J.T. Kalnay's Blog, page 9

Dear CrossFit, The Open is Over, Now What?

So the Open is over.  I’m glad it’s over. I’m ready for a couple of easy weeks without competition, and I’m ready to reflect on what it all means. 

There were many emotions to be experienced during the Open.  The highs of a good performance (13.1), the lows of a poor performance (13.2, 13.3, 13.4), the exaltation of hitting a new move for the first time when it counts (13.5).  The pride in an army vet (Tony) who no-repped himself at CrossFit Murfreesboro on Thursday and the abject horror at the cheaters and padders and standards-violators.  The sadness for an injured athlete, and the elation for the athletes who hit PRs, who hit moves they’d never hit before, and who competed with wild abandon.  The slack-jawed wonder at witnessing first hand the virtuosity of top performers, and the enormous pride in friends who got so far out of their comfort zones trying moves and competitions.

Here are the universal truths I’ve distilled from the Open this year.  Stronger people who can move heavy loads for a decent period of time excel at moving moderate loads for relevant periods of time.  More mobile people who can control their body to get into ideal positions excel at repeating body weight movements for relevant periods of time.  Athletes who have made the choices that got their body fat percentage to more optimal levels perform better than athletes who’ve made less optimal choices.  Those who care about their nutrition are leaner, and they are more appropriately fueled, and thus can move longer, better, faster, stronger, more efficiently and more beautifully than those who don’t care about their nutrition.  Athletes who respect the standards in every rep, when warming up, when teaching, when demonstrating, when wodding in a group, when wodding on their own, do better than athletes who either disrespect the standards, or who knowingly avoid knowledge of the standards.  Athletes who spend more time looking at their own numbers do better than athletes who spend more time looking at others’ numbers.  The most truly exceptional CrossFit athletes and coaches are committed to every CrossFit athlete, even those at the back of the pack.

So what are some goals to consider for the next 47 weeks?  Respect nutrition to achieve more optimal body fat percentage and more optimal fueling.  Learn new positions to faciliate learning new skills.  Get stronger, much stronger.  Raise where the 100% bar is, and then learn how to work at 85% for longer periods of time.  Engage the Community.  Respect all the other athletes, and respect yourself.

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

Dear CrossFit, The Absolute Best Part of CrossFit

Is the community, a huge part of which is getting coached up by people who have achieved virtuosity in their field.  Elisabeth Akinwale

http://elisabethakinwale.com/

is one person who has achieved virtuosity.  Today I had the great fortune to get some personal instruction from “EA” in chest to bar pullups, just in time for 13.5, which I subsequently CRUSHED (for me, 25 reps).  If you ever get the chance to watch EA do butterfly pullups, you had best do whatever you can to make that chance happen.  Watching her rep out effortless rhythmic (poetic?) pullups today reminded me of seeing Baryshnikov and Karen Kain on the stage.  Power, fluidity, body position, sense of purpose, and pure athletic prowess deliverd in flawless beautiful symmetry.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the absolute best part of CrossFit is the community, an essential part of which is people like EA, who will take the time out of their schedules to train up schlubs like me.  Who will share their knowledge, their experience, their insights, and who will cheer as hard for the back of the pack “athlete” as they will for a world champion.  Thanks CrossFit, and thanks especially to Elisabeth for your thoughtful coaching and kind words.  I wish you the best of luck in the Open and in the Games..

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

Dear CrossFit, Castro Gives Away 13.5

Dear CrossFit,

Dave Castro just gave away what 13.5 was going to be.  He said “it’s something we’ve never done, in the Games, on the main site, ever.”  He also said that “decent CrossFitters are going to have a very hard time, and elite CrossFitters are going to have an even harder time.”

This means that there is going to be twenty minutes of hell, with an increasing load.  This means it’s 20 minutes of:

21 pullups,

21 thrusters at 135#

15 pullups

15 thrusters at 165#

9 pullups

9 thrusters at 195#

9 pullups

9 thrusters at 225#

9 pullups

9 thrusters at 245#

9 pullups

9 thrusters at 275#

9 pullups

9 thrusters at 305#

ad nauseum…

 

This WOD will produce epic amounts of puke.

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

Dear CrossFit, Thoughts From A Nutrition Challenge Participant

Here’s a letter that one of the athletes at CTown CrossFit wrote to the two organizers of a recent nutrition challenge.

Dear G and M,

You sneaky bastards.
…
You knew this would happen didn’t you? You knew that 50 days of cutting carbs and eating clean would cause me to hate everything I ever loved, right?

I used to be a maple brown sugar Quaker oats guy, a guy who had every meal with a big cold can of diet coke.  Now you’ve got me eating Greek yogurt and drinking almond milk.  Do you have any idea what all that calcium is doing to my bones?!

