CrossFit Open 19.2

I watched the Australian announcement of Open workout 19.2. I feel like they could have been a bit more clear with the announcement, since this workout is essentially exactly like 16.2, but with a change to where the first time cap cutoff is. So it was a repeat, but it took some time for me to figure that out, watching the announcement.

Both workouts have the same 5 rounds of 25 toes to bar, 50 double unders, and a descending rep scheme of squat cleans with increasing weights. But in 16.2, you had 4 minutes to complete the first round, and if you couldn’t, then your workout was over. And every round you completed got you an additional 4 minutes to a total of 20. In 19.2, same weights, same rep scheme, but you get 8 minutes to finish the first 2 rounds, and then 4 additional minutes for each additional round completed, to 20 minutes.

I looked up my score for 16.2, and found that I had performed the workout scaled and gotten 253 repetitions. The scaled version has the same rounds and reps, but hanging knee raises instead of toes to bar, single unders instead of double unders and lower weights for the squat cleans. That 253 reps meant that I made it to the cleans in round 3, but couldn’t complete a single one of them. For scaled, the cleans were 15 reps at 55 pounds, 13 reps at 75 pounds, 11 reps at 95 pounds, 9 reps at 115 pounds and 7 reps at 135 pounds.

Last month, I had managed to do three power cleans, touch and go, at 115 pounds, so I felt pretty confident that I could beat my prior score. By how much would depend on how much my lungs chose to cooperate with my desire to exercise hard. I woke up on Sunday morning with a head full of snot, so I wasn’t entirely optimistic on my chances to get to the really heavy weights.

I signed up for the 9:30 am heat, but since I live so close and don’t have other Sunday morning obligations, I showed up early enough to help judge the 8:30 am heat. During the 9 am heat, I was warming up. And then it was my turn.

Despite advising my friends to break up the hanging knee raises, I did the first round unbroken. I mean, I have been training my grip extensively for the past three years, so it made sense to just go for it. And I did the 55 pound cleans in 3 sets of 5. Neither of those things lasted. I started breaking up the hanging knee raises and doing singles on the cleans for the very next round, which I got through without too much drama.

And then it was time for the 95 pound cleans, that weight that I couldn’t move three years ago in this workout (and with my time, I would have made it to this round even under the 16.2 time rules). I did singles, but I got through every rep and earned another 4 minutes of torture.

I do think, if my lungs had been a little bit less congested, that I would have been able to finish 9 cleans at 115 pounds, because I had 3 and a half minutes to do it. But that was not to be on Sunday. Instead, I got 4 reps, power cleaning and then front squatting to make it count.

A total of 343 reps, an improvement of 90 reps over three years. I guess CrossFit works 🙂

This repeat couldn’t have come at a better time for me. I’ve been feeling a bit down and panicked because I’m gaining weight on the scale. But this proves that what I’m gaining isn’t necessarily what I had the last time I was this weight. There’s a time for gaining and a time for trying to cut fat. Right now, I’m gaining muscle, and in April or May I’m going to shift focus and try to get some good running in to complete preparation for the Spartan Race. That should help with cutting fat and at the next Open in October, I might surprise myself again.