1/19/12 Wheel WOD

4 Min Time trial, 3 rounds of

• 10 GHD’s
• 5 HSPU

3 min, time trial, 3 rounds, 2 min time trial, 3 rounds, 1 minute time trial, 3 rounds.

25:00

 

ech..

This Weeks Cycling WODs

So, I’m trying something new… combining WODs and riding on rollers. This week I did

• 20 min. AMRAP of an elevating Cindy ladder.  Ride one mile, 2 rds of Cindy, ride 2 miles, 4 rds of Cindy, ride 4 miles, etc…  I got through the first 2 rounds, and then 3.95 miles of round 3.

That was fun, but not long enough to get the feel I was looking for.  So I decided on Thursday to do:

• 45 Minute AMRAP of an elevating ladder, ride one mile, then one round of 10 presses (95), 30 sit-ups, 10 pull ups, then 2 miles and 2 rounds, etc..

I got through 3 rounds and 2.8 miles into the 4 mile ride.  This time I put the resistance on the rollers, so I was not able to cruise along at 23 MPH like I was on Tuesday, more like 18 which is a lot more like I usually ride on the road.

I’m trying to decide what my goals for cycling this year are, but I know that I want to do more on the bike than I did last year, at least a few races, maybe start a cycling team out of the Box?  Hmm…

Ok, it has been quite a while…

Since I posted last.  To say that the last few months have been ridiculous would be a grand understatement.  I did get to ride in Saskatoon, and that was nice. But while I was gone we were also forced out of the Box and into a much bigger and significantly more awesome box.  While this is undoubtably good, it was also super time consuming with new classes, tons of new members and all kinds of other different reasons.  Oh, and my 6th kid is coming on Saturday, so yeah, it’s been busy.  Because of that, my riding has not been as consistent as it was at all. Ok, to be completely honest, I’ve ridden maybe 300 miles since July.

On the positive note, my riding hasn’t deteriorated much, either.  Some of the top end is definitely gone, but I can still cruise along at 17+mph for 35 miles, so I’m very happy with that. My strength has also increased dramatically.  Deadlift up to 345, Press t0 185 and Squats at 315×5, so my 1RM is close to 350.  That puts my total at 880. Not too shabby at all, a few more lbs on the deadlift and I’m at my 900+ mark.

So long story short, I will try to update this more regularly, I promise.  Good to be back!

 

Tim

Road Trip!!!

Heading out to the Great White North, and the bike is coming with me! There are 2 CrossFits where I am going, too!  What looked like a rest week may not be so much, which is good, since last week was a little light in the saddle.

I miss sexy metcons

 

I didn’t expect this.  After a month of riding 100 miles a week, doing 3 WODs and strength work, my cycling specific fitness is getting quite good again. That I did expect. My deadlift has increased by 30 lbs since my last total, which is also good. But damn if I didn’t love the feeling I got after doing Murph in less than 34 minutes. I miss the half hour of suck that some of the “Sexy Metcons” bring on.  The ones that involve multiple actions over extremely varied time and modal domains.  In short, I miss the awful wods. I have to admit, this caught me off guard.

So, sorry CrossFit Lancaster, next week is going to be extra sexy…

This week

I have 3 WODs and 100+ miles on the schedule again.  So far, one WOD down, and I’m about to get in the saddle for the first time now.  Ugh. Getting to 100 may be a bit of a challenge this week.

The WOD from Monday was the CrossFit Lancaster Total: Run 1 mile, 1/2 body weight bench press for reps and 1 rep max deadlift.  The score is like golf, the lower the better and par is “0″.  You read your mile time in seconds, and that becomes your baseline score, then subtract a point for each bench press rep and for each pound lifted in the max deadlift. The good news is that I PR’d my mile, running it in 6:14, so that gives me 374 points as a base. Then I got 40 reps, taking me to 334, then deadlifted only 313, leaving me with 21 points over par.  I was happy with that, until Chad got -38 and Kyle got -45 and Jack got -25 and Chris pulled a -31.  Stupid deadlift!!! Then I decided to do more deadlift work later in the day, doing 5×5 of 135, 225, 275, 295 and 305.  Why could I pull 305, touch and go 5 times, but only get 313 up once, when I have pulled more than that. Very frustrating, and my back has been killing me since Monday.  Thankfully I’m off to Chiropractic 1st for a good adjusting.

One more WOD tomorrow and again on Saturday, and 100 miles of riding.  Here we go…

- Tim

Translating from WODese to Riding

So this last week, I rode 101 miles and did three WODs.  Monday was Murph (33:57), Thursday was three rounds of 50 double unders, 21 Kettlebell swings with 72 lbs and 12 pull ups (5:38) and a big Team WOD on Saturday that took us 22 minutes to complete that included 400 yard partner carries, and obscene amounts of handstand push ups, double unders, toes-to-bars and jumping squats.

