Tuesday, November 23, 2010

This is what happens when I take a day off!

You know what I love about Crossfit?! As soon as you get good at something, or feel you are good at something, coach introduces the next challenge and brings you back down to planet earth!  I can finally do pull-ups and what does coach Rich ask us to do yesterday, chest to bar pull-ups.  You'll notice in my pull-up post the other day that my chin is above the bar, my chest is far below the bar.  In order to complete these (70 when all was said and done) I had to go back to the green band and do one at a time.  Talk about feeling crushed!  I took it well though, I may have cursed the band a few times but I only punched it once and pushed through the workout.  On a positive note, I did double-unders with the jump rope instead of singles (this means the rope passes under your feet twice before your feet touch the bar again, vs. just once.)  I remember in elementary school doing the jump rope for heart (or something like that) fundraiser and I'm pretty sure I could do any fancy jump rope trick out there.  Now, well I've been working on getting the double-under down since I started over a month ago and was finally able to do it for the whole workout!

Anyways, I am rambling.  However, my point here is that there is always room for improvement.  The challenge, and what I'm learning to accept and nuture, is to be okay with knowing you will never be the best at something (well the majority of us won't) but you can work at being your best and that fitness doesn't occur over night, in a few months or even in a year.  Fitness is a lifestyle and everytime I achieve a goal, I need to set another one in order to keep pushing myself.  I need to learn to live with and appreciate when things are hard or difficult because that is where I learn to grow.  I, like many others, tend to hit the freak out button when I start to get out of breath, get tired, feel like I'm going to pass out.  I am trying to learn to live in that moment and push myself a bit harder because it only lasts for a moment.  The workout will end, but if I don't learn to push myself beyond that freak out point, I'll only be okay at most things, but never good, or great.  What I find motivating is learning what my weaknesses are (and trust me pretty much everything is a weakness right now!) and going home, thinking about them, watching videos, studying how to do it better the next time, then going back to the gym and tackeling it head on. 

I have tons of mini goals right now and things I'm trying to improve so I can build a strong base for crossfit.  I need to be able to do several non-assisted pull-ups.  I need to be able to do several non-assisted ring dips (yeah, the Olympic type rings), I need to be able to do a few handstand push-ups (I'm a soccer player, I like my feet firmly planted on the ground so this is a big one for me!), I need to perfect my overhead squat technique and my squat clean, I need to lose weight, I need to get faster, I need to run more, row more, jump more, lift more....  Normally this is the point where I would get discouraged.  I've said it before, I want overnight results.  I want to try something and be instantly good at it, otherwise why try it at all, right?!  I want to lose weight instantly.  If I work hard for 1 week I feel my body owes me something more than it's giving me.  This is where I am learning to grow, it's been a month and I've achieved some small goals, but what I'm most excited about it taking on the challenge of identifying all of my weaknesses and then figuring out a plan to improve upon them.

Long post, I know.  I had to take today off from the gym (I was at 8 days in a row, WAY too much for healthy recovery) so now I have all this energy and all I can think about it getting back in to the gym tomorrow.  For now I'll end with this commerical for the 2010 Crossfit Games.  I love it!  It inspires me and hopefully one year (2012?!) I'll get to go to sectionals and get a small taste of the Crossfit Games!


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