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Two Years On
From CrossFit champ to running struggle, lessons learned in fitness
At first I was gonna write about what my plan would be for the next two years, but apparently that’s not what “Two years on” means. According to Tom, an article can’t be about something that is in the future, it needs to be about lessons learned, experiences, things that have gone wrong or anything that would bring any value to your readers. Mmmmh makes sense!
OK, let’s see if I can recall what was going on in my life two years ago…
March 2019, this means Crossfit OPEN season. I was giving my absolute best every weekend to make it on top of the leaderboard of my country Belgium. After five stressful weeks of competing, I was the national champion and that gave me a ticket to The Crossfit Games 2019.
I thought my fitness level was pretty good after being serious with training, nutrition and recovery during the whole year. But It didn’t show at the competition as it exposed my Achilles heel, not something I wasn’t aware off but I was kinda with peace to the fact I wasn’t a great runner. Like I said “was at peace” this all changed after the games and being eliminated out of competition after day two.
2019 was the year that Greg Glassman (founder and ex-CEO of Crossfit) made a bunch of adjustment to the games format. One of them was having more people at the games by letting the national champions of each country enter the competition. With in my case was great!
Another rule was that each event would have a cut off, until there was only 10 athletes remaining on the last day.
In the four day competition, I had made it till the first event of day two.
Which was a 6k run with a weighted rug sack, yeah I knew this wasn’t gonna be a great event for me. Although I gave my very best and attacked it with a positive mindset and was even pleased with my performance on it. As I ran as hard as I could. Unfortunately my very best was still a pathetic performance if you compare it to the other athletes. Bye bye Boz - You are out!
This was a breakpoint in my running mindset. I’ll come back to this later on..
The biggest thing I’d learned about my self is that I’ve never worked hard to learn something and that I’m a lazy person/ athlete.
Things come easy to me I pick up new movements quickly and I never really had to work hard to be good at a gymnastic movement or even weightlifting came naturally to me, so I preferred to work on those areas. Running was a different story, although I would do my planned running sessions. I never worked hard enough to get better at it. Told myself “it was ok, you can’t be good at everything and you will make up a bad running event on a lifting event”
Which is true and how I’ve made it through most competition and done pretty well but not at the Games.
How has this effected my goals and training now?
I told myself when I got back that I will make a changes and will do everything to become a better runner. “I won’t compete as an individual until I can run.”
After having a little break during the end of 2019. When I got back from traveling mid January 2020 I was committed to get better and set up a few things to help improve my running abilities.
Find a running partner that talks a lot but also knows when to shut up
Run 3 times / week
Have a running coach
Work on running technique
Then I’ve set myself a few goals and until I can hit those I’m not allowed to compete as an individual in Crossfit.
My lifting will have to be on hold until I can run a sub 50 min 10 k and sub 4 hour marathon.
Now this is coming close to be achieved and has sparked a new challenge I’ve set for myself. Something that has been on my mind for almost a year and that is to keep my running game strong and build my weightlifting back up at the same time.
The challenge Is to snatch 100kg and run a sub 4 hour marathon in the same day. Preferably in a five hour window.
My running mindset has completely shifted, now I enjoy going out for a long or a relative short run. I guess I can say a short run now used to be a long run that used to knock me out for the rest of the day.
I never thought I would love to just run and my leg would move without thinking of picking them up. They don’t feel like bricks anymore which is quite nice for a change.
I’m excited and scared at the same time to start lifting again… I know it’s going to be hard to combine both but that’s part of the fun!
Anyway If you need to take one thing out of this - work fucking harder on the things you not good at or don’t like to do.
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
At first I was gonna write about what my plan would be for the next two years, but apparently that’s not what “Two years on” means. According to Tom, an article can’t be about something that is in the future, it needs to be about lessons learned, experiences, things that have gone wrong or anything that would bring any value to your readers. Mmmmh makes sense!
OK, let’s see if I can recall what was going on in my life two years ago…
March 2019, this means Crossfit OPEN season. I was giving my absolute best every weekend to make it on top of the leaderboard of my country Belgium. After five stressful weeks of competing, I was the national champion and that gave me a ticket to The Crossfit Games 2019.
I thought my fitness level was pretty good after being serious with training, nutrition and recovery during the whole year. But It didn’t show at the competition as it exposed my Achilles heel, not something I wasn’t aware off but I was kinda with peace to the fact I wasn’t a great runner. Like I said “was at peace” this all changed after the games and being eliminated out of competition after day two.
