Do you game the games?

The Crossfit games competition has started. Check out the official site if you want more information I will just give a quick summary here.

Sectionals has just started and this is the first step on the road to regionals. After qualifying for regionals you have to compete again to qualify for finals. The finals will be held in the end of July in CA.

The road to get to finals is long, especially with the new format this year. The sectional competition will take place over a 6 week period. In years past it was held over a weekend and a series of 6-7 workouts (WOD’s) was programmed over 2-3 days. This year, every Tuesday the WOD will be announced and athletes from anywhere will have the chance to complete the WOD by the end of that week, Sunday.

This format stretches the competition out over 6 weeks and also gives people the opportunity to do the WOD multiple times. With this comes the question: Do you game the games?

I think most people are planning on doing the WOD 2 times. One time to run through it and feel things out and a second time to really hit it hard and nail it. But do you do it a third time to REALLY nail it? A fourth and fifth time?

Should you keep trying the same movements and timing over and over and perfect it or should you move on and continue to train for the next challenge that is coming? We don’t usually repeat WOD’s in our regular training so why start now?

This is a hard question to answer. Less than 1 minute after my second attempt at the WOD today I said “if I only had 10 more seconds…”. The competitive side of me wants to go for it, again and again. Improve my score. Get another rep. Get another round. The practical side of me wants to focus on the next 5 weeks, keep training hard, and work on some trouble areas.

Games WOD #1 was this:

10 minute AMRAP
30 Double Unders
15 Ground to Overhead 75/55

I am happy with what I did today and feel it was a good performance. Yes, today all I needed was 10 more seconds to get the final snatches done to finish that 5^th round but next time I might not even get that far. Also I put it all on the line when I did it this time and ended with confidence and a happy heart to carry me into the next 5 WOD’s. I don’t really want to mess with that.

Yeah I don’t think I will do it again…and besides my favorite jump rope broke today so doing it again just wouldn’t be the same.