Mediocre Runners

I just scored a pair of New Balance 840 from my local DSW for $33.  I was looking for a replacement for my beloved Montrail Streaks and I couldn’t pass up this deal. The 840s are a minimalist, but rugged shoe that is pretty close to a flat. It has a minimal heel and a very rugged outsole. It fits wonderfully and isn’t restrictive at all.  Needless to say, I felt the urge to test them out on this beautiful Sunday.  So I headed over to Potomac Overlook, which has some great trails, complete with hills and streams to ford.

But before heading out, I needed a plan. Mediocre Runners is against mindless slogging through miles for no purpose.  Now if I was going out for a long slow run just to enjoy the weather and being outside, that would be another story.  So I hit up Pat and asked his advice. Two words: Crossfit Endurance. I quickly found what I was looking for: 5 Min on, 2:30 Min off, 6 Min on, 3 Min off, 7 Min on. All out effort. This is a “lactate shuffle.” I have no idea what that means.

Anyways, I hit the trails and did a quick warm up on a flat part.  Then I hit the stopwatch and began my lactate shuffle.  The first 5 minutes were broken up my a stream I had to cross. So I started over and headed down hill a ways towards the Potomac. Then I headed up hill to work on my hill climbing technique.  My first 5 minutes were up more quickly than I expected.  The next two intervals were the same: fun, fun, fun.  I’m not sure the Crossfit Endurance workout was meant for some pretty steep trails, but I can say that was a pretty badass workout for only 18 minutes of actual running. I can’t wait for some more.

I almost forgot about the shoes! I’m no trail running expert, but I can say that I never lost grip on a variety of terrain: streams, rocks, roots, mud, dusty single track. The 840s bit and wouldn’t let go.  And they are FAST. I was grinning on the downhills. The minimal style and low heel also promoted a more natural mid foot strike. I love these shoes and can’t wait to hit the trails again.

This was a good week. I hit my lofty goal of five workouts and two days of rest. I did my best to follow some of the WODs from Pat’s box, Diesel.  I did Stronglifts 5×5 workouts on Monday and Saturday to get my strength days in.  If you aren’t familiar with Stronglifts, it is a beginner strength training regimen that uses some of the same whole-body lifts that you see in Crossfit with the gradual addition of weights. The foundation is doing 5 sets of 5 reps, thus the 5×5. I did workout A on Monday and Workout B on Saturday.

Monday: Squat 5×5: 70 lbs, Bench Press 5×5: 90 lbs, Inverted Rows: 3 sets x reps to failure (6-8-7), Pushups: 3 sets x reps to failure (40-25-11), Reverse Crunches: 3×12.

Saturday: Squat 5×5: 75 lbs, Overhead Press: 5×5 75 lbs, Deadlift 1×5 135lbs, Pullups: 5-4-4 reps, 3×30 sec of the plank.

I did traditional Crossfit WODs on Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday: Push Press 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 reps: 65, 75, 85, 90, 95, 105, 115. I think I could have gone heavier on these from the start.

Thursday: 4 rounds for time
400m Run
500m Row

18:04. I have new-found respect for the Concept 2 rower after that WOD. Doing a rowing sprint after a run is really f-ing hard!  This WOD was hard to do at the gym because transitioning from the treadmill to the rower took about 30 seconds for each transition.

Today’s WOD will be the subject of its own post because it was so damn good.

I just finished a mediocre Jackie and realized I did 4 workouts of the day this week. I usually shoot for five workouts a week and tend to get three in, so this is sort of a big deal.  I just notice there were a lot of metabolic conditioning with thrusters and pullups this week, so maybe next week I will focus on some more strength and heavy weights.

Jackie was a tough one, especially since I smashed my nose with the knurled part of the bar during the thrusters.  At least I didn’t get a bloody nose.  I almost did this one as RX’d, but just couldn’t power through the pullups. I got about 15 done in the beginning, hit the pullup assist for about 8, did a couple more unassisted and then finished on the machine. So here’s the breakdown:

Jackie: 16:08
Row 1000 (4:04)
50 reps 45 lbs Thrusters
30 Pullups (half with 85lbs assist)

My other WODs this week:

20090901:

For time:
Row 1000 meters
45 pound barbell Thruster, 21 reps
4 dead hang Pull-ups
Row 750 meters
45 pound barbell Thruster, 15 reps
15 assisted Pull-ups
Row 500 meters
45 pound barbell Thruster, 9 reps
9 assisted Pull-ups
26:26

20090902:

21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 65 pounds
Assisted dips
12:00 minutes or so

20090905: Helen

I did a modified Helen workout yesterday and tweaked my back from a bad kettlebell swing.  But I still have a lot of love for the kettlebells.  By far, my favorite Crossfit exercise is the Kettlebell swing.  Even though I’m still working on my form, I can’t help but have a good time swinging the KBs.  The fun sometimes masks how f-ing hard doing 21 kettlebell swings can be after a 400m spring on the row, especially on the last round.  I hope my back gets better soon so I can swing away soon.

My stats for Helen were mediocre at best.  Keep in mind at the Globo gym, each station is on a different floor.  Also, we have escalators at my gym and people actually just stand there. Isn’t the whole point of the gym to exercise? They are probably on there way to the ellipticals.

