"But ultimately we ended up with a 'W.'"
After missing the CrossFit Games by six spots last season, team CrossFit Maximus earned the final ticket to the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games with a 3-point margin over SPC CrossFit.
Some talk about needing a perfect weekend in order to make it to the Games, but the teammates on CrossFit Maximus are the first to admit their performance at the regional wasn’t without flaws.
Eric Oxley said he was surprised with how many mistakes the team made, “but ultimately we ended up with a ‘W.’”
From the start, they were thrown off their game plan when team members repeatedly received no-reps on the muscle-ups of Event 1.
“We practiced that a lot faster than we did it,” team captain Chris Walker said. “We got some no-reps."
Walker, a two-time CrossFit Games athlete who competed as an individual for the first time last season, said how the team deals with the mistakes is key.
"When you catch no-reps, it throws you off your entire plan,” Walker explained. “You have to know your body and your team. We'll say, ‘Don't get up. Rest.’ It's just keeping your composure and remembering the script.”
He admitted even when things seem to take a turn for the worst, trusting your teammates is just as important as the training that got you there.
"When you have a team and all complement each other, there’s not much stress,” he said.
Teammate Kelli Cramer agreed.
“I love having the team there to share with in victories and hardships,” Cramer said. “I love how the team becomes a strong family after all the training and competing.”
In the next event, three women and one man missed their first attempt on the 1-rep-max hang squat snatch. Since teams were given only two attempts per teammate, four of the teammates’ next lifts were do or die.
"We never practiced hypotheticals,” Walker said. “What happens if you miss the first weight?”
Aric Johnson and Eric Oxley were the only two teammates to log a score on their first lifts.
“After that first round there was a lot of anxiety on people's faces,” Walker remembered.
Walker said he knew the lifts his teammates were capable of, but there’s no glory in going big if it just sends you home. He suggested those who missed should lower their weight and get on the board.
“One-hundred and twenty-five lb. is better than zero,” Walker explained.
The plan worked for most of the teammates. Jennifer Bradford and Erica Maryman hit their second lifts, and so did Walker. But when Cramer missed, the team immediately knew this wasn’t going to be their event. With only five contributors to their team total, Maximus logged 915 lb. for 17th place.
“I was in more shock than freak-out mode,” Cramer said.
Cramer, however, is no stranger to competition. She’s been on team CrossFit Maximus since the beginning, scoring her first chest-to-bar pull-ups in 2010 at a field in Logan, Ohio. She said a lot’s changed since then, but the stuff that remains the same is what matters most. She just had to shake it off and move on.
“That night I let myself, emotionally, have a second to feel sorry for myself, but then I knew I had to get it together and that my team depended on me as much as I depended on them,” Cramer said. “I felt like the second day I came back with all of that behind me and ready to wreck house with my team.”
Cramer, Walker and crew, having adjusted on the spot more times than they could count, moved on to the second day with two back-to-back second-place finishes on Events 4 and 5. Walker said a big part of the confidence needed to handle setbacks is gained by practicing for anything that may come up.
"Before the workouts came out we weren't afraid of anything,” he said.
Like most teams, however, the strict handstand push-ups from Event 6 were the sleeper—that tricky movement that can make the fittest stumble.
"When the workouts came out, no one really thought of strict handstand push-ups,” Walker said. “It was an issue for a lot of teams.”
Walker wasn’t the only one on the team who wanted to get Event 6 over as soon as possible.
“I would've like to see more heavy weights and less gymnast-y movements,” Oxley said.
Event 6: 9-6-3 reps of strict handstand push-ups, hang power cleans at 110 lb. for females and 160 lb. for men, and burpees, began with all three male athletes and ended with all three females.
“When the workout was released, our last girl, Jenny Bradford, couldn't do 1 strict handstand push-up,” Walker said. “At regionals, she did 7.”
After tying with Maven for seventh place in Event 6, CrossFit Maximus took third in Event 7 and prepared for the final event by picking a target
“Going into the last workout, our goal was to beat NapTown,” Walker said. “Our mindset was, ‘Let’s get second place.’”
Psychologically, Walker said, it was important keep momentum heading into the end of the weekend.
Soon into the final event, the 2012 regional began to play in Walker’s mind.
“We started bailing on overhead squats, but we've been there before in 2012, “ he said. “The final workout (in 2012) ended with one muscle-up after static holds. Instead of rushing, we required our girls to wait a minute for the muscle-up. A similar thing happened with overhead squats. We know when they need rest.”
Cramer was there, too; waiting and watching teams struggle with the rings and fail. One rep separated them from a trip to the Games.
“That story is forever ingrained in me,” she said. “That was literally the most stressful moment of my CrossFit career.”
Walker said they practiced the final event in training, but never an hour after Event 7. The grip issues combined with the weekend’s demands was nearly too much.
But like the Central East Regional two years ago, Walker said it’s about staying calm and communicating with each other. Cramer said it was time to turn it on.
“I didn't really know where we were ranked in the middle of the last (event),” she said. “When we started to have some complications, I just knew as the anchor on that WOD that I needed to go fast and get zero no-reps.”
The team finished Event 8 in fifth place and secured third place at the regional.
Today, Walker and crew are preparing for their CrossFit Games return by swimming a little more and slightly increasing volume. In 2012, the last time the team made it to Carson, California, they took 19th place after 11 events.
With the Games, there is no practice. There is only endless preparation.
"We've done some swimming and some longer stuff,” Walker said. "We've practiced in a lake to mimic open water swimming. We’ve even run a 10 k.”
As with every other year, CrossFit Maximus rarely trains together and that’s not changing for the Games. Walker said he and his crew have busy schedules and they make it work.
"Everyone knows what they need to work on,” he said.
Mostly, the team trains two or more hours a day, five or more days a week. Sometimes they follow CrossFit Ann Arbor programming, written by CrossFit Level 1 Seminar Staff member Doug Chapman.
And sometimes, they’re old school.
"I’m on the hopper program,” Walker said.
The program is important, but so is who you’re doing it with, Walker said.
"I go out of my way to train with different people and do what they're doing for the day,” he said. “That way, I get to work on everything."
He added: “It takes all six people, not one person.”
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