The End of an Era

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Sigrid

Since my childhood I’ve been in involved in competitive sport. I have achieved more than I ever thought was possible in many ways. The 2011 cycling season has been eventful and has given me time to reflect on my life and athletic career in a way that I have been too “busy” to do in a long time. The last time I took a good hard look at my life I was living in Switzerland and racing professionally in the World Inline Cup as a Speed Skater. I decided at that time that the way I’m going on in that sport, was unsustainable for me and that I must choose something that is a) more sustainable and b) I could have another shot at World Title at. At that time I chose to pursue cycling since I had ridden a road bike for twenty years already.

My cycling career has had a lot of ups and downs. It was not what I expected at all when I left my World Cup skating team behind. For those that know me, you will understand what an overachiever I am and how hard I am on myself. After three years in the sport of cycling, I was not on the National Team and I had not attended a World Championship. This is the first sport that’s ever happened to me in, and I was disappointed in myself. Of course, it has been the most injury plagued three years of my life, involving not only a serious bout with anemia, but a back injury causing nerve compression of epic proportion leaving me unable to race for most of the three years.

I have had the chance to live the life of a professional athlete not just once, but in two different sports.
I have competed in a total of 23 World Championship Races, 9 European Championship Races/Events, 60 National Championship Races/Events, 80 Provincial/State Championships, 14 World Cup Events.
I have been National Champion in 3 different sports.
I have a 50 gallon Rubbermaid container in the basement full of medals and trophies.

This does not define me.

I let this define for a very long time. I let sport run my life and it took over my life. There is more to life than sport and there’s more to being successful than a bunch of medals.

It took me a long time to arrive at this conclusion but finally I know that

Success is not a gold medal, success is the journey that turns me into the best I can be.

Earlier this year I was forced to leave competitive road cycling due to health reasons, and after much thought and debate, I have decided not to continue for the time being. I learned a tremendous amount about the reasons behind why I ride, and at the end of the day, none of them are the right reasons. Until I can find the right reasons, I won’t be happy in road cycling so I’m going to step away.

Road cycling was my crutch. It’s the thing I had to make work because I left Speed Skating for it. It’s the thing I was supposed to finally get a senior world title in. Instead, I figured out that for as much as I’ve accomplished, no medal I’ve won has ever made me happy. Throughout my entire athletic career, across all the sports I’ve done, I’ve only ever been happy once and it was because I had a coach who truly believed in my ability at a very young age. Success was success and we could celebrate it. The rest of the time, and for all of my athletic endeavors as a senior athlete, I was on my own, trying to prove everyone wrong who said I couldn’t do it. Success felt like revenge and it didn’t leave me with a good taste. In the final weeks of my competitive road cycling life, I met another coach who really truly believed in me. I realised then that

what I was striving for was true success, and not revenge.

Only I could define that for myself, and as it turns out, it’s not a piece of gold plated hardware hanging from my neck.

With that, I can close that chapter of my life and call it a success. It wasn’t the success I had imagined when I started, but it’s worth more to me than any medal I could have won.

What would a Caveman do? How to save the Planet AND yourself.

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Sigrid

All this talk about Climate Change lately is really getting to me. It’s something I’m really passionate about and I wish nothing more than for everyone in the world to get on board and start taking care of the planet. Sadly, it’s not that simple. Personally, I contribute as much as I can, and every time the Climate debate arises, I try to tighten the belt a little more and use a little less electricity, drive even less than I already do and stop contributing to consumerism. But I don’t know how to change the minds of those that I know that aren’t bothered by this.

The way I grew up, I was taught to care for my environment. Being German, I’m not new to Solar Power, Windmills and crazy recycling rules. This just makes good sense to me. Even as a Nova Scotia resident things weren’t so bad, although still behind Germany. But Ontario is really something else. Nova Scotia was the first province to roll out recycling and they do it better than anyone. In Nova Scotia, you have to separate your papers from plastics from aluminiums and not just throw them all in the same blue bin like in Ontario.

Being that the Paleo (aka Caveman) diet runs all through Crossfit in a near cult-like fashion, I started thinking. First off all, anyone who’s allergic to wheat or gluten and dairy is likely already almost a Paleo expert. Wheat allergies, just like gluten, have become more and more common with the evolution of different types of wheat strains. Remember when you used to be able to just eat whatever you wanted? Why are allergies so common now?

