11-06-21: Running and wallballs

Elm City Crossfit Endurance WoD for June 21, 2011

Why Crossfit doesn't focus too much on bodybuilding OR superlong distances. Because at the extremes, there be dragons. (landsercrossfit.com)

Wall balls. Full squat depth, then use the momentum of coming up out of the squat to drive the ball to the target above your head. Catch as few descending balls on your head as possible. (crossfitmorristown.com)

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For Time:

• Run 1 mile
• 50 Wallballs 16#
• Run 800m
• 30 Wallballs
• Run 200m
• 10 Wallballs

My first running workout since joining an affiliate. Not gonna lie: I was kind of terrified. At my best, I could barely run a mile.  Hell, I could barely go a 1/2 mile without bombing out. I'm well aware that, even as I work on my running form as best I can, I am untrained. I don't know how to move my legs efficiently, I don't know how to breath effectively once the "sucking wind" phase kicks in (15 feet from the starting line), and I don't know how to motor along in first gear and conserve energy. When I run, the fuse is burning, and its only a matter of time before *something* implodes...

I was hoping there might be some scaling options for those of us in my boat. Turns out I was in a dinghy all my own. While I was panicking about the running, everyone else was worried about the wallballs. I guess it pays to be 6 feet tall. Yeah, it would be a lot, but not that many, right?

Managed to run the initial mile unbroken (which, for most of the people I was with, was barely a warm-up). I thought I was gonna die. Pounded into the wall-balls, broke the set at 20, then fought my way through the rest in spurts of 5s and 10s. The second run was abysmal. Not 75m into it, I found myself walking, fighting for breath. I tried to keep those lapses as short as possible, and ended up walking only once more that round, on the way back. The set of 30 wallballs was ALL done in short sub-sets.

The final run (shuffle, stumble, whatever) around the parking lot was pure murder, and the worst part was that even on the short distance, I was so annihilated by what came before that I even had to walk a bit of that one, too! Of course, I did it only when I was behind vans. I may be in need of remedial endurance work, but that doesn't mean I want people knowing it (other than from my time!).  Made it back in the door, and banged out the final 10 wall-balls. Total count for number of times I got hit in the head with a wall-ball = 1. Not too shabby!


Final time: 21:35