Eat and Run. Or Not.

So Mike waltzes back in, all gung ho and ready to resume the battle. I’m totally fine physically – I actually feel better than I have in a while and am consistently running around 7.30-7.35 pace for 6-7 mile runs. All seems aligned for me to give Mike a beat down.

However, mentally I am not at all in marathon mode. As I am sure I droned on about already, I have done several marathons so the thrill of finishing or running a fast time (sub 3.35 or 3.30) doesn’t really motivate me. But the idea of taking on Mike and CrossFit Endurance got me excited to train for one (i.e., do an increasingly long run every weekend) and I getting almost excited to start doing 9 miles or more. And then Mike got hurt and the air went out of the balloon and it became me challenging myself to run far. And that isn’t a challenge that interests me anymore. I proved I can do a not quite slow marathon – been there done that.

And then I read Eat and Run by Scott Jurek and it took the deflated balloon and shredded it into 1,000 pieces. Jurek essentially filled 250 pages on his life which boils down to running long distances and living a very strict vegan diet. That is it. That’s his life. The highlight is when he describes his wife’s explanation for leaving him – “I was dull and boring and lived an uninteresting life.” Ya think?

I over associate with books – if I am reading a book about an Ironman champion, Navy Seal or Bobby Kennedy, I want to be like that person. Not Jurek. The idea of living a monofocused life like Jurek seems so unappealing. Of course my version of it is running 40 more minutes than normal each week and eating less In ‘n Out and more Hi-Tech burritos but it still turns me off.

But if Mike wants to pop off about a sub 15 minute two mile run as some sort of accomplishment, then I am more than happy to reengage.  I just need to read Rich Froning’s book as soon as it is published.

FYI – 44.40 the last time I ran 6 miles on the treadmill and I am regularly shattering the sub 50 minute time for my 6.6 mile route in Mill Valley. And I dead lifted 140 pounds 10 times after just two weeks back doing it.

Bring in bitch.

Injury Report: Don't Declare Victory. Yet.

On March 29, I went to see a general practitioner (I needed a new doc anyway), who diagnosed a possible injury. Not a hernia, but rather a pull of a small muscle inside the hip - I can't recall the name - that when inflamed, can pinch a nerve and cause numbness or pain that I was describing through the lower abs and groin.

He prescribed a week of steroids, getting huge!, and that I don't do anything to trigger the pain. As I hadn't run or played soccer since March 12, didn't think that would be a problem.

I took the meds and a couple more weeks off from running, though a bout with the C2 Rower seemed to cause some issues last week. Starting this past Saturday, I hadn't felt any pain for a couple days and I did a bit of jogging and playing with my son's soccer team yesterday.

-cue dramatic music-

So today, I took on a two mile run. Not a blazing pace, I just wanted to keep it under 15 minutes and gauge how the pain developed. I'm happy to report there seems to have been virtually no pain related to the injury. There is a slight tweak in my right groin, but it feels distinctly different than from before and it's quite a bit higher than the previous pain. I hope that is true and not just me hoping for the best.

I'm not ready to declare victory over this bizarre injury just yet, but it's the first positive move in a couple months, so I'll take that.

WOD: 2 mile run

mywrite: 14:39. Mid-3/4 of a mile slacked off, so had to push the finish. Felt good. We'll see how everything feels as the week goes on and see if we might get back to this.

Almost 8 for 60

I might not be currently competing against Mike but I can still compete against the clock and myself. One of my sacred cows is running 8 miles in one hour or less. I have done it a bunch of times and the fastest I've ever done is 57.19. It doesn't kill me doing it but its a good effort. Today, on the treadmill of course, I hot 7.94 miles in an hour which I am happy about. I am going to hit the track tomorrow and see if i can get under an hour for 8.

One of the attractive things about CrossFit is the group workouts - it seems like a great way to motivate yourself to go harder/faster, actually learn how to use proper form and meet people with similar interests (or lack thereof). The yang to this ying is I have always liked working out alone. For running, I don't have to worry about matching someone's pace and for lifting, the rest breaks between sets can be excessive if you work out with someone. Of course this isn't an issue since there are no breaks and/or plenty of equipment.

I just checked - TJs, which is the closest CrossFit Gym to me, has a class at 5:15 am in the mornings. Hmmmmm - time to genflect.

13.2

Again, sorry Merrill. I'll blog my CrossFit WODs if you want a reason to keep obsessing. And we do have the head-to-head strength WOD to worry about...

It is so strange, I literally have no pain right now or during WODs (even 13.2), yet I go to jog around playing with my kids in the yard and the pain starts up.

So yeah, I've already got a couple WODs in:

mywrite: 3x5 front squat (alternative to overhead, due to shoulder)

3*(125, 155, 185, 200(PR), 185) =2550(PR) 

I did this yesterday. Wanted to get out and move to see how things were feeling after Tuesday's pain-inducing run. This felt great, actually better than just sitting around. Looks like a PR by 25#. 

Hopefully this will translate to cleans at some point, so afterwards, worked a bunch of hang and regular squat cleans at #125 working on hip extension and not pulling too early with arms.

mywrite: 13.2 

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 10 minutes of:

115 pound Shoulder to overhead, 5 reps

115 pound Deadlift, 10 reps

15 Box jumps, 24" box

Sorry, not going to reveal total at this point, don't want to be the rabbit for the group I WOD with. I was happy with overheads, 115 is right on the line of where that shit gets hard for me, but the WOD was harder than I was expecting overall. 

Pop goes the motivation

The balloon of motivation has completely popped. Without Mike as competition and motivation I have no desire at all to do a marathon. If I am in this endeavor alone until Mike heals, them I am just another "look at me" endurance blogger listing his workouts in a pathetic attempt to justify his strange compulsion.

Tapping out.

For now, gotta call it quits. I went out today after nearly a week off, legs and hernia stuff feeling good, and pretty much from the start of warmups, it was hurting. I made it through 2x1000M repeats at 4:22, but it's just not worth the next week of dull, annoying pain.

I'm scheduling a doctor's appointment, so we'll try to get this taken care of ASAP, but I'm guessing it will require surgery, and if not, a long, probably useless rehab. This should be fun. If I can get back to CFE by mid-June, I'll still make a run at a fall marathon for the hell of it.

The weird thing is that I can do almost any other Crossfit movement without repercussions (GHDs and rowing seem to bother it). So oh well, my plan in the meantime is to get back to regularly-scheduled Crossfit WODs, including Open 13.2, and go from there. We know Merrill will keep running, though maybe not as intently since he doesn't have me to keep up with.

And Merrill, I will take you up on the challenge. Let me go through some WODs and we'll post it here to keep our legions of fans interested while I'm laid up.

I challenge Mike to strength contest

So the fact is that I am not just obsessed with running faster than Mike (the bar for 6 miles was just raised to 45.19) but also in being stronger than him. However, it is difficult to compare strength when we are both doing totally different workouts. He's going for random tests of strength (eg do 30 burpees and then 30 clean and jerks with 105 pounds) while I am sticking to the old school approach of max bench press or squats, or max set of 10.

I am still trying to do 100 push-ups straight (not the new CrossFit arms off floor chest on ground variety) and 25 pull-ups (much easier if I can learn to kip). At this point I'd take Mile in push-ups and he would win pull-ups.

In addition to slugging it out on the road, we need to pick a strength event that will test both our approaches to lifting and it can't involve the obscure Olympic events that I can't do. Maybe Cindy? Or 100 pull-ups air squats sit-ups and push-ups.

Care to name the event Mike?