The 2016 Crossfit Open is finished!
I can’t believe I actually made it through all five of the workouts! I didn’t end up doing any of them Rx (which I was disappointed about) but I think since this was my first year doing the Open I shouldn’t be too hard on myself. I’ve been doing Crossfit for about 8 months now but I still have a long way to go!
How 16.5 Went Down
Since I did the scaled version of 16.5, the workout looked like this:
21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps for time of:
Thrusters
Burpees
Men use 65 lb.
Women use 45 lb.
I was not looking forward to this workout. I am TERRIBLE at doing burpees so to see them again, especially as jumping over the bar burpees, I knew this workout was going to be long and painful for me.
My strategy for this workout was to not go too fast in the beginning, break up the thrusters, and keep moving on the burpees. I also wanted to finish under 20 minutes so I made sure to keep my eye on the clock. The thruster weight was only 45 pounds which is pretty light, but I knew that the burpees were going to spike my heart rate really quickly so I broke up my thrusters into thirds. So for the 21 I did 3 sets of 7, the 18 I did 3 sets of 6, and so on until I got to the 6 and 3 which I did unbroken.
For the burpees, my mantra during the whole workout was “keep moving”. I decided to try and conserve energy by doing all of the burpees using the step up method. This especially helped during the 21 and 18 to keep my heart rate slightly lower than it would have been if I’d done the two footed hop to get up.
The 21 and 18 sets weren’t as bad as I thought they were going to be and even the 15 set I was tired and sweaty but wasn’t feeling as terrible as I was expecting. Once I hit the set of 12 though was when I started getting delirious and I started really slowing down on the burpees. I’m like 90% sure I ended up doing extra thrusters on the set of 9 because I thought I was still on 12.
The sets of 9, 6, and 3 of burpees were all equally terrible. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it was still torturous. When I finished this workout I had to go outside and just close my eyes and breathe because my heart rate was through the roof. Afterwards I felt accomplished for finishing 16.5 but I won’t be doing that workout again anytime soon!
16.5 Made Thrusters Feel Easy
I think the thing I was most surprised about in this workout was how “easy” the thrusters felt after doing so many burpees. The weight never seemed like it got heavier through the workout which was unusual. I came away from this workout with a new quote:
If thrusters are the easy part of the workout, you know it’s a hard workout.
Overall I was happy with my performance in this workout. I ended up finishing at 20:47 which was 47 seconds over my goal, but I’m just happy that I’m alive after that workout.
It’s Been Real Crossfit Open 2016
Overall I am really happy that I participated in the Crossfit Open. It went by really fast! Looking back on the work that I’ve put in each week makes me feel accomplished and I’m happy that I have actual scores and times officially recorded so that when the next Open is happening I can see how I’ve progressed. The Open has helped me identify certain areas that I do well in (deadlifts, wall ball shots, general weightlifting) as well as figure out things I need to work on (gymnastic movements, burpees, cardio). I love how the Open has been something that everyone in my box could rally around and support each other as well as an opportunity to push myself and see what I can really do. I think this was another example of how supportive the Crossfit community really is and I can’t wait for next year!
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