Another year, another CrossFit Open. At the time of the blog, we are already 2/3 weeks through The Open.
…oh, hang on sec.
What is The Open?
The CrossFit Games Open is the annual, international competition that seeks to crown the fittest in the world. Go here for all the details.
This competition lets the average CrossFitter compete against the best of the best. The format changed over the years from 5 weekly workouts to 3, but the spirit is much the same – workout, submit your scores, and see if you advance to the next round.
The workouts allow you to see how close, or far away you are from the most elite worker-outers under the sun. And if you can beat them!
The workouts get harder and there are more workouts to complete through each successive round – The Open, Online Qualifiers, Semifinals, and finally, The (Insert Big Corporate Sponsor) CrossFit Games held at the end of the summer.
The CrossFit Open and DATA!
As I reflect on my own performance, I think of all of the data that are collected, and, how inherently we become trained to be more data-savvy citizens. The CrossFit Open started during the paper-and-pencil days in the early 2000s but joined the cloud-based technological fray that is our world today.
Of course, they did, or The Games wouldn’t be around anymore.
As I wrote this blog, The Games app sent me this notification asking me to read their blog on data analysis!
Common Open Workouts and Data
Time. Each workout has a time limit. The goal is often to complete a workout as fast as possible or to complete as many reps as possible (AMRAP) in that time domain.
For example, workout “23.1” required athletes to complete a 14-minute AMRAP of:
- 60/50 calorie row
- 50 Toes-to-bar
- 40 Wallball shots
- 30 Cleans
- 20 Muscle-ups
It’s a lot of work, and if you finish it all before 14 minutes is over, then you start at 60 calories again. If you’re curious, the best get back to the round 50 toes-to-bar. is complete a set workout in particular.
Weight. Sometimes there’s a magnitude component – maximum weight lifted. In last week’s workout 23.2 B, we had 5 minutes following a 15-minute workout to score a maximum load thruster. A thruster is a clean-to-overhead press in one fluid motion.
Time and weight are the common data points, but each a sliced, recombined and analyzed to force to mature our data repertoires.
Data Analysis, and Strategies
You can already tell based on that workout above that are so many variables to track and analyze: number of movements, reps completed, time domain, weight, performed as prescribed (“RX”), and overall score.
Workouts are constantly varied, per the definition of CrossFit. Regardless of the workout, we are constantly learning and fine-tuning these data strategies:
- Pacing (or Reps/minute) – How fast do I go? Do I start slow? Go fast of separate movements? How many reps per minute do I need to complete each section of the workout?
- Social Competition – Am I faster than Ray? Will Janaé kick my ass again in this workout? Who is in my heat? Can I pace off of them?
- Norm-based References – How do I stack up against the competition for this workout?
I am really impressed with this year’s CrossFit Games app updates and their improved scoreboard. I’m able to see how I rank against men overall, those in my age-group (35-39), and in my region (USA)Based on my age group.
The Open and Number 1
The CrossFit Games crew will release the final workout of the 2023 Open Season this Thursday. The pruning process will begin after next Monday’s score deadline. We start with 300,000+ athletes to crown 1 male and female champion.
While we are on this journey, our data fluency, literacy, and maturity are happening whether we realize it or not.
Exciting times are ahead!
Keep moving!
