I really didn't want to finish the Opens with such a bad ranking, so I did a repeat of 16.5 on Sunday. I had done my running WOD on Saturday and felt ok, so thought it was worth a crack.
​
It wasn't. I got to the end of the 15's and my time was slower than Friday so I stopped. Legs were dead!
So I gave it one more shot on Tuesday. Monday we did a light recovery WOD - sort of a Rankle but I only did 5 rounds. Felt good on Tuesday and I had it all planned out...
I think it was Tyson who said "Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face". So true.
I was pretty much level with Friday's time, so kept going...and going...and going (you know what it feels like!),... ended up smashing my time by....3 sec! And I don't even think that changed my ranking one bit! FFS!!!
So that pushed me down 10 spots and I finished in 25th place. 

I am now doing as my warmup 2-3 times a week this little set 5-10-15-20-15-10-5 of C2B, WB, BF burpees. I have three weeks to get my hanging exercises feeling good again (C2B felt terrible) and to be moving heavy weights well again.

The Masters qualifying round is going to be heavier, probably more technical and you have to be able to back up (4 WODS in 4 days - plus throw in your repeats). Cherise and myself will be doing the complete Masters qualifiers from last year next weekend. We also need to lose the 1.5kg we put on over the Opens... man diet is tough when you love eating and are older.

I hope everyone had a great Opens. If it has exposed some weaknesses then get on to it! You don't want to be the same person you are today this time next year! If you smashed it then give yourself a pat on the back and then get better still! Complacency has bought done civilisations and if you pat yourself on the back for too long then everyone races past you!

16.5 is 14.5! When I did that as 16.4 I ranked 500ish in the 45-49 age division. I have done it a few times since then and improved my time from 17:30 to 16:20.

So we did it as soon as it came out and I went 14:30. I was pretty happy with myself... until I realised this will give me another shit ranking (this time in the 50-54 age group). The burpees are just slow for me.

So I did a repeat today (Sunday) and stopped after the 15 burpees as I was on the same time as Friday but feeling way worse. My triceps are smashed and my legs were dead. I did a nice run wod Saturday and some heavy FSq yesterday with an easy 12 min WOD. So I thought I might have recovered a little better.

I am hoping that the recovery fairies will visit me tonight so I can give it another go tomorrow. It's frustrating to know I have improved by nearly 3 mins and still suck at this WOD. Just when I thought I had eliminated most of my weaknesses.

When I get through this WOD you can bet I'll be working on my burpees. I have tried two different methods for the burpees, so tomorrow I will try yet another method. Jump feet back, jump feet in close to the bar (I need to use my hips way more to kip my feet up), then jump straight over.

If you did this wod you're a crossfitter! 84 thrusters and 84 bar facing facing burpees is tough! I dont care what weight you used!

16.5 is out tomorrow! My shed is having an announcement party as it is falling on Good Friday. 
I'm not really hoping for Dave to announce anything special at this stage. I'm happy to be challenged by something I'm not good at, but I'd also love for my perfect WOD to come up. Whichever....

This year's Open has been an excellent one for Cherise and myself in regards to keeping our training going. I haven't had a rest day since they started - my two normal rest days have been replaced with a run or run wods with strength work. I was a bit worried with working 7 days a week and keeping it all together mentally, however it has come together really well.

I'm eating pretty well - though I did put on 1kg over the last 4 weeks. I get into this mental state that I need to keep the carbs up so I'm feeling good for the WODS. But I over carb! This week I have gone back to keeping a nutritional log on Myfitnesspal. I'm at around 82.5kg but would like to be back to 81.0 to 81.5 kg for the Masters Qualifying rounds in 5 weeks.

To do this I need to stay on about 2300C/day which includes about 180g of protein. I'm trying to get more of this from red meat - Kangaroo burgers/sausages mainly. I've also increased my fruits and vegies. I make my own meals (my wife works late most days) so I have been getting into those bags of Kale Slaws and Coleslaws etc.. And every night I have about 300g of berries and 200g of Bornhoffen yoghurt.

I'm not pedantic about my diet though. For example, I went to the movies today (Thursday is my 3 hour weekly escape!) and I had a large popcorn and buffalo wings. Still managed to keep my daily Cal to 2500 though. I have been going less calories the last few days as I knew I'd be over today.

The thing with diet is... eat well (we all know what that means!) most of the time. We never get enough fruit and vegies so up those and take out some crap if you want to lose some weight. It's the easiest way to stay full! Oh, and sip on BCAA's through the day - i use Scivation Xtend. No calories and it keeps me pretty full (and hydrated).

