My Running Journal, 033110

I haven’t gone running since last week. Not because I am lazy (okay, a little bit of the lazy), but mostly because I really don’t want to over do it. I am doing Crossfit workouts five days out of the week. That is every weekday, with “rest” days on Saturday and Sunday. I am trying to exploring the upper limits of my physical capacity, and keep the activity level dialed to a few notches under the upper limit.

Which means that I have been a little cautious. The strength conditioning workouts at the gym haven’t really taken much out of me, but the “metcon” (as in, metabolic conditioning) sections are. Since this is Crossfit, we are doing brief, intense exercises that place a considerably anaerobic demand on us. My recovery times have never been great – normally people that I have worked out with will recover about twice as fast as I do, and I have a feeling that is due to a blood sugar issue on my part. Last night was especially telling – we did an interval set on rowers. 5 rounds of 40 seconds, all out effort, for calories. We had 4 minutes of rest between each round, and then 10 minutes after the last round we did a 2 minute all out sprint on the rower. Counting the calories really showed me how quickly my performance degrades. The first round I burned 16 calories. The second round 17. The third, 15. The fourth, 14 and the fifth 12. After resting 10 minutes I managed to burn 34 calories in 2 minutes of rowing. The first two rounds I was able to keep my pace strong all the way to the last second, but the second through the fifth rounds my intensity levels dropped way, way down. Whole body fatigue – not to the point where I was unable to think or move, but I could definitely feel the draining sensation. Your limbs get tired, your core gets tired, your brain gets tired of telling your body to move.

Last night’s interval set on the rower gave me a good idea of what I should be shooting for in my CFE interval WODs, though. Which means more gear – a watch with a stopwatch, lap and countdown timer function. Probably a Timex Ironman. Hooray, a valid reason for more toys! I’ve been accumulating smaller bits of workout gear so that I can practice outside of the gym – jumprope, kettlebell, a 6’ section of PVC. A stopwatch is something that will help – I know that I can use my Iphone as a stopwatch and countdown timer, but it isn’t waterproof or very easy to access while moving fast.

I don’t want all of my workouts to end up feeling like that kind of grind. So I am trying to find the balance of my desire to see gains, and my desire to not go backwards. Which is why I haven’t been getting up at 6am to go running. I have been waking up at 6am and assessing if I should go running. And the answer, for the most part, has been “no.” Some of that comes from an honest desire to not over train, and some (probably most) comes from being cozy in bed, and it being pretty cold and rainy outside. Cold and damp I can deal with, cold and pounding rain I don’t think would be good for my health. At least I am not that tough yet.

I have signed up for a clinic in Pose running. The closest trainer is in Salem, which is an hour drive away. So starting the second week of April I will hopefully have some drills and skills to practice, as well as have trained feedback on what I can work on.