There are lots of things in play here, and I’m not an allergy expert. I’ve read a lot about it, and while I understand some of this evolution, the molecular physiology at work and how the environmental contribution, I’m not going to talk about it. For a much better overview check out Robb Wolf. What I do know is that there’s a bunch of “problems” coming together like a perfect storm. You have increasing allergies, climate change, obesity, toxins just to name a few.

What would a Caveman do?

A Caveman would take advantage of the daytime because he has limited sources of light at night. So open your window blinds and turn the light off in the day!
A Caveman would walk to work or the grocery store wherever possible. Get exercise in daily by walking to the places within a 5-10min driving distance. You’re helping your body and reducing CO2 emissions.
A Caveman would only eat foods that are naturally occurring. That is, stuff that you could grow in your back yard if you had the time and space. So stop eating processed foods that contain too many chemicals. If you can’t recognise or pronounce an ingredient, steer clear. This is a way we can get back to natural foods and natural products. If everyone did that, we’d reduce the amounts of chemicals in production and being eventually “eliminated” into the waste water only to have to be treated with other chemicals. You’ll be doing your body and your environment a favour by limiting or eliminating processed food. Send a message to the mass producers of this stuff: we don’t want it.
A Caveman would value his precious resources. Please stop wasting. Don’t waste water or electricity. Limit purchasing over-packaged products and send a message to the company to reduce.
A Caveman would only take what he needs. Enough said. Next time you think about purchasing something extravagant like the next Smartphone when your current one is barely 6 months old, stop and think. Do you really need it?

I think we can all do a little better to save our planet. It’s hard sometimes when you hear that your own countries government is not doing much in favour of a political agenda that includes oil sands. Let’s not wait for the Federal Government, take action now! Just make it a part of your daily lifestyle, like proper nutrition and exercise, and soon it’ll become second nature. Thank you for doing your part.

Time flies

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Sigrid

Wow it’s been almost a month since I updated last. I guess I’ve been caught up in the daily grind. My schedule right consists mainly of writing, RMT work and studying. I’m really enjoying the fall though. Most of my training is happening outside and on my own. Since my set back with my back, I’ve taken drastic measures and changed my Crossfit routine. I’m still doing lots of training, but only about one session per week is happening inside the gym. The rest consists of outdoor training wherein, for example, I jog to the park, do a body weight WOD on the jungly gym and then do sprint intervals back home. On the weekends Rob and I have been going hiking and climbing.

I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I’m enjoying sport as a way of life and not as a way of training for a means to an end. I enjoy being fit and strong, but even recently it seems to come above all else. My slight “back set back” showed me that I shouldn’t really live this way. I can’t change my previous injuries and I need to keep strong to be pain free and healthy, but I shouldn’t risk injuries by lifting too heavy. I’m proud that I managed to increase my Deadlift so much, but I also think it was really stupid to aim for that.

I get carried away with goals, reaching higher and improving myself. The gym is a great place for that. I loved it and people encouraged me to push myself, and I let them. I know this is a big weakness for me. I am trying to explore different sports as something I love, and not something I must be good at all the time. There are LOTS of sports I’m not good at, but I can enjoy them just for the sake of being active (and usually outside). I need a mental break from regimented training like going to the gym every single day, even if it’s the unknown like Crossfit. I need it because for most of my life I’ve been hiding behind sport, because it’s familiar and comfortable. Crossfit came at the best time for me because I was departing from cycling, but I know that be truly happy in my life, I need to survive without hiding behind sport. So that’s what I’m trying to accomplish.

I’m at a place in my life where I want to find a nice balance, the way my parents had when I was a child. For me it’s just always been easier to go full tilt than to find true balance between sport and life. In spending my “sports time” alone in nature, I’m getting a little closer to that balance….

