Category Archives for CrossFit Games Posts

4 Things We Can Learn From Chris Spealler

First Of All…

Congrats, dude! Chris Spealler came in 3rd place at the South West Regionals, if you haven’t heard already. Twitter was fuckin blowingggggg up on #Spealler. Unfortunately, the Twitter algo is lame and made stupid hashtags trending instead, as expected. Oh well.

Chris Spealler 100 Pound Dumbell Snatch South West Regionals

Beasttttttt

If you want to catch vids of Spealler in the last South East Regionals event, check out this playlist on YouTube. They’re broken up by every 20 to 50 seconds or so. It’s pretty intense if you think about the circumstances.

Okay, so where are the 4 things you can learn from Chris Spealler:

1) Height Means Jack Shit

Chris Spealler Push PressOkay, so I’m only 5’7″, so I know that feel bro. For years, I thought my height would hinder me in so many different ways – physically and socially. Once I stopped growing around 8th grade, I thought…shit, I’m never gonna be an athlete of any sort. People (mainly girls) aren’t going to take me seriously.

Then CrossFit came along, and my height actually does come to an advantage with some lifts, and for that, I’m thankful. I no longer give a shit about my height. yes, it does hold me back with certain things like rowing and getting up to a higher pull up bar, but big deal. I keep surprising myself with new 1 rep maxes and am continually trying to up my weight for higher rep WOD’s.

Look at what Spealler did and he’s only 5’5″ and 153#, according to his CrossFit Games bio.

Inspirational.

2) Never Give Up

When I found out Spealler was in 4th place going into the last Regionals event, I was shitting myself. For serious. The guy’s my favorite CrossFit athlete of all time, and I didn’t want him to miss his chance at the big dance for the first time ever. However, I just knew he had it in him. In one of his YouTube videos preparing for the Games, he was saying that this time around, he was more mentally prepared than before, that he has the mental toughness to not let all those mind games get to him.

For that last even today, Chris did his thing, gave it his all, and tied for 2nd place for the last event.

He was actually in 19th place for Workout 3, which was a beach involving a 2k row, pistols, and 30 hang power cleans at 225#. TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE FUCKIN POUNDS! That’s like most guys’ 1 rep max power cleans, right? He had to do 30 reps of that in the hang power clean way. WTF!

That just shows even if you’re behind and you know you have a sliver of hope to make it, don’t even back down. That’s easily the worst thing you can do. Aside from letting down the people cheering you on, you’re letting down yourself.

Sometimes we’re given that tiny window to squeak by and see some success. When you see it, fuckin seize it. Show the world what you’re worth.

3) Sometimes Luck Comes Along

Spealler was actually trailing Matt Hathcock in 4th place going into Workout 6. He had to beat Hathcock by 5 points in order to snag third place. In this final workout, Hathcock started off at a solid pace, staying in a constant 5th place, which would’ve secured him a trip to Carson, California. However, the guy couldn’t keep up the pace, finishing in a tie for 12th place. Spealler managed to tie for 2nd with Matt Chan, who’s another beastly Games veteran.

Props to Hathcock for making it this far, but it was because of his finish that Spealler was able to snag a ticket to the Games.

These are the kinds of things that are out of your control. There’s no sense in stressing over them, which is something the HQ coach Greg Amundson would say in one of his Motivational/Goal Setting certifications. Instead, you gotta focus on YOU. Let those uncontrollable variables fall into place.

Less stress will put you into the zone and help you make the most of your situation.

You always hear that story of running a race and spending too much time watching the other runners. By spending too mcuh time and effort eyeing your competition, you increase your chances of losing the race. Don’t fall into this trap. Focus on you and take the fuckin win.

4) It’s All About Showing Up

Chris has placed 4th, 10th, 26th, 3rd, and 11th in the 2011 CrossFit Games (thanks for the correction, Russ). The guy’s made it to every year at the CrossFit Games so far, and even though he has yet to win, Spealler gets closer. With that podium finish last year, you know he’s eyeing it bad. He wants it bad and will do whatever it takes to improve upon last year’s performance.

Chris Spealler South West Regionals

He’s showing up every year to give it his all. While all of us may not have the ability to do such a thing (yet), what we can do is simply show up 3-5 times a week at our own CrossFit box or wherever we do our CrossFit workouts. Show the fuck up. No excuses. Yes, life might get in the way, which is understandable, but when you realize that your excuse is something pretty shitty, especially when there are people out there getting at it despite various disabilities, you just need to get off your ass and go.

