It is here. 5 weeks of craziness that is called The CrossFit Open have begun on Friday. It is a crazy time that makes us nervous about what Dave Castro will come up with for the first half of the week and the other half we discuss with what strategy we are going to approach the workout. There is no time for anything else.
Let’s have a look on how every week will look like:
Monday-Thursday
We follow Dava Castro’s Instagram account and we try to figure out, what will happen on Friday. We also analyze workouts from previous years and we train movements that we cannot do, because you can still make it up in 4 days.
Friday at 2am
The workout is published! Some people watch the Live Announcement or set up their alarm just to quickly see what the workout is. At this moment everybody starts thinking about how to perform the best in this workout. For me it is the moment of nervousness, because I start thinking about how to structure my classes that start at 6am, which is in 4 hours 🙂
Friday 6am – Saturday 2pm
This is the time that is allocated at our gym for doing the Open WODs. Try to organize your time, so that you can come to one of our classes on Friday. All day Friday we will be doing CrossFit Open as a WOD in every class. You will have a choice between normal WOD and the Open WOD on Saturday. There will be a warm up, talk about standards of the workout and division into 2 groups in every group class. One group is working out, the other is judging and then they exchange. Starting with 2nd week of the Open, we will have a “team face off” in different category every week: women scaled, women Rx, men scaled, men Rx. Captain of every team will choose a member that will compete in their category against 3 athletes from other teams.
Saturday 2pm-?
This is your time to relax in our WOD & REST DINER. From our experience from last year, it is better to not plan anything else for the rest of Saturday 😀
Tuesday 2am
This is your deadline for score submission to your profile at games.crossfit.com. It is your own responsibility and your coach will not do that for you. I recommend adding a reminder into your calendar;) After this you can update the leaderboard to find out how are you doing compared to the rest of the world. A great thing is that you can compare to other members of our gym as well as your friends e.g. from the USA or top athletes like Christmas Abbott or Mat Fraser.
Now that we know how every week will look like, let’s talk about how you should prepare during the week:
- Plan your rest day
Everyone has got some training routine. You should adjust it during the Open depending on when you want to perform the Open WODs. One day of rest before the Open WOD should be a minimum. If you feel like you cannot do it, try doing a light activity in slow tempo: run, walk or swim. Leave the heavy weights and max attempts for Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday should be more about light aerobic activity.
- Plan your food
You should know what food makes you feel good and what food makes you feel bloated and heavy. You should start thinking about what are you going to eat until the next Open workout on Friday or Saturday right after every Saturday party. Does alcohol, gluten or lactose have a negative effect on how you feel? Try to minimize your intake of these during the days leading up to the Open WOD. What supplements help you perform better or improve your recovery? Use them in your diet. Also, do not forget that your last meal should be at least 2 hours before the workout.
- Give it your all!
We have “one and done” rule at CFC. Since nobody has got ambitions to qualify for the Regionals, the Open is mainly about building community for us. That does not mean that we do not want to perform well! We just do not do workouts 2 or 3 times because it does not make much sense. So get yourself properly motivated before every workout, think about strategy, listen to experience of your team colleagues, put on the right shoes and equipment, wear your lucky t-shirt and give it your all!