Is Mike done before we started?

Now that the leg is totally fine I have my first cold in years. This should not be read as a whine but merely a statement. The impact of a cold on training is just as difficult to assess as an injury. I feel run down but this could be the psychological impact of a sore throat and runny nose which means I should push through it.

I ran 10k on the treadmill in 47.41 this morning and felt good about it until I noticed the guy next to me was running a mere 1.5 mph faster than me which constitutes a horizon job. While he many not know it, we were competing and now I have my eye out next time I see him to give him a better run for his money.

Which leads to be consider what am I going to so if Mike is on the recovery shelf for weeks or months? Will my competitive juices keep flowing even if he is clearly on the ropes? I really had no desire to run a marathon this year until we formed the challenge but I became pretty pumped. Maybe Dave Borders, who allegedly is doing CFE will enter the fray.

Of course he might still be banning me.

Long run, and another long break.

I hit the CFE tempo/time trial run today after taking Sunday off. Felt good going in, but the legs were heavy and it got pretty painful on the groin/hernia thing about halfway through. I was planning to take it easy this week anyway for a super-top-secret potential story I'll be working on over the weekend, so this just locks that break in.

Frustrating, because I'm feeling very good otherwise and I'm now back to thinking this is an injury. We'll see what happens next week, I guess.

I meant to track my 6 mile split, just so Merrill could place undo meaning on his "blazing" treadmill times, but forgot to look at my watch. Sorry about that, Merrill. You definitely beat me though.

CFE 10K tempo at 90 percent 12K TT.

mywrite:  48:47.
I don't have a 12K time trial in the books, so went with 90 percent of my 10K PR, which is a 7:10/mile pace, meaning I paced this at 7:53/mile, which ends up at 48:59.

I got out ahead early and just paced from there. On the Alum Creek Trail, which is paved but much more rolling hills than I've been running, and legs felt heavy today. Probably still not recovered from Fri/Sat WOD combo.

Runners World Says I will run a 3.20 marathon

There are lots of calculators for predicting how fast you should be able to run a race based on a workout or race (i.e. if you can run 6 miles in x, you should be able to run a marathon in x). Based on today's 6 mile run on the treadmill in 45.56 I am in 3.20 shape. I am ready for the marathon, no?

I don't trust these calculators as it assumes everyone is as gifted at running shorter distances as they are long ones. It's like the obesity charts which assume that all 6 feet, 175 pounds people are in the exact same shape. But at least these pace calculators give you something in which to gauge where you stand compared to a goal. For example, conventional wisdom is that you if you double your half marathon time and add 10 minutes, that should equal your marathon time. Break 1.40 for the half and voila, you have a 3.30 pace. This hasn't been a magic formula for me as I consistently run around 1.35 for the half and have broken 3.30 only once.

However, I do like the verification that my training is on the path to success. I am sure Mike is gaining confidence that he is getting faster and fitter running 2.5 miles hard in training (4 X 1000 meters) but it must be scary for him that he has no idea how this will translate to 10 times that distance. He's kind of like the Karate Kid sanding the floor with no clue how this will help him beat Johnny Lawrence.

Plus he now needs to genuflect about how I just ran 33 seconds faster than he did 13 days ago. It's gotta hurt his confidence.

Train with Restraint

While recovering, the evil twin to the excitement of fast improvement is the danger of pushing it too hard too quickly. You are pain free and you are pumped up about being able to exercise without feeling constrained by your injury. With a little of pushing you feel like you can quickly get to the same fitness level from before. And if you are like me and have no patience, restraint is a four letter word.

Which again is a flaw to CrossFit and CrossFit Endurance approach. The goal of each WOD is to go as fast as possible – to do as many sets of 5 pullups, 10 pushups and 15 air squats in 20 minutes as possible. When you finish Cindy you should be exhausted – at least I have been when I have done it. There is no such thing as a moderate Cindy. Running 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off for 12 minutes is not about restraint. If you are restraining, you aint training. But you might reinjure yourself.

Which leads us to today’s run. It’s only been five days since I ran pain free and I am ready to start increasing the pace and distance so I am assured of crushing Mike. I ran 7 miles today in 55.28 – which is about a 7.54 pace. I can deal with that for now but it is not going to get me to a sub 3.30. Look for more speed tomorrow.

Crossfit's LSD.

This is the post where Merrill finally realizes with incredible clarity just how amazingly boring his training life has become.

Today, I did one of Crossfit's "hero" WODs from the mainsite, and like many of these, it was a bit of a  slog - for me, anyway - and could be classified as Crossfit's version of Long, Slow Distance training. Which was still roughly 10 to 15 times more fun than Merrill's 7 miles on a track or treadmill or whatever it is. That just sounds horrible.

"Hamilton"
Three rounds for time of:
Row 1000 meters
50 Push-ups
Run 1000 meters
50 Pull-ups

mywrite: 36:43. I scaled the push-ups and pull-ups to 25 and 20 per round, respectively, otherwise it would've been LSD that never ended. Also, I wanted to try to go unbroken, which I did throughout (insert Merrill's cheating pull-ups joke here, but I'd love to see him attempt our strict push-ups). Definitely long, and knew that going in so I didn't end up pushing all that hard except for pushups/pullups. But I was sort of in the mood for this, so it was pretty enjoyable.

