The affiliate challenge is coming up this weekend and we have a good number of people entering! This post is to help those people prepare and also to give any one that may want to enter into CrossFit competition in the future. By this point in your training you are as good as you are gonna get. This is going to touch more on the mental aspect of competition.

"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming. " John wooden

The coaches at Elysium or proud of everyone that has stepped up and said the want to be a part of this event. We can't wait to see all of you give it everything you have and watch you compete against fellow crossfitters! The main thing that we want all of you to remember is this... HAVE FUN! You enter a CrossFit Competition for the same reason you continue to train on a weekly basis... it's fun, so don't forget that part.

When it comes done to 3.2.1 GO, all that matters is that you gave it your all. I will tell you most likely you are going to find a higher gear then you have ever experienced before in a CrossFit workout. One of the best things to remember is that at the end of the wod is that you want to feel like you worked as hard as you possibly could in the moment. If you really feel that you gave it everything you had, then that event was a success in my book.

Every one this weekend will have a workout that they feel is there strong suit and the workouts were designed that way. Whether you are looking forward to the deadlift, short Cindy or the equalizer... knowing that you worked your hardest and you didn't leave anything behind is what will make you feel successful at the end of the day! I am almost 100% certain that every one is going to pull a deadlift PR and probably break their standard "Cindy" pr (with only 15 minutes).

Getting back to the competition side of things... giving that last little bit of effort and getting 5lbs above someone else and giving yourself a better score might make the difference between coming in last or not last on an event and when all three workouts are totalled 1 point can be a huge difference at the end.

An easy way to make sure you give your all is to stay positive in your self-talk. During a workout, the best way to slow yourself down is to start saying to yourself "this is harder then I thought it would be... this is hard... I don't think I can handle this..." that will make you drop off the pull up bar or drop the barbell faster than anything. Telling yourself that you can work through it and it isn't that bad, telling yourself that you can fight through... that is the kind of stuff that will get you those last couple of reps for an unbroken set and get you to get the hands back on the bar.

Can't wait to watch all off you represent the Elysium family and tear it up!

Coach Paul

PS. I realized that the self talk part can seem pretty corny and some people don't like the rah rah... you can do it, your doing good, keep it up. If you are some one like that, then taylor your self talk to fit your personality. When I need to get myself moving faster I get some what mean. I tell my self to suck it up, quite whining, deal with it. For me this works better to get me re-focused. I will never forget at the regionals on the first workout when I dropped the bar and our great athlete Danielle yelled, " quit being a b*tch and pick up the bar." An instant smile jumped on my face and I picked it up and tore through the remaining reps! Figure out what you want to say to your self and also let us know what you want us to yell at you!