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Hey Reader,
We have about ten more hours until the 2025 CrossFit season concludes for most of us.
I thought this year's CrossFit Open was a good one.
Selfishly I would have liked to see more skill components in the last two weeks to separate pure engine monsters from the well-rounded athletes.
This year seemed that it was focused on testing our engines.
But, the test this year gives insights into how to train for next year.
The Bulletproof Training Program will shift gears into an accumulation phase to begin building your base for next year.
For the next 12-week cycle, we'll focus on building your engine, increasing strength levels, and developing gymnastic skills in isolation.
If you have any questions or would like to see certain movements in the workouts reply and let me know!
This Week's Training
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Day 1 - 3/17/2025
Option 1:
Redo 25.3
Option 2:
A) Hang Power Snatch + High Hang Power Snatch - 3.3 reps every 2 min x 5 sets
B) Front Squat - 20X1; 3 x 10 @ 60-70%; rest 2-3 minutes
C) Metcon - MAP 8
15 Min AMRAP
500m Row
15 Wall Balls 20/14 lb to 10/9'
50 Double Unders
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Be sure to snap a pic of your training and tag @WillMurtagh_DPT on social!
Deep Dive
4 Ways To Properly Pace Your CrossFit Metcons For Better Scores
If you’ve ever finished a CrossFit WOD feeling completely gassed halfway through, and with a subpar performance to finish you’re not alone.
Many CrossFit athletes struggle with pacing their metcons properly, leading to inconsistent performance and frustrating results.
It’s easy to underestimate how much fatigue will build up over time, and if you start too fast, your power output drops significantly before you reach the finish.
Proper pacing is about maintaining sustainable intensity to get the best possible score.
When you break up work strategically and control your effort, you’re able to move efficiently, keep your heart rate in check, and avoid hitting a wall too early.
The problem is that it often feels like the wrong thing to do if the goal is to finish as fast as possible.
But whether you're tackling a CrossFit Open workout or daily workouts at your local box, understanding your limits will help you train smarter and perform at a higher level.
The key to better pacing is simple: assess your aerobic capacity, muscle endurance, and strength, then adjust your approach based on the workout in front of you.
Once you understand how to control your pace, you’ll notice a big improvement in your scores.
Why Most CrossFit Athletes Struggle with Pacing
The excitement of a challenging workout, combined with the competitive environment of a CrossFit gym, often leads to athletes starting at a pace that’s well above what they can sustain.
You feel strong in the first set, moving through reps quickly, but by the time you reach the halfway mark, your legs are heavy, your grip is failing, and your breathing is out of control.
This sudden drop in power output is caused by three main limitations: aerobic conditioning, muscle endurance, and strength.
If your aerobic system isn’t developed enough to clear lactic acid efficiently, your pace will crash once metabolic fatigue sets in.
If your muscle endurance isn’t high enough to handle high-rep movements like strict pull-ups or ring dips, you’ll hit failure earlier than expected.
And if your strength isn’t high enough for the workout's demands, you’ll struggle to maintain power in barbell cycling.
The best way to understand this is by looking at how CrossFit athletes often improve when repeating workouts.
Many athletes perform significantly better on their second attempt at a CrossFit Open workout.
Not because they’ve suddenly increased their strength or fitness level, but because they’ve paced more intelligently.
The initial attempt is often rushed, with transitions that are too quick and sets that are too aggressive.
On the redo, athletes are more aware of how their body responds and naturally distribute their effort more effectively.
Why does this matter?
This cycle of crashing and recovering leads to frustrating results, making it difficult to perform our best in competition or feel confident in your training.
Beyond frustration, improper pacing limits your ability to improve.
If you repeatedly train at an unsustainable intensity, your body never adapts to maintaining effort over time.
Instead, you develop a pattern of starting strong and fading quickly, reinforcing inefficient energy usage.
Over time, this prevents progress as your brain learns to go out hot and hold on for dear life then execute the test properly.
Consistently pushing beyond your threshold also leads to burnout.
High-intensity workouts should be a tool, not a daily grind that leaves you physically and mentally exhausted.
If you constantly redline, your recovery also suffers, making it harder to hit training volume targets without excessive fatigue.
Lastly, training at maximal effort too often increases your risk of injury as a result of the factors mentioned above.
