SOMETHING DIFFERENT

I’ve said it before, and I'll say it again; effort is a teacher. Before climbing mountains, and before ultra running, I rowed, and the efforts were deep, but short. At the invitation of some friends of Hollie’s I returned to reacquaint myself with the lessons of intensity.

For four years in the early 2000s my sporting efforts centred on moving a rowing shell as quickly as possible over distances between 2000m and 5000m, in races requiring somewhere between 6 and 20 minutes of all out effort. Training for these events involved a combination of endurance volume, and strength training that might best be described as “interesting”, but which undoubtedly laid the foundations for many of the adventures I’ve had since.

More recently, I’ve explored a more purely endurance focused space, learning how to marshal my effort over hours rather than minutes, and using duration (and sleep deprivation) to ask different questions. Even more recently, over the past few months, a focus on professional knowledge acquisition and refinement of analytical and decision making skills, have temporarily restricted my relationship with physical effort.

Suffice to say the invitation to join some friends for a “Functional Fitness” (ahem, CrossFit) workout did not then get received by someone in the peak of physical fitness. Perhaps it was ego, perhaps it was a moment of weakness, or perhaps it was just too valuable an opportunity to miss, to remind myself that beyond this period of focused mental effort lies the opportunity to once again recalibrate. Whatever the reason, it certainly provided the opportunity to reacquaint myself with the warm embrace of Lactic Acid.

It’s been a long time, old friend.

‘Til next time.

Workout

You Go I Go:

100 Cal Row 8 Rounds: 16x Wall Ball, 8x Power Clean

80 Cal AirBike 8 Rounds 12x DB Snatch, 12x Box Jump

60 Cal Ski 8 Rounds: 8x Burpee BJO, 24x SU/DU