Looking forward to having a hit out with the shed straight after the wod is announced! Might even have a few hot cross buns for breakfast....

I've left my reading glasses at the shed, so I apologise for any grammatical errors

I did give 16.3 another crack on Monday.! Go the first 4 rounds out in just under 4 mins when my sister pointed out that my bar was loaded to 40kg and not the required 35kg. So i reloaded, had 15mins rest and gave it another go. I got to the exact same sport I did last time (90 reps) but (once again (failed the MU! Very frustrating! My tie break was a lot better - so there is a plus!. Always get someone to check your weights - lesson learnt.

This week has been good. We did some solid wods including 15.5 - that nasty Thruster/row one on Thursday. My time was the same as I did last year so that was a nice confidence booster.

We had a go at 16.4 straight after it was announced. WB and Row aren't great for me, But DL and HSPU I don't mind. I ended up with 31 HSPU after getting off the row at about 10:20ish. It's a good wod and I'm redoing it tomorrow morning. My plan is to break the DL up a little more and less breaks on the WB. The HSPU weren't affected by the other exercises too much so I think you can come off that row pretty gassed and still get a few out.

It's interesting to see how people tackle these WODS. One thing I've noticed is people giving everything they have to get their first BMU, or HSPU, or 102kg DL to get an Rx score. Which is excellent.
However how many of those people have gone on to keep practising their BMU from 16.3? If you tried like a champion to get those BMU, and then haven't gotten back onto that bar to repeat your efforts or to refine your technique since then, then that effort has been virtually wasted.

If you have identified a weakness during the games, then don't wait until 17.1 before you tackle it again, In fact, don't wait until the next week! let your shoulders recover, but then three or four days later get back into it. If you put the same amount of effort 2 or 3 days a week to getting a BMU - you'll get it! 

We all have our nemesis exercise. Go out and tame it - then dominate it!
Effort doesn't always equal results, however results never come without effort!

My tips for 16.4 - break those DL's up! Your pace in the first minute will dictate the WOD. Control it, breathe and relax. It's a chipper - so chip away without blowing your time on those rests!
​Good luck!

So I gave 16.3 a go Friday straight after the WOD was announced.

I have had a pretty good training week. Hitting 3x180kg, 3x95kg OHS, 3x130kg RSq as well keeping my WODs going. Thursday I did a little grip killer - 2 rounds of 40C row, 8 BMU, 2 rope climbs with 60s rest between. I dont think it helped for 16.3 the next day!

I paced it fairly slowly but didn't break the moves. Got 1 MU short of 7 rounds. My grip gave out but I was pretty gassed as well. I'm doing it again tomorrow, as I think I need another 6-8 reps to keep me in the Top 10 (which would be nice). My plan is to Power snatch instead of muscle snatch and move through the MU's faster. Which means my grip should hold out, but I'll probably gass out earlier.

I asked Matt Swift recently what was the main thing he learned at the Games last year (he won the Men's 45-49 Age Group) and he replied "know your capacity'. For me, this has always been a strict guideline, and when I forget about it, I often fail.

What it means, is that when you approach a WOD, break it down and try to see where your strengths and weaknesses might lie within that WOD. Then make sure to take that into consideration when you start the WOD. For example, 16.3, for some people may a cardio wod, others their grip might give out, while others might have trouble with the technical aspect of the BMU.

So if you cardio is weak, you would pace the snatches, but push the MU. If your grip is weak then you might release the snatches every rep. Pacing a wod doesn't mean you do every movement at one pace. It means you move through the WOD so that at the end (right at the end - like in the last seconds) something gives out! If nothing gives out, then you haven't gone hard enough. If something gives out with time to go then you will need to have extended rests. 

So when you see the WOD, think where you can make up time and where you will need to control yourself a little bit. Learn to do this well and you will often beat better athletes. Don't learn it and you will find yourself resting way too much in your WODs.

Stupid blog - I posted 16.1 on Friday but it only published the heading! It's up now though...

So this weekend was a biggie. I did 10 hours at the gym on Saturday and 3 hours on the computer at home. I had a few late massage call ins, plus I did a recovery WOD.
My recovery wod was 4 rounds of 900m run / 20 BJ on 10:00. I descend them so went from 6:22 down to 5:38. My running is starting to feel comfortable again and kmy BJ even feel not terrible!

This morning I had two hours on the computer before meeting with Cherise at the gym at 8:00 am. I had another 5 hours at the gym today (cleaning day) and about 4 hours on the computer...

