Four and a half months after returning from my world circuit I found myself shooting up to Sydney for the Crossfit Australian regional. Competing this year was a goal born from the inspirational feats I witnessed in Carson at the world crossfit games but I knew that with 6 months of continuous travelling on a tight budget and with limited time in each place it could be a challenge. Luckily for me the "sectionals" this year were conducted in an "open" format over a six week period that allowed me extra time to undo the wrong doings of the previous 6 months. I scraped in ranked 49th and was off to Sydney to compete against what the open had determined were the 60 best male crossfitters in Australia.
A week out from the regionals and I was feeling a little uninspired by the events leading up to the competition. After six tiring weeks of doing workouts every thursday night at Schwartz's we were told a week (for us) early what the workouts were going to be. Shortly after that the standards were released and two of my favourite exercises (box jumps and burpees) looked to have been slowed to an almost stagnant pace in order to make judging easier. As it turned out my legs were that cooked by the 315 pound bar that just getting up onto the box felt amazingly difficult let alone jumping off and springing back up again. And the burpees.... well I didnt quite make it to the burpees.
After the above skepticism I thouroughly enjoyed the weekend. Acts of true grit and determination were abundant. Men and women checking themselves into the "special place" for extraordinarily extended stays. All in all it was just a great example of the crossfitter's ability to get shit done.
What did I learn? Firstly you have to be super strong to even think about competing in crossfit now. 315 pounds deadlifting is short fast cardio for the best and I suspect 135 pound will soon become the new 95 pound for all things below paralell. This evolution is something unique to crossfit because it is such a new sport and after the weekend I feel that it definitely is a sport. The feeling I had warming up before each WOD was just as exciting as the feeling in the changerooms before a footy match and I loved every second of it. Secondly, with great support performance increases. The crew from Schwartz's was amazing in their cheering and motivation which allowed me to acheive a number of PBs.
For now I will be lifting heavy weight so in future I can "disrespect" the weight in front of me and do better.
