Goal 2: The Total

The second event is trickier to set a goal for. It is a one rep max on squat, overhead press, and dead lift… AFTER having just run a 5k race. I have no idea how much that will affect things. I am thinking it would be good if I can match my current (recent) personal records. Anything more would be a good day.

Squat: 230
Overhead Press: 85
Dead lift: 265
Total: 580

Goal 1: The Run

My fastest 5k ever was 23:37. Mostly I just want to see if I can beat that time this weekend. But that was at sea level, it was completely flat, and I had been training for that race for 2 months. In this case I have run less than 10 times in the past 3 months. The air will be thinner and colder and more dry. And this loop goes steeply downhill for about a mile and the rest of it is back uphill. The other day I ran as fast as I could and my time was 23:45. Ooo. So close. But sadly, I started and ended in the street. If we start and end in the gym that adds at least 15 seconds. I am hoping the excitement of race day will make me go a little faster up that long long hill.

Anything under 24:00 would be okay
23:36 would beat my fastest 5k ever
23:30 is the goal I have in mind
23:18 is 7:30 per mile and was the New Year’s Resolution I set before I got distracted by CrossFit. Highly unlikely but not ruled out.

A couple days ago I went to Whole Foods and the lady at the checkout counter asked if I wanted to spend five dollars to feed a family of four during the holidays. For some reason I automatically said: No, thank you. So to be clear… I said yes to a seven dollar salad and a three dollar bar of dark chocolate for myself and no to feeding an entire family of four for a measly five bucks.

What was I thinking? It kept bugging me. The same night they ran the story on the news about how the Denver Rescue Mission usually has thousands of turkeys by now and at that point had zero. I think there will be a lot of people hurting over these next couple months. It made me realize I have never spent one moment of my life wondering if I would have money for food.

So starting today I have decided that every time I hit Whole Foods over the next month or so I am going to say yes to that question. Yeah it could add up but so does shopping at Whole Foods in general. Maybe it will keep me away from the chocolate.

When I learned to kayak a few years ago the instructor stopped us on the side of the river before a difficult section. The water rushed through a narrow passage that shot straight towards a gigantic rock face and the river made a sharp turn. He told us “Don’t look at the rock. If you look at the rock and think ‘Don’t hit the rock’ you will hit the rock and flip over every time. If you concentrate on the direction you want to go, think to yourself ‘Go that way’, and go as hard as you can, you will hardly notice there was an obstacle.”

For months I have believed that I am no good at overhead squats. So I have put extra time into it. That is a good thing, right?  Well, sort of. I recently realized that I may have subconsciously undermined some of my extra efforts. Maybe I did less reps or less weight because I didn’t believe I could do more. Or maybe subconsciously I excused myself for poor form because I thought I could not do better. There is a fine line between being aware of what you have difficulty with so you can work on it and inadvertently sabotaging yourself with doubt or dread. If CrossFit has taught me anything it is that the biggest obstacle to overcome is usually in my head.

Yesterday the workout was 100 overhead squats for time at 65#. I wondered if I should lower the weight “since this is one of my weaknesses”. But the trainer said “You’re fine at 65”. So I thought “Okay, I can do these. They need work like everything else and here is my chance to do that work.”  What a difference. It was no harder or easier than 100 wall balls or 100 pull ups or anything else. And in a workout that is probably intended to be 8-10 minutes I set a benchmark of 12 minutes and 30 seconds and I intend to smash that next time around.

Several years ago I happened to be walking through the airport in London when the clock struck 11am on what they call Remembrance Sunday, the Sunday nearest Veterans Day.

Before that moment the airport was in total chaos, a mob of travelers rushing to catch their flights, announcements on the loudspeakers overlapping each other, crowds around the food counters demanding their orders, mothers scolding their children for bad behavior. A mess.

At exactly 11am the entire airport came to a complete stop. Every single person froze in their tracks and fell completely silent as if they were stuck in time. The whole airport went motionless for a full two minutes in remembrance of the members of the armed forces and civilians who have lost their lives at war. I have never seen anything like it before or since. A fascinating two minutes.

In the more immediate future I am competing in the Earn Your Turkey Challenge being put on at MBS on November 20th. It is really going to put our fitness to the test. First, challengers will run a 5k. Next we will do a CrossFit Total, three chances for a one rep max on squat, press, and deadlift. And finally we will do a timed workout. I wish I felt better prepared but I guess I will just do my best and end up where I end up.

