Closeout
This year’s Open is a wrap! Congrats to all the athletes who gave full effort, got into that dark place + came out the other side better and stronger, and learned something new about themselves and are excited for their fitness future as a result.
Also, a big congrats to all our folks moving onto the next stage.
For those that did not move on, remember why you started this season and remember your effort and planning is all you can control. Many variables were outside our control this year (drop in registration, unbalanced tests, etc.) but its important to remember we were in control of what we could control and performed to our full capability. If we did that, we won.
Please take this week to recover, reflect, and do something fun, inside but preferably, outside the gym.
We’ll start a fresh cycle next week that we’ll detail a bit later in the week.
Congrats and speak soon,
Chris
Start Here
This is my 13th year competing and while not the first coaching high level athletes, it is the first time I’ve put thoughts together for a wide audience to view, share, and hopefully + perform their best from.
This a living document that will be updated as new information comes our way (workout release, testing videos from pros on youtube, live athlete feedback, etc), so check back as often as you’d like for the latest. Past this paragraph, things will be organized from newest to oldest. To each of our athletes, I wish you the very best outcomes possible this Open season - you’ve put in the work, now its time to show it!
25.3
For time:
5 wall walks
50-calorie row
5 wall walks
25 deadlifts 225/155
5 wall walks
25 cleans 135/85
5 wall walks
25 snatches 95/65
5 wall walks
50-calorie row
Time cap: 20 minutes
3/16 4:32pm PT
For athletes retesting tomorrow who are on the bubble to make semi’s, I feel you and am with you (sitting ~150 places outside looking in).
The bad news is for many divisions, we’re not seeing as many scores posted early so its a bit difficult to nail down the time needed to punch your ticket.
The good news is that, for most, there is a ton of time to makeup here with transitions and logistics aside from fitness. We’re seeing athletes start with 08 transitions and end with up to 15 seconds transitioning between movements. Clean this up and give yourself 08 on the non-rower related and 10 on the rower and you’re already likely saving 20-40 seconds.
On the fitness side, we saw diligent barbell work at the deadlift, some dropoff of discipline on the clean, and folks losing it on the snatches. There is no way around increasing the pain as we go to get a better score and for many, its going to come down to performing snatches in sets great than 1-2. Dig deep and find ways to do 3-5s each time with two big breaths in between. Use your legs on the return so your back is not quite as lit up and remember how strong you are and how light this weight is to keep your spirits up as you crush these.
We don’t recommend anything but singles on cleans for the men. Women are finding the weights lighter and their bars bouncing around a bit more, so sets of 3-5 work here. In both cases, stay disciplined following the bar back down and bringing it right back up to the shoulder. Those who hesitate lose 30-90 seconds here as it adds up fast.
Finally, for those who have no issues with 25 wall walk level volume, you need to push these when fatigued. Many took breaks because of your lungs but your shoulders can not and will not fail, so get to work and finish these so you can get onto the other work ahead. Time on the floor here is time lost.
Everyone rowed intelligently, so keep at it, no changes here, just some clean-up between them.
Walk away making yourself proud of your effort.
See you one last time on the leaderboard,
Chris
3/13 1:44pm PT
For our semi-finals bubble athletes, we did not see movements or loads show up this week that will really help us create separation from the field. That means we’ll need to get into the dark place quickly and endure for 10+ minutes to punch our ticket to the next stage. Your training has set you up to do so, so we’ve got this.
On its face, given we move light to moderate weights quickly, row often, and are good on our hands against the wall, there should be nothing in our way from constantly moving in 25.3.
Spin up quickly to just under threshold pace and hold RPE-8. Once you’re past the 25 cleans, let’s begin to speed up a bit if we can. Grind those snatches into sets for as long as possible, dropping to singles as needed so long as we’re diligent following the bar down to the floor. Again, grind those final 5 wall walks then get to the row ready to empty the tank.
Small sets on the barbell with quick rest is likely the best bet for most, but if you’re an athlete who wants to take big bites (e.g. 15/10 DL), go for it so long as you can maintain your target pace and not be blown up.
Keep your wall walks fast and efficient, taking as few steps to and from the wall as possible. Slide down the wall as your hands race to the front tape to reduce time under tension as well.
