ski week

I took this week off of work because my son's public school has a "ski week" this week. Well, they don't call it that because that would be saying out loud how ridiculously privileged the families in the district are. But, in a move that proved to be the right thing and also long overdue, my son transferred to a private school a month ago and that school doesn't have the week off. I needed a break so I kept my planned vacation.

I'm working on a post about public schools; stay tuned.

As is typical of me, I did not spend the week relaxing, rather I built an Olympic lifting platform for our garage.  Check it out:

  

Cool, huh?  Our weights aren't here yet, so I haven't been able to workout, but it should be fully functional in 10 days or so.  Yay! By far the hardest part about this project was rearranging and making space in my garage.  That's also not finished, but I was able to create the space to build the platform.  

I have decided to back off on my running and crossfit "metcon" workouts for 3 months.  What's a metcon?  From the crossfit discussion boards:

Metcon doesn't have a strict definition. Its about intensity. Intensity is about power output.

If i had to define metcon i would do it like this 

1. High Heart Rate 

2. Simultaneous Use of Many Muscles 

3. Continuous Movement 

4. Short to Medium Time (5-30 min) 

and the best way to tell if your doing a metcon workout..... 

YOU'LL KNOW IT !!!  

An example of a metcon is this (from my gym's site):

30 Deadlifts @ 225# (men)/155#(women)

Rest 1 Minute

30 Pull-Ups

Rest 1 Minute

30 DB Snatches Each Arm @ 45# (men)/30#(women)

Rest 1 Minute

30 Knees-to-Elbows (Hang from the pull up bar and raise your knees to your elbows. Try it.)

Looks horrible doesn't it?  These workouts are all about power and your heartrate spikes very high, but they are short.  Most metcons are timed; the person who performs all the prescribed reps/distance (sometimes 200 or 400 meter runs are thrown in) in the fastest time wins. Sometimes there is a prescribed amount of time and the person who does the most reps wins.

Being able to handle heavy metcons is the holy grail of crossfit.  

So why am I giving them up?  

Well, let's think about power.  How can you increase your power output?  Power is work over time. So I can get stronger or I can get faster.  Or both. 

Since our metcons usually involve lifting heavy shit, getting stronger will make me faster.  In the workout above, if my single rep max (the amount I can lift one time) is 160#, doing thirty reps at 155# will take me all day.  If my single rep max is 250#, this wil be a much easier and faster workout for me.

My strength is a limiting factor.  I am strong compared to the average 5'3" 135# woman.  But I am not strong enough to kill those metcons, or even to make a decent showing in olympic lifting.  

And here's the rub: doing too much high intensity power work or running will interfere with your ability to get stronger. The best way to get strong is to lift as heavy as you can (in the 1-5 rep range) eat a lot and sit on the couch.  Anything else you do (working, parenting, running errands, housework...) will detract from getting stronger.  

So in order to get better at the heavy metcons, I need to stop doing them for a while. Seems incongruous, but it's not really.  Athletes have been using strength training to lay a foundation for (later) speed for years.

So, I am going to do only strength workouts for a while: heavy front squats, back squats, shoulder presses, push presses, power cleans, clean and jerk and snatch. Also pull ups and bench press. I will still do HIIT (high intensity interval training) running workouts once or twice a week (those are generally also strength workouts and are a good compliment to Oly lifting)

But what about my heart and lungs?  Yes, my conditioning will suffer.  But that's ok, at the end of 3 months I will start training for general conditioning again.  And the beauty of it is that you can generally keep your strength gains when you go back to doing metcons.

I hear women complain about their inability to get stronger sometimes.  Well, if you are doing a gazillion hours of cardio per week, you won't get stronger or it will be very slow.  If you want to get stronger, build in a strength cycle.  Athletes do this in most disciplines, even endurance athletes. It's a good idea even if your primary goal is to be a faster runner or cyclist.  It requires patience and managing our emotional relationship to exercising.  In other words, recognizing that you do not have to be sweating profusely and burning a certain number of calories per session to be making gains in fitness.  

This is training for performance.  Here are some pictures of strong crossfit women I know:

 

  

 

 

I love these photos.  I love crossfit.  It is the hardest sport I've ever been involved in.  Every one of these women, these different body types, is incredibly strong and getting stronger all the time. These women all push themselves, on a regular basis, to a place most people don't ever experience. They all inspire me every day.

That's me running in front (no, I wasn't winning anything, we were warming up):

My son and I in a competition last year:

 

  

I'm off to lift something heavy now...

P.S.: I am officially the "Coolest Mom on the Block" for building an olympic platform in my garage on my vacation.

Comments

[wn]

Loved this post! metcons are definetly my kryptonite as well....especially the longer ones.

I will be interested to see how the work on strength ultimately affects your times.

PS - our Crossfit just introduced triple unders today....lots of cursing!

[Liz]

Love this post! I love the phrase "Emotional relationship to excersize" -- that is exactly what it is.

I am working with a Cross Fit Endurance coach to train for my upcoming Ironman. I literally had anxiety shakes when I saw my pre-season work outs. Where were the three hour bike rides? what is the 20 minute run work out? WHAT? (imagine me saying that stuttering and shaking). Coach basically did the nice version of "Little child, buck up, you are starting on new legs." After 5 years of the same type of long distance endurance workouts, I am loving the building blocks of CFE.

Anyway, I suppose that's not as much to do with metcons as they whole idea of backing off to eventually see gains. Big picture, big picture...