#thetrainingplan

I started my “competitive CrossFit career” in 2013. I was then 23 years old. I had played tennis and done some gymnastics in my youth, but never at a professional level. I’ve been doing CrossFit for a bit less than three years now and I’m constantly working hard and smart to improve. My best ranking in CF was at Finnish Karjalan Kovin 2014 where I took 8th place. I want to compete and be as successful as I can in this sport, therefore I put a lot of effort and time in it. Sometimes it requires taking steps back, and last year I stayed out of competitions and focused on improving especially my basic conditioning and weightlifting technique, so I could go hard again in the upcoming years. This year I wanted to find a detailed, high-volume CF program and after hearing a lot of positive things about the TTP, I decided to give it a try.

I have to point out that I’ve done most of the weightlifting sessions with my coach Anni Vuohijoki, since I’m attending the Finnish Weightlifting Championships this month. The sessions are quite similar to TTP though, and the amount of time invested in weightlifting is equivalent. The swimming sessions I’ve done a bit differently as well since I’ve worked with an experienced friend to figure out the technique of freestyle. Anyway, my swimming sessions have been always on Wednesdays, according to the program.

I’ve followed two different box programmings and trained with several coaches before. Where TTP stands out the most is definitely in the volume. The sessions always take at least 2 hours to complete. I like to do a lot of stuff in the beginning so it’s not uncommon for me to train for 3 hours. This year I have time (finished my school last year), therefore I can commit to it. That wouldn’t have been possible in the past years. It wouldn’t have been smart either, I don’t think I would have adapted to it.

The first and second week after starting the program I was a bit frightened, I have to say. Really, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. All my old small issues came back - my knee hurt, my lower back hurt and my ankle hurt. I was quite exhausted and it was really tough to finish the sessions. I had to leave some stuff undone, not full days but some of the workouts within a session. My appetite was also low. But after two weeks something quite magical happened and I started to adapt. I started to feel powerful, energized and got a better appetite. A CF competitor, Maaren Ali-Marttila, told me that the volume is high but “no worries, you will get used to it!”. I’m glad I believed her.

The progress and recovery happens outside the gym. This practically means that in addition to investing time for the training, I also have to plan time for naps (every day) and other different recovery methods during the day. I like using the sauna in the middle of the day and just relax at home. I work from home and I’ve also started coaching a bit, so I can do active recovery (stretching, foamrolling etc.) at the box. If I would live on a tight schedule, my recovery would suffer from stressing out. And I speak from experience. That’s why it’s important to remember that TTP is designed for people who already compete, in other words have at least some background in this sport. I have heard about people who have started this but had to quit because of a) overtraining b) not finding the time for it because of work, family or something else.

For me, this program seems to fit like a glove. I’m improving with scores at a fast pace and that’s great motivation.

The benefits TTP has so far brought me are:

1.     Seeing how well my body adapts to increased volume

2.     Not having the opportunity to skip my biggest weaknesses. For me it’s the muscle-ups, and they have appeared in the program twice a week.

3.     There have been a lot of pulling exercises, that cover a big part of my weaknesses. I have improved already a lot in them and actually got my first bar muscle up!

What I was missing mostly in the first weeks was better peer support for the competition program. Something like WODconnect would help, as it has worked well for me before. However, I’ve found some ways around this and put up a Facebook group with people around Finland who follow the same program. I’ve also done the workouts with friends and it always pushes me a bit extra and makes it more fun. Now I’ll just have to convince a few more friends to TTP so we can have fun with it together. I constantly reach out to people who do or have done TTP to get some more peer support. I do hope there would be some changes with this in the future. It would be nice to compare results with others and have the possibility to comment and get comments on the training.

Overall I’m very satisfied with TTP and find myself planning the workouts for the next day with excitement. That’s a very good sign, that the plan is motivating and exciting.

These were my feelings with the program after one month. Let’s see how this journey continues when I write about my feelings after three months with TTP! Feel free to comment if you’re wondering about something about the plan.

Stefanie Hagelstam

www.steffit.com