Finish What You’ve Started
.webp)
New Year New Me is becoming a cliche, people can even right off December because they have it in their minds come January it will all change as they miraculously get a kick up the arse. There will be plenty of articles going around about goal setting and ‘kicking off your new year right’, but i’m going to discuss a key principle you can use for your training to ensure you don’t fall off the bandwagon with everyone else. It all revolves around finishing what you’ve started… Why it can work? Completing tasks gives us a great sense of achievement, our day revolves around it. Completion can seem a daunting word saved only for tasks worthy of sharing, but it doesn’t need to be. We can ‘hack’ our minds into a favourable state just by completing lots of small (possibly meaningless) tasks. Once we get our minds on a completion roll, the remaining tasks become much more attainable and easier to do. ‘No-one ever regretted working out’ I’m not sure who originally said this but it’s true and scaleable. You never regret a workout, or all the workouts you managed to complete in your week, month or block into a race. This is because it is your goal to do those workouts and by doing them you are completing tasks to achieve that goal. Sounds very simple, you have a goal and the way to achieve it is to complete small tasks along the way, but then, along comes procrastination, distractions and excuses. Using the finish what you’ve started approach might help to keep you on track, focused, motivated and winning. How to make it work? Stop multi tasking… We are not good at it, we lose focus, forget and become very unproductive when we multi task. One of the reasons we start to multi task is because starting things kicks us off down the 'completion feel good’ road. Our minds actually get a hit of dopamine from starting tasks but this soon turns back on us when we fail to complete them. Our minds become overwhelmed from multi tasking and its likely you’ll end up half-arsing 3 things instead of fully completing even 1. Eliminate distractions when training…The more you learn the less you know. This is usually used in academic contexts when talking about research but what if we look at it from a social media standpoint. The more you use social media the more you open your mind up to information you (1) don’t need and (2) want to know more on. The important part there is point (1), you simply don’t need it. From a training stand point, people don’t have too much time to spare in their day and the amount of comments I read on athletes who ‘ran out of time’ is far too many. You didn't ‘run out of time’ you just didn’t allocate your time correctly. Social media is amazing for sharing, motivating and connecting people but use it wisely. Allocate time to it, don’t just scroll through it without a purpose. Set tasks prior to your training sessions that both eliminates distractions and gets your task approach mind rolling!
Close all social applications
Turn off notifications/turn on do not disturb mode
Ask yourself ‘do I know the structure and purpose of this training session’?
The more you think about social media the crazier it gets, ultimately it is a never ending task… so does this mean our minds will never feel accomplished with it? Break your workouts down…The end of a three hour run or five hour bike, even a 60min CrossFit class can seem a life time away. Twenty minutes of a long session though, seems like nothing. As a coach I like to test my athletes physically and mentally. Some athletes love to have session structure, ready made bite size blocks they can tick off over and over, these guys do great with the finish what you’ve started method. Typical ways of breaking long unstructured sessions or races down is by; feeding intervals, time intervals, distance intervals and landmark intervals. It is a key skill to develop, particularly for longer distance athletes. Nope your coach isn’t being lazy giving you a four hour ride on feel or a two hour run by choice, they’re helping you develop this skill as come race day, it’s all down to you. Once you can develop this block structure approach, you begin to ’trick’ the mind into a completion state and the big picture of the session will take care of its self. Define a start and end point…If we don’t feel the task is fully complete we don’t get the hit of completion we crave and will begin to start other tasks to fuel our dopamine release. Do what you are doing until you have done it and make sure your brain knows the training task for the day is complete. Training starts the night before, or when you wake up, or when you press go on your Garmin. It doesn’t actually matter when training starts, what matters is what stops. Remember, we are terrible at multi tasking. If you are training and on WhatsApp or training and looking at emails you are not doing both optimally. Do one, or the other. Endurance training can be monotonous and one dimensional at times which can lead the brain into boredom and to start other tasks (like checking notifications) which as we know is a distraction from your training goals. CrossFit is intensive and require extreme focus, if you’re checking your phone every 5 min then you’re not maximising your focus. Some things like music, podcasts, audio books and youtube/netflix can be of value during longer sessions but they are ‘background noise’ that don’t take too much concentration. Thinking of words and sentences to say to people on email or WhatsApp takes a lot of concentration, ever spoke to someone who has one eye on something else? It’s pointless. So thinking you can focus on a conversation while also focusing on your session goals is naive, you cant. Knowing what needs to switch off when training starts is the key. This also means your brain… Go into each session with a mindset of ‘leave your problems at the door’. Thoughts of work and life will creep back into your mind but overshadow them with thoughts on the current task you are completing. Defining an end point makes sure you complete everything needed to ensure the session was successful.
Write down a tick list of;
1.Before tasks (nutrition, equipment etc…),
2.Session goals/structure
3.Post tasks (feedback, cleaning bike, washing etc...) to help you layout a completion path.
The finishing what you’ve started approach takes organisation, this is why it works, because you will become more organised. You may have a coach to help keep you accountable to it, you may have training partners, you may just have yourself. In all cases though, you need to be clear of your session expectations and pre and post session tasks. 2020 will be epic! So many goals are being set, lets make sure you finish what you start! By; Tom Walker, Endurance Coach

ENGINE
A sustained 50-minute aerobic workout designed to build your engine and endurance. Expect continuous movement across the bike, rower, ski erg, and running, all at a manageable, steady pace.
