Opens Done - What Next?

Firstly, my apologies for not blogging during the Opens. Things got a little busy and I just couldn't get the time for them.

Secondly, if you did the Opens - Well Done! No Opens WODS are ever easy, so whether you completed them all Rx, all scaled, or anything in between, you should be proud of your achievement. Remember, when you look at the scoreboard, you're comparing yourself to other CrossFitters. Not the general population.

So what now? It's difficult not to get an Open's Hangover and feel a little lost! Here are some ideas and strategies to get you back on track and feeling motivated again:

1. Make sure you record your results and rankings for each WOD. The Opens are a great way to assess your improvements over the years. I would open an Excel spreadsheet and put my affiliate, State, Country and World rankings for each WOD into it. If you have time, do this for the whatever years you have been competing.  I actually did this as a certificate for all of my (44) clients who registered. It really doesn't take that long and gives them a nice momento of the Opens and their achievements.
2. Work out where your strengths and weaknesses are. What WODs did you do well in and what did you crash in? If you want to be a  good CrossFitter, don't focus on your strengths. YOU NEED TO REMOVE YOUR WEAKNESSES! We all have them and we all hate working on them. But if you're serious about improving then these are the areas you can make the most improvements.
   
3. What other areas can you improve on? How was your diet? Did you warm-up appropriately? Did you feel energised before each WOD? Were you overthinking the WODs days before? Did you not enjoy the experience because you were too stressed? Did you strategise the WODs well? Did you recover well?     Make sure to write down anything that you feel you can improve on.
4. Arrange to have a chat with your  coach and see how you can incorporate your weaknesses into your program. This shouldn't be too hard and you can normally just do a few extra sets in the warmup or after the WOD.
5. Look around for more competitions. These are often the best way to assess your training. Online comps are good as they allow you to redo the WODS. So you can change some variables such as strategy, warm-up, pre-workout, time of day etc and then retest. Make sure NOT to change too many variables, otherwise you don't know what the change in score is due to. For example, if you change your strategy and change the time of day you do the WOD, then you can't be sure if your change in score is due to one or the other, or both.
6. Set some goals and make a plan! Time flies by, and it won't be long before Castro is announcing '18.1 is....'. In my next blog I will detail how to put a year plan together. It's not that tricky and it will pay huge dividends. 

If you did get into the next round, the best advice I can give is don't overtrain. With 10 days left before they're announced you may have another 3 or 4 days of hard training. I would suggest you then back off and not do anything that will hurt you too much. Any training you do is not likely to have any effect within a week. The physiological changes take a lot longer than that. Here is what I will be doing:

• Recover, recover, recover. Make sure you get at least 8 hours sleep. Devote more time to triggering and stretching. If you can get some massages. Be strict on your diet!
• Diet: I will up my carbs about 7 days out by adding about 50-100g extra a day. This is the equivalent of about 200 to 400 calories a day. 
• Don't drink coffee if you want to use it as a drug during the qualifiers. You get used to caffeine so you need to be off it for about 2-3 weeks for it to be useful as a drug.
• Get your supps right. Im taking creatine, BCAA's, magnesium and beta alanine in the build up. Creatine and beta alanine take a while (several weeks) to become saturated in your body.
• Not stressing! It is what it is and you have either done the work or not. Control what you can and let the rest go. Stressing does not help, so if you're serious about doing well, find ways to reduce it.
• Lastly, make sure you read the rules. WODs have to be videoed a certain way. You have submission deadlines. Ignorance is no excuse so when you have time, read the rule book, and keep up to date with the CrossFit Updates.

Don't let the post-Open blues get you down. Assess your performances, set your goals and write them down. Then start to design a plan.
You have 12 months to create a better you!
​3, 2, 1, GO!