Congratulations! Way to exceed your goal!

Nice job H!

Great work!

Nice job, Bob! I took Helen out to sea too!

That's impressive!

Well said, Spencer, agree that at competition level absolutely minutes, even seconds count & those seemingly small differences become cumulative in some sense to equate to much larger ones. On an average, layperson's level perhaps not as much, except noticing improvements over months or years. Personal achievements versus competition level, however, both come with a caveat & that is the quality of movement. Even as non-competitive athletes the question must be are you sacrificing form, going lighter than you could, allowing a few sloppy no-reps through for the sake of the clock. A 10 minute Helen could be stronger than one's previous 8 minute because one went up in weight, completed the KBS heavier & American v Russian...then you may hit an 8 minute WITH that great form & heavier weight one day. That's the other bit of beauty, the endless variations of measuring growth & always have a new goal or goals.

Dude, aside from competitive sport advantages and personal goal achievement, I feel there is limited day-to-day practical advantage between an 8 versus 9 minute Helen. Cleaning around the house, office work, etc. type tasks, you wouldn't see a bit of difference if you could do a faster Helen. Firefighting, ground combat, some law enforcement situations, etc., being able to cut an 8 minute Helen instead of a 9 might save your or someone else's life. It's not because you are going to be doing those particular movements in that order in any of those situations, it's that the ability to perform very physically strenuous work repeatedly in a shorter period of time provides a significant advantage in those environments - being able to move faster between positions of cover repeatedly while loaded down with 60+ pounds of gear, having to go into and back out of a structure rapidly with equipment several times over, etc. buys you time and space. Time is often our greatest adversary or advantage.

Spencer, are you thinking about your first comment from a competitive CrossFit perspective or a sports perspective? Or both?

Favo, that's a GREAT point about form! And I also like how you mentioned there are "endless variations to measure growth". I guess I never realized that, or thought about it in that way.

Lincoln, so a question I could throw back at you is how much of a pr on Helen do you think you'd have to get in order to see/notice a difference in your life?

I just asked one of our basketball kids how much of an improvement he'd need to see on back squats to see an effect on the court; he said about 20 pounds, which makes sense given that's a weakness of his. I asked him the same thing about his pull-ups and he said he'd probably have to get to 80-maybe even more - given that he's at 60 right now. As for strict pull-ups he felt if he went from 14 (where he's currently at) to 20ish he'd see a difference.

Either way, my point is I've seen a kid improve his Helen time and then run slower in the 800 at his Regionals track meet, and another kid he trained with improve his Helen time and run a slower 400m at Regionals. Then another girl from the same era pr'd on Helen (twice in the same day actually, it's a pretty funny story) and then set a school and personal record the following track season. And there are so many other examples of kids improving their bench and squat and Fran and not see a difference on the field/court, where some others did. It's just interesting for me to think about, especially in the aftermath of Michigan getting manhandled for 60 minutes the other night.

Chris, I don't need to PR Helen anymore, but I've never given any thought to how much I need to PR anything by. Back when I was doing those types of things I mentioned, my answer would be "I don't know, just keep doing it faster", and I don't think I would put a number to it for me personally. But, you did ask for a number, so I would say 10-30 seconds each time you set a new PR. I think that range would be a fair difference from a reduction in transition times or maybe in running. That improvement in time between movements and/or running could directly equate to improvement in those kinds of tasks/situations.

Hope I'm not prodding too much Link... I wondered what you'd think about this: is there some intangible benefit that might be available to you if you found a way to squeak out a pr by a few seconds?

I saw in the comments last time that Derek "aka East Side!" hit a pr by 2 seconds; I would contest that he had the ability to save those two seconds in his previous Helen, at least maybe 8 out of 10 attempts. But last June he found a gear that he might not have had to reach for yet, which probably wouldn't have a direct physical impact but might carry over to other workouts and other areas.

In your case Link, it might come in your preparation for Helen (workouts leading up to it or day of), or maybe finding a reason that is strong enough to override that feeling of complacency during the 3rd round run, or maybe learning how to interpret what your body is telling you in a way you hadn't thought of before.

Coach Glassman said, "The greatest adaptation in CrossFit happens between the ears." Sometimes I wonder if the mental side of the workouts needs more emphasis the closer we get to being "Fit Enough" on something.