As a competitor I really only want one thing from myself. I want my best effort.
The 2015 CrossFit Open is over for me and I gave to only thing that I could. I gave my best effort. What follows is my journey to 752th place out of 17,321 in the 40-44 age group.
In 2012 I did the CrossFit Open. I finished 14,000th or so out of 25,000. Not a stellar showing. I had never done CrossFit so I guess it wasn't so bad.
Fast forward the summer of 2014. We started following the sport of CrossFit and we were enjoying and starting to do some of the workouts.
One day I just stood up and said, "I am going to qualify for the CrossFit Games in 2015."
A pretty bold statement for a 165 lb guy with a bad back who doesn't even do CrossFit.
Granted, at the time I didn't even know that there was a masters category or how the whole thing worked. I just knew that I now had a goal.
I got to work.
I got hurt.
I got back to work.
I go hurt.
For the next few months I struggled with shoulder, elbow and back issues. I learned and I got stronger. Things started to fall into place for me and I started to excel at some of the disciplines.
I did some online competitions and I did fairly well. I even managed to win one masters competition.
Despite issues with the alignment of my back and serious muscle imbalance issues I increased my max lifts A LOT. From May 2014 to March 2015 this is what I did:
Back squat: 245 to 285 lbs
Front squat: 205 to 265 lbs
Dead lift: 225 to 365 lbs
Overhead squat: 120 to 190 lbs
Clean and jerk: 165 to 220 lbs
I learned how to do double unders, hand stand push-ups and muscle ups.
I fought like hell each and ever step of the way.
The 2015 CrossFit Open came. I thought I was ready. Turns out I was way over my head with my goals. All I could do was my best.
15.1: Toes to bar, dead lifts and snatches. After this is was a max clean and jerk. This set the tone for my open. I just wasn't ready....
Glaring error number 1. I never learned to do toes to bar quickly. Why the hell were there 15 each round?
I did set a personal best on the C&J. I am happy for that. At the end of the day that 15.a was my worst score of 2392. The first part was a little better: 617th place.
I was in 1000th place after 15.1 and 15.1a. A hole but not a big hole.
15.2 Pull-ups and overhead squats.
Glaring error number 2. I rarely practice chest to bar pull-ups. Oops. Oh yeah. Rarely did overhead squats as well. What the hell. Was this open designed for me to FAIL.
This ended up being my best event: 553rd place.
After doing the toes to bar fiasco 3 times and this workout 3 times my hands were fried. Hopefully 15.3 wont have muscle ups....
15.3 Muscle-ups, wall ball and double unders.
Finally! I can crank out the muscle ups. I am a wall ball ninja..... BUT..... and it's a BIG but... I don''t do well at dubs in the middle of the workout.
Crap.
Ended up 1087th. Those double unders took me forever. Glaring error 3 (out of 3 workouts). Double unders!
15.4 Handstand push-ups and power cleans (185 lbs)
Handstand push-ups. Oops. Guess I should have practiced those. First time in the open. Bam!
Glaring error 4: Expect the unexpected! Really though. Handstand push-ups?
15.5 Rowing and thrusters.
"Funny" story. (Not really funny. More ironic and sad.)
I have a back issue that I don't try to hide. It is what it is. I stressed it quite a bit doing the last workout on Saturday. Left side was sore but not to bad. Sunday morning I got up and sneezed... and pulled a muscle on the right side. Yes, I said.... I SNEEZED!!! Ugh!
I did nothing for 7 full days. When I did 15.5 I knew I would have one shot because of my back. I soldiered through it without a lot of pain but my body was totally out of sync from 7 days of no actively.
On the day of the workout I struggled with allergies as well. Blah.
I was 1018th in this workout.
As I said in the beginning I gave my best effort.
I am sad and disappointment that I didn't make it to the next level. Top 200 just wasn't going to happen.
My total score was 7887. This means my average place was 1314. The 200th place person had 2540 points and an average score of 423. This was better than my best place.
I have weaknesses. I don't have what it takes... NOW.
I am not giving up though. I will be back. I will be stronger. I will be faster. I will be better at everything. I will stretch more. I will work my weaknesses. I will use this experience my not only each a spot in the masters qualifier but also earn the right to go to the games in Carson, California....
Thank you for reading. I hope you got value from this post. If you did please share so that others may be blessed at well.
Rick Copley 352-989-6795 rick@nolimitsfitness.me
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Labels: 2015 CrossFit Open, crossfit
