"For me, and I think quite a few people, the appeal of Crossfit Endurance is its core code - no bullshit, no frills, and persistence pays off. Anti-luxury and anti-convenience, anti-establishment. In our - quick fix, want it now results, band-aid approach to health in this country, telling someone you need to be dedicated to your health by stripping down a lot of the non-sense you see in the gym, get your nutrition in check and get more sleep doesn't resonate well. That means time, an investment in yourself, having patience. But as anyone will tell you, be it in your career, your personal life, and your health, if you lack patience, if you try to bs your way in and out of things, expect half ass results in every part of your existence.
I get a lot of mixed responses from people - some think I'm on point, some think I'm flat out insane. And that's fine. But I feel so lucky to have been welcome in this community, b/c there is no judgment, there is tremendous support, a sense of family, something I am missing in my everyday life, a much clearer and focused development of goal setting, and the only thing expected of me daily is no less than I expect from myself - give 100% effort everyday. Give it your all. Period. If you fail, that's fine. Failing teaches us lessons. If you fail while giving it everything you had, then hold your head high and be proud. But if you preform poorly because you half-assed it, then that's on you. After all, isn't that what life is really about? Going full gas every day? I just don't get softness. I cannot support the fact that we foster that mentality in our kids, even those in their 20's. So, yeah, Crossfit Endurance is hard. So is life. Maybe more convenience and 'every kid gets a trophy' isn't what we need. Maybe the lack of community brought on by things like social media, and smart phones, basically any piece of technology that prevents us from talking to each other face to face, isn't the answer. Ever try talking to a 20-something? Its painful. Crossfit and CFE is in your face, it forces you to communicate and get uncomfortable, primarily on that societal level. So yes, I think Crossfit and CFE is hard, and worth every second of the pain of the workout. Its a shared suffering. Its a way to support those who felt like they had no where to turn. Its not about super-human people performing incredible feats - its about making the ordinary easier, and the extra-ordinary possible. How's that for a tag line?"
A recent conversation with 3 Disciplines Racing
Hello all,
As we prepare to close out 2012, the year of our Lord, I have been reflecting the last couple days on all the things that took place over the last 12 months. Personally its been an up and down year, but overall, the positive definitely outweighed the negative, and most of it had to do with everyone on this email. Racing and training success was and is awesome, and in all honesty, I am going to do everything possible to ensure it continues. But in reality, that only represented a small portion of what made 2012 a lot of fun. Getting to know all of you better, develop closer friendships, watch as each of you achieved your goals, and in most cases, exceeded them, that gave me the greatest sense of satisfaction and happiness. Which is why one of my top 3 goals for 2013 is to do even more to help you, by researching, writing and learning as much as possible to make your goals a reality. And yes, I will continue to embrace and use the Crossfit Endurance model to make that happen. That's why today's conversation was so special to me - it gave me greater insight to what has inspired me to reach others. When giving my answer above, it was very clear to me that if not for the lessons learned in CFE- and I mean from a social, spiritual, physical, mental and health standpoint, I wouldn't be who I am today. I wouldn't understand the real importance and gratification of giving oneself to what you really love, and how that allows a person to assist others with a pure heart, and a clear mind.
I know that New Year's is known for making resolutions. Personally, I think that entire notion is useless - most resolutions are either too vague or too complicated to truly make them attainable, and they place immense pressure on a person which sets most if not all up for failure. Not to mention, resolutions are often made in an inebriated state, which makes me think of a quote from my favorite author, Hemmingway - "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to shut up." So you can see, this is a recipe for disaster.
However, I offer a more reasonable and helpful solution. Goal setting. I've talked briefly about this before, but with the new year, I think its worth a review. Goal setting is critical to achieving success with any of the things you are looking to achieve in life. Since I am going to speak strictly to health and fitness, the first step, before you even set a goal, is to recognize holes in your performance. Now this sounds more daunting than it really is. Using this phrase gives your goal setting more seriousness, and will be more likely for you to follow through. Trying to achieve your goals without acknowledging your weaknesses is like, well, to put it bluntly, pissing in the wind. Its critical to see where you are lacking, then group them into specific categories. For example, I'll use myself. I have 3 major categories that require attention - 1. Racing and Training deficiencies, 2. Nutrition and Recovery, 3. Non-specific fitness weaknesses. With these 3 categories, I break them out individually into the specific things that I know need work. In my non-specific category I know that my mobility and agility needs work, not to mention, my leg pistols suck, my muscle-ups need work, and my strength and form in all my Oly lifts needs sharpening. I can break each of those down further, (I have) but its not necessary to get that specific unless you really want to. The point is - knowing my weaknesses provides me direct insight as to what my goals need to be. Knowing that I need work on these things means my goals for Non-specific fitness look like this -
