Calling me out

Final preparations for the start of the PCT 50


















Okay, I have been officially called out. No activity on my blog in nearly 2 months and then 2 anonymous commentors ask me about my recent 50 mile trail race on the same day. Hmmm...seems kinda fishy, but I am way overdue for posting this race report, so thanks for taking me to task.

How did it go? Great question. I guess I have viewed this from several different perspectives and come to different conclusions. On the surface, if you just look at my results, I guess it went pretty well. I finished the race in a time of 10:08, which put me in 21st place out of 89 total finishers (111 started the race). When you consider that the total amount of time I spent training was significantly less than most others who toed the line with me that day, I'd say that's a pretty darn good result. My longest training run was a 12.5 mile time trial that included a 2 1/4 mile climp up San Onofre Peak on Camp Pendleton. My peak training week was no greater than 20 miles. I ran 2-3 times per week and did CrossFit at Oceanside Crossfit 4-5 times per week, so total training time for the week probably averaged 7 hours or so.


Mile 19, before the wheels fell off

















While I do consider this a successful result for my first ever ultramarathon, I would be less than honest if I said that I was satisfied with this result. To be quite honest, I was a bit disappointed with how the day went. The first 19 miles were rock solid, maybe too good even. I came into the 19 mile aid station feeling great and on pace for an 8 hour day. I was running with two very season ultramarathoners and felt really good about where I was. Almost immediately after leaving that aid station the wheels started to come off of the wagon. I started developing cramps in my left quad and left calf. These cramps would then hop around from quads, to calves, to hamstrings. I did an incredible amount of walking in the last 30 miles. Anything that remotely resembled an incline, I was forced to walk. Toward the end I wasn't even able to run down the declines. Everything hurt! There were several times that I just wanted to quit. Had Amy ever even hinted that she didn't want me to go on, I would have easily removed my race number and hobbled to the car. She didn't, and I pressed on. I managed to shuffle across the finish line and even managed to squeak out a Burpee at the finish line as a tip of the hat to my CrossFit training.

In the days following the event some good things happened and some bad things happened. I of course was pretty much wrecked the rest of that day, and Sunday wasn't a great day either. Tuesday, however, was pretty good. Just 3 days after running my first 50 miler, I was walking down the stairs normally and I went to OCF and hit a WOD that included full cleans, push jerks and front squats, and posted a respectable score. The down side came on Wednesday when the pain in the front of my ankle since the race turned into a gnarly case of anterior tibialis tenosynovitis. So, I ended up in a cam walker, for the next several days. That didn't stop me from hitting the WODs at OCF though...check it out
So, while I am happy to have finished with a respectable time, I'm not happy that at times I felt completely demoralized. I was not happy that at the end of the race the thought of running another one of these things made me nauseous, nevermind the thought of doing a 100 miler. I was not happy that, in my mind, I did not run a race that would allow me to write a glowing review of the CrossFit Endurance program. Having said that, I still can't imagine training any other way. Even though this didn't go exactly as planned, I can't imagine ever going back to the old way of training. The thought of spending 12-15 hours per week slogging away just does not appeal to me at all. If that means that I will never be able to be competitive at ultra events, so be it. I got my damn priorities straight now. I'd rather go fast and go hard and spend the rest of the day recovering with my family.

It's been a few weeks now and I have since recovered from my injuries and I'm feeling better about how the day went. I have regained my interest in tackling another one of these beasts. Just this morning we went back to the scene of the crime to see the finish of the San Diego 100 (sorry we missed you at the finish Steve, but way to go on your debut 100 in a time of 22:54!)and now my goal of running a 100 miler has been renewed. How quickly we forget.

Big shout out to my race crew! Amy, you were awesome, thank you for keeping me going and for being such a great sport. Love you! Gonzo, was great to see you out there and the video is awesome!



The aftermath

Measure of Success

How do you measure the success of a training program? That question was hotly debated on the Slowtwitch triathlon forum last week as well as on the CrossFit Endurance blog. The thread was a response to the interview of Brian McKenzie, developer of CrossFit Endurance, on the TriMax Fitness blog.

In that debate, many of the Slowtwitchers disregarded CrossFit Endurance as an efficacious training method because it has yet to produce a World Champion, or even solid age group champions for that matter, despite the fact that the program has only been available to the public for about a year and has been under development by Brian McKenzie for only about 4-5 years.

If the measure of a program's success is that it must produce champions, well then, really only a handful of programs throughout the world can be considered successful. To me that seems like a ludicrous yard stick. There are tons and tons of great coaches out there who have done great things for their athletes but have yet to produce an overall local race champion, let alone a world championship. That doesn't mean that their programming sucks, they can only take their athletes to the limits of each athlete's potential. Beyond that, no program in the world is going to squeeze out any better results.

