If you experienced the 2015 Crossfit Open, then you should not have been surprised by anything that happened during Thursday night's announcement of Open workout 16.1. A very smug Dave Castro making the announcement from South America? Check. A workout that most affiliates would struggle to accommodate due to space constraints? Check. How about the longest Open workout ever to welcome all of your new members who may be feeling intimidated about participating in this event for the first time? Check.
At least Crossfit HQ made it clear that they are heading full speed down the path they created last year. The Open is not about the community and any claims made to the contrary are patently false. The Crossfit community is amazing year-round. But the camaraderie you see during the Open could be easily replicated even if the Open didn't exist. Our gym happens to host several events throughout the year and you see how wonderful the community is during those competitions. An organization that was about the community wouldn't come up with an initial workout that made affiliate owners panic over how they were going to accommodate their members. An organization that was about the community wouldn't throw a 20-minute workout at thousands of members who had no experience with the Open and had genuine concerns about participating in the first place (most WODs aren't even 20 minutes long). An organization that was about the community wouldn't turn a deaf ear to the fact that members complained last year that there needed to be a middle ground between the RX workout (difficult) and the Scaled workout (easy). No, Crossfit HQ got caught serving two masters with the Open and they have grown to love its role in defining who should qualify for Regionals while neglecting the community that makes Crossfit so special.
I stated in an earlier blog post the steps that HQ could take to right the ship, but it appears they have no interest in going down that road. The attitude seems to be "toughen up". Maybe that will work for them, but I think it's only a matter of time before the number of people signing up for the Open begins to dwindle. Which is a shame, because it is an event that should unite the community. It is an event that should get people excited. Instead people are starting to wonder what they're paying for. They're wondering how Dave Castro will screw them in the next workout. I wasn't surprised by anything in the announcement of Open workout 16.1, but there was a small piece of me that was hoping HQ would see the light. They did not.
Ok, enough of the soapbox. Let's get into 16.1. Here is what it looked like:
Open Workout 16.1
20 minute AMRAP:
25 ft overhead walking lunge (95/65) --> 1 rep per 5 ft completed
8 barbell-facing burpees
25 ft overhead walking lunge
8 chest-to-bar pull-ups
Yeah, 20 minutes of that. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? I imagine it did to some people, but some of my most glaring weaknesses were highlighted in this workout. Remember those workouts at the end of last year where I failed miserably? Those included overhead walking lunges with a plate (45 pounds). This would be 50 pounds heavier than that, although the barbell tends to make it easier to stabilize the weight. I've always sucked at burpees, but doing them after killing my legs on the lunges and then having to jump over a barbell after each rep was only going to add to my struggles. Finally, there were chest-to-bar pull-ups. In 14.2, they were my demise. 15.2 was a repeat of 14.2 and I only did incrementally better. I had made a point of practicing these recently because I didn't want to go through that mental anguish three years in a row. 16.1 would be my progress report.
Aimee somehow managed to create 8 lanes in the gym for the workout, but there were 113 of us that needed to do it. Not everyone was going on Friday due to the MaxLift competition on Saturday, so that number ended up being closer to 90, but with heats every half hour, that meant 6 hours of heats over the course of the day. Some of those heats took place in the morning and the early afternoon, leaving 7 heats for Friday Night Lights. I suspected that the heats were going to fill up quickly and I wanted to get the workout over as soon as I could, so I got to the gym at 4:15. Warm-ups were going to begin at 4:30, with the first heat at 5:00. Surprisingly, only a couple of people had signed up for the 5:00 heat when I got there. I also got to witness Tobin and Rich A do the workout. They're both in much better shape than I am, yet they were both struggling with well over 5 minutes to go. If they were struggling at that point of the workout, would I even make it to the halfway point without falling apart? I was beginning to have my doubts.
My original goal for the workout was 7 rounds (182 reps). It was a very high number, but I had watched the Open announcement the night before and one of the participants was an "Average Joe" who didn't look like he was moving incredibly fast, but still got more than 5 rounds (143 reps) because the workout was so damn long. If I could keep a steady pace and not fall apart on the chest-to-bar pull-ups, then 6 rounds (156 reps) seemed reasonable and 7 rounds would be a nice "reach" goal. That changed after watching Tobin and Rich. Tobin made it to the beginning of his 8th round (187 reps), but Rich fell short of completing 6 rounds (150 reps). So much for getting 7 rounds. 6 rounds would be my new "reach" goal. Beating the guy from the Open announcement was my more realistic goal.
