The effectiveness of Crossfit Programming: My personal case study

I have been advocating Crossfit from day one; it’s pretty obvious that I drank that kool-aid and am very eager to share it. I have been Crossfitting for about 14 months now and it has been an absolute game changer for me. Prior to Crossfit, my fitness was defined by two activities: Globo-gym and endurance running. Both of these activities have grinded to a halt since I started Crossfit, and for good reason. I am in the best shape of my life, and continue to improve daily, without having to spend countless hours running or performing bicep curls. The following event reinforces my already devout conviction to the Crossfit lifestyle.

Yesterday I ran the California International Marathon in Sacramento. I have run this marathon a handful of times in the past and it has become a tradition of sorts. I signed up for this race about 4 months ago, but planned to go about it a bit differently this year. I decided I was not going to train for this year’s marathon, but simply continue Crossfitting as I have been. This year’s race was to be my personal case study on the effectiveness of Crossfit programming and how it translates into other areas of fitness. Typically I would have started training for this marathon several months out, racking up well over one hundred training miles in the process. This year, I did one training run (hungover, on 3 hrs sleep), two weeks ago, that was 11 miles. Literally, I did this one 11 mile run since I ran this marathon in December last year…that’s it! By all standards I would be considered grossly undertrained and even making an attempt at a marathon at this point would be considered cavalier at best. However, I felt very confident about my abilities and where my baseline fitness level was in comparison to years prior.

I finished yesterday’s marathon in 3:54… easily. Any runner will tell you that a sub 4 hour marathon is a major milestone, one that scores of runners have never and will never achieve. Running a sub 4 marathon on zero training is absolutely unheard of. I breezed past tons of people that have probably been training for this for 6 months or more, proudly wearing my Crossfit Excel shirt. All the while I was thinking “If these people only knew that I haven’t trained at all for this… They need to discover Crossfit!” I cruised across the finish line feeling great and laughed to myself as I saw the bodies of other runners laying all over the ground, their totally spent corpses writhing in pain. I felt like I could go for another 10 miles. With that thought, I strode happily to the beer tent to consummate my endeavor.

Crossfit programming is undeniably effective. The positive qualitative and quantitative results of Crossfit are strewn all over the interwebs. My personal results speak volumes. Crossfit coupled with a primal diet is an unbeatable combination, get around it!

-Sean Sanders