The Open, A Five Part Series (Part 2)

(Feb 23, 8:14pm) – The Open announcement is LIVE. I haven’t been able to really pay close attention because we have company over, but I sneak a glance at my phone as the @CrossFitCanuck Facebook Messenger feed starts to light up. I start seeing comments like ‘Guess I’m Doing Scaled’ and ‘So much for doing RX for the whole Open’. Uh-oh. What the heck did they announce? Is it Muscle Ups already? Any confidence I had about being able to do everything has long since faded. I have been sore. Like really sore until today. That isn’t unexpected and it certainly isn’t injury related. I haven’t completed a Wallball in 18 months (at least) without a box to limit depth so the soreness in my quads is more about lack of use/overuse than anything. Still what did they announce? Ugh, Toes to Bar and Heavy Cleans. Well now it’s time to choose, try and stay RX or do the smart thing and scale.

(Mar 2, 8:23am) – As I sit in the @HyundaiCanada (RH Location) customer waiting area for an oil change and a recall, I can see the day slipping away. Super Saturday starts at 10am and I have that sneaking suspicion that I will be hear well past the start time. Still when life gives you lemons, open up a roadside stand and sell lemonade. Well it’s now confirmed. Oil, brakes, transmission, recall… I’m here for a while. OK. What’s my strategy going to be when I do finally get to 19.2? I think that the key for this one will be to put complete this workout scaled. Knee ups, reduced weight (and therefore stress) on the Cleans and then Single skips. The question now will become a matter of when more than how.

Side Note:
I’m interested to hear how you are approaching the Open workouts. What is your mindset (other then worrying about people cheering too loudly). Is it RX or death? Scaled all the way? A combo of both depending on the movements and your training patterns? Please drop a comment below, because you never know, you might help someone else get through a WOD.

(Mar 4, 12:23pm) – So the last time I tackled a WOD like this, I barely made it into the Double Unders. I threw myself at the bar and squeaked out the T2B and then chipped away at the Rope. Maybe, my T2B would have qualified this year, but I wanted a chance to get to the Barbell… I wanted to be able to Squat Clean. Besides with inconsistent training, the heavy RX Barbell did not look appealing. @Eastbound_Powerlifting graciously stuck around to judge my efforts (and with his RX Performance we are now tied 1-1), Thanks RC! The Knee-Ups weren’t too bad once you got a rhythm going and the Single Skips were fine, but HOLY is below parallel a long way down. Following last weeks Wallballs, I wasn’t sure how this was going to feel, but guess what? Apparently my knees are well rested after 18 months off. I got through the first two rounds under the 8-minute CAP and earned myself another 4-minutes (all the while thinking, WHY DID I UST DO THAT???).  Things started to bog down here. I couldn’t catch my breath and I knew that I wasn’t getting through the Barbell. No matter, get what you can…

All told I finished 5 Squat Cleans @135lbs (after 15 @95lbs and 13 @115lbs) and maybe I could have snuck one more, but I felt like that would have been pushing my luck. I was still in one piece… Sweaty and exhausted but still functioning. It was way farther than I thought I was going to make it and I totaled 258 Reps. Thanks to @CheyCreighton for changing plates for me and @MelWes79 for cheering from the turf.

So 2 of the 5 Open weeks are now complete. One scaled and one RX. I’m feeling pretty good about things so far, cautiously optimistic. Still lots of cruel and exciting things can still be thrown at us. I was serious before, what’s your strategy. It doesn’t just have to be CrossFit related even though we are talking about the Open. How do you stare down that tough workout, or those long miles? Slow and steady?  Intervals? Give me every tip you can…

Beez