No matter what happens, whether you have a bad day at the box or you absolutely crush the workout, make sure you show up on your next scheduled day. Even if you’re struggling in the beginning, using the lightest weights possible or even subbing in a PVC pipe, it doesn’t matter. I’ve been through all that, and things just keep getting better.

If Chris can fight through it all, I’m sure we can achieve our goals as well.

2012 CrossFit Games Regionals: Week 1 Wrap-Up

That Shit Cray

First off, I just want to say that following the Regionals is a nightmare haha. Between the Tweets and all the event summary videos, the stream of content can get rather overwhelming. There’s nothing wrong with that of course.

To think a few years ago, there wasn’t even close to this amount of coverage. The closest you got was play-by-play Tweets from hardcore fans in the stands.

Originally, I thought I could follow everything and write about it. Then again, I realized that’s not really my place. The official Games site has you covered for that. If you’re on Twitter, I highly suggest you follow this list of Twitter accounts. That way you get up-to-the-minute updates of whatever’s going on in a Regional event.

The official Games site has this page for Regionals summaries that go over each event in each Region. Then there are also your daily updates from Pat and Rory. I’ll admit though…something’s missing. Sure, the update for Week 1, Day 3 isn’t up yet, but I feel they need another co-host on the show. The dynamics were great for the Regionals preview show with three people, so why can’t they do something like that again? Just my 2 cents.

Here are the Update shows for Day 1 and Day 2:

The Results

Oh…right! Okay, here are the athletes and teams from this weekend that will be advancing to the Games in Carson, California in July:

South East Regionals
Individual Men
1) Chase Daniels
2) Brandon Phillips
3) Guido Trinidad

Individual Women
1) Talayna Fortunato
2) Jaime Gold
3) Shana Alverson

Team
1) CrossFit Atlanta
2) CrossFit Adrenaline
3) Hustle Hard powered by HEW

South Central Regionals
Individual Men
1) Bryan Diaz
2) Jason Hoggan
3) Aja Barto

Individual Women
1) Azadeh Boroumand
2) Candice Ruiz
3) Kelley Hennigan

Team
1) CrossFit Dallas Central
2) Bayou City CrossFit
3) CrossFit Central Competitors

Canada West Regionals
Individual Men
1) Jeremy Meredith
2) Lucas Parker

Individual Women
1) Angie Pye
2) Heather Gillespie

Team
1) Team Taranis
2) CrossFit Fraser Valley Centaurs

And one last thing…

Hate On Rorys Bow TieSure, there’s lots of hate on Rory’s bow tie, especially in the YouTube comments for the Day 1 Update. I honestly find nothing wrong with that. The guy’s just doing his thing.

However…as a guy who had to wear a tie and dress shirt throughout high school, this bow tie/shirt combo bothered me in the Day 2 Update…

Rory Mckernan Holy Shirt Bro

No hate...the shirt just made me dizzy haha

My Take: Lauren Plumey Going Team

She Probably Just Gave Up

Lauren Plumey Goes Team

Source: games.crossfit.com

Nope, not at all. Check out this article on Lauren Plumey going team on the official Games site.

I really dig what she did for the Opens. By finishing 5th in the North East Region, beating her 8th place finish in 2011, she was able to shut up the haters. Nope, she obviously didn’t go team because she didn’t think she was good enough. Shit, she’s more than good enough.

Her passion for the sport and her box’s community truly shines in this quote:

“As an affiliate owner … I feel like my gym name is more important than representing my name.”

Now this is a real athlete/box owner. With the growing popularity of CrossFit, there are so many people out there who drop the $1k, go to the weekend cert, and then open up their cookie-cutter quality box only because of the money. It’s pretty obvious in their actions and the way they treat their community. However, with LP and her husband Dave at Shoreline CrossFit, you can tell they’re doing it right.

That’s the spirit of the sport right there. You want to put your team in the spotlight, cause when your team thrives and does well, so does the rest of your box. The dynamics of a box’s community can be overlooked at times, especially for new box owners who have to juggle so many different tasks and wear so many different hats. Your gym’s community is EVERYTHING. It defines the culture and general mood day in and day out. Really…when your box’s community is thriving, the only problem you’ll be running into is space for all the new athletes 🙂

For all those people who thinks LP went team because she’s “not good enough” to compete as an individual, go fuck yourself. Haters gonna hate.

