Blog Archive

The Project Endurance volume is going to ramp up slightly in the next few weeks and we want you all to come along for the ride!  If you go back to the Week 2 post you’ll see we are entering step 6 in the plan.  I’ve seen great improvements in all of you in terms of technique, though for some it falls apart a bit once we start to layer on the intensity.  Please keep yourself focus and try to stay with the technique we’re teaching, even when you are tired.

With the volume ramping up a bit, it’s time to buckle down and make sure we are hitting the homework sessions so that we can keep the improvement rolling.  When I surveyed you all this week it was an inconsistent response.  Forget last week and just focus on this week.

We still love you.

Make sure you warm up and do these drills

(1) Back to the wall pull drill

(2) Charlie’s Angels drill

(3) Cop drill

And finally, if you missed the session this week do the following:

3 x 800 m intervals with 5 min rest between intervals.  No more than 7 seconds difference in any interval.

Love, The Afghan

Hey Ya’ll!  Great session this week.

For those of you that missed it, I did an impromptu survey of what drills so far have been helping people understand running technique the best – your answers were (1) foot pull drill with your back to the wall (2) partner lean drill (3) charlie’s angels and cop drill

Those are your drills for this week.  If you don’t have a partner – use the wall and lean/pull then turn and run it out.

After your drills I want you all to hit some cadence technique.  Pick a loop or straightaway about 30-45 s long and do 4 quick tempo intervals at 92, 96, 100, and 104 cadence.

The workout on saturday was a 1 mile time trial, so if you missed it – hit the gym route and try to knock down a personal best.  We had a lot of great times this week.

I talked to you all a bit about the psychology of running a mile on our gym course… go out at a good pace and work hard the first half, focus on your cadence and keep the cadence up on the gradual hill to the turnaround.  At the turnaround is where the mile on this course really starts.  Your legs will be fatigued from the long gradual uphill, but there is a long downhill to follow.  Work the downhill with a good lean and pull those feet underneath you fast – your legs will recover.  The mile is won and lost on this part of the run.  If you’re going for a PB then working this section will help you finish strong.  If you racing someone else, then working this section will make them think that they can’t keep up with you.  At the turn off the sidewalk you’re nearly there!  Focus on the next 100 m to the corner of 4th ave.  Now refocus on the next 100 m to the corner of 3rd.  It’s all gravy from there – a downhill and a couple of turns and your home with a PB.  If someone is in front of you turn on the after burners and take ‘em down!

Love, Afghan

Hey Ya’ll!  Thanks for coming out for week two – had a great time working with you all today.

For our missing comrades Janel and Mr. Dunn – here is what we did today:

Dynamic Warmup

Drills:

Review Week 1 – Hamstring resistance pull, pull in place drill, pogo stick hop and lean, pull/lean and stride out

Then we added a few new drills – Back to wall pull drill, partner lean drill, carioca drill focusing on lean to destroy balance and change direction.

Make sure you’re hitting the stretch and smash routine after each session!

1 min each side of each drill – couch stretch, ball-in-foot, modified pigeon, hamstring, calf smash, calf wall stretch

Some of you were interested in how we’ve structured the program for this year.  We’ve decided to build it up a bit differently and all your coaches are very excited about the changes we’ve made.

Program Structure

(1) Test performance (benchmark test)

(2) Introduce technique – big skills and drills focus at the start, keeping intensity low

(3) Ramp up – Build up for first 5 weeks will largely focus on 50 and 100 m intervals.  Lots of time to discuss / play with the skill side of running while letting your body get used to the repetitive motion.  We will reduce rest intervals specified week to week.

(4) Reinforce technique and layer on cadence training – In week 3 we will introduce the concept of cadence training, while reinforcing technique with new drills.

(5) Reinforce cadence training and add intensity – by Week 5 we will start to add harder intervals, and cadence training will be an expected part of your drills each session / homework

(6) Reinforce cadence/intensity and add volume – Between Week 6 and 9 we will increase intensity and volume, again drills and cadence will be an expected part of your drills each session / homework

(7) Re-evaluate performance (re-test) – Smash a 2 mile!

Keep on destructing balance!

Much Love, Dan

Two aspiring Nutts Cup teams are hosting fundraisers that might benefit you, so listen up!

FIRST, Afghan, Caroline and Lumber’s team are hosting a YOGA class this coming Sunday at 11am following the group class. More specifically, the lovely Caroline “Twinkle Toes” will be teaching the yoga class to any and all interested CFV members.

The class will be offered by donation, and will run around 75 minutes starting at 11:15.  All donations will go directly to the Youth Warrior Foundation.  You’ll need to bring your own mat, a towel, or rough it with something makeshift from around the school, or if worse comes to worse – get up close and personal with the sweat-soaked floor!

