Tempo/Time Trial.

Merrill keeps demonstrating his inability, or unwillingness, to understand something that is outside his comfort zone. First, he said a few posts back that he hasn't seen anyone training CFE come forward with a demonstrably good race times, despite the fact that I found and quoted three different athletes in my CFE profile, some with very impressive times (8:08 50 miler). Plus there's this Guy, a pro, who won two of the four races he raced last season. (As a side note, I was only able to track down one CFE critic who had actually tried CFE in more than a year of reporting).

Now he's saying Crossfit and Crossfit Endurance are all-out all the time. How does that make sense when today's mainsite WOD is 5x5 deadlift? Not for time. And today's CFE WOD is a Tempo run?  Besides, an athlete's time on a metcon WOD will depend on many factors, whether you're going all out or not. Doing this WOD - For Time: 21 - 15 - 9 Power Clean (135/95), Ring Dips - from day to day, will result in different times. Just as Merrill's 6.6 mile run resulted in different times.

And again, as I posted here last week, this is why strength WODs like those above improve your running: efficiency. Here are four sample papers:


-Explosive strength training improves 5-km running time by improving running economy and muscle power, J Appl.Physiiol, 1999 May;86(5):1527-33
-Short term plyometric training improves running economy in highly trained middle and long distance runners, J Strength Cond Res. 2006 Nov;20(4):947-54
-Maximal strength training improves running economy in distance runners, Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008 Jun;40(6):1087-92
-Concurrent endurance and explosive type strength training improves neuromuscular and anaerobic characteristics in young distance runners., Int J Sports Med, 2007 Jul;28(7):602-11 Epub 2007 Mar 20.

And finally, Crossfit Endurance has Tempo runs programmed in, which I did today. Sure, they're not based on perceived effort, which Merrill himself proved yesterday that most people can't judge for themselves , but they are programmed at a slower pace than an "all-out" effort. Admittedly not as slow as an old-school 70 percent effort, but this is as close as we'll get to that program. The idea is that even though it's paced slower, it's still faster than what you'll likely need to run on race day, so you won't be shocked at the end of the race when you might actually need to push yourself.

Run: 5k @ 85% 5k Time Trial pace
My most recent 5K race was 20:08, so I needed to run today's 5K at 23:15, or 7:29/mile. I finished at 23:04. Considering how easy-breezy the first mile was, it got a bit more difficult than expected. Legs got heavy coming off yesterday's double-WOD at 1.8 miles.