CrossFit Games Master's Qualifier Workouts

One of the lasting lessons from CrossFit is that we all have something that we can learn. As of 8:00 tonight (Monday), my 2014 CrossFit Games season has come to a finish with the close of the submissions of the Online Master's Qualifier workouts. This season, the top 200 were allowed to complete four additional workouts in order to earn a bid to Carson California and the 2014 CrossFit Games. When the format change was announced, my goal was to be in the top 200 athletes competing in my age group. After the Open, I finished inside the top 100 (94th). Getting a taste of success in the Open, I had aspirations of making a run at the top 50 for the Master's Qualifier. Things definitely didn't go as planned. I have a new appreciation for the programming of the Open and the Qualifier after this weekend. I found myself lacking in a few areas. I have found weaknesses to work on in the coming months. 

Workout#1: establish a 1 rep max clean

I was able to clean #240, my PR and a weight that I have been stuck under for a couple of months. I pulled #245 high enough to kiss the bar, but couldn't get under it. 

Take Aways: 

1. I need to increase my overall strength. #240 was well south of the #280+ of the games qualifiers. 
2. I need to be comfortable catching the weight low (squat clean). Which leads into
3. Increase my mobility in front rack position and getting low in all my movements. 

Workout #2: Amanda - 9-7-5 Muscle Ups and #135 Squat Snatches

Going into this season, I knew that snatching was a pronounced weakness of mine. I was able to hide this during the Open, since they were only #75. Amanda is a "Girls" workout named for Amanda Miller, a CrossFit athlete who lost her battle with cancer in 2010. This was a tough combination of high skill and strength. I thought I would handle the muscle ups well, and I did ok, finishing the 9s in 6-3 (45s). Moving onto the snatches, I began with several fails. At one point, I considered shutting it down, but I wanted to give an honest effort and assessment of myself, so I pushed through the fails and continued.  The 7s went fine in the MUs, and felt better in the snatches. I fell into as much of a rhythm as I could. The 5s were much the same, and I was able to finish sub-10 minutes. My score on the leaderboard won't reflect it, as CrossFit Games felt that I did not achieve full depth on one squat snatch and full lockout on another, and I was assessed a 30 second penalty. 

Take Aways:

1. I need to develop my skill in the technical lifts. 
2. I need to work on my mobility (both hips, ankles, and shoulders)
3. I need to not have to do video submissions! (I understand it's part of not working out at an affiliate, and I'm alright with that part. I believe that the modifications should provide specific feedback on the reps that were disallowed. The only way to improve is with feedback.)
4. I need to be more efficient in my muscle ups, still breaking in too many pieces. 
5. I need to develop positional strength. I felt weak in the back at times on this workout. I'm not comfortable in those uncomfortable positions yet. 

Workout #3: 3 round - 50 calorie row, 15 HSPU, 50 DUs. 

Going into workout #3, I felt that it was within my wheelhouse. I had hoped to finish this workout near the 12 min mark, hopefully below. I was very wrong about this! I finished just shy of 20 minutes, mainly due to my failure to master HSPUs. The rows were ok, I finished in 2:10, 2:42 (less transition time from DUs), and 2:58(less transition time from DUs). The DUs ranged from 33s to 48s. Aside from the HSPUs, I had less than 10 min of working time. I fell apart on the HSPUs. In a workout with 45 of them, I failed 21 times on the HSPU, mostly after locking out my shoulders, and then my heels would come off the wall. I felt drained, mentally, from this workout. 

Take Aways:

1. I need to get stronger overhead. I had trouble maintaining the lockout at the top of the HSPU.
2. I need to work on positioning and technique for my HSPUs. 
3. I need to make every rep count.

 Workout #4: 100 pull-ups, 100 wall balls for time

On paper, I saw this as a very demanding workout from the standpoint of recovery. Since tearing my hands over the last couple of months, I have become more cautious with high rep pull-up workout. I also felt that my quads would get smoked from the wall balls. Not even a day later, and I can say that the quads are tight, my hands are fine, but lats are fried. I finished this workout in 12:24. i had hoped to get close to the 10 minute mark for this workout, but I that didn't hold. I finished the pull-ups in just under 7 minutes and the wall balls in just over 5. I definitely need to get better with cycling the pull-up. 

Take Aways:

1. I need to be smoother in my pull-ups, and work on the butterfly pull-ups so that I can cycle them more quickly. I still break too much on my kip. 
2. I need to be able to go into that dark place and spend some time there, I feel like I paced myself too much on these workouts. 

Overall, I finished 154th out of the 200. Not what I was looking for going into the weekend. I definitely have some weaknesses to smooth out. I don't want to dwell on too much negative. I have a new motivation going forward. New goals. New expectations for myself. CrossFit is about finding out things about yourself. Going forward from here, I plan to deload this week, before getting back to training for 2015 next week. I hope to get out in the woods on some singletrack this weekend to reset my system.