When Dave Castro announced the Crossfit Open 18.2 workout, I knew one thing: RX was not in my future. The workout itself was actually two workouts, with a 12-minute time cap. Assuming I could even get 35-pound dumbbells up to my shoulders multiple times, I knew I’d burn out on the squats. (All photos are by Rob Salinas.)

Here’s what the CrossFit Open 18.2 WOD entailed:

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 reps for time of:
Dumbbell squats
Bar-facing burpees

Women use 20-lb. dumbbells, stepping burpees allowed

Workout 18.2a

1-rep-max clean

Time cap: 12 minutes to complete 18.2 AND 18.2a

This was the scaled version of the workout, which I planned to do. My strategy going in was to keep a steady pace in the first part of the workout. I knew that all the squats and burpees would add up. I’ve been CrossFitting long enough to know that if a WOD doesn’t look that bad, it’s probably going to really hurt. My 1RM clean going into this WOD was 80 pounds.

When I woke up Saturday morning, I had no power at my house. This greatly thwarted my breakfast plans – and I mention this because I’m a creature of habit. I wake up, make myself egg whites, spinach, and gluten-free waffles, drink some water, and drink my pre-workout as I drive to the box. Instead, I had to drink egg whites and eat spinach on cold corn tortillas. I was not happy. That’s the mood I had rolling up to the box, but it was alleviated when I got there. I signed up for Heat 2, but Coach Holly moved me to Heat 1 to fill space. I was fine with that. Mariel was my judge. We set up my lane and my bar with 75 pounds because I knew I could do that easily. I had my blinders on at 3…2…1…GO!, so the RX ladies next to me didn’t even register during CrossFit Open 18.2.

18.2 went as I expected. I finished in 8:45, then took a sip of water before I started working toward a 1RM clean. The first one came up FAST. Mariel and Becca loaded up my bar to 80 pounds while I took a rest. That one also felt easy, so we loaded up to 85 pounds. I let out a shriek when I got that bar up! I had just hit a 5-pound PR!

But that wasn’t the magic of 18.2a.

Mariel and Becca added another 5 pounds to the bar, bringing it up to 90 pounds, or 85 percent of my body weight. What the hey, I grabbed that bar and did the ugliest clean ever, but I got under it, got my elbows up, stood up, and just had this look of utter shock on my face.

Two workouts into the 2018 CrossFit Open, I can tell you that I’ve learned anything is possible. I seriously doubted my ability to clean 80 pounds walking in on Saturday, and not only did I do that, but I hit a 10 pound PR. I’ve officially removed “I can’t” from my vocabulary. I credit my coach and her amazing nutrition plan for this, seriously. Trust the process. Listen to your coach. Believe in yourself.

And smash PRs.

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