What a whirl wind, over the last 5 weeks I have been to 11 different boxes across Queensland covered more than 2000km to get in front of more than 250 people while they were doing the CrossFit Open 2016.
Here is my wrap up for the 5 workouts.
I was in a small privileged group of two people out side of the lucky people that train at CrossFit Gladstone that had Tia judge me, her softly spoken words of encouragement made me push harder than I thought they would.
Doing 16.2 in my own box was awesome, the athletes and coaches at CrossFit Coorparoo are truly amazing, the support you get is 2nd to none,and I am glad to call it my home box.
Watching Kara Webb and Isabella Vallejo go head to head doing 16.2 at CrossFit Roar was extraordinary, Kara’s ability to break down the workout before she started and just power through it all was just out of this world, not to cast a shadow over Bella though, she is going to be one to watch next year! My prediction is Bella will be at Regionals next year,watch this space.
The most laid back CrossFitter I have ever met who can still mix it with the people around her has to be Francine Pehi, her smile and casual laugh as she discusses how to break down 16.3 was insightful and to the point. Her coach at CrossFit Iron Lion went further with the rest of the guys at the box, both gave me a number in my head to aim for when I did it. And yeah I hit my goal.
The 4th week of the open saw me doing a birthday and a wedding, Friday night and Saturday were written off, I had planned to be at one more box on the Friday but missed out. Instead I went to CrossFit Torian and watched a few guys hitting 16.4 for a 2nd time to see if they could do better, listening to them explain how and why and what they needed to work on was interesting as I had yet to do it. It did help me through the workout as I was dreading the wall balls and rowing.
Finally being at a live announcement of one of the Open workouts, with the guys from CrossFit Dux, who once warmed up, hit the workout right after.
And then WOW 16.5 happened, I was invited to CrossFit Reebok Gold Coast to witness what can be only described as awe inspiring, the atmosphere in the box was astounding, the 5 guys were just crazy.. I could feel my heart racing as I rushed from one to the other to capture the action.
After all this I can say one thing. I have learnt so much about mindset, the mental toughness and the long game from all I have seen. They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, and regionals athletes were neither, seeing the level of fitness and the mindsets has changed me for the better.