Want to become competitive in CrossFit?

Anthony recently posted a comment on one of my previous posts about getting competitive with CrossFit.  He wants to give himself a goal so that he feels like he is training for a purpose.  I started to reply to his comment, but felt that this could be a good subject for an entire post

Here is his comment…

“Hey,

I just came across your blog. I have been “having fun” with crossfit for a while but I am considering taking my training to a new level-one with a goal. I have always been a competitive athlete, training for a purpose. But I am now a 29 year old professional and only workout for health and general fitness. I want that to change.

Do you know when the 2011 Crossfit Sectionals begin? Any advice for training, other than simply checking the workout of the day on http://www.crossfit.com?

Thanks”

Anthony,

Thanks for checking out the blog!  First, I haven’t seen anything on the ’11 sectionals yet, but they will likely start scheduling events late this year.  Keep a lookout then.

Having a goal is great with CrossFit.  I find that most people who are into it and don’t have anything else to focus on…like team sports, endurance sports, etc…and don’t set goals are less motivated when they are in the gym.  When you set your sights on a goal, your intensity level will skyrocket!

Here is a list of some things that I have learned that I would recommend you do if you want to be competitive in CrossFit:
- Work on your weaknesses!  This is huge.  If you can’t do double-unders, you better learn.  If you have problems with the overhead squat, you gotta fix it.  You need to find the holes in your game and attack them because they will come up and bite you in the ass.  Finish your wod, then set some time aside to practice stuff.
- Maintain your strengths.  Don’t focus too hard on things you aren’t good at so that you lose the things you are strong at.
- If you aren’t working out in an actual CrossFit gym, I would recommend trying one.  Sure, it’s most likely pricier than the local globo-gym, but the level of intensity as well as support that you get at a real box is far superior to anything you will get outside of one.
- A good diet goes a LOOONG way!  Do some research and try a couple of them out.  I’ve seen some great things with my athletes on Paleo, as well as a more Zone approach.  It’s a good idea to play around with something to see how you do on it.  Robb Wolf has good advice on this.  Try it and see how you look, feel and perform.  Nothing is perfect for everyone, so you gotta tinker around a little.
- Recovery!  See my previous post on overtraining.  Listen to your body.  With training, more is not necessarily better, and you get stronger during your down time.
- Try local CrossFit events if you can find them!  They are great practice and experience and can give you some feedback on how your training is benefiting you.  Not to mention a lot of fun, and sometimes even have free food and beer!
- Try to mix your training schedule up every now and then.  Your body is smart, and adapts to stimulus.  We train in constantly varied ways, but you can even adapt to things such as the time of day that you train, or where you train.  If you usually train at an air-conditioned box in the evenings, try to throw in some wods here and there that are in the mornings, or outside in the heat/cold.
- If you are at the point where you can handle such things, try two-a-day or three-a-day wods maybe once every week or two…usually closer to competition.  **Be careful with this, though.  You should recognize if you are not able to handle the work.  Talking to a trainer first may be a good idea.  If you are serious about being competitive, just doing one wod a day will not condition you to be ready for the demands of multiple, all-out workouts in a short period.  This is just like triathletes doing brick workouts…to get familiar with the feeling of running after cycling.

I could likely come up with lots more things to think about, but I hope that some of this helps out!  Good luck with your training!  Hopefully I’ll see you at the ’11 Games!

Beyond the Whiteboard

So, I downloaded a few of the CrossFit Radio podcasts for the first time, and was listening to one of them the other day.  They had someone on who works with beyondthewhiteboard.com and they were talking about some of the features that they offered and it really struck me as cool!  I had looked at it a few months ago, but never did anything with it.  I decided that I would sign CrossFit NFT up for it, since I know that I would love to use it, and I think that a lot of our clients would really benefit from it too!

I’ve really found that the site has a lot to offer!  As a gym, we can create wods for future days that will show up for all of our participating members.  When they workout, they can post their results to the page.  This will allow them to compare their performance to other people in the gym, as well as other people all over the world who are using the site.  For benchmark workouts, you can look at where you stand out of all users, and even narrow down your results to compare people in your gender and age range. 

You can even track your meals, and reference them as paleo or zone with your blocks, label them healthy or un-healthy, and even include if you ate out, in, had a soda, candy, etc.  Over time, you will see, for example, that you at paleo for 78% of your meals.

