Crossfit Games Open 14.2: Chest Bumps and Bruised Egos

What I love most about blogging is not only to have a way to share my success stories with the internet world, but also hope that someone can relate to what I have to say and maybe take it to heart. I had some great feedback on my last post about my pre-14.2 thoughts, which ended up being shared more times than any other post of mine in my WordPress history, plus I ended up having some Twitter friends tell me my post showed up on their box’s Facebook pages as well. It’s like I’m famous! 😉

So how did my positive self-talk to others fare when it came down to me actually doing this workout?

Prior to this year’s Open I have never done a chest-to-bar pull-up. I have been working my Crossfit booty off staying after class multiple times during the week and working on strict pull-ups and ring dips (assisted), but my newly focused skills were not put to the test until 14.2 was announced.

Friday is our programmed Open workout day and I was psyched and ready to get my first chest-to-bar. I attempted a few warm-up pull-ups since I knew today was going to be the day. It was not happening. I thought back to the post that I wrote about everyone feeling so negative about the Open thus far and knew all I could do was do my best and if I didn’t get it, I knew it would be something to continue to focus on, but I also knew that because of the amount of work I have put in to get to here,  it would be inevitable disappointment if I could not get one.

My goal was a score of 11, though secretly I knew if I scored 11, really I’d want to get 13 because if I can do one, surely I can get 3).

3.. 2.. 1.. GO!

I breezed through the overhead squats. 65# is a fairly comfortable weight on these and I was feeling strong, finishing in less than 30s.

Then it was all or nothing.. big kip..

..and holy freaking, my chest hit that bar!! Must have been the “PR pants”.. 😉

I did a little PR dance before my judge told me to get back on the bar and do more reps. One after another after another, I finished those ten reps (plus a few no-reps) and back to the OHS. I cranked those out with a fair amount of time to finish the pull-ups. I was only able to snag 3 more reps, but dang! I was so pleased that my extra effort was challenged and worked in my favor!

As I finished and shared my excitement with my coach who had assigned me the “homework” of the frequent pull-ups and ring dips, he said that was awesome.. and to come back and get my 40 reps on Sunday.

Though I have had success in the past re-doing workouts, Sunday was not that day and I ended up doing much worse than I did on my first attempt, somehow completely forgetting how to do the chest-to-bar pull-ups I had mastered two days prior, thus doing nearly every one of my 7 reps as a strict chin-up. Man, it was miserable and uncomfortable to re-watch my recorded performance. On a high note, I at least felt good doing my OHS.

That same coach once told me that once you PR something, you should just stop for the day and just move forward without trying to increase the weight again or aim for more reps. Conflicting, yes. But love knowing that he has more confidence in me than I had in myself. I think that is the lesson I need to take from this workout. Sure you want to fight to be the best version of yourself and oftentimes re-doing a workout may yield more favorable results than the first attempt, but sometimes you do need to take things one day at a time and do what makes you most comfortable.

At any rate, I am more than thrilled with my 33 reps and extremely proud of my progress thus far!

Your turn..
Are you able to do a chest-to-bar pull-up?
Have you ever repeated a workout and did worse the second time?
Do you wear PR pants?