Friday 3/8/13 - 13.1 cometh!

13.1 – Prep work followed by thoughts on 13.1 (READ)

Thorough warm-up

Mobilize hips to improve setup for snatch, mobilize shoulders to improve lockout position for snatch

Snatch: work up to whatever weight you think you will get to – do no more than 6-10 reps at each weight – do no more than 20 total snatches here – ***if you think you will need to get lower or do a full snatch at a certain weight, make sure you are doing about 5 reps of that positioning with the lighter weight (go to full snatch with 135/75 before you get to the 165/100 etc)

Conditioning prep: 50 double unders, 8-12 burpees AFAP, 8-12 snatches (75/45), 50 double unders, 8-12 burpees AFAP, 6-10 snatches (135/75), 50 double unders, 8-12 burpees AFAP, 4-8 snatches (165/100), [OPTIONAL – 50 double unders, 8-12 burpees AFAP, 1-2 snatches (210/120)] - PRACTICE THE LOADING AND UNLOADING OF PLATES AND CLIPS

Thoughts on 13.1:

After seeing about two dozen people run through this workout, here is what I would suggest.

This workout is long.  I like to think of CF competition workouts in how analogous their time domains are to running events.  I think the human body was built to run and, therefore, it is the most cardiovascular-ly and physiologically efficient form of “exercise” in terms of comparing efforts.  17 minutes is a 5k.  The elites will have finished their 5k and had 2-5 minutes to spare.  So this is a LONG workout.  Do not let the 17 minutes fool you in to thinking anything else.

Your warm up should mimic a 5k warm-up.  Spend 5-10 minutes doing something aerobic: jump rope, row, bike, or jog.  After that, grab a barbell and warm your snatch up.  Spend most of your time with the empty barbell, but progress to whatever weight you think will be your last successful bar.  Do no more than 4 or 5 snatches at each actual weight.  Set your bar down WHERE YOU WANT IT FOR THE WORKOUT along with all the extra plates, clips, chalk, etc.  Do 2 or 3 really quick 10 second HARD efforts like pulling on a rower or, since we are doing burpees here, some fast burpees.  Finally, sit down and rest for 2-5 minutes to bring the heart rate back down and focus on your pacing strategy.  Go over each section of the workout in your mind during this time.

3…2…1…GO! Do not, do not, DO NOT come out too hard on this workout.  It will be VERY easy to pace your burpees 150% too fast.  Have your math worked out and tell your judge to update you at the 30s and 1 minute mark so you can check your burpees/minute pace.  Stick to your pace.  What should your pace be?  That depends on your fitness level and burpee efficiency.  If your gas tank is like Shane Glarrow’s, you can pace your burpees at 15-20/minute.  If you know that the snatches will be the hardest part for you, set a slower pace.  12 burpees a minute is ONE burpee every FIVE seconds.  That is SLOW, but it is where some of your will need to be for success on snatches.  REMEMBER, each of you are at different levels so your pacing will be different.  Don’t group think this thing…

This workout is a bunch of burpees with progressively harder snatches.  You need to begin your burpees at the same pace you intend to keep on your last set of burpees before you get to a barbell (meaning if you aren’t getting back to a bar, your pace on burpees can/will be obviously faster).  Keep your HR or effort level around 80% during the burpees.  You will be breathing hard, but you can sustain your work rate even with panicked breathing.  Burpee efficiency will be key here.  Do not burpee too far under your jump target or you will be craning your neck up every time to touch.  Begin and end your burpee with feet hip to shoulder width apart.  Landing wide is fine when you don’t have an overhead target, but it is inefficient when you must jump to something high.  I really suggest playing with a breathing strategy for your burpees.  In 12.1 last year I found exhaling when my chest hit the floor, exhaling when I brought my feet back up, and exhaling for a 3^rd time once I landed from my jump to the bar was PERFECT…for me.  This has you really oxygenating the tissues right from the get go.  I kept that pattern the entire seven minutes and would absolutely do it again here.  Last thing on burpees is where to rest as you will inevitably be resting at some point.  There is only one spot: standing upright.  Do not rest on the floor, and really try not to rest bent over hands on knees.  Both limit oxygen uptake, and the former can really hurt you psychologically.

Snatches are where this event will be won and lost.  Every snatch at 165/100 will be many tens or hundreds of places.  One snatch at 165 for the men of Central East means moving from 80^th to 50^th, and that is with almost 72 hours left to post scores.  All 30 snatches at 165 would move you from 80^th to 4^th (obviously this is still early, but the differences will still be extreme).  Your back and legs will be pumped more than you think from the burpees.  Set up needs to be the exact same every time.  Drive your knees out wide, hips low, HEAD and chest UP.  Keep that bar close and POWER snatch every rep.  Do not muscle snatch – not even on the first bar.  Save your shoulders by getting back under the bar even just a little bit.

75/45 should be done in big chunks.  Some of you will do 2x15, some 3x10, maybe some 1x10 + 4x5.  Whatever it is, the less wasted effort the better.  Moving your feet around bleeds power and time.  Not bringing the bar back down close to your body, not driving your hips BACK and knees WIDE on your way back down to the ground bleeds torque.  Do not bleed!  Light snatches mean perfect efficiency.  So once again: no foot movement, bar close, load posterior chain and hips by sending hips back and knees wide, and keep the head and chest up.

If you are going to need to drop lower for your catch on 135/75, start dropping lower at rep 25 on the first bar.  If you need to be in a half squat for your first snatch at 135/75, you better dang well be in a half squat on your last couple reps of 75/45!  Just like you can’t magically warm-up a power clean to 275 and then expect to drop under a full clean at 315, you need to prepare your body and mind for what you will need to do on that NEXT bar.

135/75 sets will depend, once again, on your level of fitness and snatching ability.  I want you to chunk them up because the torque and loading you can build by touching and going is significant.  Can you do sets of 5?  3?  At least strive for doubles as that second rep’s efficiency will be augmented by your loading of the touch and go.  Caveat is that some people just cannot do doubles here.  That means you are hoping to get through this set and finish the 20 burpees.  No problem, drop from the top, settle the bar if you are using 15s as they jump all over the place, reset hips down head and chest up AND GO!

IMPORTANT NOTE for those of you that will absolutely not get a rep at 165/100!  The tie breaker is elapsed time to finish sets of snatches.  If you know you can’t hit 165/100, CRUSH the last 6-10 at 135/75 so your finish time on that set is faster than normal.  You can smoke 20 burpees even if your HR is at 100% levels.  The important thing for you is to KILL the last several reps to ensure a quicker set finish time than someone else.

165/100 will probably be singles for all but the very strongest of you.  What we lose on doubling up, we need to make up for with getting back on the bar.  This will likely be the last few minutes of the workout, so it is alright for you to redline here.  Don’t miss a snatch if you are capable, but know that you should push your pace to higher than sustainable levels at the very end.

If you finishish 165/100, the 10 burpees will hurt but can be completed in 30-40 seconds.  Every rep here is HUGE.  No one should be defeated by burpees as the clock is running down.  You get a BIG rest once the timer goes beep.

***LAST THING!  The first workout is also the workout with the most people submitting their scores.  That means that 1 rep here means a lot more than 1 rep on any forthcoming workout.  If there was ever a workout to blow out of the water, this is it.  Remember that in the final 2 or 3 minutes of this beast!!

If you have any questions or concerns, please post to comments.  Utilize Miss J, CBo, CGreg, and Mark for their expertise.  They may have a slightly different take on certain parts, but we all understand people are at different levels and this is a very good blanket strategy for everyone.