2019 was the year that Greg Glassman (founder and ex-CEO of Crossfit) made a bunch of adjustment to the games format. One of them was having more people at the games by letting the national champions of each country enter the competition. With in my case was great!
Another rule was that each event would have a cut off, until there was only 10 athletes remaining on the last day.
In the four day competition, I had made it till the first event of day two.
Which was a 6k run with a weighted rug sack, yeah I knew this wasn’t gonna be a great event for me. Although I gave my very best and attacked it with a positive mindset and was even pleased with my performance on it. As I ran as hard as I could. Unfortunately my very best was still a pathetic performance if you compare it to the other athletes. Bye bye Boz - You are out!
This was a breakpoint in my running mindset. I’ll come back to this later on..
The biggest thing I’d learned about my self is that I’ve never worked hard to learn something and that I’m a lazy person/ athlete.
Things come easy to me I pick up new movements quickly and I never really had to work hard to be good at a gymnastic movement or even weightlifting came naturally to me, so I preferred to work on those areas. Running was a different story, although I would do my planned running sessions. I never worked hard enough to get better at it. Told myself “it was ok, you can’t be good at everything and you will make up a bad running event on a lifting event”
Which is true and how I’ve made it through most competition and done pretty well but not at the Games.
How has this effected my goals and training now?
I told myself when I got back that I will make a changes and will do everything to become a better runner. “I won’t compete as an individual until I can run.”
After having a little break during the end of 2019. When I got back from traveling mid January 2020 I was committed to get better and set up a few things to help improve my running abilities.
Find a running partner that talks a lot but also knows when to shut up
Run 3 times / week
Have a running coach
Work on running technique
Then I’ve set myself a few goals and until I can hit those I’m not allowed to compete as an individual in Crossfit.
My lifting will have to be on hold until I can run a sub 50 min 10 k and sub 4 hour marathon.
Now this is coming close to be achieved and has sparked a new challenge I’ve set for myself. Something that has been on my mind for almost a year and that is to keep my running game strong and build my weightlifting back up at the same time.
The challenge Is to snatch 100kg and run a sub 4 hour marathon in the same day. Preferably in a five hour window.
My running mindset has completely shifted, now I enjoy going out for a long or a relative short run. I guess I can say a short run now used to be a long run that used to knock me out for the rest of the day.
I never thought I would love to just run and my leg would move without thinking of picking them up. They don’t feel like bricks anymore which is quite nice for a change.
I’m excited and scared at the same time to start lifting again… I know it’s going to be hard to combine both but that’s part of the fun!
Anyway If you need to take one thing out of this - work fucking harder on the things you not good at or don’t like to do.
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.
At first I was gonna write about what my plan would be for the next two years, but apparently that’s not what “Two years on” means. According to Tom, an article can’t be about something that is in the future, it needs to be about lessons learned, experiences, things that have gone wrong or anything that would bring any value to your readers. Mmmmh makes sense!
OK, let’s see if I can recall what was going on in my life two years ago…
March 2019, this means Crossfit OPEN season. I was giving my absolute best every weekend to make it on top of the leaderboard of my country Belgium. After five stressful weeks of competing, I was the national champion and that gave me a ticket to The Crossfit Games 2019.
I thought my fitness level was pretty good after being serious with training, nutrition and recovery during the whole year. But It didn’t show at the competition as it exposed my Achilles heel, not something I wasn’t aware off but I was kinda with peace to the fact I wasn’t a great runner. Like I said “was at peace” this all changed after the games and being eliminated out of competition after day two.
2019 was the year that Greg Glassman (founder and ex-CEO of Crossfit) made a bunch of adjustment to the games format. One of them was having more people at the games by letting the national champions of each country enter the competition. With in my case was great!
Another rule was that each event would have a cut off, until there was only 10 athletes remaining on the last day.
In the four day competition, I had made it till the first event of day two.
Which was a 6k run with a weighted rug sack, yeah I knew this wasn’t gonna be a great event for me. Although I gave my very best and attacked it with a positive mindset and was even pleased with my performance on it. As I ran as hard as I could. Unfortunately my very best was still a pathetic performance if you compare it to the other athletes. Bye bye Boz - You are out!
This was a breakpoint in my running mindset. I’ll come back to this later on..
The biggest thing I’d learned about my self is that I’ve never worked hard to learn something and that I’m a lazy person/ athlete.