If you don’t push yourself, you won’t know where your limits are

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Sigrid

Last week at the gym the workout ‘Eva’ was on the menu. I’d been looking forward to recording a time in that workout because it doesn’t include any heavy lifting I can’t do. The workout if 5 rounds of:

800m Run
30 Kettlebell Swins at 24kg
30 Pull ups

It’s also one of the longer workouts, which I truly enjoy. My goal for the workout was to break 40 minutes. The trainer running the session in which I attempted to meet this goal was Tracey. I love training with Tracey. She thought I was nuts of course, and showed me some of the times that had been done in this WOD, none of which were sub 40. I explained to her how I came up with it, and why I set goals like this.

Over my many successful and unsuccessful record attempts, most recently those on Mount Lemmon, I have learned a lot. I learned how to pace myself, how to push myself, how to go harder when I’m tired and want to quit, how to push myself to tunnel vision and most importantly, that no matter how long the climb is, I’ll be done at the top and I can get off the bike! Crossfit is like that. Sometimes you really want to stop, quit or slow down. For me, I know I beat myself up over situations like that. I beat myself up mentally way more than any physical pain I could have inflicted on myself by pushing hard through the workout in the first place.

Prior to the Mount Lemmon experience I often thought I knew where my limit was. Throughout my entire skating career I thought I knew. The first time I went to a cycling training camp in 2009 in South Carolina I learned that I had been wrong. I was working on the Caesar’s Head climb and had just started training with a power meter. I didn’t know much, but the numbers of so-and-so many Watts per kilo that were always being stated in a race like Tour de France, were running around my head. The other thing is, after 3 runs at the climb I realised my heart rate was much lower than my lab tested anaerobic threshold heart rate, even though I was completely exhausted. I decided the next run up to hammer until my heart rate was at threshold and worked like hell to keep it there.

Just after half way up the 10km climb I noticed I could barely see. As I was getting closer to the top, I knew I should expect the “1000 feet to Visitor Centre” sign, and kept hallucinating the sign. Everything was black around me and the real sign didn’t come up for a while. That day I rode a time that rivalled some of the fastest women ever on that climb.

That same strategy helped me in many time trials and all those Mount Lemmon runs. One of the best Canadian Time Trialists in history once told me “If you can still see me. you’re not going fast enough” when I was joking about hopping in his draft during a race. That reminded me of the Caesar’s head experience and how hard I pushed that day. From that reminder onwards, I rode until tunnel vision. I don’t remember a lot of time trials I’ve raced, or break aways, because of it, but it was well worth it, every time.

Having had that experience, I knew my goal of sub 40 in ‘Eva’ wasn’t too ambitious. I had to run 4 min in the 800s, and take 2 min each on the KB swings and the pull ups. Knowing my time in those when I’m fresh I thought I was very generous with those allotments. Once I explained it all to Tracey, she was supportive of 8 minute rounds. I even told her about how I used to set mile times for my record attempts on Lemmon, and if I was faster, I thought of it as “banking time”.

When I finished my first round, Tracey yelled “Two minutes in the bank!” and I was thrilled and even more motivated once I knew I had someone counting and keeping me on pace. I was so happy she was helping me. It was hard, really hard, but I finished in 38:50, coming in well under my goal! I’m happy I met the goal, but like most things in my long athletic career, it doesn’t leave me with a sense of satisfaction. In this case, I don’t feel like I worked really hard for it specifically, although it could be argued that the years in other sports, both mentally and physically, are directly responsible.

The most important lesson in all of this is that I can only work hard for myself. I want to reach higher and surpass my limits because it’s satisfying to me. I don’t care about the result, it’s really about the journey. A lifetime in sport have taught me lessons that are valuable in every aspect of my life. Strength, determination and perseverance are just some of them.

Laziness hurts

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Sigrid

The day after the MTB race I went to the gym to attempt to run a mile PB. I was aiming for 5:30, but was a lot more tired than I thought. I put in a good first half, being well on track but with 400m to go I lost it all and stumbled the rest of the way for a 6:14. I went to the WOD on Monday for “Running Fran” where slightly redeemed myself from the previous “Frannie” fiasco. This time, I made it through 21 thrusters in good time, hammered out 21 pull ups all in one piece, but stumbled on the run. I managed to do 10:52 but my legs were still off and my feet just don’t seem to want to run. Thinking I was still tired from the race I took Tuesday off and went for a 2h easy jog instead. Wednesday I was off completely.

