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December 18, 2006
Week of December 18th
Monday- 1. 1:30 rolling and easy, Yellowstone River Trail; 2. CrossFit workout (about 1 hour, including warmup and cooldown); 3. yoga 45 minutes
Tuesday- 1. 1:00 hilly and easy, Old Gardiner Road; 2 yoga 45 minutes; 3. core
Wednesday- 1:30 rolling and easy, Yellowstone River Trail
Thursday- 1. 1:30 flat and easy, dreadmilling in Seattle; 2. CrossFit workout; 3. core
Friday- rest (stuck in airports!)
Saturday- 1. 2 hours varied in terrain and effort, dreadmilling in Mexico; 2. core
Sunday- 1. 3 hours long run varied in terrain and effort, pavement and dreadmilling combined in Mexico; 2. 30 minutes very, very easy, dreadmilling in Mexico
I felt so awesome on Monday. I cannot adequately describe how strong I felt out on the trail today. If my running partner hadn't kept us reeled in to a nice, easy pace, I'm sure I would have taken off. At the end of 90 minutes, I hardly felt that I'd worked out. If only one could feel this good all the time. On the other hand, the CrossFit workout kicked my butt, but I liked it! It was an arm workout and now my arms are jelly.
I'm on an early Thursday morning flight to Playa del Carmen, Mexico for a week. I'll update the rest of this week when I return, but you can see I've got a lot of work to do still to hit my weekly goals. I hope I can do it!
Pre-week bantering:
I haven't yet done a workout this week, but I'm already creating a weekly post. That's because I want to publicly state these goals so that my readership will hold me accountable for them. The goals themselves are not outstanding. However, getting all my workouts done while on vacation for part of the week is going to require some determination.
The goals:
1. 11:30 hours of running, inclusive of 1 tempo run, 1 progression run, and 1 long run
2. yoga 3x
3. isolated core training 3x
4. (unmodified and modified) CrossFit 3x (see below for more)
5. whatever else comes along in Mexico!
I'm also entering into a 5 week cross training experiment. Anyone ever heard of CrossFit? For the next 5 weeks, I will do 3 to 4 (unmodified and modified) CrossFit workouts per week. Basically, CrossFit is high-intensity, fast-paced, whole-body strength training. Each workout's goals are to build strength in one, two, or a few muscle groups while simultaneously increasing aerobic, and occasionally anaerobic, fitness. The workouts are organized randomly such that targeted muscle groups change with each workout and the whole body is reached over the course of several days of workouts.
Why am I doing this? While I appreciate the fact that my endurance is well developed (And, for this I am extremely happy.), I also appreciate the fact that my muscle strength, while improving, is lacking. Some people have told me that CrossFit seems counterintuitive for those in the endurance running community. However, I don't really think that CrossFit workouts are too different from runners doing strides, hill workouts, plyometrics, and traditional strength-training. The program just takes a non-traditional route towards the same destination.
I am an infant in learning about CrossFit, and I wish to learn more. With the help of a friend who knows just a bit more about this than me, herein begins the experiment. The journey may or may not be a success, but the ride will be fun (and very challenging!).
Posted by Meghan at December 18, 2006 1:35 AM
Comments
Hi, Meghan! Thanks for stopping by! Your GC adventure was fun, and snowshoe workouts are something I'd like to try and fear:) I am about to start crossfit too, my husband is a big fan, and sometimes at the gym I implement a few little things. Good stuff!
Posted by: olga at December 18, 2006 7:01 AM
Hey Meghan, I found you via Olga's site... looks like you have a great line up for the upcoming week...
U can read more about someone who is a HUGE fan of Crossfit...not sure if you seen her blog yet?
http://www.sharikeener.blogspot.com
she finished her last marathon in 3:29 and says a lot of it was due to her crossfit training
great blog and I will be back,
Bob
Posted by: bob gentile at December 18, 2006 7:53 AM
... i was thinking something more along the lines of Bison Winter Wrestling: you run with the beast, try and wrestle him down in the snow and hold for him pinned for three seconds... then you stand on him with one foot in sign of conquest and wait for the next expedition of gun wielding hunters to stun themselves to unconsciousness as they look at your performance... Then you shake hooves with the bison, and pencil in a date for the next session...
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at December 18, 2006 9:41 AM
Hey - good luck on your great training week coming up. Sounds like you are off to an awesome start! 11:30 is A LOT of running!!!! :)
Posted by: Beth at December 19, 2006 1:12 PM