Almost Doesn't Cut It

Today was a fun day at the gym. It was week three of the CrossFit Open.  I have to admit, I want to have this type of challenge 52 weeks a year, and am thankful for the upbeat and encouraging environment at CrossFit DC.

Today's workout was an 18-minute workout, for as many rounds as you can of 15 box jumps, 12 push press, and 9 toes to bar.

Toes to bar is just like it sounds, you basically hang from a pullup bar, and touch your toes to that bar. Going into it, I knew that toes to bar would be the biggest challenge for me, as I have never really properly done them, nor practiced them much. To be honest, in the past, I have kind of let myself slide a bit with it, convincing myself that I don't need to get good at them.  Why? Because the are really really hard for me. This is a silly reason, one I'll put my hand up and admit, move on, and then go conquer them.

So you're probably thinking that I'm now going to tell you, I started the workout, had an amazing performance, and hit all my toes to bars. Nope. 

I watched a lot of other people rock the workout, speeding through 5, 6, 7 rounds. I did the box jumps and the push press, and then a fun16-minutes and 50-seconds of attempted toes to bar. Not a round! It was hard work too. Somehow I created 2 blisters (small ones), and opened up a callus (for the first time during a workout) on both my hands. I attempted who knows how many of those toes to bars. A LOT of them were close, like less than an inch from completion, and I  was going all out.

The workout wasn't frustrating, because the way my perspective is, I got 16-minutes and 50-seconds of straight coaching on how to get better at this exercise! Admittedly, the box and barbell looked a little lonely, and it would have been so much more fun to jump and push press, but this was needed.

It was also good that Chris didn't let me slide through with "almost toes to bar." I got 5 full ones. A few that were literally 1/4 inch away from the bar, he didn't count. For real, I am thankful for that. In 2011's CrossFit Open, either toes to bar or knees to elbows (a little easier) appeared in one of the workouts. I can't remember which, because I didn't even do knees to elbows; it was like "feet off ground; good." Skating by doesn't teach you anything, nor does it help you get better. It teaches you that you can skate by.

"Almost" doesn't cut it (even in the little things).

"I almost got that job" or "I almost paid my cell phone bill" or "honey, I almost want to marry you." Can you imagine?!

It's easy to forget that accomplishing something is a process. That instant success (at anything!) is kind of silly and not really long term. You can have instant success at something, get excited, and then forget about it, because it didn't  really change you. If you could already do it, or it wasn't hard, it's forgettable and eventually it doesn't mean much. In a great book called The Slight Edge, by Jeff Olson, he says that doing things that will make you successful are easy to do AND easy not to do. Let's all agree to just do the hard stuff and get it over with. 

Today was not a failure in the bad sense of the word failure. It is a chance to learn, improve, and get inspired to do better. Just this week, I was reading about Sara Blakely, the creator of SPANX and now America's youngest female billionaire at 41. She says that growing up, every night at the dinner table, her dad would ask her what she failed at that day. Doing this, he took away the fear of the failure, and encouraged her to seek out failure, in order to be successful. She did pretty good with that advice!

CrossFit & "The Principle"

"Team Chill" @ Balance Gym CrossFit Bowl 2012

Today I lived and acted out a principle I have believed in for years. A principle that I even define as the core of my business practices and coaching. It was a principle that I had almost forgotten in my own life, until today. The principle is:

You can always do more than you think you can (and you can do even more when you are mentally prepared)

Just today, I competed in a CrossFit competition with CrossFit Balance. It was intended for all levels, with the ability to scale weights, so the competition ranged from elite to newer athletes. It was a team competition compiled of 2 guys and 2 gals. My team was 2 of my trainer colleagues, Duncan and Will, and a new friend, and strong competitor, Rachel. It was also amazing to see so many CrossFit DC friends whom I haven't seen in a couple of years, running this event and competing. It was electric.

We competed in 3 workouts:

1. 8-min AMRAP (as many reps as possible) with Deadlifts. All 4 of us competed, with 4 different weights. One person reps at a time, going for as many as they can unbroken. We had to switch out the weights as we went on. Our team performed flawlessly & efficiently, placing us at the top, after the first event.

2. Will & Rachel performed this one (thank goodness!). It was 3 rounds a piece of 12 hand release burpees, 24 situps on an ab mat, and about a 50-foot bear crawl (my least favorite exercise of all time!)

3. This one was me & Duncan. Another 8-min AMRAP, we had to press a bar over head from chest level, as many times as we could and then run 8 sprints, before the other could shoulder press. The sprints counted for nothing, only the overhead reps contributed to the score, so speed was key, as well as strategy. With this event we finished in the top 3, which was awesome!

Confession time. Leading up to this event and for the last 2 months or so, I have kind of let myself go a bit with my workouts. These are not excuses, but I think my career transition/focus & my move to a new apartment took up a lot more mental & physical energy than I was prepared for. When Duncan told me we were doing this (I don't think I actually had a choice!), I was super nervous. I didn't want to be the weak link and hold everyone back. I knew I had let myself go a bit, and basically just didn't want to suck.

All week leading up, I prepared myself mentally. I spoke words of victory, strength, and encouragement. So did others around me.

There were a ton of strong strong women at this competition, lifting way heavier weights than me, including my teammate. It was inspiring to see what I could do if I focused on it!

Before the first workout, I prayed for strength and stamina. And boy, did He give it to me. During the deadlift workout, I repped out 16 in the first set (that's 6 more reps than my previous rep max at this particular weight back when I was actually in CrossFit shape!), AND I could have kept going, but I thought pacing would be better, since I'd have to do it again. My original goal (what I thought I could do was 6-8 reps per set!) Exhiliration does not even begin to describe how I felt after accomplishing this.

In the third workout, again, I outperformed my own expectation again, because I didn't limit myself during the workout, based on what I had "planned" to do. I am pretty sure I yelled a bit for the first time ever, in a workout! It also helped that Duncan went before me and repped out 30 at his weight, so I kept pushing to 20 reps, in the first round.

How?

Mental preparedness, a will not quit attitude, and an awesome team around not only supporting me, but doing the work too! In my opinion, this trifecta makes you unstoppable in any area of life.

I had forgotten this. Or maybe just not experienced it in a while. So here's the message:

1) Do not limit yourself to what you think you can do
2) Do not call yourself weak, don't tell yourself that you've let yourself go, or that you suck...it may actually come true if you speak that on yourself 
3) Put yourself in situations outside your comfort zone. I promise, you will feel alive and exhilirated if you do!
4) Punch out the ceiling. Who says you can't, shouldn't, won't. Just do it anyway!