James can be reached at TwinFreaks CrossFit, where he is an owner and trainer. James coaches barbell lifting classes and CrossFit classes. Contact him by email at james@twinfreakscrossfit.com or by phone at 720-204-2631.

Friday, August 26, 2011

1k is Short and 205 is Light

I'm quoting myself in the title because sometimes when I think for less than a tenth of a second, like I did here, or more than two weeks, I say some profound things. This is more than compensated for by the fact that I normally think more than a tenth of a second and less than two weeks, sort of an AMRAP 20 of the mind, and I say some profoundly ignorant things.

Here's how it came about. Mike D is competing this weekend at the Colorado Open CrossFit Games, and on Saturday he faces this task:

at 12:20 he does,

5 rounds for time of:
10 back squats, 205 lbs
10 pull ups, chin over
150 meter run

at 4:45 he does,

3 rounds for time of:
10 stone shoulders, 115 lbs
50 double-unders


and whenever he chooses between 9 and 5, he rows 1,000 meters for time.

He asked for my input on when to do the row which obviously has to be before 4:45. I thought a little too long about the problem and suggested various ways of timing and pacing the row, before I realized that his first idea and my third idea which was not over-thought was correct. Do the row at 9, attempt to absolutely kill it and expect to be fully recovered and kill the 12:20 work out also.

It turns out to be remarkably uncomplicated because 1,000 meters is short, and 205 pounds is light.

As I'm now seven weeks out from the Colorado Open Masters' competition, I've already been thinking about stuff like this for two weeks. It feels good to be good at things. Because I'm strong and because I'd rather tolerate a lot of pain for 5 minutes than a quarter of the pain for twenty minutes, I'd do this exactly as I now think Mike should: don't think, just kill it.

But despite being good at a couple things, I'd have to say that overall I've become very bad at CrossFit. Yes, I can squat and row. On the other hand box jumps, burpees, wall ball shots, and pull-ups seem close to impossible for me. This might not surprise my readers, but I have a mental problem I've only recently figured out. While I can attack a work out with a known amount of work - say three rounds of something - it's very hard for me to attack a work out with a known duration especially as the time domain goes beyond twelve minutes. Yes, I am that idiot that will not let myself row 6,000 meters in more than 24 minutes and yet if I row 24 minutes I'll accumulate 4,700 meters.

And then there's CrossFit karma. I'm guilty of many sins: taking it easy during the wod, insulting Reebok, Progenex, and Five Fingers every chance I get, saying publicly that "Cindy" is a stupid work out, and yes, even screaming "shut the fuck up," to people who were trying to help me like normal CrossFitters do.

All of which pretty well means that when it's my turn to compete, I'll face a succession of 20 minute work outs with body weight or lightly loaded movements.

Realistically I can't fix all my problems in nine weeks. I'm currently working hard on minimizing my weaknesses, and over the next weeks I'll examine how I'm going about this.

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