Test: Row 1/2 Marathon

Hoggan 1/2 Marathon Row + Surprise Finisher

As many of you know, there were 2 surprise events announced for the Crossfit Games yesterday. The first was a 10 round couplet of 50m swim and 3 bar muscleups. The second was a 2-part event consisting of a 1/2 marathon row with the first 2k counting for 100 points as well as the entire piece counting 100 points.

Currently Outlaw has 9 athletes competing in the Games. There was no way were going to allow those athletes to face a row lasting 90-120 minutes without having tested the event. We needed to know the effect of getting after the 2k on the rest of the row. We needed to know the mental and physical drain of a 90 minute row over on a fit athlete. We needed to know the lasting impact the row would have on an athlete in great shape already for the course of the entire of Games. Unfortunately Rudy and I immediately knew who the lucky victim was going to be. The only male athlete loyal and resilient enough to test the workout at moment’s notice and the only male athlete I know built for a workout like this that isn’t in the Games.

Jason Hoggan tested the row for us on Tuesday morning. Below is the footage of that row. HOWEVER we surprised him with an additional piece to the workout. After completing the row (in 1:26:53) we gave him 5 minutes rest and asked him to take 15minutes to max his clean and jerk.

Some of you immediately are thinking a couple of things.

1. Poor Jason
2. Jason’s coaches are idiots
3. This workout is pointless and will produce no gains except to potentially hurt Jason.

I want to point out a couple things. First, Jason wants our athletes at the Games to do their best and have the best chance at winning they can. He was not only able to complete the workout but was more than willing. Second, Jason is the most durable athlete I have ever met and likely will ever meet. He was prepared for this type of workout as you will see. Lastly, having a competent, elite athlete complete this extreme test of endurance and immediately test an extreme test of power is not only safe but provided a TON of data for competitors at the Games. For instance, here is what we learned from Jason performing the workout:

Ok guys here is the data I gathered from poor Mr. Hoggan’s row this morning.

He completed the 21,097 meters in 1:26:53

His average 500 m was 2:03

His 2k was 7:00

His average stroke rating was 28 s/m

This means he took an approximately 2,240 strokes (not factoring in the 2k at the beginning)

Here’s what all that means:

During this 2k he was moving with enough force and intentionality that his strokes were long and powerful. I noticed because his back angle was right where it should be and his knees were locked out every stroke. He was efficient and his strokes were long.

However as he got tired he started to short his stroke length and his back angle was closer to 90 degree and his legs never locked out at the finish.

Later I measured the distance in his stroke at full length and when he was shorter. He was losing about 4 inches every stroke. The length of his stroke when it is perfect is 5 ft 4in from recovery to finish. After the 2k we has taking an average of 4 inches off his stroke length. That doesn’t sound like much but over the breadth of such a long workout there are certainly huge repercussions.

He lost 4inches per stroke which extrapolates out to 8,960 inches over the breadth of the workout. That’s 746.7 feet of stroke he didn’t use. That’s 746.7 feet of inefficiency.

With the assumption that his stroke length at best is 5ft4in then he had to take 140.88 extra strokes in the entire workout. At 28 s/m each stroke took an average of 2.15 seconds per stroke. That is 302.89 seconds of extra time added to the workout because of inefficiency. That totals to 5 minutes and 3 seconds of added time. His time could have been 1 hour 21 minutes 50 seconds if he had been more efficient.

This data was invaluable to finding the most efficient length of stroke for our athletes and getting them to hit that length each and every rep (theoretically). This workout, much like a marathon, is won by small mistakes performed thousands of times over and over again.

Jason may have done incredibly well on the workout. However, he could have been better.

AND I doubt anyone gets as close to he does to his PR in the CJ if they were to test that right after.

On a sidenote for those of you wondering, yes Jason is a freak athlete that breaks every rule of strength and conditioning that we know and yes we needed him to test the CJ to see what kind of immediate impact the row had on his CNS, fast twitch power output, and strength levels.

Check the video out: Hoggan 1/2 Marathon Row + Surprise Finisher