Routine and Intensity

I admitted a few days ago that routine is essential for me to get in good workouts.  If I am on a strange schedule or traveling I have a very hard time exercising.  And it shouldn’t be that hard.  If I can convince myself to do ungodly things at Potomac CrossFit at my usual time with the my usual people, I should really be able to do some push-ups and squats while I’m on vacation.  Just 5 minutes would be ok.  But I never do … or more likely, I do once and that’s all.

Why do I bring this up?  First, I am about to go away for a week.  There is a CF gym where I am going.  Will I workout?  We’ll see.  I predict two workouts in my 6 days.  I guess I’d be ok with that.

More importantly, routine is about more than schedule and location.  We have been doing some different WODs at Potomac CrossFit with different time constraints.  It gets us out of our routine.  There is something comforting about coming in, knowing exactly what to expect and when.  You don’t have to think about it which allows you to focus 100% of you attention on intensity.  That rules.  Hopefully, as people get used this format, that will return.

But wait, there’s more.  I contend that it is also important for some athletes (athletes who do not have trouble generating intensity under normal circumstances) to mess with their routine from time to time.  I could list a bunch of reasons, some of them good, some of them possibly full of shit, as to why this is.

1. We are training to be ready for the unknown and the unknowable.  While generating a ton of intensity during workouts puts you in the best shape, you need to learn to express that power and intensity in environments that are not what you are used to.  This is especially true of our military/first responder types or anyone who wants to be ready for anything.
2. It is good for people like me to be able to workout when they aren’t at home.  That would be great.
3. However, I think this is most important for people who compete.  Those who do find themselves in strange gyms, working out against strange people, in movements they may never have done (see sledge hammer stuff at last year’s CF Games) need to be able to perform.  From my own experience, I found what this resulted in wasn’t a bad performance, but a lack of intensity.  I spent a lot of time and effort remembering what I was supposed to do, where I was supposed to go, following the rules.  I hoped to make up for a lack of intensity with perfect execution (no missed reps, wrong turns, miscounts).  I was probably beat by people who could do that while still bringing the same intensity they did when they were at home.

What’s my point?  I’m not sure.  I thought it was an interesting observation and something to think about.  Routine is good because it brings consistency and a known environment that lets you focus your attention on intensity.  However, especially for those who compete, you have to move outside your routine.  It is a skill to move outside your routine and maintain intensity.  It must be practiced.

What have I been doing lately:

I’ll probably go 5 on 2 off this week.

I’ve been eating fairly well with a few Christmas cookies thrown in but no diet blow-ups.

Workouts have been quite good.  I set a PR in Nancy (5 rounds 15 OHS and 400m runs) with 12:38.  Should get sub 12 next time I do it.  This raised some interesting observation regarding strength versus endurance conditioning which I will explore in a later post.  Short version is I weigh 20lbs more and am stronger without having focused on running or longer conditioning WODs, but seem to be better and longer endurance type WODs.

3×185 in the push-jerk yesterday, which is not bad for me.  My split jerk is waaaaaaaay better and this was x3, so I’m confident I will PR split jerk and probably clean and jerk next time I do them.  I’ll bench and snatch today, so we’ll see how that goes.