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?

How to Avoid the 20 Mile Run

I hit 8.5 miles this morning (67.33), which is my longest run since October. I have arrived at the approach I am going to take between now and the fall marathon. Basically I am going to keep increasing speed on the six milers duiring the week until I am consistently in the 43-44 minute range and get up to a weekly 12-16 miler at eight minute pace.

I despise runs over 10 miles and stumbled upon an article a few years ago on the myth of the 20-22 mile training run as key prep for the marathon. The article essentially states that 20-22 mile runs are too long to go when you are training as it ties to much of your weekly miles into one run and opens you up to injury. The key is to learn how to run when your legs are tired so rather than doing a long 20, do 14-16 and the next day go 6-8. Any suggestion that I can avoid a 20 mile run works for me.

I had dinner with Miranda and James last night, a trainer at UB and he comically tried to help me with my form on deadlifts. I say comically because no one has worse form than me, which is the most compelling reason for why I should cross fit - so I don't end up crippled due to horrible form while squatting. That is one of the benefits of going to 24 Hour Fitness to run on the treadmill - next to the out of shape joggers I look relatively smooth.

What happens when time doesn't matter

Just finished Mountain Madness, the biography of Scott Fischer, one of the guides in the disastrous 1996 Everest Disaster that was subject of the Krakauer Into Thin Air masterpiece. I will read anything he writes. But I digress.

Fischer's challenge was all about tackling the next mountain, which was first McKinley and then K2 and finally Everest. There is no award or record for climbing mountains as fast as possible. You either climb to the top or you don't. Win or lose.

Endurance sports and CrossFit aren't like that. You have to finish to be eligible to brag but you are Ultimately judged by your time. This has been totally fine for me up until now as I know if I train hard enough I can possibly do a "my best time ever" for a race or distance.

But what happens when age starts to affect my times and I can never come close to a 330 marathon or 1.35 half. My sprinting speed left years ago and I'm ok with that but I never was fast. Since I identify so much by my times (aspergers warning) will I be crushed emotionally and start climbing mountains to affirm my manhood. God I hope not. Unless it can be done on an extreme oxygen treadmill.

Speaking of which, 46.37 for six miles on the mill. I went easy as my left calf was very sore after cramping in the middle if the night. What a joke. I am shooting for 8.5 miles at 8 minute pace tomorrow.

Open 13.1.

The house has been ravaged by a nasty cold/sinus thing, only one of us remains standing. I'll probably take the next couple days off, but I felt pretty good yesterday afternoon though, so went ahead and took on 13.1, since we'll be traveling this weekend.

I really enjoyed the announcement, it was pretty sweet to see a couple of the "sports" top guys go at it immediately. And I'm very excited to live just a few minutes from the Midwest Regional, we are stacked! Bailey, Froning, Hendren, Panchick on the men's side, and Smith and a semi-retired Foucher, who won't be competing, unfortunately, on the women's side, which will hopefully give Kinney a chance to get back to the Games.

CrossFit Games Open 13.1
Proceed through the sequence below completing as many reps as possible in 17 minutes of:
40 Burpees
75 pound Snatch, 30 reps
30 Burpees
135 pound Snatch, 30 reps
20 Burpees
165 pound Snatch, 30 reps
10 burpees
210 pound Snatch, as many reps as possible

mywrite: 100 reps. Finished those with about 6:45 remaining.
I've got a bum right shoulder, and I never do snatches. So I knew going in I'd be hampered, but decided to at least attempt 75# with a narrow grip (essentially the same grip as a press grip, which doesn't bother my shoulder). It worked great at 75#, and I plowed through the first 100 pretty well. I rested about 2 minutes, and then took 4 or 5 attempts at 135# narrow grip, but couldn't get it above my forehead. At that weight and time, this was a fun WOD. It was admittedly probably not as fun at 135#s.

Is less more?