Key Pacing Strategies for Better Scores
1. Know Your Thresholds
To pace effectively, you need to understand your limits.
The best way to do this is through structured testing in isolation to assess how many reps you can sustain before fatigue sets in.
These tests help you determine the right strategy for breaking up work in metcons, ensuring you maintain power output instead of fading too early.
A simple way to assess your endurance is to perform a 5-minute AMRAP of a specific movement.
This provides a baseline for the movement to be compared to outside of a single unbroken set.
Similarly, testing your max unbroken sets such as thrusters at 95/65 lbs will reveal your threshold for going unbroken.
This can be useful when determining what is a realistic number to start with for a workout.
For instance, if your max unbroken handstand push-ups is 20 it probably doesn't make sense to start with 15 unbroken in a workout.
Once you establish these limits, you can tailor your pacing strategy.
If you know your grip fails after 15 chest-to-bar pull-ups, breaking them into smaller sets from the start will keep you moving consistently.
After this initial testing period, you can begin a skill progression to move the movement from isolation to mixed modal settings.
2. Break Up Reps 25% More
One of the biggest pacing mistakes CrossFit athletes make is holding onto large sets for too long.
While it might feel efficient at first, pushing to failure early in a metcon leads to unnecessary fatigue, increased rest periods, and a significant drop in power output.
A general guideline is to break your reps into 1-2 more sets than your gut instinct suggests.
For example, in CrossFit Open 25.3, if your initial plan was to complete the deadlifts in three sets, consider breaking them into four or five instead.
I know this will hurt your pride because it does so for me as well.
But, this approach reduces muscular fatigue, prevents lactic acid buildup, and keeps your heart rate from spiking too early.
The goal isn’t to avoid effort but to distribute it more efficiently so you can maintain a steady pace rather than hitting a wall.
3. Start at a 4x Sustainable Pace
A good coach will tell you that starting too fast is the fastest way to ruin a workout.
Instead, begin at a pace that could be held for four times the workout duration for roughly the first 80% of the workout.
For example, if the metcon lasts 10 minutes, your initial pace should be one you could realistically hold for a 40 minutes race pace.
While this may feel frustratingly slow, it’s the best way to ensure you don’t fade as the workout progresses.
Remember that's a 40-minute "race pace" not an easy 40-minute workout.
​Ten minutes at the pace is still a good clip.
By controlling your intensity upfront, you preserve energy, avoid metabolic fatigue, and give yourself the ability to push hard in the final 20% of the workout when it matters.
4. Train Pacing Through Competition Practice
Understanding pacing is one thing—executing it under pressure is another.
To improve your "skill of competing", regularly test old CrossFit Open workouts and benchmark WODs, to get used to applying your pacing strategies.
This is a great way to simulate competition intensity while learning how your body responds to different pacing tactics.
Use these sessions to practice breaking up CrossFit movements strategically, managing transition time, and building awareness of your sustainable pace.
Over several months, you’ll get better at pacing and your WOD times will get better.
Wrapping Up on Better Metcon Pacing
Mastering pacing in CrossFit metcons leads to better scores, consistent training progress, and reduced injury risk.
By understanding your limits, breaking up reps intelligently, and starting at a sustainable pace, you’ll maintain power output instead of burning out too soon.
Ultimately leading to success in the sport and as a fitness training methodology.
Start applying these strategies in your daily workouts, track your performance in benchmark WODs, and refine your approach over several training sessions.
If you commit to learning how to pace, I promise you’ll see noticeable improvements in your endurance, overall fitness, and competition results over time.
If you found this helpful click below to learn how I can help you reach your fitness goals in less time.
​CLICK HERE to book a free consultation.
This Week's Blog Post
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How To Improve Your Bar Path For Weightlifting Performance
In this article, I’ll break down everything you need to know to improve your bar path, from the mechanics of the snatch and clean to actionable tips you can apply in your next training session.
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When you're ready, here's how I can help you
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Talk to you soon, Reader
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Dr. Will Murtagh, PT, DPT, MS, CSCS, CISSN
Physical Therapist | Remote Fitness Coach
P.S. Click here for a free consultation on how to train-pain free and look and perform better in under 12 weeks.
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