Sprints, Not Fran

After a fun-filled night of indoor climbing with the Simms family at the West County Upper Limits and an unusual, brutally taxing (especially on the shoulders) hero workout two days prior, my intention to do today's main site WOD, Fran (21-15-9 reps for time of 95lb thruster and pull ups), will have to wait for another day, thanks to a tweaked right shoulder and my better sensibilities regarding recovery.

The aforementioned "sensibilities" are something of a novelty in my day-to-day CrossFit training. 2011 taught me that, when it comes to steadily advancing fitness, sheer volume cannot compensate for purposeful programming (i.e. programming that targets and addresses weaknesses) nor should it be used as a calorie burn or weight loss tactic. Instead of heaping on second and third workouts in a single day, which often lead to overeating, not to mention the additional stress, simply turning that lens of focus on proper nutrition and recovery is undoubtedly the shorter route to personal records. It's also a gargantuan time-saver.

So, rather than attempt a CF benchmark with an unwilling shoulder, I decided to run five 100m sprints down the lane with sixty to ninety second recovery times between each sprint. As you St. Louis dwellers know, the winter weather seesaw has most recently tipped in the reasonable January direction of: cold. This added a rather chilling respiratory component to an otherwise fun workout, and for those of you who scoff at the idea of sprinting as fun, especially sprinting in the cold before the slightly incredulous gaze of neighbors (I say "slightly" because they displayed their full incredulity on Saturday when I was running 800m intervals up and down the lane with a 45lb barbell across my back and shoulders like some sort of weird stations of the cross preparatory workout), well, if we ever hung out, we might be hard pressed to find ways to have fun together.

But seriously, optimal human health requires occasional, all-out efforts like sprinting. Why? Well, for a better-written and more comprehensive answer than I can give, feel free to check these out:


http://health-fitness-solutions.blogspot.com/2007/05/dont-just-run-sprint.html

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/sprint-routine/