GYMNASTICS
This week is all about the bar! On Tuesday, we’ll continue working on pulling strength, followed by kipping and butterfly progressions. On Thursday, Bar Muscle Ups will make an appearance. Get ready for low bar drills, strength work and BMU progressions galore.
HYROX
A high-intensity session focused on building leg strength and muscular endurance. We will finish each movement with short runs to build resilience under fatigue.
MOBILITY
Back to the flows, yes, back in popular demand, I’m running it back. Full body stretching ended with stability/activation of course.
PURE STRENGTH
This week in Pure Strength, we kick off Monday with a heavy set of RDLS, followed by some Front squat volume, and then some frontal plane strength work. On Wednesday, we have some overcoming isometrics to kick our session off, followed by some cluster sets on the bench press, and then some push-pull accessory work.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Weightlifting this week is snatch; we are breaking down the movement. Starting with the 3-position snatch. Drilling the timings under the barbell. Followed by snatch pulls and a complex of behind-the-neck push press into OHS.

Monday Ride
A ride dedicated to group riding skills and some fitness. Coach Rob Foster leads this ride, if you'd like to join email Rob Foster
Start time: 05:59 am
Session Length: 1.5 hour
Location: The Loop Cafe, Bike DXB
Track Tuesday
Our weekly on track speed session! For any level of runner looking to build their run speed, threshold and Vo2max fitness and run with the best running community in Dubai.
Time: 05:59 am
Session Length: 1.5 hour
Location: Dubai Sports City Sports Park
Friday - Coffee Run
Our weekly tempo run. Sessions are built on an RPE scale and accessible to all levels of runner. We start together, run hard then finish together and chat about it over a coffee and breakfast.
Brief time: 05:54 am
Start time: 05:59 am
Start Location: Common Grounds
Saturday - Long Ride
Our weekly endurance ride.
Please email Rob Foster for more details.
Time: 05:59 am
Location: Bottom of the Stick, Al Qudra.

Monday
Time: 5:59pm
Location: InnerFight
Session: LRC Tempo
This week will be dialling into that Tempo effort (7/10 RPE) for 5 mins blocks. You will take a 2 min recovery after each block and repeat the sequence 5x.
Tuesday
Time: 5:59am
Location: Dubai Sports City Sports Park
Session: Track Tuesday
This is your chance to run fast with the wider IFE community and coaches. This week we will be running 300m repeats at 3km pace, each with a very easy float between.
Wednesday
Time: 5:59am & 5:59pm
Location: InnerFight
Session: LRC Intervals
Today we have intervals in the morning and evening. We will be running 100m effort through the park behind InnerFight, you will then have 300m easy/recovery before repeating the sequence.
Friday
Time: 5:59am
Location: Common Grounds
Session: The Coffee Run
This week we will be working on a negative split run. After 20 mins of easy running you will go into 1 min on, 1 min off intervals for 30 mins. Post session coffees at Common Grounds from 7am.

Monday:
Starting the week with some pressing tempo push-up work, followed by some bench press and death march, and then a strongman-style workout for an epic start to the week!
Strength:
A) EMOM x 8 - 3 to 5 tempo push-ups tempo @31x1
B) Every 90 sec x 10 alt between - 5 Barbell bench press @20x1 (building) & 16 alt DB death march
Conditioning:
For Time:
10-1 Sandbag Over Shoulder
1-10 Dumbbell STOH
Tuesday:
Tuesday, we have some sled work in the strength, and then some Interval work that will challenge your squat and pull endurance.
Strength:
A) 6 mins build to max triple broad jump
Rest 2 mins
B) Every 2 mins x 5 2 length sled push
Conditioning:
4 min window
30 sec wall sit
30 wall balls
15 pull-ups
AMRAP cal ski
Rest 2 mins x 4
Wednesday:
Wednesday is all about the barbell in both the skill and a fast-paced
Squat clean and run workout.
Strength:
A) Every 2 mins x 8 - 2 power clean + 2 push press
Rest 2 mins
B) Every 90 sec x 3 6 BB good mornings @30x1
Conditioning:
For Time:
15-12- 9 Squat Cleans
After each set, a park run
Thursday:
Thursday, we have some strict pull-up work followed by a long endurance workout on the rower.