I think this is going to be huge in monitoring our progress!  Eventually I would like to get an internet connection in the gym so that we can keep a computer on hand.  This way, it will be easy to pull up our members past performances on certain wods or lifts, as well as post real-time performances on daily wods.  I’m really pumped about this!  If you’re from CrossFit NFT and are interested, you should have gotten an email about our account…if not, let me know.  If you’re not from our gym, check it out at www.beyondthewhiteboard.com

“Filthy Fifty”

I posted “Filthy Fifty” on the board for the workout on Saturday.  I hate that WOD!  The last time that I did that workout, I finished in 27 min and some change and the burpees flat-out killed me.  I have been dreading doing it again, but I figured what the hell.  I finished in 21:26 which is a huge PR!  The burpees were, of course, the worst part and I felt strong enough to get sub-20 min until I got to the wall balls.  Then, when I hit the burpees it was all over.

I’ve also gotten on a kick of trying the challenge workouts posted on Jason Khalipa’s site once a week.  He runs CrossFit Santa Clara (www.crossfitsantaclara.com) and every week he posts a new challenge workout and asks that people video themselves doing them and send them in to try to get the best time. 

This past week, I got my performance of the challenge on video, but couldn’t get it uploaded online to send over to them.  I would have had the #5 time according the listed results!  I’m going to continue to monitor my competitiveness on the workouts and see how I stack up against other people.

Other than that, I’m still on the lookout for good deals on GHD’s or another Concept 2 rower for the gym.  If anyone knows of a deal, please let me know!

New Journey for 2011!

Ok, I’m starting the journey to the CrossFit Games again.  This is just after the FL Sectionals were this past weekend.  Yes, I competed for a spot in the Regionals, but fell short.  Out of 141 competing men from the state of Florida, I came in 38th.  Not too bad, considering that after the Garage Games, I was just hoping to come out in the top half!

The Garage Games in February were quite a humbling experience.  It was a lot tougher than I expected, and the competition was incredible.  From that experience, I decided that I was a good year away from being able to be really competitive with competitions.  My strength needs building, and I need to build my long distance running endurance back up.  Since then I’ve included some strength workouts to my training, and have seen some good gains.  I finally hit 400lbs with my deadlift, and 305lb back squat…which I would like to increase, of course.

The FL Sectional was a lot of fun!  Again, the competition there was great!  I did rather well on the first day, finishing the first two wods in 28th place, just 13 spots from a qualifying position.  However, the first wod on the second day was 10 min to get a 1 rep max clean, and a 1 rep max push jerk.  Your score was found by adding those two weights together.  I hadn’t done either of those lifts in quite some time, but PR’d both with 235lbs for each of them, totalling 470lbs.  Even thought this was a PR for me, I knew that I wasn’t going to place well, because I’m typically on the low side when it comes to strength.  Then the row/run event brought me to a finished position of 38th.  I wouuld have liked to have that event jump me back up, but since my longer distance endurance has been neglected lately, it didn’t.  Clearly I’m going to need to work on that too.

So, now I know where I stand, and I know what my weaknesses are.  From this point on, there are no excuses for not getting better at those things.  This time next year, I will make it past the sectionals.  No Question!

Time for the Garage Games!

So, this week marks a true test of my preparation for the season of CrossFit competitions!  The Garage Games are this weekend, and I am getting pumped!  Nervous…but pumped!  Unlike most competitive sports environments, CrossFit doesn’t bring out the viciously competitive side of athletes.  People who compete want to do their best, and yes, they want to win.  However, it’s a much more friendly environment than you will ever see in most other events…even in the realm of the top competitors.

I am comparing the environment to that of triathlons…at least with triathletes who are not in them to win, but are there to enjoy the atmosphere and do their best.  These people enjoy their surroundings and enjoy cheering on their fellow competitors.  CrossFit is the same way.  It breeds athletes who know what others are suffering through, and love to see someone else succeed as much as they love to succeed themselves.