Yesterday, I hit the CFE long interval WOD, which didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped.

mywrite: Run: Repeat 1000m, recover 3:00 min, until form/pace deteriorates
4:27, 4:10, 4:12, 4:11. The first round was part of my warmup. I didn't like this distance, mainly because I didn't take the time to figure out what I should be at in relation to a 6-ish minute mile. Turns out these times are roughly 6:45/mile pace. Also, I thought I felt better going into this than how it turned out, I could've easily bailed after two rounds, but didn't think that would be a very useful day.

Re: A flawed debate because of weight

At least you qualified your comment about not listening to the podcast... his point was actually about running technique, and very little to do with strength. Although he did say he would make sure he was squatting and deadlifting.

And I tried to make it pretty clear that it was absolutely egotastic to think he could make Hall better.

Still, I hope you stay on the creatine, get a girlfriend, and you really should listen.

I hit a quick Crossfit mainsite WOD today:


12-9-6-3 reps for time of:
95 pound Power snatch
Burpee

mywrite: 4:50. But I modified to squat cleans (shoulder, I don't snatch, sadly).
This was a good WOD, faster than I thought I'd get done. Had to subset round of 9, completely winded. Afterwards, worked on 95 pound presses, push presses and push jerks. Amazing what two days of mobility work will do for a shoulder. Last week I couldn't get it over my head without serious pain.

A flawed debate because of weight

Let me qualify my upcoming comment by stating I have not yet listened to the debate that Mike referenced in his last post. Lack of facts have never stopped me before. The notion that Brian MacKenzie could train Ryan Hall to run faster than his current 2.04 best is flawed for at least one reason - weight. If Hall started doing CFE. and 3-4 CrossFit workouts per week at the prescribed intensity, he would almost definitely gain weight. Maybe not 25 pounds but he's going to gain something doing all of those resistance exercises.

Over 26.2 miles even a pound of extra weight makes a huge difference. I am no Ryan Hall but I did the California International Marathon in 2006 and 2008 and essentially did the same exact running training for both. For the second one I was on the juice (creatine) and about five pounds heavier from lifting heavier weights. The difference; I did 3.27 in 2006 and 3.33 in 2008. Weight matters although I did have a girlfriend in 2008 - so I had that going for me.

Recovery continues - 10k on the treadmill in 49.04. My plan is to do 7 miles 2 to 3 times per week on the treadmill and one longish run on the weekends outside. Hopefully the treadmill will be easier on my legs. Especially since I am still on he juice although single.

Better debate.

I found a really good podcast today, with CFE Founder Brian MacKenzie as the guest. And the host, and apparently really popular author, is the exact opposite of CFE: a vegan training with long slow distance (LSD) for ultra marathons. They're like Merrill and I, only cooler, smarter and more laid back.

There is also a lot of ego, which is awesome. MacKenzie believes he could make Ryan Hall - the fastest American-born marathoner in history - a better runner. But at the same time, no one "wins" the conversation, so where's the fun in that?

They essentially agree to disagree, but it is a great discussion on how CFE could work and why it might not.

Highly recommend a listen.

Meantime, I took an extra day off yesterday as some virus was working its way through our family. I got a touch of it Monday night. Came back today with a two-a-day. Groin bothering me, but the pain faded after the first 200M of my 400 of the CFE WOD, not sure if it was because I was finally warmed up or everything else was in so much pain I forgot about it.


CrossFit mainsite WOD: 5x5 backsquat
mywrite: 5*(165, 185, 195, 205, 185) = 4675 (PR)
I was really pleased with this initially, because I almost bailed in warmups with the sore groin, and I thought I was doing 20 pounds heavier each set than what I was actually doing (i.e. I thought I peaked at 225, not 205). Except I did this in the early a.m. before coffee and realized as I was driving the kids to the 'sitter what I'd done. Shit. Sports is 80 percent mental, right, so should I count it as 225?
I still got the overall PR somehow and it seems like it's been awhile since I've been under the bar.

CFE short intervals: 400m TT, recover 2:00, then repeat 200m recover 1:30, until form/pace deteriorates.
mywrite: 400M: 1:17.
200M repeats: 6 repeats. 41 seconds for the first three, 40 seconds for the final 3. I probably should've shot for two more since form seemed to be holding, but I was feeling absolutely fried and needed to function the remainder of the day. I considered walking inside after the 400, it was crushing (and it was 15 degrees outside). But this is my second fastest 400 in the last four years (PR is 1:09), so that's a plus.

It's so on. Again.

I almost like getting hurt because it forces me to start at the beginning and go slower to make sure I don't push my leg to far and to start recallousing my brain to accept healthy pain. And every time I run I can go relatively faster than the time before without dying.

