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Category: sport

I am rapidly approaching the three year anniversary of my relationship with CrossFit. Admittedly, CrossFit has been one of my best girlfriends, except for the part where I don’t get laid and it makes me pass out occasionally. Like with any girlfriend, it has its up and downs. Here are some insights and observations from three years.

* I approach CrossFit as a sport rather than a fitness tool. That’s another way of saying I want to dominate WODs.

* I don’t usually dominate WODs. That’s not an insight, just an observation.

* For the first two years I used CrossFit as a training tool to supplement rowing, my primary sport at the time. CrossFit is superior to all other cross training I’ve done in rowing, including some sophisticated programs at Division I colleges. If I was coaching a crew team right now, I’d replace our land training with CrossFit and a strength training plan wholesale.

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I picked up the Reebok Oly Lifters about three weeks ago and have been using them on a daily basis since purchase. I’ve probably clocked 20 workouts in the them, including several of the CrossFit Open WOD’s. These things kick ass. Here’s my review.

Essentials

The Oly Lifters weigh 13.4 ounces per shoe, which is less than the hiking shoes I own. Yes, they are heavier than a typical pair of Inov-8’s, but they weigh less than every weightlifting shoe on the market. Heel-to-toe drop is a solid 3/4 of an inch. The heel is constructed of TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane) that feels solid as a rock and completely stable. The shoe from mid-foot through the toebox is flexible and light, which gives you a lot of flexibility for most movements during a WOD. I can comfortably do things like box jumps at any height and drop down from a bar without any problem. No, I wouldn’t run a mile in them, but I can dash from one station to the next without any problems. Rope climbing also works great.

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I finally figured out what I like so much about competing in CrossFit competitions. Being on stage. There’s something special about doing a physical challenge (I think of CrossFit events more as physical challenges and not just workouts) with a bunch of killer athletes, many of whom are your friends, and also having a bunch of your friends screaming in your face as you grind it out, sometimes from just a few feet away. That’s a huge rush and the energy of the group setting is…hard to describe. But it’s awesome and primal. In all of the other sports I’ve played, including some adrenaline sports, there’s nothing else that compares. Even in rowing, where the physical output is huge and the pain/rush is sharper, the emotional and spiritual rush of CrossFit is greater. Part of it is the crowd’s in your face whereas in rowing the crowd is on a distant shore. But my theory is that we’re hardwired to be on stage and perform, it’s part of our nature, and Crossfit is the ultimate type of sporting performance. It’s essentially a simulation of a life or death fight without the big drawback of actually, you know, dying.

It’s also fascinating to watch your friends work through these challenges during a WOD. It gives insight into their character and witnessing those revelations are enthralling. I like cheering on my pals almost as much as I like competing. It’s a profound thing to perform and be judged for our efforts.

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Like all competitive sports, CrossFit has a significant risk of injury associated with it. If you train hard and compete over the course of a year, you’ll probably encounter at least a couple of minor issues. Hopefully you haven’t encountered a major injury or something that puts you out for a long period of time.

I see three reasons for the injury problem: heavy loads, poor technique, and unstructured training. I define “unstructured training” as training volume and intensity that isn’t periodized, or at best structured in a haphazard way.

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When me and my crew did Mega, we had the good fortune of chatting up Dave Hunter on the Friday prior to the race. Dave is a great guy and made us feel really welcome, despite the fact that we were starry eyed n00bs from Florida :). Dave has been the race director for Megatransect for the last 3 years and he’s one of the original organizers of the event, which just completed it’s 9th year.

Originally a road racer, Dave eventually moved to marathon distance–his PR is 3:34. He ran eight marathons before finding new joy in training on trails.  To quote David:

I found that trail running is a totally different sport. Pace is impossible…. it is all about effort.

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Immediately after doing GoRuck Challenge in December, me and my crew plotted our next big event for 2011: Megatransect. Megatransect is a near marathon distance run/hike up, over, and through Bald Eagle Mountain and the Bald Eagle State Forest in Central Pennsylvania. The distance this year was a cool 25.5 miles. If you’re considering Mega after reading this post, know that the 850 slots filled up in 48 hours and organizers are expecting an even faster sell-out for 2012. Next year will be Mega’s 10th anniversary.

Before we get into the review, let me say this. You can bet your sweet ass I’ll be on my computer with credit card in hand on January 1 signing up again. Mega totally rocks.

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I found this article from the NY Times, A Little Deception Helps Push Athletes to the Limit, via the Fitbomb blog. The article talks about how cyclists, when deceived into thinking they are competing against cyclists of similar speed, will go beyond their perceived limits in order to win. What’s interesting is this extra push is quantified: a 2% increase in power translates to a 1% increase in speed.

A 1% increase can translate to a massive difference in power endurance sports. In rowing, where a typical time might be 6′ over 2000 meters, 1% translates to 3.6 seconds. That margin in the rowing world is an open water win–one boat length is about 2.7 seconds for an eight-man boat. A clear and decisive victory.

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I have no direct connection to 9/11, thankfully. The way that I chose to honor 9/11 the last two years was by participating in the special 9/11 WOD that CrossFit Firebase puts on. This included a long workout at Lake Eola with running and calisthenics, then moved to a downtown office building for part 2, which was running stairs. Part 1 takes almost an hour and running the stairs takes several times that, so it’s an epic morning of working out by any standards.

This year, part 2 was 14 times up and down inside the Wells Fargo building (16 floors). I hammered through all 14 ups and downs. It took me 2.5 hours. Let me tell you, you haven’t lived until you’ve grinded through stairs inside a muggy, sweaty stairwell for 2.5 hours. It was brutal and I was crawling by the end. I was very very glad to have done it with good friends, otherwise I don’t think I would have gone the distance.

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I’ve done five competitions this year and one thing I’ve noticed is the majority of competitors warm up like crap. Most CrossFitters warm up with dynamic stretching and lifting, with either the same or lighter weight from the WOD. This is useful for prepping the muscles and joints, but the areas that are neglected are the aerobic energy systems. I blogged about the role of the energy systems in CrossFit previously.

Here’s an example of how the right warmup can affect you. The Summer Crush Games WOD “Greyhound” started with a 400m sprint on a dirt track, followed by 4 movements that alternated with a 25M walking lunge with weight. The total WOD time took me about 9′, which was average time-wise.

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