Tabata push-ups
Run 2 miles
Bottom-to-bottom Tabata squats

The Tabata interval is 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest for 8 intervals. Avoid lousy push-ups (see CFJ 7). For the Tabata squats, remain in the bottom position for the rest intervals, and immediately return to the bottom position after full extension. No resting at the top.

As The Open approaches we’ll highlight a number of different Roots athletes in a post series called Why I’m Doing the CrossFit Open? This is a yearly series in which we discover the many many reasons individuals choose to sign-up for this awesome yearly event.
First up, Googs!
Name:
Rob Guglielmetti, a.k.a. “Googs”
Age:
47
Occupation:
I think it says ‘Engineer’ on my business card, but I’m a former bicycle mechanic and theatrical lighting designer who now does building energy efficiency research and develops lighting simulation software tools for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Years CrossFitting:
Almost three years now. I started foundations  April 22, 2013; still have the email.

Did you do The Open last year? If so, did you PR anything or try something new?
Yep, I did the Open in 2014 and 2015, and both years I PR’ed lifts and got movements I hadn’t been able to do before. Matter of fact, I’ve got a good story for ya about Opens and PRs.
14.2 consisted of overhead squats at 95#, and chest-to-bar pull-ups. Well, my 1RM OHS as of that Thursday when Dave Castro announced the workout was 80#, and I still couldn’t do a C2B. I showed up at Roots the next afternoon anyway, and signed up for a heat. After all, I’d signed up for the Open, and the thing says do ten OHS at 95#. Go get it. Worst thing that happens is my judge doesn’t even have to count to one, right?
Stefanie Christensen was my judge, and she asked me if I was ready. I told her that if I got even one rep it would be a 15# PR, and she said, with that big smile of hers, ‘Well that’s OK, here we go!’. Honestly, I felt like she was my own Super Fan for the next two minutes. Three, two, one, go. After a clean, a push jerk to get the bar behind my neck, a reposition of the hands and then finally ANOTHER push jerk just to get the goddamned bar into position overhead, I nervously descended, trying to stay tight and do all the other shit I’d heard before. At the bottom, the bar was still overhead, so I just stood the hell up. One. (Holy shit!) OK, I’m on the board I thought, and with the pressure off, I just had fun for the remainder of the two minutes.
People were dropping bars and heading to the rig for their C2Bs and good for them, but I still had time to try and get some more reps. I got six more before time was up, and I couldn’t have been happier. Best part is, one year later Mr. Castro decided that one was so much fun he made us do the same exact workout again for 15.2! And this time I got the ten OHS unbroken, got my first ever in-WOD C2B pull-ups (I’d been practicing, you see), and got back to the bar and shit if I didn’t nab one more OHS before time was called. I tripled my score from one year ago; talk about measureable progress. =)

Are you doing it this year?  Why?
I wouldn’t miss it, because I love everything about it. Actually if I may, this is the last paragraph from something I wrote a little while ago, and I think it sums up the ‘why’ perfectly:
Over the last two years, I’ve traded some fat for muscle and yet I’m about 25 pounds lighter than I was. I can hop on the bike and go hammer out some miles, or hike a mountain, or run a 5K in about 20 minutes. Like, right now, if need be. But I get the best satisfaction out of just showing up at the gym five times a week and doing what’s on the board, or whatever Ryan the Olympic Weightlifting Coach tells me to do. I do it with these wonderful, like-minded spirits, at all hours, in all weather. I’ve driven to the gym in a snowstorm to go run around the building with a headlamp on at six in the morning, and performed dumbbell thrusters in a springtime hail storm. I burpee broad jumped my way around a middle school track. Hell, I’ve sprinted backwards around that track, too. Constantly varied, right? You’re goddamned right. And all of these little efforts, all the reminders to get your butt back, your weight in your heels, chest up, shoulders back, stay in it, and on and on and on, all pay off in March when I spend five insane Friday afternoons at the gym, being a part of the CrossFit Open — as a judge, as a spectator, as a friend, and yes, as an athlete.
Boom. Thanks for asking.

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