That is a beauty of individual events like CrossFit and running - you can measure yourself everyday with unadulterated and unambiguous feedback. You are either getting better or worse and there is no sugar coating it.

And I am clearly getting better - I ran about 2 minutes faster for 6 miles today - 47.55 - and had zero leg pain again. That's an 8 minute mile which is the magical pace to hit sub 3.30 marathon.

That's me in the rear view mirror Mike.

Structure vs unstructured

Call me cheap or call me unscientific but I am not going to pull the trigger and buy a heart rate monitor or try and follow the MAF training program. Yes - I am wishy washy and flip flop back and forth between following a new workout or diet and going back to what I have always done/always do. Just ask the famous Dave Borders about my oft stated desire to join him for CrossFit workouts. After flaking for 7th time, he banned me. Banned.

The reason I have decided for the next 36 hours not to follow a rigid heart rate program is that exercise is to a large extent based on feel. Sometimes you wake up after a horrible night's sleep and have ridiculous amounts of energy and just need to push yourself in a workout. And then you are all rested for the Sunday 20 miler and after 3 miles you feel like crap and have to pull the plug. I understand that to some extent you have to power through these moments to reach new levels of performance but I think that just ends up draining you mentally and psychologically. While I do aspire to achieving specific goals, I am more concerned with being able to workout everyday and if I feel great I want to go for it that day regardless what MAF tells me.

So maybe this contest is less about CFE versus old school and more about structured workouts versus haphazardness. Program versus unprogram.

After my succcesfully unpainful six miler yesterday I felt slight pain in my calf while losing to Sam in basketball. I am going to give it a shot tomorrow - I am younger Michael Jordan by 20 months so I have that going for me.

Costume update - I went but did not wear a costume and bailed muy early.

re: Weighty topic.

While Merrill is right to be a bit embarrassed about his obsession with weight, historically, that has been the primary driver of fitness programs in this country - people want to lose weight and look better, right? And with the proliferation of "paleo challenges" and the Zone diet throughout Crossfit affiliates, that hasn't changed with Crossfit.

I think one significant alteration, however, is that in addition to how much you weigh or what you look like, Crossfit tracks your performance. Ideally, you're looking better, but you're also getting stronger, not just skinnier. Robb Wolf, author of The Paleo Diet and owner of one of the first Crossfit gyms, hammers that point regularly in his podcast and blog - how do you look, feel and perform? - and was a key to changing the way I approached eating for performance. I've changed from a pretty strict Zone diet that counted macronutrients to eating fairly paleo-ish, but however much I want.

The tough thing for me is that I believe my natural state is to eat less than I need to properly fuel a program like CFE, so it's a constant battle to actually eat enough. And after all, the whole point of me doing CFE is to try to keep the modest strength I've gained, not lose it and waste away into an endurance runner.

One thing I would point out to you, Merrill, is that it's no longer about calories in/calories out, it's more about what type of calories are coming in. You're already working out like it's the 1980s, you should at least be eating like it's 2013 (or 300,000 years ago, depending). And as you readily admit, who knows really how many calories are going out depending on the Lifecycle settings or your heart rate monitor, so what's the point?

Clearly, you're not the only one thinking about all of this Merrill, and I'm sad to admit I've led many email exchanges in our Crossfit group about weight and "diet." Interestingly, the women in our group never contribute to those discussions.

Also: Merrill, how was the costume party? And what was your costume? I'm thinking "teen anorexic." The blog needs some pictures.

I'm back and the heart of the workout

All is right with the world today. 6 miles on the treadmill in 49.57. I don't want to push the pace below an 8 minute mile for the first week to make sure I don't regress back into purgatory. And of course I will have to buy a heart rate monitor if I going to keep faith with the MAF training.

One other bonus to the MAF training (other than the hope that it actually works) is that I don't freak out about the wildly fluctuating differences between rests on endurance machines at health clubs. The Lifecycle at Planet Fitness had me expelling 150 more calories for a 60 minute workout than the one at 24 hour. I care deeply about these numbers but if i just worry about my heart rate it won't matter.

One thing I will concede to Mike and CFE is that it takes more heart to do his workouts than mine. Given that I do pretty much the same thing other day (alternating run and lift), the workouts aren't too scary whereas he has no idea what's in store tomorrow. It is a downer for me because part of the allure of training is proving your machismo. There is a downside to my laser like scientific approach.

Two miles.

Sometimes, even CFE's "long runs" aren't that long. Today was billed as a 2 mile tempo run at 90 percent of your 2 mile time trial pace. I didn't have a time trial in the record books (though I suppose I could've used my 5K splits), so decided to go for one. I started out thinking sub-14, then realized I should probably shoot for roughly my 5K pace at about 13 minutes.

mywrite: 2 miles in 13:24. A little disappointing, this is slower than that 5K pace. The middle part of this was a beast, I glanced at my watch a couple times and I had crept below 7:30/mile pace. Yikes. Good finish though, was just over 6 min/mile pace for the last half mile or so.

Check-the-box.

