The introduction of the Crossfit Open is in the previous blog. 

I was sleeping on my girlfriend’s couch and woke up at 6:59 pm on Thursday evening. I was quite tired, having the 3 days prior, restricted my caffeine intake. I limited myself to coffee on Monday and a half of a cold press on Tuesday. (Thanks Karen) I was pretty tired on Thursday, I’m used to coffee nearly every day of the week. Your workout schedule during the 5 weeks of the Open is completely different too. I am going to attempt to do 2 days of Olympic Weightlifting and 2 days of metabolic conditioning the next 3 weeks to stay crisp. Nothing abnormally heavy and the workouts will be just enough to keep my mind and body fresh. When I head to Las Vegas the week of 17.4, I’ll have to find a way to stay mobile and focused all the while enjoying myself.

I jumped up from my 6:59 awakening to turn on YouTube and watch the announcement of the 17.1 workout. Per usual, Dave Castro (Crossfit’s director for the Games and also a smug/seemingly semi douchy person) displayed his usual snarky grin while going through the 2 movements. This year’s opener is completely foreign to all. To my surprise, he announced a workout for time.(meaning you are finished when all of the work prescribed is done) It looks a little something like:

10 dumbbell snatches-weight for the dumbbell is 50 pounds
15 burpee box jump overs
20 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump overs
30 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump overs
40 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump overs
50 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump overs- All of this with a 20 minute time limit

I will post what the workload looks like each week with this YouTube Video

Watching the top games athletes perform this about 20 minutes after the announcement, I proceeded to set a goal of finishing it 5 minutes slower than they did. The 2 men finished around 12 minutes or so, then I watched 2 of the commentators push through the workout later. I can hang with them, but they are a little more skilled than I am also. To my surprise, one finished with about 45 seconds left, the other one had 5 reps left and did NOT finish. Instantly thoughts crept in my head “how’s my endurance?”, “I’m not sure I can finish” and lastly “I like burpee box jump overs, am I INSANE?”

I kind of have a few nerves creeping up as I type this portion of the blog up about 4 hours before I start this workout. I did about 20 dumbbell snatches early Friday morning to see how it would feel. I had done these same exact snatches at the Granite Games last September except those you had to catch in a squatting position. I felt confident after that yet wondered what reps 101-150 would like after 60 burpee box jump overs?? I usually start with a lot of steam in workouts, moving quicker than I often would like. So the end result is my distress from minute 10 to 20 is quite intolerant. I just want to finish at this point!

In between breaks of work, I watched 4 of our better athletes do the workout which eased my nervous tension a lot. They paced the heck out of it, much slower than I anticipated. All 4 finished in between 17:40 and 19:30, which made my goal seem possible. My prediction 3 hours before I kick off is I finish in 18:30.

As I lined up I had all of the energy in the world and knew that instance I had to slow my breathing down. When all was said and done, I DID finish with a time of 18:50. At the time I was satisfied with how my heat went. We had a guy in my heat who finished at 16:36. Usually I can keep pace with someone if they are within a short distance away, unfortunately he was on the other end of the gym out of eye’s sight. I watched 2 more heats as a couple of our better athletes finished in between 16:15 and 17:30. I was on my way out the door when I spoke with another friend of mine who had done the workout the night it was announced. He was a little disappointed in his score and was going to retest Monday. The rule for the Open is you can retest as many times as you want and take your best score. These workouts are quite grueling and retesting is taxing on your body.

I had initially said that I was one and done and I would be happy with my score if I finished. My friend had convinced me otherwise and I would retest Monday afternoon about 3 hours before our scores had to be submitted. Redemption!! I immediately knew what I would do differently. I would take less breaks during the dumbbell snatch portion, that cost me probably an extra minute. I was crawling during the end of the burpee portion, yet it’s quite manageable. Keep moving during the snatch portion and I would improve my time on Monday!

Over the course of the next 2 days, I did light upper body work and ran a 5K to flush out my soreness. On top of that, I received a light massage and had some stem work done on my back. It was lit up immensely from the volume of Friday night. I kept going back and forth Saturday and Sunday whether or not to take another shot at it? Well……

Knowing I don’t set good paces, having my buddy Dave work next me would be a blessing. So I said let’s go for it Monday afternoon. Having seen a couple of my other friend’s do the workout 2 even 3 times to improve, I knew I had to give it a go. To my slight delight, I shaved off 14 seconds to finish at 18:36.

I honestly didn’t have the lung capacity or the mental toughness to go any quicker. Some people crushed this, I did okay.  My nutrition wasn’t the greatest over the weekend yet my recovery was good.  I will go back and hopefully do better on the next 4 workouts. The Open is about your OVERALL fitness level and the “fun” that goes with competing alongside your friends. I will go to bed tonight satisfied that I’m among the top 45 Males ages 35-39 in the state of Minnesota.

My name is Jesse Velasquez and I’m a fitness coach in Minneapolis, Minnesota. If you’d like to explore the Crossfit World a bit more, check out www.crossfitkingfield.com. Browse my website for all of your general fitness and nutrition needs. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @jcvwellness. Email me or search the website if you have inquiries about pricing, customized programming or any other fitness questions!