Since I started Crossfitting, I have not paid much attention to my lowly heart rate monitor.  In fact, it sat in my desk drawer unused so long that the battery died and I didn’t even notice it.  I did this because WODs are all about intensity, right?  Results are equal to intensity and intensity is equal to discomfort is one of Coach B’s famous sayings, and it’s true. If you want to see real change, real results, then in the domain of WODs you need to go balls to the wall each and every time, whether it’s sub 3 minutes of Fran or sub 30 minutes of Murph, and things like cursing, swearing, tearing calluses, sweating, and heart rate are not in and of themselves, intensity.  Rather, they are correlates of intensity.  They are things that are affected by the intensity of your activity, but not an absolute measure of intensity.  But, when you get in the saddle and head out on the road and plan on staying out there for two or three hours or more, intensity isn’t exactly what you’re looking for.  You want efficiency.

Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way implying that the intensity you bring to the WOD doesn’t translate to riding a bike, it does, but it’s a multi-step process. It’s kind of like you being able to speak English, and wanting to read a book written in German, but you only have a German to French Dictionary and a French to English dictionary. You’d have to translate the book from German to French first, then French to English to be able to understand it. It’s gonna take a while, but in the end you have a working knowledge of 3 languages.  You wouldn’t exactly be fluent, but you’d have a broad, general understanding of all 3 languages.  Broad and General, eh? That sounds familiar to my Crossfit mind… That being said, it is definately faster to read the book in English, right?  And  to keep the analogy going, if your only goal is to be faster on a bike than most people, the best and most efficient way is to spend lots of time riding your bike.

In a lot of ways, CrossFit WODs and endurance sports like cycling are related like in similar ways.  The high intensity of the WODs makes it easier for you to go longer slower, and if you are able to squat 400 lbs once, it becomes easier to pedal (esentially a one legged half squat) literally thousands of times simply because each pedal stroke is that much less of a percentage of your one rep max.  In addition, the strength training that CrossFit WODs do are designed to make people leaner and stronger, and not necessarily bigger, and that is excellent for endurance athletes for several reasons.  One is that a stronger body is better able to withstand the constant jarring and stress that holding your body in a somewhat static position for extended times requires.  The constant vibrations from the road buzz is also fatiguing, and having an all around stronger body is better than a weaker body.   WODing also trains all three energy sources much better than simply riding lots, and having a more powerful, explosive snap in your toolbox will give you a distinct advantage on steep hills, attacks, breakaways and sprints.

At the end of the day, what I am searching for really is the Holy Trinity of endurance sports: Lighter, Stronger and Faster.  I want to be able to deadlift 415 lbs (2.5x my body weight) and at the same time climb like a mountain goat. I also want to be able to get up in the morning without including 2 Aleve’s as part of my breakfast. So far, the experiment is working. I am lighter, faster and stronger than I have been in a long time. Though not as fast as I have ever been on the bike, it is taking me much less time to regain that speed than I had initially expected and that makes me happy.

 

This week

The plan is to again get three WODs in and ride over 100 miles.  “Murph” was done yesterday, which I got done in 33:57 (PR’d by over 8 minutes).

Overall, I feel like this experiment is working so far.  I feel much less beat up at the end of the week with 3 WODs and 100 miles of riding than I did after doing 5 or 6 WODs, and my numbers are moving in the right direction.  The only thing I am having a struggle with is the diet, specifically the paleo diet in relation to endurance athletics like bike riding.  The struggle is with on the bike nutrition.  If I go for about 20 miles, I’m good.  There is enough glycogen in my muscles to get me through the ride, but any more than that and I run out of gas pretty dramatically.  So, I started added gatorade and some gels to the rides, and though I have been riding stronger longer, in the last few weeks, in spite of all the time riding, I actually put on 4 or 6 lbs. This is going to require more tweaking.  How fun.

- Tim

And Done…

The week has been a raging success.  100 miles ridden and 3 WODs.  Today’s ride with Jack got me to the 100 mark, and the WOD afterwards almost curled me up into a little ball and made me cry like a girl.  In teams of 2, do a 400 yard dead lift walk.  So we started with a 225 lb bar,  dead lifted it 5 times, then took 10 steps.  Then the next guy did, then you did again, and around and around it goes.  Hats off to Jack, him and Jeremy and their long legs got it done a whole lot faster than I did.  I got to about 2/3 and dropped the weight to 175.  They were seriously going twice as far as Josh and I were on the steps.

So tomorrow is a definite rest day, and then Murph on Monday at 9:00 AM at the box.  This is a free one, anyone is welcome and encouraged to participate, or feel free just to come and watch the show. There is going to be a great crowd.

I may have to revamp next weeks riding plan to just keep it at 100 miles or more, but not necessarily 125.  With Murph on Monday, I may not be able to move until Wednesday afternoon!

Have an excellent Memorial Day Weekend if I don’t see you .

- Tim

So far, so good…

I had planned on 3 WODs and 100 miles. I’m at 2 WODs and 65 miles and a new PR on the deadlift (331) so far. That brings my virtual total to 331 deadlift, 305 Squat and 165 press, for a score of 801. 100 more pounds to my goal.

I Had a nice hour with Jack this afternoon. Headed over Chiques Hill in Columbia and then over to the Columbia High School. Both are really nice climbs and I felt pretty good on both. Tomorrow is going to be epic! First, 7:30 ride where I’m hoping to get the last 35 miles, then an incredible dead lift based WOD at 10. I’m going to need some serious calories!

If I survive tomorrow, I’ll let you know.

- Tim