Silly me, I’ve been reading CrossFit blogs like Morning Chalk Up again. They accurately predicted that the CrossFit Open 19.2 would be a repeat of the CrossFit Open 16.2 workout. It made so much sense when Morning Chalk Up laid it out – so I wasn’t surprised at all that 19.2 was basically 16.2, with only a minor change.
So what was the CrossFit Open 19.2 workout? Since I did the scaled version, here’s what it was:
Beginning on an 8-minute clock, complete as many reps as possible of:
25 hanging knee-raises
50 single-unders
15 squat cleans, 55 lb.
25 hanging knee-raises
50 single-unders
13 squat cleans, 75 lb.
If completed before 8 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
25 hanging knee-raises
50 single-unders
11 squat cleans, 95 lb.
If completed before 12 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
25 hanging knee-raises
50 single-unders
9 squat cleans, 115 lb.
If completed before 16 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
25 hanging knee-raises
50 single-unders
7 squat cleans, 135 lb.
Stop at 20 minutes.
I struggled mightily with the decision to go scaled. I had gone RX in 2016 – but the toes to bar had been ugly, at best. I’ve gotten better at them, but 25 toes to bar is a lot to string together. Not to mention that I’ve never strung together more than 15 double-unders in a row – fully rested. But – spoiler alert – I’m glad I went scaled, and here’s why.
CrossFit Open 19.2 Highlighted My Progress
I’ve said before that the Open drags all your weaknesses into bright, glaring light. For me, my weakness in this WOD is a heavy barbell. The easy way out would have been to spend 2-3 minutes trying to get toes to bar, then spending the rest of the time whipping myself with my rope, only to finish screaming at the 85-lb. barbell that I wouldn’t successfully squat clean.
The hard way would be to accept CrossFit Open 19.2 as a way to challenge
Blow #2 came during the actual workout, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
I knew I’d get through the 55-lb. cleans this time. That was not even an issue. I even suspected I’d get through the 75-lb. cleans without an issue. No, what I worried about were those 95-lb. cleans, which I knew I’d have trouble with. I wanted to get just one lousy clean. Just one.
At go time, I gave it everything. I did the knee raises unbroken in the first two rounds. I did all my jump rope singles unbroken. I did have to break up the 55-lb. and 75-lb. squat cleans (singling a bunch of the 75-lb. ones), but I earned another four minutes of work with time to spare. My tiebreaker time (the time it took for me to finish the third round of knee raises and single unders) was 8:27, which left me with three and a half minutes to attempt a 95-lb. squat clean.
Alas, it was not meant to be. Whether it was me not being able to get out of my head or me choking when I was literally under the damn bar, it doesn’t matter. I was not able to do a single 95-lb. squat clean. Not even with Coach Holly encouraging me, not even with Jess and Leslie encouraging me. At the end of my 12 minutes, I slunk off to have a pity party.
Why I Snapped Out of It
It really didn’t matter what anyone said to me for the next 15 minutes or so. I was so stuck in my own head that I hadn’t completed one single 95-lb. clean in the CrossFit Open 19.2 WOD that I didn’t hear it. It didn’t matter that RX athletes were telling me I did great. It didn’t matter that some of those same athletes remembered how hard it had been for me to lift a 55-lb. bar. Nope. I was full-on flagellating myself.
And then, after a latte, I got some perspective. In 16.2, I would not have completed 15 squat cleans at 55 lbs. I would not have progressed to Round 2, let alone Round 3. (Mercifully, in 16.2, Round 1 would have been over at four minutes. If this WOD had been 16.2, I would have spent at least six minutes crying before I could slink off to a pity party.)
But heck yeah, in 19.2 I got 253 beautiful scaled reps! And they were beautiful. I didn’t power clean a single one of those reps. I sped through my knees to elbows and jump rope (two of my strengths!) and used everything I’ve been practicing for the past three years in Barbell Strong to nail those squat cleans as efficiently as I could.
I am damn proud of myself for that, and for having a tiebreaker time of 8:27. That’s serious progress. And who knows, maybe next time this shows up in the Open, I’ll have good enough toes to bar and double-unders to RX and nail some 85-lb. squat cleans.