Saturday, July 18th, 2009

2009 CrossFit Games, my take.

Okay so now is the time that I post my experiences at this year’s CrossFit games. I have many opinions and thoughts on how the event unfolded and how I felt I performed.

First, I finished in 38th place out of 74. It was an awesome time competing and hanging out with everyone. What makes CrossFit so much fun is by far the fans and those who CrossFit at their own gyms. It is so inspiring to have all these wonderful people come up to me this past weekend and let me know that they were rooting for me and that what I do inspires them. It’s really what drives me to get in that gym and bust ass. Which brings me back to my performance.

I wasn’t totally pleased with how I performed. I didn’t necessarily feel as though it was a failure but it definitely wasn’t up to what I expect of myself. I blame myself for not preparing myself to to the fullest possible potential. I took it somewhat for granted. My diet was not where it should have been and I just didn’t give myself a chance to make it to day 2. I believe in myself to the point that I should have been in the top ten, if not higher. No excuses though, the unknown and unknowable is what I train for and I knew that going in but just didn’t give it my all in preparing. For this, I am sorry to all my fans out there. I give you guys my word that will never happen again. I will soon begin my journey into preparing for the fourth annual CrossFit games and I vow to be indestructable. The athletes will get better, the workouts will get tougher, but I will give myself the best opportunity to go head to head with the best and do damage.

I would have loved to do day 2 workouts because I would have done well but I didn’t deserve to give them a go and so I won’t. This year’s workouts are buried. I have a plan in mind on where my training is going to go. I will post my workouts, when I start, in greater detail. I am going to be doing two a days for sure. My philosophy has changed a bit. I will start to unveil it as my prep begins. I’m thinking September 1st or so. Be on the lookout.

Onto the actual games. What do I think of the games, the programming, the organization, the setup, the affiliate cup? First off, for the fans, I felt the setup was extraordinary. It was light years ahead of last year’s event. The jumbotron was awesome and I hope they go even bigger next year. Paving the area around the barn was cool too. I liked last year’s workouts being in the dirt but having it paved was good.

The affiliate tent site was way cool and I think more needs to go into that. So much camederie going on. I think they should spruce the area up even more. It’s just so cool to finally meet all the other big time affiliates.
The vendor area was perfect. I can’t wait to see who signs up next year. The apparel, the equipment, and just everything was cool in the vendor area. The possibilities are endless.

The organization was a little subpar but with all the competitors and equipment setup, I don’t blame anyone for that. Dave Castro and company did amazing job with getting the show on the road and keeping it flowing as best they could. The parking situation couldn’t have been better. That was run perfectly. I didn’t really like how we never really had an idea of when we were going to be starting the next event but oh well. Big props to headquarters for making it all work.

The events. Hmm……. the events. What is there to say? They did what they were supposed to do. They detrmined the fittest man and woman on the planet, both physically and mentally. I can’t say I was a total fan of everything or all the workouts and the whole elimination thing but that’s life. I should have prepared better. Dave Castro did well. He programed as diverse a workout scheme as he could. He actually made it a little more CrossFit-esque. Last year was not entirely what I would call a true test of all fitness domains. This year took care of that. I actually liked the programming. Last year played to my strengths. This year exposed my weaknesses. And I loved every minute of the humility.

Good job to Dave, Tony, coach, Lauren, and every one else involved in making the 2009 CrossFit games a success. And thank you to the Castro’s for allowing us to display our talents on their awesome property.

I would also like to thank all of you that came up to me this weekend and passed along kind words. It’s really cool to finally meet some of you. Next year is for you.

The little guy (haha)
Ricky “CFO”