Competing in the Open is not just about throwing yourself into a WOD without any strategic or tactical thought on how best to approach it. Each of us has our strengths and our weaknesses and you need to think about each of those, and what the WOD requires, to plan your best attack. You also need to have some awareness of how long various exercises takes you – not just the total time it takes you to complete WODS, but how many seconds the component parts take. Let’s consider that idea in terms of the first WOD in the Open.
Open WOD 14.1 is a 10-minute AMRAP of 30 double-unders and 15 power snatches – which means you have 600 seconds of total work time and 45 total reps you must complete per round.
Breaking down the WOD like that can help you to start thinking strategically about your approach – assuming you have been paying attention over the course of your training not simply to the total WOD times, but also how long it takes you to complete the component parts of a WOD – like how many seconds does 30 DU take you? How long to do 15 power snatches?
So picking a target pace based on how quickly it takes you to complete the component parts is the easiest way to pick a target you want to hit and make sure you stay on track.
For example, if you can do 30 DUs in 20 sec and 15 power snatches in 50 sec you should hit 300 total reps for the wod. That will also let you grab a quick glance at the clock after each round to see where you are and if you are on pace.
Here’s a breakdown of some possible times and the total reps you should hit if you stick to those times:
15sec dbl/45sec power sn equals 450reps
20sec dbl/50sec power sn 385
25sec dbl/55sec power sn 337
30sec dbl/60sec power sn 300
Pick a target “pace per round” and stay above that threshold.
If you have not been paying attention to timing the component parts of WODs during your training, don’t worry about it. Pick a pace that you think is reasonable and see if you can maintain it. There are tons and tons of tips and tricks and strategies for competing in CrossFit, you can’t learn them all at once. So if this is the first time you have thought about the breakdown of a WOD in this way, just embrace it as the next bit of learning and GO FOR IT!
