WOData: CrossFit Open 24.1
Strategy, analysis, and tips to optimize your score
read time 7 minutes
Welcome to Austin's Analects, a weekly newsletter where I share actionable insights for optimizing performance and living ridiculously well.
TL;DR
If you’re competing in the 2024 CrossFit Open, this post will help you optimize your performance on workout 24.1. If you’re going to retest, make sure to get your scores in before Monday, March 4, at 5 p.m. PT!
If you’re not competing in the Open, feel free to ignore this post. Or read it to see how much of a dork I am when it comes to CrossFit and feel free to make fun of me for absolutely nerding out on this stuff.
Onward!
The 2024 CrossFit Open is among us. And with that, WOData is back. WOData is a project I started in 2020 to help people analyze their performance for each workout to get the best score possible.
For those who don’t know, the CrossFit Open is an annual worldwide fitness competition consisting of workouts completed over three weeks. Participants compete in various divisions performing the same workouts and submitting their scores online. The Open serves as a qualifier for the CrossFit Games, which ultimately determines the fittest athletes in the world.
I’ve been competing in the Open since I started CrossFit in 2019, and I’ve gradually been improving over time. Last year, I finished in the top 10% of the world, which qualified me to compete in the CrossFit Games Quarterfinals — where I then finished 5,225th in the world. Woo-hoo!
A LOT of hard work went into getting to where I am as a CrossFit athlete today — and I still have a lot of areas to improve in — but I think a lot of that improvement came from working SMARTER not HARDER.
What do I mean by that?
I mean taking the time to truly understand what each workout is testing and how to approach the workout so I don’t blow up.
I see it every year. CrossFitters push themselves wayyy too hard during the Open. They start too hot, JACK up their heart rate, and then crash and burn and get pissed off when they end up with a crappy score.
By taking the time to strategize and plan your workouts, you won’t fall into the same trap. That being said, over the next three weeks of the Open, I’ll be sharing:
My workout strategies
An analysis of my performance
How you can perform the same analysis
How to determine if you should do a retest
Tips and advice for how you can improve your score
What’s Open Workout 24.1?
For time:
21 dumbbell snatches, arm 1
21 lateral burpees over dumbbell
21 dumbbell snatches, arm 2
21 lateral burpees over dumbbell
15 dumbbell snatches, arm 1
15 lateral burpees over dumbbell
15 dumbbell snatches, arm 2
15 lateral burpees over dumbbell
9 dumbbell snatches, arm 1
9 lateral burpees over dumbbell
9 dumbbell snatches, arm 2
9 lateral burpees over dumbbell
*Time cap: 15 minutes
♀ 35-lb (15-kg) dumbbell
♂ 50-lb (22.5-kg) dumbbell
Here’s a video if you read that thought “WTF is a dumbbell snatch?”
My workout strategy
I’m going to be honest, I went into this one pretty blind. Usually, I watch a few videos to see how others approach each workout, but I didn’t do that this time around. But honestly, there wasn’t much here…
You just have to keep moving at a sustainable pace that won’t jack up your heart rate. That being said, here was my strategy:
Unbroken on dumbbell snatches — there is no time to rest during these.
Minimize rest during transition times — your time to rest is during your burpees.
Smooth, consistent pace for burpees — I used a step-down and step-up approach. I find it difficult to control my heart rate when I try to pop up on two feet at the same time.
Workout analysis
I created a tool to see how well I executed my strategy, measuring my average time per snatch, per burpee, and per transition. Again, my main goal was to be as consistent as possible throughout the workout.
After plugging my time into the model, I found I averaged two seconds per snatch, four seconds per burpee, and two seconds per transition throughout the workout.
But how consistent was I across rounds? Let’s take a look.
For snatches, I consistently performed one snatch every two seconds for the entire workout.
For burpees, I started at three seconds per burpee and then gradually increased throughout the workout from four seconds per burpee to almost five seconds per burpee…
When I got to the last round of burpees I had a little bit left in the tank and I averaged two seconds per burpee in the final nine rounds of burpees… And then died.
Please see the photo below.
So what does this tell me? I pretty much executed my strategy perfectly. I remained unbroken on all dumbbell snatches, minimized my transition times, and I was relatively consistent and smooth on my burpees.
How you can perform the same analysis
All you need is a recording of you doing 24.1 — here’s my recording if you’re interested — and a copy of this sheet. If you have both those things, then let’s get started…
All you need to do is plug your time stamps into the sheet. I highly recommend doing this on a laptop and opening one window with the sheet and one window with your video — like so.
Click play on the video, and after each round, pause it and record your time.
For example, once you've completed your round of 21 snatches, pause the video and record your time.
Follow the same process for each round of dumbbell snatches and burpees.
Once you have all your timestamps recorded, now you can review your results.
Review your results
Column H will give you your average time per rep for every round. For example, in the round of 21 dumbbell snatches you can see how long it took you to complete each snatch during that round.
Column I will tell you how long it took to complete each round. For example, in the round of 21 dumbbell snatches, you’ll be able to see how long it took you to complete the full set.
Fast facts
Your fast facts will answer questions like:
What was the average amount of time I spent per snatch?
What was the average amount of time I spent per burpee?
What was the average amount of time I spent in transition?
Please let me know if there are some other questions you'd want answers to. Happy to add more if it'd be valuable for you.
How consistent were you across rounds?
To get a good score in this workout, you need to be consistent. In other words, Slow is Smooth And Smooth is Fast. This chart will help you understand how consistent you were across rounds. In other words, you'll be able to see what your average time/snatch was across rounds.
As you can see below, I was very consistent for snatches — spending two seconds per snatch throughout the whole workout — and moderately consistent on the burpees — spending around four seconds per burpee.
How to determine if you should do a retest
Nobody likes retesting. But I’d recommend giving 24.1 another whirl if…
Your average times (snatch, burpee, and transition) across rounds were consistent BUT you had more in the tank at the end of this workout.
How can you improve your score?
In this case, you should experiment with decreasing the average rate of snatches, burpees, or transitions. I'd recommend picking whichever movement was easier for you. For example, if your average time/burpee was ten seconds (but you felt good), then try to shoot to complete one burpee every eight seconds in your retake.
Your average times (snatch, burpee, and transition) across rounds were NOT consistent — in the first round your average snatch time was two seconds, but in the round of 15 it was ten seconds.
How can you improve your score?
This time around, focus on holding a pace you can maintain THROUGHOUT the ENTIRE workout. Don't let yourself blow up. For example, try to stick with one snatch every five seconds
If your average times (snatch, burpee, and transition) across rounds were consistent and you were DEAD at the end of this workout — aka me…still sore (Sunday) from doing the workout Friday night) — then it probably isn't worth retesting.
Wrapping up…
Well, that’s all I’ve got for 24.1. I hope you all are happy with your scores. Please let me know if you found this valuable, and I’ll see you guys next week!
Shoot me a reply with your predictions for 24.2…
Austin’s Recommendations
There’s nothing I nerd out on more than personal finance. Okay, maybe CrossFit (please see above). But I love jamming on personal finance too.
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Luckily, my boss is a huge personal finance guy and recommended I check out Monarch Money. So I used it for a month and fell in love with it. They make it super easy to categorize transactions and track your net worth.
I actually like it better than Mint.
If you want to try it out, Monarch is offering a free 30 day trial. Grab it below and let me know what you think.