Today was one of those where I just couldn't get myself going. It's cold and windy and snowy out in the garage gym, and I'm sore from earlier this week and couldn't get warmed up. Therefore, this was one of those check-the-box WODs, where you just do it because you're supposed to. A rest day would've been just as useful.

I made up a WOD based on a recent mainsite workout:

5 rounds of:
7 back extensions
7 pull-ups
7 burpees

mywrite: 5:21. The real WOD had push press instead of back extensions, but I've been ignoring mobility work on my sore shoulder, so I couldn't even get 95# over my head comfortably. This WOD was pretty much a disaster. Oh well.

Weighty Topic

As a dude,I know I am not supposed to discuss weight and it's physical, psychological and emotional impact on performance. But I am also not supposed to go to costume parties which I am doing tonight.

Great marathon runners are all ridiculously skinny - 5'9ish, 140 pounds and 4% body fat. I'm 6', 177 and if you believe my FitBit scale, which I don't, about 7% body fat. So I am basically carrying around 25 unneeded pounds on my back, which can't be helping my blazing 7.45/mile pace.

Of course I have other weighty considerations beyond my run pace. Principally vanity. Actually only vanity. I am trying to balance feeling sufficiently large in the context of a 2013 male and light enough that I can approach 3.30 marathon. The emotional issue is that I have no idea how I am weighing that balance.

The scale can pretty much pop out any number and I am unhappy. 173 and I am an emaciated geriatric and 179 and I am a bloated hippo. This is why alternating lifting and running every day works for me on an emotional level - I am different people depending on what the scale tells me so I need to treat them with different endorphin drugs.

Another 60 minute MAF (bite me Mike, I can go science too) Lifecycle ride - 821 calories this time or 10 more than Wednesday while holding heart rate to 137 peak. I might try and run tomorrow which means I will be a nervous wreck all day.

More science!

Based on my short intervals today, thought I'd throw out a recent blog post from Zone5Endurance, a site that admittedly, focuses the importance of strength and high intensity training for endurance athletes. The main point in the research they cite is how quickly short bursts and repeats can contribute to aerobic capacity (yes, the capacity you need to run marathons).

Here's the key: the research "reveals the crossover from dominant anaerobic to dominant aerobic energy production can occur within the first 30 seconds of intense activity (correcting the old misconception that aerobic energy dominance requires several minutes or more and/or sub-maximal intensity)."

So much for Merrill's Mark Allen training program...

Here are the WODs I did today:



Crossfit mainsite, "The Chief:"
Max rounds in 3 minutes, 5 cycles, 1 minute rest between cycles.
3 power cleans (135#)
6 push ups
9 squats

mywrite: splits: 4+3PCs+6PU/4+3PCs/4+3PCs/4+3PCs/4+1PC.
After the first round, had no expectations of holding 4 rounds throughout, but always finished first 2 rounds quickly, so it made it possible. First time doing this one, I liked it but it was rough. Lots of foam rolling the next couple days.


mywrite: From CFE, repeat 100m, recover 3:00, until form/pace deteriorates

Splits: first five rounds in 19s and 20s, last five in 18s. Thought I stopped at 9 rounds - started losing form. That's a lot of rest, but once I started pushing it (18 seconds), it felt right. I decided late (9 p.m.-ish) to go ahead and do this today, looking forward to rest tomorrow and no running until Sunday. And I thought it would torture Merrill to see I've run three times this week. (Seriously, don't go running yet dude). This was also after fish tacos and wine for dinner. Turned out sorta fun to be sprinting in front of the house in the dark.

Rational for Cross Training (not CrossFitting)

Hit the Lifecycle yesterday for an hour and 810 calories at max heart rate of 132. Riding the Lifecycle as a replacement for running while my leg heals serves several functions.

1. I can maintain a modicum of sanity by not skipping a day which also enables me to eat as much as I want. Sam has now reached the age where he can legitimately keep up in eating contests so I can't lose face.

2. I want to maintain some level of cardio fitness and the theory is that by taxing my lungs, heart, etc. I will be able to run at the same pace when I recover. Of course this can be taken too far. I once trained for a 100 mile mountainous bike ride by pretty much just running. It wasn't pretty when I suffered a full body cramp from mile 30 to 60 and dropped out.

3. I have fought it for 6 years but I know I am going to make the stupid decision to sign up for another Ironman so Lifecycling is the bridge.

4. I have no other hobbies so what the fuck else am I going to do.

Day two of not running and the. Calf seems like it is headed in the right direction - several people who I have whined to have suggested seeing a doctor. Now that's just insane. What will the next suggestion be - stretch?

Hurt vs. Injured.

I heard an interview on the Dan LeBatard radio show (sports guy out of Miami) with Jeff Van Gundy, who was making a point about Dwight Howard and I think it shed some light on why I was so out of it and bummed last week.

