First kettle bell workout with Dave at Crossfit NRG. I feel incredibly uncoordinated, especially after learning the Turkish Get-up maneuver. We spent about 45 minutes going through some of the basic exercises (two-arm swings, one-arm swings, goblin squats, and Turkish Get-ups), interspersed with some lunges and other exercises intended to help me make improvements to my form and understand better what muscles the exercises are targeting. After that, Dave had me walk a very short lap while holding a kettle bell in my right hand above my head, repeated for my left. I nearly fell over by the end of my truncated left-hand lap. While sweating like a pig, Dave asked, "Are you ready for a workout?" Oh, brother. Fortunately, the workout was extremely short, but it also gave me extreme difficulty by the end. I'll write it down here in hopes that I can look back in the not-too-distant future and laugh that it gave me any trouble at all. 15 two-arm swings 10 goblin squats 5 Turkish Get-ups (kettle bell in right hand) Repeat but do the Turkish Get-ups with kettle bell in left hand I believe the kettle bell was 26 lbs. By the last two Turkish Get-ups with each arm, I could barely lift the stupid bell over my head, and I had to take a couple of short rests. When I finished, the mat was covered in sweat. The workout took about 5 minutes.
Hopefully the humiliation of being weak and uncoordinated in the beginning will prove worth it. My objective is to increase speed, strength, and durability in support of another attempt at 2:30 by next Fall. The plan is for Dave to work with me individually for the next several weeks until I have a solid handle on the exercises and form so that I can go with Brooke to the 6 a.m. WOD (Workout of the Day) class but do my own thing while the real beasts do the WOD. Dave is going to review my training plans for the past few marathons, compare it with his, and will then come up with a new training plan for Ogden that incorporates 1-2 days per week of kettle bells. If nothing else, this will mix things up while providing a basis for some better all-around fitness, which I am sorely lacking as a result of my narrow focus on running for the past number of years.
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