Marilyn and Kelly develop mobility, stability, and strength with the one arm get-up.
One arm get-up.
The one arm get-up is a foundational exercise at CrossFit Missoula. There are ten key positions that your body must secure to complete a single one arm get-up. It’s the transition from one position to the next that offers that greatest challenge and the real benefit of the movement. Though most will be limited in the beginning by the functional capacity of the shoulder, as the athlete develops, they will be required to focus every bit of their mental and physical resources to complete the lift.
Solid benchmarks for the one arm get-up are 30%, 45%, and 65% of body weight.
Jessica box jumps during the final event of the CrossFit Games Mountain Sectional.
Competition breeds excellence.
With only four and a half weeks until the Pengelly Double Dip, I thought it was time to get after my training runs.
As I’ve mentioned in other posts, my method to training for any event is simple, yet effective. But before I get into that, I want to point out a few things.
For the purpose of this article, I’m going to group athletes into three types: single sport, multi-sport, and CrossFit. Each athlete has unique needs and training requirements.
The single sport athlete is usually paid to train and compete in one discipline. The primary objective of the single sport athlete is to win.
The multi-sport athlete usually invests large sums of their own money in support of two or more activities. The primary objective for these athletes is to avoid boredom and to “stay healthy”.
A lot of previous single sport athletes will continue their athletic pursuits as multi-sport competitors. You’ll often find them among the first to cross the finish lines.
The training needs of the CrossFit athlete are what I want to focus on here. The primary objective of the CrossFit athlete is to “increase work capacity across broad time and modal domains”, preparing for unknown and unknowable circumstances, or what can be more commonly referred to as life.
The CrossFit athlete can and should use competition and sport to flesh out weakness in his or her fitness armory.
Throughout the year, there are a range of events that I personally compete at.
In February, there’s CrossFit Montana’s CrossFit Challenge. In April, I’ve got the CrossFit Sectional Games. June will bring the Pengelly Double Dip, a 13 mile trail run with over 5,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. Then in July, Clint over at Alternative Athletics is hosting the Billings Weightlifting Invitational. Finally, topping off the year, is Jenna and Meriah’s Bridger CrossFit Showdown in Bozeman.
Three CrossFit competitions, two Olympic-style weightlifting meets, and one long, steep run and I’ve got a year of opportunity to test and hone my fitness across broad time and modal domains.
For the most part my training is centered on the same WOD’s that I program for my gym. However, six weeks out from an event I tailor my training to the demands of the coming task.
For the Pengelly Double Dip, I’ll be running parts of the course, progressing the mileage of each training run. In total, I plan on completing six runs, topping off at eleven miles.
I’ve gotten started a little later than I had originally intended, so I may not get them all in.
For these training runs I like to wear my Garmin Forerunner. This way I can track time, mileage, and elevation data, so that I can compare one run to another.
The Trevor Win’E Memorial Challenge is a CrossFit style event to raise money for cooling vests to be worn by service men and women in Iraq & Afghanistan.
We will do a team workout named “Trevor” on behalf of US Army SPC Trevor Win’E (killed in action near Mosul, Iraq in 2004).
The workout is for time: 300 pull ups, 400 push ups, 500 sit ups, 600 squats. The team must accumulate this many total reps, and only two team members can be working at a time.
Each team will donate $200 ($50 per team member) to the Trevor Win’E Memorial Fund to purchase one cooling vest to be worn by military personnel in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Those unable to participate, but who would like to contribute, can make a donation to the Trevor Win’E Memorial Fund.
Tony enters his workout data into his training journal.
The most successful athletes I know keep a training journal. Not that they win all their events, but they make consistent progress, have fewer setbacks, and are generally more motivated during their training days, because what goes on in the workout, goes down in the journal.
There’s an enormous difference between “I’m feeling weak” and “My deadlift has gone down 10 kg over the last couple of months”.
If your hitting your training days, and food and sleep are good, your numbers should be improving. If they’re not, we need more than your feelings to work with.
That’s where the journal comes in. It provides us with hard facts: How many days did you train in the last 60 days? How was your diet? How many hours of sleep were you getting? And, where do we go from here?
There’s also the satisfaction of filling a notebook with workouts. It represents your commitment, effort, and sacrifice. Once full, it sits like trophy on the bookshelf, fueling your motivation to fill more pages in your current journal.
You can also think of it as a health care savings account. Every page is one dollar you aren’t going to give the doctor, or assisted living center. Every completed journal represents money in the bank.
To make the most of your training journal, you first need to have it with you when you work out. Not out in the car, or worse, on the desk at home. You need it in the gym. I recommend keeping it in your gym bag or gym cubby.
