5k WOD on the first day of winter

by, Eric Gilliland

When I first joined Crossfit Boston I was warned early on, that "unless there is snow on the ground we run outside, so be prepared."  When there was no WOD posted on the website last night I should have suspected: running in the cold (or rowing).  Unaware as to the workout that was coming my way, I peeled myself out of bed and put on my winter jacket for the first time this winter.  26 degrees, 30 percent chance of flurries.

On the train, the words of came back to me, "unless there is snow on the ground we run outside..."  "Nah," I thought.  It's too cold.

Unsurprisingly, Crossfit Boston had the last laugh.  As I foam-rolled my muscles awake, Coach Jen only needed to write for a second to tell us what we would be doing today:

Skill: OHS

CWOD: 5k

Ouch.

It was one of those moments where you just have to laugh; being ill-equipped (and by that I mean ill-dressed for an outdoor run), and knowing that I cursed myself with my thoughts on the T, I laughed.  And honestly?  The workout was pretty great.  I overhead squatted (OHS) 110lbs, which I have never done before, I ran my miles at just under 8 minutes a mile--26:35 for 3.4 miles, maintaining my barefoot/POSE technique!  

I snotted all over myself, I had a hacking cough, and I didn't realize until I got home that I couldn't feel two of my toes.  It was great.  It was great because nothing else this week will feel that hard.  

POSE Running

This past Sunday I signed up to go to a 3 hour session on the barefoot/POSE running technique at Crossfit Boston done by Upstream Fitness.

I have been wanting to go to a barefoot/POSE workshop for a while because, to be honest, my run has always been a little off.  I almost always run heel-to-toe, except when I sprint.  I run heel-to-toe for distance, and when my body gets tired.

I need to work on my quickness and my speed if I want to be a wide-receiver; quickness and speed come from your muscles fibers being trained and ready to fire.  To get my muscles fibers to fire more often I had a feeling I needed to get up on my toes.  When you are on your heels you are at rest but when you get up on the balls of your feet, suddenly your body has potential force for quick movements.   Barefoot/POSE running is all about changing where your foot strikes, how long your foot is on the ground, and what you can do to harness potential forces like gravity.

Here is my before and after footage from the workshop:



You can see in my video, that there was a pretty noticeable difference between my first and my second clip.  I changed my heel strike to a ball strike, and I was able to get a much better "pull," getting my foot off the ground and move forward fast.