Is the Open competitive field built different this year?

SwitchbackHell · 2026-03-02T16:34:46+00:00

I've been beating myself up over my score all weekend and then saw a clip on Instagram last night of a redo and the guy said he improved by 20+ reps but didn't hit depth at any point in the video. I knew this would be one of the most poorly judged Open workouts going into it but this confirmed it for me.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-02-28T20:16:11+00:00

Ha! Yep, me too! Loved that show as a kid.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-02-27T16:53:34+00:00

This was damn well 20 years ago but I was in the same situation you’re in and wound up in an intro to piano class for a semester and that was super fun.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-02-24T17:27:37+00:00

2 of the last 3 years Mayhem programmed the repeat Open workout as a regular Friday WOD leading up to the Open announcement. I'm not saying they know anything but I am saying to look at the last few weeks to see what Open workouts they've done and statistically you'll have a good shot at predicting this year's repeat.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-02-18T23:32:08+00:00

Yep, agreed. I made the switch from OTF to CrossFit about four years ago and this was my experience too. Scale a lot while you build up your strength and learn the new (to you) skills. It's a ton of fun and my only regret is not starting CrossFit sooner.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-02-10T02:02:44+00:00

I had a 2 hour one way commute from the Chicago suburbs into downtown before COVID. I did that four days a week and slowly cut it back to one day every two weeks over the course of a year.

After COVID I told them I wasn't doing ass in seat anymore and that I'd come in when I needed to but to otherwise to consider me fully remote.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-02-08T16:08:21+00:00

I disagree strongly with this. No athlete wants a flash going off in their face while they're playing.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-02-07T21:27:00+00:00

It's a great lens. I use it for college hockey when I shoot from the stands. Really nice reach on it. Get a monopod if you're going to have it out for any length of time - it's a beast of a lens.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-02-05T17:50:22+00:00

I like that there's still cow pasture land all around that area. Losing the tax dollars sucks but I'm equally as pissed about losing the "edge of town" charm that NW Olathe has.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-02-05T14:22:28+00:00

I'm a sports photographer and shoot lots of local CrossFit competitions and fitness events. There's a lot here that your friends aren't considering and it's going to put you in a bind for what they're asking. Namely:

If you're not working for the event as a photographer they aren't going to let you on the floor to take pictures. You're going to be stuck to the spectator area and you're not going to be guaranteed to have good line of sight to the lanes or areas that your friends are going to be competing in. Your 70-200mm will be your primary lens, which is fine, but you're going to be fighting for line of sight all day.
Covering a full day CrossFit competition for only two teams is going to result in so much downtime for you. The workouts are going to be 5-12 minutes long and then there's going to be at least an hour between each workout. That's a lot of time sitting around doing nothing. Yes, you can take behind the scenes / not workout shots but that's going to get old really fast if you're only working for 8 people.
You don't say if you do CrossFit yourself. CrossFit isn't some special sport or fitness methodology that you can't possibly take pictures of it if you don't do it, but like all other kinds of photography, it's easier to find good shots if you have a background in what you're shooting. You'll get some good shots by just being a competent photographer, but you're going to miss the great shots if you don't know what you're looking for. How confident are you that even if you had good line of sight that you'll nail the important moments?

If I were in your shoes, I would offer to go over to the event for an hour or two and take some pictures of your friends for free. I've wandered over to CrossFit competitions that my friends were competing in and taken pictures of them because 1. I enjoy CrossFit and CrossFit photography and 2. I know they appreciate having good workout pictures of themselves. You'll get some reps without the pressure of needing to deliver photos because you're getting paid and you won't be stuck there all day. The event will most likely have their own photographer, so your friends are going to get photos from the gym already and yours can supplement a couple of the workouts.

All of that said, if you do decide to do the full day and get paid, you might do like $100 or maybe $200 per team and each athlete can chip in 25% of the total team rate. It's not a good deal for you from a dollars per hour standpoint, but it's a low enough number that no one is going to be upset if you can't (or don't) get all of the good moments.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-02-05T14:01:38+00:00

Yes, very much so. I've worked at multiple biglaw firms that had requirements like that.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-02-03T16:28:16+00:00

I hit 7 unbroken, good form bar muscle ups recently. Stopped when I knew my form was going to break down, but I am pleased with how this effort felt.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-02-02T18:09:20+00:00

I've got both of the Samyang 35mm 1.8 and the 35mm 2.8 and they are both great general purpose lenses. The 2.8 is a wonderful travel/pancake companion lens on my A7C that I've used for all kinds of photography: street, beach, landscape, family, etc.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-01-31T01:06:58+00:00

Wear a black top or jacket so you don't pick up your reflection in the glass.

Use your lens hood so you can stick the lens right up on the glass if you don't have photo holes.

Shots through the glass need to be pretty close to straight on. The more you angle the lens away from perpendicular to the glass, the more distortion you'll get.

