CrossFit at Midlife (aka Embodied Dedication as We Age)

I now get to live on the other side of the CrossFit Open 2026!! Huzzah!! Workout 26.3 dropped yesterday down at Wodapalooza in Miami, Florida, with three elite women taking it on in the sunshine. None finished within the time-cap, though Olivia Kerstetter came close. Dancing with my own goals each week, I had decided an Open strategy for this year: if I could do the Masters 55+ movements, weights, then I’d stay with the Rx workout , even knowing I’d only get a portion of it completed.  Unusual for Castro’s planning, both the first and the third WODs were basic technique & engine-burners more than gymnastic and/or upper body strength. Favored my own practice/capabilities, in other words. 26.3 involves three movements I can do, and the weights for Masters 55+ Rx were heavier than I would normally choose in a daily workout, but I knew I could at least do them, even at those heavier weights. So I chose the Masters 55+ Rx workout, with a smile. Barbel weights beginning at 5...

Today was a GOOD day for me in the CrossFit Open 2026. Graduation was the word that arose in me as I was driving away from Centerville CrossFit . Not because I finally got the pull-up in the Open I’ve always imagined I might. Not because I was able to finish the WOD. I think I’m smiling and enjoying the overly-warmish day because the Open always puts a progression-pull-up/muscle-up WOD in the mix, and each time, I’ve come away feeling less-than or feeling as if I’d failed the workout somehow.  There was none of that in me as I left the building. I was beaming , inside and out. For at least the last three Opens, I’ve had this fantasy about getting the pull-up during the Open. Each time, I’ve wound up attempting with less regard for my shoulders or my body than was wise. The last one ruined my left deltoid for months, which I’m just beginning to recover from enough to return to the rig for small bits of effort. I like the imaginative-ambitious side of myself, of course. It's made ...