Let us resolve not to beat ourselves up.
Let us decide that each effort, fully given, is enough.
Let us not engage in self-imposed mental cruelty whereby we say to ourselves, “If only I had done it this way” or “Why the heck didn’t I do that?” over and over again in some kind of self-punishment circle of hell.
Let us not call ourselves names or speak poorly about our abilities. No “I’m so weak” or “I’m pathetic” or “I’ll never be able to do this.”
None of that helps, really. We are who we are. We have what we have. All we can do is give each effort fully, totally, in that moment. And that will be enough. It must be enough.
Some days, we will be better. Some days, we will suck. That’s life. Just work hard and get the **** over it.
Whether it’s in the gym, trying to eat “Zone” and not “Zone-ish”, or in our lives as partners and parents and workers and sons and daughters . . . we must give all we have and then walk away from the effort. Learn what we can. Improve what we must. But not become our own worst enemy.
CrossFit encourages competition — and we should embrace that aspect of ourselves that makes us want to drive harder and be more than the man or woman standing next to us. That is good and healthy and real. But we must be careful to take what we should from an experience and no more. Mark Twain once said, “We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it – and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit on a hot stove lid again – and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.”
Many of us are what people call “Type A” personalities. We are achievers and leaders and inexplicable energetic forces of nature. The pressure is always on, the heat is always turned up, we only know this way to live our lives and not some other. But let us learn to turn that energy outward onto the wall-ball, and the barbell, and the kettlebell — and not inward to attack us.
Let us be human to ourselves.
And let us go forth and kick a** in the gym.
May 18th, 2010 at 7:52 am
Thank you for this post!!! I needed this!
May 18th, 2010 at 8:17 am
I am with you *Di! Looking at what’s in store for us this week end! LIFE is GOOD and were going to give 110% and we are who we are. Can’t wait to “Enjoy” the sport of Crossfit in NY with the most amazing people alive <3
Thanks Lis, Great timing
May 18th, 2010 at 8:25 am
Housekeeping note: 12 of 12 5pm Rockstars noted their names and times. 7 of 14 6pmers did so.
Interpret that however you will . . .
May 18th, 2010 at 8:26 am
And thanks Suzi and Dianne!
Albannnnnnnny! Whoo hoo!
May 18th, 2010 at 9:22 am
awesome post Lis!
May 18th, 2010 at 9:22 am
You are sooo right Lis (but then you usually are) most days it works but some days it doesn’t work at all. So you learn and come back the day and do it again!!!
I so envy all of you going to Albany this weekend. Have fun and push Meliss through…
May 18th, 2010 at 9:56 am
We started another 6pm column on the right because there was no room. Some 6pmers got stuck on the left in some sort of scary nameless category
May 18th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Great post!
Yeah, I am with Taylor on not writing my stuff in the correct spot – in my post workout haze I thought that “6pm” to the right said “6am”, so I just found some space on the left and went with it. I call it “Constantly Varied Whiteboarding”
May 18th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Nate, was that a 368? Impressive.
May 18th, 2010 at 10:49 am
Hmmm. Likely story, you 6pmers you.
Who’s in for the 5pm today? Yeah, I better go sign up in ZP . . .
May 18th, 2010 at 10:50 am
And Beery, Nate got 358 on sit-ups alone, he threw in 10 Power Cleans and then read a magazine for the rest of the time.
May 18th, 2010 at 10:54 am
@beery: Yup. Sit-ups are my friend. F-in Matt though.
Signed up for 6 all Zen like.
May 18th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Haha, exactly. Lis beat me to it.
May 18th, 2010 at 11:04 am
I’m signed up for the 6pm but I think I’m going to be in the 5pm
May 18th, 2010 at 11:16 am
I have a new goal that will encompass all my previously listed goals. I wanna be like Matt!!! I wanna show up and kick ass everyday, and I want to do it with a smile!
May 18th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Matt is a stud.
May 18th, 2010 at 11:43 am
A much needed read after a frustrating morning with the barbell, thanks Lis.
May 18th, 2010 at 11:45 am
Okay, sorry for the long post but here goes. Andy (the guy who runs the Death Race) got back to me. The registration for 2011 begins June 1 and they are currently only accepting 100 participants but I’m guessing the popularity of the last few years might inspire them to open some more slots. Anyone who’s ever finished is guaranteed a spot but that’s less than 30 people and most of them don’t want to do it twice. Jun Jun (sounds like he’s just making up names) is the race administrator and she’ll (he’ll?) email me when registration opens officially. I’m thinking the cost will be less than $100 and I told him that I have some people that might be interested. I hope that’s true.
