Training... the week before a competition

Soooo... 17.1 comes out in 4 days and most of us will be doing it within the week.  What can you do in one week to improve your performance?

Let's make some assumptions before I suggest some guidelines:

• This is a BIG competition for you. So you want to do well and you won't have any comps around the next 5 weeks that may interfere with the Opens
• You're healthy - sure you may have a few niggles and have been nursing that shoulder/knee/hip but you don't have an injury/sickness that stops you from training.
• You train at least three times a week. I would say this is a minimum if you want to prepare for a comp. Anything less and you're probably feeling pretty fresh most of the time anyway - whcih means you don't have to change your training much to accommodate the WODS.

The good (and bad) thing about crossfit is that we don't know what the freek Castro is going to announce... or do we? We do know that it is generally pretty basic crossfit stuff. We shouldn't see rope climbs, sled pushes, dead ball etc. So let's prepare for that. We will see box jumps, push press, deadlifts, burpees etc

We also know that it's going to go for 5 weeks, and if you're like me you'll do the wods at least twice. So we need to keep up our training for that whole period as one of the main principles of training is:
                             USE IT OR LOSE IT!

How long you take to lose something (e.g. fitness, strength etc) will depend on how 'fit' you are at the moment. I try to get everything done weekly - so every basic crossfit movement gets done at least once a week.

If we look back at the recovery post, we see that some fitness components take longer to recover from than others. Recall muscular endurance will stimulate a physiological change in your muscles - the wod breaks it down, then the body rebuilds it. This is not something you want going on in your body going into a comp.
Which means, DON"T do any high reps muscular sets that leave you sore. Examples are sets of 50 or higher (again this will depend on your state of 'fitness') of HSPU, chinups, deadlifts, pushups - really anything that leaves you with DOMS. This is vital to a good preparation! The muscles should be in a healthy and recovered state.
I would still do small sets to maintain that movement. So a WOD like 5 RFT of 3 HSPU, 5 DL, 5 CTB. 5 pushups is a nice little WOD that shouldn't hurt you, but will be enough to let the body know you still need those specific muscles!

High intensity cardio, for example 4x500 row at 100% on 5:00 is also having the same muscular effect on the heart. So don't be doing any of those types of WODs. Sure, you can get breathless and get the HR to max, but keep it short - again, just enough to let the body know it still needs the muscle (the heart). I would hit these little lung burners maybe twice or three times in the week prior (the same as my normal week) but keep them short - maybe 2mins in length.

A good way to do this is to throw a finisher at the end of your WOD. A 500m row max for example. The way I like to do it is to finish off my normal WOD's very intensely - so save a little in the tank. For example, my last minute of my 12 min AMRAP, I'll put on the burners and give it everything I have - which will always leave me breathless. Exactly what you want.

The other components such as Power and Strength you don't need to change too much. The only thing I would do is reduce the sets/reps, and don't go for any PB's. PB's can leave you neurally drained, especially something heavy like a Deadlift which uses a lot of muscle (and nerves). Things like snatches and MU should be fine. As long as it doesn't turn into a muscular WOD. So if your MU's leaves your muscles sore, back off on the reps. You only need to stimulate the system - not wreck it.

Some other things to consider:

• Up the recovery: Spend more time sleeping, rolling, getting a massage, eating well etc. This can't be overstated.
• DON"T MAKE UP MISSED TRAINING: This is a killer. For example, you missed a few sessions last week because you were sick or busy. The Opens are close so you stick in an extra two sessions this week. The adaptations you're looking for will generally take weeks to get. So all you're doing is risking getting fatigued.
• Don't practise skills to death: Don't quite have DU's linked? Well DON'T spend an hour trying! Sure, you can hit it every day for a couple of minutes, but don't blow your calves out trying to learn them this week. Same with MU's, snatches etc
• Be a little selfish: This relates to the first bullet. If someone wants to go out Friday night and you want to do the WOD Saturday, say no. Similarly, put the mowing off until after you've had a crack at the WOD (it's a great excuse to do nothing for a day or two).
• Do keep up the training. Remember, if you back off too much, you start to lose your fitness. So I would suggest keeping the same number of workouts a week going, but do more mobility and less longer in the WOD.

The biggest issue I see with people is that the try and train hard the week before. most of your training is done. Sure you can improve your skill work, but don't try to improve your muscular endurance and cardio over the next five weeks. 

And lastly, one guideline all good coaches go by.....

                   IF IN DOUBT.......REST
Have a great week training and stay focused AND calm! And know that whatever Castro announces, you'll have empathy from 300 000 other people!