Things come easy to me I pick up new movements quickly and I never really had to work hard to be good at a gymnastic movement or even weightlifting came naturally to me, so I preferred to work on those areas. Running was a different story, although I would do my planned running sessions. I never worked hard enough to get better at it. Told myself “it was ok, you can’t be good at everything and you will make up a bad running event on a lifting event”
Which is true and how I’ve made it through most competition and done pretty well but not at the Games.
How has this effected my goals and training now?
I told myself when I got back that I will make a changes and will do everything to become a better runner. “I won’t compete as an individual until I can run.”
After having a little break during the end of 2019. When I got back from traveling mid January 2020 I was committed to get better and set up a few things to help improve my running abilities.
Find a running partner that talks a lot but also knows when to shut up
Run 3 times / week
Have a running coach
Work on running technique
Then I’ve set myself a few goals and until I can hit those I’m not allowed to compete as an individual in Crossfit.
My lifting will have to be on hold until I can run a sub 50 min 10 k and sub 4 hour marathon.
Now this is coming close to be achieved and has sparked a new challenge I’ve set for myself. Something that has been on my mind for almost a year and that is to keep my running game strong and build my weightlifting back up at the same time.
The challenge Is to snatch 100kg and run a sub 4 hour marathon in the same day. Preferably in a five hour window.
My running mindset has completely shifted, now I enjoy going out for a long or a relative short run. I guess I can say a short run now used to be a long run that used to knock me out for the rest of the day.
I never thought I would love to just run and my leg would move without thinking of picking them up. They don’t feel like bricks anymore which is quite nice for a change.
I’m excited and scared at the same time to start lifting again… I know it’s going to be hard to combine both but that’s part of the fun!
Anyway If you need to take one thing out of this - work fucking harder on the things you not good at or don’t like to do.
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.
At first I was gonna write about what my plan would be for the next two years, but apparently that’s not what “Two years on” means. According to Tom, an article can’t be about something that is in the future, it needs to be about lessons learned, experiences, things that have gone wrong or anything that would bring any value to your readers. Mmmmh makes sense!
OK, let’s see if I can recall what was going on in my life two years ago…
March 2019, this means Crossfit OPEN season. I was giving my absolute best every weekend to make it on top of the leaderboard of my country Belgium. After five stressful weeks of competing, I was the national champion and that gave me a ticket to The Crossfit Games 2019.
I thought my fitness level was pretty good after being serious with training, nutrition and recovery during the whole year. But It didn’t show at the competition as it exposed my Achilles heel, not something I wasn’t aware off but I was kinda with peace to the fact I wasn’t a great runner. Like I said “was at peace” this all changed after the games and being eliminated out of competition after day two.
2019 was the year that Greg Glassman (founder and ex-CEO of Crossfit) made a bunch of adjustment to the games format. One of them was having more people at the games by letting the national champions of each country enter the competition. With in my case was great!
Another rule was that each event would have a cut off, until there was only 10 athletes remaining on the last day.
In the four day competition, I had made it till the first event of day two.
Which was a 6k run with a weighted rug sack, yeah I knew this wasn’t gonna be a great event for me. Although I gave my very best and attacked it with a positive mindset and was even pleased with my performance on it. As I ran as hard as I could. Unfortunately my very best was still a pathetic performance if you compare it to the other athletes. Bye bye Boz - You are out!
This was a breakpoint in my running mindset. I’ll come back to this later on..
The biggest thing I’d learned about my self is that I’ve never worked hard to learn something and that I’m a lazy person/ athlete.
Things come easy to me I pick up new movements quickly and I never really had to work hard to be good at a gymnastic movement or even weightlifting came naturally to me, so I preferred to work on those areas. Running was a different story, although I would do my planned running sessions. I never worked hard enough to get better at it. Told myself “it was ok, you can’t be good at everything and you will make up a bad running event on a lifting event”
Which is true and how I’ve made it through most competition and done pretty well but not at the Games.
How has this effected my goals and training now?
I told myself when I got back that I will make a changes and will do everything to become a better runner. “I won’t compete as an individual until I can run.”
After having a little break during the end of 2019. When I got back from traveling mid January 2020 I was committed to get better and set up a few things to help improve my running abilities.
Find a running partner that talks a lot but also knows when to shut up
Run 3 times / week
Have a running coach
Work on running technique
Then I’ve set myself a few goals and until I can hit those I’m not allowed to compete as an individual in Crossfit.
