CrossFit Open — First Week, First WOD

This has been an especially trying and humbling experience doing the CrossFit Games Open for the very first time.

Jonathan gave me some very apt advice:  

"You'll go crazy if you worry about your ranking the first 3 weeks. The wods are meant to test every aspect of Crossfit. So in 2 more weeks it's gonna shake out wayyyy differently. I checked like every hour last year for the first week. It was maddening!"

And I took it but that didn't mean OTHERS weren't informing me of my current (and devastating) drop in the local rankings.

I knew on the 2nd night I was ranked 23rd with 113 burpees in 7 minutes, but that soon dropped overnight to 32 (I checked in the morning).  Then later that day, a friend informed me that I had dropped down to 35.  Friday night I found out I was ranked 75.  Then by Saturday morning I had reached all-new low...triple digits.  I'm now ranked 110 tied with about 20 other athletes.

On top of this my right wrist injury still hasn't healed.  I may just take all of next week off to let it recover.

I really wish I had not done deadlifts and back squats before the 12.1 WOD but that's only because I was expecting to be able to do it on Sunday; alas, things don't always go as planned.  Sometimes you have no choice but to accomodate for when the judges at your affiliate are free and that meant I had to go in unplanned this morning after a grueling leg workout the day before (naturally, this meant it was hell for my legs.)  I literally found out after 11 PM after work that I needed to go in the next morning to re-do the WOD...

Yep, FML.

Garage Gym Hero — Ben Smith

Continuing on the theme of athletes whom I admire...
I had to make a post concerning an elite CrossFit athlete.

Now most people would point of Chris Spealler, Mikko Salo, Rich Froning (for males) or Kristin Clever, Annie Thorisdottor, or Camille Le Blanc-Bazinet (for females).  However, I actually like the little known Ben Smith since he looks like your average joe but he's a phenomenal athlete, who doesn't even work out at an affiliate and his trainer seems to just be his buddy from high school.

He does most of his WODs and PRs at his parents' basement and I believe he's only 21 yrs old.  He occasionally does his WODs at a globogym where the bystanders clearly have no idea wtf this guy is doing.

For such a seemingly small fellow, he lifts tremendous weight efficiently.

This is one of my favorite WOD videos because it incorporates tough gymnastics moves (anyone who has done HSPU and toes-to-bars knows how much it takes out of you) but also requires lots of strength to squat snatch 185# that many times, quickly in a WOD for time.

Here, Ben PRs with a 270# snatch and he does it with beautiful form.  Most guys sacrifice form when they aim for PRs but not this guy.

(This is where I want to be...the last time I tried for a PR for the snatch I got 155#; granted it was my first time trying for a PR but I was still rather disappointed.  I'm sure now that I've refined my form I can do better next time though.  I'm sure I can at least hit the 185#.)