The Ups and Downs of the Open

Hey Vic City,

There has been a lot of hype at the gym for the first Open WOD last week, let's keep that going each week as a new workout gets released. It's great to see everyone trying just that little bit harder to give their best effort in that Friday/Saturday class WOD. The in-gym competition is really shaping up too, and that has brought a new, fun twist to an already exciting few weeks.

Regardless of if you did well on 19.1 or not, there are plenty of opportunities for that to change. Each week is a new challenge and with that an unknown test. It might bring your favourite movements, it might bring your most feared (like 19.1 did for some). To perform up to your potential we need to clear the slate, and give each week our best effort, despite what our previous results were.

I know there are few Open veterans out there, so they can probably back me up on this, but since this is my 7th Open, I've certainly experienced up and downs in my 32 Open WODs and probably around two dozen redos and another handful 'reredos.'

I'll never forget how I started off one year. It was probably the worst workout for me at the time, and my score wasn't good. However, after not giving up, and going hard on all the other WODs I was able to climb the leaderboard each week and end up cutting my placing in over half. So if you are in 5000th in Canada, maybe you can chop that down to 2500th by the end.

Another year, I started off a lot better, and was in a great spot overall. After a couple less than ideal performances, I slipped down the leaderboard fairly significantly. So, if you are in 500th, giving up or thinking you are too good could cost you, and you may end up outside the top 1000 in no time.

In the end though, I finished right around where I should have been, based on my current fitness. We will likely see somewhere between 12-20 different movements over 5 or 6 scores. Just because you had a bad result in one doesn't mean you can't make up for it in coming weeks. Even if you had a great result, don't get too comfy, because it's tough to stay at the top.

Stay committed, don't get too emotional over the good and the bad, because in the end, big or small, short or tall, the fittest people end up at the top.

Adam

Zeke Cabell has always loved the wallball. Well maybe not, but he's good at them. Oscar Bravo captured Zeke back in 2015 on this Open wallball WOD. Zeke took the top score at the gym for 19.1 with 339 reps.

PS. Stay tuned for the 'Intramural leaderboard', as scores won't be finalized for 19.1 until Wednesday evening.

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Training Wednesday - Thursday

Warm-up: Alternating Partner Shuttles

P1 - Runs 3 laps shuttle run

P2 - Round 1: Air Squats,

Round 2: Plank-Pushup T Rotation

Round 3: Light DB Snatch

Skill: Thruster 5, 5, 3, 3, 3

(taken from floor or rack, build each set)

Alternate E90s with

6-10 Pull-ups (CTB/Regular/Jumping/3-6 Muscle Ups)

WOD: "Assault Intervals"

In Teams of 3, rotate through 30 seconds on Assault Bike for 12 rounds each (18 min)

*Cycle through three levels of effort, 60% - 75% - 90%

Not all intervals are to be devastating. Lower intensity work builds the system without being too stressful.