Still Not Going To The CrossFit Games

“There is only one certainty in life and that is we are all going to die”

Another year, another amazing 5 weeks, another trip to the CrossFit Regionals (to party) is upon us.

The Open represents an incredible time of year. The Thursday evening nerves, the Friday adrenaline, the Saturday reality check of failing to keep pace with Mat Fraser.

My favourite part…seeing people step outside their comfort zone. They attempt the impossible. They see fear ahead of them and stare straight back. We as a gym had a litany of firsts; First pull up(s), muscle ups, handstand push ups, weight that seemed impossible a few weeks go, floating up like it was nothing. 30kg thruster…ha easy. Deadlift this 60kg 45 times… no problem. Doing a WOD into some lifting? Oh you mean the thing we do once a week at 353? It’s so humbling as a coach to watch people you see every day step into the darkness and embrace it. Not giving up, pushing out every little ounce of energy left in their bodies for that extra rep.

The few weeks following the CrossFit Open are always curious. Murmurs in the shadows of crazy ring things they have seen… and they want them by next week. The lament; “had I just repeated those workouts 5 times I could have got 3 spots higher in the world” The crazy idea that if I train 9 hours a day, twice a day, for the next year i’ll make it to the CrossFit Games!!
We all get a little frustrated that we can’t link 17 muscle ups, that bloody Annie Thorisdottir has beaten us…again!

In the excitement of competition we can easily forget why we do what we do. I don’t want to make it to the CrossFit Games. I want to help build 353 to be the best CrossFit gym in the world(Because we already are the best CrossFit Gym in Dublin ;)).

After the Open I briefly thought about training outside class, doing more than the hour a day I do. The thoughts of getting personally programmed to improve my weaknesses. But to what end? I want to develop as a coach, be the best damn coach I can be for the members of 353. I love having the opportunity to train with class every day. Outside of coaching y’all it’s the happiest I am. Throwing down with the lunchtime crew, having the banter, experiencing the finest grass fed filet mignon Ireland has to offer.
Im in this game to live as long as I can. To stay out of a nursing home and kick chronic disease in the dick. Competition is healthy, pushing yourself and going darker than ever before is healthy. Beating Andy Hickey in the Open is healthy. That’s competition and now we go back to training. The speedo season is upon us.

The goal is to get fit, high five some people, turn the music up and have an hour to ourselves…with others. We forget that our injury rate at CrossFit 353 is nominal. If we stay healthy and train often we will get better at snatching, we will get our pull ups, those hspu’s will be there in time. Trust the process, train hard, eat clean, have fun. If we can do this we will get there. As ma boi BB(me and Ben Bergeron are on nickname terms) says “ it has to be a low trajectory to a distant horizon”.

What we learnt from this years open is that we are extremely fit. Maybe not compared to the Sara SigmundsDottir or Noah Olsen (Pete Conlon). But we are so far ahead of the general population its scary. Ben Bergeron (BB) told me that 20% of Americans have a gym membership, and only 0.01% of Americans do CrossFit. We forget how we fit we are, how well we are doing, that we have already taken the right steps towards living to 125 and playing tennis with our great grand kids.

We are here to help you inside but more importantly outside the gym. We have Coach Andy ready to get people sexy and ripped. We have Coach Benjo raring to go with some goal setting. We have Coach Siobhan loose and supple for Saturday night twerk night. We will be fitter next year. We’ll also be healthier. We’ll be happier and we’ll be bloody sexier.

As Mark Manson says “we only have so many fucks to give in life, let’s make sure we give fucks about the right things, don’t waste them on the small irrelevant things. We all have problems so lets make them good problems to have. We don’t have to do things, we get to”

We as coaches love you, we always have your best interest at heart. All we want is for y’all to succeed and we’ll do whatever we can to make that happen. Our goal is to make you better human beings. We will do whatever it takes to keep the train that is 353 moving forward. Get on board because it’s going to be some journey.

Peace and Love
Gaz xxx

PS:

A huge shout out to Connor Colson, an incredible young man who wears our core values on his sleeve unawares. His integrity, humility and hunger over the last the last 6 months has been inspiring. He has made it to the next round of qualification in the 16-17 yr old division. This qualifiers are in April and we know the whole gym is behind him. Best of luck brother. Leave it all out there x