The 2017 Open is Here

Say it with me….. 7 more sleeps.

The Open goes live next week starting with our kickoff announcement on Thursday night at 9 PM. We will gather at the gym, watch the live announcement of 17.1 and announce the Intramural Teams for this year. With that in mind, we thought it was important to clear up a few questions surrounding the Open and how it will unfold at Ironstone this year.

What is the Intramural Open?

The Intramural Open is our way of turning the focus of this wonderful event on the amazing community we have inside our walls. We have split the gym into 4 teams, and have assigned athletes in a semi-random fashion using a combination of last year’s rank (if completed) in a snaking fashion and random assignment for the remainder. Each week there will be 34 points up for grabs along with a weekly participation modifier. The breakdown is as follows:

Divisional wins: 3, 2, & 1 points for 1st through 3rd in each of the 4 divisions (RX/Scaled M/F) – 24 points

Spirit: 5 points, as voted on by 1 representative from each of the 4 teams.

Sportsmanship: Chosen by the coaching staff following each week – 5 points

Participation Modifier: Every team starts at 5 points/week. For each athlete from your team who does not complete the workout in a given week by Monday night at 9 PM subtract 1 point.

Last Year the Brown Bears took home the Trophy – Who will Reign Supreme this year?

*Thank Jo for the photo*

The theme this year…….. Elements of Nature

How will each weekend work?

The Intramural Open workouts will run from 11 AM onward every Saturday for the five weeks. This is the organized time for the gym, and all athletes who can make it should be doing the Open workouts on this day. We will meet at 11 AM to brief the workout, movements standards, and any general guidelines we have. The first heat will start approximately 20 minutes 15 minutes later, so if you are in the first heat you should be here by 10:45 to start warming up. Please do your best not to miss the briefing if possible.

We will publish the heat schedule as early as we can each week on the Blog along with a recap of the previous week. If you have a specific time requirement/window for performing the workout we will do our best to accommodate but some weeks it may not be possible depending on what Dave Castro throws at us and the logistics involved.

*If this is you and you need a specific timeframe every week please email Patrick as soon as possible so he can make a list and keep track

*If you will miss a Saturday workout or are unavailable please tell atrick by Thursday night at 10 PM of that week if possible so we cna keep the heat schedule efficient.

What if I miss a Saturday? See the comment directly above + keep in mind you will be responsible for making arrangements to get the workout done before Monday night at 9 PM. You will need to get someone to agree to judge for you and follow the rules listed below.

What if I want to repeat a workout? We don’t recommend it. You should have a long think about “why” you want to repeat the workout – is it Ego? Pride? Something else? In our experience individuals rarely do better on a second attempt. it can happen that you completely approached the workout wrong, in which case it may make sense, but most of the time you are doing it to get a higher score then someone else. You should strongly consider if the points are “worth” anything compared to the repetitive volume of whatever movements are involved in the workout – especially if you are only doing this for fun and fitness. If you choose to redo workout the same rules list below will apply.

Rules for Open workouts during non-intramural times.

If you choose to do the Open workouts during a time other then the Saturday session the following rules will apply without exception:

1. You cannot do Open workouts during Class times.  They are equipment and space intensive, loud, and distracting. Not everyone in the gym is doing the Open and those who are want to move on with regular training after Saturday. This means you will be left with morning Friday Morning (10-12 AM), Friday Afternoon (1-5 PM), Sunday Morning (10-11 AM), Monday Morning (10-12 AM), and Monday Afternoon (1-330 PM). We will also be cancelling the 730 PM Monday class for the duration of the Open in order to accommodate last minute scores and attempts. We will evaluate need to introduce a Sunday afternoon session after the first week. If you only have a small window arrive early and warm up.
2. You must arrange your own judge. The coach on duty at the time cannot judge you – they need to be available to talk to walk ins, front desk ops, etc.
3. You cannot be judged by your spouse or significant other. I don’t think you would want to be anyways, but worth stating.

Score Submission

Please remember that if you want to be on the worldwide leaderboard you need to also register at games.crossfit.com – please remember to select our affiliate and the Ironstone team when you do. You must submit your score by Monday at 9 PM in order to have it validated on the leaderboard. They will not accept late submissions – do not leave it to the last minute!

For intramural scores I will take them directly from the judging sheets and will take them home Monday night at 9 PM.

Frequently Asked: Programming during the Open

During the Open we will be breaking away from our planned template. After each workout is announced we will program the Open WOD as the Saturday workout and work ahead to the following week. Expect Monday to be strength focused, Tuesday, and Wednesday to be somewhat normal, and Friday to be Active recovery programming. In the end it will always be a guessing game – if any of us think we are inside Dave Castro’s head he will prove us shockingly mistaken rest assured.

Frequently Asked: Should I do Scaled of RXd?

Some of you may be sitting in the grey zone between RX and scaled. This is a tough one, and we won’t provide any definitive guidelines here – its really an individual decision. If you are going purely for most points on the leaderboard you may choose RX, but you should really ask yourself if points are worth doing 5, 1, or even 0 reps of something and standing there for several minutes because you cannot move on. The Open can also be a great time for firsts – so it really depends on how close you really are, and that requires a level of self-awareness and honesty on your part. Safety is still a high priority for us, so we (as coaches) may still ask you to stop if it is clear you are an injury risk to yourself or others. Additionally, if the loading of a workout is very high or an exceptional volume we will give you guidelines based on % of your 1RM to help you decide. Remember, just because you scaled doesn’t mean you didn’t work hard or accomplish something. In many cases the scaled workouts are much more challenging metabolically then the RX  versions because you are able to keep moving at a fast pace. Weigh what your priority is and ask a coach for some feedback – we will help you navigate the grey zone.

 

Hope this clears up a few Questions! This is going to be a fun 5 weeks and a great time to come together as a community. Look forward to celebrating with all of you.