If you were looking for the cool kids this weekend, you didn’t have to look much further than the Hardywood Twilight 4 Miler on Sunday night. This “no pressure” event starts off with a 4 mile run and ends with live music, beer and the ever important bling. One of the coolest race medals around that serves double duty as a bottle opener.
We had no less than a dozen Crossfit RVA participants. Some running 4 miles for the first time in a long time, and having fun while running it. A few more RVA folk showed up for the beer party afterwards bringing our total up to about 15 people from our gym. That’s a pretty great showing for a bunch of people who hate to run.
We would have had more if it weren’t for injuries keeping some people out.
Why should you care? Running, or any other endurance activity isn’t always about 400m or 800m soul sucking sprints to the next round of wallballs or deadlifts. Sometimes it’s about staying with your group and having fun. Now I know not giving 110% at all times seems to go against the Crossfit philosophy, but you’re still challenging your body, building stamina and possibly enjoying yourself.
Sunday morning there was a very rainy 10K taking place in Carytown. There were a few RVA runners at that one too. Unfortunately Chrissy twisted her ankle on the wet ground and we hope she has a speedy recovery.
There were a lot of cool kids out Saturday morning for the 2nd of hopefully many Crossfit RVA trail runs and outdoor wods. It sounds like this one was successful as the one we had last year. RVA “instructors” Geary and Clay led the charge on the 3.7 mile course. There were a few falls, but no fatalities, so I call that a good run.
Let’s face it, if you had to do Crossfit wods outside of a box every day, you would probably hate it. 7 minutes of burpees on your own is torture. There’s no community to suffer through it with you or to give you that pick me up when you need it.
Most people think of running as a solitary pursuit, and sometimes it is. It’s a great way to clear your head, but if you hate running but want to run, maybe to work on your endurance, or as an alternative to lifting for active recovery. Look for a running group that runs at a similar pace to you that can be challenging but still fun. You can form your own with your friends or family. There are a lot of people running with their dogs. Keeping your pets healthy is a great reason to start running for fun. We started our group as just 3 people who ran together in 2010. Since then we’ve had over 50 different runners join us. Some have stayed and become our core group. Combined we’ve run dozens of races including a 200 mile Ragnar. Some of our members have branched out to biking. We’ve organized many group activities and have become very tight knit. I couldn’t hope for a better group of friends. Not a bad record for a closed group full of misfits and introverts.
As always, if you’re looking for training, or just a few tips outside of classtime on running or rowing, you can join us for an endurance class on Tuesday at 6am or Wednesday at 5:30 pm, or look for me,
Charlie-B or one of the other instructors for more info.
If you want to learn more about Crossfit Endurance I suggest you check out the official page at:
http://www.crossfitendurance.com/
The Crossfit RVA Endurance Facebook page is where you can find upcoming wods, videos, race notices and drunken ramblings. “Like” the page to stay up to date
https://www.facebook.com/RVAEndurance
RVA Endurance is held at 6AM on Tuesdays and 5:30 PM on Wednesdays. I’m always ready to help out if you need someone to give technique pointers on running or rowing.
For info on Pose Running
Not pictured: Melissa Garber, Audrey Trussell, Derek Morse, Erin Barclay, Chrissy Dee (feel better, we ran for the cankle)