Strength:
A: In a 2-minute window, establish a MAX unbroken set of strict pull-ups/chest 2 bar/bar muscle-ups
+
B: EMOM 8 @ 33% of A
Conditioning:
30 mins Max Cal Row:
0-10 mins every 2:30 mins 6 burpees
11-20 mins every 2:30 mins 6 burpee box jump
21-30 mins every 2:30 mins 6 burpee box jump over
Friday:
FUF, we are finishing off with some single-leg and core work, and then 6 rounds of
Strength:
A) EMOM x 6 - 20 sec strict TTB/SLR
rest 2 min
B) Every 2 mins x 4 - 12 alt front rack KB reverse lunge
Conditioning:
6 Rounds For Time:
12 TTB
40/30 Cal Ass Bike and C2 bike (Alternating)
20 Russian KB Swing
.webp)
New Year New Me is becoming a cliche, people can even right off December because they have it in their minds come January it will all change as they miraculously get a kick up the arse. There will be plenty of articles going around about goal setting and ‘kicking off your new year right’, but i’m going to discuss a key principle you can use for your training to ensure you don’t fall off the bandwagon with everyone else. It all revolves around finishing what you’ve started… Why it can work? Completing tasks gives us a great sense of achievement, our day revolves around it. Completion can seem a daunting word saved only for tasks worthy of sharing, but it doesn’t need to be. We can ‘hack’ our minds into a favourable state just by completing lots of small (possibly meaningless) tasks. Once we get our minds on a completion roll, the remaining tasks become much more attainable and easier to do. ‘No-one ever regretted working out’ I’m not sure who originally said this but it’s true and scaleable. You never regret a workout, or all the workouts you managed to complete in your week, month or block into a race. This is because it is your goal to do those workouts and by doing them you are completing tasks to achieve that goal. Sounds very simple, you have a goal and the way to achieve it is to complete small tasks along the way, but then, along comes procrastination, distractions and excuses. Using the finish what you’ve started approach might help to keep you on track, focused, motivated and winning. How to make it work? Stop multi tasking… We are not good at it, we lose focus, forget and become very unproductive when we multi task. One of the reasons we start to multi task is because starting things kicks us off down the 'completion feel good’ road. Our minds actually get a hit of dopamine from starting tasks but this soon turns back on us when we fail to complete them. Our minds become overwhelmed from multi tasking and its likely you’ll end up half-arsing 3 things instead of fully completing even 1. Eliminate distractions when training…The more you learn the less you know. This is usually used in academic contexts when talking about research but what if we look at it from a social media standpoint. The more you use social media the more you open your mind up to information you (1) don’t need and (2) want to know more on. The important part there is point (1), you simply don’t need it. From a training stand point, people don’t have too much time to spare in their day and the amount of comments I read on athletes who ‘ran out of time’ is far too many. You didn't ‘run out of time’ you just didn’t allocate your time correctly. Social media is amazing for sharing, motivating and connecting people but use it wisely. Allocate time to it, don’t just scroll through it without a purpose. Set tasks prior to your training sessions that both eliminates distractions and gets your task approach mind rolling!
Close all social applications
Turn off notifications/turn on do not disturb mode
Ask yourself ‘do I know the structure and purpose of this training session’?
The more you think about social media the crazier it gets, ultimately it is a never ending task… so does this mean our minds will never feel accomplished with it? Break your workouts down…The end of a three hour run or five hour bike, even a 60min CrossFit class can seem a life time away. Twenty minutes of a long session though, seems like nothing. As a coach I like to test my athletes physically and mentally. Some athletes love to have session structure, ready made bite size blocks they can tick off over and over, these guys do great with the finish what you’ve started method. Typical ways of breaking long unstructured sessions or races down is by; feeding intervals, time intervals, distance intervals and landmark intervals. It is a key skill to develop, particularly for longer distance athletes. Nope your coach isn’t being lazy giving you a four hour ride on feel or a two hour run by choice, they’re helping you develop this skill as come race day, it’s all down to you. Once you can develop this block structure approach, you begin to ’trick’ the mind into a completion state and the big picture of the session will take care of its self. Define a start and end point…If we don’t feel the task is fully complete we don’t get the hit of completion we crave and will begin to start other tasks to fuel our dopamine release. Do what you are doing until you have done it and make sure your brain knows the training task for the day is complete. Training starts the night before, or when you wake up, or when you press go on your Garmin. It doesn’t actually matter when training starts, what matters is what stops. Remember, we are terrible at multi tasking. If you are training and on WhatsApp or training and looking at emails you are not doing both optimally. Do one, or the other. Endurance training can be monotonous and one dimensional at times which can lead the brain into boredom and to start other tasks (like checking notifications) which as we know is a distraction from your training goals. CrossFit is intensive and require extreme focus, if you’re checking your phone every 5 min then you’re not maximising your focus. Some things like music, podcasts, audio books and youtube/netflix can be of value during longer sessions but they are ‘background noise’ that don’t take too much concentration. Thinking of words and sentences to say to people on email or WhatsApp takes a lot of concentration, ever spoke to someone who has one eye on something else? It’s pointless. So thinking you can focus on a conversation while also focusing on your session goals is naive, you cant. Knowing what needs to switch off when training starts is the key. This also means your brain… Go into each session with a mindset of ‘leave your problems at the door’. Thoughts of work and life will creep back into your mind but overshadow them with thoughts on the current task you are completing. Defining an end point makes sure you complete everything needed to ensure the session was successful.
Write down a tick list of;
1.Before tasks (nutrition, equipment etc…),
2.Session goals/structure
3.Post tasks (feedback, cleaning bike, washing etc...) to help you layout a completion path.
