InnerTeub

You know, we might as well just assume that between now and June 27th this entire blog is going to be one big Ironman Training Update, at which point it will descend in the following manner:

• Posts detailing the post race high (or low, depending on how the race goes, I guess)
• Posts regarding the amazing feeling of accomplishing some thing awesome (um, or not, depending on how the race goes, I guess)
• “Wow, I love having free time again! How silly to have a sport that monopolizes your schedule like that!”
• “OMG I achieved my goal and now I’m depressed and have no purpose”
• “Wow I miss having athletic activity as part of my life”
• “Le sigh, I am gaining weight”
• “But there’s nothing selfish about working out because it keeps me so centered!
• “Oh look, I registered for another race! It feels so GOOD and so RIGHT to have this type of goal again!”

I mean, not to get all spoilery on you, but that’s pretty much what this summer’s posting schedule will look like. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Anyway, what? Oh, right: Vacation edition. Intense IM training while on vacation is …hard, but I’ve been able to eek out a few sessions here and there. I’m without bike, which sucks, and is NOT ideal for this portion of training but spring break waits for no man. Regardless, I was able to get in a few good run workouts; in the interest of better explaining CrossFit Endurance workouts, here are some of my favorites:

Run Workout One:

• 1 mile warm up
• 4x 800m @7:40 min/mile pace (1 minute rest between 800s)
• 2x1000m @7:30 min/mile pace (2 minute rest between 1000s)
• 1 mile cool down

So, this is not a long workout — about 35 minutes, including the warm up and cool down miles. But damn. I was destroyed after this. That last 1000 meters were just so, so painful.

What I notice after workouts like these, however, is that my “cool down” mile is almost always much, much faster than the warm up mile. I can really tell an improvement in overall sustainable speed after these workouts; my feet just seem to want to turn over faster, and it takes much less (perceived) effort to get them to do so.

Run Workout Two:

• 1 mile warm up
• 10 x 20:10 @ 10% incline, 8:20 min/mile pace
• 1 mile cool down

Ok, so what this means is: set the treadmill at 10% incline and set the pace at 8:20 min/mile. Then hop on the belt and run for 20 seconds. At the end of 20 seconds, hop off the belt (feet on the side rails) and wait 10 seconds. Repeat 10x, which works out to be exactly 5 minutes.  (And YES, Haley, I KNOW that tabatas are only 8 rounds, but I like round numbers and 10 just seemed better 🙂 )

Again, this is a super short workout. Like, if I hadn’t done the cool down mile, this would have been 15 minutes, tops, and that’s only because I started at the 10 minute mark to make the timing as stupid proof as possible. But still: destroyed afterward.

Like most crossfit workouts, this doesn’t look like very much to brag about on paper. After so many years of long endurance stuff, I had very little respect for short workouts. What I hadn’t realized is that 5 minutes of intense pain sucks SO MUCH MORE than 1 hour of moderate effort.

Strength Workout

In between these two run workouts, I did a day of lifting with the Boss. His “fitness background,” if you will, is based in weightlifting, and he’s a great lifting partner. On this particular session, we did:

• Back squats (5 rounds: 5 5 5 3 3 — 5 reps, 5 reps 5 reps, 3 reps 3 reps), upping the weight on each set. This is not “traditional” weight lifting progression, but it’s what I’ve been doing at CF, and I like it, so there.
• Some push press and bench press stuff that I suck at but do because the Boss loves it

The Point:

How does this tie into IM training? I mean, an Ironman is long, certainly much longer than 30 minute runs here and there. The way I understand it – and I might be wrong, or articulating it incorrectly – is that these two run workouts and one strength workout emphasize two missing elements from previous training attempts: strength and speed. Endurance is not – and has never been – my problem; at this point I’m trying to go faster with less effort. Strength and speedwork, coupled with longer endurance based workouts, will get me there.

(Jen, pretty please chime in if I’m hugely screwing up the point.)

Again, this is just the vacation edition. I don’t have great access to a lap pool, or any access at all to my bike, so this is just a bare bones sampling of workouts on a given week.  And now if you’ll excuse me, it’s back to vacationing…