THE CALLING…:part 1

Rise 'n shine, it is Monday morning of the week of the Crossfit Games Africa Regionals competition and the nerves are there from when I wake up. I am now four sleeps away from competing in the biggest fitness competition on the continent, in a sport I picked up less than seven months ago, in a city I haven't trained in, against the fittest men in Africa. 

Before I go any further let me give you a quick description of what Crossfit is and why I am doing it. Crossfit, in a nutshell, is defined as being Constantly varied, functional movements, completed at high intensity. It incorporates weight lifting, gymnastics, kettle bell training, rope climbing and a number of associated movements in a wide variety of combinations and weights. Coming from a sporting background I have always enjoyed training and maintaining a high level of fitness, and I thought I was fit and strong... haha, man was I wrong. I met Crossfit last year when trying out a video a mate saw, and it destroyed us. From that moment I was hooked. I started doing it in between rugby sessions and slowly getting into it. It was only when I moved to Cape Town that I decided to start doing a bit more until eventually I joined a Crossfit Box (term for a Crossfit gym) in February this year. My goal was to take part in the worldwide open competition and try and qualify for the Africa Regionals which meant I had to come in the top 48 out of just over a 1000 men. After 5 weeks of brutal workouts between March and April I made the top 48 but knew I had a lot of work to do!!
 
So, that meant training everyday except Sundays, training twice a day for most of that time up till last week when we begin to taper off, decreasing volume and load in order to allow the body to be at top operating capacity come competition time. Now the sadistic thing about Crossfit is that they can ask you to do just about anything and they release the workouts we will do at Regionals a few weeks before hand. This is a double-edged sword, firstly you can prepare to an extent for the movements and formulate strategies for the workouts, but you also then have time to think about it and torment yourself over what is to come, haha!! I say torment because that is what it can become and has been for me, on occasions. This blog of the process leading up and to regionals, including whilst I am there will give you some insight into what goes through my mind and how I deal with it all. So, sit back and enjoy reading the tumultuous place that is my mind :)
 
So, like I said earlier, it is Monday and four sleeps until the competition. As athletes we have received our information package which tells us what we need to know in terms of events, locations of important places like registration and athletes area,  what we can and cannot bring, and what to expect at the venue. The venue is the Standard Bank Arena at Ellis Park in Johannesburg and it will be filled with people supporting one of the fastest growing sports in the world. There will be seven events at the regionals, three on Friday and two on each of the following two days. Now during the event we, as athletes, will have access to food, ice baths, Rock Tape taping, sports massages, and relaxation areas throughout the event. I must admit I am incredibly excited about the prospect of free, healthy food... it is my inner student that comes out in these situations :) But my mind can only think about that for a split second before I start thinking about what awaits me in the form physical tests. 
 
For myself, I am confident about most of what is to come but I also know two of my lesser strengths (I try avoid saying weakness) are hand stand push ups (HSPU), and chest-to-bar pull ups (C2B). In the fourth event I will have to complete 100 C2B and in event six I will have to complete 50 HSPU. (for full event details go to games.crossfit.com) I have trained hard for this and I know I can do it physically, but with the element of competition comes some pressure. Pressure from myself mostly as I want to do well, not just participate. I am one of those people that enjoys the "arena". I get exceptionally nervous before an event, the hours before I feel sick and my palms get really sweaty and I cant stop thinking about what I need to do. But as soon as I hear the Crossfit countdown "3, 2, 1...*buzzer*" and the loud music starts, I switch off and immediately focus on what I am doing. The challenge for me is not getting through the idea of the work to be done, its holding myself back and sticking to my own pace and strategy. It is so easy to get sucked in to racing another competitor and before you know it you are sucking air, falling behind and getting frustrated. The worst thing you can do in these events is lose composure. I learnt that lesson the hard way in the Open on workout 13.5 (crossfit language for event 5 in 2013) when I lost my tempo and ended up getting no-repped into oblivion and bombed hard, which dropped my from 5th in Africa to 42nd. So, lesson learnt, the key is to remember to it. 
 
Its amazing as soon as I start thinking about this event my heart rate increases and I start getting butterflies, which I am told is a good thing because it means it is important to you. Which this is, I want to do well not just for me and my love of this sport, but for people who didn't back me, something that we all get in our lives but that we all handle differently. We are all told lies on a daily basis, we all hear words like "can't" and "you'll never do it", but its how we react to them that separates us. So, when it comes down to it, am I going to prove those people wrong or right, that is in my control. Another lesson I have learnt through a good friend of mine. All we can control are our actions and reactions... so why stress about the rest.
 
SO, until later, you all stay classy and I will drop another line after my session today. Its the de-loading phase so less hard work and more stretching and resting... the awesome part in other words!

Peace n love 
 
Alan “Al-Zilla” Foulis