I came across a great article today on Tabata Times written by RICK SCARPULLA. The jist of the article is that CrossFit is a strength sport that requires endurance. Don't believe me??? Just look at the top level CrossFit Athletes. The majority of men all have plus 500 lb deadlifts, 400 lbs back squats, 240 lb snatch, and 300 lb clean and jerk. It takes a lot of time to develop this kind of strength. To be successful at CrossFit you need to have that raw strength first and then work for the endurance. Another point to that would be skill, someone can have all the strength in the world but if not applied correctly it becomes wasted energy.
At CrossFit Beloit I feel we are blessed with some amazing coaches, specifically David and Lani, and we have them to help us develop that strength and skill. I am stoked that there are 17 individuals participating in the Olympic lifting course this month. I can guarantee you will see improvements in your CrossFit performance because of the course. I know that because I am the guinea pig and preforming all of the CrossFit.com Wods this month. Observations so far are that I may not be the fastest but I can complete every Wod with a respectable time/score, case in point was the Hero Wod Nukes Tuesday. A 30 minute work out that includes 3 miles of running and throwing around heavy weights. What I noticed was that the vast majority of people on the main site had to scale this wod as they could not sniff these weights (315 lb Deadlifts, 225 lb cleans, and 135 lb overhead squats). Yes it is impressive to be fast and go for long periods of time but the truly impressive ones/games athletes can do it with large loads. There are many people that can run a marathon but few that can put their body weight plus overhead.
The challenge is to be strong and have endurance! Put your work in, strength/skill first, endurance second.