Category Archives: Training

12.04.13
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It’s Cold !!

Guess it was the coldest day that I had to pick for swimming. Morning temperatures 34 F and evening 42F.

Woke up to go swimming for an hour, but looking out the window it was chilly cold, and a little windy :(. Took me 30 mins to decide, to hit the pool. I made it for the last 20 mins before the pool closure. This pool visit was after 2 months, and wasn’t bad given I did 1000 yds in those 20 mins. So begins the swim part of the Ironman training.

The hardest part in the morning, especially during winters, is to prepare mentally to dive into the pool. Water is always warm, so once I dive into the pool, I remain underwater for the first 25 yds, coming out just twice to catch breath.

Anyways, post swim feeling was great !!

Evening, I skipped the crossfit session, it was Angie’s workout (100 pushups – 100 pull-ups – 100 sit-ups – 100 squats), and went for a run. There weren’t any two thoughts about doing less than 10 miles, till I felt an awful pain on my posterior lower calf muscles. Its called  ‘Gastrocnemius’ muscle strain. Whatever the hell it is, you can read it and understand it over here.

Had to stop a couple of times. A little before 4 miles, I almost gave up, but walking was more painful than running. So I started a slow jog back, and at about mile 5, I picked up the pace. Thanks to crossfit sessions, that I was maintaining my pace for a good .75 miles at around 7:30 min/mile.

Check out the pace analysis-

http://www.strava.com/activities/98714288/pace-analysis  A sense of achievement, so I am continuing with Crossfit.

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12.03.13
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Training for full Ironman started Yesterday !!

2.4 miles Swim + 112 miles Bike + 26.2 miles Run

Happy Belated ThanksGiving !!

Yesterday plan was to hit the swimming pool early morning, and then go for an easy run 5-6 miles.

But plans are made to be broken. Unhealthy sleep, woke up late, skipped the swim, thought of running, lazy ass did not put up the running shoes. Went for a crossfit workout in the evening.

To make myself feel less guilty I warmed up with a 1.5 miles run before the crossfit workout.

Crossfit is going to make an endurance athlete gasping for energy. So avoided a post workout run or indoor spin.

Today morning-

Went for a chilly morning ride on my new 11-28 cassette. Focussed on maintaining my speed/cadence. Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/98556789 

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Evening was at the crossfit box, with some exhausting WOD – power cleans and jump ropes.

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I will be writing a post on how I plan to balance crossfit training with full distance Ironman training.

 

11.28.13
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CrossFit Terms and Jargon

Its been just over a month that I joined my local Norcal Crossfit Box ‘gym’ (Crossfit Workout gym is called a Box). When I first walked inside, I saw mostly white boards, scribbled with various terms, and numbers that were hard to decipher.

Over a month, I did learn few terms and did google up few. Here is my work in progress list:

There are plenty of terms, and you can get a big list online, but these are very basic terms mostly used. Feel free to add more in the comments section.

  • WOD – Workout Of the Day  (the actual workout that is designed to crush you :))
  • AMRAP – As Many Reps As Possible (As Many Rounds As Possible) in given time.
  • RX’ed – As Prescribed, there is no change in the workout that can be done.
  • EMOM – Each Minute Over Minute. You do the round every minute.
  • Rep – Repetition.
  • PB – Personal Best
  • PR – Personal Record
  • Box – A Crossfit Gym

Exercises

Plenty of online resources, but I do refer this- Crossfit

11.27.13
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Crossfit WOD for Runners-Triathletes

Crossfit for runners or triathletes should be supplementary. Use the workouts to build strength in the muscle group.

WOD:

Workout 1

  • 420 m run
  • 20 m OverHead weighted lunges (Did 2 sets with 45 lbs, 1 set with 35 lbs, 2 sets with 25 lbs – to keep the tempo)
  • repeat 5 times (2100 m in total)

Overhead Lunges

Workout 2

In a group of 3, One person ready to pull the sledge, other two at two ends of a football field doing planks.

  • 100 yds sledge pull (70 lbs) targeted to be around 30 secs
  • Plank position
  • repeat 3 times

http://www.strava.com/activities/97452887

This was a killer workout, for the hamstrings. But the trick is to look down. Focus on the ground below, take smaller steps. Your foot should fall right below your centre of gravity. The back should be straight, NO ARCH, keep your head tucked down.

Sledge Pull

Cooled down with jog and walk across the field a couple of times.

But I was not done !!

Put on some music, and finished a 1.5 mile easy peasy run on the track. Chilling cold !!

http://www.strava.com/activities/97452886

11.26.13
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Indoor Bike Training: 2 mins ON – 1 min OFF

It was tough because of the flaky hamstrings. Started off with a 10 mins warmup spin.

Bike Workout in the morning:

  • 2 mins – High RPE, was trying to keep the Cadence above 90 rpm.
  • 1 min – Lower the RPM, around 85 rpm.
  • Do 10 reps

You can raise the bar by raising the Cadence range for 2 mins and 1 min. Cooled down with a 10 mins spin.

Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/97198532

Later on in the evening: Crossfit

It was fun to get successful wall handstands. And pulled off the WOD which felt to be fairly OK. Warmup was a mix of back extension, 500m row, and couple of aerobic moves.

WOD – EMOM: 5 deadlifts (175lbs) + 5 bar muscle ups  – for 6 rounds

Could have gone heavier on the weights, as still had energy to do another round of WOD :). But then ended with a 1 mile run, felt a ~ 7:25 min/mile pace (no Garmin). And then successful wall handstands. Do not have a proof, so need to get a picture while trying again.