Well, that was fun! It’s amazing how just adding the extra pressure of competition can turn a normal looking 15-minute AMRAP into a death trap that leaves you writhing on the floor. Looking back at the workout on paper after having done it on Friday night, it still doesn’t LOOK bad, but I sure do remember feeling a little more thrashed than usual after it was all over! For those of you that just completed your first Open WOD ever, how did it go? Exciting but terrifying at the same time beforehand, and right away during the workout it seemed like you went out way too fast and had nothing left about halfway through it? Yeah, same.
Here’s the thing about the Open – we still have to strategize on how we’re going to attack the workout in a smart way, so that we give ourselves the best chance at success. If 19.1 came up on a random Tuesday, and didn’t count for anything, would you still have rowed like a maniac in the beginning, shooting yourself in the foot for the next rounds to come? If you feel like you didn’t plan out that effort very well, understanding your own strengths and weaknesses, now you’ve learned that lesson. When 19.2 peeks it’s head around the corner on Friday, inviting you to throw caution to the wind and just go for it, take a couple minutes to dissect the workout. Try to understand it as if it was a regular workout that you wanted to maximize your result in, without the pressure of the Open. Where are you going to have a hard time? Where are your strengths that you could exploit and maybe speed up a bit? If it’s a longer workout, remind yourself to rein it in a bit in the beginning. If it’s a short sprint, make sure you get REALLY warmed up and on 3-2-1-GO you’re feeling nice and loose and ready to roll.
So, what is workout 19.2 going to look like? With only one workout behind us, it’s hard to tell. But if we assume that it will be something different than what we just did, we can try to paint a little bit of a picture, or at least rule some things out. 19.1 was a 15-minute AMRAP, that’s a mid-to-long range effort in terms of time, especially for an Open WOD. I believe that will make 19.2 a bit shorter, maybe 10 minutes or less. 19.1 was created to make the “trees” in the gym feel good about themselves, as wallballs and rowing are both a tall man’s game. Look for one or two movements in 19.2 that will put them in their place… which could mean just about anything else, but Burpees tend to lurk in the swamp of Open movements, waiting to grab unsuspecting strongmen like fitness alligators.
However, after saying all that, Dave Castro has a way of taking what everyone is expecting and going the opposite direction, and he’s got 4 more workouts to play with in order to narrow down the Fittest On Earth to invite to the Games.
What do you think CrossFit Open WOD 19.2 will be? Go check out our Instagram or Facebook page and make your guess on the 19.2 Open Guessing Game post, and you could win $30 in free CFKI swag!
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