Preparing for Sport of Fitness or what most of us call “CrossFit” events is no easy task. Whether we are talking about exercise selection, time domain, program design style, etc…. This sport has an overwhelming amount of moving parts and can be very challenging to analyze and plan for. I’m not just talking about helping an athlete get conditioned for an event. I am speaking about building a fully comprehensive training plan that begins 9-12 weeks before an event. A program that addresses all major aspects of fitness while still using data and history from the event we are preparing for. If we are talking about an event prep like this from a GPP perspective things become much easier to plan for. When we are developing a training plan for a fitness competition with the goal of wanting to maximize an athletes true potential things are very different.
At TST, we have a deep and rich history of participating in these events. Not because we feel like everyone who trains CF as a discipline should compete…. But because we feel anyone and everyone who invests significant time and energy into training should compete and walk out of that competition having something to show for it. Regardless of what division you compete in or what your goals are, I truly believe there is no need to prioritize 3+ hours of this kind of training and not compete. Some coaches may be as bold to say that if you aren’t a professional you should not be in the gym for this many hours or competing at all. My opinion is different…. Some of us love to train and that is OK. However my “beef” comes with putting your body and support system through all of this sacrifice and then have nothing to show for it.
This is a tough sell for some people. I just cannot bring myself around to advocate high volume training, competition and preparation for those who have no intention on testing themselves. I know we use this term a lot but it couldn’t be more appropriate…. “The juice is not worth the squeeze”. If you can prioritize your life around training, make sure all responsibilities are taken care of and your life is consistent with being able to train and invest serious time into your craft than competition starts to make a lot more sense. Remember I am not just talking about this from a professional perspective…. This can and should often be looked at as an amateur sport, goal or endeavor.
This past weekend, we brought a mixed bag of people to the 2021 Bacon Beatdown. Beginners who competed in their first one day event, intermediates, RX level athletes, elites, adaptive athletes, masters, teams, etc. Some of these folks have aspirations to train and compete professionally while some genuinely just love to train and test themselves. The beautiful thing is seeing this incredibly diverse group of parents, college students, professionals, and nurses who have different goals all come together to train for and commit themselves to an event or test. It’s not easy to develop a training plan for such a diverse population however through having the commitment of your athletes and such a focused group of coaches it makes it possible.
We have been competing in this sport for 10+ years. Whether we are talking about one hour style “gauntlet” events for beginners or we are talking about the literal highest levels of our sport…. We have seen it all. This past year at the Bacon Beatdown I have to say that it might be the most prepared I have seen our athletes. Knowing their testing times, goals, the level of confidence they had, etc. It was a very inspiring and powerful thing to see. Yes we have had some very bright moments in our competitive history however to see so much success across all divisions was something amazing this past weekend. The commitment our athletes and clients put into this prep really paid off more than ever. Remember…. We aren’t talking about one team or athlete who did well. We absolutely CRUSHED our goals across the board. Even athletes who finished short of their goal on the leaderboard had some incredible events and big wins they can build off.
As always, it’s an honor and a privilege to lead such a fun, committed, down to earth and hard working team. Thank you to our community who came up to support, family members that were there with food post events, everyone who helped at the booth, etc. I challenge you to find a more committed, talented, fun and dedicated group of people. You won’t…. Major thanks to Will and his team at Bacon! See you next year at the Atlantic Coast Classic.
Now, off season and our preparation for the next season begins
– Danny Soul