Last November, the morning after returning from our annual sojourn to Maui, we were treated to time trials at CrossFit Palo Alto.
This November, we're revisiting time trials right before my vacation. I think I prefer it this way; instead of ending a nice, relaxing beach holiday with a butt-kicker of a workout, I'm starting it with one.
With time trials, the name of the game is to go all-out in each of six different exercises -- with a few minutes of rest in-between -- in order to establish benchmark times. On the menu:
- 400 meter run
- 500 meter row
- 50 pull-ups
- 50 push-ups
- 50 Abmat sit-ups
- 50 air squats
My strategy worked -- sort of. Relative to a year ago, I did better on my squats, pull-ups, and Abmat sit-ups, and my overall time improved. I was happiest about shaving my pull-up time in half. (It obviously helped that I didn't try to do 'em right after rowing.)
On the flip side, my running was a lot slower this time around, which wasn't a total surprise. To begin with, I'm kind of a terrible runner. But I also made a conscious decision to hold back juuuuust in case a sprint might exacerbate my back and/or ankle issues. I lost 13 seconds.
Next time, I'm going to do the run before the push-ups; that way, my arms'll have more time to recover from the pull-ups, and I might have more pep to my step during my 400-meter dash. (That's what M did today. Smart girl.)
Results:
- 50 air squats: 0:46 (versus 0:52 in November of 2010)
- 50 pull-ups: 1:43 (versus 3:25)
- 50 push-ups: 1:08 (versus 1:02)
- 400 meter run: 1:38 (versus 1:25)
- 50 Abmat sit-ups: 1:05 (versus 1:16)
- 500 meter row: 1:49.5 (versus 1:47.2)
I improved by a minute-and-a-half overall, but the best measure of progress? I felt fine afterwards.
