Progress Over Placement

A couple of days ago I overheard a conversation that went something like this:

"Why don't you compete in the scaled division?"

"I competed in scaled once, I smoked everyone. It was too easy, there's no point of me doing scaled..."

"Yeah, BUT YOU'D WIN!"

Someone needs to slap you for your own benefit.

One of the worst things you can do as a CrossFitter (or any athlete for that matter) is become comfortable with your routine, hence why CrossFit is constantly varied. One of the best things you can do for yourself, on the contrary, is be open to failure.

Yesterday I signed up for The Granite Games, a competition next month in Minnesota that will have some of the top Regionals and Games athletes in attendance. Upon clicking the payment button, I experienced my first "oh shit" moment. Scrolling through the rosters, seeing the names of my competition... I'm gonna get fucking SMOKED. I don't mean in one or two workouts, I mean there's a good chance I'll be shaking in the corner of the gym come the conclusion of the competition like a newborn fawn... AND I CAN'T FUCKING WAIT.

Wait, that doesn't make sense. Why am I looking forward to getting my ass handed to me on a granite platter (see what I did there?) Because GROWTH, that's why.

Do you remember your first CrossFit workout, probably a "simple" 5-4-3-2-1? You finished what looked like a piece of cake workout lying on the ground, gasping for air, wondering if you had the strength to pick up a foam roller and throw it at the coach's head. You went home, cried yourself to sleep and then you woke up feeling like the Rock took a baseball bat to your body.

Teddy Roosevelt would have approved of you, Dwayne.

And then something crazy happened, YOU CAME BACK. Maybe you were like me and you couldn't quite figure out what made you want more. Perhaps it was because you were used to lifting heavy weight in your years prior to CrossFit and now 135# felt like a Sisyphean effort, or maybe it was because the grandma next to you didn't even look winded after doing the same exact workout that had you contemplating suicide just to end the pain and suffering.

Although not all of us have the same reasons for starting or continuing, we've all notice a shared result... PROGRESS. You can now run faster and farther, you can now lift more weight more proficiently, you're now more agile and nimble. Yet, although you can now deadlift 500# or do a sub 2 minute Fran, you've still got goats, and I don't mean the furry creature.

So cute... so paleo.

Goats are those movements that you hate doing because you suck shit at them. They also happen to be those movements you need to do if you're ever going to grow as an overall athlete. You see it all the time, guys that have 1200 pound CrossFit totals but can't run a 400 without stopping to catch their breath. Girls that can knock out pull ups like it's their job but can't back squat half of what they should be able to.

There's nothing wrong with having a goat or two, or even a whole fucking farm full of them... as long as you tend to them. I personally blow whale dick at pull ups and handstand push ups. I can give excuses like the fact that I separated both my shoulders and dislocated my collar bone playing baseball when I was younger, or the fact that my fat ass weighs too much. But the problem with excuses is that they take up room for solutions. I eventually started knocking out more and more strict pull ups, then I learned kipping, and now I have a butterfly (a took a bullet to the wing mid-flight butterfly.) I got used to handstand holds and now I can do HSPUs (in small, small, small sets.)

Did I get better right away? Fuck no... it's taken years. My goats have given me enough anger to Hulk out mid-workout and punch a hole through a steel door. But when I look back a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, I've progressed light years from where I started.

Too often we expect change to come instantly and easily, forgetting that all things worthwhile take time and effort. Then, once we achieve that goal, we become complacent. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN. You won't get better unless you're willing to take chances, to be open to embarrassment and failure. My sole goal for The Granite Games is to not place last, and to get Andrea Ager to accept my marriage proposal. But even if we do, I'll have just as big of a smile on my face come the end of the competition as I will of we podium. Not because I'm satisfied with being the worst but because I'm willing to go against the best of the best no matter the odds. 

Our children would literally be too beautiful for words to describe.

So if you're thinking about competing, DO IT. And if you've never done so before, maybe scaled is the way to go. But listen to your coaches and if they tell you that you have the ability to do more than you think you can, trust them. Don't settle for competing against lesser opponents... if you need to boost your ego, find a different sport. There's no shame in finishing last, in being the worst time on the whiteboard. The shame lies in not pushing yourself, in giving less than 100% effort. 

CrossFit is a lot like climbing a mountain. You don't just reach the summit on your first try. It takes practice, it takes overcoming little mountains first, it takes failed climbs. You have to reach base camps along the way and always keep the summit on your mind. And, if you ever do reach the peak, you've gotta realize there's higher mountains to climb and someone who did it quicker. 

Whether you're first or last, leave it all on the floor... because as long as you're better than yesterday, that's all that really matters.