Abe Lincoln Says Haters Gonna Hate

Regionals Live? Hell Yeah. On ESPN3? Fuck No.

I Was So Pumped

First of all, I was watching this video to get a preview of what to expect in this weekend’s Southeast South Central, and Canada West Regionals.

How badass are all these videos on games.crossfit.com and on the CrossFitHQ YouTube account? The production values are soooo sweet. It’s amazing to see how far CrossFit has come in terms of videos over the years. That’s a combination of the rapid advancement in technology and the monies that HQ has to support them.

Sweet Shades Jared Davis

Sweet shades bro

Like any other Kool-Aid drinker out there, I was amped. Hearing the music in the video above and just seeing CrossFitters get at it…damn…I wanted to workout, even though of course, I’m pretty much ready to crash and hit the sack.

Then I Saw The Latest Games Site Update

“Live Coverage Of Central East & ESPN”

Central East Regionals ESPN3

Every time I see Froning, I think of his peanut butter and jelly diet lol

Oh hell yeahhhhh!

Sure, I’m more interested in watching the North East Regionals live (dropping more info about myself…), but it’s great to watch all the beasts and beastettes (yeah, I know that’s not a word…) from the Central East region. You’ve got Rich Froning, Graham Holmberg, Dan Bailey, Julie Foucher, Lindsey Smith, Michelle Kinney, and a bunch of others, so you know it’s gonna be one excellent performance after another.

Then I read it’s only on ESPN3.

You gotta be fuckin kidding me. Seriously? I ran into this dilemma last year with the games, as I really wanted to watch the more polished coverage that we got to see months later over and over again on ESPN2. No dice. Yeah, you get the stream free of charge online…

…as long as your cable provider is one of the participating companies. Well, I have Cablevision/Optimum, and yeah, I was out of luck.

Hoping that MAYBE things have changed in the past few months, I went on the ESPN3 website to check things out. Here’s the message I got after putting in my zip code (no, I’m not giving that out haha) and picking “Cablevision” in the dropdown box:

No ESPN3 For Cablevision

Lame.

Don’t Worry

That’s just one Regionals event, and the videos for the Central East will be replayed on ESPN3.com. I’ve also read on random college sports forums that sometimes you don’t even need an account to watch certain games on ESPN3, so hopefully something like that will happen for the Central East Regionals. Probably not since those forum posters had no idea what the hell they were talking about haha.

At the end of every day, there’ll also be your usual Update Show hosted by Rory, Pat, and everyone else. So expect some more commentary on their commentary.

And Because I’m Thankful That Someone Gives A Shit About This Blog…

…I’m going to dig through the darkest depths of the internet to find Regionals information as things are happening. Right now, I don’t really have a plan of how to do this, but I’m pretty good at Googling things. Like, for example, I was able to find out one of my college friend’s high school friends was actually a huge scam artist, tricking amateur athletes into buying her gifts and shit…anyway, that’s a story not for this blog lol.

Of course, I’ll be following the Regionals Twitter accounts that’ll give a play-by-play of what’s going on. That’s a given. Think of me as your Cliff Notes/Sparknotes for the Regionals. Then I’ll dig through the Twitter trends. And who knows? Maybe there’ll be some legit bloggers or Twitter people at the events posting about up-to-date shit.

As I said, I don’t really have a solid plan right now, but I’m going to make it happen. For you guys 🙂

CrossFit Games VIP Passes Are Sold Out

Bad News For The Elite Of The Elite

This is for the elite of the elite of you out there who wanted to get in on that VIP Pass for the 2012 CrossFit Games. Well, guess what? You’re fucked. You’re out of luck.

Check out this lengthy and rather detailed announcement from the official CrossFit Games site:

CrossFit Games VIP Passes Are Sold Out

WHOA!

I just find it funny cause that’s the only bit of text on the entire page, aside from the headers and sidebars. Way to waste some server space, you jerks 😛

Don’t Get Too Depressed

While it’s uncertain whether HQ will be selling more than the allotted 300 tickets, you have some alternatives. First of all, there’s a chance you might be able to get one of these on eBay or Stubhub. I’m honestly not sure if that shit’s legal, so that might not even happen. In a worst case scenario, you can always get the normal tickets here like everyone else.

Is there really anything wrong with that? Just be happy you’re nearby or making the trip. I’m not gonna make it to the Games this year. Next year, however…that’ll be a different story. KippingItReal.com will be more of a household name 🙂