Crossfit @ 2 Years

      Look at my face. I don't want to pick up that bar, but I am going to. Twice. Then I am going to do the other 3 competition workouts, still feeling the dread.  It is game day and I am not on my game. It doesn't matter, because I am not allowed to give up.  So I  "embrace the suck" and do the best that I can.

 

     I imagined my anniversary blog would be about how much I can lift, or how fast I can run or all the skills I can now do. I am definitely fitter, stronger and faster.  Still somehow, what I have learned this past year can't be measured. At first, I thought I was upping my mental game. But I have done several 5ks, where I had no mental game and still finished in 35 minutes.  There is something else at work here. Something that cuts through all the BS:  This sucks, I suck, I don't feel good, I'm tired, I don't want to do this, why am I doing this, etc.

 

     My most important progress this year has been intangible. The best word I can come up to describe it is- tenacity.  I don't quit, even when I want to quit. I show up, take a deep breath and start. I trust myself, even when fear and doubt creep in and try to sabotage my efforts.  I am confident that if I start, I will find the strength to fight to the finish.   

 

     CrossFit has made me generally better at life.  Doing hard things is empowering and what I experience at CrossFit has carried over into the rest of my life.  I could gush on and on about it, but instead I'll keep it simple: CrossFit makes me a better person.  That's why I am going to keep doing it.

 

“The hardest thing about Crossfit is starting – the second hardest thing is stopping once you’ve started” -http://if-fit.com/crossfit-quotes/

 

      If you are interested, I also did a post on my first 6 months at CrossFit.  Here is a quick exert about where I started from:

"I have no athletic background and have not being doing any kind of regular exercise program for over a year. I am so far out of my comfort zone and am nearly hyperventilating when my class starts. I make it through the next four hours completely bewildered by all the new terminology and ways I am supposed to maneuver my body around a barbell. I manage to not cry, throw-up or pass out- that is something!  I go home and hit up the ibuprofen and promise myself I will stick with this for 3 months, 3 times a week."