Monday 27 Feb 12

Rest day.

I'm officially tied for 859th out of 2,830 competitors in the Mid-Atlantic Region after the first week of the CrossFit Games Open. My worldwide ranking is tied for 11,353th out of 34,564. The top score worldwide was 161 burpees. I'm very happy with my score of 102, but it's interesting to think about the difference a few reps can make. For example, one more rep would have moved me up 64 spots to 792th in the region. Reaching my goal of 105 reps would have moved me up 188 spots to 668th. It's just another reminder of how valuable each and every rep is in CrossFit. By the same token, it's important to move on from this week and not dwell on the past. This week's workout will present it's own set of challenges and I need to prepare my body accordingly.

Unfortunately, my body is wrecked from this weekend. I have deep soreness in my shoulders and triceps from Saturday's burpees, and I'm terribly tight in my lower back and hamstrings from Sunday's deadlifts. I had planned to train tonight, but I need to take a day to recover. This will force me to train a little more volume later in the week rather than a full taper like last week. It almost feels like a football schedule where you destroy your body on gameday and spend the entire week preparing it for the next weekend's game. Such a schedule is unproductive because it doesn't allow you to improve over the course of five weeks. It only allows you to "maintain" your fitness level and spend the majority of time on recovery. This is uncharted territory for me, so I really don't know what to expect over the next few days. My hope is that a good dinner, some foam rolling, and a good night's sleep will leave me feeling strong for Tuesday night's class. I want to get this ship turned around and headed in the right direction before what's sure to be a brutal test in workout 12.2.