I have so many things to work on to have the slightest chance of being competitive with those top CrossFit girls in Colorado at Sectionals this coming year. It is overwhelming. I plan to spend 10-15 minutes on a skill after every workout. I am very bad at many things but for now I am going to concentrate on what I currently cannot do at all. I want to conquer these by the end of the year:

Muscle Up –> Current = 0. Goal = 1.
Pistols –> Current = 0. Goal = 2 each leg.
Handstand Push Ups –> Current = 0. Goal = 3 (no kip, no mat)*.
Chest-To-Bar Pull Ups –> Current = 3. Goal = 3 sets of 6.
Toes-To-Bar –> Current = 5. Goal = 3 sets of 10.

*Last night I did my very first handstand push up with an AbMat on the ground. It was the first time I haven’t had to stack up a bunch of plates. When I took away the mat away I could not do one so I still have about and inch or two to go before I get my first ever. I also learned how to do them with a kip which (kicking my feet) which should allow me to do more during workouts. Thanks you guys from MBS that helped me after class!

Last night we had dinner at Quaker Steak and Lube. It reminded me of Hard Rock Cafe a little. This is not a place to go for health food but… gotta live a little, right? Those things in the photo are giant pitchers. They fill them with beer, pressurize and tap them, and bring them to your table. They stand about 3 feet tall!

After dinner Todd took me to Unser Racing to race some serious go karts. These aren’t kiddie carts. They go up to 50 miles an hour! You could never get that fast on a 1500 foot 9 corner track but you can definitely feel their power. The place was a little intimidating at first. People get memberships and join leagues and stuff. There was an actual competition going on while we were there. You have 7 minutes to get your fastest lap (between 12 and 15 laps). Fasted single lap wins.

Once we got on the track it didn’t feel so serious. After the first couple laps I got pretty comfortable whipping and sliding around those corners. Total blast. I couldn’t stop laughing. At the end one of the employees asked “Have you guys every raced competitively?” Hahaha. Right. Apparently I had one of top three lap times for a girl!

http://www.unserracing.com/

As of yesterday at about 5:30pm I am a CrossFit Certified trainer. What a great weekend! I learned so much I could probably write about it forever. But instead I will just mention the single most important thing I became aware of that seems relevant for a general audience. WHY. Why do people feel compelled to work so hard to do well in sports and in fitness, CrossFit in particular. Many people who do it know why intrinsically and become inseparable from their pursuit but to fully understand and explain the reasons is something else.

Superficially, the obvious benefits are looking better, feeling better, and the ‘high’ you get from your achievements. But for me and a lot of athletes and for almost every CrossFitter I have met so far, the relentless pursuit of excellence in sports and fitness is really the pursuit of excellence in life. We seek a higher quality of life, a sense of inner peace, and a complete awareness and acceptance of who we are as a human beings. The lessons we learn when we face challenges, successes, and failures in sports and fitness carry over directly to life.

How to consistently push the limits of what we are capable of.
How to face what seems impossible with confidence.
How to exhibit grace under pressure.
How to handle both successes and failures.
How to be a class act.
How to be disciplined when faced with temptations.
How to keep going when we want desperately to quit.
How to have hope when hope seems lost.
How to inspire others.
And how to achieve greatness.

I have had a lot of people ask why in the world I would do something so difficult as CrossFit on purpose. But when you really understand the benefits you get from setting extremely difficult goals for yourself mentally and physically on a daily basis and working ridiculously hard to achieve them a better question becomes ‘Why doesn’t everybody?’

Tonight was not exactly fun. When I called Boulder Fire to find out what I could do to help I was hoping to be sent up into the mountains to do manual labor. Instead the immediate need was to sort through donations. Sigh. Well, I wanted to help and that was the current need. So whatever, I went.

In a big empty room they had set up cafeteria tables covered with piles of clothes that needed to be sorted for age, gender, size, and season. That would have been no problem. However, the woman running the show had obviously had a very stressful day and was barking orders like we were in prison. Yeah, the environment was a little stressful. The kid pounding on boxes like a drum set plus the girl screeching out the first 16 notes of the only song she knew on a donated violin did not help.

Then there was the clothes. What on earth would possess a person to donate their old used underwear? Are you serious? Not even someone who had NEVER had a home would wear old used underwear much less someone who just lost a house around here. Made me want to wear gloves while going through those boxes. Tip: Donate stuff that you would not be embarrassed to give to your friends and family members. Donating shirts with stains on them and snagged sweaters from the 70s with missing buttons is like donating garbage. Not only kind of gross but also a nuisance to whoever has to sort through that crap.

Anyway, all that said, I am actually still really glad I did it. I guess sometimes you have to just suck it up and do what needs to be done, ya know?

PR’d on Front Squat today! 175#