Prep for Murph at the Cove
MURPH IS THREE WEEKS AWAY!
Americans celebrate the lives and honor the memories of their fallen soldiers every Memorial Day. As CrossFitters, on this day, Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael Murphy is memorialized by thousands of people completing the CrossFit hero WOD (workout of the day), which is titled “Murph” in his honor. This is meant to be a day for community and remembrance, and we want everyone to have FUN and stay HEALTHY as they tackle this challenging WOD.
Murphy was deployed to Afghanistan in April 2005. During a mission (later depicted in the movie Lone Survivor), he died while climbing to higher ground to make a call for help. Despite suffering severe wounds, he was able make the call and continue fighting. During that mission, Michael Murphy, Matthew Axelson and Danny Dietz were killed. The fourth member of their SEAL team, Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell, was able to escape, partly because of the call made by Murphy. We honor his heroism with the following benchmark WOD:
We will be posting numerous tips and recommendations for how to tackle this workout on the day itself, but will also be providing information on how to be well prepared leading up to the day (everything from hydration to handcare). But part of this planning includes getting more proficient in the movements themselves. As you know we are in the midst of an endurance cycle, so the running should inherently feel easier. BUT we will also be adding additional programming over the next days and weeks to ensure you are executing the pull ups, push ups and air squats with virtuous form (preventing not only injury, but preventing soreness in the aftermath). Tomorrow’s workout designed perfectly to help you assess your strengths and weaknesses… but more importantly, to help you figure out how you want to approach (or scale) this workout on Memorial Day. We want everyone to come in with a ‘game plan’ and we strongly encourage you to talk to us about that very plan. Sticking to your plan and working within your INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY is critical to success for this historic and memorable workout!
WOD
“Run Cindy, Run”
800 M Run
then
20 min AMRAP
5 Pull ups
10 Push ups
15 Air Squats
then
800 M Run
32 min Time Cap
Coach’s Tip: Today we hit “Cindy” (a 20 min AMRAP of pull ups, push ups and air squats) sandwiched between an 800M runs. This acts as a “Mini Murph” in that we also break out the reps in a similar style to Cindy. If it takes you four minutes to do the run (as an example) you will start your AMRAP at four minutes on the clock and end at 24 minutes. Then you will head out for your final run. If you find you are more than 5 minutes on the first run, consider scaling the second run to a 600 or 400 to ensure you return within the time cap. We will be hammering GOOD push up and pull up positions as high volume like this can cause muscular damage if not done correctly. LISTEN to your coaches and check that ego at the door!
Here’s a throwback shot to last year’s “Murph” at the Cove!
