Saturday morning I went to the box instead of on my run. It was time to do the 16.1 CrossFit Open WOD, and I was surprisingly nervous. I don’t know why; I love my box, and I’ve done workouts in large groups before.
But this was different. It wasn’t just a typical Saturday morning community WOD; the 16.1 CrossFit Open WOD was chaos personified. That’s just the crew that was there for the first couple of heats; there were eight athletes to a heat and lanes set up outside since the box couldn’t hold everyone. Utter craziness. I was intimidated immediately.
I had shown up shortly after 7 a.m. to sign up for the earliest possible heat. I wanted to get it done. After that, I ran a mile to warm up and did some stretching, er, mobility work, focusing on my hips and shoulders, since lunges and pull-ups were on the menu. I drank my pre-workout and topped off my water bottle. One of the kids hanging around told me that there were donuts. Then, I had to stake out an area. That’s where the intimidation got the best of me, but I finally put down my 35-pound bar in a lane, pulled a box over to the pull-up bar I was going to use for jumping pull-ups, and got measured so that the bar would be six inches above my head (I needed a 25-pound plate for that). (Yes, I’m very much a scaled athlete. Ain’t no shame in that game.) Tiffany was assigned as my judge; we WOD together occasionally. Holly gathered us all up, explained the standards, and told us to just have fun.
3…2…1…GO!
WOD time! I cleaned the bar up to the front rack position and took big but comfortable steps. It took me eight lunges to go 25 feet.
I was okay with that. My goal was to do over six rounds, or over 156 reps, so I kept a steady pace. I remember bunny-hopping over the bar to do my bar-facing burpees. It honestly was a blur; I checked the clock a couple times to see where I was at and sucked down some water, but I didn’t count my reps. I took the jumping pull-ups cautiously; I didn’t need my arms and shoulders to burn out. I wasn’t quite as worried about my legs with the lunges.
The 16.1 CrossFit Open WOD was pure endurance; there’s no other way to put it. Some of the ladies waiting for their heat to start were cheering me on and telling me I was keeping a nice pace; Tiffany was offering me encouragement as she made sure I met the standards. It reminded me a lot of my first competition, but even friendlier, because these are people I work out with all the time. These are my people.
I kept a really steady pace with the whole WOD; it really was a long workout. Twenty minutes in CrossFit time is like a two-hour run. You just keep breathing and keep moving, and eventually, the clock buzzes.
My clock buzzed just as I was on the pull-up bar, and I dropped down, leaned against the rig, and tried to catch my breath. Tiffany went to go total my score; it was 205.
The 16.1 Aftermath
I drank the rest of my water and ate one of the glazed donuts at the box. I stretched a little, then volunteered to judge one of the guys. I tried to offer him the same encouragement that Tiffany had offered me.
The next day, my glutes were pretty sore. But I feel so accomplished! 16.1 is in the books for me. I’ve done my first Open workout! I had a lot of fun, too. The 16.1 CrossFit Open WOD at my box was like a giant community WOD. We had fun and cheered each other on. We gave it our best. I went into this seeing what I could do – and so far, I’ve exceeded my own expectations.
Did you do 16.1? How did you do?