OPERATION LANDO
2018 Competition Team
Lando Competitors,
It is officially time to start talking about the 2018 competition season for the CrossFit Games. So much has changed just this year that we had to wait an unusually long time before setting the whole process for our community in stone. Now all the information is released from CrossFit HQ and we know what to expect, at least to the point we will for the time being, it’s time to get to work with a common goal in mind.
The purpose of this statement is to educate veteran and new competitors alike as to how the season will go. This is almost entirely new so regardless of your experience pay attention to the information here and anything I release in the next month up to New Years. There have been rather big changes to the team competition from HQ which means big changes for us. All in all it is an exciting time and will be a very exciting season, and new for all involved to some degree.
Before getting into the details about our community specifically, it is important that you have a basic understanding of what the CrossFit Games competition season is and how it works, especially regarding the Open. If you have never gone through it before it is incredibly intense, fun, and something you really don’t want to miss. This is for people who might be factored into the competition team or not. The CrossFit Games Open is truly universally inclusive almost to 100%.
If you are not familiar from experience or just want to brush up on what everything is, it would be smart to follow the link in the blog to games.crossfit.com/open and read up on the general setup, execution, rules, changes this year, and everything else that is there. Then read below.
What’s Different in 2018 :CrossFit HQ
We finally know most of if not all the details to 2018. What has changed is significant and it all helps us.
Each change is significant in it’s own right and of equal importance. Teams are now comprised of 4 athletes instead of 6, evenly split between male and female. Our region is back to having over 20 spots for teams with 25 total just for the Northeast. This is changed from 15. This all helps us because the need for regional caliber athletes is fewer in number and we have more chances to qualify a team.
Make no mistake about it. My goal for our community is to qualify a team for the 2018 CrossFit Games Regional and possibly an individual athlete or two. 100% of how the programming and execution of Operation Lando will be centered on that goal, with the other 100% being on the most participation and biggest Competition Team our community has ever seen.
Yes, f**k standards, we operate at 200% level here at CFL.
What’s Different in 2018: Operation Lando
For the first time ever we are going to have an established Competition Team that will train individually and together and be open to EVERYONE in our community that encompasses both locations. Similar to a roster of a professional sports team and the development/minor league teams that feed into the main team year to year, I want to have anyone interested in competing now or down the road to be part of this.
It might seem like the commitment is too much and/or more than before, but in fact it is not the case. Your level of commitment is simply what you are honestly able to give based on your goals and your life. The only demand here is honesty and understanding that we are all adults. More than any other sport you get what you put into it in CrossFit. As long as you can manage your expectations around what your commitment level can be, we will be good.
We have a rich competition history at CrossFit Lando. We have had at least 1 individual qualify for Regionals 4 of 5 years of existence, with 2 years having 2 individuals qualify and 1 year having 2 individuals and a team qualify.
I’m not saying it will be easy, but the goal for the competition team is to end up with a team of 4 that qualified for Regionals competition. If we come together with any number of athletes who just want to train hard, get better as individuals, then we have a hell of a chance of doing that. Believe me, whether you are on the competition team or not, going through the Open with individuals and a team vying for qualification is an experience we all want to have. The entire community will be involved and we have some awesome stuff planned to fire people up throughout the 5 weeks.
THE OPEN and COMPETITION TEAM ROSTER
First and foremost, competition team roster gets T shirts just like a team uniform. That’s awesome if you ask me.
Like I said, the biggest change for us as a community is this established Competition Team Roster. To be on this you have to meet a few simple performance standards centered around being able to accomplish certain movements or workouts at certain weights. For the most part it means doing general bodyweight movements as RX and normal competition weights the same way. If you can do 60-70% of Lando workouts as RX then you are a great candidate for the Comp Team Roster.
Essentially it’s about you and your ability to have a good experience. Training as a competitor requires a level of additional commitment time wise. This means you have to sacrifice some of your life outside of the gym, and if you cannot see improvement from the time you are putting forward then it is no good for all of us.
Basically, if you want to be part of the Comp Team Roster, you can be. If you aren’t sure, just reach out and ask me. This isn’t as much about people being “good enough” as it is building something for the Open for 2018 that we have never had, and the main part of that is getting as many people involved as we can.
The way the Open works is 5 workouts are released over 5 weeks, 1 each week. We have usually 4 days from when it is released to when scores have to be in. The top 2 male and female scores will be counted towards our team qualification for the 25 spots for Regionals. So it’s like how MLB teams have 25 people on the roster but only 9 play in given game, but any of the 25 can be factored into that 9. Out of our entire community, anyone can contribute to those top spots for our qualification, regardless of whether or not they end up being on the actual Regionals team. The goal is to have our Comp Team Roster composed of people who want to train as competitors from now through the Open and beyond, hopefully building their fitness so they can all possibly contribute to these possible scores.