Essentially, he was explaining the difference between being hurt and injured: when you're "hurt," you're in pain, but if you can put that aside, you're not going to wreck yourself or get "injured." Dwight has been cleared to play, but for awhile (until Kobe called him out), couldn't or wouldn't go. When you're "injured," if you play - or in our case, WOD - you run the risk of making things worse, precipitating surgery or some other long-term consequences and hopefully, solution. That's where I thought I was last week.

The good news? Based on how I'm feeling, I'm more optimistic that I'm hurt, and not injured. And after the 6 miles Monday, my hernia/groin/peep area feels better than it has in two weeks. That puts the power back in my hands, because if I can deal, I can go. Last week, I was seriously a bit scared. Obviously, I need to be careful and not get too cocky about all of this, and I am totally bailing on my soccer team - sorry guys - but I'm also hopeful things are on the upswing over here.

Honestly, I hope Merrill experiences the same thing with his week of rest. If he actually takes it... We gotta get back to the competition instead of all of this incessant whining. We're bleeping annoying.

On to the WODs (plural!):

This one from CrossFit mainsite, which I did this morning:
For time:
205 pound Front squat 20 reps
30 Box jump 30 inch box
40 Kettlebell swings, 1.5 pood
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball

mywrite: 12:35. Scaled to 155# front squat and 14# wallball. 12:35. Was planning to do 175, but even 135 felt really heavy this morning. Props to any of you who work out early morning, tough to get moving. I liked this WOD, just couldn't get the effort going.

And this afternoon, I hit up the CFE long interval WOD: 


mywrite: Repeat 1200m, recover 3:00 min, until form/pace deteriorates
First round was too fast, so I backed off to roughly 7 min/mile pace, otherwise it would have been one-and-done due to form breakage. Splits: 5:04/5:11/5:13. At this point, I have to concentrate throughout to truly hold form at anything faster than about 7:15/mile.

Hurt chasing numbers

I am now officially ready to shut down the running for at least the next week. The leg was feeling good and Mike’s 46.xx 6 mile run had me all excited to actually try a hard run. That sounded good right up to the end of the first lap and then the pain started. I made it a little past 3.5 miles (at nowhere close to his pace) and the pain went from sore to sharp. So I ran for 29 minutes and 52 seconds, which is eight seconds of what I consider to be a workout. There is no logical reason why I picked 30 other than it is a good round number.

Other numbers of distinction that I consider my Mendoza line :

·     

              20 pullups  (without kipping)

·         50 pushups

·         35% - the amount of things I actually accomplish on my to-do list each day

·         3 – the average amount of times I cry in a Friday Night Lights episode

·         7.5 – mileage I like to run in an hour

·         5:30 am – the latest I can sleep regardless of what time I go to sleep

·         11 – number of times I changed my mind on Sunday about buying a Garmin watch on Sunday (I haven’t yet)

So tomorrow it is back to Planet Fitness to ride the Lifecycle – swear to God, I will not run until next Tuesday at the earliest. It’s on my to do list for tomorrow so very good chance that I’ll stick to this promise.

Stupid is...

...as we does.

It looks like we're just gonna keep doing this, Merrill? Competition until one of us blows up, I guess. It's irresistible. It would probably be worth it if this actually meant anything, or we were putting down impressive times. Oh well.

Therefore, today I scaled the 10 mile time trial (run as fast as you can) from CFE, initially to a 6 mile tempo run at 8 min/mile. But below is what ended up happening, so I'm calling this a time trial, though an admittedly slow one:

mywrite: Run 6 mile TT. 46:29. As I said, I started out shooting for the 8 min/mile pace, but got out pretty far ahead without too much trouble. When I crossed 5 miles at 39:15 and felt really good, I decided Merrill's time from Saturday (46:57) was within striking distance. I ran the last mile in 7:14 for a 46:29. (7:45/mile pace overall).

Catching up...

The WOD Merrill bailed on was a birthday WOD for one of the guys in our CrossFit crew and I tackled that yesterday. The hernia/groin thing was a bit painful only during running warmups (not much during my other warmup which includes pullups, squats, deadlifts and a bunch of other various movements). So that's encouraging. And then during the run portion of the WOD, it didn't hurt at all, which I'm chalking up to adrenaline. That could theoretically also get me through a half marathon...

And I'm just mildly sore today. I think my two-pronged approach is to continue training, but schedule a physical (I'm overdue for one) and get a referral to see what's up, until it hurts too much.

Here's the WOD: Run 1 mile as fast as possible. Take a 1 minute break, then you have another 2 minutes to find your heaviest deadlift. Substract the weight from the total seconds of your mile, and that is your score. Winner is the lowest score.

mywrite: 6:10 mile minus 365# deadlift = +5.
This was fun. My whole body was numb after the run, I really thought I had sub-6 coming down the last 400M or so (it felt like I was running fast, I wasn't).

I put 365 on the bar as a "safety," and failed my first attempt. It helped that Maxwell (my 5-y.o son) was there to ask if it was too heavy for me. I laughed, said no, and with horrible form picked it up. Didn't have the heart to attempt anything else. (My all-time PR is 400).

For comparison, the winning score was -54. (6:01 run, 415 DL). And the birthday boy ran a 5:34 mile.

