Crossfitting by Bike

I haven’t been around CrossFit Portland as much as in the past but don’t think I’ve been off doing preacher curls and leg presses at the local Gold’s! In addition to making the occasional appearance at CFPDX I’ve been spending a decent amount of time in the saddle getting in some miles for fun, and for the upcoming cyclocross season.

The vast majority of cycling training resources around are fairly conservative and old school, prescribing many miles of boring (and largely ineffective for my purposes) base training. Seeing near constant improvements in General Physical Preparedness from two years of crossfitting and after bouncing some ideas off of Scott, I knew that I’d deviate from standard periodization training on the bike. Spending months riding and not being allowed to get my heart rate above some magic number would likely burn me out and make me able to ride far, but slowly. ‘Cross races are 45 minutes of pure hell maximal effort bike riding, jumping over barriers and running up muddy hills. Explosive power is an advantage.

I just got done with a CrossFit-esque workout that I adapted from The Cyclist’s Training Bible. The protocol, after a warmup:

On a 6-8% uphill grade
-60″ of 90% effort in a medium-high gear
-30″ of 100% effort in a high (hard) hear
-4′ rest

My intention was to do 8 intervals. I only did 5. Why? Well, you know how in the middle of some CrossFit workouts you feel hypoxic and your whole body feels like it could fall apart? Take that same winded feeling but concentrate that full body burn directly into your quads. Yow! There’s no doubt that CrossFit workouts are super intense, but having that intensity largely in one muscle group is super intense in a different way. I *could* have done three more sets, yes, but my performance was quickly degrading (and I’m guessing becoming less effective since I wasn’t able to express power in the same way) and I knew I’d be going on a nice long cruise tomorrow.

For some balance, I finished my workout with 5 sets of 5 pushups and pullups. To be honest, these didn’t go too quickly. After spiking my heart rate so severely multiple times on the bike, it shot up again right away during my first set of pullups! The entire thing took me a total of one hour, door-to-door.

I plan on coming up with some more CrossFit workouts for the bike as well as using the great CrossFit Endurance site for some inspiration. After racing last season with plenty of crossfitting but minimal bike training I’m interested to see how I feel with more sport specific training.

Now for some fuel!

July 5, 2008 | Filed Under Exercises, Workouts | 1 Comment 

“Running Bear”

Thrusters by Mr Smack
Warmup:

Running form drills

Workout:

How many rounds in 20 minutes, alternating with a partner:
200m sprint
5 Deadlifts
5 Hang Power Cleans
5 Thrusters
rest while partner does the same

Thanks to everyone for helping carry the new pullup bar assembly inside. Have a great Independence Day weekend, and we’ll see you next week!

July 4, 2008 | Filed Under Workouts | Leave a Comment 

The Sun Comes Out…

Sprint/Burpees
Group pic 5/15/08
Taking advantage of the sun finally showing up, we did some more short speed and explosive work outside.
8 rounds, with partner:
7 squats
60 yd sprint
5 burpees
60 yd sprint
rest while partner does the same.

3-5 minutes rest, then three sets dead hang pullups, followed by “The Wheel” drill with a medicine ball.

May 15, 2008 | Filed Under Workouts | Leave a Comment 

The Carrying Combo


Here is a nasty carrying combo. 6 hang power snatches, carry 100′. 6 cleans, carry 100′. 6 deadlifts, 100′ farmer’s walk. How many rounds in 10 minutes? Check out a random passerby asking me a question about the safety of the squat…. not much of an answer, as I was trying to coach and film. Hopefully the myth that squats damage your knees will die someday!

I can’t take credit for this one. Check out www.physicalsubculture.com. Here is a link to the original workout. I need to get down to Sacramento to visit these guys.

May 2, 2008 | Filed Under Workouts | 4 Comments 

Pulling Pistols

Ladies and Gentlemen, to your pistols! Pistols are single leg squats and a humbling test of strength and flexibility for many. Single leg squats improve strength, coordination, and elicit an incredible total body contraction. We mixed in pistols, pull ups, and a prehabbing movement - extended inch worm - into the workout today.

In Fundamentals today, we worked on developing the kip swing for pull ups. New members and first timers Jay, Lauren, and Winslow took on the workout and were inpsiring to watch!

April 9, 2008 | Filed Under News, Workouts | Leave a Comment 

3rd Year Anniversary Workout!

Yesterday we celebrated the third anniversary of CrossFit Portland with a difficult variation of “Fran.”

3 minutes of work, 3 minutes of rest. 3 sets for rounds of:
10 heavy thrusters
10 pull-ups

Rochelle instructed everyone to work 3 times as hard since we got a 3 minute rest. I did my best and possibly had an out of body experience during my last set of pull-ups. B-R-U-T-A-L!

Here are some pics from the evening:

March 25, 2008 | Filed Under News, Workouts | 6 Comments 

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