A broad, general, and inclusive fitness

*******Regular Class Times Today*********

CrossFit has long claimed that working out intensely in short time domains has carry over into long time domains.  In English?  Someone who has a 3 minute "Fran" time (21-15-9 of thrusters and pullups) will also have great performance at events which take 20 minutes, an hour, etc.   If this is true, it has great applicability to the recreational athlete, the professional athlete, and the first responder.

This weekend I had the opportunity to put CrossFit's claims to the test.  I had the opportunity to participate in the P.F. Chang's Rock and Roll half marathon.  I was given 24 hours notice.  I had done no additional running outside of the workouts posted on this website other than participating in the Mad Mud Run (about 4 miles through the desert) and a 5 mile run on pavement a few months prior after giving a talk on cross training to a group training for their first marathon. 

I told a number of runners that I was going to be participating with no long distance training.  The most common response was a look of shock and then people usually wrote me off.  It was quite motivating.

I'll get into the details at another place, but the bottom line is that I was able to complete the 1/2 marathon rx'd without walking and finished in one hour and 55 minutes (1:55). (I raced under Sam's name)  I made my goal of finishing, my goal of not walking, and my goal of finishing under two hours.  I had a great time, and didn't have to spend months running to get up to speed.  Am I sore?  Sure.  But I have the GPP (general physical preparedness) to run 13 miles if need be, at a pace that many people train (and expose themselves to injury) specifically for.

I'd say that's a big win for CrossFit.  So, run if you like to run.  But if you DON'T like to run, don't feel like you have to in order to be "in shape."  Because I don't think many of those other runners can approach our capacity in other domains of fitness.  

 

Workout of the Day

Snatch

Take 10-15 minutes and work up to your 1 rep max.

Then,

"The Chief"

Max rounds in three minutes of:
135/95 lb. Power Cleans x 3
Push-Ups x 6
Squats x 9
Rest one minute.  Repeat for a total of five cycles.

Compare to 120309

Comments

[kevin]

kevin - snatch 195 chief as rx'd 22 rounds

[Will]

will 24 plus 3 cleans rx'd

[Marc]

Coach, RIGHT on!!
I too got those astounded looks of "are you crazy, we trained for 7 months....you can't just do this. " My goal was also to finish, to not stop running and to coe in under 2:15. I ran 2:10.
Great stuff!

Marc

[Alexander]

This is a great tip.
http://www.rapidsharemix.com