Second, you need to write your workouts down immediately following your training session. Don’t put it off until later, and don’t fool yourself into thinking that you’ll accurately remember tomorrow what you did today.
The journals I like to use are the small, spiral bound notebooks like Tony has in the photo above. Their cheap, and you don’t mind spilling coffee on them, or finding out your kids wanted to add their workouts to yours.
Remember, the most successful athletes I’ve know keep a training journal. You’re already putting in the time and effort to train, you might as well be getting all the results you deserve.
Rob Smith sets the indoor rowing world record with 1:15.9 at 48 strokes per minute.
Better rowing technique = faster finish times
Yesterday we spent an hour honing our row technique. Some achieved personal records, but the majority found their fastest set to be several seconds below their best time. What’s up with that?
Not always, but almost always, when you first learn a new exercise or technique, you’re going to under perform, until your body becomes more efficient.
But that momentary loss in load, time, or score is only temporary, and within a short period of time you will find your performance exceeding your previous best.
Check out any sport and you’ll see the strongest lifters, the hardest hitters, the fastest runners and rowers, in fact, all the top athletes are also the most technically proficient.
Focus on form and technique. Speed, strength, and power will come.
Taiga wins gold at the Paradise Valley Championships in Livingston, Montana, May 1, 2010. In the video, Taiga is wearing the blue hogu (chest protector).
Tony, who has trained with us since 2006, brought his son Taiga to CrossFit back in 2008 when he was 11 years. We didn’t have a kids class back then, but since Taiga showed a high level of maturity for his age, and Tony was actively involved in his training, we let him join our adult class.
They both feel the broad and general fitness that CrossFit develops has supported Taiga’s continued progress in his martial art training.
Kaelan bounds across a dirt mound near Wildhorse Hotsprings.
The big picture
Unlike many artistic mediums, photography produces in hundredths of a second. When the photographer presses the shutter button, the moment in front of the lens is captured, frozen in time, indefinitely.
Technology has further advanced the medium through the development of digital photography. The internet has given us a means to distribute these real time images with amazing speed to anywhere in the world in the half-blink of an eye.
But it’s the human behind the lens, the photographer, that turns images to art, and a single frame into a tale.
Great photographers are able to capture more than just moments in time. With abundant courage, and through careful attention to lighting and timing, they are able to transport their viewers to far away places, allowing them to experience a world outside of theirs.
I see a lot of variations of dumbbell swings on YouTube. The method I use, I read about in the September 2009 issue of MILO (which is in our library). It seems perfectly suited to swinging the heaviest loads overhead, and is fast becoming one of my favorite lifts.
Video is a great tool for finding weaknesses in your movement. There are many low cost video recorders on the market. This video was shot using the Flip Ultra HD. Consider adding one to your gym bag and setting it up on lifting days.
GPP and the long run
Last week I received an email from Pat Johnson. Some of you may remember Pat from a couple of winters ago when he was preparing for Smokejumper Rookie Training.
He had read my post The Long Run and wanted to share his experience training for and running the Coeur d’Alene marathon.
With Pat’s permission, I’ve posted the email exchange below for your consideration.
Hey there,
I was browsing through the WOD blog and noticed one you had about training for the Missoula marathon. I don’t remember if I have told you already but I will tell you again if I did, I ran the Coeur d’Alene marathon last may. Leading up to the marathon I did about 10 weeks of a workout program based directly off crossfit exercises. Lots of circuit workout with some but not too much running, the longest run I went on before the race was 8.5 miles. I felt so good just from being in good shape and did the race in 3hrs and 40 minuets, my goal was under 4 hrs. Thought I would share that with you after reading your blog. I am still working as a Smokejumper in Washington. Looks like the gym is still cranking out some sweat. Good luck in the run.
Pat Johnson
Hi Pat,
Thanks for the account of your training leading up to your marathon. Smoking time too!
Do you mind if I share this on my blog?
Also curious, if you were going to train for another marathon, would you do it differently, or did that program design work the best for you?
Thanks,
Daniel
Yeah you can share it. I tried to think about the marathon as 4 hrs of work rather than 4 hrs of running. I wanted to run the race training the same way I would for a summer of work. I thought, from past experience, that getting in awesome shape by doing a variety of activities would help you do any activity well. I read a lot about training for a marathon and having a 16 week training schedule and all the distance runs to do ahead of time, but I didn’t really do too much more running than I think I normally would have just training to get in excellent overall shape. I bet if I focused more on becoming a runner, rather than a well rounded athlete, I would be able to produce a faster time, but then again I wanted to do the race as a well rounded athlete rather than a runner. I was satisfied with the way I felt the whole time so I guess I would try and do the same training and also I think having a great positive attitude toward completion is key.