Upon reading and watching some of the videos I think I have a pretty good idea of what previous years have entailed. The race covers approximately 10 miles and has a number of challenges that are not known either in quantity or detail to the participants beforehand and they only learn the next event after completing the current event. The race has a 24 hour time cap and a two hour cap per challenge before you’re disqualified. It starts at 4am when the participants have to crawl through a mud bog, under barbed wire (the real stuff, not that crap from the tough mudder) with an ax in hand, then they have to find their bibs attached to a tree stump and chop the stump out of the ground, carry it back to the starting line where they given a bike frame and a bucket of stuff that they have to keep with them indefinitely. Next is a mile or two jog up river (in the river) with all the crap the race officials gave you. Hike up a mountain (for some reason I think it’s a 2000 ft vertical) use their ax to quarter 20 logs then memorize a list of US presidents. after descending they have to recite the list of presidents from memory to one of the judges, and if they fail to do so they have to climb back up to consult their list. Awesome yet? I know. Then it’s on to a very similar challenge involving a cube of 23 multi-colored legos that participants must view at the top of a hill after crawling under more barbed wire and reassemble at the bottom. Same rules as the presidents. I’m not sure of the order of things because there’s not really any detailed info but the next challenge seems to involve some sort of easter egg hunt where participants have to find a raw egg somewhere in field and cook it then consume it. Apparently they where given matches somewhere along the course and hopefully kept them dry, otherwise they’re rubbing sticks together. Once they eat the egg in front of a judge they are finally given the wheels to the bike frames that they’ve been lugging around for the entire race. Then it’s on to acquire the bike chain which one of the volunteers tosses into the middle of a pond and the participant has to jump and and retrieve. After they fully assemble the bike the judges make them ride it around the small pond, then I can only assume they laugh at participants for carrying a bike for about 10 hours only to ride it for a minute. Next, they load those buckets they’ve been carrying with 20% of their body weight in rocks and drag it up another mountain. There, they’re told to go back down, dump the rocks and come back up with a bucket full of water. Finally it’s a sprint to the finish. Also, the whole race, the judges and volunteers are trying to get you to drop out and telling you how stupid you are for subjecting yourself to this. Of course I’m signing up for this.
The co-winners last year finished in 11:31 with third guy coming in just over 12:00 and the remaining 11 finishers were around 20:00 or more.
Thanks again Mikey.
May 18th, 2010 at 11:46 am
So who’s in?
May 18th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Beery, if you want I’ll run training for you on this event. First up, I’d like you run naked down Main Street while I fire the air gun at you. Then you must stop in the Dunkin Donuts, eat 14 Boston Cremes and perform 14 burpees. Then you can put your clothes back on and go to a job interview at Crystal Rock Water Company on Buckingham Street. You must pole vault there and pass OJoe’s, where you must eat 36 of their hottest wings, bones and all, but consume no beverages. After you arrive at your interview at Crystal Rock and ace it, when they discuss salary, you must respond with “Water? Who drinks water? That’s so stupid. I only drink Coke” and then demand they bring you a Coke or you’re going to take all your clothes off again. After drinking the Coke in one gulp, you must run to Boston, taking the left lane of the Mass Turnpike while carrying a stray dog on your shoulders. Upon arrival in Boston, you may rest for 30 min, then we start training again.
May 18th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Make it 14 chocolate glazed doughnuts and I’m in. I’m not a big fan of Boston Creme.
May 18th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Okay, but only if you promise to pick them up without using your hands.
May 18th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Not sure if I can make 5pm class. Back feels like I’m broken in two
May 18th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Oh no. I wish I could solve your mattress issues. Feel better, chica.
May 18th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Beery, I think Matt wants to do the death race.
May 18th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Great post Lis!
May 18th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
So when is this race of awesomeness actually taking place? We may need to practice making fires as part of the warmups.
I also seriously can’t believe Barry went out of his way to email Andy – and sober too…
May 18th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
I too would be interested in the race. Sounds more fun than the 12 mile tough mudder in NJ.
May 18th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
great post¡¡¡
a big hug from CrossFit XF Chile¡¡¡
May 18th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Saludos a Ricardo de CrossFit Chile
May 18th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
This topic is close to my mental status lately. Always in the back of my head is “why bother you never truly finish the whole thing, and you are never going to do it as well as everyone else”. I need to apply a different attitude and not be my own worst enemy!
Thanks for the post!
May 18th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Not sure if everyone has the links on their page or not, but today’s fantastic blog was referenced in Crossfit Peru’s blog today. I’m also not sure what it says, but I’m pretty sure they liked it.
All I can say is…
Dang Lis… You famous!
May 19th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Always a pleasure to have our South American friends on the site! Ricardo and Jaime — Hola!