I've been doing Crossfit for more than a decade. When I first tried it all those years ago it was like angels were singing and I knew this was how I was supposed to work out. For the first few years I followed the first "rule" of Crossfit..."Always talk about Crossfit". I told everyone about how great it was and how they should change their workouts to Crossfit. Hardly anyone listened but I kept charging along. And the past few years I matured as a Crossfit athlete. I don't talk about it as much (with those that don't do Crossfit) but I still was 100% in. I "Drank the Kool-Aid" and believed this was the "only" way to do a workout.
But, and here's the big but, I recently discovered a gaping hole in Crossfit. Something that's nothing new but never done in Crossfit. One of the core tenets of Crossfit is that the workouts are all to be done at high intensity. As fast as possible, as heavy as possible, yes, all within the realm of safety, but still, push, push, push, feel the burn. And I've done this with pride. I've made my share of sweat angels, lying on the ground after a workout, gasping for air like a fish out of water. Giving 100% each workout, and maxing my efforts.
After 10 years of this, and over a year of following specialized competitive masters age group programming, I noticed I wasn't improving. I was getting a little stronger, but my "cardio", my metabolic conditioning, had been stuck for a while now. What was wrong? Was it just that I was aging and couldn't improve? I knew there had to be something I was missing.
I did some research and asked around and it turned out the thing I was missing was good old fashioned LSD. Not the drug, Long Slow Distance. I'm not quite hip to the science, but I did not have the aerobic base that had been preached for decades. Sure, I could do Murph, a nearly hour long Crossfit workout with running and pullups, pushups, and squats. But my body was just not that efficient in metabolizing oxygen for my muscles (as I understand it). I need to train, to work out, in a slow steady state. Long but very easy runs were the prescription. And the Crossfit workout of the day is never ever "run 5 miles slow and easy".
After 10 years of 3.2.1. GO! Easy running was much harder than I thought. First I needed the proper gear. Crossfit is all about the "Born to Run" phenomenon, natural fitting, thin soled shoes, etc. Garbage. For my middle aged body, I needed cushioning and support, so I got a pair of Hoka's from the company to try. These are super thick soled running shoes and they were just the right call for running on pavement for four or five miles. I can do these runs once or twice a week with no ill effect, I don't think my minimal Crossfit shoes would let me do that.
Next I got a heart rate monitor from Polar (they sent me one to try out). Not to see how fast or how hard I was going, but to make sure I stayed in the slow zone. While I hit a max heart rate of about 170 during Crossfit workouts and hover around 150, for my new training, I needed to keep it at 125 beats per minute or lower. These runs are pretty much how slow can you go.
I've built up over the past couple of months to 4 miles or so and it's been great. The temptation to sprint the last half mile, or pick up the pace is strong. It takes more discipline than I thought, but I'm starting to see results in my Crossfit workouts. Sometimes we'll repeat a workout from 6 months or so ago, and I'm seeing improvement in my engine, my cardio. And this is from adding in just one day a week of running slowly to my regular Crossfit workouts.
In general, I believe Crossfit will improve the fitness of anyone who walks in the door. And I believe for the vast majority of participants, the 3.2.1 GO! mode will bring significant (huge) fitness gains. But the lesson for me is that nothing is perfect. There's no one fitness model that does everything, even Crossfit. Yoga? Great but limited. Spin? Probably great for cardio, but it looks like it has this same hole. There's always more you can do, more you can learn, so be open minded. Think about what you are missing and try something new. Me, I think I'm going to try adding in a little yoga next...why not?
