Transition Time

Hey Vic City,

We made it! Five long and gruelling weeks are done, and we are better for it. The overall leaderboard won't be finalized until this Wednesday at 5pm, so you have a few more days to see how everything is going to shake out. Next week I plan on doing a leaderboard summary of our Vic City athletes, so also stay tuned for that.

The leaderboard is a good indicator of where we stand with our current fitness. However, even after our best effort on any given WOD, we wonder where we could have improved. What if we went unbroken? Is that the best possible score we could do? Maybe yes, but also maybe no. In a WOD, especially like the one we just experienced in 17.5, there are 19 transitions (10 after the thrusters and 9 after the double unders). That is 19 opportunities to do one of two things - rest or work. Taking 8 seconds in transition instead of 4 will add 1 minute and 14 seconds onto your score after the 10 rounds, and that is if two athletes were both to go unbroken and had the same rep speed across the entire workout. 8 seconds is still a pretty quick transition time for this WOD, especially near the end, it may feel like 8 seconds but you may be surprised to know it was closer to 20-30 seconds before you started onto your next set, and were back to accumulating reps. That is fine, because I'm sure that everyone pushed themselves to their physical limits. However, in the future, we now know transitions are often an overlooked part, and are sometimes the difference between a good and a great WOD score.

If you watched the Open announcement with Katrin and Sara, you noticed how fast that they can transition. It was fast, but I would say at times, it was rather frantic. An athlete that I'm assuming put up a great overall time on this WOD is Lucas Parker. Luc has been posting snippets of his Open WODs on his YouTube channel. Check out his 17.5 effort and notice the relaxed approach combined with his arguably flawless transitions. He posted his first five rounds, and he got there at 3:23, the time that many of us were closing out that second round. Notice the rope placement and how he alternates which direction he faces, based on where his rope is oriented.

Celebrate your victories and begin to reflect on the competition.

Cheers,

Adam

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Training Monday - Tuesday

Warm-up: 3 rounds with an empty barbell: 8 deadlift, 8 hang power clean, 6 push press. Rest briefly between rounds.

Skill WOD: Power Clean and StO - 2 reps OTM x 10 min

Choose a sustainable weight, 65-70% 1RM clean and jerk

WOD: 10 minute Cindy

Start quickly and run through on a steady pace. Break the pushups early to keep them consistent.

Rx: 10 minutes for max reps of: 5 pullups, 10 HR pushups, 15 squats

TG: ring rows, modified pushups

FG: Assisted pullups

Comp: 12/20lb weight vest