Three Steps to Maintaining an Injury

Several cliches over which to genuflect as I continue to run through pain.

1) What does not kill you can only make you stronger. My below the calf injury isn't so painful that I can't run. I ran another 6 miles today (in 48.28) ,going back to back, and it was definitely worse than yesterday but it did not get appreciably worse during the run and I managed to run at 7.50ish pace the last three miles or so. Using the Kobe Bryant mentality, I just have to figure out a way to work through it and I'll be mentally stronger.

2) If you aint in pain then you can't gain. The only way to get better is to slowly push the edge of your comfort zone, which means you are pushing your body to do extraordinary things.

3) I am a moron. I never stretch which is pretty obvious if you see my hands an area code away from my toes. I haven't touched my upper back in about three years. The only time I do start stretching is when I have a problem. So I have stretched two days in a row.

Back to the weights tomorrow morning - I think I am going to add deadlifts. Mike did 365 yesterday and I'm feeling inadequate.

The Art of Flaking on the WOD

Dave Borders, he of the incredible CrossFit home gym and the best spreadsheets for managing your life. emailed me yesterday that he was doing a WOD tomorrow consisting of running an all out mile on the track followed almost immediately by a max dead lift. Luckily I had to take Sam to his ACTs this morning so could not go. I say luckily for two reasons. First, I would have either run slow or blown out my leg even worse (neither which qualifies for dude points) and I haven't dead lifted in about four months so I would have put up embarrassingly low numbers. Second, I have a history of committing to WODs and then flaking on them.

The rational for flaking is a couplet. First, I spend so much time working out that adding travel to it only exacerbates the situation. However, if it is my favorite hobby, and it is, this shouldn't be a big deal (unless I would never join a club that would have me as a member). Second, for most of the WODs, I am doomed to failure because I don't ever do most of the exercises in the WODs like push press, dead lifts, thrusters, etc. So why would I want to set myself up for failure? I psychologically seem to prefer being the fit guy who might be good at CrossFit if he ever tried it but is afraid to try. Great role for me.

Ran 6 miles on the track in 46.57  and the calf held up for the most part although it started to get tight the last mile. It is actually a misnomer to call it a calf injury because it is below the calf - basically between the calf and achilles. It's kind of like when I lived between North Beach (cool) and Pier 39 (touist central) in a neighborhood that had no name. You could technically call it North Point but no one has any idea where that is.

By the way, I went through 5 miles in 39.13. Three seconds better than Mike's last five miler.

Getting there. Question mark?

So the hernia thing is feeling a bit better today, and I'm not quite yet feeling the irresistible urge to run through pain. However, I am surprised by how much this unplanned break has impacted my psyche. I feel like I'm becoming Merrill and OH MY GOD my world will crumble if I don't work out soon! WTF is wrong with me?

I've had to take breaks like this before, but I think there's more of a sense of dread with this one in that I don't know which movements and which WODs might make this worse, so I don't know how I will be able to continue. Maybe it's more of a question of control - I actually can't do a WOD or a run - than a choice not to work out because I'm tired or sore.

Interestingly, if I didn't have this far-off goal because of this contest/blog, I probably would've worked out yesterday to see what I could get away with. Basically, I would just Crossfit until surgery. But because I hope to run again this year, I'm left waiting and wondering. (Until I do the run/deadlift WOD tomorrow).

And Merrill, if you thought my "science of CFE" posts were boring, you don't even want to get me started on my food science. But I will say, creatine will be making it back into the mix when I'm back at it.

More run rest and God bless Creatine

I exhibited more judgment this morning. I do not like to go more than a day without running. This is something the great Emily Borders labels as the next day workout routine – make sure if you don’t exercise today that you do the next day. I haven’t run since – wait for it, wait for it – Tuesday and I thought my calf would be ready to go given that immense extra 24 hours of rest I gave it. But it is still a little sore so I lifted instead and will give it a shot tomorrow morning.

Creatine has clearly kicked in. I have definitely gotten stronger on bench pressing – nailed two sets of 200 for 11 reps (albeit with the controversial arched back, butt nowhere close to touching the bench) and I set a record with 40 dips in my office yesterday. No person is complete without the Ulltimate Body Press dip bar (shameless attempt for affiliate marketing dollars). There is NO question that I would take PEDs if I raced for a living - only reason I am not on steroids is the bad skin, large head and small package side effects.

I think Mike at least owes us an update on how much his body fat has increased in the past 72 hours.

Still on my feet - et tu CrossFit Mike

To prove I don't completely ignore my calf's warning whines, I hit the Lifecycle for 60 minutes this morning at Planet Fitness. Their recent ad was hysterical - it starts with several super model-looking women at a gym, not working out. This is taken as a bad thing - I mean who would want to go to a gym with good looking people? that would be so demotivating. Instead, you should go to Planet Fitness where all the shlubbs like you go - because there is no better carrot for putting your body through pain then seeing people who have the same average to mediocre bodies. If I keep working out, I can look like them!