After those two days I felt the worst I have in a long time. My joints were sore, my back hurt and I felt like I could barely move. On Thursday I went to the gym for some deadlifts and started feeling good again. My strength training is going quite well actually and it’s motivating to see progress. The thing is, I know of course that I feel better when I actually train, and not training just leaves me in a shitty state of mind. I feel tired and sore for no good reason. When I actually do train though, I’m motivated to train harder and it never seem to matter how much anything actually hurts. This week was a perfect example of that.

With that in mind, Friday I put in a hard day, working on strength again and testing my time in GI Jane (100 Burpee Pull Ups). I finished in 13:54. What I didn’t expect was the WOD testing my mental toughness as much as it did. I pushed myself hard and I was perhaps a little too ambitious with the weight I chose but I didn’t want to risk finishing and feeling like I could have done more. The WOD was 5 Rounds of

20 Bulgarian Split Squats
20 Single leg deadlifts
20 Box Jumps
20 Push Press
200m Run

It didn’t seem like a big deal, but in the second round during the push press, I was ready to quit. I was ready to quit like I’ve never been ready to quit anything before. It hurt, it sucked, I almost threw up and I couldn’t push those damn dumbbells over my head anymore. I briefly thought about actually stopping because in reality, I had already trained more then 2h that day, but I saw my good friend Bliss stretching on the other side of the gym because she was early for the next round of WODs. I yelled in between reps “Bliss! Please yell at me so I don’t quit!” She looked confused at first, but ended up yelling at me, literally, and counting reps, and discounting shitty reps, for the next 3 rounds. I knew all I had to do was 2 more rounds and then 1 more. It got easier every round and Bliss made it manageable by breaking up the sets as she counted. I almost puked on the second last run, I was pushing so hard. The last round was the hardest, and I pushed through continuously as best as I could. I came in from the run, called time, and went back out to the grass because I didn’t want to throw up in the gym.

It didn’t seem like much, but I couldn’t have done this without Bliss. I hate quitting, but I almost fell over a couple of times on the single leg deadlifts and literally couldn’t stand up anymore. I thought about why the hell I’m even doing this and I couldn’t find a good reason. All I knew was that if I truly quit, I would regret it, even though it’s just one day and one workout. Those are the things that I remember. When I look back at all the training days I’ve had in my various sports, there were many where I would have liked to quit, but I didn’t because I kept telling myself “I’ll just try one more rep and see how I feel”, until the workout was done. There were days where maybe I would have been better off to walk away, but that’s not me. I realised that if I spent anymore time thinking about how I don’t really need to be doing this workout, I might just give in, so with a friend yelling and motivating me, I did it.

She was great, and I’m not sure she really realised how great. There were many times as a speed skater or a cyclist where I could have used a friend in my corner to motivate me. Someone to give me positive reinforcement instead of negative. For those 24:52 I felt like I could survive anything, whereas many times in previous sports I felt like there was no point because I was always fighting against everyone. Crossfit is the first sport experience as an adult where the reinforcement is positive and it turns out I can ask a lot more of myself in that situation. I want to push hard and show others that it’s possible. I want to push harder because everyone else is too. Everyone is giving their best and together we are getting stronger and faster. If you’re having a hard day, like I was on Friday, you can count on a friend like Bliss to motivate you through the workout. And that’s why we keep going back. Together. It’s a rare situation in sport, and while I’m sad that it’s only now that I’m no longer pursuing elite sport that I found it, I’m glad I found it in the end.

Epic 8 Hour Mountain Bike Race (and a flashback to speed skating)

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Sigrid

I survived my first Mountain Bike race! I started riding MTB in June with my old speed skating buddy Andrew T. He showed me the ropes and we agrees to do an Epic 8 at the end of the season. Andrew lent me his mountain bike and I got as much practice in as possible because let’s face it, I really needed it.

I first tried mountain biking in 2008. I was convinced by my race team at the time that I should do an Epic 8 because I was a very strong road rider. They made sure I had a bike to ride and we met up at the shop and rode to a place to go off road. Once we got there I ended up walking the bike, freaking out about all the things I could hit and fall off of or into. My MTB career ended 10min after it began with me being way too scared to ride.

