This wasn’t just your typical partner workout. It’s not the one where you get so excited to pair up with your BFF or your friend that you know kicks ass every single class. This was a pure fight to win with your challenger alongside you. Today I was given a dose of friendly competition. In CrossFit, and pretty much any other sport, the point of being part of a team and community is to keep moving. It’s to try to go unbroken and finish each rep. It’s to give it your 100% til the very last second and in the end, the goal is to win whether as a team or as an individual.
Four rounds of 12 burpees, 10 toes to bar and 4 power snatches was this “partner” workout. One person would start with the 12 burpees, and as soon as he/she completes those, the second person will start. The point of this was for the first person to not let the second person catch up and take the lead.
I have yet to encounter a workout quite like this one. It was fantastic – pure competition. This is the practice, the hard work, the hours spent behind the scenes, learning how to compete, strategize and win. Testing for competition – both within CrossFit and your life outside of it.
When you’re paired up with someone in this sense, you’re strategically trying to pace yourself just enough that you’ll have lasting energy to push you through those last few seconds, where in essence, every rep counts. As an athlete, not only do you have to be self-aware, but be able to react and adapt to each movement that not only you do, but also what your competition is doing.
Get a glance at how they’re pacing alongside with you, or when they’ve started to get fatigued, or lose some form of their technique. If you have the stamina to push an extra few seconds harder during those times, it could make a huge difference.
This was a great break from the other partner WODs that I’ve been a part of. Not to say one is better than the other, they’re just not the same. They both allow different ways to win – one as a team, the other as an individual.
At the end, no matter what, there is still encouragement regardless if you came out on top or not. That’s the beauty of competition – fight to win, and applaud the effort.