The 60 minute spin was relatively pain and enjoyment free. In honor of the MAF training, I kept my heart rate at around 136 - I could literally hear my fat burning efficiently. If I was a real man I would have gone for a 90 minute ride in Marin in the cold and drizzle but my bike is locked in my storage closet at home and the key won't open it. Swear to God. This happened to Lance in chapter three of It's not About the Bike.

I wonder if Mike can see me starting to figuratively pull away from him

No run but no rest

If Mike is going to take a few days rest, then maybe I have the leeway to take a few days off from running. To compensate for my problematic left calf, I altered my running form so I wasn’t pushing off my left leg as hard which resulted in slight strain of my shin. Running through the pain is not working so much. 

I used to be a member of Planet Fitness, the ultimate no frills gym that was pretty much made for me. It’s cheap ($10-15 month), and has mostly endurance machines like treadmills, ellipticals and lifecycles. Unless  my leg make a remarkable recovery in the next 10 hours, I am going to rejoin and hit the lifecycle tomorrow which should do the trick.

Of course what will then happen is I will get all excited by the variety of doing multiple activities and will consider signing up for a half ironman. I just need to think about an open water swim in cold water and that will cure me of it. Plus being a white male in the Bay Area and the tech industry who does triathlons makes me quite possibly the most annoying stereotype imaginable. 

Listen to your body.

One thing I feel like I've gotten pretty good about over the past three years is figuring out when to rest, take time off, or otherwise just chill out a bit. Some would call that lazy - Merrill - but seeing as Crossfit can be a bit of a beatdown, it's good to back off occasionally and not just blindly stick to the protocol.

All of which is to say I really hope our little CFE v. Old School experiment isn't coming to an end much faster than anticipated, because I'm fairly sure I've got an onset of a sports hernia. Or as sure as you can possibly be without seeing a doctor, and because sports hernias are apparently just about impossible to diagnose without surgery. Excellent.

I've written a bit about some groin pain and otherwise being fairly sore the past couple weeks, so let's take a look at the potential symptoms:


-Pain in the groin, lower abdomen, or testicles (in males)
-Pain that usually affects just one side of the groin area
-Severe pain when accelerating, twisting, turning, lifting, coughing, or sneezing
-Groin or lower abdomen pain that persists for weeks or months
-Gradual onset of symptoms in runners

So yeah, I've pretty much got all of those except the testicle thing (woo hoo), and I wouldn't necessarily call it "severe," although after yesterday's run, I had to pop some Advil, which I rarely do.

And just for a kicker, "Because of the nature of their sports, hockey, soccer and tennis players are at highest risk..." This first came about after my soccer game a couple weeks back, and while it seems these are typically overuse injuries, versus acute, the soccer could have exacerbated things.

For some family history, I actually had surgery years ago for the more standard inguinal hernia, and apparently my grandfather regularly suffered from hernias.

My plan for now is to rest from everything until this weekend. Last week when I took two days off, I felt like a new man, but it came back hard after yesterday's run. And then I need to compete in another birthday WOD - unfortunately involving running and deadlifting which should set back any hernial progress I've made. Pain is temporary, pride is forever, right?

And I'll ice down the peep area regularly, as recommended. We'll see what happens, hopefully this is just a weird one-off thing and I can get back to it soon.

Merrill, maybe this is your opportunity to get your calf better too, since I'm resting anyway?

Big loss vs CFE

It is now time to answer the existential questions over whether it is possible to become less fit by training more. My calf (I am not actually sure it is a calf injury - it is the area right below my left calf that develops a knot during my run) is showing no signs of improving. It's good for the first mile and then slowly gets worse.

I started this morning's run on Tam Track super slow at 8.40 pace and got up to about an 8.05 mile before it started getting really sore at about five miles. End result is that I did 50.10 for six (and went through give in 41.50 so Mike crushed me in the rematch of the five mile run. It is obvious that my leg would feel better if I refrained from running for a week to 10 days but I am not sure if I could bear to be inside my head for that long. I might rejoin Planet Fitness and hit the Lifecycle for the next week if there is no sign of improvement by Saturday.

On the way back from the track after my ruin/run, I passed TJ's Gym in Mill Valley where there was a CrossFit workout underway at 6 am. I must admit that it made my 24 laps around the track seem lonely. Clearly, my calf is destroying my mental stability.

Groundhog tempo run.

I swear I didn't do this on purpose, but a 5-miler came up for the tempo run this week, this time at 90 percent of 10K time trial pace. I used my most recent 10K time, which is pretty much irrelevant because it comes from two years ago and sits at 7:10/mile. It's also a bit ambitious at this point, but I'd rather be aggressive than too slow, regardless of what MAF says. May is just around the corner.

Run: 5M @ 90% of 10k TT pace 

mywrite: For me, this would be a 7:53/mile pace, or 39:25. I got out ahead of pace early on and just held there, so finished at 39:16. Very happy with how my calves/achilles seem to be holding up to the slight uptick in mileage. So I guess I just beat Merrill?