After severely overtraining myself by June of my first cycling season and being told to stop, I took almost the whole season off and was recovered just in time for all the races to be over. I got put on a Cyclocross bike and told to go race it. My team manager at the time, Dennis Mizerski, took me out to High Park one night and showed me how to ride off road. It was definitely a lot better than the MTB experience because the bike was essentially a road bike with different pedals. The MTB was too different for me, and I had never been on a bike other than a road bike in my entire life. Cross was a nice transition and to my surprise, I had a great race season that fall finishing with a solid race at the Pro Am Championships.
Fast forward to 2011. After being yanked out of road cycling and too miserable to try and go back, I was pissed. I kept thinking about that MTB attempt and how I was scared and I got the idea to call my friend Andrew. I needed something to take my mind off road and ultimately I didn’t want to live with the fact that I let something scare so much as to give up trying again. I figured that it’s time to overcome my fear of hitting trees and falling off of rocks and learn a new skill. And also, I have never understood why grown men prefer riding in the woods over the road, so if I was going to be so negative I should at least have a good reason.

The first ride lasted 3h and although I had to dismount on a few obstacles, I rode the bike. And I loved it. We met up once a week at Kelso and I got more and more comfortable. I had planned to race the Kelso O-cup and Andrew did his best to show me the course based on the last two years. I didn’t end up racing because my doctor told me I was risking my life thanks to a funny result of a cardiology test. (Turns out it wasn’t that serious after all, but it could have been and it was better to be safe than sorry). I did make a lot of progress though and by the end of August I was riding over stuff that made me cringe just weeks earlier.

So on Saturday, finally I made my MTB racing debut. We had a 4 person team and thankfully it wasn’t raining. It had rained though, and the course was wet. I had never ridden in wet conditions and my first lap out was kind of brutal. There were a lot of riders on the course, which I also had never dealt with and I was getting really rushed. I was scared in the wet conditions and my lap took a long time. All in all, I couldn’t ride like that in ANY condition a few months ago so I probably shouldn’t be so hard on myself. But hey, that’s me. Oh yeah and to top it off, Andrew pointed out after the lap that my front shock wasn’t working and my seat slid all the way to the bottom. No wonder I didn’t feel comfortable and rode off the saddle for 10km!

I really didn’t want to go out again after that. But as it tends to happen, when my turn came, I was back out there. This time it was FANTASTIC! I rode really well and I was happy. I managed to shave over 5 min off my first lap time and stay with some good riders out on the course. Didn’t get off the bike except on a detour due to a crash.

The race was really great in the end and I’m extremely happy I did it. It left me with some mixed emotions over my racing career that I’m not sure how to deal with just yet. I’m definitely not ready to pursue MTB racing, before you start asking me. I’m not sure I am interested in it from a racing perspective because I really just like going out there and struggling through obstacles. It gives me a sense of progress in a way that few things do. But I did enjoy that rush of adrenaline and pushing myself to “tunnel vision” even when my legs were telling me to get off the bike. Racing and training require a dedication that I love and have never found another outlet for. Because really, no matter how hard I work at my day job, I don’t really feel hard core about it and I never puke.

It leaves me to wonder where I’ll go next and if I’ll ever compete again. It’s disheartening to know that I never got my shot and there’s nothing I could have done to change it. Looking back, I understand why I made all the choices that I made and at the time, there were all the right ones. Knowing that, without the benefit of hindsight, I don’t know that I could have done anything differently. For that reason, I don’t think I could have changed the eventual outcome of my cycling career. It’s also not the first time I’ve been here. I started thinking, what could I have done differently? Is there anything, any cross roads that I came up against where I could have chosen another path. In the last 15 years there is one that I clearly remember.

In 2002 I made the decision to become a speed skater, as though I was some sort of unstoppable moron. Yes, I started training 30h a week for a sport I had never done and didn’t even really know anything about. My track and field running life was clearly over and as I was not ready to give up on my Olympic dreams I just needed another sport. During the 2002 Olympics, while watching with my grandfather, I decided that Long-Track Speed Skating would be a good choice for me (for a lot of wrong reasons). I figured, there’s barely anyone who does it? It’ll be really easy to get a medal! Please keep in mind that I was young, naive and I thought that if I proved how dedicated I was, with my work ethic, I could do anything. In some ways I still believe that actually, except I’ve been shown several times that work ethic, dedication and talent are not enough to break into a sport.