Caroline is a certified yoga instructor and did her teacher training at Laughing Lotus in New York City where she studied Vinyasa Flow.  She teaches a style called Lotus Flow, which is scalable for beginners and challenging for experienced yogis.

The creators of Lotus Flow say this about their unique style of sequencing:

Yoga’s timeless teachings collide with innovative sequencing, mindful alignment, body mudras, breathing practices, and meditation. We honor yoga’s rich lineage and celebrate it’s evolution and yours, one pose, one breath, and one drop of sweat at a time.

Or a bucket of sweat for most of us… It doesn’t matter if you’re experienced and understand all that, a hack (like the Afghan), or just want to come get your stretch and balance on – fun will be had by all!

SECOND,Tom Beers is auctioning off 8 personal training sessions (for you, or for you to give as a gift to a friend). $600 value. There’s a sign about this fundraiser, as well a pot to place your bid at the entrance to the school where the sign-in computer is. You have until next Thursday (June 27th) to place your bid!

THURSDAY

Tech: 5 x 3 Shoulder Press

Workout:

Sticking with our theme to make sure everyone in class knows the difference between the dozens of movements we do, this workout is a chance to work on your technique without loading up and wearing and tearing your body. Newbies, use just a dowell – there are a lot of reps! Veterans, use a 35 or 45 lb. bar.

Veterans, you can still get something out of this workout, as well. It’s been a big week, so use this as a deloading workout. Go 80% and flush those legs out and treat it as a CATEGORY 5 or 6 cooldown kind of workout.

What do I mean by CATEGORY 5 or 6? In rowing, we refer to intensity levels in terms of CATEGORIES. CAT 1 is very intense – race pace kind of intensity – where as CAT 6 is an intensity level you can hold for more than an hour. CAT 6 workouts are good for building up your aerobic base and ability to handle more volume without killing your body. READ MORE ABOUT THESE ROWING INTENSITY LEVELS HERE.

Workout – AN OLD CLASSIC: The broomstick mile

25 back squats
25 front squats
25 overhead squats
400m Run
25 shoulder press
25 push press
25 push jerk
400m Run
50 hang squat cleans
400m Run
50 hang squat snatch
400m Run

- Eunice and Kermit

Alright ya’ll, we’re entering the final week of Project Endurance 2.0.  It’s been a pleasure for Andy, Shep, and I to work with you over the last 10 weeks.  We’re stoked to see some new PB’s coming up Wednesday.  Get some!

So after next Wednesday we are releasing you into the wild to run on your own.  I’ve seen some great improvements and I hope you all keep after it!  Just because it’s over, doesn’t mean you can’t still get in touch with people in the group or outside of it and setup some running workouts.  Just recycle what we’ve given you so far and get after it!

While you’re off in the wild, don’t forget to take care of yourself.  Warmup, drill, workout, cool down and mobilize and stretch.  A video below on a good template for a running warmup from Brian Mackenzie, the guy behind Crossfit Endurance, who we source a lot of our technique instruction and workouts from.

We’ll be doing another running seminar again in the spring.  I hope you all join us again and keep forging forward.  And we hope you’ll tell your friends and get them in here with us.  In the meantime if you have any races you’re going to hit or goals you want to achieve feel free to seek us out and talk about it.  If you want to do some private work as well, we’re always available to book a 1 on 1.

We’d also love some feedback from you all.  Feedback helps make us better!  You can post it publicly or email us, whatever you are comfortable with.  We’d love to know what you liked about the seminar?  What you didn’t like?  What you want to see more of?  Was there anything you expected of us that was missing?  How was Wednesday night for you and is there a better time and day to consider for the spring?  Or share anything else you want to tell us or get off your chest!  WE dig it.

Run swiftly and quietly!  Pull. Pull. Pull.

Afghan out.

When we kicked off Project Endurance we talked a bit about the importance of having a goal, or a goal race to focus on.  We are starting on Week 7 of our 10 week journey and I have a couple upcoming races for you to consider.  Both are cross country races (that’s XC for those of us in the know!).  Cross country races usually have a really laid back vibe.  The courses have variable ground conditions, think trail run lite.  You may see some trail, grass, sand, standing water, hills, and paved sections.

There are two options for you, both XC races are located at Jericho beach park.

The first is the community race that they run as part of the Canadian National XC championships.  Jenn Schutz from UBC Track has been feeding us some programming ideas and also hooked us up with details on this race.  You can run, and then stick around and check out the XC championship race.  The community race is a 5k.  That’s coming up on Nov. 24th.

http://www.raceonline.ca/events/details/?id=290

Here is a little map of the course they are using for the championship race, it’s probably similar for the community race.

http://www.xcountry.athletics.ca/course-map.php

The second is the XC race that I talked about in an earlier post.  It is the Gunner Shaw Memorial XC Race.  It’s a two loop, 10 km race.  I’ve done it before and loved it.  Check it out!  Both you should be able to sign up for day of, or you can register online.

http://www.lgrr.com/gshaw/

Enjoy this week!  Post up thoughts and comments from the workouts!

