Grin and Bear it!

There are three things most hated by athletes; plateaus, slow starts after rest periods and worse of all injuries. Injuries can exist for short or lengthy periods but regardless they are mentally damaging. The idea of having to halt training and recover for a week, month or worse several months to a year, chips away at an athletic psyche like water to stone.

While in recovery the best thing to do is rest and take care of the injury as required. If there is the possibility to start cross-training without further damage or pain then this can be a great boost to the mind and enable some joy to the athlete that they are able to continue some sort of activity. Plus this alternative training can be beneficial for the injury, as long as there is no real hard pushing on the body.

What it takes to get through these ruts is a great deal of mental strength, will and perseverance. You have to tailor your diet as you will not require the same amount of calories each day. You will have to workout within your capabilities to avoid further damage to the injured area or worse injuring something else as a result of compensating for the original injury. Proper weight training should be implemented to maintain and increase mobility and strength to the muscles and stabilizers around the injured area.

I am not suffering from any injuries at the moment other then aches, pains, and muscle tightness. I have been doing some short runs a few hikes and regular training at the gym. This is were my lack of motivation lies at the moment, the gym. Reason being I have been mainlining the same training program for quite some time now and didn’t want to change it up much while I was ruining as I was just too tired from the increased mileage to get my head around doing something different at the gym.

Starting today I have implemented an entirely new program as I am attempting to incorporate CrossFit and Gym Jones style work outs daily as opposed to once a week which is what I had done when I did my version of the 300 work out. The reason I maintained classic movements while only doing the CrossFit style once a week is the simple reason that it is difficult to do these complex moments in a gym filled with people and some equipment is missing i.e. lifting chains, ropes, gymnastic rings…

Recently I have been resting after hitting my goal time for my 10K. This week is the beginning of a new running program for the two up coming races. I will be logging my daily workout diary as much as I can on here as my goal is to see how well the crossfit workout will change me in my other sports like hiking, climbing, and biking. As well as introducing a new training style for firefighting exams and obviously overall health.

My weeks will be filled with 4 run days; 2 short increasing over time, 1 sprint or hill depending on week, and finally one long run a week. There will be 4 to 5 days of gym training. Predominantly crossfit style training with a small amount of regular weights. Cross training days will consist of hikes, mountain biking and climbing. 1 complete rest day a week for recovery both mentally and physically.

Today began with back and trap training with crossfit incorporated.
*SS (super set) DS (drop set)

Pull-ups (reps)15-12-12-8 SS w/ 24" box jumps reps 15-12-12-12
Seated row SS w/ rope crunches (row)12-10-8ds10 crunches 16-14-14
Dumbbell flys SS w/ DB shrugs (fly) 10-8-8ds10, (shrugs)
3 rounds x 10 cleans into press , 10 medicine ball squat (with throw and catch) and 10 burpees.

Finished with a 500m row sprint, cleared the clock before I recorded time, stupid.

Felt good to get back into this style of training but I can see the that first couple weeks will be grueling to get back to it. Cardiovascular system was fine with all the running it was more of the lactic acid that was burning through my legs feeling more like battery acid. Oh well no time for that as it will be off for a run soon.