I am a mini disciple of Tim Ferris, the author of Four Hour Work Week and the Four Hour Body. His basic principle is to do the minimum amount of work to get the maximum amount of work. One of his arguments/theories (Mike, be prepared to throw this back into my face as another example that I am a CrossFitter at heart) is that people exercise way too much for the results that they are getting. He has hacked  the code for doing 10 minute workouts that give him the same results as hour long ones. In one deadlift workout, he does about 10 reps over 5 sets and calls it a day - although going back and forth to the gym for a 10 minute lift seems kind of dumb.

I typically lift three times a week for a 45-minute workout (six exercises, four sets of 10 each), which has gotten me an acceptable level of strength. In the last few weeks, as I have tried to play catch up in running as I return from an injury, I have dropped the weights from thrice to twice a week and actually feel stronger in the workouts with the extra days off in between. I lifted today with only a one day break and didn't feel as good as measured by bench pressing 200 10 times rather than 12. My weight has held about the same (176-178) with the extra day of running each week so I am going to try this approach for awhile. This obviously has the inevitable hint of heading to CrossFit type workouts. This would not make me a hypocrit - I anm skeptical about CFE, not CF.

I am debating doing some of the CrossFit open workouts if they are doable from my apartment - e.g. burpees until you die, Cindy, a god forbid they program a run) but I will definitely not do it if it's a fancy Olympic lift. Takes too much skill.

Plethora of topics.

The fun thing for me about keeping quiet on this blog recently is watching Merrill torture himself each day with self-doubt, questioning and rationalization. It's really a deep, dark entertaining look into his psyche.

Still, I suppose I'll get back into this, as the injury is feeling good, even after a hard weekend, and I can test it once more. But first, a few things to weigh in on...

Paleo: Merrill, be sure to actually figure out what you're supposed to be doing before you get into this. Otherwise, you will be in some serious trouble in regards to your training - or just quit really quickly, as expected. For instance, Paleo is not "no carbs," it's no refined carbs or sugar (bread/pancake/pizza/twinkies), which naturally makes it much lower carb than the traditional American/Merrill diet.

I feel like I have a pretty strong top-level understanding of paleo, thanks to Robb Wolf, and am pretty close to paleo outside of dairy and the occasional slice of bread or low-carb wrap. I've also done the Zone diet for an extended time in the past, which worked great for cutting body fat.

Overall, paleo's been pretty great for me, but since starting CFE and adding the extra couple WODs and running to the mix, I've had a lot of trouble keeping my weight up (and I assume, losing some strength, which was and is a big point of this endeavor). That's with the additional protein shakes I hit post-WOD daily as well, which definitely aren't paleo.  So at the least, Merrill, I'd suggest loading up on starches like sweet potatoes and potatoes with all the endurance stuff you're doing. Eat them all the time.

The Open: is upon us. Well, tomorrow night it is. This should add an interesting twist to the training, because I want to be competitive in our Crossfit group's Open contest. Bragging rights and all that... There may be a bit of a drop-off in CFE WODs in order to work around rest and recovery for the Open over the next few weeks. Merrill, are you doing this?

Inspiration: I am truly psyched Merrill got signed up for the half in April. I hope to join him, but I'm still waiting a bit longer on the injury thing before pulling the trigger for my May half. Hopefully getting a CFE WOD in tomorrow.

Meantime, came across some great longform running articles compiled by Slate. I've already hit the Prefontaine and fake marathoner story (which I may need to emulate if I want to beat Merrill in the fall).

Finally, an endurance WOD today: Time trial, 5K row.  

mywrite: 21:55. I had quite a bit of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) from the weekend work, so really used this as an active recovery day. Most of it was at 2:15/500M pace, which is quite slow. My PR is 20:14.

I am not a gamer

I had lunch with Gina, a friend with whom I trained for the 2010 New York Marathon. We would go for weekly long runs that spiked with an 18 miler. While she is a great athlete and super fit, I always felt like I was faster than her and was holding back a little in our runs. So of course, what happens? She shatters me in the marathon by nine minutes (3.28 to 3.37).

This isn't the first time this has happened. In high school and college, when I actually ran on a team, I would routinely train with the better runners on the team and totally kept up with them in the workouts. Speed work, long runs, intervals - I was up there. The coach would get all excited that I was improving and ready for a big breakthrough. When it actually came time to race, I would be nowhere near where I should have been based on my workouts. It was probably a combination of nerves on my end and the better runners being gamers. I clearly am not a gamer.

