The 2015 open is finally over. If you're unaware 15.5 was:

I suffered through the misery of 15.5 and all I got was this sweet photo of my upper back on the rower.

27-21-15-9

Row for calories

Thruster (95/65)

A stellar 15.5 performance required two things. First, you need great metabolic conditioning, or what some might refer to as an "engine". I've always hated that metaphor because I don't think it's accurate. A car's engine size represents it's ability to produce force. "Engine" should refer to strength. Metcon capacity is better compared to a car's gas tank. Technique/mobility could be seen as one's transmission, but I digress.

The second requirement to crush 15.5 is an ability to make yourself feel really miserable. I heard athletes of all levels reporting that this event made them hurt more than anything they've done in awhile.

I had no idea what to expect from this couplet. I know I can do "Fran" with unbroken 21-15-9 Thrusters. But that first round of 27 reps changes the game considerably. Plus, the quads are working double duty here, contributing heavily to both the row and the thrusters. So, really this is NOTHING like "Fran". After seeing some of my teammates' times, I really wanted to go under 8 mins. My plan was to break up the 27 and 21 thrusters so that I could attempt the 15 and 9 unbroken. I would row at the fastest pace that would still allow me to stick to that thruster plan.

Over the course of this open, I let myself go a little. My training between events got increasingly worse as it progressed. This obviously wasn't my intention but between the cold I caught after 15.3 and some scheduling difficulties, it happened.

Aftermath. Former games champ Mikko Salo refuses to collapse to the floor after a WOD. I will, but only in seductive poses.

So, my gas tank wasn't where it needed to be for this one. I broke the 27 reps into 10-10-7. I broke the 21 into 8-7-6. When it came time for the 15's I just didn't have it in me to go unbroken. I went 6-5-4. My only unbroken set was the 9's. I turned in an 8:58. Not horrible but far from my goal of sub-8:00. Despite that, I feel good about the effort I gave on this one. Sometimes you finish a workout like this thinking you could have gone harder. The extreme discomfort I felt for 20 minutes post-workout quelled that suspicion.

So that's it. The 2015 Open is behind us. I finished 358th out of 13,958 in the very competitive Northeast region. I finished 4,066th out of 153,273 in the world. I contributed to the Crossfit 212 team score on 15.1a (1st in my box) and 15.3 (2nd in my box). I'm really excited to get back to my normal, consistent programming without the wrench of a random Crossfit workout thrown into the middle of every week. I can once again neglect my gas tank and build a bigger engine. Also, some of you will appreciate that these blog posts aren't even gonna mention Crossfit for at least a few weeks.