We waited 33 years, 257 days till this moment; GOLD on Canadian soil/snow - congrats to Alexandre and his brother; great story.Schedule:
Tues 16th - single
Wed 17th - double
Thurs 18th - single
Sat 20th - double
Sun 21st - single
Erik Luber analysis
43 comments:
OPT,
Ill be at your seminar this coming weekend. Will their be any opportunity to get any of those workouts in at your facility?
Way to go Alex!!!
I posted this way at the bottom the other day so I'm reposting just to make sure the OPT crew gets my thanks for the hospitality last week.
"Big thanks to everyone at OPT for letting me come and train while I was in Calgary. You guys were very welcoming and made me feel right at home.Special thanks to Trevor, Gord, Michael, Kathleen, Grant, Deejay, Brett, Leigh and James. It was great to meet so many of the Big Dawgs right at the source of this amazing community!
I will wear my Big Dawgs t-shirt with pride and our team from the east will do our best to represent the pack to the best of our abilities!"
Pete
I'm thinking it will be pretty hard to fit in a WOD at the OPT CPP this weekend...
Great job Alex finally the weight of the world is off the shoulders of all the other Canadian athletes!!
Nice work this weekend Unit saw you in the video representing with your Big Dawgs shirt - sweeeet!!!
Thanks for the heads up on the schedule.
It looks like I will be trying to squeeze in a double the morning of my wedding!!
in honor of the canadian victory tonight i offer up one of the greatest contributions to beatnik poetry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSff6QRItkU
PTS
I am sure your future wife will appreciate that!!
Congratulations
ken c, imagine if you dropped me in the center of that room and i started speaking about diets...the look you would see on the faces of the folks in that room is what i look like right now....
yelvi, we have another box where you can do the dew this weekend - www.crossfitcalgary.ca
Ken, turn off the Dukes and put down your giant bottle with the 'XXX' on the side. You're drunk again.
Posted this at the end of yesterday's comments. Figured I'd repost here for some rest day reading if people are interested in this sort of thing...
Just spent the last few hours doing a statistical analysis of the Midwest sectional. The full article with graphs and all is at:
http://erikluber.blogspot.com/2010/02/statistcal-analysis-of-midwest.html
Yes, I am a huge nerd, but it was fun. Pretty interesting results. The short of it was that WOD 1 pretty much determined the entire competition...anyways, check it out if you are interested. Awesome work Unit!
Finally Gold!!!
Awesome Alexandre!!
Ken & Geoff....keep up the comic relief!
Congrats Alexandre.
OPT what are your thoughts on the WODs selected for Unit's sectional?
Here are some videos of the Midwest Sectional from this weekend.
WOD#1:
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/Games2010_Midwesternevent1.mov
Nice shot of the Anvil tee 1/2 way through the clip.
WOD#2:
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/Games2010_Midwest2ndevent.mov
geoff
i blame the opening ceremonies for getting me back on the dukes and moonshine. all that fiddle playing got me all jazzed up. and then the tap dancing! are you kidding me?! it was like charlie daniels meets river dance. well i put my overalls on right then and had to fire up the ole still over yonder.
unit
congrats. you really crushed the day 2 wod. 133 box jumps is nuts.
Ken you talk funny.
And Ken all of us Canadian women wear those outfits when we go out for a night of tap/riverdancing
Dave X, the way i look at things are different than others in design...my goals in design are to bring out the best in every person but to also to severely punish those that are weak in certain areas...i could write pages alone on each sectional/regional...everyone is trying to do their best....the way i look at it is this: are you trying to test who is the fittest alive, and what is your definition of who the fittest is (is it the person who can do chin ups as fluently as heravy clean and jerk for reps?...or is it someone who can stay on the ground and have some capacity?)
when in testing, there are some limitations to these "tests"...space, facility, etc...and you may see that in the future (all arguable of course, but how many of us have had to play with the various heights in chin ups bars in competitions?, how many of us have had competitions without gymnastics versus your BWT...i.e this weekend and the ground based workouts (burpees, barbell, barbell, row, boxes, snatches, wall balls, HSPU...and no chin ups, muscle ups, knees to elbows, toes to bar)...so in one competition for the "fittest" person there are no things to challenge the bigger and stronger (and you all know how things change when we throw in 150 knees to elbows in the wod for the bigger guy)...and then in another, it benefits you to be smaller and gymnastic based....
