Inspiration

Where do you find yours?

If you haven't came by the box yet to check out one of the 2011 CrossFit Games Open WOD's, you need to.  The heart that people pour into these workouts is amazing - truly inspirational.  So much so, that I usually opt for a later heat just to watch those before me and draw from their excitement. 

This past week we did WOD #3.  A 5 minute AMRAP of Squat Clean & Jerks.  The weight for the ladies - 110 lbs.  The weight for the fellas - 165 lbs.  That's substantial weight!

I must have watched 25-30 people pour themselves into the WOD from Wednesday night to Saturday morning.  Watching Vic bust out 35 rounds, seeing Katie churn through 29 rounds or judging Jane through 23 1/2 rounds was definitely inspirational.  

But this post today isn't about the folks on the upper end of the leader board.  This workout was damn near impossible for some.  I spoke several of our members who had never even attempted a clean and jerk at the prescribed weight!  On Wednesday, the first heat of WOD #3 was set to roll.  I was the judge for Ryan Wheeler.  Ryan is in my 5:00 class and comes in daily and busts his ass through every single workout.  I've never seen Ryan quit, never heard him complain, and certainly never seen him give up.  He had never done a squat clean and jerk at 165 lbs..  Ryan didn't bust out 35 rounds.  He didn't make 20 rounds in those 5 minutes.  Nor did he break the top 10 on the leader board.  But, I can promise you this:  Ryan was by far the most inspirational performance I've seen in the 2011 CrossFit Games Open.  Ryan completed a personal record (PR) that day by completing 1 1/2 rounds of WOD #3.  He squat cleaned and jerked the prescribed weight and stayed in the competition.   To watch him complete what some deemed near impossible was truly inspirational.  Keep up the good work Ryan - You inspire all of us to keep working hard.

cg

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Integrity.

Integrity: We all know what it means, we all know where I'm going with this.

In this years' 2011 CrossFit Games Open, CrossFit HQ has charged every single athlete to hold themselves to the highest standard, and to be an individual of the highest integrity. This means completing the Open workouts honestly, truthfully, and without error. I would speculate that 95% of all individuals competing in the Open are doing this - most without hesitation.

But here's where I become weary. There are multiple (4?) athletes that have posted a 600+ rep score on Open WOD #2. For those of you unaware, the WOD was:

9 Deadlifts (155#, 100#)

12 hand release pushups

15 box jumps (24"/20")

AMRAP in 15 minutes.

So, those who posted a score of 600+ reps completed 16 rounds + at least 9 deads, 12 pushups, and 3 box jumps. Holy smokes. That's fast. Really fast. So fast, I had to check the games site (yes, it was actually working this morning) to see if their names were Batman, Superman, Spiderman, and Catwoman. Nope. Just normal folks.

Break it down guys...that means you have to do a round every 54ish seconds. Doable. But where do you transition? Let's say you're stupid fast and it only takes you 1 second to transition from one exercise to the next. That means you are letting go of the bar and flopping right into your no roll, no worm, no snake pushup, then getting into your box jump burpee style, and flying off the box and immediately into position for your next round of deads. Of course you are not taking any breaks either. So in reality you're looking at spending about 47-50 seconds working and the rest transitioning. We'll go with 48 seconds. If you break it down mathematically based on the ratio of reps to time per round that means you get 12 seconds to do your deads, just over 15 seconds to do your pushups, and barely more than 20 seconds to do your box jumps.

Everyone stop reading, grab your watch, start it and do 12 pushups. How long did it take you? Remember you were fresh. Now do it again but release your hands at the bottom. Don't forget to lock out at the top. Now how long did it take you? It took me 12.47 seconds. Fresh. But my heart is beating faster now. So I can only lose 2.5 seconds on those pushups in each round to acheive my 600+ reps??!!!

If someone can just show us a video of this happening I would be happy as a kid in a candy store. I'm not saying it can't be done. I'm not trying to call anyone out. I'm not complaining because my measly 10 rounds + 35 reps is pretty darn poor. I just really want to see this done. It would surely be an amazing feat to watch.

With that said, are you an individual of the highest integrity? Athletes? Judges? This stuff is for real this time guys. I'd hate to be #61 at the close of the Open because JoJo over at CrossFit BS didn't care if the athlete #60 wormed a few of his pushups.

cg

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