The Middle...

You check the blog or walk into the box and see the wod and it's one of those 3, 4, or 5 round wods that you know is going to smash you or it's one of those awful 20 min amraps we all despise. When the wod starts you're full speed ahead and hit that 1st round or first 5 mins hard and feel great. Round 2 more of the same but now the burn is kicking in and you feel it deepening. THWACK! That 3rd round comes and there it is - that wall that always comes! Now the weight that felt so light in round 1 is a bear and you have to stop before you pass out and THIS is when the real wod begins for us all. The path or transition to the next level in terms of going from average crossfitter to above average I believe is in the middle round(s) of wods or the middle of wods in general.

This is when the average athlete starts to tailspin and lose the pace that they started with initially either because they don't have the capacity to maintain it or because their starting pace was too hard out of the gate and they are paying for it now. Really only with time & trial & error I've found can you figure out how to best pace wods so that you can succeed in the middle rounds where others fail. Make no mistake about it the mental toughness of the athlete also goes a long way in determining how well they do in the middle rounds as well because the middle hurts the most so you've got to know that going into it and prepare to talk yourself thru the pain and know that physically you can survive and when the last round or the last minute comes the motivation to finish strong will get you thru that part of it.

I'll keep it short but whether it's the 15 set of a 21-15-9 wod, the third 500m of a 2k row, or minutes 11-17 of a 20 min amrap, just know that that's where the true wods are and where pr's are made or lost. Only the strongest survive those portions of wods and come out with pr's. Now the task is for you to figure out how to get thru the middle so that you end on top.

REST DAY