Crossfit vs. Sport-Specific Training

Photo: Kay Hutchings 

Crossfit, I love you. I truly do. I’m addicted. I love having the strength in my upper body that I’ve never had. My back is stronger than it has ever been since having kiddies. I rarely feel a strain in my lower back. Even my twin skin (which is more like a twin FOLD) seems smaller. But if I really wanted to get serious about competing in mountain biking, I’d have to hit the pedals and cut back the crossfit.

Last week I did another mountain bike race. I’ve only been able to ride about once a week. I’ve been crossfitting about 4 times a week. On the other hand, my sister has been riding about 6 times a week. I was strong enough to complete a tough race with two laps of a pretty steep climb, but my sister left me in the dust. Her time was 20 minutes faster than mine!! So I think that shows me that crossfit keeps me in good all round shape, but not sport-specific shape.

I came 4^th in the beginner category. It was decent, but I know I could do better with some more riding. Maybe I can do some more night riding? I don’t know. I’ll have to be creative if I want to fit it in. I’m really happy to spend the time at crossfit though, it is just making feel better, sleep better, and it’s kind of fun—in a strange way.

I also rode with my girlfriends from Salt Lake. That was even more fun than the race. We did a really fun trail in Corner Canyon. I did have quite a crazy wipeout on my downhill though. Maybe I should get some armor!

Fit for Mountain Bike Racing

On Saturday I went in my first mountain bike race ever. I have been mountain biking since I was in high school, but I have never had the guts to enter a race. I think my sister’s going in the race with me gave me the extra push I needed to give it a try. Plus, we were in the women’s 35+ category, and I didn’t think the expectations were going to be too high for a bunch of old ladies. We went in the Cholla Challenge in Hurricane, southern Utah.

My sister is tough. She came in second. I came in seventh. Ten people in our category. I had a small wipe out. Someone stopped on a hill in front of me and I couldn’t get my feet out of my pedals fast enough and fell over. No big crash, but someone passed me, and it slowed me down a little. Also, I have had a cold all week, and my lungs were definitely not 100%. If not for that, I could have been in the women’s sport category…or not.

As far as Crossfit goes, it’s keeping me in pretty good shape, especially for anaerobic stuff like hammering up a hill. But I could tell that sport specific training would help me with my mountain biking. If I want to improve my riding, I’m going to have to figure out a way to fit some riding time in along with my four Crossfit workouts every week (and being a mom). I might have to get the bike trainer out and ride at night. That was working well when we could watch movies and spin downstairs but now the downstairs tv is broken. There’s always something.

In the food department, we tried the chicken soup, lime chili pork tenderloin, and the quiche from the dialed-in nutrition site and we liked them all.

First Mountain Bike Ride of the Season

First mountain bike ride of the season on Saturday. We rode the Rockville Bench Trail and it was incredible—beautiful and fun. The trails down here are amazing and the scenery is world class. We rode the big loop, taking a couple of hours, but I felt pretty good overall (well except my bum). There are some pretty technical parts on the trail and even with my new lovely, lovely, fun, fun bike, I bumped my bum a bit.

I did feel like I have improved my leg strength. When I had to pound up something steep, I was surprised at what I could do. Just another plug for the high-intensity, strength workouts.

I’ve been trying some new recipes that are pretty good. I’ll put those up next.