i always thought that if you have in the finals on one end a Chris Spealler-looking guy and in the middle you have Mikko-looking guy and at the end a Jason Khalipa-looking guy, you have made a good line up for the weekend...where you have tested all energy systems relative to BWT and all skills relative to athletes..
remember this is just my opinion, as i will for sure have a different theme in the Canadian qualifiers - as my philosophy on fitness still stands as this, if you are slightly weak in areas, you are not the fittest and should not move on...and i will make that obvious
great discussion though for it...and i welcome a forum although its everyones perception on what fitness is that describes their answer...and everyone in the CF community is trying their best to work with what they have...HQ i'm sure 3 years ago when they gave me $500 US for winning thought that it would turn into this...so we are all still learning...so in time we might have standards...we might have the same comp for everyone on certain dates and release dates...but in the end as in what the DAWGS do...if you can just try to get as fit as shit and focus on that only, it will get you as far as your will can take you...
I like it,
"Get Fit as Shit"
...that's all you can do, worry about yourself, you have no control of what else is going on around you.
Awesome stuff James....totally agree with having a variety of body types at the top of the leaderboard and punishing those that are weak in a certain area because only the "fittest" survive, i know in nature (as we are all animals)...a weak trait normally gets you eaten by another animal or killed by a human, ex: camouflage, senses, speed, agility, you have to have an equal balance with all.
With that being said, what are the opinions on the SD/AZ wods...
Wod 1 and 2 i feel are balanced nicely, both have movements that favor small and big guys. Ha the last wod, i think i would bring a sleeping bag with me because that sucka is gonna take awhile...
Regarding Sectionals WODs:
From the competitor's perspective, no series of workouts should be a concern, since for CF as a sport the athlete must eliminate weaknesses. The prepared athlete, the one who will advance, should have no issue with high-rep gymnastic movements, long runs and rows, technical gymnastics/barbell lifts, heavy barbell movements, and every imaginable combination. If you look at a WOD or series of WODs and think, "Shit, that's far too much x and not enough y", well then you need to get better at x.
From the Sectional organizers' perspective, on the other hand, I think you would want to program a series of workouts that best selects the competitors with the fewest weaknesses and the best shot to advance not just beyond the Sectionals, but also beyond the Regionals and hopefully with a shot at placing in the Games. I think all of the organizers are trying their best to do this, and some will obviously do a better job than others. It's tough because there are just so many factors to consider. What would have happened in the Air Force WOD if the barbell had been loaded to 135 lbs. for 10 reps of each movement? What about 65 lbs. for 30 reps? Would the leaders have changed, and if so, would the new leaders in each case have had better shot at winning the Games? Hard to say given that we have no idea what the Games will even look like this year.
I think not testing pull-ups during a competition designed to find the best CFers is a mistake, but then again, 2009 Games athletes only had to perform a total of 30 pull-ups in the final chipper...
agree on programming a competition/what body types should be left standing. to that end i'll also state me objection to any form of btw division on lifts, rowing, anything. i belive programming if done intelligently should balance out the big from the small, the heavy lifters from the fast bodyweight movers and everything in between.
it seems all lifting equations in competition favor smaller guys when we all know that strength is not a straight linear progression as you get heavier. if calculators are used at all, then it seems to me geoff aucoin (taller/heavier) ought to have a work output calculator put on his all gymnastics metcon if brett marshall (not as tall/lighter) gets to have his max clean and jerk divided by his bodywieght. know what i mean? it becomes a slippery slope of equations that i don't think crossfit needs if the programming and scoring is done correctly.
Thanks for the great response, Coach, GCF, Ken, Stephen. I guess for as long as CrossFit is around, so too will the debate on proper programming, but the axiom is truly “getting fit as shit.” -- and this past weekend there were definitely some demonstrations of being fit.
Looking at Erik’s scatter plot graph the WODs clearly benefited a certain athletic type and from what I could see the same 10 or 12 guys finished the WODs in the same approximate order. It would have been cool to have a WOD that really separated the crowd and to obviously benefit our boy!
HQ started the ball rolling and certainly OPT has continued the evolution of CrossFit, but it seems to me thought that some programmers just throw a bunch of shit together to see what happens.
