The 2014 Open is done and dusted… Now what?

Well, if you’re in the top 50 - the answer is obvious: prepare for the regionals. Or, if you’re Lucas Parker shoot for the top five. For the rest of us however, the answer may be a bit harder to discern. We’ve got a couple ideas for what’s next for you to check out:

1. Find and improve your weakness

Because the open is unscaled and covers a broad range of movements and weights it is a great litmus test to see where you excel as an athlete and where improvement is needed. The easiest way to do this is ask yourself "Which open WOD did I hate the most?" Didn’t get any T2B? Only get 5 C2B? Work on your gymnastics. 14.5 take you forever? Invest in your stamina. Didn’t miss a double under in 14.1? Probably safe to say you can move on to practicing a new CrossFit skill. We naturally gravitate to the movements we excel at, but time spent critically assessing and addressing your performance in the open will not be a wasted effort. Making large gains in overall fitness is wildly easier in new/unpracticed areas. If you have glaring problems simply because of neglect or simply being new to the sport, begin attacking them and you will see massive improvements. However, if you overlook a hole in your fitness it won’t magically improve a week, month, or year from now. Maybe that weakness improves slightly because of gains in other areas of fitness, but it will none the less continue to be an issue without thoughtfully diagnosing the problem area and methodically tackling it. Which leads us to….

2. Set goals for yourself

Come up with a plan to tackle that 165lb snatch. Talk to your trainers to see where you can improve efficiency in your chest to bar pullups. Improvements in CrossFit come with a serious cost. It’s only after hundreds of perfect repetitions that you will be able to truly excel at any one movement. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals to work on the areas that need improvement.

3. Remember or Discover: Why

Now - the open is done and all of your training is complete for the 2014 season. Remember why you embarked upon the journey to the opens or simply why you began CrossFit. Why do you wake up every day and get to the gym in the morning? Why did you put so much effort into getting that 70 pound thruster? Why do push past the physical barrier in Helen? Over the next year that you participate in CrossFit you will be challenged. You will call into question your motivation for running yourself through the gauntlet 5x a week. Remember why you CrossFit today so that when you ask yourself in the future, “Why do put myself through so much pain?” or, “Why do I care anymore?” you have an answer.

If you don’t know why you CrossFit - take a minute or two and think about it. Come up with reason that will withstand the test of time. Increasing your fitness is not an easy task. It’s one that requires active, self-motivated consistency. Without having a proper foundation, repetitively beating yourself up will be a difficult task to continue. However, If you know why you decided to put yourself through Fran (... again), if you know why you want to increase your work capacity then even when things get tough you’ll be able to push through.

4. Celebrate!

Go and grab some friends and have a good time! You made it through 168 thrusters and burpees, and at least 35 minutes of unscaled CrossFit mayhem. Enjoy and share what you’ve accomplished with others. Take some time to remember your accomplishments this Open.

Lessons Learned: 2014 Open

I, like the rest of you went through the Open sore and extremely out of breath. Here are just a few of the lessons I learned while participating:

1. Pace. Pace. Pace. 

In 14.4 I finished my 60 calorie row in 2:30 - 3 seconds behind Josh Bridges. I felt pretty good, until I hit the toes-to-bar. For the rest of the workout, I couldn’t find my breath. Little did I know, I ruined my workout in the first two minutes and thirty seconds. We can all empty our gas tank. Save that part for the end. For the rest of the workout plan your recovery periods on movements that are easy and save up for especially difficult sections of the WOD. Even in the shortest open workout of all time, a 5 min AMRAP, it's impossible to sprint the entire workout. I paced myself on my second attempt of 14.4 and improved my score by 15 reps! Pick a pace and stick to it. You’ll be glad you did.

You want to look like this after the WOD… not during it.

2. Taper your Workout Schedule

In the sport of CrossFit there are a few different parts to the game as in any other sport. There is practicing skilled movements, training to improve your endurance and strength, and lastly, showing off your work by competing. The Open is a time to compete. Now is the time to show off your accomplishments. Now is the time to perform. And, if you want to perform well it is essential to schedule your workouts appropriately around your attempts. Workout everyday for 4 days before your attempt? How well do you think your sore, beat down body will perform? Not as well as if you had given yourself a rest day or two before. You might not “feel” like you’re gaining much ground physically during the open. Guess what? That’s ok! It is a time to strategize, plan, and compete. It’s a time to showcase your talent and how much work you’ve put in. You have the whole next year to build your work capacity. As a general rule, to maximize performance your training during the open season needs to contain a far lower volume of work along with an increase in focused practice on the upcoming movements. If you’re looking for a little more strategy check out CrossFit Impulse's take on smart tapering. 

3. Don’t Breathe

Remember how you did such a good job pacing yourself? Well now you have 1 minute left. Now you have 30 seconds left. Why are you looking at your bar? Pick it up.

4. Expect the Unexpected

This year alone they added a new movement requiring a $5000 piece of equipment and for the first time ever scheduled a workout that was “For Time” (not an AMRAP). Last year, they introduced an increasing AMRAP (if you were good enough). While Dave Castro’s singular goal in programming the opens, regionals, and games isn't to surprise us, he definitely enjoys it. Be ready for the unexpected and unknown! Train in anyway you can think of: long, short, heavy, light, in the rain, in the morning, fast, disciplined pace, rested, sore - with every movement.

Yeah… I didn’t expect this either.

What lessons did you learn? Share in the comments below!