There are countless people who are following the CrossFit Endurance method and significantly improving their performance, all the while reducing their overall training volume. To me that's success. I don't care if an athlete finishes DFL (Dead F*cking Last) in every race he/she does. If he/she is now finishing those races faster than before, but is still DFL, well, in my book that's a success. How about this...what if your time doesn't improve, but the required training hours to stay at the same level are cut by 40%? I think you can call that success. If I can run the same distance in the same amount of time but now I do it on 6 hours of training per week versus 10, that's great. That's 4 more hours I can spend with my family or getting things done around the house or hell maybe even I could sleep in on a Sunday.

Suggesting that a program is worthless because no current world champions follow the method is ignorant. I'm not necessarily saying that CrossFit Endurance IS the future of endurance training, but it seems to be working for a lot of people. I'm currently putting it to my own personal test and am eagerly awaiting my first go at running 50 miles on May 9th. If I don't win the race does that mean that CrossFit Endurance is a failure? Come on, use your head.

Devil Dog Duathlon

Today my wife, Amy, and I competed in the Devil Dog Duathlon at Camp Pendleton, CA. Let me just say, I love this race! This is the 3rd time I have competed in it, last time was in 2005. It's very well run, the transition area is huge (no fighting for space), the course is decent, and the price can't be beat (especially for me, since I am Active Duty stationed at Camp P, it was free for me). The race is a 5K run, 30K bike and 5K run. The run has a slight 1/2 mi uphill grade to the turnaround. The bike course is mostly flat with a couple of short rollers.

The weather was perfect today. It was a bit cool when we rolled out of the house at 7am, pays to live close to the venue. By the time we got to the race, got our registration packets and set-up our transition areas, it had warmed up nicely. Also helped that the mild Santa Ana winds we had been experiencing had died down. I was a bit disappointed that we ran out of time to get a good warm-up in. By the time we set up transition and made one last pre-race potty visit it was already 8am and the race started at 8:30. Just enough time to roll out on the bike to make sure my gears were set and then get in a quick 1/2 mi jog in with about 3-4 strides thrown in.

First 5K was solid. I stayed toward the front of the pack, about 10-12 deep from the leaders. I forgot my Garmin, so I was running bare-wristed, which was a bit unsettling. When we hit the turnaround I asked the young kid running next to me the time. He never gave me a split, but said that we were currently running a 5:31 pace, we were going slightly downhill. I rolled into transition at about 18 minutes on the nuts.

Quick transition and then off onto the bike. This was my first time on the bike since November or December of last year. I had been riding 1-2 times per week, following the CrossFit Endurance WODs. Now that I had shifted focus to the 50-miler in May, I dropped the bike. I had been meaning to get back on it, just never got around to it. Anyway, I took off really well and felt great for the first half. I only got passed by one guy and he was part of a relay, but he was flying. I could hear his disc wheel coming up on my 6, I love that sound, gotta get me one of those some day. After the turn around, I could feel my legs starting to load up. I hit an Accel Gel (yummy!) and dug in. On the return trip, I wasn't able to continue to fend people off. About 5 1/2 miles from the bike finish I was passed by Julie Ertel, 2008 US Olympic Trials Champion. I kept her in my sights for the rest of the ride, but was also passed by a few other men and finally another female with about 1/4 mile to go. I don't know my exact bike split, but it was close to 46:00.

I zipped into transition and got out onto the final 5K run as fast as I could. My legs were a bit heavy, but considering I haven't done a brick workout since April of last year, I was pleasantly surprised at how fast I came out of transition. I picked off 3 or 4 of the faster cyclists within the first 1/2 mile and then set my sights on Ms. Ertel. At the turnaround she was about 25m ahead of me. She gave an encouraging "Lookin' strong" (or something like that) as we went by each other. I passed two other guys with 1/2 mi to go and was closing in on the Olympian. I had planned to catch up to her and say "Let me see your kick." but apparently she had already decided she was going to show it to me. She picked up the pace and I did all I could to hang on and not get totally dropped. I think she ended up besting me by about 4 seconds. Final 5K time was right aroud 18:30.

These results aren't official, as I said, I forgot my watch. My finish time was 1:25:40 and I placed 2nd overall for military competitors, 2nd overall in the military 35-39 age group (the guy that beat me is also from my Battalion. Way to go 1st MSOB, represent!) and for the Overall I think I came in around 12th or so. I'll have to wait for the Official results to be posted.

Amy had a great morning also. Bear in mind, her training plan has been exclusively CrossFit 4-5 times per week. She does no additional running. She has not been on her triathlon bike in nearly 4 1/2 years! She went into this race with no serious goals, just put up a good showing, and that she did. Her first 5K was 27:00, she hit the bike in about 1:03 and finished off the 2nd 5K in 30:00 for a finish time of 2:04. This is probably right around the same finish time she would have had 5 years ago while following a traditional endurance/multisport training program. I am very proud of her. She continually proves that hard work in the CF gym will pay dividends in all facets of life. Hmmm...if I could get her to add in a little CrossFit Endurance...look out!