So, I’m going into this weekend, looking at the Garage Games as an event to test myself against myself, but it’s really going to just be a trip with some friends/fellow CrossFitters to get in some good workouts, and just enjoy ourselves.  We will be more experienced athletes, and likely better people when we are done.  We will shed sweat and possibly blood and tears with other CrossFitters from around the southeast, and we will love every painful minute of it…whether we come out on top or not.  We will likely find strengths and weaknesses that we never knew we had.  This alone will make us better all-around athletes.  We will return to Tallahassee with a clear idea of what we want out of our training, and exactly how close the last months or years of training have gotten us to it.  Aside from that, it’s just going to be a good time, and I’m excited that we have had so many people sign up to join us!

This week is going to be an important one in our preparation for the games.  We need to use this week to taper off a bit and ensure plenty of recovery time for saturday.  I will likely workout tonight and tomorrow, but will use Wednesday and Thursday as complete recovery days…and I will suggest to the others competing that they do the same.  Friday will be used for something short, and low intensity, such as a short, brisk jog or an easy, short AMRAP to get the body loosened back up so that Saturday isn’t a big shock.  The more rested we all are, the better.  We don’t need to be sore in any way coming into the games.  I’m hoping that everyone goes into Saturday feeling their best and ready to kill it!  But have fun too, of course!  Haha

Overtraining

Lots of people who get deeply involved with CrossFit end up addicted to it.  I’m one of these people.  I love to workout.  I love the rush of being mid-wod and I have reached that point where I feel “comfortable being uncomfortable,” in the words of James “OPT” Fitzgerald.  This has caused me to get to the point where I think that I have been overtraining as of late.

People who get really into fitness tend to overlook the fact that, with exercise, more is not necessarily better.  You don’t actually get stronger or fitter with more exercise…it’s recovery that gets you there.  We have to allow for that recovery.  I have been very focused on training for the Garage Games and CrossFit Games and I have been pushing myself into 2 and even 3 wods in a day with very few rest days mixed in.  I have begun to have trouble sleeping this week, so I’m recognizing that as the first sign of overtraining.  I haven’t noticed a high resting heartrate, which can be associated with this, so I can only assume that that is a good thing.  So yesterday and today will be rest days for me to let myself get back on track and fully recover.

If you think that  you could be overtraining, take a look at a list of common issues associated with it.

Washed-out feeling, tired, drained, lack of energy

Mild leg soreness, general aches and pains

Pain in muscles and joints

Sudden drop in performance

Insomnia

Headaches

Decreased Immunity (increased number of colds, and sore throats)

Decrease in training capacity / intensity

Moodiness and irritability

Depression

Loss of enthusiasm for the sport

Decreased appetite

Increased incidence of injuries.

A compulsive need to exercise

Predicting overtraining can be difficult since everyone’s body is different, as is their capacity.  But these are some good indicators that you may be stretching yourself thin and stressing yourself out.  I’ve read about heart rate test that can help to identify overtraining.  This is how it works…

1. Lay down and rest comfortably for 10 minutes the same time each day (morning is best).
2. At the end of 10 minutes, record your heart rate in beats per minute.
3. Then stand up
4. After 15 seconds, take a second heart rate in beats per minute.
5. After 90 seconds, take a third heart rate in beats per minute.
6. After 120 seconds, take a fourth heart rate in beats per minute.

An athlete that is close to or is overtraining should show an increase of at least 10 beats per minute in the 120 second measurement.

Harder Faster Stronger

Yes, I have seemed to stalled in my training.  Fight Gone Bad yesterday was terrible, and I came out 5 reps shy of my PR.  I was very disappointed, but I can still attribute my feeling bad during wods to this diet.  I just need to understand that it’s going to get worse before it gets better.  I’ve only been on it for a short time, and I know that the benefits are felt at least 3 weeks in, so I just need to stick with it a little while longer.  Dave Csonka and I were talking last night and he suggested that maybe I don’t pay attention to my stats or times for a little while…at least until I feel better and have made the transition.  That’s probably a good idea, since I tend to be pretty hard on myself.

Last night also got me thinking about PR’s.  For a while there I was hitting a PR on every benchmark that I was doing.  I felt strong on everything and was excited to hit the next workout, because I was confident that it was going to show another improvement.  Lately I’ve been coming up short on those numbers.  But I read a blog post by Dutch Lowy recently and he talked about PR’s lifting and crossfitting, and how they aren’t really meant to be beaten every time you attemtp them.  He says he feels like it’s a good thing to miss them more often then making new ones because that can tell you that your PR’s are legit, and you have to work hard as hell to beat them.  That makes sense to me.  When you hit a PR, you are obviously on top of your game that day.  NOBODY is on top of their game every single day.  The important thing is to work as hard as you can even when you are at the bottom and you feel like hell.  So, that’s what I’ve got to do.  I feel like hell during my workouts, but I’ve got to keep working hard.  Hopefully I’ll come out the other side harder, faster and stronger.

