So do you chat with these runners after you are finished? I'm always curious how you know what is going on so clearly in the minds of others. You should really harness this gift.
I live in a relatively small area and I personally know the folks in my age group that can beat me in races because there are only 3 or 4 of them. The others who beat me are young and quite thin. Regardless, getting better involves doing all the boring stuff that people don't really want to do such as running slowly enough on your easy days so that you can run hard enough on your hard days. Doing everything at a medium effort yield medium results while trying to do everything at a hard effort yields great results only for the orthopedist who has kids in college. I have talked with enough folks at races to know that a lot of folks, me included at times, get too enamored of running faster than they should on their easy days.
Kara Goucher talked about doing some of her recovery jogs slower than 8:00 which is a snail's pace to her. Scott Douglas in a terrific article describing several weeks he spent training with Kenyan athletes talks about how ridiculously slowly they start their runs. I read an interview with Sammy Wanjiru and his morning runs start around a 7:30 pace. Again, that's a crawl for him.
If a guy who could run a marathon at a 4:45 pace isn't afraid to start a run at what is barely more effort than a walk, why are we, as recreational runners, afraid to run slowly?
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
flashlight and sidewalk
Holy MrsNamtor!?!
**Ask me about streaking**
Chairman
I live in a relatively small area and I personally know the folks in my age group that can beat me in races because there are only 3 or 4 of them. The others who beat me are young and quite thin. Regardless, getting better involves doing all the boring stuff that people don't really want to do such as running slowly enough on your easy days so that you can run hard enough on your hard days. Doing everything at a medium effort yield medium results while trying to do everything at a hard effort yields great results only for the orthopedist who has kids in college. I have talked with enough folks at races to know that a lot of folks, me included at times, get too enamored of running faster than they should on their easy days. Kara Goucher talked about doing some of her recovery jogs slower than 8:00 which is a snail's pace to her. Scott Douglas in a terrific article describing several weeks he spent training with Kenyan athletes talks about how ridiculously slowly they start their runs. I read an interview with Sammy Wanjiru and his morning runs start around a 7:30 pace. Again, that's a crawl for him. If a guy who could run a marathon at a 4:45 pace isn't afraid to start a run at what is barely more effort than a walk, why are we, as recreational runners, afraid to run slowly?
Trolls should be banned, not argued with, Mr. Mod.
Coalition for a Free and Independent New Jersey
Scrape: have you seen http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/mar/12/english-boxer-curtis-woodhouse-twitter-troll
Interesting. Has absolutely nothing to do with this thread, but I was just asking myself "what pace does LTH run and what gets him excited?". Thank you. Now I know.
I'm just thankful he didn't tell the story of his epic 5K win for the 37th time. Epic in that 6 of the top 9 finishers were 10-13 year old girls and boys which never seems to make it into the discussion.
Eh, my biggest gripe with crossfit is their strange need to call their gym "a box".
As for the rest, my best friend is a crossfit instructor. She's also an ultrarunner who runs a hell of a lot more than the typical crossfit stereotype and she wins hardware and stuff.
Lump Off
I read an interview with Sammy Wanjiru and his morning runs start around a 7:30 pace. Again, that's a crawl for him.
Did I miss something here? This was posted today right?
The weird thing is that it is at least the second time LtH has posted about Sammy in the present tense. The last time I responded "He's dead, Jim" but it must not have landed. That was two-ish months ago.
Seriously, Sammy is not running at that pace these days. Which is a tragedy.
For those who don't know, he died in May of 2011.
Nobody should ever disregard Dr. Bones.
Ultra Cowboy
When it comes down to it, If someone asked me "should I do Crossfit or sit on my ass?" I'd recommend Crossfit. I think most people can see how a variety of exercise will improve their main sport and overall health.
I have a ton of respect for the Crossfit games athletes who choose Crossfit as their sport. They probably would do well if they decided to specialize in power lifting or running in their own right.
I think as long as someone can clearly enunciate the benefit they want to get out of any cross training regimen and accept the limitations inherent in that activity, then there is room at the table for all disciplines. Specialists like runners and powerlifters tend to get pretty defensive when generalists start claiming to be "as good" or better (with good reason)
Every time I see the Cf'ers flipping tractor tires, I just think of how they could get paid doing that if they worked part time at a Les Schwab.
But if my daughter sees the Crossfit games on TV and it makes her put 100% effort into her PE class at school, great for all concerned.
WYBMADIITY
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Smaller By The Day
Hi SRL!
I was reading this thread on my phone today between meeting while on the road. Very interesting.
One of my best friends does Crossfit at home with his wife. That pretty much eliminates the Delta Bravo aspect of Crossfit that people are referring to. Since I don't know anybody who trains at a "box", I can't attest to it, or deny it. I do know that my buddy is much more fit than he was before starting CF. Does it make him a great runner? Nope. Does he care? Nope.
It may be a fad. He might grow tired of it. If he's like me though, and I think he is, he'll just replace it with something else. It's like when my doctor told me that I needed surgery if I wanted to keep powerlifting. Guess what. There's nothing functional about a 600 pound bench press. If you can avoid surgery by keeping it under 400, you find something else. Now I'm a runner. Only time will tell how far I can go in running, but if my knees fell apart I could always race wheelchairs or get into kayaking. I have to do something. It's just who I am.
Even my buddy who does CF has a problem with CR'ers joking about "Uncle Rhabdo" though. Yes that image is from a crossfit website.
This is also from their website:
This is CrossFit’s term for Rhabdomyolysis. Rhabdo is a disease of the muscle that involves excessive breakdown of the muscle cells, leading to the following cell contents being spilled out into the blood stream:
If you google "Rhabdomyolysis", google will recommend "Rhabdomyolysis crossfit". Any guess as to why they have a mascot for this dangerous condition, and google has tied the two together? Yeah, it happens, and yes, some people see it as a badge of honor. Not smart. Not funny.
Improvements
Weight 100 pounds lost
5K 31:02 Sept. 2012 / 23:36 Sept. 2013 (Same Course)
10K 48:59 April 2013
HM 2:03:56 Nov. 2012 / 1:46:50 March 2013
MARATHON 3:57:33 Nov. 2013
Village people
^ kidney failure is funny stuff.
i think people should do whatever keeps them moving. Safely, of course.
Puker
I'll admit that Mrs. Namtor from RWOL was mine. This one is not mine. I take no responsibility for this sock puppet.
Respecting the topic, my douchetoids have never looked better since I started CrossFitting.
Feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive.
I'll admit that Mrs. Namtor from RWOL was mine. This one is not mine. I take no responsibility for this sock puppet. Respecting the topic, my douchetoids have never looked better since I started CrossFitting.
Are you serious? Where on the douchebag continuum does that fall? Douchetoids indeed.
Ok, anyway, LTH, you know nothing about weight training or strength training. Running, yes, quite alot. But ....
Edit: Isolating muscles to strengthen them isn't just boring, it's ineffective. Real fitness and strength comes from working out with coordinated movements using muscle groups, rather than a single muscle and it's counterpart. One shouldn't use momentum to accomplish an exercise but that's not the same as saying muscles need to be isolated for strength training to be effective.
"Uncle Rhabdo"?
Wow. Isn't that what happened to those Iowa football players?