I knew training for this 50k would be tough. After all, this entire process is new to me. However, I assumed that the difficulty would all come from running. You know, the pain I feel in my legs at mile 22 or the mental boredom I’ll suffer at mile 31. That kind of stuff.
I wasn’t prepared to be taken down a notch in other areas of my life!
For the past year or so, my fitness routine has focused on outdoor activities, CrossFit and running….in that order. I’d fill in running when I could, but it was never ahead of the other two options. As a result, I’ve experienced some epic outdoor adventure and continual success in the gym. I can even admit that I’ve become used to always hitting bigger numbers on my lifts or faster times in my metcons.
All Recycled Photos Thanks to Will
And then I began 50k training!
Yes, I’m still going to CrossFit but it has been forced to the back burner simply because it needs to be. I’m still going three times per week, but if something gets booted, it is always CrossFit. I purposely schedule tough workouts the day before long runs, just to practice running on tired legs. And if I end up at the gym the day after a long run?! Whew. I’m calling it a win that I even showed up, but I can promise my intensity may be lacking.
We worked on split jerks this past Monday and I went into the day feeling good. Overhead lifts are my least favorite because I can’t ‘get out of my head’, but jerks are the one that I can somewhat manage. Having said that, imagine my dismay when I could barely lift a weight that was roughly 85% of my previous rack! Not for nothing, but my warm-up sets felt pretty flipping heavy too!
Marilyn, my coach and frequent running partner, likely saw the annoyance on my face. I’m not competitive in a team environment, but I sure struggle to tone it down with myself. Lifting such a small {to me} weight was aggravating the hell out of me, and she could see it. After walking off some frustration in between sets, I circled back around and told her that everything just felt heavy.
“It should, right?” she responded. “This isn’t your priority right now and you’re not going to continually gain. Just remember you’re not lacking energy; it’s just diverted into other things right now. And that’s okay.”
I nodded my head as I am wont to do when I’m listening to someone but not comprehending their words. I walked back to the barbell, and Marilyn’s message echoed in my head. She was totally right.
It’s okay that I can’t crank out reps above 110#. And it’s okay that my baseline workout two weeks ago was 14 seconds slower than last quarter. While I’m never going to love seeing the decline, I am truly excited to give this 50k a shot in a couple months.
After all, that’s the beauty of CrossFit too: the barbell will always be waiting for me.
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Have you ever experienced something similar?