Running has had injury rates above 80% for years (currently <80%) yet more than 45 million people do this per year alone. That’s a retarded statistic if you think about it. via Safety dance, define irony by Brian MacKenzie
The 2013 CrossFit Games Open has come to a close. I am the 9,251st fittest man on Earth.
The 2013 CrossFit Games season kicked off on Wednesday night with the live announcement of Workout 13.1 and a throwdown between two of the top athletes in our sport.
I’ve been chatting with friends back home in MI, a cousin in Texas, and friends at the box here in Phoenix all week. We’re sharing strategies, giving pep talks, and excited for one another.
As of Wednesday, over 120,000 athletes from around the world had registered for the Open, with many more to register before the close of the first workout on Sunday. Registrations should easily double the total of 69,560 in 2012. CrossFitters everywhere are excited for each other. There is no other community like this.
Most of us have no chance at qualifying for Regionals or the Games. However, we will accomplish things we didn’t know we could. We’ll set PRs. We’ll push harder than we have in any other workout. We’ll sweat, cry, yell, and gasp for air; maybe all in the same workout. We’ll have a lot of fun and make new friends.
Many of us loved to play sports in high school. We miss the competition, the adrenaline rushes, and being compared to our peers. The CrossFit Games Open gives us all that and more.
I get to compare myself to CrossFit athletes around the world. I’m not the best athlete in the world or even at my box, but after 5 weeks, I’ll know exactly where I rank in the world and that’s pretty fucking cool. Since I competed last year, I also get to measure my improvement. The registration fee might be the best $20 I spend all year.
Do CrossFit. Prove your fitness. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll try to prove mine in 13.1.
I recently did a 4.7 mile obstacle/mud run with a group from CrossFit Full Strength. It was a lot of fun. I ended up in the top 10% for both my age group (30-34) and overall for the Sunday runners with a time of 1:08:01 (results). Below is a video of me doing some of […]
One year ago I walked into Survival Fitness for a 1-on-1 workout and I barely walked out. Even though I felt terrible for a couple of hours, I was hooked. A week later I started attending the group workouts. Today, I’m a CrossFit addict and damn proud of it. I can’t get enough of the Kool-Aid.
The last 12 months have been the most rewarding year of my life. At the age of 32 I’m able to push my body to limits I never dreamed of. I’m in better shape than when I played basketball for 4 hours a day during high school summers. I’ve gained confidence in everything I do because of what I’m able to accomplish in my workouts. I’ve become a member of an awesome community, making a lot of great friends along the way.
I’m excited for year 2!
We have about 30 people at the box today doing the “Murph” WOD.
Nearly 70,000 people around the world competed in the 2012 CrossFit Games Open. It really is an open competition that anyone can join. It was my first CrossFit competition and will not be my last.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Open, I’ll explain a bit. Each Wednesday night, for 5 weeks, a new workout is announced online. Athletes have 96 hours (4 days) to complete the workout and submit a score online. Athletes can submit a video of the workout or complete it at a CrossFit affiliate where they can validate the score. I completed all of my workouts at CrossFit Full Strength in Phoenix, AZ, where I’ve been working out since early January. If you are ever in the area, it’s a great box with top notch coaches and a great community.
After each workout is completed, athletes get ranked according to the number of reps completed. The placing in each workout is used as a point total toward the total ranking. Low points are obviously better because 1st place in a workout is worth one point. The winners of the Open had 41 points in the men’s division and 26 points in the women’s division! Me? I had 91,945 points.
When the Open started I had only been doing CrossFit for 4 months (see how I got started), so I set a realistic goal to beat 10% of the guys. I finished 1,194th out of 1,554 in the South West region and 16,389th out of 22,174 in the world for men that completed all 5 workouts. That comes out to beating 23% of men in the South West and 26% of men in the world. BOOYAH!
Below you can see my leaderboards. In each workout the first number is my ranking in the workout and the number in parenthesis is the number of reps I completed for that workout.
I posted recaps of each workout on my CrossFit blog:
The Open is so cool because you get to see how you compare against people from around the world. Now I have a benchmark to measure against for next year’s Open. How much can I improve my fitness in the next year? The sky’s the limit.
Since the Open was 5 weeks long and I had to fit in that special workout each week, I was glad to see the end. But I have the itch to compete again in another competition as a way to push and test my body, not so much as a way to shoot for any type of win. I’m realistic about my strength and body without aspirations of being an elite CrossFitter. If I can make a version of me that is better than yesterday, I’m succeeded.
In this competition I was able to do things I wouldn’t dream of. An example came in the 2nd workout, a snatch ladder. Before the workout my PR in the snatch was 95 pounds. In fact, I had never attempted anything heavier. After easily knocking out 30 reps at 75 pounds, I spent 3 or 4 minutes failing to get 135 pounds over my head even once. I figured there was no way it was happening, but with 4 minutes left on the clock, I kept trying. Then I got it. And then I got it again and again. I managed to get 6 reps. A 40 pound PR not once, but 6 times!
I’d become addicted to CrossFit soon after my first workout on October 31, 2012, but competing in the CrossFit Games put the sport on another level for me. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year have in store. Where’s the next competition? Sign me up.
Are you participating? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=finG19JjLKE I am. You can compete against the best CrossFitters in the world to see how you stack up. It’s only $20 to register.
I started doing CrossFit and eating Paleo on October 31, 2011. Today puts me over the 3 month mark, which has been a brick wall for me when I did programs like P90X and 4HB. I’d get close to 3 months and switch off the program for whatever reason. With CrossFit and Paleo I’ve found the magic combination. I love each workout (even when my body hates it) and look forward to going to the gym.
Now that I’ve passed the hump I don’t see an end. I plan to do this for a very long time. Today at the gym I did 3 reps of 260 pounds in the deadlift and it was a great feeling. I’ve never moved that much weight in my life. It was almost easy.
If you want to know more about my story starting CrossFit, read CrossFit: Open Source Fitness. If you want to learn about the Paleo diet, check out The Beginner’s Guide. If you want to check out my progress head over to my CrossFit WOD blog where I keep track of everything.
Here’s a trailer for an upcoming documentary about a woman who wasn’t afraid to start lifting a barbell. It changed her life forever. Cheryl Nasso struggled with an eating disorder for five years. At her worst she was 85 pounds, exercising up to six hours a day, and living on just 400 calories. Her health […]
Nick Momrik 