I always like to give summaries of big events. It helps me to recap a wild weekend in my head and it helps me to look at what we did really well and what could be done better.
Sitting in the Toronto/Chicago airport is no better place to unwind and download my thoughts especially considering all I will be doing later is hugging my wife and finding my pillow. Below are my observations in finality for the Sweat RX Championships and my summary of the event as a whole.
1. I need to do more reading and watching of videos. It became very clear to me this weekend that I am as unaware of athletes in the Crossfit world as Americans are of the best soccer players in the world. The field from top to bottom was chock full of athletes that I was constantly surprised by. Most of whom I did not know.
2. The workouts were perfect tests of fitness. I am defining fitness the way Crossfit defines fitness. Specifically, if we are defining fitness for a Crossfit competition we have to use the 10 general physical skills that Crossfit promotes. 300 burpees (event 3) and 30 minutes of constant movement from one movement to the next (event 8) severely test cardiovascular endurance and stamina considering the arena and time constraints. Speed, power, strength, agility, and balance were stretched dramatically in the clean complex in event 2. Overall, I thought the workouts tested all of the athletes very well and as such Michele and Sasser won because they had the least amount of holes.
3. The makeshift yoke carry/squat and bar muscle up couplet was easily my favorite event. Honestly, I liked this event the most because it was the sexiest. The yokes were swinging all over the place and watching elite athletes hold strong even at a fast pace was jaw-dropping.
4. My post on disproportions in the Crossfit community was dead on. Only ONE athlete jerked everything they cleaned. However, multiple athletes front squatted for 5 reps (with ease might I add) near their 1RM or at their 1RM. That’s crazy! I couldn’t do a 5 rep FS after cleaning 85%.
4.5. Jason always manages to make the simplest tasks as hard as possible.
5. The attitude and outlook of the competition athletes was noticeable. This was the most gracious, laid-back group of Crossfit athletes I have ever been around. Especially since they were not your average exercisers. These were high-level regional athletes or Games athletes and yet their mannerisms, outlook, and interactions with me and the judges was noticeably respectful. Hats off to those athletes.
6. Lastly, I think the competition was one of the best tests of fitness I have seen. The workouts were great to watch and severely tested the athletes. Outlaw’s reputation of strength bias could not be validated in this competition as the men and women who ended up on the podium were all in different places as far as strength, aerobic capacity, and muscular endurance. Every competition has places it could improve on and sure this one was no different. However, 8 events went off with elite level athletes getting to go head-to-head and the winners were clearly the best competitors in the field.
Great event. However, my one critique was that we didn’t do this workout going on in between the PRO division heats.
My kind of WOD