As people started to arrive, the heats began to fill up. Flounder looked at the board and began to shake his head. The earliest heat available was 6:00 and he said he couldn't stay that long. Having already locked up a spot in the 5:00 heat, I asked him if he wanted to trade. I wasn't thrilled with having an extra hour to stress about the workout, but it wasn't like I had to wait until 8:00 before going. In the meantime, I would be in the lane next to Flounder, judging Danielle during the 5:00 heat. As they got ready to go, Flounder and I began talking about chest-to-bar pull-ups. "That's right...you've never beaten me in a chest-to-bar workout", said Mr. Halpern. He was right. Flounder had kicked my butt in 14.2 and 15.2. But I was adding a new goal for 16.1: Beat Flounder in a chest-to-bar workout.
Danielle is a newer member at the gym and this was her first Open workout. She was clearly nervous about it (who isn't?), but I tried my best to reassure her that she was going to do great. Because she was. I had no doubts whatsoever. She was doing the scaled version of the workout, which substituted a front-rack walking lunge for the overhead walking lunge and jumping pull-ups for chest-to-bar pull-ups. I would say that she seemed most concerned about the jumping pull-ups. The heat got started and she had no problems with the walking lunge. She had a nice steady pace through the burpees, but she was making long jumps to get over her barbell, almost like she was broad jumping. It wasn't until round 3 that I got her attention to stop for a second, take a step up to the barbell after each burpee, and take a much smaller hop over the barbell. And from that point on, she would flash a smile each time she jumped over the barbell.
Those scary jumping pull-ups? They took some getting used to for Danielle, but once she realized that she could handle them, she began cruising through them, getting stronger as the workout went on. Danielle completed her final full round nearly as fast as she had completed her first round. She got 11 reps into the 9th round to finish with a score of 219.
I got ready for my heat while the 5:30 heat took place. I watched some of it, with Keithie and Gordy blazing through round after round. When they were done crushing 16.1, it was time for me to go. Jason volunteered to be my judge. I let him know that I had no intention of trying to string chest-to-bar pull-ups, making it pointless to use the high bar. If I was going to be in pain for 20 minutes, I would be doing singles on the low bar. And clearly this workout was a testament to how much pain you could tolerate. I thought back to the Sisson workout and how I had managed to maintain a steady pace for 20 minutes while wearing a weight vest. Same idea here. Don't rush it. Keep moving and everything will be fine.
In the lane next to me was Jon P. Jon is a bit like an older version of Matt B in that we tend to have similar scores/times, but more often than not Jon ends up doing a little better than I do. Having him alongside of me was good because it would fuel the competitive side of me. Of course, the flip side was that Jon could start lapping me during the workout, crushing me mentally and leading me to a terrible score. Let's not think about that.
I honestly tried to keep this workout as simple as possible, but I definitely made some errors early on with regard to the lunges. Our heat started and while everyone else began walking down their lane, I was still fidgeting with how I was going to hold the bar. I thought doing a clean and jerk would be easier than snatching the barbell, saving me some energy in the process. However, the barbell didn't feel right over my head based on how I was holding it. Then I began lunging slowly down my lane, making sure my knee hit every time. When I reached the other end, I saw that everyone else was already working on their burpees. I put that out of my mind. I wasn't fast with my burpees, but I kept a steady pace. As I lunged back down my lane, Jon was about 15 feet in front of me, a position he would be in for most of the next 20 minutes.
I got to my bar and began the quick singles on the chest-to-bar pull-ups. I was kipping strongly to ensure that my chest hit the bar. It was probably a bit of overkill early on and it took a lot of energy to do, but I couldn't let myself get in the mindset that the chest-to-bar pull-ups were going away. If I no-repped, I was going to wonder whether my workout was coming to an end early. Better to hit that bar confidently and get to the next round. I finished round one and began round two. Another awkward clean and jerk followed by slow lunging as I saw Jon up ahead of me. I completed my second round of burpees at about the same pace as my first round. I tried to breathe the whole time, knowing that this was a long workout and I couldn't afford to be winded early on. I lunged back down my lane, did 8 more chest-to-bar pull-ups and had two rounds done. Flounder had not completed two rounds, so one of my goals had been achieved. Jason commented that I had an awesome pace going, but I was worried due to the fact that I was breathing heavily already. A glance at the clock showed a time of 5:56. I was on pace to complete 6 rounds, but I'd have to hold it together for the next 14 minutes. Not likely, but possible.
