This past weekend CrossFit HQ streamed live feed of the Southwest Regional Qualifiers. This was a huge step for the CrossFit community and shows how the ‘sport’ of CrossFit is growing rapidly. They haven’t come out with any official numbers yet of how many people logged on to watch, but I know that me and few other CrossFit fans and athletes tuned in and found it hard to turn it off. At first as I watched the first events on Saturday, it was just cool to see the workouts being performed live. As the weekend progressed, I could not peel myself away from the computer. I was addicted.I won’t lie. I am a stalker of CrossFit blogs. I like to see what my competition is doing, how they feel about their training, and why they keep doing what they are doing. Are they practicing oly lifts or gymnastics? Did they hit a PR or get injured? Sometimes this becomes a severely bad habit. I start to judge my performances based off another athlete. That is definitely the wrong way to gauge progress. I always have to literally smack myself to remind me that “I am my own measuring stick.” But some days looking at some chicks’ massive back squat or deadlift numbers makes me start to feel inadequate. I question if I have what it takes to keep up with these ladies, and not just keep up with them but beat them. I start to doubt myself and my abilities, which is the worst mental place I could possibly put myself in before a competition.
I could not thank CrossFit HQ enough for putting this live stream up. Not only was it great to watch the workouts live and hear from the athletes, but it gave me the ability to watch other unknown athletes in CrossFit surpass the big names of last year’s games. It is inspiring to see such displays of fitness from all of the competitors, and as an unknown CrossFit athlete myself; I find it truly inspiring to watch other unknown competitors advance past last year’s games qualifiers. Watching the events this weekend gave me the spark back that I needed to train hard through these next few weeks. I know no one expects me to advance to the games. Hell, no one expected me, not even myself, to place so well in the Florida Sectional! But I am going to give it my best damn try that I have. This weekend showed me that you could have the best stats in the region, but if you don’t show up mentally for game day, then you will get beat. There are plenty of anxious competitors ready to take the top spots, and they aren’t going to take it easy or let anyone win just because 2 months ago someone else out back squatted them. Stats are great, but in competition the only stats that matter are the ones you put on the board that day.
My mental game is back, and I’m not going home with out a fight!