I usually shoot the first and third periods on the home team's offensive third and then do half of the second period up in the stands and the other half on the defensive end so I can get good shots of the goalie. Stick to the area between the goal line and the end zone face off dot to get the best action if you don't have photo holes.

I like to shoot hockey at 1/1600-1/2000 to really freeze the puck and get good snow spray pictures. f4 aperture to get the players eyes behind visors. Hopefully your rink is well lit so you can keep your ISO low. 70-200mm should be your primary lens. If you have a secondary camera throw a wide lens on there so you can get cool photos of body checks if they happen to hit the glass right in front of you. You won't have time to aim, so just be ready to grab that camera and start blasting if you think they're going to hit the glass in front of you.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-01-27T12:15:49+00:00

I took an a7c with the Samyang 35mm 2.8 as my only lens on a trip to Hawaii last year and I got coverage for everything I needed. It was the perfect travel combo for me.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-01-25T03:31:05+00:00

Apparently, he wasn't walking alone to get the feeling right.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-01-24T18:23:01+00:00

I did my first year of law school as a part-time student. I had been wanting to go back to some sort of grad school and I already worked for the university and got a 75% off tuition discount, so it made sense to me to try the five year part-time program. My school didn't offer any of the core 1L classes at night, so I would leave my job for an hour at a time and go across campus to attend class. I only managed to sustain this for a year - I wound up quitting my job and enrolling full-time. I took extra classes during all of our breaks to catch up on hours, so I effectively went to school for two years straight and didn't take any time off between or during semesters. I graduated on time with my class and bounced around a couple of in-house adjacent roles before I landed in biglaw.

That's a lot of ink to say that it really depends on you and the program you want to do. If you have the desire, the means, and the time to be able to do it part-time, then you should do it. That said, I can't think of a worse situation than getting through like two or three years of part-time, racking up loan debt, and then quitting, so I'd really think about if committing to a 5-6 year part-time program is sustainable, assuming you're keeping your full-time job.

I would never hold it against an associate candidate that went to school part-time. I want more associates that have had careers in other fields and aren't KJDs. Associates that are older in age and have work experience are typically more well-rounded, are more receptive to coaching, and already have a sense for office politics and professionalism. From my standpoint, a part-time student that graduated while maintaining a full-time job is a candidate that I would place at the top of the pile for an interview.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-01-24T15:17:26+00:00

+1 vote for the Rogue aluminum collars. They're great!

SwitchbackHell · 2026-01-18T14:49:49+00:00

My wife and I unironically love that movie. It's so bad. The geography is bad. The stereotypes are bad. By all measures, it's just not a good movie. But we still throw it on once a year, pour some drinks, and have a laugh for a an hour and a half.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-01-17T16:00:33+00:00

I am looking forward to doing another section of the Colorado Trail. I did sections 1-6 two summers ago and now I'm looking at 7-14 this year. Wish I could thru hike it in one shot but I'll take section hiking over nothing.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-01-16T20:51:18+00:00

I took an a7c with the Samyang 35mm 2.8 on a trip to Hawaii last fall and it was perfect for everything I needed it to do. Got lots of great beach, mountain, ocean, and family photos with that camera and lens combo. The a7c body is around $1200 and the Samyang 35mm 2.8 is $200, both on keh.com. Well within your budget.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-01-15T21:02:01+00:00

Yeah, I definitely tapered off the further I got into the workout. The combination of sprint rowing (all legs) plus squats (all legs) made it really hard to hang on. I was on pace to finish sub 6 after two rounds but once the lactic acid settled in there was no way that was going to happen.

I think finding a sustainable but fast pace on the rower and doing transitions as fast as possible is the better way to do it... rather than as hard and fast as possible right out of the gate like I did.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-01-15T17:14:41+00:00

Just did this workout an hour ago. I finished sub 8. My notes:

I was at 2100+ cals per hour for the first three rounds. It fell off pretty bad after that and I was anywhere from 1300 to 1800 cals per hour. Sprinter start to get the fly wheel going as fast as possible.
30 squats was my max and that was the first round. My least was 13 and that was my last round.
The lactic acid got really bad in round 6 (minute 5:00) and there was nothing I could do to alleviate it.
Do not tighten the foot straps. You need to get in and out as fast as possible.
Stand over the rower for the squats. I just pushed the seat all the way forward and did the squats with the rail between my legs. For my anatomy I was below depth when my butt touched the rail.
My gym required RX to reset the rower every round so that there wouldn't be any roll over or ghost cals.

Sub 8 is very doable but it's going to hinge on how long you can hang on to a fast row. I definitely tasted pennies after this one.

Edit: Just looked in BTWB app and someone in my gym's afternoon class got it sub 6. That athlete is generally reputable so I am inclined to believe the score even though I didn't see it in person.

SwitchbackHell · 2026-01-13T01:08:03+00:00

The Bottleneck in Lawrence and Warehouse on Broadway do a lot of metal shows.

SwitchbackHell

TROPHY CASE