The first week of the 2017 CrossFit Games Open is finally over and while the scores are still all unofficial, the current first place finisher on the men's side is Europe's Nicolai Duus with a time of 9:41.




Only seven individuals finished this workout in under 10 minutes and Duus' time is the fastest of the bunch by five seconds. So how did he crush this workout and what can we learn from his performance?

The Biggest Key To Winning 17.1 Was Consistency

Without a doubt, the biggest key to Duus' performance was his consistency. If we were to pace 17.1 perfectly, we'd expect to see the increase in time from round to round to be flat because the increase in reps is linear. Take a look at this graph breaking down his time per rounds and the differential between rounds:



In the blue we have Duus' time per round and in the red we have the differential from one round to the next. Here's the actual data:

Round	Total Time	Differential From Round to Round
1	61.88
2	89.99	28.11
3	117.82	27.83
4	150.39	32.57
5	161.44	11.05

What we're seeing here is a relatively flat and linear increase in time per round, with the final round as an exception. In the first three rounds, Duus only took about 28 seconds longer to complete each subsequent round, a time difference that is mostly accounted for by the 10 extra snatches in each round.

The round of 40 dumbbell snatches and 15 burpee box jump overs was Duus' slowest overall pace, and this is mostly due to the burpee box jump overs. His average time per snatch over the whole workout was 2.16 seconds, and in the round of 40, his average time per snatch was 2.19 seconds. On the other hand, his average time per burpee box jump over across the whole workout was 3.43 seconds per rep and 4.18 seconds per rep in that fourth round.

Nicolai Duus' Dumbbell Snatches In 17.1

Time	Reps	Time per rep in seconds
18.28	10	1.828
40.67	20	2.0335
64.07	30	2.135666667
87.76	40	2.194
113.11	50	2.2622

Nicolai Duus' Burpee Box Jump Overs In 17.1

 

Time	Reps	Time per rep in seconds
43.6	15	2.906666667
49.32	15	3.288
53.75	15	3.583333333
62.63	15	4.175333333
48.33	15	3.222

Even more impressive, the time differential between the fourth round and the final round was the shortest of all the rounds. This means that at the moment when he was most tired, Duus was able to turn on the jets and crush the final round. Again, this difference is mainly in the burpee box jump overs: his average time per rep was a blistering 3.2 seconds, which was his second fastest round just behind the very first round when he was fresh.

Obviously, Duus isn't approaching and planning his workout to the hundredth of a second. Instead, his pacing is a reflection of his experience and intuition, which makes it that much more amazing. 

Here are the total times and differentials for his snatches and his burpee box jump overs:

Breaking Down Nicolai Duus' Snatches From 17.1

Breaking Down Nicolai Duus' Burpee Box Jump Overs From 17.1

<br /> table.tableizer-table {<br /> font-size: 12px;<br /> border: 1px solid #CCC; <br /> font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;<br /> } <br /> .tableizer-table td {<br /> padding: 4px;<br /> margin: 3px;<br /> border: 1px solid #CCC;<br /> }<br /> .tableizer-table th {<br /> background-color: #104E8B; <br /> color: #FFF;<br /> font-weight: bold;<br /> }<br /> <br /> table.tableizer-table {<br /> font-size: 12px;<br /> border: 1px solid #CCC; <br /> font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;<br /> } <br /> .tableizer-table td {<br /> padding: 4px;<br /> margin: 3px;<br /> border: 1px solid #CCC;<br /> }<br /> .tableizer-table th {<br /> background-color: #104E8B; <br /> color: #FFF;<br /> font-weight: bold;<br /> }<br /> <br /> table.tableizer-table {<br /> font-size: 12px;<br /> border: 1px solid #CCC; <br /> font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;<br /> } <br /> .tableizer-table td {<br /> padding: 4px;<br /> margin: 3px;<br /> border: 1px solid #CCC;<br /> }<br /> .tableizer-table th {<br /> background-color: #104E8B; <br /> color: #FFF;<br /> font-weight: bold;<br /> }<br />