CrossFit Vs Peace, Love, Ironman

Over the course of the last 16 months life has had numerous ups and downs.  It has definitely been the continuation of the ever-cycling sine wave of love, happiness and fitness.  Actually, love and happiness has been pretty much the same, but fitness has been all over the place.  As I return to the life of the intermittent blogger and do my best to capture my thoughts on the above topics I will start with a look at the previous year of experimentation. 

It is no secret that I jumped into the CrossFit (CF) cult to help solve fitness issues.  I too was among the many who believed CF would cure all and all it takes is more work.  After coming off a decent Beach 2 Battleship 140.6 triathlon I felt pretty good about where I was in life, but knew I could definitely be better.  Now granted, my personality is one to shoot from the hip and ad lib programming.  So I committed myself to a gym and a methodology of programming.  To be honest with myself and the one or two people who will actually read this, I committed to a gym that had a triathlete/multi sport coach on staff and I was super excited about all the possibilities.   I figured I would do everything and anything I was told to do and this would turn me into super “old guy” triathlete.  [cue dramatic music]

Like any new devotee I threw myself into it with all the zeal I could muster.  My form was horrible, I was extremely weak (still can’t do more than a couple damn pull-ups), and I lacked the work capacity to keep up with the newest of initiates.  I tried my best and convinced myself that showing up would make it all better.  Square peg, round hole…bang!  Square peg, round hole…bang!  Square peg, round hole…bang!  Over and over and over again.  It started with elbow tendonitis, moved to low back strain, then over to hip flexor pain, and finally to quadriceps tendonitis….rinse and repeat.  Hurt, hurt, and hurt.  

My failed experiment came to a culminating point with being dropped during a century ride and ultimately my first DNF.  Yes…it is still embarrassing to think about and yes, my buddies still tease the hell out of me.   I couldn’t figure out why my endurance fitness stunk so bad and why I wasn’t getting any better at what I wanted to get better at.  I finished all the required front squats, thrusters, and ring rows.  I paid my expensive gym fees.  I even drank the required amount of pre and post workout shakes.  After following the programming to the best of “my” ability, in the end I failed to progress in the sport I was trying to get better at….swim, bike, and run. 

To be 100% clear…this is not a CF bash contest or even a veiled slight towards the gym I belonged too.  In fairness, the community is awesome, the gym owners are great, and I made some life long friendships.  This is “my” view of CF and how it relates to endurance training.  I still love the idea of CF and what it can do for the specific CF athlete and the everyday person who wants to get into shape.  I have seen folks do amazing things.  On a side note…yes, I have read the CF Endurance books…even used the methodology printed in those books.  There is a reason no CFE athletes are winning at Ironman or ultra running events…just sayin’

After signing up for the JFK 50 I knew that I needed to make a serious change.  I shifted to Mountain Athlete’s endurance plans and it made all the difference.  To be fair to the readers and the CF world, I hurt myself by ramping up the run mileage too quickly, but that was my own fault by not putting in the required run durability while holding on to my precious squats and GHD extensions.  In the end, I finished a 50-mile road race with fitness earned while doing specific endurance training. 

The point of all of this is that it is okay to step outside the box for a bit and experiment with other fitness methodologies, but if you really want to be better at a specific sport then you need to do that specific sport for the vast majority of your training.  The other point of this is that I needed to get this off my chest for quite some time and I believe writing is therapeutic.  I have struggled with moving on and held onto a mixed bag of emotions. I initially felt let down by CF, but in the end it is like dating.  You have to shop around until you find what works for you.  During that time you will try to make something that isn’t working for you work and when you break up it is hard at first but worth it in the long run. 

Peace, Love, Ironman