Zeno’s Revenge

Shanna designed a wicked little WOD for us today, “Run for your Legs,” which, at first glance looked like it had the potential to be a CrossFit version of Zeno’s paradox. Start a clock, run 1 mile for time, only you have to stop every 2 minutes to do 20 squats.

Because Shanna, Corey and Randy are all out of town this weekend, the CFA members were on our own. A few of us met up outside, though, at the track at UNCA. It was a gorgeous morning for it.

We enjoyed being outside on a beautiful crisp fall morning, where the shade was chilly and the sun was hot. It was great to be on a nice outdoor track, free of leaves… flat and even and rubbery. Awesome.

Warm-Up

Most of us did a brief, footwork only warm up, about 2/3 of a lap’s worth.

WOD: “Run for your Legs”

With a continuous running clock Run 1 mile for time while completing 20 squats every two minutes.

T-Bone (Tamara), Dawn, Tom Rehm, Mike Petersen, and myself threw down. We were a little confused at first about the rules for the WOD but a phone call to Shanna sorted it out. Squats happen at 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00 etc. However long it takes you to do your 20 squats (e.g. anywhere from 20-60 seconds), you run in the remaining time until the next 2 minute interval is up.

With this workout, it seemed like the potential was to create a situation where your legs wear out and your running and squats slow down to the point where you never finish, because you keep having to do 20 more squats, which takes more and more of the 2 minute interval, while you are running less and less far in the remaining time. It didn’t work out that way, though. Everybody did really well.

Results:

Athlete * Time * # Squats * Notes
Tom R * 7:44 * 60 * as Rx’d
Matt B * 9:32 * 80 * as Rx’d
Dawn * 11:44 * 100 * as Rx’d
Mike P * 12:30 * 100 * Squats capped at 100
T-Bone * 12:50 * 100 * Squats capped at 100

Analysis

My own squat sets took about 35 seconds apiece, meaning that my 4 sets of squats took up about 140 seconds, 2:20, out of my 9:32; so my mile was a not too shabby 7:12, broken down into 5 intervals of approximately 2:00, 1:25, 1:25, 1:25, 0:57.

Handicaps

Before we began this workout, we had agreed on a 100 squat cap, as Dawn feared she would never finish the WOD as Rx’d. But she did! Way to go Dawn. Neither Mike P nor T-Bone strictly needed the cap; both were within about 150 meters of the finish line at 12:00.

I think this shows that a better cap number to assuage fears or to safeguard against slower runners or squatters getting overwhelmed by this WOD would be 120.

A great time, thanks everybody for coming out!