The finishing what you’ve started approach takes organisation, this is why it works, because you will become more organised. You may have a coach to help keep you accountable to it, you may have training partners, you may just have yourself. In all cases though, you need to be clear of your session expectations and pre and post session tasks. 2020 will be epic! So many goals are being set, lets make sure you finish what you start! By; Tom Walker, Endurance Coach

Monday Ride
A ride dedicated to group riding skills and some fitness. Coach Rob Foster leads this ride, if you'd like to join email Rob Foster
Start time: 05:59 am
Session Length: 1.5 hour
Location: The Loop Cafe, Bike DXB
Track Tuesday
Our weekly on track speed session! For any level of runner looking to build their run speed, threshold and Vo2max fitness and run with the best running community in Dubai.
Time: 05:59 am
Session Length: 1.5 hour
Location: Dubai Sports City Sports Park
Friday - Coffee Run
Our weekly tempo run. Sessions are built on an RPE scale and accessible to all levels of runner. We start together, run hard then finish together and chat about it over a coffee and breakfast.
Brief time: 05:54 am
Start time: 05:59 am
Start Location: Common Grounds
Saturday - Long Ride
Our weekly endurance ride.
Please email Rob Foster for more details.
Time: 05:59 am
Location: Bottom of the Stick, Al Qudra.

Monday
Time: 5:59pm
Location: InnerFight
Session: LRC Tempo
This week will be dialling into that Tempo effort (7/10 RPE) for 5 mins blocks. You will take a 2 min recovery after each block and repeat the sequence 5x.
Tuesday
Time: 5:59am
Location: Dubai Sports City Sports Park
Session: Track Tuesday
This is your chance to run fast with the wider IFE community and coaches. This week we will be running 300m repeats at 3km pace, each with a very easy float between.
Wednesday
Time: 5:59am & 5:59pm
Location: InnerFight
Session: LRC Intervals
Today we have intervals in the morning and evening. We will be running 100m effort through the park behind InnerFight, you will then have 300m easy/recovery before repeating the sequence.
Friday
Time: 5:59am
Location: Common Grounds
Session: The Coffee Run
This week we will be working on a negative split run. After 20 mins of easy running you will go into 1 min on, 1 min off intervals for 30 mins. Post session coffees at Common Grounds from 7am.

Monday:
Starting the week with some pressing tempo push-up work, followed by some bench press and death march, and then a strongman-style workout for an epic start to the week!
Strength:
A) EMOM x 8 - 3 to 5 tempo push-ups tempo @31x1
B) Every 90 sec x 10 alt between - 5 Barbell bench press @20x1 (building) & 16 alt DB death march
Conditioning:
For Time:
10-1 Sandbag Over Shoulder
1-10 Dumbbell STOH
Tuesday:
Tuesday, we have some sled work in the strength, and then some Interval work that will challenge your squat and pull endurance.
Strength:
A) 6 mins build to max triple broad jump
Rest 2 mins
B) Every 2 mins x 5 2 length sled push
Conditioning:
4 min window
30 sec wall sit
30 wall balls
15 pull-ups
AMRAP cal ski
Rest 2 mins x 4
Wednesday:
Wednesday is all about the barbell in both the skill and a fast-paced
Squat clean and run workout.
Strength:
A) Every 2 mins x 8 - 2 power clean + 2 push press
Rest 2 mins
B) Every 90 sec x 3 6 BB good mornings @30x1
Conditioning:
For Time:
15-12- 9 Squat Cleans
After each set, a park run
Thursday:
Thursday, we have some strict pull-up work followed by a long endurance workout on the rower.
Strength:
A: In a 2-minute window, establish a MAX unbroken set of strict pull-ups/chest 2 bar/bar muscle-ups
+
B: EMOM 8 @ 33% of A
Conditioning:
30 mins Max Cal Row:
0-10 mins every 2:30 mins 6 burpees
11-20 mins every 2:30 mins 6 burpee box jump
21-30 mins every 2:30 mins 6 burpee box jump over
Friday:
FUF, we are finishing off with some single-leg and core work, and then 6 rounds of
Strength:
A) EMOM x 6 - 20 sec strict TTB/SLR
rest 2 min
B) Every 2 mins x 4 - 12 alt front rack KB reverse lunge
Conditioning:
6 Rounds For Time:
12 TTB
40/30 Cal Ass Bike and C2 bike (Alternating)
20 Russian KB Swing

ENGINE
A sustained 50-minute aerobic workout designed to build your engine and endurance. Expect continuous movement across the bike, rower, ski erg, and running, all at a manageable, steady pace.
GYMNASTICS
This week is all about the bar! On Tuesday, we’ll continue working on pulling strength, followed by kipping and butterfly progressions. On Thursday, Bar Muscle Ups will make an appearance. Get ready for low bar drills, strength work and BMU progressions galore.
HYROX
A high-intensity session focused on building leg strength and muscular endurance. We will finish each movement with short runs to build resilience under fatigue.
MOBILITY
Back to the flows, yes, back in popular demand, I’m running it back. Full body stretching ended with stability/activation of course.
PURE STRENGTH
This week in Pure Strength, we kick off Monday with a heavy set of RDLS, followed by some Front squat volume, and then some frontal plane strength work. On Wednesday, we have some overcoming isometrics to kick our session off, followed by some cluster sets on the bench press, and then some push-pull accessory work.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Weightlifting this week is snatch; we are breaking down the movement. Starting with the 3-position snatch. Drilling the timings under the barbell. Followed by snatch pulls and a complex of behind-the-neck push press into OHS.
