I Love to Hate Running…Deja Vu

Last year, I had taken a break from CrossFit and I was doing a lot of DIY workouts at the local track. One of my first outings resulted in a pulled groin, which forced a mid-course correction.

Conversely, this year, I’ve spent the summer getting back into CrossFit, while maintaining my Olympic Weightlifting schedule. So today, September 1st, is the first day I went to the track this summer.

My motivation was to try a WOD that was scheduled at my box last week, on my rest day. This season I changed my ways. I have committed to refrain from cherry-picking workouts, even if I hate the WOD. And I do hate running, but I do it. I may need to scale, but I do it.

The WOD was to run 200 meters every 90 seconds, for 12 rounds. This afternoon I went to the track and did my scaled version. I knew if I ran 200 meters, it would take 60-70 seconds, leaving far too little time to recover between rounds. I knew that the last half of the workout would result in 6-8 minutes of non-stop running.

So I went to the track and marked off 100 meters on the soccer field.  As soon as I walked onto the field it began to rain. I was a little concerned that the wet grass would be slippery, but I didn’t have any issues. I took off my shoes and sprinted 100 meters, for 12 rounds, every 90 seconds.

My first 100 was super slow, 35 seconds. To put this in perspective, I was able to walk 100m in 60 seconds. My goal today was twofold. One was to force myself to try POSE style running, second was to get re-acclimated to the demands of running (I used to run 3 miles daily, 35 years and 45 pounds ago).

By the time I hit the fifth sprint, my times were in the 25’s. Eventually I got the final rounds into the 22’s. I must admit, by the time 12 rounds were done, so was I. It’s 2 hours later now, and my calves and achilles are tender. I’ll take a few extra minutes on the rower this evening before Barbell Club, to loosen things up.

Epilogue

This is a first. I’ve never written an epilogue to any of my essays. But this will be an exception. Last week I was pleased to do nine workouts in five days. I felt great, and I performed well. In fact, the day after the sprints, I did a Rowing and Wall Ball WOD. I performed over 150 wall ball tosses and I felt great.

I realized I had worked harder than usual, so I took the Labor Day weekend off from the gym. Three days of recovery sounded pretty good, and it was. I ate well. I slept well. I even had a couple naps.

Today (Tuesday, September 6), I went to the gym early and did a quick workout with the coaches, a couple hours prior to the noon WOD. The workout was a descending progression of Thrusters and Sumo Deadlift High Pulls. The reps were high, so the weight was light.

I warmed up with some light rowing, some PVC stretches and some air squats. Hmmm, those are usually easy, but not today.

The first thruster sent me into orbit. The pain was like a red hot ice pick being stuck into my groin. Painful on the left, more painful on the right. Jill and Lachlan finished and I still had an entire round to go.  36 Thrusters and 45 SDHP later I knew that the curse of Track Sprint had come back for my soul.

After the workout I did a half-hour of dynamic stretching in an attempt to loosen up, but to no avail. When the noon WOD started, we began with “Squat Therapy”, and I was on the verge of tears every time I came up out of the squat. If I cannot squat my body weight without pain, there was no way I was going to do Back Squats today.

I feel fine, until I squat. Deadlifts were fine, rope jumping was fine. I guess it’s time to get the frozen peas out of the freezer (or should I use heat?) while I Google for ways to relieve the pain and inflammation, while searching for an alternative plan for introducing running into my fitness regimen, cuz what I’m doing clearly is not working.

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