Ladies & Germs,
For those of you entering CRASH-Bs, registration is open. Go here to register. There are various age categories, and there are three weight categories: coxswain (120lbs or under for women, 130lbs. or under for men); lightweight (135 lbs. or under for women, 165 lbs. or under for men); and heavyweight (no weight cutoff).
The best thing CrossFitters can do to prepare for CRASH-Bs is row row row. To that end, I recommend doing at least three rowing workouts a week. Below is a list of four workouts. You can do one of each of them per week for the next four weeks. ONLY DO ONE OF THESE WORKOUTS IN ONE SESSION.
Workout # 1
2 x 20 min./5 min. rest @ 16 stroke rate. Maximal effort. But if you go above 16 (stroke rate) you defeat the purpose. For one thing, you will overtire yourself, and for another you’ll not benefit technique-wise.
Workout# 2
2-3 x 11 min./5 min. rest @ 20 for 3 min., 24 for 2 min., 28 for 1 min., 24 for 2 min., and 20 for 3 min.
Workout# 3
3 x 2000m/5 min. rest @ 20 sec. slower than your PR. So if your PR is 8:00.0, go for 8:20.0 or under. No ratings guidelines/caps; you’ll probably find that 25-27 will be good. Hit the same target for each and every piece. If you get 8:20.1, it doesn’t count, and you redo the following week. If you can 8:20.0 or under, you can shoot for 8:17 or something like that the next time. If you easily hit 8:15 each time, then you’re in better shape than you’d realized and you need to lower the target to, say 8:10.
Workout# 4
40 min. easy. No stroke guidelines. For the pace you normally go for 2 x 20 min., go AT LEAST 10 sec. slower per 500m split. So if you go about 2:20 for 2 x 20 min., go 2:30 and slower. To put it another way: if you feel like completely sloughing this workout, that’s fine. Go for it. Just be consistent – don’t let your stroke rate or your splits wander all over the place, like from 2:30 to 2:10 to 2:40. If time allows, this is a great workout to do after dead lifts, squats, etc. You can think of it as an extended cool-down. This at workout #1 are going to be the best ways for you to home in on the technique.
Just to spice things up, if you’re up for it, in addition to the above four workouts, do this:
Workout# 5
2 x (4 x 500m/2 min.) / 5 min. This means: four 500m pieces with 2 min. rest between them. After the fourth 500m piece, take 5 min. rest. Then repeat. No ratings guidelines/caps for this workout. You’ll probably be around 28-34.
We will do more of workout #5 in January, so if you feel like holding off on it, that’s fine.
Please remember to be consistent. For instance, for workout #5, don’t let your numbers be too different from each other. You don’t want to be a hero only for two of the pieces; so if you feel you have to restrain yourself at the beginning so that you can do better when you’re tapped, that’s good. The goal is to raise the bar across the board. In other words, you want to improve ALL of those 500s each time you do the workout, not just a couple.
I’ll post something like this on the website shortly. Please let me know if you have any questions. I’d like to organize workouts at the Lyceum so we can get groups together. And I’d like to do the workouts too.
Articles and Resources:
“Rowing a 2K Race”, by Nick Peterson