12-07-10: Kettlebell swings and running

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

Kris Clever faces off against Annie Thorisdottir at the CrossFit Games. Both have been champions, and will be trying to either defend or reclaim their title this weekend. 

Graham Holmberg, 2010 CrossFit Games Men's Division champion, shows perfect extension (the slight bend in the elbows actually signals that the weight has started coming back down a fraction of a second before the shot was taken).

No less inspiring than games champions, everyday folk like you and me can perform full extension, overhead kettlebell swings. It just takes a little practice and confidence to know that for the most part you won't drop it on your own head...

Camille Leblanc-Bazinet runs in the CrossFit Games.

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WoD: 18 minutes - As Many Rounds As Possible [AMRAP]

• 10 Kettlebell Swings [55#]
• 200 Meter run
• 1 Minute rest

Athletes will track their own minute of rest starting from when you first re-enter the garage door after your 200 meter run. Each couplet of KBS and Run is followed by rest.

Just keep up with the endurance specialists. Try to monitor breathing, especially while running.  Try to keep breathing slow and deep, through the nose as much as possible. Try to keep the intervals about the same. Don't over sprint on one round and drag-ass on the next. Just keep working.

With all of those mantras floating through my head, and a good distribution of athletes ahead of me to try to keep with, and behind, to try to stay ahead of, this was a pretty damn good workout. I was definitely reduced to sucking wind occasionally, but I really tried to keep my pacing and breathing under control, ending with an average round time (not including the rest minute) of around 1:10. There were out-lyers of 1:05 and 1:25, but they were the exceptions.

I opted for a fairly heavy kettlebell, not the Rx'd 70#, but the next one down, 55#. While not a heavy weight by itself, I'm still new enough at doing the standard overhead swing with a heavy kettlebell that going any heavier would probably have been a death sentence... if not for me, then for everyone in my immediate vicinity!  In all, I was glad I managed to stay unbroken on both the kettlebells and the running. With only 10 reps at a time, stopping on the kettlebells would have been unthinkable, but on the runs... even for such a short distance... well, it occurs to you, or at least to me, about 150m in, how nice it would be to just stop and walk for a bit... maybe breathe a bit too, while I'm at it. So, to ignore those voices and just keep working, that felt pretty good.

8 rounds @ 1:05 - 1:25 per round.