Where Do We Go From Here????

I did a tremendously horrible job in my Midwestern Sectionals Reflections series and covered about 10% of what I wanted to so at the pace I'm going it'll be Regionals by the time I finish so I'm going to move on & try to be more consistent again in posting as now Affiliate Cup & Regionals training is now en vogue.

So I got 3rd place out of 135 men at Sectionals. Before I went I told my coach Michael that I wanted to treat Sectionals like Regionals (where the top 4 advance on to the Games) so my goal going into Sectionals was top 4 which we were able to achieve. No better feeling than accomplishing what you set out to do especially considering the quality athletes that competed against those wods in addition to myself & all the hard training sessions that came leading up to Sectionals.

So what's next??? Only what is sure to be the greatest test of my fitness yet out in Colorado at Regionals. Never one to rest on my laurels I have quickly turned the page and am now focused on becoming a "Games athlete" of which there will only be 50 (men) in the world this year. My deficiencies must become competencies, my strength must be STRONG, my work capacity - elite (fatigue doesn't happen anymore. Every round in a wod is a duplicate of the 1st), my mental toughness must be my x-factor - the thing that gives me better results than an athlete of similar physical traits.

I'm thinking that the top 10 athletes at Regionals have a shot at qualifying for the Games so I need to put myself in that 10 and let the wods determine my placement in terms of them having movements I can excel at or struggle with. Already the 5 men who went to the Games last year from our Regional can be placed in the top 10 so basically out of the 60 men who qualify via Sectionals I need to be in the top 5 of those athletes. There's no real way to test if I am before Regionals but theoretically this is what I tell myself I'm up against.

Now whenever things start to get tougher in a wod I just tell myself in my head that I'm a Games athlete and SNAP I get new motivation to stay the course, don't let up, & to maintain a standard of excellence in performance that a 2010 Games athlete will need to have. The intensity of my training sessions has gone up, my attention to nutrition a little tighter, stretching more often, listening to my body & testing it's limits - all of these things are a part of my evolution and in about 50 days I look to search & destroy whatever the wods are and let the placing determine itself. I can only compete against the wods not the other guys there. I like my chances....