The first day of the 2015 CrossFit Games Regionals has been announced. Individuals will be taking on “Randy” and “Tommy V”, two classic CrossFit Hero workouts. Regional participants are likely already super motivated to go hard, but they now have the pride that comes with honoring the fallen to help push them even harder. We’ve put together a guide on each with the hopes of offering up some perspective on what to expect beginning May 15th.
Randy
In honor or Randy Simmons, 51, a 27 year LAPD veteran and SWAT team member who was killed February 6, 2008 in the line of duty.
If our 18,000+ logged scores are any indication, regional athletes will be finishing Randy very quickly. In fact, the 6 min time cap imposed by CrossFit shouldn’t represent any issues. The top 1% of male athletes finish in less than 3:22. The top 1% of female athletes finish faster than 3:39. However, we won’t be watching the top 1% of athletes at each of the Regionals. Instead, on display will be something closer to the top .2% of athletes. If we take a look at the Southern California regional alone, around 7200 athletes logged at least one score during this year’s Open. That means the top 20 finishers in the Open represent the top .2% of the region. We’re assuming the numbers for each of the other regions look very similar. As a result, we should expect to see scores much closer to the 2:00-2:30 range.
When looking at the BTWB community’s performances on Randy, we find that the top 41% of males have scores better than the 6 min time cap imposed by CrossFit. The top 28% of females would also manage to finish the workout at this year’s Regionals. Not too shabby.
Strategy
Randy strategy is pretty straightforward. Because the weight is so light (remember, these athletes are in the top .2% of the world), you’ll likely see “muscle snatches”. A muscle snatch is a power snatch that is received overhead without the use of a partial knee re-bend. Muscle snatches, especially at lighter weights, will help to increase the cycle time of multiple reps. Yes, the “muscle” variation of any movement will be more demanding on the arms, but, again, the men and women you watch at Regionals are the best of the best and they are likely moving far more weight in their training on a regular basis. Expect to see big sets. For the Regional version of the workout, athletes will be required to move to a new mat every 25 reps. This artificial break may be a resting opportunity for some. We wouldn’t be surprised, however, to see others walk to the next mat with the barbell kept overhead only to continue their unbroken set once they get there.
Is 75 unbroken reps possible?
Limiting Factors
“40-15-20. Pushed so hard. Grip was worst part” – Julie Foucher, Nov 9th, 2013
Grip! Anybody with smaller hands knows exactly what I’m talking about. 75 reps is a long time to be grasping a bar. Athletes’ grip will be giving out long before their will power. The winner will likely be who can hang on longest.
Tommy V
In honor of Senior Chief Petty Officer Thomas J. Valentine, 37, of Ham Lake, MN, who died in a training accident in Arizona on Feb. 13, 2008.
Tommy V is a much more demanding workout than Randy when comparing the two directly. If we take a look at the difficulty ratings alone, Randy maintains a 22 rating while Tommy V sits at a 59. In other words, only 22% of athletes have to modify Randy while 59% of athletes have to modify Tommy V. If we break down Tommy V’s difficulty rating further, we notice that the numbers are drastically different for men and women. 52% of men end up having to modify Tommy V. Much more women, 74%, have to do the same.
The top 5% of BTWB men complete Tommy V in less than 12:52. Their female counterparts perform it in less than in 13:59. Again, considering the quality of athlete at this year’s Regionals, we should expect to see faster come May 15th. The time cap for the event is 16 min, but that shouldn’t pose a problem for most. The women will likely be closer to the time cap than the men.
How would the BTWB community fare at this year’s regional version of Tommy V? The top 15% of men have scores faster than the 16 min time cap, while the top 10% of women can say the same.
Strategy
Strategy will largely depend on turnaround time from Event 1. Is it going to be a quick transition from Randy to Tommy V? If so, we may not see as many unbroken thrusters as we might expect. Instead, athletes may opt to break the thrusters into two sets in order to save their forearms a bit for the rope climbs. As a result, I definitely don’t expect to see many, if any, legless rope climbs. They are too inefficient, even if they are faster for some men, and 27 reps is a heck of a lot of rope climbs. Of course, it also depends on each athlete’s specific recovery abilities.
Limiting Factors
Day 1 is all about the forearms. We already talked a little about the difficulty rating for Tommy V. It’s a lot higher than Randy’s, but it’s also likely based on athletes’ performances while completely fresh. In other words, most people aren’t trying out Tommy V as their second workout of the day. Now imagine what the difficulty rating might jump to for athletes attempting it post-Randy. Factor in Thrusters and Rope Climbs, which are also notorious grip-killers, and we might see more standing around than normally expected. For athletes with freakish grip strength (they do exist), these could all be moot points.
