WOD: Puppie Murph

Kirsten was not feeling her best, so we lazed out. With a little extra time this morning, I tackled 'Murph,' scaled for puppies. The original workouts come from Crossfit.com and the scalings are courtesy of Crossfit BrandX.

WOD Puppie Murph. For time:

Run .5 miles

35 pullups (jumping)

70 pushups (2/3 scaled to a bench)

120 squats

Run .5 miles

At our CrossFit cert in February I thought I really nailed my POSE running technique; I was running easier and faster than people in waaay better shape. A few weeks later with no real running practice, though and I was stuck back in heel-strike mode. Kirsten saw me and had this horrified look on her face. It hurt, too. I'm working on it again. Today's WOD with it's 1/2 mile runs was a good opportunity to practice.

Three drills have been helpful.

1. Change of balance. One foot to the other, standing still. Without a pause, it's called a 'pony.'
2. Lean into a partner. a. With their hand on your chest, pony and lean forward. b. Partner lets you move forward some, still supporting. c. Partner removes support and you continue to run forward. This was a real turning point for my perceptions.
3. Running in place. Pony, lean forward to run, lean back to check and reset form, repeat. If you're doing it right, when you stop leaning forward, it should feel the same except you stop moving forward.

I did the last one quite a few times in today's WOD. I was going to try and burn the last run in. I had gas in the tank, but I decided to just keep concentrating on form. No, really! I still have a lot of work to do there.

Interestingly, this WOD allows you to slice and dice the moves in between the runs. I did 7 rounds of 5 pullups, 10 pushups and 20 squats. This also meant that the 7th round had no squats; I had finished with them in 6 rounds. That left my legs that much fresher to run. I did full pushups until I felt that I would have to do them one at a time; then I scaled it, maybe about the 3rd round.

My time: CW 33:11

Here's the data. Note that I left the clock running even while doing the other stations; that accounts for the slow average pace. The first 1/2 mile took 7:57.

Name:		Murph (puppies)
Date:		Mar 23, 2010 9:33 am
Map: (valid until Mar 20, 2010)		Google Maps
Distance:		1.64 kilometers
Elapsed Time:		33:11.2
Avg Speed:		3.0 km/h
Max Speed:		10.9 km/h
Avg Pace:		20' 12" per km
Min Altitude:		243 m
Max Altitude:		279 m
Start Time:		2010-03-23T13:33:19Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.113079º N
	Longitude:	88.568486º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.113130º N
	Longitude:	88.568333º W

Kirsten may do this later today or else we'll row. We'll see how she feels.

Ciao,

Charles