.webp)
New Year New Me is becoming a cliche, people can even right off December because they have it in their minds come January it will all change as they miraculously get a kick up the arse. There will be plenty of articles going around about goal setting and ‘kicking off your new year right’, but i’m going to discuss a key principle you can use for your training to ensure you don’t fall off the bandwagon with everyone else. It all revolves around finishing what you’ve started… Why it can work? Completing tasks gives us a great sense of achievement, our day revolves around it. Completion can seem a daunting word saved only for tasks worthy of sharing, but it doesn’t need to be. We can ‘hack’ our minds into a favourable state just by completing lots of small (possibly meaningless) tasks. Once we get our minds on a completion roll, the remaining tasks become much more attainable and easier to do. ‘No-one ever regretted working out’ I’m not sure who originally said this but it’s true and scaleable. You never regret a workout, or all the workouts you managed to complete in your week, month or block into a race. This is because it is your goal to do those workouts and by doing them you are completing tasks to achieve that goal. Sounds very simple, you have a goal and the way to achieve it is to complete small tasks along the way, but then, along comes procrastination, distractions and excuses. Using the finish what you’ve started approach might help to keep you on track, focused, motivated and winning. How to make it work? Stop multi tasking… We are not good at it, we lose focus, forget and become very unproductive when we multi task. One of the reasons we start to multi task is because starting things kicks us off down the 'completion feel good’ road. Our minds actually get a hit of dopamine from starting tasks but this soon turns back on us when we fail to complete them. Our minds become overwhelmed from multi tasking and its likely you’ll end up half-arsing 3 things instead of fully completing even 1. Eliminate distractions when training…The more you learn the less you know. This is usually used in academic contexts when talking about research but what if we look at it from a social media standpoint. The more you use social media the more you open your mind up to information you (1) don’t need and (2) want to know more on. The important part there is point (1), you simply don’t need it. From a training stand point, people don’t have too much time to spare in their day and the amount of comments I read on athletes who ‘ran out of time’ is far too many. You didn't ‘run out of time’ you just didn’t allocate your time correctly. Social media is amazing for sharing, motivating and connecting people but use it wisely. Allocate time to it, don’t just scroll through it without a purpose. Set tasks prior to your training sessions that both eliminates distractions and gets your task approach mind rolling!
Close all social applications
Turn off notifications/turn on do not disturb mode
Ask yourself ‘do I know the structure and purpose of this training session’?
The more you think about social media the crazier it gets, ultimately it is a never ending task… so does this mean our minds will never feel accomplished with it? Break your workouts down…The end of a three hour run or five hour bike, even a 60min CrossFit class can seem a life time away. Twenty minutes of a long session though, seems like nothing. As a coach I like to test my athletes physically and mentally. Some athletes love to have session structure, ready made bite size blocks they can tick off over and over, these guys do great with the finish what you’ve started method. Typical ways of breaking long unstructured sessions or races down is by; feeding intervals, time intervals, distance intervals and landmark intervals. It is a key skill to develop, particularly for longer distance athletes. Nope your coach isn’t being lazy giving you a four hour ride on feel or a two hour run by choice, they’re helping you develop this skill as come race day, it’s all down to you. Once you can develop this block structure approach, you begin to ’trick’ the mind into a completion state and the big picture of the session will take care of its self. Define a start and end point…If we don’t feel the task is fully complete we don’t get the hit of completion we crave and will begin to start other tasks to fuel our dopamine release. Do what you are doing until you have done it and make sure your brain knows the training task for the day is complete. Training starts the night before, or when you wake up, or when you press go on your Garmin. It doesn’t actually matter when training starts, what matters is what stops. Remember, we are terrible at multi tasking. If you are training and on WhatsApp or training and looking at emails you are not doing both optimally. Do one, or the other. Endurance training can be monotonous and one dimensional at times which can lead the brain into boredom and to start other tasks (like checking notifications) which as we know is a distraction from your training goals. CrossFit is intensive and require extreme focus, if you’re checking your phone every 5 min then you’re not maximising your focus. Some things like music, podcasts, audio books and youtube/netflix can be of value during longer sessions but they are ‘background noise’ that don’t take too much concentration. Thinking of words and sentences to say to people on email or WhatsApp takes a lot of concentration, ever spoke to someone who has one eye on something else? It’s pointless. So thinking you can focus on a conversation while also focusing on your session goals is naive, you cant. Knowing what needs to switch off when training starts is the key. This also means your brain… Go into each session with a mindset of ‘leave your problems at the door’. Thoughts of work and life will creep back into your mind but overshadow them with thoughts on the current task you are completing. Defining an end point makes sure you complete everything needed to ensure the session was successful.
Write down a tick list of;
1.Before tasks (nutrition, equipment etc…),
2.Session goals/structure
3.Post tasks (feedback, cleaning bike, washing etc...) to help you layout a completion path.
The finishing what you’ve started approach takes organisation, this is why it works, because you will become more organised. You may have a coach to help keep you accountable to it, you may have training partners, you may just have yourself. In all cases though, you need to be clear of your session expectations and pre and post session tasks. 2020 will be epic! So many goals are being set, lets make sure you finish what you start! By; Tom Walker, Endurance Coach

Monday
Time: 5:59pm
Location: InnerFight
Session: LRC Tempo
This week will be dialling into that Tempo effort (7/10 RPE) for 5 mins blocks. You will take a 2 min recovery after each block and repeat the sequence 5x.
