Choose your girl

Tuesday 110802

A: Deadlift 1-1-1-1-1

B: WOD (compare to 110221)

“Cindy” (Post-Elements and Black Box)

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of the following:

5 Pull-Ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

OR

“Mary” (Games Prep)

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of the following:

5 Handstand Pushups (35# Rogue plates under hands, head to 1 AbMat)
10 One-Legged Squats, Alternating Legs
15 Pull-ups

C: Balance Drills

54 ways to cook a squat
Making it work
Steak and eggs in haiku format / Paleo breakfast cereal
Dear ego: Shut up
The cougar behind your trash can

A Q&A with Coach Deverell, who is a competitive road and track cyclist in addition to a crossfitter. (Please note that the bolding in the answers is added by me.)

1) You just won bronze in the NY State Track Championships in the kilo. What’s it like to race that distance? Is this your biggest win ever? If not, what was and why?First, I must say that I love your politically correct and emotionally sensitive wording. The thought that I “won bronze” never really crossed my mind. Doesn’t bronze mean that I’m the second loser?

Oh gawd, the kilo…
Well the kilo is one of the worst events in cycling. It’s only one thousand meters. You versus the clock. Granted it’s only a minute and change, it feels like an eternity and hurts like bloody murder if you do it right. I attended a cycling camp a few years ago. The coach said that you know you’re going hard when you lose color vision. While I’ve never experienced that before, the first time I did the kilo, I lost peripheral vision. I could only see within a box of like one square foot that was vibrating nonstop. When you put it all out there, it’s like running a computer in safe mode. Your body starts shedding unnecessary functions. Typically after the kilo I carefully get off the bike and seek a hidden place to be alone. I’m usually in so much pain I don’t want anyone to see me. I often don’t know whether to sit or lay down. I’ve once had my body completely cramp up from the waist down.

I have won various races in the past. This was not my best result in this discipline, though it was a good time for me. I finished in 1:18:65. That is not a fast time for kilo standards but at Kissena that is a decent time. That track is a special place. The road surface is not very smooth and weather conditions are often unpredictable. I was both happy and disappointed with my result. I was disappointed that I missed a Silver medal by 6 hundredths of a second. I know that I could have given a little bit more of myself but hey you must learn a lesson every time you get on stage. Everyone wishes they could see as good as they do in hindsight.

I’m also disappointed in that photo of me:) The look on my face says all. I was deep in the hurtbox when that photo was shot. I will also apologize for the gratuitous display of cleavage. It was crazy hot, over 100 degrees with the heat index!

I am happy about the fact that this was one of my fastest times and I rode “cannibal”. Cannibal is when you ride without the benefit of aero equipment. That’s like powerlifting without a crazy suit. The two guys that placed ahead of me were decked out in aero gear. The equipment provides a huge advantage. I’m also happy about how I performed given my pathetic lack of training over the last two months. It has given me more faith in my understanding of choosing the right workouts to get the adaptations that I need. This is a never ending learning process. I was on the bike probably less than 20 times in the past 8 weeks. Another crazy thought is that this was my first time on the track since May 2010.

2) Did you race any other distances at the championships? Yes, I also did the Points Race. No bueno. I got 4th. My legs were toast.

3) What’s your favorite distance to race and why (besides you’re good at it)? I love the track as well as crits. They are very intense. They are aggressive, fast and require you to possess some daredevil qualities. Both require strong tactical ability. It’s an art to be able to make tactical decisions while your brain is being starved of oxygen. Like many Crossfitters, I seek pleasure out of my own pain and suffering.

4) You were already a competitive track bike racer pre-crossfit. Tell us how CrossFit improved your racing (if it did) and tell us how you incorporate CrossFit into your bike training to avoid overtraining and injury? Were you already strength training pre-CrossFit? Yes, I race both road and track. Sometimes it seems odd to say that. My work life has become so demanding that I have not been able to be nearly as involved in training and racing as I have in the past. It is one of those sports that you get out what you put in. It is more about fitness than skill. You’re not going to be able to roll out of bed and be good. You hafta put in work and lots of it. I’m keeping hope alive:) I’m trying to get myself in racing shape for some late-season races.

CrossFit has certainly improved my climbing and sprint power on the bike. CrossFit is a gateway drug. Through CrossFit I’ve gained lots of knowledge about the importance of holistic living, nutrition, mobility, movement and strength. Racing is a small part of my life. As a whole, CrossFit has helped me to improve my whole life. I also feel that my bike racing has greatly improved my crossfitting. Suffering on the bike has an immediate crossover to CrossFit. Also through racing I have a well-developed understanding of power. I have trained using a power meter for a number of years now. I measure and track all of my training data using heart rate, wattage, cadence, and work performed in kilojoules. Through software, I can graph my acute and chronic training loads. The data can show you precise estimations of when you are at your best levels of fitness, when you need rest, which energy systems you need to develop, etc. That experience has huge crossover into my CrossFit life. A good training stimulus need not always leave you feeling like you’ve been through 12 rounds with a young Mike Tyson. Because of my experience analyzing training data, I am a big advocate for the concept of scaling. Make it lighter and move it fast. For sport, strength is useless if it cannot be delivered at a high velocity. A great comparison that Crossfitters are familiar with would be the school of thought coming from Westside Barbell. Those guys are mega strong but train with loads that pale in comparison to their max ability. Their training loads allow them to produce huge wattage while leaving them able to quickly recover for next workout.

5) Does competing help you as a coach and if so, how? I like to think so. My athletic endeavors helped to mold my frame of thought on how to use CrossFit. I believe that CrossFit is a tool. I choose to use it to help with my racing. Each athlete has to figure out how they will use it. Do you want to compete in CrossFit competitions? Are you trying to lose weight? Be a better soccer player? Prepare for your first oly lifting meet? Knowing how you intend to use CrossFit can help us all to be better coaches. In addition, I love competition. I equally love seeing athletes that I work with win. Victory is sweet. Victory is a training stimulus in and of itself. Like CrossFit, victory is infinitely scaleable. Victory is measured in many different ways by different people. It could be just showing up for your first Elements class or it could be standing on the top step of the podium of your chosen sport.

6) Do you plan to participate in FGB6 at CFNYC? I’d love to. I may be doing a target race the following week. Hopefully it won’t hurt me too bad. Please give me a sub for box jumps. My calves don’t like them anymore
(I guess that means that I just signed up…doesn’t it?)

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Here’s what’s on tap for Wednesday’s WOD classes:

A: Find your 1 repetition maximum (“1RM”) on the press

B: Find your maximum height on the box jump