Bread at every meal with tons of butter? Not any more. Now I just see a flat disk of empty carbs that ultimately adds nothing to the meal and is a waste of time. Another way to get butter into my veins ruined, thanks to you.

Fridge stocked with a case of Keystone? Screw that, now there’s a six pack of micro brew that comes out maybe once a week.  How can I watch March Madness with only a slight buzz? Did you even consider our emotions?

And now you’re making me THINK before I eat! I eat out all the time all over the country for work, now I actually have to THINK about where I’m eating and what I’m ordering.  I NEEDED those brain cycles to think about stuff like how delicious and not terrible for me this plate of fries is!

The worst part is, I secretly feared this would happen. I worried that I would do this and start to look at what I eat and realize what it did to me.  I knew that it would cause me to rethink what I ate every day. And I just didn’t listen to myself.

  I drank diet coke for almost 20 years, now I can’t even look at the stuff.

Actually reading a menu and asking questions? Check.  Appreciating how I feel in the morning after not eating a ton of caffeine and sugar the night before? Check.  Hating how I used to treat food? Check.  Enjoying food in a whole new way? Check and double check.

So thanks guys for ruining everything; I hope you’re happy with yourselves.

Wouldn’t change a d*mn thing.

B

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

Bob Knight Replaces Thad Motta At Ohio State

I can’t believe (actually I do believe) the Buckeyes fired Thad Motta this afternoon!  An even bigger surprise was the hire of 1959-1962 point guard Bob Knight.  Coach Knight was quoted as saying “I won one at Ohio State as a player (1960), and I always wanted the chance to win one as a coach.  I’m not getting any younger, so this might be my last chance.”  Athletic Director Gene Smith was quoted as saying “We had pretty good luck hire an alum as our football coach (Urban Meyer), so we figured we’d try to catch the same genie in the bottle with Coach Knight.”

Go Bucks!

Thad Motta Fired! Bob Knight Hired!

I can’t believe (actually I do believe) the Buckeyes fired Thad Motta this afternoon!  An even bigger surprise was the hire of 1959-1962 point guard Bob Knight.  Coach Knight was quoted as saying “I won one at Ohio State as a player (1960), and I always wanted the chance to win one as a coach.  I’m not getting any younger, so this might be my last chance.”  Athletic Director Gene Smith was quoted as saying “We had pretty good luck hire an alum as our football coach (Urban Meyer), so we figured we’d try to catch the same genie in the bottle with Coach Knight.”

Go Bucks!

Dear CrossFit, Annie: Thor’s Daughter, A Way To Be In The Games (even though she can’t do 13.5)

Dear CrossFit,

I’m a lawyer and a writer and thus I spend a lot of time reading and writing about things legal.  For a number of reasons I have been spending a lot of time in your rulebook (2013 CrossFit Games Competition Rule Book).  Here’s a clause that I would like you to consider with respect to Annie, Thor’s Daughter:

 

 

b. All Athletes must compete in the Open in order to advance to Regionals or the Games, or to contribute to a Team.
 
i. CrossFit Inc. reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to invite past winners, guest athletes, Teams or others, to participate in any stage of competition. This decision may be made to preserve the traditions and spirit of The CrossFit Games or for any other reason at the sole discretion of CrossFit Inc.

There are two separate reasons why I am asking you to allow Annie to compete in the Games, (if she recovers and is fit and if she wants to).  First, Annie certainly competed in the Open.  The rules don’t say she has to win the Open, or even qualify through the Open, only that she has to compete in the Open.  She competed, and was doing very well.   Second, you have the discretion to invite past Champions, to preserve traditions.  This is a great rule.  Every year in April I love to watch al the former Champions play in the Masters tournament.  It’s tradition.  Therefore, please invite Annie, and all past champions.

There are nearly four months until the Games, which will be held from July 22nd (my birthday) until July 28th.  Therefore, if she can, and if she wants to, please consider having Annie compete in the Games.  Also, please consider inviting a dozen men and women from our Armed Forces who have submitted scores via video or who have submitted unofficial scores.  Also, please considering inviting challenged competitors who are bravely posting scores.  Inviting these competitors preserves the spirit of the Games.

Dear CrossFit, you have the discretion to do all these things, to preserve the traditions and the spirit of the Games.  Please consider doing them. 

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be….

