Today was a 2 workout day that included the CrossFit workout “Cindy” and a CrossFit Endurance workout. The CrossFit workout “Cindy” is:
20 minutes of as many rounds as possible of:
5 Pull Ups
10 Push Ups
15 Squats
At about 11:30am when I started to warm up for this first workout my hamstrings were still sore from a tough squat workout I did on Friday. Because of this I took some extra time to loosen up my legs by doing active range of motion warm ups. I did the workout in the house so if someone saw me I must have looked crazy running and jumping between the living room and family room :-).
For the workout I set my goal to get 30 rounds, set my timer, and started the competition! The first 5 rounds felt awesome! I was just cruising along, but the longer I went the tighter my right hamstring became and I had to try to active other muscle groups to get the hamstring to let up! It never loosened up entirely but it didn’t tighten up to the point where I needed to stop. At about 15 rounds I felt like I was settling into my grove and I hoped that I wasn’t too far behind my goal of 30 rounds (although in the back of my mind I kept thinking that I had been taking to much time transitioning from the squats to the pull ups). Once in the 20’s I knew that I just needed to keep pushing and ignore the pain and light headedness that came when I went from squats to pull ups. Just after completing the 23rd round the buzzer sounded and the mental and physical struggle had ended. This was bitter sweet because I didn’t hit my goal but I did push my limits to about 95%.
The biggest hurdle that CrossFit has presented for me has been getting to the point where I’m pushing myself 100% for the whole workout. I’ve found that I’m getting closer and closer to that point as my training matures, and I’m excited to get to know my body well enough to go 100% whenever I want.
My CrossFit Endurance workout, and 2nd workout of the day, started around 5:30pm. The weather was a windy 45 degrees. Wind has to be my least favorite type of weather because I swear I’m always getting a head wind! The workout of the day (WOD) was three 5k’s with a least 4 minutes of rest in between, and you were supposed to stay within 2 minutes of your fastest 5k time. My fastest 5k this training season was around 21 minutes, so I needed to stay under 23 minutes. Starting out with this head wind wasn’t a good start, and my legs felt like lead which I could only guess was from the earlier squats. I just kept thinking “fall forward and simply pick up my feet”. The first 5k seemed to drag on forever, and it was probably because I was running about a minute per mile under my desired pace! As much as I wanted to go faster my legs just wouldn’t carry me any faster, and I ended up finishing the first 5k about 2.5 minutes slower than my goal. After the 4 minute rest it was amazing how my body seemed to glide along at a much faster pace than the first 5k, and I was able to complete the 5k just a few seconds above my goal time! For the third and final 5k my body started telling me that I hadn’t fueled enough durning this activity. I started craving sugar and I don’t even like sugar! If I were in a race I’d be worried and looking for the next aid station to pound down some carbs, but because this was a training run I tried to bask in the nausea and see how hard I could push. This is the perfect storm for what runners call “bonking”, so if you feel like this durning a race you haven’t had enough carbs before or during your event and you need to get some really quick! I had a pretty nasty gradual uphill to end my final 5k and I pushed hard to get through it! I finished the final 5k about 1 minute above my goal time, ran into the house and had a banana and protein shake followed by cottage cheese, almonds, and black beans. Delicious! Oh and lots of water! It feels so good to be done!
If you read my earlier post I mapped out my training schedule for my upcoming Canada Ironman and North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile Trail Race. At the moment I’m building my bike and won’t have a pool for 3 weeks so my training will be a little heavy on the running side at least until my bike is built. With all of this running I’m very excited to get to cross train and let my running muscle rest a bit!
I hope that this post inspires you to get out there any train hard! You can find great workouts at CrossFit.com and CrossFitEndurance.com, or drop me a line below and I’ll be happy to program something for you! 🙂
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