It is that time of year again. The Holiday season. Which means it is time for the 2nd Annual (Members only) CrossFit Iron Legion rowing challenge. Since this year 2 it means it is time for a Name. So this anticipated annual event will now officially be dubbed the “CrossFit Iron Legion Rowing and Endurance Gut Check Challenge.” The challenge will now become an annual affair and may differ slightly from year to year. It is sponsored again this year by the law firm—Steven Wingo, P.A.

Why should you participate? Cleary, so you can become a better athlete and gauge your progress from year to year. If that is not enough for some of you, well there is the motivation to throw down the hammer and beat your friendly rival at the box. Who wouldn’t want to win something called a “Gut Check Challenge?” And oh yeah, and there will $300 in prizes—this year given out as 6 VISA Gift Cards in the amount of $50 each

We had 50 participants last year, 5 of whom enjoyed $50 gift cards to Chipotle as their winnings. For Chipotle fans like Wingo – don’t worry, the VISA Gift Cards will work there too. This year, we are keeping some things the same but other things will be different. There will again be a 2000m Row. And there will again be a random drawing for one of the 6 prize winners—so it pays to just participate. Just don’t called the random prize a “participation trophy”
because competing will hurt unless you intentionally dog it and I know you aren’t going to do that.

There are also going to be some differences. Last year, the only event was a straight up 2000m Row. Prizes were awarded for the fastest male and female times, the fastest male and
female weight adjusted times, and one random drawing winner.

So what is in store this year?

This year we are going with two separate events: (1) a 2000m Row; and (2) The Ghost—a beautiful (or evil depending upon your point of reference) combination of rowing, burpees, and jumping rope which is one of my all-time favorite CrossFit Workouts—more below on this awesome, gut wrenching workout and the slight scoring twist we will use to ensure nobody gets away with “gaming” the workout.

We will have male and female winners for each of these two separate events, which accounts for 4 of the 6 gift card prizes. One of the final two gift cards will then be given out by random drawing—to be eligible for the random drawing you must complete and submit scores for both events. The 6th and final gift card is going to go to a more limited group—those who participated last year, compete again this year (you must complete both events to be eligible), and post the best year over year percentage improvement in their 2000m row time.

Don’t worry – if you don’t remember your time Wingo recorded everyone’s scores in a secret little black book for future reference.

So if you competed last year, and need to know last years’ time, just ask and he will look it up for you.

Here are the particulars:

The competition officially begins Tuesday December 1st at 5:00 a.m. and runs through
midnight on Thursday, December 31st—yes I sincerely hope some of you will be at the box on

New Year’s Eve giving it one final effort. So you get a full month to complete the events.

There is no limit on how many times you complete each event—your best score is the only
score which will count for that event. You get a whole month. Have at it.

For the 2000m Row, you must use the 2000m countdown setting on the rower. Take a picture
of your final time—which will print out to the hundredth of a second—yes we may need to go to hundredths of a second to determine a winner it happened last year.

For the 2000m Row, you must weigh in (with the scale at the box) immediately before
completing your effort.

Why weigh in? Because there is a chance the winning time will be your weight adjusted time. I say there is a chance because I have debated over and over again whether to use raw time or weight adjusted time to determine our winners. I have lost sleep over it.

Seriously. On one hand, adjusting for weight is the way to go because when rowing in a boat weight is a huge factor.

A rowing coach would use weight adjusted times in assessing fitness levels and who to select for their team. But there is another side to the story too. CrossFit also recognizes the importance of awarding work done, regardless of weight. Pure strength is important too, and we are trying to assess overall fitness with this competition not pick someone for a rowing team.

So what to do? The answer is obvious. I am just going to flip a coin. If it comes up heads, we use weight adjusted times. If it comes up tails, we use raw times without adjustments for weight.

Here is the catch—I’m not going to flip the coin until the competition is over. So plan on a coin flip on New Year’s Day to see who takes home the male and female $50 rowing prizes. If you end up on the “losing” side of the coin flip, don’t worry—you still kicked ass and get to claim a best in the box for the year one way or the other.

And that is worth at least as much as a $50 gift card in my book.

What about our Masters athletes?

Is it really fair to have 55 year old athletes competing head to head against 25 year old athletes without any type of allowance for age… ….or, I mean, seniority?

Well, we are going to make some allowance for that too. Believe it or not there are actually exercise physiology folks who track this kind of stuff. So we will be scoring using an accepted age adjustment factor designed specifically for the 2000m row that is based upon world records across all age groups. I’m going to post a copy of the spreadsheet at the box for everyone to see. In summary, if you are 31 years young or younger, your time is your time without an adjustment. If you are 32 years of age or older, your time will be adjusted based upon your age.

Don’t get too excited—if you are 32 years old your time deduction will be less than a second. If you are 55, on the other hand, you will get a time deduction of 32.9 seconds. So this should get more interesting—don’t get discouraged from competing just because we have way too many very fit 20 somethings at the box. This competition is going to be wide open.

What the heck is this second workout, The Ghost? If you want to learn more about The
Ghost, watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBgf3GKgV78 .

The Ghost is a named workout, originally posted on the CrossFit main site, which was designed to help train professional boxer and 6 time world champion Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, as he made a comeback after losing a title fight.

The Ghost consists of 6 Rounds of 3 movements, one minute for each movement, with one minute rest between rounds: Minute 1—Row for Calories; Minute 2—Burpees; Minute 3—Double Unders; Minute 4—Rest. Repeat for a total of 6 times. You score is your total number of reps.

Now if you watched the video above, and got yourself psyched up to do this awesome, gut wrenching workout, you know there is a proper way to do The Ghost and there is also a way to game it. You can easily game this workout by taking it easy on the row, and on the burpees, then killing it while jumping rope because you are not as fatigued.

To do the workout correctly, you must go hard on the row and on the burpees. We are CrossFit athletes and we don’t game workouts. We do them correctly. But still, I’ve got a way to make sure you aren’t going to win this competition by gaming it.

For The Ghost, we are going to tweak the scoring. The usual scoring is to just add up your
total reps of each movement for each round and your score equals your total reps completed after 6 rounds. For our purposes, however, we are going to double the calories on the row and double the burpees, and then add in the number of double unders completed. So going hard on the row and burpees becomes critical. Don’t game it. Do it right. This is named a “gut check challenge” for a reason.

For The Ghost, single unders are permitted and will count on a 3 to one basis—3 single unders equals one double under.

For The Ghost, you need a judge. The only qualifications necessary are that they can count
and are honest. I recommend you pick a partner who can judge you then you turn around to do the workout and judge them.

Everyone is eligible as long as you are a CrossFit Iron Legion member or coach.

Now Wingo, isn’t this all too complicated? No, it isn’t. I’ve already created score sheets.
Everything is simplified. I’ve got experts who will help do the necessary math. Just pick up a

score sheet when you are ready to give it a go. Following the instructions.

All you have to do is go as hard as you can on the workouts and turn in your score sheets. For the 2000m Row, take a picture of your time and record your weight (no fudging use the scale at the box only).

Good luck. Let’s have some fun. Who is man and woman enough to earn the title of official

Crossfit Iron Rowing and Endurance Gut Check Challenge winner for the 2016 calendar year?

Coach Wingo