It was a great morning. Legs feel a little tight, but neither of us were shattered after the race. Actually we both commented that we felt great. Hopefully I will still have some pop in my legs for tomorrow night's flag football double header.

Underrecovered = Overtrained

Overtraining is defined as a physical, emotional and/or physical state that results from exercising at a volume or intensity that exceeds the body's ability to recover. The early symptoms include, but are not limited to, persistent fatigue, irritability, injury susceptibility, persistent muscle soreness, impaired performance and lack of motivation.

Typically the state of overtraining is related to significantly increasing your training volume, while not allowing your body enough time to recover. In endurance athletes, you will see then when they go from 5 or 6 training sessions per week, to all of a sudden hitting 2-a-days, or maybe they will go 3 or 4 straight weeks of training 7 days per week.

I would argue that one could also experience these same symptoms of overtraining without making any change to their training volume or intensity at all. How would you do that? Don't allow your body adequate recovery from your currently established routine. I know this is true, because I am experiencing it right now.

While it is true that I am currently training for a 50-mile ultramarathon, in all actuality, I haven't changed my training routine all that much. Now that I am following the CrossFit Endurance program, volume is not a real issue anymore. My current program has me doing CrossFit 4-5 times per week and CrossFit Endurance running 2-3 times per week. My total weekly running mileage does not exceed 15-17 miles.

I think the seeds of my underrecovery/overtrained condition were really sown last weekend. The week prior was a solid week at Oceanside CrossFit. We all hit it pretty hard and it culminated in doing Fight Gone Bad, which was the subject of my last post. I PR'd by 35 points, and I was quite happy with that. On Sunday I hit a hard CrossFit Endurance run of 3 x 5K trying to hold within 2 minutes of my 5K race pace, with 5 minutes of recovery between reps. I was able to run 19:37, 19:31, 19:47 respectively. Then Sunday night I played in a flag football double header. I actually performed pretty well considering I had just finished that run a couple hours before my first game. Monday I made a rest day to recover from all of the weekend's activities.

On Tuesday I was back in the gym and I did the WOD named "Nancy". This WOD consists of 5 rounds for time of 95# overhead squats and a 400m Run. I finished the workout in 12:08, which was a 44 second PR. Happy with the time, but I know that I could have gone under 12:00. During the OHS I just didn't feel that snap that I normally do. I could tell that I wasn't recovered from the weekend.

Wednesday I wasn't able to go to the gym because of a work conflict, but I did hit a good CrossFit Endurance run over lunch. I did a 1 minute ladder out on the trails behind my clinic. The ladder works this way: run hard x 1 min, rest 1 min, run hard x 1 min, rest 50 sec...and so on all the way down to 10 seconds rest and then right back up the ladder finishing with 50 seconds rest and run hard 1 min. I held pretty consistent distances of .15-.18 miles each rep.

Thursday at OCF was heavy deadlift and Jerk. This was where I could tell that the wheels were really starting to come off. I was only able to successfully deadlift 309# and my PR is 323#. I attempted 331# twice, but I just couldn't move that damn bar. For the jerk, I didn't even attempt to go heavy. I have been having a slight left shoulder issue for a couple of weeks and I didn't feel like pushing it, considering how I was already feeling. So I did a few reps at 135# and then one at 155# and called it a night.

Now on to Friday. At lunch I did a Tabata run on my Alter-G treadmill at work. That thing is just damn sweet. I put it down to 90% bodyweight and cranked out the Tabata at 11.6mph. It was challenging, but I know that's not the upper limit of my Tabata on that treadmill. Friday afternoon I got over to the gym and did the WOD of 800m run,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 of 95# power cleans and Broad Jump Push-ups then another 800m run. This was the final straw for me. Typically this is my kind of workout. I can usually really push the pace on the run, go hard on the cleans and then really crank out the BJPU's. Not on Friday, right from the first set of 10 BJPU's I knew this wasn't going to be a stellar performance. I just had no pop in my legs and my lungs did not want to play. I pushed through and finished in just over 16 1/2 minutes.

Now, this condition is also compounded by the fact that I have not been getting enough sleep. Typically I go to bed around 10pm and during the week I get up at 5:30, so to start off that's only 7 1/2 hours of sleep, if I were to sleep that entire time. Factor in staying up too late to watch American Idol on Tuesday and Wednesday and goofing around on the computer Thursday night. Also consider that I'm a tosser and turner and I get up a couple times per night to go to the bathroom and we're looking at something closer to 6 1/2 - 6 hours per night. On top of all that training, I can definitely tell that I am suffering because of it.

