16.2 Round Up

Happy Tuesday to ya. I’m 2 for 2 on going everyday with some mobility work/yoga. Yesterday by myself. Today at the gym with Colin and Jerry. It really is the beesssttt. And thanks again, Bradford for pestering me about ROMWOD until I actually did it. True friend. But I’m weird guys. I can totally make myself go run 5 miles. I can make myself get up at 4:30 am and go to the gym, but it’s almost impossible to make myself be still, work on some breathing, and actually do some yoga or get in some extra mobility. My coaches have been on me about it since I started CrossFit. My lack of range of motion and lack of flexibility hurts me.. bad. I had even more of a wakeup call to this when I went to my Level 1 Seminar back in December. They laid out the 10 General Physical Skills. It’s CrossFit’s First Fitness Model. Here they are: 1. Cardiovascular endurance 2. Stamina 3. Strength 4. Flexibility 5. Power 6 Speed 7. Coordination 8. Agility 9. Balance 10. Accuracy. You are as fit as you are competent in each of these 10 skills. I feel somewhat confident about the first 3. But that #4 — I just may be the worst in the gym. I’ve made it a goal to get better at these skills this year, but most importantly: flexibility. The more I work on flexibility, the more these skills that follow it will improve.

Ok, I’m all over the place. On to 16.2. Did you miss those weekly workouts last Friday? Yeah, me neither. For the remainder of the CrossFit Games Open Season, I’m not going to post them. Instead, on Monday or Tuesday, I’m going to talk briefly about the Open in our gym. In case you want to see our workouts, I pretty much just follow this link right here. Check out those heavy squat cleans and toes to bar work we did last Tuesday, March 1st.If that’s not prepping for the Open, I dunno what is. Good call, Nicholas.

We’ve been doing this Friday Night Lights feel this year at CFEC. Describing it on here doesn’t do it justice. The atmosphere is way better than any competition I’ve ever been to. The past two Fridays have set the bar high for the remainder of the Open. We have 100 or so people signed up to do some sort of version of the Open, and while not everyone can make it Friday night, most people do their workout then. If you want some good family fun this Friday night, CrossFit Electric City is the place to be. Kids. Pizza. Beer. And people working out. You don’t have to do the workout though (In fact, you can’t if you’re not signed up) but watching is just as fun. There’s something about the Open that pushes people to do their best. Having all your friends yell at you (nicely – for the most part) and cheer you on can’t be beat.

The highlight of Friday night was watching a guy named Jarrod (who also happens to be a Geoduck) knock out his last set of squat cleans. Jarrod has been at CFEC for maybe 6 months now. I’m not sure what the weight on the bar was, but I do know that before Friday night, he had never cleaned it before. And he did it multiple times. While Jarrod is getting stronger, I dunno if he could have done it without the 100 or so people in the gym cheering him on — yelling at him.. telling him he COULD do it. And even cooler, about 20 of us circled around him and pushed him to do it. It was the highlight of the night, that’s for sure. I’m still waiting for someone to show me a picture of it. Someone had to have snapped one. Telling you about it doesn’t do it justice. Let’s see…there were a good bit of PR’s Friday night., and I think everyone’s toes to bar have improved since last year.

We ran heats again Saturday morning, and then again alllllll day Monday. Monday was mostly made up of people who wanted to redo 16.2. The highlight of Monday to me was my friend Haley (who also happens to be a Geoduck.. wow). Haley will tell you that she’s no gymnast. We have that in common. Movements on the bar don’t come naturally. But like me, Haley is going to always come out fighting to make up for lost time on the bar. And Monday night, she did just that. She redid 16.2 and came up with 75+ reps better than when she did it Friday night. Only 5 (I think) Rx people in our gym made it to the third round of the workout, and because Haley redid the workout and knew she could get there, she is one of those people. I got to judge Haley, and I watched her link together her toes to bar for the first time!! Come on! The Open! As she was doing them, she was like “I have noooo idea where these are coming from” I think she was able to string 8 together.

Here’s a picture that my friend Joanna sent me of Haley killing 16.2.

Speaking of pictures, unfortunately the above one is the only one I could find from the weekend. No one seemed to take pics. Or maybe they are just hiding them from me.

For me, 16.2 was great. Actually, 16.2 was only great the first time around. I didn’t care for it the second time around.I got the same exact score. I really saw myself finishing all those cleans in the next to last round and getting to that last set of cleans, but turns out, my mental game was off Monday. BUT the GOOD NEWS is last year I couldn’t string together toes to bar. This year I could. Also, I had never cleaned 175 lb before(the weight in the 4th round, I think). My goal was to just get there. I knew it would be hard to clean though. Well, I got there with about 2 minutes to go in that round. I failed the first one. But I got right back up, did it again, and nailed it! I ended up hitting it 5 times. I failed 3 times total I think. I seriously couldn’t have done it without everyone cheering. Colin told me he cried a little….probably at how painful these cleans actually looked. Here’s a video(from my macbook) of the actual video that was taken. It’s pretty ugly. It’s slow. My knees cave in. I’m working on it, y’all. But the point is the atmosphere. I couldn’t have done that without my friends cheering for me. I’ll never forget it.

Right now I’m 37th(I think) in the southeast region out of 10,000+. I want it so bad. But with only 20 getting to go, and 3 workouts left, I just don’t think it will happen this year. I’m a little late to the game. But I’ve already seen so much improvement in myself over the past couple of weeks, with the help of my coaches, so I’m ready to turn it up a notch or two and really work on my weaknesses, and who knows- maybe next year?!? But I’m excited to be in the running for it. I think the added pressure has been good for me. Caring has made me uncomfortable, but I know that growth will come from that. I’m still just trying to remember to smile through it all and remember that life is better when you don’t take yourself so seriously.

Can’t wait to see what 16.3 brings! I want some wallballs. Or some thrusters. Or some more burpees. All the things like 99% of the world hates, but I love.