The Open is here! The online comp kicks off TOMORROW! Are you participating? Well, if you workout with us on Fridays you are! The Open brings together hundreds of thousands of participants around the globe into a single three-week sporting event.
Each week, a new workout IS POSTED that individuals and gyms will perform over the course of the next four days. At Birdtown, whatever gets announced on Thursday at 8:00pm ET is what we do in all of our classes on Fridays. If you’re signed up officially for the Open – great! If you’re not – still great! It’s a fun time to really dive into the unknown and unknowable programming.
When we run these workouts in class, they are a little different than our normal structure. The main highlights are performing the workouts in heats and having a judge assigned. What assessment your judge will perform is partially up to you – they can be your cheerleader, rep counter, or firm upholder of POP (points of performance!). The class flow tends to be warmup, HGCT (aka intros and WOD review) with the addition of assigning heats, judges, and standard review – including pre-defined scaling options, then two heats per class. The heats allow each athlete to participate both as a worker outer and a judge. COVID rules still apply, athlete doesn’t need to wear their mask while working out, judges will wear their masks. If we end up sharing equipment between athletes and heats, it will be cleaned between uses.
Order of Events
- Thursday Evening 8:00pm – Open Announcement (find on FB or youtube)
- Friday WOD All Day – whatever comes uip, that’s what we’ll be doing! ALL BTS athletes perform the workout – whether you’re registered for The Open or not – this is your Workout of the Day
- Sunday Open Gym – organized heats performing the Open Workouts
- Monday Evening 8:00pm – Score Submission deadline (for registered athletes only)
Workouts
Honestly, we have no idea what’s coming. I’d put money on thrusters and double unders showing up. Did you do Tuesday’s workout with that two part WOD – a long row then heavy lift? Open 15.1 followed a similar suit – AMRAP, then AHAP in a designated amount of time. Whatever shows up, we’ll do our best to craft a warmup and skill set as appropriate for that day to get you prepared.
Scaling
There are scaling options for the workouts. We do recommend utilizing them. It provides solid metrics for future reference. But it’s like any workout – scale against your personal ability. New this year is scaling for equipment. With more athletes still working out from home, there will be a minimal equipment division as well!
Judging
Judging holds us all accountable to work on that impeccable form we strive for each year. A “no rep” isn’t a judgement against you – usually just getting deeper on a squat, or fully locking out overhead
Leaderboarding
We’re not an affiliate this year, which means there is no affiliate nor team to register through for the official CrossFit Open.
Open Gyms
The Open affords us a great competition feel and we recognize the classes get packed pretty quickly these days without a global competition(!) so we’re opening up Sunday Open Gym to relieve that pressure and make sure we can support your efforts 7-days a week. It’s a hybrid Open Gym / Class format with Coach Jillian on hand to manage the circus.
- Dates: March 14, 21, and 28
- Open Gym 1 = 09:00-10:15a
- Open Gym 2 = 10:15-11:30a
There will be a twelve person cap on the Open Gym sessions. We’re keeping the session open a little longer and removing the space between. Sign up through ZP per usual. Open Gym is what it is, if you want to come in and do your own thing – you have our permission. Keep in mind that whatever the Open Workout is will still take precedence for equipment and space.
Looking back
I wrote a blog most years… here’s my past thoughts on running the open!
2019/20: http://birdtownstrength.com/open-v2020/ (you know time is weird)
2018: http://birdtownstrength.com/in-the-open-v2018/
2017: http://birdtowncrossfit.com/intheopen-2017/
2016: http://birdtowncrossfit.com/the-crossfit-open-2016-first-details-then-cf-open-love-passion/
2015: Here’s a random meme link because apparently I didn’t write anything.
2014: http://birdtowncrossfit.com/crossfit-open-mean-birdtown-crossfit-will-play/
LET’S GET IT!
Every year one of the fun parts of the Open is the camaraderie and celebrations that happen alongside these workouts – we had to ban donuts at one point 🙁 We’re really excited to run through these workouts this year – and extend the enthusiasm forward. The week following the final Open workouts features our “Leading Ladies”; Fran, Grace, and a Cindy/Mary option as well as a final mystery lady. These workouts balance well and following the Open, will carry the momentum and excitement of competition.
We are looking forward to seeing everyone’s hard work pay off and having a heck of a good time!