Tuesday
Time: 5:59am
Location: Dubai Sports City Sports Park
Session: Track Tuesday
This is your chance to run fast with the wider IFE community and coaches. This week we will be running 300m repeats at 3km pace, each with a very easy float between.
Wednesday
Time: 5:59am & 5:59pm
Location: InnerFight
Session: LRC Intervals
Today we have intervals in the morning and evening. We will be running 100m effort through the park behind InnerFight, you will then have 300m easy/recovery before repeating the sequence.
Friday
Time: 5:59am
Location: Common Grounds
Session: The Coffee Run
This week we will be working on a negative split run. After 20 mins of easy running you will go into 1 min on, 1 min off intervals for 30 mins. Post session coffees at Common Grounds from 7am.

Monday:
Starting the week with some pressing tempo push-up work, followed by some bench press and death march, and then a strongman-style workout for an epic start to the week!
Strength:
A) EMOM x 8 - 3 to 5 tempo push-ups tempo @31x1
B) Every 90 sec x 10 alt between - 5 Barbell bench press @20x1 (building) & 16 alt DB death march
Conditioning:
For Time:
10-1 Sandbag Over Shoulder
1-10 Dumbbell STOH
Tuesday:
Tuesday, we have some sled work in the strength, and then some Interval work that will challenge your squat and pull endurance.
Strength:
A) 6 mins build to max triple broad jump
Rest 2 mins
B) Every 2 mins x 5 2 length sled push
Conditioning:
4 min window
30 sec wall sit
30 wall balls
15 pull-ups
AMRAP cal ski
Rest 2 mins x 4
Wednesday:
Wednesday is all about the barbell in both the skill and a fast-paced
Squat clean and run workout.
Strength:
A) Every 2 mins x 8 - 2 power clean + 2 push press
Rest 2 mins
B) Every 90 sec x 3 6 BB good mornings @30x1
Conditioning:
For Time:
15-12- 9 Squat Cleans
After each set, a park run
Thursday:
Thursday, we have some strict pull-up work followed by a long endurance workout on the rower.
Strength:
A: In a 2-minute window, establish a MAX unbroken set of strict pull-ups/chest 2 bar/bar muscle-ups
+
B: EMOM 8 @ 33% of A
Conditioning:
30 mins Max Cal Row:
0-10 mins every 2:30 mins 6 burpees
11-20 mins every 2:30 mins 6 burpee box jump
21-30 mins every 2:30 mins 6 burpee box jump over
Friday:
FUF, we are finishing off with some single-leg and core work, and then 6 rounds of
Strength:
A) EMOM x 6 - 20 sec strict TTB/SLR
rest 2 min
B) Every 2 mins x 4 - 12 alt front rack KB reverse lunge
Conditioning:
6 Rounds For Time:
12 TTB
40/30 Cal Ass Bike and C2 bike (Alternating)
20 Russian KB Swing

ENGINE
A sustained 50-minute aerobic workout designed to build your engine and endurance. Expect continuous movement across the bike, rower, ski erg, and running, all at a manageable, steady pace.
GYMNASTICS
This week is all about the bar! On Tuesday, we’ll continue working on pulling strength, followed by kipping and butterfly progressions. On Thursday, Bar Muscle Ups will make an appearance. Get ready for low bar drills, strength work and BMU progressions galore.
HYROX
A high-intensity session focused on building leg strength and muscular endurance. We will finish each movement with short runs to build resilience under fatigue.
MOBILITY
Back to the flows, yes, back in popular demand, I’m running it back. Full body stretching ended with stability/activation of course.
PURE STRENGTH
This week in Pure Strength, we kick off Monday with a heavy set of RDLS, followed by some Front squat volume, and then some frontal plane strength work. On Wednesday, we have some overcoming isometrics to kick our session off, followed by some cluster sets on the bench press, and then some push-pull accessory work.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Weightlifting this week is snatch; we are breaking down the movement. Starting with the 3-position snatch. Drilling the timings under the barbell. Followed by snatch pulls and a complex of behind-the-neck push press into OHS.

Monday Ride
A ride dedicated to group riding skills and some fitness. Coach Rob Foster leads this ride, if you'd like to join email Rob Foster
Start time: 05:59 am
Session Length: 1.5 hour
Location: The Loop Cafe, Bike DXB
Track Tuesday
Our weekly on track speed session! For any level of runner looking to build their run speed, threshold and Vo2max fitness and run with the best running community in Dubai.
Time: 05:59 am
Session Length: 1.5 hour
Location: Dubai Sports City Sports Park
Friday - Coffee Run
Our weekly tempo run. Sessions are built on an RPE scale and accessible to all levels of runner. We start together, run hard then finish together and chat about it over a coffee and breakfast.
Brief time: 05:54 am
Start time: 05:59 am
Start Location: Common Grounds
Saturday - Long Ride
Our weekly endurance ride.
Please email Rob Foster for more details.
Time: 05:59 am
Location: Bottom of the Stick, Al Qudra.
