Marathon Fever

Friday, March 16, 2012

Games Arena tonight from 5:30 until 8:30!  Come get your wall ball on!

Mobility:
10 PVC Dislocates
10 Wall Extensions
Hip Prep
10 PVC Dislocates
10 Wall Extensions

Warmup:
2 Rounds of
250 Meter Row
10 Wall Balls
10 Unbroken Double Unders
5 Ring Dips
3 Muscle-ups or 6 Transitions

CrossFit Games Open Sectional Workout 12.4

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 12 minutes of:

150 Wall balls (Men- 20lbs to 10′ target, Women- 14lbs to 9′ target)
90 Double-unders
30 Muscle-ups

Additional Notes:
This workout begins from the standing position with the medicine ball on the floor and the Athlete standing tall. Using an additional ball, box or other object to check for proper depth is not allowed. If the ball is not caught between reps, it must come to a full stop on the ground. Bouncing the ball off the floor is not permitted.

For the muscle up, the arms must come to a full lock out (with or without a “false grip”) with the feet off the ground and the elbows must fully lock out while supporting yourself above the rings.

Please be sure to watch the entire workout instruction video wmv/mov or read the PDF for full details.

The LA Marathon is here once more this Sunday, March 18^th!  The Stadium to the Sea route begins in Dodger Stadium, winds through Downtown, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and finally ends at the Santa Monica pier.  Repeating last year’s weather, there is currently a 70% chance of rain this Sunday, with a low of 46°F and a high of 58°F.  Not surprisingly, the race still hasn’t sold out and registration is available online or at the two-day Expo at Dodger Stadium this Friday and Saturday, which is free and open to the public.

If you want to experience the course, but don’t feel like running 26.2 miles, you can also bike it!  Wolfpack Hustle, a midnight bicycle group, has organized the Marathon Crash Race.   From their website, “As the city sleeps, hundreds of cyclists gather at 3AM to compete in one of the largest under- ground urban bike races in the world. The Wolfpack Hustle Marathon Crash Race.

During the early hours of the morning, the LA Marathon course is closed off to vehicle traffic in preparation for the foot race. 26 miles of LA streets with zero cars – a cyclists dream will become a reality.”  Registration is free, meetup is at 3am with a rolling start at 4am. 

The first LA Marathon took place in 1986, following the success of the 1984 Summer Olympics Games.  There are currently 195 Legacy Runners who have completed every single LA Marathon since the first race in 1986.

  In 2004, the marathon introduced a battle of the sexes competition known as “the Challenge”.  The elite women are given a head start on the elite men, and the first person to cross the finish line, man or woman, is awarded a bonus of $100,000 in addition to the normal first place prize.  The head start is calculated by taking the difference of the average lifetime best marathon times of both elite fields.  So far the score is tied 4—4 between the two sexes.

The course record for men was set last year by Markos Geneti of Ethiopia with a finishing time of 2hrs 6min 35secs.

  That’s a 4min 49sec per mile pace for 26.2 miles straight!  Check out the video I shot of him racing last year at mile 18 for a slow motion analysis of his stride.

He has a good upright posture, small compact arm swing with no twisting, good lean, good pulls with his hamstring (feet go towards his butt), and soft knees to absorb shock.  But, he heel strikes!  This means he is landing slightly in front of his general center of mass, which translates into breaking, and must be compensated for with a slight push off in the back.  The push off also translates to unnecessary vertical movement.  Does this mean his technique is bad?  No, his technique is very good and he is very fast!  He is just not moving as efficiently as he could be, but his athleticism obviously can compensate for that fact.  On average, he spends either 5 or 6 frames on the ground and 4 frames in the air, very close to a 1:1 ratio.  Not bad at all.  His cadence is also perfectly at 95 steps per foot per minute (the camera is 30 fps and he touches the same foot every 19 frames). 

Anyone from the gym racing this weekend or have any friends/family that you will be cheering on?  Good luck to everyone, and let’s hope the weather isn’t as bad as last year! 

Martina in the downpour of last year’s Marathon