By the end of the summer 2002 I had built myself a slideboard in my dorm room, started learning how to skate on Inline skates, rode the bike, did weights, plyos and dryland technique drills to become a speed skater. I started looking for a club because it seemed that it would be that time again for the ice season to start and that’s when I learned the thing that changed my sporting life: there is no long-track speed skating in Toronto. There is no long-track speed skating in Ontario even, and with the exception of an outdoor oval in Quebec, there is only one track in Canada and that’s the Olympic Oval in Calgary.

I did what any sensible 19 year old with no background in speed skating would have done. I returned to my dorm room and immediately applied for a transfer to the University of Calgary. People move across the country for sports they’ve never done, don’t they? If that transfer hadn’t taken so long my life would have been very different (and the same in a lot of ways). I was half way through my degree and would have had to add an extra year by the time UofC and UofT were sorted out and for that reason I decided to stick it out in Toronto. Turns out, I did an extra year anyway.

I always thought that this one thing may have changed my life in sport. Knowing what I know now, I’m not so sure my long-track career would have turned out to be any better. But I’ll never know.

Gym therapy

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Sigrid

I found myself really struggling today. Not physically but emotionally. Sometimes when I think back on my sporting history, or talk to someone from the sport, I start to feel like a little bit of a failure. Of course this is a never ending cycle wherein I think I should go back and try again, but ultimately I can’t change the outcome and I end up just as unhappy and feeling f***ed over. Sport, politics and drama are three things I wish to not experience at the same time ever again.

After the WOD today, one I was actually really happy with, we were doing squat holds for 10min and started chatting. Since there were only three of us, one thing led to another and I eventually told how I ended up in Crossfit. I said “A year ago I told my friend that when I retire from cycling I’m getting into Crossfit. I just never thought it would happen so soon.” I didn’t think it was so hard to talk about but I could barely get the words out. Six months ago I was in Pro stage races. Actually even four months ago I still was. I managed to get a lot of things off my chest and Anne Marie was phenomenal to talk to. It was much needed and she called it a grieving process, which is really true. I chose to leave the sport for good reason, but that doesn’t make it any easier when you’ve given 20 years of your life to high performance sport.

As I’ve said in previous blog posts, I used to think that a gold medal at the olympics or worlds would fix everything. Then I realised it wouldn’t, but it would at least justify my dedication and prove that I’m good enough. This year I learned that those people who believe in me don’t need me to win any medals, and those who don’t believe in me never will no matter how many medals I win. I’ve won enough to know that. I’m still struggling to live with that statement but I’m getting closer. Slowly.

So onto my day in the gym. I spent a very long time working on cleans. I’ve been struggling to increase my power clean from 105 to even 110lbs and I know it boils down to my hips and general technique. Today, with Anne Marie watching closely, it was determined that the problem actually stems from my rigid robot shoulders (skating flashback anyone??) making my hips stiff! Over the course of the next hour of practicing my new and improved NON rigid shoulder I managed to get up to 95lbs just fly up to my shoulder. I called it a day at that and was very happy with it.

I continued the day by working on overhead squats, the suggested strength work for today. Again, I was pretty happy as this is a lift I really don’t do well at. Last time we had OHS’s in a WOD I lifted 45lbs and struggled and dropped it a lot. I also failed on getting my ass low enough. Today, I worked on form with a ball to reach for during the strength component, and in the WOD lifted 55lbs. It wasn’t easy, but I got through it and much better than expected. Very happy with that progress!!! It’s a good start for me as I’m trying extremely hard not to compromise form at this point in the game.