At the Level One GCF and I attended Jon Gilson stated during the programming lecture, “if you’re going to do something stupid, do it on purpose.” Whacked out chippers like the third WOD at SD/AZ do account for something, I suppose, but I see way too many boxes programming Painstorms and wickedly long WODs for their client’s on a daily basis.
So for these sectional/regional WODs, I makes me wonder how many take into environmental constraints vs. the “let’s see how much pain we can dole out” type of thinking. Maybe the affiliate owners of these different events are trying to out do each other in terms of nastiness, but as a competitor, I’m willing to smack myself in the head with a brick for time, but I want to know there’s a reason for doing so, not just because I can and I might be fun for an audience.
So much good stuff here don't know where to start:
"fit as shit" - perfect motto for why I personally love the big dawgs. I know here I am following the path to getting "fit as shit." Too bad we didn't have that slogan for the T-shirts.
I like the first two wods for SD/AZ and I'm still reading all the movements for the 3rd WOD.
I think I'm probably echoing what James said earlier here, but each competition should strive to not have the body type of the winner's known before hand.
With Midwest being big was the most important factor. Using examples from our Big Dawgs blog Rory and Deejay without a doubt would have been near the top of the leaderboard, while someone like Wes, who regularly proves he is an awesome crossfitter probably would have struggled a bit to place well with these wods. On the other hand if all 3 WODs were high rep burpees, chin-ups HSPU and DU;s I would expect to see Wes right at the top while deejay and Rory might fall. My point is we shouldn't be able to pick the winners before the events play out.
At least with the SD/AZ wods we don't exactly what to expect. The big guys might struggle with the run making the first workout a good test. In the second WOD there is a nice balance. The third wod is anyone's guss to how that will play out.
KenC, you made some great points and I agree factoring in complex equations for determining work output vs size/weight is a slippery slope because that would have to apply to all movements. Instead of going down that road would it be easier to just break everyone up into some form of height/weight/age category? I don’t think they want to go there although I wouldn’t complain about a few more age categories.
At last years Rocky Mountain Regionals, the talk was that they chose not to include HSPU's or MU's because it eliminate some of the competitors. Political? Who knows, but throwing in those other movements would have worked to my advantage as I tend to go on the jack of all trades approach with special emphasis on my major strengths. In some ways I think standardizing the sectional’s and regional’s is a good thing if they can satisfy all movements and energy pathways accurately. If a poor decision is made on those workouts, then the consequences could be high in the types of athletes that qualified. There may also be space and equipment requirements that can not be met. For starters, I would like them to start with defining some sort of standardized scoring system for determining placement. Some method that would accurately translate the performance results of every rep, pound and second to a fair placement standing.
Too expand on this point:
I have a friend who does Oly Lifting training only now. Has an athletic background in high jumping and decathalon about 5-6 years ago. Currently weighs about 240. Probably can't do 5 pull-ups.
Once he was taught what a burpee was and a wall-ball he probably would have qualified for Regionals given the WODS for the Midwest, and thats a shame because he doesn't train crossfit in any way shape or form.
OPT, I have a few questions for you if you have a moment to answer them:
1. I am assuming that the Marchers programming is set to peak for the last 2 week in March since those are the Canadian sectionals. Is that correct? How should I tailor my training to peak for March 13-14 for OR/ID sectionals?
2. I am going to order my Big Dawg shirt, but to save on shipping I talked to Scott Hagnas and he is willing to pick up my order when he comes to your place for OPT CCP. Would this work? Who should I contact at OPT to work this out?
Unit, awesome work. I enjoyed following a fellow Big Dawger in their journey through sectionals.
Erik, interesting stats... Thanks for sharing.
In am enjoying the discussion on the programming for sectionals and so forth. I have often wondered the same thing as Dave X in terms of if the affiliates programming the WODs are just trying to out nasty each other or if they put more thought behind it. I wonder if perhaps it depends on the affiliate. I am not sure how HQ decides who hosts a sectional, but it is my understanding that the affiliates are given a bunch if not 100% freedom to program as they wish. So I'd imagine some affiliates like OPT put a bunch of thought into the WODs where as another affiliate might just go for pain and nastiness. But regardless of who is programming and why they are programming, I agree that everyone should just get "fit as shit" and then it shouldn't matter who programs what. You're doing the best you can and chances are you will kick ass if you are "fit as shit" and attack your weaknesses in training.
