Now that the fourth and final regional is complete (almost, NorCal might as well be over) there are some congratulations to give and a couple reminders for the programming moving forward.
First of all, HUGE congrats to Backcountry Crossfit for their second place finish this year as a team. I especially love that two of the members of their team are Masters Athletes. Becky Conzelman and Chris Dozois! Congrats for such an awesome performance and showing so many of the young, eager athletes that experience and control go a long way in the sport of Crossfit.
I also want to give a huge shoutout to a couple of folks that I am just a fan of and have been following for a couple years. Johnny Medina III had an awesome performance this year, at age 18, he didn’t make Regionals and this year going into the final workout he is sitting 14th. What a massive improvement over the year. Also, congrats to Meghan Sweet for her stellar performance this year in SouthWest. Meghan is a grinder and a workhorse. I know very few female athletes who put the work in day in and day out with the persistence and tenacity that she does. Great performance this weekend! Lastly, I couldn’t wait to give April some props. April Digiannantonio took 43rd in the Open last year and I met her shortly after. She had decided to take her workouts and training a little more seriously this year and asked that I help her with the Olympic lifts. Since, she has gained leaps and bounds in her training and made Regionals with a 22nd performance in the Open. This year, after not making the Regional at all last year, finished 7th in the Southwest Region. A huge improvement and accomplishment for her. Her best has yet to be seen in my opinion.
Quick reminder as well: for those of you following the weightlifting programming remember that this upcoming week is competition week. Take the time to rest and recover and prepare to hit PR weights Saturday. You’re ready for it. For those of you following the competition programming. I realize that some of this work is hard and some of it even more monotonous (10x500m row for instance). Remember that we are in the off-season which means we are developing an aerobic base on which we will stand and grow from later in the season. The longer, monostructural and mix-modal work is crucial to that end. Don’t skip it. You can complain and whine about it if you want to. Just not to me.