another year in the books… 2016 Open

Besides it being a $6-$8 million money grab, coupled with the disdain for Castro and his announcements, and all of the stress and drama it creates for many coaches and athletes… there is definitely an upside to The Open. I witnessed some accomplishments that might not have ever come to fruition (if it weren't for The Open) .  I saw some people testing the waters to see where they rank among their peers… and what impressed me the most was the overall support, lack of judgement and absence of criticism within our community… and by community, I mean RedShed.

Now hear this…

No matter what comes out of the hopper for The Open… it's out of your control.  The only thing you can control is YOU and your actions and emotions toward YOURSELF and YOUR performance. 

5 WODs… each providing a crazy amount of data for each of you.  This shouldn't be a "woulda, coulda, shoulda" scenario, but instead an opportunity to learn from each WOD about how you operate, where your wins and losses occurred, and where the holes are in your game that need to be filled (that doesn't mean we are going to do more heavy deadlifts… because that's dumb and dangerous!).

Emotions… that ugly word "hate" was thrown around quite a bit each week… especially around 16.5.  I am pretty confident most of you know how I feel about that word and how detrimental it can be to a person.  All I can say is that LOVE makes a difference in all aspects of your life… and true love an conquer any evil… especially thrusters and burpees!

However it went for you, please don't hold on to it for too long.  The Open, your ranking… don't allow those things to own you, or define any part of you.  CrossFit is an amazing tool in our fitness toolboxes, and The Open is just an annual test along our fitness journey… it's like visiting that crazy relative during the Holidays… you never know how it's going to go!

The 2016 Open is over…

It's time to get back to having fun in our training, and learning to LOVE more and hate less!

Congratulations to everyone who participated, and a huge thanks to all of the judges and supporters that made every Saturday a special day with amazing people!

Much LOVE to each of you!!

~cpj