NY TImes article on barefoot running

Beauty of the "correct hypothesis" is that every alternative to the correct hypothesis will always get discredited over time and eventually the correct hypothesis prevails. Now if barefoot running is in fact the correct hypothesis, all we need is some publicity, however skeptical, to have people try it out. If it doesnt work, oh well. But if it does, we have more "converts".

So here is a New York Times article about barefoot running. Its good to see change of sentiment. I hope more people try barefoot running.

And here is the skeptic view :-)

Two more months to go for marathon. I still have not started training yet. Its tempting to test out crossfit theory and run marathon without marathon training. But this year may not be the right year for it. Still keeping this option open for the time being.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/business/30shoe.html?pagewanted=1

New York Times article about barefoot running. Its good to see change of sentiment. Beauty of the "correct hypothesis" is that every alternative to the correct hypothesis gets

WOD#159 filthy fifty 43:15@158/182

Compare with wod#15 47:32@154/180 only scale downs were 30# KB swings, wallball no throw and 16 inch box jumps. Double understand were subed with about 180 single jump ropes. 43minutes is a VERY long time for such a metcon wod. I was ready to pass out BEFORE I reached burpee stage and 50 burpees were of course surreal. These 50 will count for my 45 due today. They just have to. My ring finger still bothers me for pull ups and knees to elbow. Push press was the high point. It felt so good to connect pushpresses together for 15-15-10-10.

I was breathing very hard during he workout. Wall balls, burpees and knees to elbow were especially bad. The hr didn't show it but i was in absolute hell halfway through the wod. Excellent thinking on my part to do this wod after my very long break.

WOD#159 filthy fifty 43:15@158/182

WOD#158 Backsquat 3-3-3-3-3 105# 7:55@125/148

Backsquat 75-85-95-95-105x3. Relatively light weight but the bar kept rolling on the back a bit I decided not to push my luck. The bar kept rolling as a made adjustments to my form on the fly as I realized that technically, I can bend forward a bit as long as I keep firm lumbar curve. On burpee front, the 100pushup in Tuesday wod took its toll and I was hurting a bit before the burpees but I did the 40 burpees in sub-4min.

First Handstand and inverted Burpees! and Angie

WOD#156 Inverted Burpees 37 33:43@137/155 I conviniently used the inverted burpees as a sub for burpee challenge. Technically, it is harder so its not a bad sub. I had NEVER done a handstand (not to be confused with headstand) by myself ever in my life. In fact, I think, I have done handstand with someone's help exactly twice before, including once few minutes before this wod. The one I did with assistance of my buddy was absolutely TERRIFYING. It is so strange to be upside down with blood rushing to the head and all of body weight balanced on delicate shoulders and wrists. I stayed on handstand for fraction of a second before violently reverting back. Then and there I knew this wod will be a lot of fun. Learning the skill on the fly made this wod unique. Its like trying to learn swimming. I always had this theory that learning swim with floating device messes up the learning process and makes it harder. Same with bike with support wheels. Easy to say for someone who has already leart swimming and biking. Right? So here, I had a situation to test the theory with basically my neck on the line...quite literally. After spending solid 15minutes nervously devicing a gameplan, I started attempting my first inverted burpee/handstand. I spent a lot of time jumping up on hands but could not reach the balance state, partly because I would delibrately break the core regidity halfway and drop down. It was obvious, there is no magic solution to this but practice. So I decided to count an attempt a full inverted burpee if I touch the wall with each of my foot once. After about 10-15 of such scary attempts, I gathered enough courage to "go for it". When I did get a proper handstand, it was perfect, like all jigsaw parts falling in place simultaneously. I didnt necessarily get every inverted burpee after that with full headstand but I must have done 10-15 out of 37 with full headstand. In particular, the last 37th handstand was picture perfect. In fact, I decided to hold the handstand position for about 15sec which was very rewarding end to one of the most frustrating wods so far. Yey! Now I can do handstand now by myself against a wall.

WOD#157 Angie-90PU 15:36@156/180 Compare with WOD#20 Angie 50 pullups, 100 pushups/situps/squats 54:34min HR (131/158). My favorite Angie had to compromise today and skip on PUs due to my injured ring finger. I snuck in 10 continuous PUs in the end but the finger was screaming by the end I knew thats the end of PUs for the day and also for near future. I did do the 100 Pushups, situps and Squats but I "borrowed" 38 pushups and squats from Angie for the Burpee challenge and started the wod with heart pumping 38burpees@3:04min with peak HR at 178. I am sure this did NOT make the wod any easier. Pushups were getting very hard to come by the last 2-3 subsets of 10s (38-12-10-10-10-10-10). I read my comment from last angie attempt that 100 pushups in one go is insane and smiled. It was harder than I thought but I guess the daily burpees have given me no time for Pushup specific recovery. Situps were fun in the set of 40-20-20-20. Squats were also easy with 38-12-10-10-30 I rediscovered the dark power of "counting" to round numbers and how the 97th, 98th, 99th and 100th rep were SO hard. Makes no sense because its all in the head!

WOD#156 Inverted Burpees 37 33:43@137/155

WOD#157 Angie-90PU 15:36@156/180

WOD#155 Danny Box/PP45#/PU 2.67 rounds 20:00@166/182

WOD#155 Danny Box/PP45#/PU 2.67 rounds 20:00@166/182 Boxjump was easy. PP was surprisingly difficult despite light 45# weight. I dont remember doing strength rep like PP in rapid manner. Each set was broken into sub set of 5 but I tried to keep the bar overhead for the rest. PP for third round was at 55# but I did 17/20. PUs were easy with set of 5 but the ring finger is still bothering me. Besides wod, I am still ramping up burpees, now at 33. I also did 1 min max situps and managed to squeeze 43. 50 sounds like a difficult but possible goal.

WOD#155 Danny Box/PP45#/PU 2.67 rounds 20:00@166/182

WOD#154 Hang Power Clean and Jerk 65# (injured) 1:36@147/161

WOD#154 Hang Power Clean and Jerk 65# (injured) 1:36@147/161 The WOD was dwarfed by the burpee challenge since I had to make up for the previous day. I did two sets of 30 and 31 burpees taking the wind out of me. The reason for the baby weights for the HPCJerk is a PU related injury. The long finger bone in ring finger hurt in a grip position and inward stress (but not outward stress). So PUs or picking up bar and putting it overhead is probably not the smarted thing to do. Injury is minor and should be fine in couple of days as long as I can resist temptation to stress the injured area. WOD#154 Hang Power Clean and Jerk 65# (injured) 1:36@147/161