Cheers, Afghan

We had a whole other post worked out for this week, but what’s been going on the world of cycling the last couple weeks is so gnarly that I just had to share about it.  That and the video I wanted to link was down.  We’ll get back at that next week.

Lance Armstong, 7 time Tour de France champion, and alleged performance enhancing drug user has just received a lifetime ban from all cycling and triathlon events by the US, and subsequently stripped of his 7 Tour de France titles and likely a Bronze Medal at the Olympics when all is said and done.  He lost all his sponsors (names like Nike, Oakley, etc.), and has been forced to step down from Livestrong, which has raised about a half a billion dollars for cancer research.  That’s a rough week…

I’m linking you all to the 200+ page report from the US Anti Doping Agency, which essentially amounts to inarguable here say from about 15 teammates that he cheated with over the years.  Skim it.  It reads like one of the best day time soap operas I could ever think of.  All the accusations and right/wrong arguing aside, I’m actually IMPRESSED at how they cheated the system.  The most scientific and systematic cheat of all time.  He never tested positive.  None of the people on his team did, while they were with his team, and he competed while allegedly doping for over 10 years.  They had that shit down to a science.  Ridiculous.  Read it here, and start with the affidavits in the appendices.  I recommend George Hincapie, who’s a good friend of Lance and a long time TDF rider.

http://cyclinginvestigation.usada.org/

The moral of the story might be, if you’re planning on doping for performance enhancement, save it for the bedroom!

Afghan out.

Today we’re going to keep on our deadlift focus and tie in some chest pushing strength work so we can all continue on the road to achieve our aspirations to have a chest like Emilio Chestaves… but first check out the two videos below from Kstar.  These are great, especially for those of us with hamstring flexibility issues – I, for one, am guilty as charged.  Remember that muscle contraction is always the weakest at the end range of motion.  What that means for you is that if you can’t reach the bar or can barely reach the bar with your hamstrings loaded – you are going to have to compensate elsewhere to get the bar off the ground.

The first video is about some hip mobility work that I’d like to see pulled into the warmup today:

The second video is all about sequencing your setup for the deadlift, and minimum flexibility requirements to setup optimally.  It was eye opening for me!  Check it out.

Warmup: Hip mobility a la Kstar (video 1)

Strength: Wendler Deadlift 3, 3, 3+  and weighted ring pushups 3, 3, 3

Like the front squats earlier this week, the final deadlift set is an AMRAP set.  I cannot stress enough that these must be CLEAN, AESTHETICALLY PLEASING reps.  Keep your back safe.

Have everything cleaned up with 15 minutes left in class and setup some good heats for a quick burner workout!

Workout: For time (500 m row, followed immediately by a 400 m run).

Hit. This. Hard.  It’s the leaderboard.

Much Love, Afghan

All I can say is it’s about time for a little Isabel off.. check out the video below of two big guys going head to head and knocking this thing dead in around 1 minute.  Sick.

Warmup: Shoulder mobility

Tech: Power Snatch
Work on some medium heavy snatches. No max’ing it out today. The focus should be on catching at different depths above parallel, not just the high muscle snatch position. This will help for the workout if you can link multiples together and catch lower as you get tired.

Workout: Isabel
30 Snatches for time (135 / 95 lbs.)
The standard is ground to overhead – muscle snatch, power snatch, split snatch and squat snatch are all good to go.

Afghan

I came across this article written by Josh Bridges of CF Invictus back in April around the time leading up to regionals.

http://www.crossfitinvictus.com/blog/having-bad-days-in-the-gym-break-the-cycle/

I had had a string of bad weeks and months in the gym leading up to the training ramp up for regionals and during that time had found it really hard to stay motivated.  What got me reinvigorated was just shutting up and working hard, and that matches up well with what Josh put forward in his article.  That’s what I do best, and it’s what got me going again.  For good measure, when I PR’d my snatch in the ladder at regionals I gave the world a good scream.  It felt awesome.  Enjoy the read!

Warmup: Coach’s choice

Strength: Wendler Front Squat 3, 3, 3+

(Looking for 3 heavy working sets of 3 reps.  Weights can vary.  The last set is an AMRAP set so if you have a 4th/5th rep in there give it to us)

Workout: AMRAP in 15 min. of

15 burpee pull-ups

25 wall balls

Happy Monday! – Dan