Unit: fantastic effort this weekend. I followed you all weekend. You're a huge inspiration for me! Thanks!
I don't really have that much to add, but to say I totally agree on what seems to be the general concensus when it comes to programming for CF comps: that it should not at first sight favor a specific body comp, but letting the different strengths and bodies fight eachother.
As I am a little bit involved in comp programming over here I really enjoy this discussion. As usual this is we're the best stuff happens.
What's your thoughts on more advanced movements? I know Muscle-ups have been discussed as being to technical for comp, and that they get athletes that haven't just yet learned them to fail (as for example Annie did in 09 games). Sure this could be argued against, saying that you just should be able to do them, but then why couldn't you use a bit even more technical movements like backward roll to support, which almost noone even amongst the CF beasts can do (because they haven't trained the movements enough). Where do one draw that line?
As usual sorry about my english, not my first language as you know.
my thoughts on sectionals....
are you ready for some rambling?... perhaps some comments that are not as 'pc' as they should be? then read on... if not, feel free to skip to the next comment...
first off, i can't thank this community enough for the support this weekend... it was awesome to see how tight this community truly is. it was readily apparent in seeing the encouragment that was offered by y'all throughout the day. this was more of a help than i ever imagined... esp after day 1 (explain later). the only thing that would be better would be to have some of y'all close by to train with in the same physical locale...
i was approached by a few people this weekend... asking about OPT, if i followed his training, for how long, if i liked it... etc... the usual questions... more than a few people seemed to have glimpsed at or toyed with the idea of following this community, or have even been following in the background. to those that i talked to (any anyone else that i didn't), go right ahead and jump on board... post what you do here when you do it as it will add to the community. in bettering yourself, you will better your brothers/partners in fitness. everyone has their niche of insight and expertese, experience or persepctive that they can add to this board, which will continue the growth of crossfit, the growth of fitness invisioned by coach (or in my humble opinion i imagine this to be so) to go who knows where... it was a pleasure to meet those from around the midwest and i hope to see y'all in denver...
the facility in stl is amazing... it was nice to finally be at a true crossfit box, something that i rarely get to see or experience... rochelle has a nice community and great staff that did an outstanding job with judging and running the weekend smoothly. it's amazing what was put together in the last week or two in getting that facility put together and up and running... but i believe the hard work paid off...
there are many lessons that i learned this weekend... and like any good workout regimen, my weekness were teased out and became readily apparent early on (day 1); namely overhead movements (i.e. OH squats, jerks, etc)... it was extremely encouraging to have so much support after this going into day 2 and was a big help for the mental aspect of things... i can't wait for more sectionals to come as i look forward to returning the favor...
there has been a lot of talk recently on the .com and .com/games site (and here i think) regarding rx wods to adequately test and bring to the forefront/podium those with the most 'fitness'... or to reference what was stated earlier... those who are the Legit Fit as Shit... personally (again my opinion from my observation only) if feel that the fittest people at the qualifier made it on... and they were not 1st or 2nd. Don't get me wrong or put words where they are not... the top two competitors on the podium are crazy beast, firebreathing monsters...
however, i feel that the guys to watch out for at regionals / the games were the guys in 3rd and 4th (trying not to call out names here, but might as well if i'm gonna give the places)... it is really hard to say, to be honest, because as i think about it, there are many guys near the top that could have been shuffled (any of which could have taken first/second/third) depending on the wods that were rx. this final would be contingent upon which wods played into each's strengths... not claiming to be able to program a 3 WOD regimen to cover all aspects of fitness, it seems that there is always gonna be soemone dissatisfied with a certain component of fitness testing with only a 3 WOD layout... thus, leading to a different result depending on which aspect is missing or not. nevertheless, it seems to me that the fittest people will be going to regionals, which is what is important. if someone had a weakness that threw them out of the top 'x', then perhaps they are not well rounded enough to represent the 'fittest'... Lord knows...
is it enough to weed out at certain portions of fitness at different stages of competition?...
for example, would it make sense to have a sectional test 3-4 aspects of fitness, regionals to test 3-4 aspects of fitness and then games to test the remaining 3-4 aspects of fitness? do all need to be tested at the same time?... just a though as i haven't heard this mentioned in the past...