At the start of round three, I changed things up. The clean and jerk wasn't working. The slow and steady lunge wasn't working. It was time to snatch the barbell and charge down my lane like someone was chasing me. If I fell over, so be it. But I knew the burpees were already becoming difficult and I didn't have a ton of faith that I'd hold on to my chest-to-bar pull-ups for 14 more minutes. I needed to make up some time on the lunges. Jason had told me I was taking nine steps each time down the lane, which helped me out. I had also been told before my heat that it was important to never look down while lunging. Gotta keep staring straight ahead. So when round three began, I snatched the barbell, focused my gaze at the whiteboard in front of me, and told myself to take 9 steps. I moved much quicker and it got me thinking that there was still a chance that I could catch Jon. The only problem is that those damn burpees did get harder, so whatever time I was making up on the lunges was being lost on the burpees. I wasn't losing much time on the chest-to-bar pull-ups, but those were slowing down too. At least I wasn't no-repping yet. With three rounds complete, the clock was around 9:30. My third round was 3:30. To finish 6 rounds, I would need to hold that pace for three more rounds. Not looking good.
Rounds four and five were more of the same. Very fast lunges. Slow burpees. Lots of effort thrown into kipping the chest-to-bar pull-ups, but I was too far into the workout to deal with the words "no rep" constructively. There was only one rep during this whole time where I wasn't 100% certain that I hit the bar with my chest. I thought I grazed the bar with my chest on that rep, but I was worried I'd finally hear the dreaded "no rep". My initial instincts were correct though, as Jason said "good" and kept pushing me along. With five rounds down, I was still about 15 feet behind Jon. There was just under 3 minutes left. Could I find one more burst to finish six rounds?
I charged down my lane one more time with the intention of going all out on the burpees in a frantic attempt to finish the sixth round. But there was no spring left in my legs. The barbell was only a few inches off the ground, but it felt like I needed to summon all of my energy to jump over it. My breathing was frantic and each burpee was making it worse. I heard there was only one minute left. Jon had headed back down his lane as I tried to finish my burpees. When I completed the 8th one, I needed a couple seconds to get my bearings before snatching the barbell.
Let's pretend this was my final lunge down my lane
Time was running out and there was no chance I was catching Jon at this point. I had been chasing him for the better part of 20 minutes, remaining almost exactly the same distance behind him the whole time. I got the barbell over my head and started moving. I was a little wobbly, but I refused to look down and I refused to drop the barbell. Nine steps later and I was nearly done. It was time to do as many chest-to-bar pull-ups as I could before time expired. I did one, then needed a break. I was nearing the point of throwing up and I didn't want to lose my lunch right then and there. Jason yelled there was 15 seconds left, so I did a second rep. One more breath, then a third rep. "Three seconds, get back up there!" Not a chance. I was spent and it would have taken me longer than three seconds to do another rep anyway. Final score: 151.
How did I feel about that? Extremely self-critical Dave wasn't thrilled at first. I had made some obvious mistakes early on in the workout that probably cost me some reps. I fell just short of completing six rounds. I fell just short of catching Jon. But perhaps I am more self-critical when I am tired and dehydrated. Once I pulled myself together and got some water, I realized a few things. I had finally beaten Flounder in a chest-to-bar workout. I had even beaten Rich by 1 rep! (Pretty sure I'd never beaten him in a workout prior to this.) I had done 43 chest-to-bar pull-ups in this workout, surpassing my previous best of 34 reps. The positives outweighed the negatives by a lot. I'm always going to find ways I could have done better, but if I don't stop and appreciate those times when I've done really well, then I'm never going to be happy. So as far as my goal of having 3 good Open workouts this year goes, I am happy to say that I'm one-third of the way there.
With my agony out of the way, I got to enjoy what I love most about the Open: watching my classmates compete. Shawna seemed to doubt her ability to do chest-to-bar pull-ups, but she kept making one attempt after another, getting 17 of them while nearly finishing up three rounds of the workout RX. I got to judge Matt B during his heat, which was especially fun because I got to give him shit twice during the workout. (He forgot to jump over the bar after one burpee and I had to move him back to the last 5 ft mark he passed during the lunges when he dropped the barbell at one point. He was not pleased with me either time.) I got to watch a bunch of people from the recently completed New Year, New You program sign up for the Open at the last moment, unafraid to take on this beast. I saw Cline attempt (in his words) "roughly 337 failed chest-to-bar pull-ups", never giving up until twenty minutes had elapsed. But the show-stopper for the first edition of Friday Night Lights was Steph C. Initially refusing to do the RX version of the workout, she finally gave in and said she would try her best to do the overhead lunges and the chest-to-bar pull-ups. When the clock stopped twenty minutes later, she had completed 3 full rounds along with 1 final lunging march down her lane for a score of 83.
Weekend preview: Needing a day off after 16.1, Saturday becomes a rest day. But Annie was programmed on Saturday! No worries, I can do it at home on Sunday. Also, sweat + KBs = Dave futility in Monday's WOD.
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