Not everyone loves surprises.  When we met in Whistler in September, CanWest organizer Morgan assured me the 2020 CanWest Qualifiers would take place in March or April 2020.  In fact, the 5 individual qualifier events must be completed between January 24th-30th. Teams February 7th-13th.

Surprise!  This isn’t what we’d planned for but don’t get thrown off by things outside your control (no one else planned for this either).  Save your mental and emotional energy for what you can control.

Downside: we have less time to prepare.  Upside: spring break won’t be a factor.

5 workouts in 7 days is tough but fair considering the Games will have us doing 5+ workouts in only 3 days.  In any case it’s easier to peak for one week than for several.

Why should you compete at the CanWest Games?
* This year the CanWest Games is a CrossFit Games Sanctional so you will get to meet and compete alongside top athletes from around the world!
* You will forge friendships with athletes at your level from other CrossFit gyms.
* This year the CanWest Games will be hosted at UBC giving Empower athletes and supporters a home field advantage.
* The CanWest Games is a super-fun, well-organized competition.
* The CanWest Games offers masters and scaled divisions.
* I was nervous the first time too but it is the most fun you will have doing CrossFit!

The Road to Qualifying
If you’re an uber-athlete, in a soft division or just don’t care about qualifying, then you don’t need to prep much for the qualifiers, just show up, cross your fingers and do your thing.  But if, like me, you’re a less-gifted athlete, stuck in a stacked division and really want to qualify, you’re going to want to start your competition prep now.

We have 52 days (7.4 weeks) before the individual competition.  That means your next 2-3 weeks need to be spent on rehab and skill practice.  You need to get your nutrition dialed in (over the holidays, I know, life is tough!).  And by December 22nd you want to be adding in conditioning work to prep your engine for competition.

It’s a tight timeline to be sure but not impossible.

If you want to represent Empower either as an individual or as part of a team, let me know ASAP and we’ll start programming your competition prep plan.

CanWest Qualifier registration starts December 10th.