Mental Game Part Deux

The mind game continues.

Most boxes put up their workouts the night before (or early day of). Some people use this as a way to decide whether or not they are going to workout that day. I use it for preparation: which shoes should I bring (if we are running), how much should I eat (if we have a chipper, I am going to eat more cumulatively throughout the day to have the energy), do I need to take up my achilles (for squatting, running, etc). It's looking like my schedule will be MWF 6:30pm for working out, and subbing in a Saturday at 10am should Friday not look like it's in the cards. I checked out the WOD early yesterday morning, and was like, cool, running, but sprints. Texted my CF buds to be like, SEE YA AT 6:30 SUCKERS, and went about my day.

I get to the box (first one for my workout, typical) so I can roll out, warm up, stretch, etc. I look on the board and to my surprise: L1 and Sweat conditioning workouts were the same: 1 Mile Run! That ungodly exclamation point was like Josh's (the owner) way of saying "Haha! Gotcha! You're here and signed in! YOU'RE DOING IT." As someone who doesn't advocate running long distances, I was surprised, but he said he does this every month or so to give people the chance to see how they have progressed against their last run. Makes sense. He also said that he doesn't always put real WODs on the website, because he knew if he put 1 miles run, no one would show up. So everyone will run one mile this week. We just checked that box early. And I'm not going to tell you when it will happen so you don't obsess over it for the entire day only to potentially psych yourself out. AGAIN.. that mental toughness is sometimes acquired via fearlessness, and that you will just do what they tell you to do without having a lot of time to think about the task ahead. Smart, but scary too. 

After a warm up of 3 rounds of handstands (as long as you can hold them), 15 swings, 5 goblet squats, a set of pushups (as many as you can do) and a bear crawl, we decided to start the actual workout. yeesh.

Push presses for the newbies today, and I put up 85 for 4 reps. I had more in the tank, and on 1 RM day for that lift I am going to kill it. I told several folks that my goal is to be on the board, and they were sufficiently jazzed at the prospect. It's a good goal to have, and one that I am pretty close to reaching. 

I mentally prepared for the toil of running, and approached Josh and said that I was probably going to race walk/jog, not run, even though I know it's for time, because I didn't want to screw up my achilles anymore. He said, oh you're going to row, don't worry about it. Rowing, while a different kind of torture, is less torture to me because all of my connective bits in my legs don't get thoroughly abused, but I still get one hell of a full body workout (lats, arm, booty, legs, etc). So while everyone went outside and warmed up with a few jogs up and down the hill, I sat, did a few strokes, strapped in and waited. Waited. Waited. GO! I start rowing (with a 12 person Elements class behind me), and at that point it's just me and the music. Stroke. Stroke. Burn. Ow, DONT FORGET TO BREATHE. Stroke. Stroke. Josh comes in and says ok: go to 1K. Awesome! I thought I was going to have to do 1600m (metric mile), so I am excited at the prospect. But the thing is, my ears heard what he said, but my brain didn't process it til much later. When I hit about 1200m. Thank goodness I had made a mental note of my 1K split time (a horrendous 5:54), but I kept going because I had more in the tank. I finally stopped at about 1400 and went outside to cheer on the remainder of my comrades who were crossing the finish line, where I told Josh the above story. Of course his response was "I ain't mad at ya for doing more." I felt good, winded and sweaty but great. 

Everyone stayed, including all the vets to cheer on the relative newbies as they crossed the finish line, which was really touching (even one guy, who I don't think would've known me from Eve, was like "There are at least 2 more people running, we gotta stay." That's classy folks)

For the record: Cross Fitters can run. We had several just over 5 minute miles in our group, and in other workouts throughout the day. So there.

Last word on the mental game for now. Some surprisingly great advice from.... Jennifer Aniston about mental game and happiness:

"If you're not happy, you can become happy. Happiness is a choice. That's the thing I really feel. Like with friends who refuse to get happy, who refuse to rise above the discomfort of where they're at."

Preach.