Anyway, I woke up feeling ready to smash out 16.2 again. I did it on Friday and got out 3 reps at the 102kg. My T2B felt terrible and my legs a bit dead so I was pretty confident of going better. Dumb-ass me!

Unfortunately my grip let me down. I think from doing it Friday and then a few massages on Saturday the forearms were a bit smashed.  I got to the 102kg and couldn't even grip it. Thanks Cherise for urging me on - I would have quit on those last set of T2B otherwise.

This was a great WOD - if you had a weakness in any of the three moves, then it was tough going. The key to competing well in crossfit is to have no weaknesses. A perfect saying as a training guideline would be:

Good, better, best.
Never let it rest.
Until your good becomes better, and your better is your best.

So if you can program your own training, DON"T TRAIN YOUR STRENGTHS - TRAIN YOUR WEAKNESSES! This may mean you do mobility instead of strength, or core instead of mobility. If you don't program your own training, then make a list of 5 or so worse movements, and rotate them through the week into your warmup or strength.

If you don't then your T2B stay knees-up for ever, and your DU will remain single skips. Cherise, (my sister) has been doing Muscle Up drills and attempts about 4 out of every 5 sessions for over a year now. Thats over 200 MU sets in 12 months! She doesn't have one yet! I can't say if she ever will with 100% certainty (she will though!) but I can guarantee you this. If she doesn't practise them she'll never get one!

Good luck for 16.2 and I hope it comes together for you. 

Long WODS with burpees - I never do well in the Opens with that combo! So I'm pretty happy with my rank for 16.1 (20th), though a little disappointed with my score. Cherise and myself did it Friday and both thought we could go a fair bit better. Tried it again Sunday - lots more effort and squeezed out another 6 reps for 219. 
At the Opens every rep counts so it was worth repeating. Cherise got 10 more reps, which was a great result.

The Opens for us means we still have to do full training - otherwise we don't have the endurance for the Masters Qualifying  - which is 4 WODS in 4 days and happens about 4 weeks after Opens finishes. If we want to go to the Games in LA then we need to finish in the top 20. This week was tough as 16.1 drained the legs a bit.

Monday I did my running WOD and some rear Squats. Once a week I hit DL (making sure I lift sets of 2 or 3 at  170-185kg), RSq (usually 3x3x130ish), FSq (3x2 or 3 at 120ish) and OHS (3x2 or 3 at 95ish). It's purely a neural stimulus, so my reps are low. I want to feel confident at those weights no matter how tired I am so  I never miss those lifts.

Tuesday was a modified Kanga of 10DLx100kg, 5BJ, 8DLx130, 10BJ, 6DLx150, 15BJ, 4DLx165, 20BJ, 2DLx175 25BJ (BJ @ 70cm).

Wednesday is a tough day - it's my sleep in (Cherise does the morning so I don't get up until 6). I arrive at college (I lecture in massage) at 8am and go through to 3pm with a 20min break. Then go to Somerville to do 4:30-7:30pm of XFit with the QAS Waterpolo team. I got a 4km run in at 3:30pm as I really want to build my running up. I get home around 8ish and do the program for the next day and blog the results etc.

Thursday Cherise and I did a decent 15 min WOD - I also did the heavy FSq. So our legs were fairly dead today. I got out 3 of the 102kg cleans but I'm doing it again on Monday (maybe Sunday) and hope to get out a few more.

I got a little stressed today, as I picked up another subject to teach at college. I hate saying no and we need the money. It's only an extra 3 hours a week lecture, but around 10 hours of preparation a week as it is all new. I just learn enough to stay 1 week ahead of the students! 

The toughest thing for me is getting that recovery! Thursday I had between 11 and 3pm off - so I got a haircut, a massage and saw a movie! I pay for it by working longer on the weekends, but I need this time to look forward to! 

Tomorrow I'll just do a run WOD. I'm at the shed for 6 hours and will spend the rest of the day on the computer. I'd rather not spend so much time on the computer as it makes me feel worse than doing a big WOD! But I'll get in a good roll/trigger during the day.

Will try to blog after we redo 16.2... My tips for it:

• Warm your core up
• Get your cleans efficient
• If you're only doing it once, then try a round out to see what pacing you should do.
• Always race your strengths and train your weaknesses - so if you're good at T2B then go hard in those. If you're good at heavy then save a little for the cleans! No use smashing yourself on T2B and DU and then have nothing for your best move.
• Take short rests! You can rest often in this and still make the 4:00 but only if they're SHORT! I broke T2B first round 10-8-7 and dropped every Clean and still went 3:00.

Good luck and remember it's the Opens! So EVERY REP COUNTS! Your pain soon goes but your score never does!