• 400 meter row
• 35 Kettlebell swing x 21
• Pull-ups 12 reps (85 lbs assisted)
• 21:08

I completed my first WOD at the local globo-gym.  I recently cancelled my membership at the local CF box and have begun my experiment in CFing on my own.  So today’s globo-gym WOD was:

Warm up: 10 minutes on the elliptical

10 sets each of bicep curls, lat pulldowns, and  tricep presses.

Just kidding! I did an honest to goodness CF WOD there and it was a breeze despite the personal trainers and towel service.  The WOD was as follows:

5 Rounds for time:
Row 250m :56. :56, :57, :56, :58. 1 min rest between rounds
Rest 5 minutes
“Tabata Mash-up”
4 Alternating rounds of each exercise:
Push-ups
Situps

I’m pretty sure I was supposed to do 8 alternating rounds rather than 8 rounds total. My high for the pushups was 19 and my low was 13.  For the situps I did a consistent and mediocre 10. Cool down is typing the post with a very warm cat on my lap nibbling my arms.

And the Gods of Crossfit will probably curse me for it.

But I have an explanation. It was getting very hard to commit to the schedule at my local box.  I was finding it harder and harder to show up in Clarendon for a pre-scheduled WOD. I also never really clicked with the crowd there, especially the dudes in brown flip-flops “teaching” POSE running techniques.  I will maybe try to fit in a few more WODs over there before the end of the month. I am also going to a what I hope is a real POSE seminar at the box this weekend.

So why the globo-gym? The fact that it is across the street really helps.  Also, their training philosophy is pretty sound to my mediocre mind.  The foundation of their regimen is good nutrition, followed by an emphasis on general cardio, then strength training.  This is topped off by stretching and recovery techniques. I doubt I will ever do personal training with them. Their general philosophy is something I can agree with.

My goal with the globo-gym is to try CF-style workouts in a mainstream gym setting. I may also take a few yoga classes here and there to improve my flexibility.  I’m scheduled for a fitness “assessment” with a trainer on Saturday. I’ll let all you MR fanatics know what that is like.

On Thursday I went back to try my failed WOD from Tuesday. I was originally going to do 4 rounds of of 800m run + 20 squats + 20 pushups, but decided to add some knees to almost elbows for some extra flavor.  I don’t remember my times exactly, but I think my best was 3:32 and worst was 3:37. I think I will call this WOD a “Tar-Tar.”

I’ve been taking it easy because of a nagging ankle pain. I went for a short run yesterday, but had to cut it even shorter. I’m taking today and tomorrow off to give it some more quality rest and ice team. But I really just want to get out there and run!

Yesterday was a classic example of a mediocre WOD.  I walked over to the track with the intention of using my fly Nike Frees to do a great WOD:

4 rounds of 800m + 20 pushups + 20 squats. It was going to be a variation of 20090725’s WOD.  Alas, when I got to the track it was closed for renovations. So instead I went for a jog to test out the Frees.  After about .5 mile I came across a swing set and though “pullups.”  I jumped up, missed my grip, and fell on my ass. Hard. I did manage to bust out 5 mediocre pullups on the nearby monkey bars.  I did finish up with about a 1.5 mile run.

A few thoughts on the Frees. They still feel great. It took my a while to get a good stride going. Once I did, I could really feel my legs working, but in a good way. It feels different than normal shoes and my legs felt more tired than normal the next day. The best thing was that after a while, the pain from my shin splints faded away. I also woke up today with no pain from my shins. The Frees must be physical therapy or something.

Today’s WOD was pretty good. The local box was a little on the annoying side, but I did enjoy the WOD:

Deadlift: 5-5-5 – 135, 145, 165 (yay PR!)
For time: 50 Burpees – 3:01 (yay burpees!)

The burpees were actually awesome. I felt pretty damn good about that time and Pat says I need to apologize, because that time is actually decent, not mediocre. Sorry.

Last week was a great week as far as Crossfitting goes. I logged four Crossfit workouts.  Wednesday was a tough one:

15-12-9
Thrusters, 65#
Kettlebell Swing, 35#

As RX’s it was 135# and 2 pood (whatever that means).  While I was struggling with my very scaled workout, the pros at my box were thumping away with the heavy weights. But who cares? I got a great workout out of it.

Then on Saturday I did a Crossfit main site WOD called Nicole:

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
Run 400 meters
Max rep Pull-ups
I completed: 8 rounds with 1-3-2-2-1-2-1-2 pullups respectively (those were dead hangs, but still mediocre).

I was still pretty beat up from my Wednesday workout, but felt good about the running during Nicole, especially since it was my first real use of my new Nike Free 5.0s.  I’m going to do a do an in depth review of these shoes once I get some more time in them, but my first impression was very good. Great even – despite a nagging pain in my right ankle, which could be related to some shin splints I was having last month.  I took today and Sunday off to give the ankle a rest and some quality ice time, but I can’t wait to get out there and really run in these Frees.

This one probably shouldn’t even count. I had to scale this big time due to a bad ankle and my mediocre pushups skills. After round 4 or so, I gave up on strict pushups and put the old knees on the mat.  My burpees were a mess. But I guess I finished and that counts for something.  And I did get to this one in my basement.

10 Rounds for time:
10 Burpees
10 Pushups

16:18