Ramping up

Today at Lewis Elementary, I decided to try a CrossFit Endurance workout on the students.

We divided up the length of the gym into four segments.  During the first minute, the students had to run one length.  During the second minute, they had to run two segments… and so it went – all the way up to 20 minutes, meaning in the last go around they were running up and down the floor five times.  It was amazing.  I’d never seen some of the students work that hard.

Why did I turn this amazingly difficult workout on the students?  Many reasons.  One, because when I went through it, I was struck by how hard it was and how good it felt to run that much.  Two, because I’ve been looking at the class for a long time hoping to promote some folks to purple sash (our third rank) and I wanted to see how they’d do under the stress of a really tough class.  Three, because before class started three quarters of the class was running anyway – why not give them more of what they obviously loved to do?

After awarding a purple sash to one of the students and finishing class, I conducted an un-official survey of the class, asking them if it was the hardest workout they’ve ever done.  The unequivocal answer from everyone I asked was yes.

The clip below shows the students four minutes into the workout.