Upper East Side

A step-by-step guide to planning and executing a workout strategy from Carissa Mueller.

The 2015 open is upon us! All of us want to win. Yes, I said the w-word. There is such thing as “winning” in CrossFit, and it doesn’t mean getting the fastest time. “Winning” means knowing yourself well enough to see what’s possible, crafting the strategy that’s right for you, then executing it flawlessly.

Before I give away all the secrets, you need to know two things:
1. This isn’t easy to do. It takes time, experience, and practice to get right. Those of you who know me well can surely think of specific times when I didn’t follow my own advice. This is just an approach that all of us are learning to master every day.
2. Anything you read here (or elsewhere) applies differently to everyone. So, that means it’s up to you to figure out how to make it work. Good luck!

Take a snapshot
Start by getting a sense of what you’re up against. Let’s look at 15.1, for example: 9 minutes of 15 toes to bar, 10 deadlifts and 5 snatches followed by a 1-rep max clean and jerk. OK, translation: 9 minutes of holding onto things. Cool. Then, lift something heavy. Got it. Try not to get hung up on thoughts like, “I thought the Open never had heavy lifts!” or “Ugh if only it was 15 DL and 10 TTB instead!” ‘Cause it does, and it’s not. So have those thoughts, because we all will, and then realize it’s going to suck for exactly a 15-minute period of your entire life and move on.

Plan your pace and rep scheme
Once you get a sense of what you’re up against, decide how you want to move through this thing. Think about your strengths and weaknesses. You want to move more quickly on movements you can recover from quickly, and spend more time on those you’ll need more rest to do.

You also want to think about your general rep schemes. For example, just because 15.1 says 15 TTB doesn’t mean you have to do all 15 in a row (nor, pro tip, should you). Just because it’s only 5 snatches doesn’t mean you shouldn’t break those up, too. Here is where your logbook will come in handy. Look back at the last time you did these movements. How did you break up those reps? Was that the right rep scheme? Could you have gone faster?

Get specific
A lot of people skip this step, and I don’t think that’s smart — especially if the workout seems deceptively simple or impossibly hard. Let’s stick with the 15.1 example. You might have thought, “Omg deadlifts at 105/75? I totally GOT this!” That’s your first clue. I guarantee you Dave Castro, Coach Jenna, or whoever programmed your WOD didn’t accidentally forget that 105/75 is light. There’s a catch; there’s always a catch. Your job is to figure out what it is.

I recommend literally assigning a number of seconds to every rep in the workout. Also decide how much time it will take you to transition from one movement to the next, and if you break up the reps, how much time you need between sets. Add up the times and figure out a target number of reps (or, if the workout is task priority, target time). Then, take a step back and evaluate. Does this sound right? Realize how many total reps you have yourself doing. In 15.1, for example, if you’re aiming for 4 rounds, you’ll need to do 60 TTB, 40 DL, and 20 snatches.

Is it possible for you to do that many reps at the pace you’ve laid out? Is it too easy? Does doing this many reps change your rep scheme? Ask yourself questions like these, and make edits to your plan as needed. Repeat this process as many times as you need until you feel confident that your plan gets the best possible score for you. This is where you will realize things like, in 15.1, doing your TTB in fast singles may only take 12 seconds more than doing them in perfect sets of 5, so you might want to switch to singles as soon as you need 5 extra seconds to rest (pro tip #2).

Practice
Practice teaches your body what it will feel like to execute your plan. There are lots of ways to practice, and you don’t always need to run through the entire thing. You could run through half of it. You could run through the whole thing with mimed movements. You could try a set of 1, 5, 10, 15, etc. reps just to see how long they will take. Or, you could simply close your eyes and imagine yourself moving through this workout the way you planned. Basically, look at your plan, decide what you’re not sure about, then come up with a way to test it. Find a way to convince your body that it can do what you believe it can do.

Upload your mindset
Getting mentally ready doesn’t mean thinking, “OK, I HAVE to do well.” I mean … duh. It means anticipating the challenges and adapting the mindset you need to push through each one. At some point during this workout, your body is going to be like, “eh, nah.” It will do everything it can to derail you. It will try to get you to stop to fix your clothes or adjust your equipment. It will make bargains with you, like “just get through these 3, then you can take an extra rest” No. Your mind needs to be ready to shut that down. You do not have time in a 9-minute workout to figure out the best way to do that, so figure it out now.

Imagine yourself doing this workout. Identify every part that will be difficult, and admit what someone could say to you to get you to do it anyway. Everyone has a trigger that can get you to do almost anything. Only you know what yours is. Think about it, and remember it, because this is what you need to say to yourself when your body is doing everything it can to avoid your brilliant plan. Do not rely on your coach, your friends, or the music to take you there. Go to that place now so you know how to get back there later.

Execute!
Once you make a plan and ready your mind, there’s nothing left to do but to do it.  At 3-2-1-GO, every part of your being needs to become immediately hell bent on executing your plan. You do not need to become a wild animal released from its cage. Think more along the lines of a roller coaster ride. It’s fast and crazy, but it moves along a carefully crafted track at pre-determined speeds. Stay calm. If the person next to you is doing their TTB in sets of 15, don’t freak out and suddenly decide that you should too. Play your own game, and know that everyone else is just playing theirs. Then, when you hit that point in the workout where you feel like death, don’t panic. Remember that you knew this was coming. So don’t get mad about it. Just unleash the mindset that you prepared. Trust that you know yourself and what you can achieve, and say whatever you need to say to your body to convince it that you’re right.

Reflect
Is this the last time you’ll do this WOD? Probably. Is it the last time you’ll see these movements or this rep scheme? Not a chance. Write down everything you remember. That’s how you’ll know how to strategize the next one.​