On the final row, think about phases:
0-10 cals: Gaining your composure, spinning up to RPE-8
11-30 cals: These is your most important work and where you really need to focus. Everyone will be pulling hard in the last phase, but many will ease up here. Focus in here and hit this at RPE-9 to gain an advantage.
31-50 cals: Drop the hammer and give it everything you’ve got.
Finally, mind your transitions as there are 9 of them which can add up if we’re not diligent with our equipment placement (reco the wall at center, and your bar on one side with rower on other) and hustle between movements.
More notes as more data and feedback come in.
See you on the leaderboard,
Chris
25.2
For Time:
21 Pull-Ups
42 Double Unders
21 Thrusters 95/65
18 Chest to Bar Pull-Ups
36 Double Unders
18 Thrusters 115/75
15 Bar Muscle-Ups
30 Double Unders
15 Thrusters 135/95
Time Cap: 12 Minutes
3/12 10:39am PT
A few days after the dust as has settled, a quick one. Many of you mentioned retesting Monday and not improving on Friday’s score. This is not out of the ordinary. Its a tough test to re-do after only a few days off due to its high power output requirements so don’t get down on yourself.
Also, many of you reported crushing your 2022 score (despite the bad Monday retest)! This is a huge accomplishment and should be the headline you’re replaying in your mind about wins and takeaways from last week.
Ok, that’s it - focus up on the final test of the Open.
See you on the leaderboard,
Chris
3/10 10:34am PT
We’re seeing some of the same themes from 2022 but also some new themes as well.
The same themes are for the intermediate athlete with BMU being the separator, requiring a race to that point to grab the tie-break time as well as for the elites pushing the pedal to the absolute metal where placement of equipment, clean dubs, and fast barbell cycling take center stage.
The new theme are mostly for top athletes leaned toward masters who have experience in the sport, move well, and are coming into this 3 years older with a previous all-time best level of fitness and score. We’re seeing some drop-off in times from years past which shouldn’t be a downer if this is you, but just the realization that age is a factor and you’re hopefully now in a higher age group (or about to go into one) and still ahead of the overall curve.
For all athletes retesting today, we salute you. May your times be better, your body more adapted and prepared, and your mind more capable and willing to step into the dark place with a test that gets worse the more fit and able you are.
See you on the leaderboard,
Chris
3/6 4:40pm PT
25.2 is a repeat and for most of our athletes, one that they remember well. We are trained for fran-ish Open workouts and this one is no different.
For everyone, we recommend a really thorough warm-up that really gets the heart rate pumping before 3-2-1 go. Aside, we’ve broken down 3 types of athletes and some words of advice on how to crush.
For the firebreathers who have it all, this one comes down to pushing hard from the first rep, getting into the dark place and staying there until the final thruster. All gas, no brakes.
For athlete’s with the Fran engine but have a limitation (either the BMU or the heavy Thruster), we advise coming out of the gates at RPE-8 so you have something in the tank for the late-stage movement. For that tough movement, try to keep your sets small and more than singles for as long as possible. Of course, if singles is all you have at that point, stay disciplined on your work/rest.
For athlete’s who aren’t limited by complexity or weight but have trouble with the lungs Fran-ish work requires, really don’t skip that long warm-up with appropriate high heart rate work prior to keep from spiking during the test. Then, we recommend working out a really disciplined work/rest schedule focused on small sets across to ensure you’re moving right at your maximum sustainable pace without redlining.
You’re trained for this one, now show ‘em!
See you on the leaderboard,
Chris
25.1
AMRAP 15
3 Lateral Burpees over DB
3 DB Hang Clean & Jerk 50/35
30ft (2x15) Bodyweight Lunge
*add 3 reps to the burpees and hcj after each round
3/5 1:35pm PT
25.1 is a wrap! We hope your second go-round brought you more reps. I believe every athlete of ours did it a second time and improved their score. For some (me included), cleaning up the lunges from 5 steps to 4 was a huge time savings (:04 per round) that added up to more burpees in the round of 27. Last interesting thing, Friday was lungy where as Monday was muscle fatigue as the limiting factor. We saw the dumbbell being tougher to move (more effort a quick break vs. unbroken Friday) and burpees that, when they were fatigued, broke down quickly and stayed a bit slower than Friday. If this was you, consider that for the rest of the Open and plan your attempts accordingly. OK, onto week 2!
