The Reebok CrossFit Open WOD 11.2 is closing today and we are already 1/3 of the way through the competition. It has been a real eye opener for me. The first two WODs appeared to be very appealing with such light weights, however they were both much harder than expected. After finishing 11.1 I realized that it was a big guy WOD disguised as a little guy WOD. Now I know that is a real generalization because I have seen some guys that are in the small guy category that killed that WOD, but in general a big dude can toss around 75 lbs with not a whole lot of effort. In the end I wasn’t super stoked with my score, but I know I laid it all out there by just the way I felt at the end of both attempts. Then 11.2 came along and once again I was stoked, deadlifts, push-ups, and box jumps, right up my alley. I was excited, couldn’t wait to tackle this one, so I hit this one Wednesday. Well, I was the first person to go at our box and I didn’t have any strategy besides hitting it hard and fast. Ummmmmm, that did not go so well. Going into round 4 I had already hit a wall and it was rough to get to the end. It made WOD 11.1 not seem so bad. On top of that I was frustrated as heck because I should have done really well at this and I was not pleased with my score once again. So I watched other people go and talked to several people about what their strategy was and then made sure my diet was on point. I was focused and decided to give it another go yesterday. Right before the WOD started one of my Coaches (Michelle) reviewed my strategy and remind me that I need to breathe deep and not let the guys next to me get in my head. On top of that one of my other coaches (Tom) said a lot of the right things to keep me moving, like telling me when I was close to beating someone else. This all paid off in spades. I was able to improve my score by a full round and 2 reps. Ahhhhh, the feeling of victory. This was just what I needed to re-energize me. I am already starting to feel butterflies when thinking about what 11.3 is going to be.
What will WOD 11.3 look like? No one but HQ knows for sure, but a lot of people are thinking it might be something heavy like a 1 rep max of some lift. Personally I don’t think we are going to see this in 11.3. My reasoning behind this is, HQ made it pretty clear that they wanted the Open to be very inclusive, so you weren’t going to see things like muscle ups because that eliminates way too many people from being able to complete the WOD Rx. Along that same philosophy when you do a max effort lift you may need to have a lot of weights to complete this and the average garage competitor many not have the poundage in weights to make this happen. On the other hand olympic lifting is a big part of CrossFit, so it makes complete sense to include something that tests some of your technical lifting abilities. But I am going to stick to my guns and say, there may be some heavy lift at some point, but probably not until the end to help spread the field out more. I think there is a strong possibility in seeing something more like Helen for WOD 11.3 where you might have a little running, kettlebells, and pull-ups. The gymnastics aspect of CrossFit should be rearing its head soon, maybe in the form of chest to bar pull-ups or handstand push-ups. Sorry heavy lifters, it may be a little while longer until you get your wish.
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