So for the weekend, I am laying low, sort of. I am helping out as an assistant trainer at the CrossFit Level 1 certification down at CrossFit San Diego. It has been fun. I was worried that my underrecovered condition would affect my "performance" as a trainer, but I think I was able to step it up when I needed to. I also skipped the trainer WOD during lunch and just sat back and enjoyed my Mmmm...Good Meal. I think I will skip the WOD again today and look forward to trying to hit a good run at lunch tomorrow. Also, I'm going to bed early tonight!

Fight Gone Bad Gone Good

Wow, so much for keeping up with my blog during the Zone/Paleo challenge. Guess maybe my next challenge should be a 60-Day, blog everyday challenge. Ahhh...why set myself up for failure.

At any rate, the 60-Day Zone/Paleo challenge for Oceanside CrossFit has come and gone. There were some phenomenal results that came out of the challenge. Many members lost weight, dropped pants sizes and improved performance. I think the best thing to come out of it was hearing everyone say that they were satisfied and planned to stick with the Zone as a lifestyle. Several of these people went into this rather begrudgingly and to see them come out of it on the other side with a much more positive attitude is a great thing.

The Challenge wrapped up in true CrossFit as well as Oceanside CrossFit style. The first part of the wrap-up was the post-challenge party. That got a bit out of hand, as expected. Don't believe me, check out the pics on the Oceanside CrossFit Facebook page. On second thought, don't, there are some not so flattering pics of me in those albums. The second part of the celebration came yesterday with a rehashing of Fight Gone Bad! When we kicked off the challenge, we started by doing the CrossFit WOD known as Fight Gone Bad. The workout is 3, five minute rounds. You complete as many reps in one minute of each of the 5 following exercises: Wall Balls, Sumo Deadlift High Pull, Box Jumps, Push Press and Rowing for calories. The clock runs continuously and you get 1 minute rest between rounds. The total of all your reps and calories is your total score.

Everybody hit the WOD with extreme intensity yesterday. Personal Records were falling left and right. It was awesome to see everyone giving it all and to see how proud they were with their results. I was pretty fired up to hit a 35 point PR with a total score of 370. Amy also had a great day with a score of 278, which was 34 points better than her pre-challenge score of 244. It's still a ways off, but I look forward to the day when the first number of my score is a 4 and when Amy hits the magical 300. That day is coming!

The 700 Club

Tonight was a big night at the gym. Today's WOD was CrossFit Total. It consists of 3 lifts, the shoulder press (aka press), back squat and deadlift. You get 3 attempts to max out on each lift. Your final score is the total weight for all 3 lifts combined.

The first time I did CF Total was a few months ago and I lifted 666.5. About a month ago I tackled CF Total again, immediately after doing a Tabata Run and I hit 685. Tonight I was shooting for 700lbs.

The press wasn't fantastic. Form was poor and I was not able to maintain good stable midline position. Lucky I didn't hurt my back, but I did manage to PR with a 136# lift. It's only a 1# PR, but a PR none the less. Back squat went a little better. Last time I did CF Total I was working out by myself and really didn't want to push it on the squat. Tonight I had spotters, so I felt safe going for it. I nailed 246, which was a 10# PR. I attempted 261, but when I hit the bottom, I just sank further into the hole and could not get out of it. Finally on the deadlift I just went for it. It was not comfortable gripping the bar with a splint on my middle finger, but I just sucked it up and let her rip. I lifted 323# which is an 8#PR.

I think I'm finally starting to figure out heavy deadlifting. That weight just does not come up quickly, but as long as you hold form and continue to fight for it, the weight will come up. It's when you can no longer hold form that you have to forget about it.

I'm excited to see how far I can take this. I know that my weakness is the press. Actually all upper body heavy lifting is where I need the most work. Just got Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe, need to give that a read and get my press up a bit.

Tabata be kidding me!

Quick post recapping tonight's WOD at Oceanside CrossFit. It was ri-donk-ulous! I would say that this was definitely the hardest Tabata workout I have ever done. Tonight's WOD consisted of:

Tabata
Push-ups
2-count Burpees
Burpees
Zero Count Burpees
GHD sit-ups
sit-ups

Because of the class size and the limited number of equipment, I started with the GHD's. That was a mistake. I was smoked when it came to the regular sit-ups after that. In retrospect, it probably didn't matter where I started, this wsa a ass-kicker regardless.

To score the Tabata, you only count the lowest number of reps achieved during your 20second intervals. For example, if on push-ups you hit 20, 17, 15, 10, 8, 8, 6, 5, your score would be 5. Then total the score for all the events.

My total score was 51 with individual scores of 11, 5, 7, 9, 9, and 10 respectively. I was dizzy after the GHD sit-ups and the zero counts. I'm sore as all get out already, can only imagine what tomorrow and Wednesday will bring.