1. Spend 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week, on pistols, muscle ups, thrusters, wall ball form.
2. Spend 20 minutes a day, 4 times a week on form for lifts, then 3 of those days include the lift with requisite weight to build strength
3. Spend 30 minutes a day, every day, on mobility work, focusing primarily on hip flexors, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.
Boom. Just like that I have 3 goals, that are specific, attainable, and are directed to what I want the most. These can have a time limit - I will be at this level in 2 weeks, for example, or they can remain as constants for the year. But you want those goals to be constantly progressive, so I will look to make adjustments to the above in 3 months. If in 3 months I can't progress past what I wrote, then it will be easy to see where I allowed myself to slack. So instead of the typical "I want to lose 20 lbs this year!" I have defined, measurable, and attainable goals.
The point is, this isn't something that is impossible or even difficult. Yes, it will take a bit of time, and self-realization, or as I like to think of it - stop bullshitting yourself, honestly assess what needs work, and how you can get what you want. Then, take an actual pen and paper - not your smart phone, or your Ipad, or any of that nonsense, and WRITE down your holes in your performance. Follow the above pattern, and ka-booooom! you will have tangible, attainable goals that you can chase. Remember, we are chasing performance here, regardless of your fitness level or your athletic status. Give yourself the credit you deserve to use terminology like this to reach your goals. These words aren't reserved for athletes or fitness afficianados, whatever those are. They need to become part of your vocabulary so you begin to take what you do with more seriousness. Its not to say you shouldn't have fun; rest assured I have a lot of fun with my health, and the healthier I am, the more I can do. Like getting in a jump tent with a bunch of other adults (I actually advise not doing this - those things are ridden with germs from snot-nosed kids and are never cleaned properly. Best case, you catch hepatitis C, or Bird flu and you are laid up like Gwenyth Paltrow in Contagion) and jump around for hours, or play air hockey for 2 hours, or walk on my hands for 100 feet. You get the point.
The one thing I want to add - when you are goal setting, don't aim low. Yes, you want things you can hit with hard work, but its important to set your sights high. This means you will have to get out of your comfort zone in 3 ways - 1. Acknowledging the weaknesses you don't like thinking about, 2. making goals to address those weaknesses, 3. actually chasing them down. I do this, and yeah, its hard but like I said, so is life. Since we are all friends here, let me share with you one of my biggest weaknesses, and one that requires me to work very hard to address. Confidence. I lack true confidence and it becomes glaringly evident in certain situations. And I don't just mean when racing or training. To build my confidence I know I will most likely have to fail several times at things to understand what it takes to believe in my ability to overcome obstacles. That's facing my fear. And deep down, each of you have one of those "weaknesses" that need to be addressed.
However, here's the best piece of news - you aren't going to have to do this alone. We are all part of the same community - that being the community of chasing performance in the Western suburbs of Chicago. Therefore, we are all in this together. Not to mention, I am dedicated to assist all of you in your goal setting, as well as achieving them. But the first step that each of you must take individually - you must believe in yourself at least half as much as I do. I'm dead serious about this. If you don't start to believe in yourselves, all of this means nothing. So take that first step then things will fall into place. Hey, what do you have to lose? I'll tell you - absolutely nothing. And isn't your health worth that leap of faith? Man I hope so. Because to me, your health is extremely important, and worth that leap.
Happy new year - enjoy yourselves, laugh, laugh a lot actually, and smile. We survived the Mayan calendar prediction. We haven't been overrun by a Zombie apocalypse. The Stones released a new album for Christ's sake. And those vampires did untold damage to their bodies. So we should all have hope.
Stay Strong,
Guy
P.S. to the person who sent me that last comment - thanks for reminding me you are still reading. Its always good to hear from you. Maybe you'll have the courage to actually send a comment with your real name. Oh well, got to have hope, right?