.webp)
New Year New Me is becoming a cliche, people can even right off December because they have it in their minds come January it will all change as they miraculously get a kick up the arse. There will be plenty of articles going around about goal setting and ‘kicking off your new year right’, but i’m going to discuss a key principle you can use for your training to ensure you don’t fall off the bandwagon with everyone else. It all revolves around finishing what you’ve started… Why it can work? Completing tasks gives us a great sense of achievement, our day revolves around it. Completion can seem a daunting word saved only for tasks worthy of sharing, but it doesn’t need to be. We can ‘hack’ our minds into a favourable state just by completing lots of small (possibly meaningless) tasks. Once we get our minds on a completion roll, the remaining tasks become much more attainable and easier to do. ‘No-one ever regretted working out’ I’m not sure who originally said this but it’s true and scaleable. You never regret a workout, or all the workouts you managed to complete in your week, month or block into a race. This is because it is your goal to do those workouts and by doing them you are completing tasks to achieve that goal. Sounds very simple, you have a goal and the way to achieve it is to complete small tasks along the way, but then, along comes procrastination, distractions and excuses. Using the finish what you’ve started approach might help to keep you on track, focused, motivated and winning. How to make it work? Stop multi tasking… We are not good at it, we lose focus, forget and become very unproductive when we multi task. One of the reasons we start to multi task is because starting things kicks us off down the 'completion feel good’ road. Our minds actually get a hit of dopamine from starting tasks but this soon turns back on us when we fail to complete them. Our minds become overwhelmed from multi tasking and its likely you’ll end up half-arsing 3 things instead of fully completing even 1. Eliminate distractions when training…The more you learn the less you know. This is usually used in academic contexts when talking about research but what if we look at it from a social media standpoint. The more you use social media the more you open your mind up to information you (1) don’t need and (2) want to know more on. The important part there is point (1), you simply don’t need it. From a training stand point, people don’t have too much time to spare in their day and the amount of comments I read on athletes who ‘ran out of time’ is far too many. You didn't ‘run out of time’ you just didn’t allocate your time correctly. Social media is amazing for sharing, motivating and connecting people but use it wisely. Allocate time to it, don’t just scroll through it without a purpose. Set tasks prior to your training sessions that both eliminates distractions and gets your task approach mind rolling!
Close all social applications
Turn off notifications/turn on do not disturb mode
Ask yourself ‘do I know the structure and purpose of this training session’?
The more you think about social media the crazier it gets, ultimately it is a never ending task… so does this mean our minds will never feel accomplished with it? Break your workouts down…The end of a three hour run or five hour bike, even a 60min CrossFit class can seem a life time away. Twenty minutes of a long session though, seems like nothing. As a coach I like to test my athletes physically and mentally. Some athletes love to have session structure, ready made bite size blocks they can tick off over and over, these guys do great with the finish what you’ve started method. Typical ways of breaking long unstructured sessions or races down is by; feeding intervals, time intervals, distance intervals and landmark intervals. It is a key skill to develop, particularly for longer distance athletes. Nope your coach isn’t being lazy giving you a four hour ride on feel or a two hour run by choice, they’re helping you develop this skill as come race day, it’s all down to you. Once you can develop this block structure approach, you begin to ’trick’ the mind into a completion state and the big picture of the session will take care of its self. Define a start and end point…If we don’t feel the task is fully complete we don’t get the hit of completion we crave and will begin to start other tasks to fuel our dopamine release. Do what you are doing until you have done it and make sure your brain knows the training task for the day is complete. Training starts the night before, or when you wake up, or when you press go on your Garmin. It doesn’t actually matter when training starts, what matters is what stops. Remember, we are terrible at multi tasking. If you are training and on WhatsApp or training and looking at emails you are not doing both optimally. Do one, or the other. Endurance training can be monotonous and one dimensional at times which can lead the brain into boredom and to start other tasks (like checking notifications) which as we know is a distraction from your training goals. CrossFit is intensive and require extreme focus, if you’re checking your phone every 5 min then you’re not maximising your focus. Some things like music, podcasts, audio books and youtube/netflix can be of value during longer sessions but they are ‘background noise’ that don’t take too much concentration. Thinking of words and sentences to say to people on email or WhatsApp takes a lot of concentration, ever spoke to someone who has one eye on something else? It’s pointless. So thinking you can focus on a conversation while also focusing on your session goals is naive, you cant. Knowing what needs to switch off when training starts is the key. This also means your brain… Go into each session with a mindset of ‘leave your problems at the door’. Thoughts of work and life will creep back into your mind but overshadow them with thoughts on the current task you are completing. Defining an end point makes sure you complete everything needed to ensure the session was successful.
Write down a tick list of;
1.Before tasks (nutrition, equipment etc…),
2.Session goals/structure
3.Post tasks (feedback, cleaning bike, washing etc...) to help you layout a completion path.