being a former collegiate decathlete myself (in addition to PTS friend...) i can't help but have a lingering thought of the 'coincidence' that crossfit has 10 aspects/parts/components of fitness and that there are 10 events in a decathlon... can they be isolated? can a 10 event competition be done with crossfit? is this unreasonable? am i done rambling?... prob not (at least this is the answer to the last question)... as for the rest, i'd be curious to hear the thoughts on this...
coach does an amazing job with his programming and his competitions which are well recognized in the community... it truly isn't ez to develop all around tests and condense them into 3 or 4 workouts... in retrospect, as more and more competition WODs appear, i become more and more impressed with the WODs/competitions that coach has designed... from the Canada regionals last yr, to his challenges prior to the games last year, his big dawg challenges this year, the oc throwdown, etc... thank you for sharing your gift with us coach... ur talents, wisdom and experience... this is a wonderful community that uve created in ur desire 'to guide individuals on a journey towards optimum performance'...
anywho... in the end, did the competition satisfy it's goal to get the most fit to represent the midwestern sectional at the regional games?... yes i believe so... at this point all i can say is it's still anyone's game as place in one competition doesn't predict outcome of WODs that will test 'differently'... and this is neither bad, nor good... it just is... it is a test of (as is referred to so much in the crossfit community regarding our ancestors, functionality and life) or ability to survive... to survive the competition to the next level and to live another day to compete and be fit...
i'm sure i'll have more later...
thanks again,
~gm2
Wow, excellent discussion. This is the place to be in the world of functional fitness.
Hey big thanks OPT... Finished second in the Midwest Sectionals this last weekend and I'm sure a lot of it was from the programming ideas I took from your blog, videos, etc.
Off to Denver in 10 weeks...
Thanks Again
Justin VanBeek
justin...
ur a beast and it was fun watching u this wknd... I look 4ward 2 seeing u in Denver and hope ull keep posting in the meantime!... congrats bro!...
~gm2
will prob rest 2morrow bc of work... did 'nodar' 2day out of respect and bc I'm grateful that I m able...
as rx
28:40
~gm2
Unit!!!!!
Can't believe you man! After bringing it all weekend, you go and do Nodar in 28:40!!!!!
I was fresh and it took me 35min!!
I'm going back to being a couch potatoe! That or looking into getting lung transplants!!
Who else has seen today's pic on the mainsite page?
It's the first time I've ever felt pukie without doing a WOD.
Unit wow you are one sick dude - doing Nodar to begin with and then doing it under 30 minutes - incredible.
I am wondering what your feeling was in how your sectionals applied to getting the fittest female. We female crossfitters are a different breed from the men: our body types tend to be much more similar and what i have noticed in many of the competitions is that there is very little separation amongst us. For women as soon as you throw in a heavy metcon, or say HSPU it all of a sudden eliminates a lot of the field which i think is good (even though i might be one of those being eliminated - as HSPUs, muscle-ups etc are a weakness) I still think to be declared the fittest female you need to be able to do those movements. Should those movements be saved for regionals for the women and maybe not the men? Just pontificating
That picture almost made me lose it.
Great job Unit! Hopefully I'll make it through sectionals myself and see you there in Denver. It was a busy weekend so I'm looking forward to watching the videos of the competition tomorrow.
That congratulations goes to any big dawg that competed this weekend! It's my 19th anniv tonight and I should be getting ready instead of reading up on the blog.
Marie, you can contact me
trevor@optimumtraining.ca about the tee shirt.
Interesting indeed! Btw, Sweden got its first gold medal thanks to Charlotte Kalla! The athlete who made the very OPT:esque comment "Ignore the pain" (Dissa smärtan) when talking about her interval-training :)
brent
i don't think we need weight classes if the programming for a competition is done correctly. we are all supposed to be jacks of all trades. that's crossfit. broad modal domains. the workouts should balance things out in my opinion.
its wrong for any regional or sectional programmer to put in or keep out certain movements that may favor or hinder certain athletes. but this is all a human endeavor and will always have some politics and favoritism involved i guess. just know that all sectional and regional workouts have to be run by HQ. thus, any really crappy workout that you may see in the coming weeks at least got a cursory look see and approval by HQ.
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