Paleolithic Solution

Over the weekend, Rachel and I drove up to Montgomery, Alabama to visit her cousin and her family.  While we were in the car we listened to quite a bit of Robb Wolf’s podcasts about the Paleo Diet.  He takes questions on his blog site, as well as through email and will address issues related to the paleo diet.  Rachel told me about them and really wanted me to start listening to them, because it was a lot of good information.  I finally downloaded them, and she is right…he does a great job answering questions from people and explaining his reasoning and his research.  If you’re reading this, there is likely something in at least one of these podcasts that will help you out!  You can download them for free on iTunes.  Search “Robb Wolf.”

I cheated a bit on the diet this weekend.  Namely mexican food, then some smores, twizzlers at a movie, then a red bull.  I didn’t feel very good, but I’m back on track.

Last night Big Sean and I did WOD number 4 listed for the Garage Games.  Not sure if it was the food choices that I made over the weekend, or just the fact that I was tired, but I felt miserable doing it.  I really didn’t feel like it should have been as hard as it was, but it really destroyed me.  I’m definitely taking another rest day, since I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.

Rest Day

Taking a rest day today…finally.  I should have rested yesterday, but I’m stubborn, and when I’m at the gym I have a hard time not doing something.  I did “JT” 21-15-9 reps of handstand push ups, ring dips and push ups.  The performance slump continues, as I was close to a minute and a half off of my PR for that wod.  Last time that I did it was in August and I am in much better shape now than I was then.

Not much to report for today, other than the fact that I’m still feeling a bit off, but I think that’s more from a lack of sleep this week than it is from my diet.  I’m not certain on that, but I’ll find out this weekend when I am well rested.

I have noticed a bit of a body composition change as well.  I haven’t been setting out to, but I think I’ve lost a little of the fat in my midsection.  There’s a slight increase in definition and my pants fit pretty loosely this morning.  Rachel doesn’t see it…but I have lost weight over the last couple of weeks.  I’ll get some good rest tonight and then see how my workout goes tomorrow.

Sticking with it!

Ok, I have been slacking once again on this blog thing.  I spend all day at a computer, and sometimes quite a bit at night, and I can’t seem to remember to get on this site and post my thoughts/results/whatever for just a couple min.  Well, Rachel put a link to this blog up on her blog, so now I guess I’ll have to try and maintain it a little better.

The Garage Games are coming up in a few weeks up in Woodstock, GA and we have 7 athletes from CF NFT traveling up together to compete.  I’ve been excited up to the last few days…now a little nervous.  One of the first WODs involves carrying a 120lb sandbag up a hill, cleaning it ten times, carrying it back down, then deadlifting 315 20 reps.  My PR on my deadlift is 375, maybe a bit more now.  I went through a trial run of 20×315 yesterday to see how I did, and it took me 9:31.  That was fresh too.  I’ll just plan on doing as well as I can in the 5k trail run and the kettlebell and wall ball workout.

I’ve been feeling kinda crappy in the gym lately, and I think it’s due to the fact that I’ve been quite a bit more strict with my diet.  Actually, in general, I’ve been lagging in energy and things have just felt slow for me.  I know that this is only supposed to last for a couple of weeks, so I’ll get through it.  I just need to understand why I’m feeling a bit of a performance dip and need to expect it over the next week or two.  It should pay off, and hopefully in time for the Garage Games.

Since last post, I also signed up for the CrossFit Games Sectional Qualifier…the first step in the journey (possibly a short journey) for which I started this blog.  It’s being held on the weekend of March 13th down in West Palm Beach.  The Garage Games should be a fairly decent indicator of how I’ll handle the sectional.  I’d like to get my strength up before March, but I’ll still need to understand that I need to make my points in the events that don’t have much heavy lifting.

Back to the gym today…with sore legs!  So, I’m planning on doing “JT” this afternoon to attack the upper body, and take a rest tomorrow.