Strengthening the Chain

Back in March, after the first NorCal Throwdown CFEB attended at Diablo CrossFit, I wrote this post: "I Am The Weakest Link".

I identified a lack of conditioning and bad body composition as the culprits.

10 weeks of intense training later, Team CFEB and I are at an order of magnitude higher of conditioning, and it seems, personally, every I time I touch a barbell lately I get a PR. Did I mention I'm pushing 43?

Our conditioning was evident at the CF1W Throwdown yesterday, where we won by a nose. In the first event we screwed up our strategy a bit and were behind on the 800 meter 100# sandbag carry. All three of us (Andy, Alex, Me) passed the slowest guy on their team: personally, while the other teams were wearing out, I had what it took to go faster and faster at the end. On the second event, which involved running with a barbell overhead, only Andy and I were able to overhead 195 pounds which contributed to our victory.

Also lately CFEB records are falling left and right and many of us are setting PRs frequently: this is more impressive as I am not talking about beginners, but long-time athletes. I have deadlifted 400, overhead squatted 195, strict pressed a 71 pound kettlebell, hit new metcon PRs, and as above we won the latest throwdown.

Torquemada has convinced me somewhat reluctantly not to publicize our training but I will say this:

It is not the .coms.
It is most certainly pure CrossFit
It is unconventional
It improves teamwork
It recognizes individual differences
It falls on the outside of the typical CF time domain
It is somewhat high volume
It relys on, rather than strength bias, weakness bias. Figure that one out and you will start making huge progress, I guarantee it.

I am no longer the weakest link.