This is why I need to train much faster than I should if I am going to break 3.30 and Mike. Assuming I am going to flail on race day, I need to be in 3.20 shape or better so I have enough of a window to make failure acceptable. In pursuit of this dream of a mediocre performance, I busted out a 46.59 10k run on the treadmill today - I and my left leg are definitely ready to hit the roads tomorrow.

Off-the-rails WOD.

I hit a couple WODs over the weekend as part of the "super-secret" event I was covering. The first one, a famous Crossfit girl, did not go well. Understatement of the season.

Fran: 21-15-9 of 95# thrusters and pull-ups. 

mywrite: 8:13. With the adrenaline I expected to have going into this, I also fully expected to PR (6:16) this classic Crossfit WOD. Instead, the wheels absolutely fell off in the round of 15, where I ended up getting scaled down to 75#s for the final round. Even with that, I was two minutes behind. Thankfully, only a few people were watching the abomination, but it pretty much ruined my day.

Sunday's WOD went over better:

AMRAP in 8 minutes: 8 pushups, 10 med-ball cleans (20#), 12 sit-ups. 

mywrite: 6 rounds + 8 pushups. Limiting factor was the pushups after round four, but overall this went very well. Redeemed myself a bit.  

The Paleo Diet Contest

One of the reasons I work out everyday is so I can eat whatever I want and as much as I want without having to worry about it (or almost not worry about it). Eating is without a doubt my biggest passion; I would not call myself a foodie because I don't have the most discerning palate in the world. A $20 pie from Roccos  (the best pizza on Mill Valley bar none) is as enjoyable an experience for me as Boulevard.

I don't follow a particularly healthy diet - I do not dabble much in vegetables or fruit. I eat mostly carbs, proteins and fats. I stick to this approach because 1) I tend to eat what I love and what is easy and 2) I feel very healthy physically and statistically (e.g., weight, blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol). Perhaps I would feel and perform better if I followed a better or any nutrition plan but I have never tried one so there has been no reinforcing behavior.

That could change. Miranda, a woman with whom I work, is organizing a Paleo contest to see who can most strictly follow it. I don't really understand it beyond the fact that you are supposed to eat similar to how people at in the Paleolithic era (I nailed an anthropology class at CU Boulder in 1990) so I better do some major research and shopping before it starts March 11. My fear is two fold. First, I will become really depressed if I deprive myself of carbs which Paleo stresses and will spend all day thinking about it. I once tried a four-day fast and made it 24 hours before quitting because my brain was too overwhelmed with thoughts of food. Second, Sam is not going to be amused if we start eating just chicken and salads for dinner every night instead of our current staple burritos and Lucky Charms. Which I love.

Longest run in weeks this morning - 7.5 miles in 58.07. I ran on Tam Track and it felt weird and exhausting at the beginning to be running outside but I felt great by the end. I also signed up for the Santa Cruz Half Marathon on April 7.

First gauntlet has been thrown down Mike.

Sergey Bubka Principle

Sergey Bubka was a world record pole vaulter in the 1980s who broke the indoor and outdoor record like 30 times. When he did set the record it was a centimeter at a time; he clearly could have jumped higher each time but there was no motivation to do so. The Soviet sports federation paid him a bonus every time he set a record. Mo records mo money.

Now that I do not have Mike breathing down my neck and posting times at which I can aim, I have to motivate myself to get faster but I don't want to set the bar too high too quickly. If I run some really fast time (relatively speaking) like 43 minutes for 6 miles now it will be hard for me to top that without a painful effort. And I will psyche myself out to not even try to top it to avoid the potential pain.

So I am taking the Bubka approach of incrementally running faster - today I ran 6 miles in 45.40 which is about 12 seconds faster than I ran a week ago. Felt good and I had the glow of improvement.

This goes out the window when Mike pops a 43 minute time and I look like a moron. Then I move to the Bob Beamon space shot approach.