How to Approach The CrossFit Open
As The Open draws nigh upon us, consider how you as a individual athlete should approach it AT THIS POINT IN YOUR CROSSFIT EXPERIENCE. This is simply based upon where you are now, not where you'll be next year or in 5 years, so keep that in mind. There are 3 main categories of people that should handle The Open from 3 different perspectives:
1. Games Athlete: You're confident that you will be fighting for a top 10 spot at Regionals this year. You're goal is to continue training without interruption for The Open. You will perform the workouts only once, and maybe not even 100% fresh. You're preparing for Regionals and whether you get 48th or 1st in The Open doesn't really matter. You don't have any glaring weaknesses and will perform well enough across the board no matter what comes out of the hopper this year. You're using The Open to improve your CrossFit specific conditioning.
2. Regional Athlete: Qualifying for Regionals is all you care about right now. This translates to any means necessary! Whether it takes doing the workout for the week once or ten times doesn't matter. You're looking to maximize your score on every workout anyway (legally!) you can: strategy, unique technique tricks, using a pacer, etc. My recommendation is for you to rest on Tuesday, hit the workout fresh Wednesday as a run through (but have it videoed or judged just in case you perform your best), train the movements from the workout on Thursday, rest Friday, and hit it again Sunday with everything you have based on the best strategies developed over the week. This leaves Sunday to either repeat the workout again or rest for the upcoming week.
3. Join the Party: Whether you're injured, recovering, or just getting ready for next year, there is no reason for you not to participate in The Open this year unless it would injure you further. This is a great opportunity to build competition experience, participate in the largest CrossFit community event all year, and start getting yourself into the flow of the CrossFit competition season. You may just be doing it for fun, to see where you are in your fitness compared to our region and the world, or to help contribute points to your affiliate team. Do the workout once, give it everything you got, but don't make it your obsession for 5 weeks like others will.
No matter where you fall into these 3 categories, everyone should be participating in The Open in my opinion. It's a fun time of year, so enjoy it while it lasts and support your fellow competitors!
We did the open last year "for fun" and it was an amazing experience. Turns out, Diana got a trip to the games! It's fun to see how you do compared to others in your age group. When those open wods come around you are filled with anticipation trying to figure out what the next one will include. Words of advice, you can run, but you can't hide from the snatch.
ReplyDelete