CrossFit Desire North

Good eggs on a Good Friday 🐣

Quarterfinals… let’s go.

These legends have earned their spot through the Open. Now it’s time to take the next step.

No lights. No crowd.
Just you vs the work.

We’re right behind you all the way 👊

Good luck to our Quarterfinal athletes can’t wait to see what you do next.

That moment you realise there are still 3 minutes left.

📷

We’ve always wanted to get a photo of that group selfie!

Thanks

Right now, our athletes are in what sports psychologists would call the Post-Open Acute Cognitive Distortion Phase.

On Friday night, under lights, loud music and mild peer-induced adrenaline, their prefrontal cortex was temporarily overridden by limbic hype. Dopamine spiked. Cortisol elevated. Pain receptors were politely ignored. They finished 26.1 convinced:

“I paced that perfectly.”

Fast forward 12 hours.

Inflammation sets in. The quads begin filing formal complaints. Heart rate variability drops. And the brain, desperate to preserve ego integrity, enters Stage 1: Performance Reframing.

This is where phrases like:
“The floor was slippery.”
“Judge counted one rep slow.”
“I went out too conservative.”
“I could shave 12 reps easy.”

begin surfacing.

Neurologically, what’s happening is simple:
• The hippocampus edits the memory.
• The amygdala protects self-image.
• The ego whispers, “You’re better than that.”

By Sunday afternoon, they reach Stage 2: Negotiation.
They’re on YouTube watching elite athletes redo the workout.
They’ve checked the leaderboard seven times.
They’ve mentally re-run their transitions.

By Monday morning, denial has fully matured into what we clinically call:

Competitive Optimism Syndrome.

Symptoms include:
• Foam rolling aggressively “just in case.”
• Texting someone: “You redoing it?”
• Telling their spouse: “I just want to see what happens if I push the first round.”

In truth, this is a healthy cognitive loop.

Humans are wired to close perceived performance gaps.
The brain hates unfinished business.
The redo is less about fitness and more about restoring internal order.

Will they improve?

Highly unlikely.

Will they suffer again?

Absolutely.

But the most fascinating part?

They already know exactly how much it’s going to hurt… and they’re still signing up for it.

Which means denial has officially transitioned into identity preservation through voluntary repeat trauma.

Classic Open behaviour.

The people that you’ll meet in our neighbourhood 🫶🏻