describe my first day in the competition are: 1. Overwhelming 2. Humbling 3. Eye-Opening.

1. Overwhelming

These girls are the bees-knees and because I am such a competitive person I get the jitters, can’t eat, and just want to impress people… And today- I didn’t even really impress myself, but that is just because I did not perform as well as I wanted to. It is an overwhelming feeling to feel unimpressed with yourself. I know what I am capable of, but my Mind,-yes I am referring to my mind as a person- really took over today and was a big, nasty, bitch. The mind can be a real downer sometimes, and now after today, on top of my long list of things I need to work on at the gym, Getting Mentally Strong is now on top.

2. Humbling

Some days I walk into the gym, crush the WOD, post my results and feel on top of the world. Today- everyone there was most likely one of the top girls at their gym in something, and everyone brought their A-game. It is a humbling experience to workout with some of the best CrossFit Athletes in Colorado and I look at the women with amazement and determination to one day, be like them. one day….

3. Eye-Opening

“Oh, these WODs are tailored for me.” Wrong. Every WOD killed me today. One of them even made me throw up for the first time ever. Does this mean I need to push myself harder in every day WODs. Yes. Does this mean I was naive. Yes. Are these bad things? No. Every competition I have done so far has been eye opening and this is a good thing. I’ll even say it is a great thing. I see what others do to prepare, I notice what others do to be better, and I can only take notes.

CrossFit has really changed my life and doing these competitions will only make me stronger – mentally and physically. I realize this post may seem like a pitty party, but for me, writing about my experiences help. And I hope this helps someone else who may have had a bad workout, came in dead last in a competition, or is struggling. We all have those days and we all just need to keep our heads high, breathe, and know that we are strong and as corny as it may sound- whatever doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger.

CrossFitOpen

“Are you doing the open,” is a question I have heard a few times and my response was always, “Uhhhh, I don’t know.” Well, in the past week a friend of mine posted an article on Facebook about joining the open and why everyone should do it. After reading it, something clicked, and I signed up for the 2013 CrossFit Games Open. Yes, me- the girl who has only been doing CrossFit for two months, just got her first pull up, and still cannot do some workouts Rx, (Rx = prescribed) signed up for the Open and now can answer that question as, “Yes, I am doing the open,” … “And have no idea what I am getting myself into.”

The Open is a five week program that on every Wednesday, from March 6 to April 3, and Open workout is posted and everyone has until that Sunday to complete the workout. Last years workouts for the open were… for a lack of better words… insane. 12.1 was to complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes of Burpees. 12.4  was to complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 12 minutes of 150 wall balls, 90 double unders, and 30 muscle ups (anyone have a bucket to throw up in?!). I wont go through all of them, but I can only imagine what they have in stores for this years Open.

If any of you are interested in checking out my progress, or Dan’s here are our Crossfit Games Competition pages. Wish us luck- these next few weeks are going to be brutal.

My CrossFit Game Page: http://games.crossfit.com/athlete/164551

Dan’s CrossFit Game Page: http://games.crossfit.com/athlete/110147

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The blog I read that inspired me to join the open: http://nikimathias.com/body/7-reasons-why-you-should-do-the-crossfit-games-open-yes-you/