"My goals are higher than being the first in the Czech Republic!" Marek Vácha dominated this year's Czech CrossFit scene

Hey, Mark. First of all I would like to congratulate you for becoming the best Czech CrossFitter this year and at the same time I have a question. What does it mean for you to be the best CrossFitter in the Czech Republic?

Hi, thanks a lot. Hey honestly it doesn't mean anything major to me. I was pleased, of course I was, especially because I only had a couple of months during which I could somehow train more than I have in the last year, at the same time I have my goal elsewhere. Being first in the country is nice, but if you don't qualify for the next part, the Semifinals, it's pretty useless.

You haven't raced in about a year because you've been plagued by health problems. At one point it even looked like you wouldn't return to the racing scene and now you're the best athlete in our country - how do you feel about this whole situation?

Like I said. Precisely because I couldn't train as much as I needed to all last year, I'm glad that at least some of my performance has returned after about 3-4 months. It's still far from the goal, but I'm grateful. So I see it as a positive.

Injuries don't just happen to athletes, do you know why the injury came your way and what the injury was?

Fortunately, it wasn't a fatal injury. It was that I had been suffering from chronic lower back pain for a long time. At the end of 2020, the pain started to appear in other parts of my body, I kind of felt like I was either going to fall apart or really tear something. Back problems, pain in my knees permanently, wrist pain, possible inflammation in my elbows. I just totally burned out the system. But the mistake was made at the beginning, when I always tried to accumulate as much training volume as possible, went to all the workouts "on blood" and most importantly, totally screwed up the recovery. Combination of overtraining with poor technique, low mobility. It was just one with the other.

I tried to address the hips and knees specifically a few times, but it was too superficial. I was always afraid to stop, take a step back and build a better foundation. The break lasted maybe 2-3 weeks and once the pain subsided a bit, I went back to regular training. That way it was all repetitive.

It wasn't until that relentless condition at the end of 2020 that finally forced my hand.

Could it have been avoided, looking back on it now? And what have you learned in that time?

It was definitely preventable, that much is clear just from reading it in hindsight. However, the main mistake, in my opinion, was that I trained alone from the beginning, I didn't have a good, sensible trainer over me who would have made sure that I had built up the foundations sufficiently. On the other hand, I have to say that I am glad for that, because I probably wouldn't have seen such a point in it on my own. I've learned to get a better feel for the ratio of hard training to recovery that is needed. I've also learned to feel my body a lot better, know how to move, and among other things, it's pushed me significantly as a coach.

You must have had some interesting thoughts running through your head if you couldn't work out and do what you enjoy, right?

Oh, yeah. Mentally, it was a very difficult time for me. After a few months of regular rehab work I didn't see any results, the performance was gone, my back was still hurting, nothing was changing.... it was very much on the edge. I wondered several times if it was really worth it, it was a big test for me, but I always came to the same conclusion.

How did you finally heal your injury and are you now 100% well?

I guess you can't say healed when it wasn't any particular injury. But I did learn to move more efficiently, engage my muscles properly, get rid of some imbalances and pain when moving, and engage my HSS more. I also got regular sauna, physio, with CrossFit it's really important to compensate for certain overuse injuries. It's a process of trying to get closer to some sort of balance between all of that. I'm happy with how it's working at the moment. I realize the whole system is fragile so far, I have to constantly watch how I move to make sure everything holds up. So not 100%, but definitely 100% better.

Mark, you are known not to eat meat, how did you manage to beat all those competitors who eat meat and all those opinions that you have no chance to succeed without meat?

Look, I don't think I buy that. It's everybody's choice. And I can only say for myself that if one approaches a meatless diet responsibly and eats a varied enough diet, diet doesn't play a difference. The main thing is always the head and what kind of mindset one has and what one is willing to do for it.

Now I have a question a bit on the body - what about doping, does it play a role for you?

Good question. But it doesn't. I honestly sometimes wonder what it's really like at the top. Even sometimes when someone is training the way they train. But when I listen to interviews with some athletes where they stand firm on how they are against doping....as I want to believe them.

So you're totally clean, huh?

Yeah, I am.

So how is it possible that an athlete who doesn't eat meat and doesn't even use performance enhancing substances can beat athletes on substances?

I wouldn't judge anyone for that. I don't know how other athletes are doing. Everyone just has their own way and their own beliefs. I chose this one. And how is that possible... I guess I want more :).

However, it's years of work and performance grows gradually. And even though I've had a break in terms of intensity, heavy weights, I've been doing CrossFit for something like 8 years now. Because of that, I've also gradually learned better movement efficiency, which again may be my advantage over guys who are a lot stronger than me.

142 kg Overhead Squat

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Do you think it is necessary to use steroids in the racing scene in the Czech Republic?

No.

Will we see you at any more races this year?

Absolutely. I haven't raced for a long time, the last time was at Bcross 2020. Thanks to my rebuild, which took place more or less all last year, I realized that I miss racing a lot, so I would like to go to as many races as possible this year and gain a lot of experience in foreign ones. The plan is the Athens Throwdown in a week, then the Lowlands Throwdown, then The Europian Championship in England in September. In the Czech Republic I'm planning a summer Bcross, maybe a winter one, and if the Bohemian Throwdown is organised, maybe that one too. I'll see where I stand.

Mark, thanks so much for the interview and good luck.

Thanks so much for talking to me.

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