Today’s post will be a reflection on the 2020 open. It is a personal reflection which means it will be more about my mind set than all the amazing things that everyone else did throughout the open. As a coach I was lucky to witness many of your breakthroughs this year and your effort throughout makes us extremely proud.  I hope my own reflection and break down can help you on your next game day.

20.1 10 rounds  8 ground to overhead 95/65 and 10 bar facing burpees

Show up and learn from it:

For this one I was fighting a cold. The Thursday and Friday before were my worst days. I did it on Saturday because that was the planned day for me to hit the open.  In no other sport do you get a redo or a sick day. If the game is scheduled for that day your team expects you to produce. I heard words to that effect in an interview with Kobe Bryan. Kobe’s words really stuck with me.  When we sign up for Canwest we don’t get to cancel the event because we are not 100 percent.

For the first few round I felt great. Pacing seemed controlled and I forgot I was sick. In the early going I was on point to finish. Then in round 4 or 5 the wheels feel off. In that round I mentally checked out and hit a bit of an emotional wall. “This sucks” I heard in my head. I have not hit that wall for a long time. Over the next year it is something that I want to work on. I finished with 9 rounds and 1 rep and left with something to focus on for the next year.

20.2 20 min Amrap 4 db thrusters 50/35 6 T2B 24 DU

Run your own race:

Before each open workout I deal with a bit of nervous energy. For this one I was just bouncing back from a cold and was not too sure how it would go. Would I have a bad double under day like the week before? Or would it be an easier day in the office. The workout started and Corey was on pace with me so that kept me consistent throughout the early rounds. As he dropped off, I had to focus on my own pace. Focusing on my pace made this the first open workout that I out performed expectations. In the middle of the workout I had to ask Fierce what round I was in. It seemed weird to be ahead of schedule. This felt like a long 20 minutes but the happy place was in the T2B.

20.3 Diane plus 21 15 9 heavy deadlifts 315/205 and handstand walks 9 min time cap

Focus on what you can control:

The repeat, this was probably the one I looked forward to the most. After the first week I thought we may see something like this come up. The only worry I had was how the deadlifts would feel. Since my hamstring tear, one leg has felt weaker than the other.  The biggest take away here is: don’t let the standards beat you. They are there to test you. On the internet, many folk are complaining about the handstand push up standard. It is not my favourite either, from a set up stand point, but why have worries about things outside of our control? What we can control is hitting the standard and getting better because of it. I was happy to beat my previous score on this one.

20.4 Box Jumps Pistols and Clean and Jerks escalating (two much to write here) 20 min cap

False Expectations Appearing Real:

20 minutes can feel differently depending on what you are doing. For this workout, going in, I was dealing with fear. I had not consistently been able to clean and jerk 185 leading up to the open and had not touched 225 since tearing my hamstring. Five weeks is a long time to be “on”.  For this week I was dealing with a calf issue. Not an injury but muscle soreness that needed a message to help take care of.

The acronym for fear here is: False Expectations Appearing Real. Before the workout I was psyching myself out on the pistols, 185lbs and especially 225lb clean and jerk. My expectation was that I couldn’t do it, or worse, would hurt myself.  I tried to move past this in the warm up with pistol practice, and I was able to hit both the 185lbs and 225lb clean and jerk to get it out of my head.  Your process may differ from mine but do not enter any workout psyched out. On this one everyone in my heat, that I could see, started out ahead of me. The key is to hold your own pace and run your race. That is how I caught and passed each of them.

20.5 40 ring MU 80 cal rowing 120 wall balls broken up however you want 20 min time cap

Rise to the occasion don’t be afraid of high expectations:

Everyone had high expectations for me on this one. I don’t know about you but I prefer to be the underdog. This means for me that sometimes I try and put myself down or get into the underdog role. Emotionally this was a really cool test for me and an opportunity to work on humility. Not to be mistaken with modesty. Typically for me I collapse the two and think that being modest is being humble but they are very different things. Looking in the mirror I had a heart to heart with myself and realized that it is okay to admit I am going to do well and that I could finish this one.  I am that guy that can’t take a compliment, I always try and deflect, but this workout gave me an opportunity to rise up to expectations. I was not just dealing with being the favourite but also was very sore going into that last week. My traps, lats, baby toe were all sore. Five weeks is a long time to be “on”. With a time of 18:48 this was a great way to complete another open.

This was a reflection of what was happening for me throughout the five weeks of the 2020 open.

Here are five takeaways that may help you on game day: don’t make excuses your job is to perform on competition day, run your own race, focus on what is in your control, face your fears, and rise to the occasion/don’t be afraid of high expectations.  We are really proud of all of you that overcame your own battles throughout the 2020 Open. Happy training and here is to another Open behind us.

The Touch