Dear CrossFit Friend, Get Back On The Bar For CrossFit 13.5

here is an excerpt from a letter written to a friend who was wondering why she was doing the Open, and whether anyone cared about her score…

Hi XXXXXX, yes my toes got up by the bar, and sometimes one or the other even hit the bar, but the standard was for both feet to hit the bar at the same time in between your hands.  I’d been practicing T2B with my hands together on the bar and hitting my feet outside them, so it was very hard (impossible) to change on “game day”.  I still remember how long it took to get either foot to hit the bar (maybe 3 months of trying) and then how long it took to get both feet to hit the bar (maybe another 3-4 months).  Now I have another task, doing it to the standard.  I’m actually looking forward to practicing T2B once a week for the next six months and then trying this WOD again.  I’m going to have a very good day on the day I hit a legit T2B (and a legit MU, and a legit HSPU, and a legit pistol, etc.).  Maybe that’s what you’ll do too.  Maybe you’ll write down these scores in your own private book and then check off each skill as you nail it and own it.   I know I won’t be going to the games or regionals, and knew that going into the Open, but I don’t consider my efforts wasted or to have no reason.  People sign up for a 5k even though they know they won’t win, and might even come last, and might have to walk most of the way.  But, they have a reason for going in the 5k.  Maybe to support the charity that will benefit from the event, maybe to support a friend, maybe to see whether they are getting better or worse at 5ks, maybe on a bet or dare, maybe because they’ve been running all alone and want to run with people just this one time to see what it’s like.  There’s lots of reasons people go in 5ks, and there’s lots of reasons people go in the Open.  Sometimes, we don’t even know what those reasons are when we sign up.  Sometimes the reasons only become obvious during the event, or even weeks after.  Sometimes the reason is to experiment or practice being uncomfortable, getting outside our comfort zone.  You, like me, have come a ways, but you, like me, know we have a ways to go.  This Open is just one step on our journey.  Questioning why we are doing it is part of the process.  In all those marathons and triathlons I did, the question “why?” always came up.  In training, in my head, from my friends and family, and especially during the event when it really hurt.  Part of my training and part of my coaching for others was practicing answering that internal dialogue when it started screaming WHY? when it hurt, or when it snuck in late at night and whispered “why?” when I was at my weakest.  My reasons for finishing the Open now are different from my reasons for signing up in the first place, and my reasons for doing the Open next year will be different from my reasons for doing it this year.  The most important thing, for both of us, is to stick with the process, to get up no matter how many times we get knocked down, and to realize we are running our own race, with our own clock (which in my case is a sun dial), and that no-one or no thing can knock us down so many times that we can’t get back up.  You say nobody cares about your score?  I know that’s wrong.  I know three people who care: 1) you the day before yesterday because you were worried about the event, 2) you yesterday while you were doing the event, and 3) you some time in the future when you look back at the score and realize how far you’ve come.  Get back on the bar friend.  Get on the bar. 

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

Dear CrossFit, 13.4, Toes to Hands Are Not Toes To Bar

I could post 43 reps for 13.4.  I could.  But I’m not going to.  It doesn’t feel right.  I apologize to everyone who helped me today.  People were really trying, helping me with the movement and with my head.  And in some way I feel like I’m letting you down.  But I’m not.  I’m respecting your help and your effort.

I’m going to post 3 reps.  Why?  Because I’m pretty sure my feet touched my hands on all the T2B that counted today.  I had about a dozen no-reps when I whiffed and my feet missed the bar completely, but I had 18 reps that counted.  But now, as I think about it, they don’t count.  They don’t count because I’m not sure my feet hit the bar between my hands.  I am pretty sure they hit my hands instead.

Part of me wants to post 43 reps.  But another part, the part I have to live with, that b*stard called integrity is going to post 3.  They are 3 hard-earned, legit, “I am proud of” reps.  Any more than that would disrespect the 7 minutes of hell I saw one athlete go through today trying to get one 95# C&J.  You’ll get it, you’re very close.  And I’ll get a legit T2B, and we’ll both be the better for it.

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be…

I could post 43 reps for 13.4, but I’m not going to.  I’m going to get a legit T2B one day, and when I do I’ll let you all know.  Today wasn’t that day.

Dear CrossFit, Observations From Judging and Coaching 13.4

So I got to coach and judge some 13.4s today.  Nearly everyone, and I mean 9 out of 10, went out too fast and then slowed considerably in the middle.  Additionally, by going out too fast their form deteriorated more quickly than it should have, which lead to no reps on the T2B (feet missing the bar, heels not going back) and which also lead to no reps on the C&J (not showing control at the top before dropping the bar).  The highest number I saw was from a guy who did everything in threes.  Luckily the pullup bar was just a half an inch above his reach so it didn’t cost him a lot to jump down and get back up.  He only “sprinted” in the final 45 seconds, when he did the T2B unbroken.

So, overall, it looks like if you’re thinking you’re going to get 60 reps you have to ask yourself what is your time for 30 C&J at your weight.  If it’s six minutes, you’re not going to get 60 reps because it’s going to take you more than one minute to do the 30 T2B. 

This workout is so short you can probably do it twice.  Therefore, try it once today or tomorrow using a strict pace (e.g., sets of three).  Then, after you know what you can do, try it again on Sunday with longer or shorter sets depending on how you felt on the first pace.

I wonder what tomorrow’s WOD will be….