My lifting will have to be on hold until I can run a sub 50 min 10 k and sub 4 hour marathon.
Now this is coming close to be achieved and has sparked a new challenge I’ve set for myself. Something that has been on my mind for almost a year and that is to keep my running game strong and build my weightlifting back up at the same time.
The challenge Is to snatch 100kg and run a sub 4 hour marathon in the same day. Preferably in a five hour window.
My running mindset has completely shifted, now I enjoy going out for a long or a relative short run. I guess I can say a short run now used to be a long run that used to knock me out for the rest of the day.
I never thought I would love to just run and my leg would move without thinking of picking them up. They don’t feel like bricks anymore which is quite nice for a change.
I’m excited and scared at the same time to start lifting again… I know it’s going to be hard to combine both but that’s part of the fun!
Anyway If you need to take one thing out of this - work fucking harder on the things you not good at or don’t like to do.
At first I was gonna write about what my plan would be for the next two years, but apparently that’s not what “Two years on” means. According to Tom, an article can’t be about something that is in the future, it needs to be about lessons learned, experiences, things that have gone wrong or anything that would bring any value to your readers. Mmmmh makes sense!
OK, let’s see if I can recall what was going on in my life two years ago…
March 2019, this means Crossfit OPEN season. I was giving my absolute best every weekend to make it on top of the leaderboard of my country Belgium. After five stressful weeks of competing, I was the national champion and that gave me a ticket to The Crossfit Games 2019.
I thought my fitness level was pretty good after being serious with training, nutrition and recovery during the whole year. But It didn’t show at the competition as it exposed my Achilles heel, not something I wasn’t aware off but I was kinda with peace to the fact I wasn’t a great runner. Like I said “was at peace” this all changed after the games and being eliminated out of competition after day two.
2019 was the year that Greg Glassman (founder and ex-CEO of Crossfit) made a bunch of adjustment to the games format. One of them was having more people at the games by letting the national champions of each country enter the competition. With in my case was great!
Another rule was that each event would have a cut off, until there was only 10 athletes remaining on the last day.
In the four day competition, I had made it till the first event of day two.
Which was a 6k run with a weighted rug sack, yeah I knew this wasn’t gonna be a great event for me. Although I gave my very best and attacked it with a positive mindset and was even pleased with my performance on it. As I ran as hard as I could. Unfortunately my very best was still a pathetic performance if you compare it to the other athletes. Bye bye Boz - You are out!
This was a breakpoint in my running mindset. I’ll come back to this later on..
The biggest thing I’d learned about my self is that I’ve never worked hard to learn something and that I’m a lazy person/ athlete.
Things come easy to me I pick up new movements quickly and I never really had to work hard to be good at a gymnastic movement or even weightlifting came naturally to me, so I preferred to work on those areas. Running was a different story, although I would do my planned running sessions. I never worked hard enough to get better at it. Told myself “it was ok, you can’t be good at everything and you will make up a bad running event on a lifting event”
Which is true and how I’ve made it through most competition and done pretty well but not at the Games.
How has this effected my goals and training now?
I told myself when I got back that I will make a changes and will do everything to become a better runner. “I won’t compete as an individual until I can run.”
After having a little break during the end of 2019. When I got back from traveling mid January 2020 I was committed to get better and set up a few things to help improve my running abilities.
Find a running partner that talks a lot but also knows when to shut up
Run 3 times / week
Have a running coach
Work on running technique
Then I’ve set myself a few goals and until I can hit those I’m not allowed to compete as an individual in Crossfit.
My lifting will have to be on hold until I can run a sub 50 min 10 k and sub 4 hour marathon.
Now this is coming close to be achieved and has sparked a new challenge I’ve set for myself. Something that has been on my mind for almost a year and that is to keep my running game strong and build my weightlifting back up at the same time.
The challenge Is to snatch 100kg and run a sub 4 hour marathon in the same day. Preferably in a five hour window.
My running mindset has completely shifted, now I enjoy going out for a long or a relative short run. I guess I can say a short run now used to be a long run that used to knock me out for the rest of the day.
I never thought I would love to just run and my leg would move without thinking of picking them up. They don’t feel like bricks anymore which is quite nice for a change.
I’m excited and scared at the same time to start lifting again… I know it’s going to be hard to combine both but that’s part of the fun!
Anyway If you need to take one thing out of this - work fucking harder on the things you not good at or don’t like to do.
One-Hour Workout: Revving Your Swim Engine
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