Smarter, not harder #crossfit #running

By | March 3, 2014

I can’t even remember properly now, but I think my first race was early 2011. It wasn’t timed or anything. One of those fund raising races. I had just started running and that 5K was brutal. I ended up with bloody nipples and blisters on my heel.

But getting there was hard training for what I can remember, but can’t tell exactly how much effort I put on that.

I can tell, however, how much effort I put on my first Half Marathon. I got a Garmin for that and carefully logged all my training sessions. By training session I mean running, since that is what runners do, right? Run more miles. Longer and/or faster each time, accumulating mileage until the race.

The numbers: 49 runs, across 4 months. That was about 78 hours running, adding up to 310KM.

harvest

 

Harvest Half Marathon – Oct/2012

I ran that half marathon in October 2012. After that I engaged on Duathlon, Triathlon, full Marathon… So I got more experience as an athlete and started putting some brain matter on it as well. I love racing long distances, but I really hate training for it.

I mean, almost 80 hours running? Really? There isn’t a playlist long enough for that. It sucks. It’s boring. Don’t try to convince me otherwise. I needed something smarter.

I found about CrossFit and read about all the good results people were getting from it. I talked to my running buddy and she heard similar things, so when a CrossFit gym opened close to the office, we registered on the first week.

crossfit-logo

So this weekend I ran my latest Half Marathon, the hypo, and the total amount of runs I put scared me. And by scared I mean I wasn’t sure if I should even show up for the race, since I did virtually nothing to be prepared.

I ran 8 times, adding less than 50K and just under 6hrs were spent on “running”. And I decided that I should be “serious” about training only 4 weeks before the race.

On top of that I’m also about 10Kg (~22lbs) heavier than I was in 2012. You can probably remember from school, more mass over the same distance requires more energy to move.

finish_line

Hyporthermic Half Marathon – Feb 2014

Anyway, I decided to show up for the race and did great! Not a PB, but my second best time on a half marathon with very little time spent actually training for it and very low mileage.

I’m glad with the results, but for my next Half I’ll try to scale down to 4~6 sessions, maybe 10KM in total? Looking for more training hacks and smarter ways to get more with less.

Leave me your thoughts on that!

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