New shoes, new workout

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Sigrid

Motivated by my mile sandwich WOD I decided it was finally time for some running shoes. It’s been 13 years since I competed in Track & Field and about 7 years since I last stepped foot on a track. I haven’t done a lot of running since leaving Track and when I did run it was so sporadic that I never had a chance to really notice how bad my footwear really was. Fact is, conventional running shoes from a “Sports Store” just have too much of a heel cushion to be a good running shoe. This is true for most people, whether they realise it or not. For me, running in those shoes is like running in the shoe box itself. I can’t run properly and end up heel striking all over the place resulting in a really slow run and aches and pains reaching well into my lower back. Sure, we don’t always have the clock on us when running, but heel striking in over cushioned shoes isn’t good for your body due to altered gait. You don’t get the benefit of the springy arch because the heel sets down first, which means that a hard heel strike sends a shock up the rest of your body, making running a really high impact sport. Running can be a lot smoother than this…

Enter my new footwear! In search of a flatter shoe with minimal height differential between heel and toe, I went to Foot Tools in Burlington. Fellow Crossfitter Brianne helped me out by showing me about 30 different shoes. I told her I was a former running, need a flat shoe so I can actually RUN and not just “run” (ie: go through the motions). She was fantastic! I tried on the shoes, went for a sprint up and down the street to see how they feel, and narrowed the selection down. Going for a run/sprint when shopping for running shoes is key because how they feel just standing around isn’t necessarily how they feel when you actually run. This was the case with the AdiZero Feather’s I ended up taking.

When I tried them on they felt a little too high in the heel, but when taking them on the road they were fantastic! I decided to take these for Crossfit WODs involving a lot of running.

The second pair I ended up getting was a pure racing flat. The Mizuno Universe 3. The interesting thing about these is that they are unbelievably comfortable and feel very cushy. When you pick them up they weigh absolutely nothing and it’s hard to imagine having any sort of cushion in this shoes, but it’s nice, even, flat and very comfortable.

I tested it out immediately on the Track at McMaster University running 200m repeats. I don’t intend to use this shoe on the road much, and will use it for speed and interval work on the track.

To get my mile time under 5 minutes I need to run 200s at an average of 37.5 seconds. I decided to aim for 33-35s in this workout because it was the first time in a long time on the track. I also didn’t want to run a lot in the new shoes on the first day because going from heel shoes to flats can take some adjustment.

I ran 10 repeats between 32-36s in total. I was really happy with how I felt in the runs especially because the second half of the reps were actually faster than the first. It took a little bit to settle back into my running form, but it started coming together by the end. The pace felt like a hard middle distance pace, which is exactly what I was aiming for. I need to work on form quite a bit before I can comfortable (or even uncomfortably!) string these together for a sub 5 minute mile, but all in all, this went much better than expected.

It was amazing how easy it was to run in the Mizuno’s. My heels never even came close to touching the ground, resulting in a greater reach and only minimal soreness. Keeping in mind how long it’s been since I did 200m reps, I really expected to have trouble walking, but not even my calves were hurting the next day.

Redemption

Posted on September 3, 2011 by Sigrid

After that awful workout yesterday, with albeit a pretty nice max deadlift, it was nice to throw down a good WOD today.

The WOD was:

1 mile run
50 air squats
50 sit ups
50 burpees
50 kettle bell swings (16kg)
1 mile run

When I read about the WOD online earlier I was more than a little nervous about the mile runs. It’s been a long time since I’ve run a mile (or 1500m in my case). It’s been a long time since I’ve run at all actually, or with any regularity. One off season as a speed skater I did some work on the treadmill once a week, but that’s about it in the last 10 years. Running has been really hard lately because since my back surgery and the nerve compression, I’ve really struggled to even walk up right. Crossfit has actually helped my posture tremendously and I’m really grateful for that. Not only that, but I started jogging a bit at the gym and as part of the workouts. I definitely didn’t think I could run again and I was told that I definitely should not even try. To everyone’s surprise, I’ve recovered better than expected and since the jogging was ok, I could start running.

I thought the mile would be around 8 minutes for me. A few weeks ago, post WOD, we did 4 sets of 400m. I was tired from the WOD as everyone, but I was near the 1:50′s for all but the third, which came in at 1:34. Being that it was post WOD I was ok with that, but knowing that the WOD today was more than just a 1 mile run, I thought I should expect 8 minutes.

The clock started and I was chasing 3 guys in my group and I was going to stay with them come hell or high water. They were going for 6 minutes. I knew it was ambitious but I might as well try. Just after the half way point I lost touch with them as they maneuvered a set of corners and side walks much better than I did. I came in at 6:29, exactly 30 seconds after them. I was ecstatic.