Also, I hope the groundhog is right, I do not like these snowy cold runs. And this is basically my first one, so if we've got a long winter, I'm in trouble.

Video test

In preparation for CrossFit Open, my first video taped workout - if 12 pullups constitute a workout. Note I cannot kip.

Long Interval - basketball.

Of course Merrill isn't banned from the Open, but there's no way he attempts it. In addition to the funky movements, you'll have to video all of your WODs, which smacks of extra effort (i.e. above and beyond putting on your running shoes).

That MAF theory is intriguing, but you failed to post a link, so I sort of feel like you made the whole thing up just to throw a wrench in my plans. And it's coming from a guy, Mark Allen,  who excelled in Ironman 30 years ago. (He was the reason I got my first Ironman watch, by the way). But 30 years ago is a long time and training and research has changed, right? The fastest times ever in Hawaii and overall happened in 2011 and 2012. Again, not 30 years ago.

To me, this seems like you would critique MAF for the same reasons you'd critique CFE: it'll get you to the finish line, but you won't win. Just because this reinforces your approach, however, you run with it - pardon the pun.

Anyway, I played nearly two straight hours of full-court basketball this morning, so I'm chalking that one up as my long interval training for the week.

mywrite: two hours of basketball. Lots of jogging, sprinting and a little defense. First time in 4 months, shot surprisingly well. Fun morning.

Am I banned from CrossFit Open?

Wednesday was the opening registration for the CrossFit Open, which anyone can do in an attempt to qualify for the CrossFit Games competition. Over five or six weeks, they list one WOD a week which you have seven days to do while being supervised for authenticity. The top 50 or so people in each region (West. Southwest, North, etc.) based on their combined relative scores for their five/six  WODs qualify for the Region CrossFit Games which feeds into the finals. Some of the workouts require little skill and all effort (10 minutes of burpees) which I could do and some are high skill (push press, cleans, etc) where I would kill myself.

I don't think I am a hypocrite if I enter the Open. I am not anti-CrossFit; I just don't think it's smart training for a marathon. If I don't do the Open it's because I have no balls, not because I am a purist.

MAF - A Program for Getting Faster by Going Slower

I was forwarded an article by a potential running coach that completely justifies my approach in this contest against CrossFit Endurance. Essentially it boils down to Mike doing short workouts in which he raises his heart rate to 180+ for 10-15 minutes, and I am doing longer ones of 50 minutes or greater where I maintain a heart rate of 150 or so. Simple math.

Well it turns out I am going too fast if I want to go faster. Mark Allen, the six-time Ironman winner, based his entire career on doing workouts in which he kept his heart rate at a level based on the below formula (the ironic thing is one of the first articles I read about CrossFit criticized Allen for wasting time training at such a slow pace).It's called MAF runnning.

 Take 180

2. Subtract your age

3. Take this number and correct it by the following:

-If you do not workout, subtract another 5 beats.

-If you workout only 1-2 days a week, only subtract 2 or 3 beats.

-If you workout 3-4 times a week keep the number where it is.

-If you workout 5-6 times a week keep the number where it is.

-If you workout 7 or more times a week and have done so for over a year, add 5 beats to the number.

-If you are over about 55 years old or younger than about 25 years old, add another 5 beats to whatever number you now have.

-If you are about 20 years old or younger, add an additional 5 beats to the corrected number you now have.

The theory is that if you do your runs at this heart rate, you will increasingly get faster at the same heart rate. After four months, the benefits to this approach eventually diminshes, and you have to start doing speed work. This isn't radically different from what I am doing now - I just need to run slower.
I was losing fitness but it turns out I am going too fast.

Who knew - I'll taunt Mike with my slowness to get faster.

Threepeat (TM).

Not sure what Merrill's been up to lately - maybe after his big "win" over me in a "race" I didn't know we were having and purposefully paced at 8 min/mile - he's come over to the CFE dark side and is actually resting that calf and shin. Glad I could help, Merrill.

It certainly helped me as I was a mess the entire last week, but the Monday and Tuesday off were like a miracle cure and the groinal area is just about back to normal. It's crazy to go from hurting so badly to feeling fine so quickly, and I haven't even been sleeping that well overnight.

But now I may be tempting fate, as today was three days in a row and I've got a two-hour basketball open gym tomorrow morning. Keep your fingers crossed.


CFE Strength and Conditioning WODs: 
Deadlift 10x2 on :45 @ 65% 1RM
Post load to comments. Recover 5:00 - 10:00 then perform CFE S&C Wod

mywrite: I wasn't planning to do this, but I felt really good after the WOD below, so modified it to a front squat WOD, so I used 145 pounds.

For Time:
40 - 30 - 20 - 10
KB Swings (1/1.5 pood)
Push Ups

mywrite: Scaled to 45# KB, which was heaviest at the gym. Therefore, singular goal was to go unbroken, which I did. Push-ups were a disaster, however, underestimated how much yesterday's bench would impact this. Excuses. I know I'm supposed to stop with those...