After writing my last entry I convinced myself I needed to dramatically overhaul my approach to training. I start a new job in Vegas at the end of May. I will be flying F-16s once again and with this assignment my workload will increase exponentially. No longer will I have the luxury of 2+hr daily workouts...and to be honest, it's difficult to maintain motivation year at year with 20+ hour weekly volumes anyway. So, after extensive research, I've elected to make the plunge and fully commit to CrossFit (CF) and CrossFit Endurance (CFE). No longer am I scheduling my life around lengthy workouts or getting frustrated because "something came up" and occupied my time. Emotionally, this transition has been challenging yet therapeutic. The difficult aspect is having to completely commit to a training approach that is 180 out from what we are use to; LSD. Besides being completely foreign to what the Olympic lifts entails, never mind giggling every time someone says "snatch" or "jerk", I had a difficult time giving up a mindset we've all believed in for years. Unfortunately I had no choice. I knew that if I reduced my volume while maintaining the same low intensity, I was doomed to decline in performance. I had to make sacrifices because I owed it to my family and my obligation to my country. However, once I made the commitment I was relieved that my life no longer revolved around century rides and epic trail runs. What I wasn't ready for was the amount of "shock" my body was about to experience. The workout durations are relatively short; however, the intensity is intimidating yet rewarding. Never have I been so sore working out for such a short duration after doing the CF Workout of the Day (WOD). I typically follow the CF WOD which is posted daily, to fulfill the strength training requirement and the CFE WOD three hours later. I typically get three runs, three bikes, and three swims in a week, all high intensity with durations ranging from 20-90 mins long. One thing I've noticed is that I no longer struggle to get in a workout even if it's 7pm at night. Having to jump on the trainer or treadmill for 20 minutes is a heck of a lot easier than convincing myself that anything less than an hour is not worth it. Over the next few posts I will report my progress (or regress) and discuss how my training is going; the good, the bad and the ugly. One thing is for sure, I am committed to this change and feel as though there is much to be gained from high intensity, short duration workouts. Only time will tell...
