Kelly

25 Aug 2018

CrossFit Girl WOD “Kelly”

5 Rounds of
400 m Run
30 Box Jumps 24″/20″
30 Wall Balls 20/14 lbs

Good time to beat Kelly:</p>

37 min 35 sec – Fitness Level 0 – Beginner athlete
34 min 11 sec – Fitness Level 25 – Beginner athlete
30 min 42 sec – Fitness Level 50 – Average athlete
25 min 11 sec – Fitness Level 75 – Average athlete
21 min 46 sec – Fitness Level 90 – Advanced athlete
19 min 43 sec – Fitness Level 95 – Advanced athlete
17 min 31 sec – Fitness Level 98 – Elite athlete
15 min 22 sec – Fitness Level 100 – Regional athlete

What is Kelly?

Kelly is CrossFit Girl benchmark workout (WOD) and is one of the older benchmark workouts first introduced in 2005 on the main site. (https://www.crossfit.com/workout/2005/04/10#/comments)

WOD Kelly is a long five round triplet that consists of run, box jumps, and wall ball shots. This combination of movements makes Kelly one of the harder benchmarks. All movements are relatively light so that you can push the intensity, but all movements are focused on your legs so fatigue will kick in hard during the WOD.

What is a good time to beat for Kelly?

According to our app WOD Time Calculator, the best athletes should be able to finish Kelly in 15:22 which leaves only about a minute for each movement, it is beatable time but only by the best of the best.

Advanced athletes should aim for a time of 21:46, average athletes for 30:42 and beginners should be fine by setting time to beat to 40 minutes.

How to get a good time in Kelly?

Kelly is all about right pacing, no matter what your goal time is.

Finished first two 400m run too quickly? Your heart rate is at its limit, and you will have a hard time pushing it back to the comfort zone.

Done first two round of wall balls unbroken? Now your run is going to be much slower than the time you saved by holding on the medball for 30 reps.

These are a few reasons why you should be smart with pacing. Going too hard on one of the movements means that you will suffer on the other two.

You need to find a balance between going hard and being able to do the next movement with decent pace.

Run

WOD Kelly starts with a run, don’t sprint it!

I have already lost count of how many times I have seen people starting way too fast if long WOD begins with a simple 400 m run. The result of this is they are always out of breath after 5 minutes in the WOD, and their pace is slower by 30% or more.

A much better choice is to run your first run like it is your last. It will be probably 20-30 seconds slower than 90% effort sprint, but you will quickly make up that time when you progress through the WOD.

On top of that, your heart rate will be relatively low for the first two rounds, and your muscles will start getting fatigued much later.

Box Jumps

30 box jumps is a lot, especially after multiple 400m runs and several wall balls.

You would probably need to push yourself through all box jumps. There are a few tricks that should help you to minimize rest and get through box jumps slightly faster than usual.

1) Rest on the top of the box

Get up on the box immediately when you return from the run. Try to do a few reps and rest only on top of the box.

Resting on the top of the box will allow you to rest after harder half of the movement and you can also rebound your reps unless you are doing step downs.

2) Do step downs instead of resting

Do step downs if you find yourself slowing down or resting too much before each rep.

Step downs without rest are always faster than classic box jumps where you rest after every rep.

Wall Balls

Legs and lungs are already hurting too much when you get to the wall balls, but you need to get through them.

Some of you may have the energy for 30 unbroken reps but unless you are a Regional athlete, doing 30 unbroken is not the best idea. 30 unbroken wall balls may take a little longer time than four sets of 9+8+7+6. Why?

You will need to take a longer rest before starting a set of 30, compared to a set of 9 which you can probably do anytime, under any level of fatigue.

Also, your pace will be slower during full unbroken set compared to 4 sets of 9+8+7+6.

If you decide to go multiple small sets, make sure to minimize rest between those sets.

Pro tip for wall balls. Usually, I recommend to focus on legs and jump a little on wall balls, to save some extra energy. This WOD is a different, all movements are for legs, and wall balls are the only movement for the upper body. Make sure to use your arms and shoulders a lot and start jumping only when your shoulders get fatigued.

Summary

Run at about 80%, especially during the first two rounds to have the same pace through all five rounds.

Rest on top of the box. Do step downs if you need to.

Split wall balls to 9+8+7+6. Use shoulders and arms as much as you can to save legs for the other two movements.