CrossFit Open 19.1 Recap: Not for Shorties

When I heard the announcement for the CrossFit Open 19.1 workout, my first thought actually wasn’t “Dave Castro hates short people.” It was a very simple, “Oh crap.”

I went to the box to hear the announcement and help judge heats on Thursday night. So I’m sitting there, and fiddling with my phone to get the CrossFit Open 19.1 announcement to stream, and I can’t. So I end up hearing it secondhand:

OPEN 19.1
15-min. AMRAP:
19 wall-ball shots
19-cal. row
M 20-lb. wall ball
W 14-lb. wall ball

Well, crud. I can handle a 14-lb. wall ball. Not well, but I can. And I knew that if I went scaled with a 10-lb. wall ball, I’d still get a not-fabulous score because of the rower. This is not a workout made for anyone under 5’4″ tall. I made the decision to go RX almost immediately.

Preparing for CrossFit Open 19.1

I spent some time Friday devising a strategy to tackle the CrossFit Open 19.1 workout. It looks deceptively simple, and not like a long time, but I had to remember that:

1. It’s just two movements: wall balls and a row. That leaves plenty of time to go back and forth between the target and the rower.
2. With 15 minutes, that means it’s really easy to burn out on the first round or so, and I wanted to keep a steady pace for the full 15 minutes.

So I devised a strategy: 7,6,6 (or 5,5,5,4) on the wall balls, depending on how bad it went. And I planned to keep a steady pace on the rower. I figured I could get about four rounds, or 152 reps, in before the 15 minutes were up.

19.1: Saturday Morning

I signed up for the second heat at the box on Saturday morning to do the CrossFit Open 19.1 workout. I didn’t want to jostle for a rower and a wall ball. So I judged Gina, then claimed Coach Leslie’s magic rower and wall ball. I hoped some of her strength would rub off on me.

Alas, it was not meant to be. The wall ball was slippery from the humidity, and so was the handle of the rower. That said, I stuck to my plan and only got a couple of no reps on the wall balls. I kept a steady pace until the end. When I got off the rower after four rounds and still had time, I hauled ass to the rig and did as many wall balls as I could (with Coach Holly “encouraging” me in the background). My final score was 166, RX.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, the CrossFit Open 19.1 workout is just one of five, so I’m not too disappointed with my score. I’m 5’1″, and rowing and wall balls are my two biggest weaknesses. There is only so much space I have to use on the rower, and I’m still developing the kind of explosive movement and strength I need to be proficient with 14-lb. wall balls.

That said, I’m also proud of myself because the 10-lb. wall balls used to eat my lunch. Like, I could barely get two or three reps together when I first came in to the box, and now I’m doing five or six or seven reps unbroken with a 14-lb. wall ball.

Finally, the Open is such a great way to root out your weaknesses (these weaknesses were no surprise, by the way) and start formulating a plan for improvement. I’m probably never going to out-row a tall girl, but I can work on improving my range of motion on the rower.

Fingers crossed that 19.2 has some great moves for shorties.