Friday 08/14/09

Two schools of thought capture crossfitters just before their workout begins. There are some who throw themselves at every workout ... balls out at the beginning and fade toward the end. There are some who analyze there workout committing to a specific pace. Depending on the workout, theories change for each person.

Pro's of "Balls Out" Approach: You're able to knock out A TON of reps/rounds in a short amount of time. The hardest and most time consuming part of a WOD, is when you first stop to rest and therefore stopping your momentum, so knocking out alot of reps as fast as possible tends to help!
Con's of "Balls Out" Approach: If you're not an elite CF athlete, chances are your pace will probably slow to that of a crawl towards the end of the WOD. If your stamina is not where it should be, then your round 5 of a 5 round WOD may take more time than the first 3 rounds combined.

Pro's of "Pace" Approach: Your goal is to finish each round around the same time as the previous. Taking it easier on the first couple rounds will help muscle fatigue and oxygen debt in the last few rounds and theoretically result in an overall faster time.
Con's of "Pace" Approach: If you set your pace per round too slow, then you wasted your effort to improve your time. If you pace it too fast, then you might as well have taken the "balls out" approach. This is also an extremely difficult task for some to grasp mentally, as your first round or two will seem easier and you'll have to fight the urge to go faster. You also run the risk of hitting a plateau in your training because you're not pushing yourself as hard as what you should.

Today's WOD:
Run 400 Meters
Rest 2 Minutes
Run 400 Meters
Rest 2 Minutes
Run 400 Meters
Rest 2 Minutes
Run 400 Meters

You will post four times for each round. For comparison sake, I did this WOD last Friday with the mindset of balls out every round and I would have posted this: R1=1:05 / R2=1:09 / R3=1:14 / R4=1:14. If I took the pace approach, I would have ran each 400 M right at 1:10 ... which is slower than my first 2 rounds but faster than my last two.

I'll leave today's workout approach up to you, however, based off of your mile times, I want each round/400 Meters to be ran below the times I listed here ... REMEMBER - you have two minutes rest between each round. With either approach you choose, the last round will be ran balls out!!!

Chad - 2:00
Keith - 1:29
Don - 2:37
Jen - 2:47
Lin - 3:00
Curt - 2:20
Shanna - 3:41
Ang - 3:37
Kris - 3:13
Mary - 4:10
Randy - 3:38
April - 3:38
Shelby - 1:57
Justin - 1:28