Learning how to strategize through Crossfit

I have been doing Crossfit for a while now and I don’t think I have really talked about my love for Crossfit – partly because I am nowhere near that level of competence where I can really talk about it. One thing I can talk about today are the strategies that I have learnt from Crossfit and adopted into my running training.

The way the workout of the day works is that, you are usually given a time cap to complete the workout. The workout, marked on the whiteboard, always seems impossible to complete. (E.g. I did a benchmark WOD called “Elizabeth” yesterday – 21-15-9 = clean@40kg, ring dips, 12mins cap). 

However, the trick lies in how you pace yourself and how you break down your workout base on your capabilities. I know 40kg is a lot for my slight frame, so I break it down to 5+5+5+3+3, 5+4+3+3, 3+3+3. (ring dips are quite easy for me because I don’t weight much so I just went in 5's throughout and all 9 in one go in the end.) I finished with a healthy 4 minutes of rest time.

So same strategies in my training…say…a 35km run. You break it down in 5km increments. Have a 20 second rest every 5km by all means, and go hard in the last 5km (simultaneously telling yourself…it’s only 5km mate, only-5km….)

It worked for my run in HK, and I will apply the same strategy again in Amsterdam. I am confident it will work for me once again.

yay bring on the barbells!