One of the best things about Crossfit is that the very act of participating elicits an emotional response.  You get excited, scared, feel waves of dread at the mention of a WOD, and leap for joy when your favorite benchmark workout hits the whiteboard.  Happy, sad, excited, anxious, scared, triumphant - one thing is for sure, us Crossfitters sure have a lot of feelings!

Let’s talk about fear and being ‘scared’.  Feeling scared is TOTALLY NORMAL.  Hell, I’m scared every day I enter the gym.  Scared I’m going to break a limb, that I’m going to damage equipment, or I won’t complete the workout.  Scared I’ll be last.  Scared everyone will laugh at me.  SCARED I’M GOING TO FAIL.  You get the idea.  I might as well just piddle my pants in submission when I drive up to CFV’s door.  

If any of these thoughts cross your mind, hey, I feel you.  You and me, we’re kindred souls.  

I can sit here and say ‘Don’t be scared’ and that will be as effective as getting a cat to do your taxes.  You are going to be scared at Crossfit from time to time.  Acknowledge it.  Own it.  But realize that what you do with your fear is what matters.  

That said - there are many of you in the gym who have been chatting about the Crossfit Open.  If you are interested in the Open, and you feel yourself being drawn to the web page over and over, yet somehow can’t quite commit to signing up...well... why not?  Fear?  

To those already signed up for the Open and are feeling nervous, or to those who are haven’t 'had time' to sign up yet, let me ally some of those things that might be making you feel a bit apprehensive:

• No one will laugh at you - you get to do the workout in the heart of your very own gym, where we support and love you.  Curious about doing competitions in the future?  The Open is the best way to experience ‘competition jitters’, while surrounded by CFV friends and family, instead of strangers in a different box.
• Maybe you didn’t do Beast Camp.  Maybe life got in the way and you had to work late every night, or you took a few months off.  You think you’re not fit enough, not ready, or not going into the Open at what you perceive as your ‘optimal level’.  Is anyone ever TRULY ready?  Try!  You’ll likely surprise yourself and perform better than you think.  Some of the best WOD performances have happened after a night of heavy drinking, months of vacation, and diet deviation.  So you don’t perform an Open WOD as well as you’d like?  You have a week to rock it as many times as you like! At the worst, it's a learning experience - you’ll know how to change your strategy for the next WOD/competition.
• You’re scared you’ll be last, or you won’t be able to do the posted WOD.  As of today over 55,000 people have registered to participate in the open.  OVER 55,000 people.  Realistically, the only person that cares if you’re last is YOU.  Each one of these 55,000 or more people are worried about how THEY perform.  Not what you’re doing.  You’re a drop in the pond of world wide Crossfitters.  We care that you have fun, do your best, and get better every day.  We don’t care if you aren’t able to do the WOD perscribed.  We don’t care if you can’t lift the weight.  We care that you are giving it your ALL, and we love you for putting your best effort on the line, no matter your score standing.                                                                                                                                   

Still decided not to officially participate in the Open this year?  That’s ok!  You’ll still get to experience all the Open WODs at CFV, without having to submit your scores to the Crossfit Open website.  But if you have a little voice inside of you saying “Just maybe I should give it a shot.....”  I encourage you to sign up - what have you got to lose, besides a little fear?

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WOD - Friday - 2/24
Open WOD #1
7 Minutes - AMRAP
Burpees!

WOD - Saturday - 2/25
Team WOD - 9 am