EXPECTATIONS OF COMMITMENT
The most important thing I can honestly say is you have to establish what you want out of your own experience. If you aren’t sure about anything, ask me NOW. I promise most of the time my answer is going to be “yes” to whether you can be part of the Competition Team, which by the way will include sick T Shirts for all on the Roster.
Then you need to establish what you can commit time wise. If all you can do is come to classes, you can still be part of the competition team roster. Again, you get what you put in, so that will obviously be limited here. Ideally you can give at least 15-30 minutes extra at minimum 2-3x a week when you come to class devoted to individual weakness and work capacity development.
I don’t expect any of you to devote the same kind of time an athlete like Coach Stacey does to her training. She is a professional athlete. I just expect that whatever you commit you do it with 100% conviction and you work your asses off. I promise you it will be worth it, and the experience will be unlike anything you have done before this, CrossFit or otherwise.
Commit to what you can and what you want out of the season, settle it with your life personally and with those around you, and then stick to that commitment with conviction. That is the most important thing you can do.
TRAINING PROGRAM AND SCHEDULE
If you want to be part of this you will follow The Program. It will be more streamlined than ever, able to be tailored to your individual weakness needs. You will do the class work then have between 15-60 minutes of extra work based on your ability to work after or before class. Even just 15 minutes can get a lot done for individual weakness work, think 30 muscle ups for time or an EMOM of Olympic lifting or handstand push-ups. I will show you how to create your weakness work and how we will cycle it into The Program work. So you will have days that are split up between work everyone is doing and your own individual work. But regardless, competition team members will follow The Program that is of my creation and the same work that all our competition success has followed in the past.
Weeks will tentatively look like this (* denotes minimum expectation)
MONDAY : Class work + 15 Minute Weakness Work* (30 minute Competition Prep/Work Capacity)
TUESDAY: Class work + 15 Minute Lifting* + 30 Minute Work Capacity + 10 Minute Core
WEDNESDAY : Class Work* + 30-45 minute Conditioning/Work Capacity
THURSDAY : Off or Active Recovery/Mobility
FRIDAY : Class Work + 45-60 minute Competition Prep/Work Capacity…afternoon invitation to Coaches Training Session starting January 1.
SATURDAY: Class Work + 15-30 Minute Weakness and Lifting Work* ...Competition Team Group training., 90-120 minutes starting Jan 1.
I encourage people to reach out to me starting now to discuss your individual situation. We want as many people involved as possible, even if you cannot do anything more than classes. If you want to be involved please don’t make your own decision on if your ability to work is “OK”. I assure you it is. I want you to be part of this.
The time is now. Get ready to be part of
Reality is training has already started. The Program is year round, so those of you who have been committed from the Fall are just better prepared. Those of you who haven’t been following have no worry. Just work hard here on out.
Truly next Monday marks the official start to the 2018 training season for Operation Lando. The rest of December is for your mental preparation, because let’s be honest you aren’t doing a lot physically in terms of building your repertoire. That is OK, the training has been designed for this. Given the time of year it is perfect to leave the work commitment up to you with no set group training times. Try as best you can to work on the timing you want to follow come January 1. Get everything working, from food prep to rest to social time outside of your CrossFit life. Work on this for the next 3 weeks so it isn’t a problem when it really counts.
The other important thing I need from you is to establish that you want to be part of this. Email me, let me know you want in, and we go from there. The roster will be an established thing, a list of names of people who will be part of something special, soething truly great.
Come January 1 we will start having interested people get together on weekends for training sessions designed like team practices. These will be a blast. Epic group throwdowns lasting 90-120 minutes full of fitness, camaeraderie, and pushing yourself to limits you didn’t know you could reach let alone pass. Like the work day to day, these sessions are open for those who can and want to make the commitment to really help Operation Lando be something this year. 2 people or 200 people, these sessions will become the foundation that our team is built from. You don’t want to miss it.
I know everyone has different expectations and lifestyles outside of the gym. This has a chance to be something truly special, 30-50 people all contributing to a team that qualifies for the Regionals. While only 4 athletes will eventually represent Operation Lando, imagine our entire community behind those 4 because so many gave something to actually help that team qualify. This is what we intend to do, and this is what we will do. Operation Lando is officially mobile. Get Involved.