Week 2 of the 2015 CrossFit Open is upon us, and while I should have posted something about this last week, there's still plenty to talk about. Lots of woah crazy crazy, from Froning and Fraser kicking it all off, the first double scored workout, and subsequent invalidation of some scores for said workout. It was definitely an interesting start.
After training since July, I anticipated the first event would be one that I would excel at, a bodyweight movement with light olympic lifting involved. But of course my weaknesses got the best of me, and I bowed out with a paltry 147. Forearm fatigue was in the end the limiting factor (if you don't count lack of strength as a prerequisite to being a good athlete). The C&J went better, but I've known issues in other areas have hindered my development there more so than anything else.
What I'm more excited about was the general feeling you get from participating in something as opposed to merely being a bystander. I've been at my box for people participating in the Open before, some scaling down and doing their best, others putting their last years worth of training to the test. It's fun to cheer on your fellow competitors, see them strive for one more rep, one more pound on the bar. But there's nothing like lacing up the MetCon's yourself and stepping onto the stage yourself.
Unlike local affiliate competitions, the Open allows us to compete on an even playing field with some of the fittest on the planet. No other sport allows their participants to be able to gauge their talents to those who do this for a living. I can play pickup basketball with the local teenagers and rack up a triple-double, but that doesn't tell me how I would fare against the likes of Stephen Curry.
And there seems to be more, for lack of a better term, weight behind the Open. It's become a PR and marketing spectacle, and allowed for the sport to branch out to people and places it might not have without the Open. Of course, it's created a schism in the CrossFit culture, the Open/Games vs. the original, garage gym mentality that made CrossFit a cult following to begin with, and wether that's a good or bad thing is up for debate. But the Open and Games have ultimately made our goal in fitness bigger. I try to approach every open workout as I would a regular WOD at my box. But I'd be lying if there wasn't a part of me that understood that it's not the same. I see it in people's faces as their grinding out another overhead squat, sense it in the crowd as they urge their boxmates on to keep moving, keep trying, and feel it as I walk up to the bar and see clock flashing 3...2...1...
I've never participated in the CrossFit Open until this year. Yes it's a cash grab for HQ. And no, I don't have any delusions that I'm qualifying for regionals. But that's not what CrossFit is about anyway. If you're only in it for that, then you're likely to lose sight of the journey, the reason you should be doing this. It's about a :01 PR. It's about getting that first unassisted pull-up. It's about finishing a workout as prescribed for the first time. It's about being better that you were yesterday.
