Published on Newly Swissed

Here's my article, "Switzerland - A Runner's Best Friend" posted on the Newly Swissed blog.

I attended a ZWW writing course back in May where each of us was challenged to write a blog post on anything related to Switzerland.  The idea was that the winning entries would be posted on Newly Swissed, and I was one those selected! Thanks, Newly Swissed, Dimitri and Diccon!

CrossFit trial lesson

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program that combines constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movements, with the goal of improving fitness.  Jeff Grant, who runs the Wednesday night running sessions that I regularly attend, is also a CrossFit level 1 and multi-specialist certified coach.  He gave me the opportunity to join in with one of his regular CrossFit classes in Burghalden near Richterswil last Thursday evening, and I jumped at the chance.

I turned up not really knowing what to expect, to find the previous class still underway and watching a group of pretty darn fit people through a gap in the door engaged in some seriously high-intensity exercise.  The "tools of the job" seemed to include a mix of kettlebells, free weights, benches and cardio machines.  By the time I came back after changing my clothes, the door was closed so I was no longer able to spy on the class.  I would have to just wait and see what on earth I had got myself involved in it seemed.

Two others arrived ready for the 8pm class, and that was it - just the three of us.  One is ex British military and also goes to the Wednesday night running classes at Saalsporthalle and the other was a new face, but looked like he did CrossFit on a regular basis.

With the other class over it was now time to enter the Hillseeker gym.  The gym is a fairly small room but has tons and tons of well placed equipment so as to make maximum use of the space.  There are some Concept2 rowing machines, Concept2 SkiErgs, spinning bikes, benches, kettlebells, sandbags, a tractor tyre, sledgehammer, free weights and rack, ropes, slam balls and the list goes on.

Jeff started the lesson by telling us what he had in store for us.  There was an initial warmup consisting of a mix up of step-ups, press-ups, inclined press-ups, tricep-dips and squats then it moved on to the main body of the workout.  Our workout routine for the night was named "Linda".  CrossFit workouts are often named in people's honor and there's a series of benchmark workouts named after women. While CrossFit workouts vary greatly from day to day, CrossFit coaches program benchmark workouts from time to time to allow athletes to measure themselves.

Linda is a tough woman it seems, as the Linda routine involved performing a set of 10 deadlifts, power cleans and bench presses followed by a set of 9 deadlifts, power cleans and bench presses and so on all the way down to 1 deadlift, power clean and bench press.  Jeff made it a little easier for us by starting with a set of 8 instead of 10.  He also set a maximum time limit for completing Linda at 20 minutes. According to Jeff, learning proper technique and scaling both the load and volume are key parts of successful CrossFit training.

As I have never done cleans before, Jeff spent some time going over technique.  I used to do some bodybuilding when I was younger, but the only Olympic type move I have done before is the deadlift.  I used to do my deadlifts with 100kg, but there was no way I was going to try to do that last Thursday.  My physique nowadays is much more of a distance runner's physique.  Since I have not done weights for some time, Jeff wanted me to start out light and focus on technique.

I did my bench press using 15kg weights in each hand.  I do not recall how much weight I used for the deadlift and power clean, but it was a very comfortable weight that allowed me to get the hang of the technique.  Nevertheless it was a really tiring workout and the session was still not over yet.

The finale of the session and the part that really made me feel the burn was a 6 minute 6 station workout.  One minute was spent at each of the 6 stations, with no rest in between stations.  I cannot recall the names of all 6 exercises, but they included battle ropes (2 huge, thick ropes that you need to swing like a warrior), mountain climbers, sledgehammer blows (on the tractor tyre) and one legged raises from plank position.  The final station was one of our choosing, and I chose to do kettlebell swings.  I finished the lesson completely exhausted, but really glad that I had made it through in one piece, without having had to give up and take a break at any point.

Jeff's CrossFit sessions are just as fun as his running sessions, and I would definitely recommend them. Especially if you are already living in the Richterswil area, as then they are easier to get to.

My muscles were aching for quite a few days after the CrossFit lesson, but I felt really good and manly.  It may be psychological, but I felt as though I had more testosterone in my body for a day or two afterwards.

Below are some more photos taken during the class.

Series 5 of the Hillseeker Wednesday Night Running Sessions gets underway

Last Wednesday was the start of Series 5 of the eagerly anticipated Hillseeker Wednesday night running sessions.  At the start of the series Jeff always gets us to do a benchmark performance test, which he then repeats at the end of the series.  Ideally there should be some improvement between the second and the first attempt, although last series did not go so well towards the end for me, as I was suffering from extremely low energy levels.

The benchmark test this time was a cross country run near the Saalsporthalle on a mix of grass, sawdust (the Finnenbahn), gravel and asphalt.  The route started with a grassy uphill then went on to gravel, joined the Finnenbahn for a gentle climb to the highest point, descended the Finnenbahn, then exited it and took us down the road towards the sports playing fields.  The final dash to the finish was a flat grassy section.

The 2 fastest guys (Tobias and Fernando) were absent from the class so it was down to Ryan (the other MDS 2012 finisher) and I to battle it out for first place.  He took off like a rocket up the hill and I didn't stand a chance of keeping up.  My energy levels had recovered slightly compared to the previous days but were still lower than normal (and in fact still are).  I held on in though, staying as close to him as I possibly could.  The gap between us was around 50m by the time we reached the highest point of the course.  On the downhill I decided to attack and catch him up.  I caught up with him just before the end of the downhill and stayed on his heels all the way along the flat to the finish.  Our final time was in the same second, with him just a whisker ahead.  Our shared time was 5 minutes and 30 seconds.

After allowing everyone time to finish and get their heart rate back to normal we did some mental toughness talks relating to how you can use interaction with others to improve your own performance.  Jeff told us that he wanted us to do 3 hill sprints, each time using a different mental toughness technique.  The first time we were to run up the hill as fast as possible and imagine that the person in front was our prey and we were a predator, looking to catch and devour them.  The second time we were to use all our energy to encourage someone else to do well.  Then the final time we were to pick someone very special and do the run in honour of them.  I chose to do the last run in honour of my late grandmother, the only close family member who has passed away so far touchwood.

To do the second run we used elastic bands and paired up.  One of the pair ran with the band around their waist, whilst the other provided some resistance and a lot of encouragement for the other to run faster.  Then for the third run we had to write down on a piece of paper the name of the person we were doing the run in honour of, and then keep the paper in our hand whilst running.

After completing all 3 hill sprints we regrouped and Jeff asked us if any of the 3 tactics made us run faster in our opinion.  Several members of the group thought that running in honour of someone was a very powerful technique.  I myself found that technique very powerful, but preferred the one where someone was encouraging me to run faster.  I felt that running in honour of someone, I was too willing to push myself past my safe limits.

If you feel like going out and trying those techniques I would be interested to know how you get on with them, and which one you prefer.  They can be useful tools for your tool belt that you can pull out when needed.