The finishing what you’ve started approach takes organisation, this is why it works, because you will become more organised. You may have a coach to help keep you accountable to it, you may have training partners, you may just have yourself. In all cases though, you need to be clear of your session expectations and pre and post session tasks. 2020 will be epic! So many goals are being set, lets make sure you finish what you start! By; Tom Walker, Endurance Coach
.webp)
New Year New Me is becoming a cliche, people can even right off December because they have it in their minds come January it will all change as they miraculously get a kick up the arse. There will be plenty of articles going around about goal setting and ‘kicking off your new year right’, but i’m going to discuss a key principle you can use for your training to ensure you don’t fall off the bandwagon with everyone else. It all revolves around finishing what you’ve started… Why it can work? Completing tasks gives us a great sense of achievement, our day revolves around it. Completion can seem a daunting word saved only for tasks worthy of sharing, but it doesn’t need to be. We can ‘hack’ our minds into a favourable state just by completing lots of small (possibly meaningless) tasks. Once we get our minds on a completion roll, the remaining tasks become much more attainable and easier to do. ‘No-one ever regretted working out’ I’m not sure who originally said this but it’s true and scaleable. You never regret a workout, or all the workouts you managed to complete in your week, month or block into a race. This is because it is your goal to do those workouts and by doing them you are completing tasks to achieve that goal. Sounds very simple, you have a goal and the way to achieve it is to complete small tasks along the way, but then, along comes procrastination, distractions and excuses. Using the finish what you’ve started approach might help to keep you on track, focused, motivated and winning. How to make it work? Stop multi tasking… We are not good at it, we lose focus, forget and become very unproductive when we multi task. One of the reasons we start to multi task is because starting things kicks us off down the 'completion feel good’ road. Our minds actually get a hit of dopamine from starting tasks but this soon turns back on us when we fail to complete them. Our minds become overwhelmed from multi tasking and its likely you’ll end up half-arsing 3 things instead of fully completing even 1. Eliminate distractions when training…The more you learn the less you know. This is usually used in academic contexts when talking about research but what if we look at it from a social media standpoint. The more you use social media the more you open your mind up to information you (1) don’t need and (2) want to know more on. The important part there is point (1), you simply don’t need it. From a training stand point, people don’t have too much time to spare in their day and the amount of comments I read on athletes who ‘ran out of time’ is far too many. You didn't ‘run out of time’ you just didn’t allocate your time correctly. Social media is amazing for sharing, motivating and connecting people but use it wisely. Allocate time to it, don’t just scroll through it without a purpose. Set tasks prior to your training sessions that both eliminates distractions and gets your task approach mind rolling!
Close all social applications
Turn off notifications/turn on do not disturb mode
Ask yourself ‘do I know the structure and purpose of this training session’?
The more you think about social media the crazier it gets, ultimately it is a never ending task… so does this mean our minds will never feel accomplished with it? Break your workouts down…The end of a three hour run or five hour bike, even a 60min CrossFit class can seem a life time away. Twenty minutes of a long session though, seems like nothing. As a coach I like to test my athletes physically and mentally. Some athletes love to have session structure, ready made bite size blocks they can tick off over and over, these guys do great with the finish what you’ve started method. Typical ways of breaking long unstructured sessions or races down is by; feeding intervals, time intervals, distance intervals and landmark intervals. It is a key skill to develop, particularly for longer distance athletes. Nope your coach isn’t being lazy giving you a four hour ride on feel or a two hour run by choice, they’re helping you develop this skill as come race day, it’s all down to you. Once you can develop this block structure approach, you begin to ’trick’ the mind into a completion state and the big picture of the session will take care of its self. Define a start and end point…If we don’t feel the task is fully complete we don’t get the hit of completion we crave and will begin to start other tasks to fuel our dopamine release. Do what you are doing until you have done it and make sure your brain knows the training task for the day is complete. Training starts the night before, or when you wake up, or when you press go on your Garmin. It doesn’t actually matter when training starts, what matters is what stops. Remember, we are terrible at multi tasking. If you are training and on WhatsApp or training and looking at emails you are not doing both optimally. Do one, or the other. Endurance training can be monotonous and one dimensional at times which can lead the brain into boredom and to start other tasks (like checking notifications) which as we know is a distraction from your training goals. CrossFit is intensive and require extreme focus, if you’re checking your phone every 5 min then you’re not maximising your focus. Some things like music, podcasts, audio books and youtube/netflix can be of value during longer sessions but they are ‘background noise’ that don’t take too much concentration. Thinking of words and sentences to say to people on email or WhatsApp takes a lot of concentration, ever spoke to someone who has one eye on something else? It’s pointless. So thinking you can focus on a conversation while also focusing on your session goals is naive, you cant. Knowing what needs to switch off when training starts is the key. This also means your brain… Go into each session with a mindset of ‘leave your problems at the door’. Thoughts of work and life will creep back into your mind but overshadow them with thoughts on the current task you are completing. Defining an end point makes sure you complete everything needed to ensure the session was successful.
Write down a tick list of;
1.Before tasks (nutrition, equipment etc…),
2.Session goals/structure
3.Post tasks (feedback, cleaning bike, washing etc...) to help you layout a completion path.
The finishing what you’ve started approach takes organisation, this is why it works, because you will become more organised. You may have a coach to help keep you accountable to it, you may have training partners, you may just have yourself. In all cases though, you need to be clear of your session expectations and pre and post session tasks. 2020 will be epic! So many goals are being set, lets make sure you finish what you start! By; Tom Walker, Endurance Coach

One-Hour Workout: Revving Your Swim Engine
