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Recap of 13.5 and Some Thoughts About the Open

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Hi, I'm Tina!

I’m the owner of Carrots ‘N’ Cake as well as a Certified Nutrition Coach and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P). I use macros and functional nutrition to help women find balance within their diets while achieving their body composition goals.

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Phew. I’m glad the 2013 CrossFit Open is officially over. It was a ton of fun, and I really enjoyed myself, but I’m ready to get back to my regular workouts. I feel like I haven’t been to a CrossFit class in ages!

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Last Friday afternoon, Kerrie and I made plans to do 13.5 together:

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 4 minutes of:

65 pound Thruster, 15 reps
15 Chest to bar Pull-ups

If 90 reps (3 rounds) are completed in under 4 minutes, time extends to 8 minutes.
If 180 reps (6 rounds) are completed in under 8 minutes, time extends to 12 minutes.
If 270 reps (9 rounds) are completed in under 12 minutes, time extends to 16 minutes.
Etc.

There was no way I was going to get 90 reps in 4 minutes, but I was still going to try my hardest.

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Kerrie and I both knew it was going to be a brutal workout, so doing it together was a great way to motivate and push each other.

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The Thrusters weren’t too bad. Sixty-five pounds is still pretty heavy for me, so I warmed-up and practiced with 85 pounds before the workout. I didn’t even pick up the 65-pound bar until the first rep of the workout, so the weight would seem “light.” This strategy definitely helped because I made it through two rounds of Thrusters and managed to do them unbroken! Yay!

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The Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups were a different story. Before last week, I can’t say that I had done too many of them”¦ ok, I’ve done some with bands and jumping, but I definitely hadn’t done too many “real” ones.

On Thursday night at the competitors’ class, we worked on Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups with different grips, and the mixed grip actually worked pretty well for me. In order for the rep to count, you need to touch your chest to the bar and the mixed grip made it a little bit easier to get there.

I did the first set of Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups in sets of 2’s and 3’s and then broke the second set into singles. I did one rep, hopped off the bar, and then jumped right back up to do another one. Even though I wasn’t doing the Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups consecutively, I was getting reps and avoiding no-reps (except for one when I didn’t quite touch my chest to the bar). I finished with 54 reps.

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The final WOD of the Open was a good one, and it definitely made me excited to do Fran prescribed in the coming months. (I know, I’m a sicko, but Fran Rx is one of my big goals for 2013.)

Now that the Open is over, I wanted to share a few thoughts about it””mostly things that I’ve learned, but also how I’ve changed as an athlete over the past 5 weeks.

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The CrossFit Open is about doing things I didn’t think I could do.

So many people””myself included””got wrapped up in the comparison game during the CrossFit Open. I mean, how could you not? You’re competing with top athletes, people in your region, friends at your box”¦ it’s hard not to compare your performance with that of others.

After getting really down on myself about my performance on 13.3, I gave myself a little pep talk. I reminded myself that the Open is supposed to be fun, and it’s not about other people. (Ok, maybe it is for the elite athletes, but for regular CrossFitters like me, it’s not.) The Open is about doing things that I didn’t think I could do, which brings me to”¦

The CrossFit Open pushed me out of my comfort zone.

Oh, yes, it did.

Before the Open, I rarely did Rx workouts at CrossFit””maybe once a month and it was usually a workout that involved running or rowing and not much heavy lifting. When the Open rolled around, I knew I needed to complete the workouts as prescribed if I wanted to post a score, so I pushed myself out of my comfort zone on every workout during the Open. Toes-to-bar, 75-pound Snatches, 95-pound Clean and Jerks, chest-to-bar pull-ups”¦ these things were definitely not in my wheelhouse until the Open, but now I can do them, which, honestly, surprised me.

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The CrossFit Open helped me push past a fitness plateau.

Similar to above, the Open helped me push past a fitness plateau. I was definitely stuck in a rut and not making much progress at CrossFit. Basically, I was using the same weights and modifications for workouts and not improving all that much. But, as soon as the Open started and I was pushed out of my comfort zone, I started to make some serious gains. And now I want to keep that momentum going.

The CrossFit Open got me fired up.

Remember 13.2? I got a tad fired up during that workout, which, at first, I was a little embarrassed about, but now I think it’s totally okay. I found something that I care about a whole lot, and getting fired up showed me that I have a competitive side to me.

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The CrossFit Open showed me that my hard work paid off.

At last year’s CrossFit Open, I couldn’t even do the workouts. I made it through 7 minutes of Burpees, but after that I didn’t post a score. Granted, I had a pretty bad flare during that time, so I missed a couple of workouts all together, but I actually couldn’t do the workouts as prescribed, so I didn’t post any more scores after the first one. This year, I did all 5 workouts as prescribed and posted scores. Basically, what I’m saying is that I’ve come a long way in a year and my hard work has paid off. It was definitely nice to see!

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The Open made me fall in love even more with CrossFit.

I know, this is super cheesy, but I seriously love CrossFit. It’s so damn fun and it’s benefited my life in so many ways. Falling even more in love with CrossFit during the Open made me want to share it even more with others and help them discover why it’s so great, which is the main reason I’m going for my Level 1 CrossFit certification.

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