We warned you that the return of Castro meant the reign of the HeroWOD.  And Zeus is a WOD that deserves to be named after the God of Thunder, ruler of the Greek Gods.  Zeus has 570 reps, that’s 70 more than the dreaded Filthy 50!  Another way to think of it is a 450 rep Fight Gone Bad plus 90 push ups and 30 body weight squats.  Any way you measure it, it is a test worthy of the gods.

Our first Zeus was performed at our old Dunbar location when The Touch was still a CrossFit newb, an era that I refer to as “the good old days”.  I completed but The Touch, unaccustomed to such ridiculous volume, had to tap out after 2 rounds.  Things turned out a bit differently this time but the memory still warms my heart.

Zeus is a great goal setting WOD and I have several approaches to goal setting for myself.  It is common in CrossFit to set time-based goals.  In this case my gold standard was to maintain sub 15-minute rounds for a sub 45-minute finish.  My back up plan was a sub-50 minute finish and my bronze medal goal was to finish under an hour.

In round 1 I finished a minute ahead of my goal pace but in the next round my pace slowed and by the time I finished 1-minute past my goal completion time I was like ACDC: thunderstruck, my limbs quivering with fatigue wishing I could tap out instead of tackling round number three.  After a quick breath and a mental pep talk I went for the silver medal goal of finishing under 50 minutes…and failed, missing my mark by 11 seconds.  Like a third place finisher I had to be satisfied with completing under 60 minutes.  Not the finish I wanted but respectable nonetheless.

Time was not my only goal however.  In fact, time-based goals are rarely my primary focus these days.  Instead, I prefer to focus on qualitative goals.  In this case, it was unbroken sets of each exercise.  Completing round 1 unbroken was my bronze medal option.  Two rounds unbroken was my silver medal and the gold standard was all three rounds completed in unbroken sets.  In this case I was successful in my bid for gold though round three really taxed me to my limits.

So I succeeded in plan A for one goal and had to settle for plan C on the other.  I think it is important in training to have a variety of goals and some realistic fall back positions so that you always come away with some form of win.

Given that the gym set up will likely prevent you RXing this WOD and realizing that the 1-hour class limit means you might not finish, what realistic, but challenging goals can you set yourself for HeroWOD Zeus?  What’s your gold standard, your silver and your bronze?

HeroWOD Zeus
In-Gym Logistics: First come, first served.  You will not get all the equipment that you want but you will get a barbell, a box and a piece of cardio equipment.  Those three things will be enough to get you a great workout.

At-Home Equipment:
A barbell/dumbbell/kettlebell or back pack
A box jump substitute or object you can jump over
A dumbbell/kettlebell or backpack to swing

Warm Up/Tech:
10 Wall Balls or Barbell thrusters empty bar
10 SDHP empty bar
10 Box Jumps or Jump Overs or Step Ups
10 Push Press empty bar
10 Cal Row/Airbike/Ski Erg or DB/KB Swings if you do not have access to cardio equipment
10 Judo Ups
10 Back Squats empty barbell

HeroWOD Zeus
3 rounds:
30 Wall Balls or Barbell thrusters (same weight as SDHP)
30 SDHP
30 Box Jumps or Jump Overs or Step Ups
30 Push Press
30 Cal Row/Airbike/Ski Erg or DB/KB Swings if you do not have access to cardio equipment
30 Push Ups
10 Back Squats (same barbell as SDHP)

Cool Down
Dragon Pose
Pigeon Pose
Hip Cross Overs
Shoulder Pull Overs
Downward Dog
Child’s Pose