I did my squats, the sit ups better than yesterday, made every attempt to never stop during the burpees, and then whipped through the kettle bell swings in one go. I headed back out for the second mile 20 seconds after the first place guy left the gym, who happened to be my boyfriend Rob. The two guys I was running with earlier were still finishing the KB swings so I knew I had a chance. I also thought they were going to catch me soon and that since they were faster runners than me, I could then hop in and let them pull me.

I took it easy in the first part but at 400m in I could see almost 300m behind me and they were nowhere in sight. So I booked it after Rob whom I could see in front of me. I was tired as hell and had to sprint 100m and jog 100m at a time, but I was closing on him. Then we went into the turn filled section of our mile course and I couldn’t see Rob anymore. It was hard to keep going strong but I tried as hard as I could. I came into the gym finishing the second mile in just under 7 minutes!

Rob and I later measured the course because he ran 5:27 and we both thought we must have been slower….just based on how we felt. The course turned out to be exactly bang on one mile. I’m pretty pleased at that first running attempt. I have to know my place right now and not compare myself to how fast I ran as a junior, pre injury, pre surgery and looking like a skeleton. Right now, that’s a good time.

….but I’m aiming to break 6 minutes by the end of the month.

Max week continues (also, Frannie is a bitch!)

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Sigrid

Wednesday I tested my 1RM of Bench Press and Overhead Squat. The Bench came in at 85lbs and the Overhead squat at 75lbs. I’m happy with the bench especially because in previous many years of training I never managed to bench over 65lbs.

Today had some real highs and lows. I tested my 1RM Deadlift. If you remember my previous Deadlift post you’ll know where I’m coming from on this. My goal was to hit 200lbs. I decided in the interest of saving energy I’d just jump right in and go as heavy as possible as quick as possible. My previous 1RM testing strategies involved slightly more warm up but I got tired fast. I started the Deadlift at 135, lifted once, and put on 165lbs. It went up easy again and Jay advised me to go to 190lbs. 190 didn’t go up on the first try, but I shook it off and it went up on the second go. I put on 200lbs and once again couldn’t get the first lift off the ground. By this time I knew it was more mental than anything and the second attempt went up without a problem. Of course I couldn’t stop there. I put on 210lbs and lifted it on the first try, no problem. I definitely felt like my back was starting to round quite a bit though and Jay must have noticed that as well because he told me to call it a day on the 1RM deadlifts. And I listened.

The WOD that followed was a real test of mental strength. It was Frannie, which is Fran with a bunch of Sit ups and Double unders thrown in:

21 Thrusters (65lbs)
50 Sit ups
21 Pull ups
40 Double Unders
15 Thrusters
30 Sit ups
15 Pull ups
20 Double Unders
9 Thrusters
10 Sit ups
9 Pull ups
5 Double Unders

I struggled so much to get through the first 21 thrusters that the whole gym was done one round before I even moved on to the second skill. I was surprised because I’ve never had this much trouble with thrusters before. I dropped the bar a few times and couldn’t complete more than 3 in a row. It was awful. When I finally moved on to the 50 sit ups I barely made it through those. Now that the WOD is over as I’m writing this, I think the prior deadlifts might have had something to do with my worn out core, but at the time I just didn’t know what the hell was going and it was a real struggle. I moved on to the pull ups and although I whipped through them in one go, it was hard to even stay on the bar because of the mess of someone else’s sweat and chalk. It was like trying to do pull ups on dough, and the next 2 sets of pull ups I had to stop and wipe the bar with paper towel several times it was that bad.

During my second set of thrusters I was in tears. I was frustrated to say the least. Interestingly, it didn’t even cross my mind to stop. I struggled away, rep by rep, trying not to think about what’s hurting. I felt a bit demoralised when everyone was done in 13 minutes or less (much less if you’re Lacey!) and I was still on the second set of thrusters. At the end of it all, I was really happy that I finished. I was also really hard on myself about doing good thrusters so I knew that no matter how long it took, I can benefit from this later.

My time was 20:20 (RX’d). I have never been so happy to finish anything in the gym than this.