See you on the leaderboard,
Chris
3/2 1:11pm PT
OK we now have quite a bit of data, observed live testing, and I’ve done the workout myself once so far. All said, this is a burpee density test. We’re seeing athletes slow down a bit on their burpees starting on the 15s and those who don’t have a pacing plan, coach, or way to check-in throughout the workout on this pace, fall into the trap of increasingly slow burpees which is dragging their scores down.
For re-testers, we recommend setting a pace and getting some help from someone to help you hold that pace. Your body will have adapted to the work and with a little help, we’re confident you can definitely improve.
For the dumbbell, the more you can do on the same arm, the faster. Knowing this, switch when you have to to keep from putting it down. We saw athletes switched every 3 toward the end while starting with 5-9s early.
On the lunge, if you’re performing 1/2 lunges to get to the end lines each time, play with taking longer steps from the start. If you can get 5 steps down to 4 or 6 to 5, you’ll save some extra work and bank some time you can use in your final moments for additional reps.
Finally, some pacing numbers to consider:
Finish 27s:
Rd 2: 1:15
Rd 4: 3:30 - 3:45
Rd 6: 7:15 - 7:25
Rd 8: 12:10 - 12:30
Finish Burpees on 27s:
Rd 2: 1:30
Rd 4: 4:10 - 4:20
Rd 6: 8:00 - 8:20
Rd 8: 13:45 - 13:55
Finish Round of 24s:
Rd 2: 1:40
Rd 4: 4:10 - 4:20
Rd 6: 8:20 - 8:40
Rd 8: 15:00
See you on the leaderboard,
Chris
2/27, 1:26pm PT
We are well trained and should be prepared to crush this classic threshold style test.
Most Athletes will perform best by spinning up quickly to their 90% pace, just under redline, and hold it for the duration, emptying the tank with 2-3 minute remaining. Delaying the suck until minute 9-10 likely means you paced this correctly.
The workout stops when you stop, so the key is to keep moving at all costs.
Lateral Burpees - we’ve trained multiple weeks on maintaining a target pace on our burpees. Use this training as a guide and think about the burpee in this test being your gas or brake, used to determine how fast you go based on how you feel. Its the only movement you can really push the pace on and the only movement I advise backing off on if you get into some trouble. Unless you’re challenging pro scores, you’ll want to minimally step-up (with the foot farthest away from the DB) on each rep, staying low on the hop over. Play with the step back as well in the early rounds to establish pace.
DB Hang Clean & Jerk - we’ve played with these (as recently as yesterday!) on long EMOM days in case it came up. The main difference over the more common DBS is a bit more time under tension/grippy and for more, a little longer cycle time so keep this in mind as you pace this out. We saw alternating vs. several reps on one arm. Ultimately, this is up to you and your comfort level. My recommendation to generally strong and fit athletes is to perform as many on a single arm as possible until you’re about 3 reps from burnout, then switch to the other arm. I would expect all my athletes to perform these unbroken, switching as many times as it takes. IMPORTANT - you can get the first rep off the floor straight into a clean and jerk, no pause at the hang needed, so take advantage of that.
Lunge - this is as simple as it gets. Move methodically without urgency, the work will get done in 14-16 seconds regardless so let’s use this to catch our breath before going back into the fire. Remember to stand tall at the top of each lunge to avoid a costly no-rep which requires repeating the entire 15ft length.
Example Pace / Score
295-300 Reps | 9 Rounds + some Burpees
2.5 Second Burpees
2.5 Second HCJs
15 Seconds to complete 30ft Lunges
3 Second Breaks between Movements
260-265 Reps | 8 Rounds + Burpees + some HCJ
3 Second Burpees
3 Second HCJs
15 Seconds to complete 30ft Lunges
3 Second Breaks between Movements
I’ll have more to share after more folks post online and our local crew gives it a go Friday 3pm PT.
Look for your app to refresh with Friday warm-up,primer, cooldown, and weekend work soon.
-Chris
Need help?
If you need a little more hands-on coaching or assistance, give us a shout at enter@thedarkplace.co and we’ll be happy to jump in.