Tuesday… “The Guantlet” – Gym will CLOSE today at 9:00pm SHARP!

Ashleigh gets great extension in DT yesteray

Rae has asked that I include the following response to yesterday’s post, which she tried to post in the comments, but was too long!

Thank you. Thank you, Rosanne, for hosting that great party (for all the time I spend at CFNA, it’s a testament to everyone’s secret stealth skills that I didn’t find out), thank you to everyone who came/brought something/said they wish they could have made it/hid their joy when I said that I’m leaving, and thank you to Luke for this really, really touching post (I cried again when I read it, guess the CrossFit mental and emotional preparation still lets a few key things through). It’s very appreciated and I don’t know how to repay you all.

 About the wiring and desire to work across physical, mental, and emotional domains, I’d like to emphasize that we wouldn’t be having this discussion if I hadn’t been surrounded by my CFNA family the whole time. The community aspect of CrossFit is where I draw my strength and motivation. I would take more rest days but the compulsion to come in and just see everyone outweighs the muscle soreness every time. The reason I take so long to warm up every day is not just because I’m sore from a 2-a-day, but because I like to watch people go first and pick their brains about the WOD before I venture in. (And Ben would say it’s because I’m socializing too, and I don’t disagree. See above). What’s great is that I do this to the same people (thanks Nate and John!) every day and they don’t seem to mind sharing tips. I love to learn from everyone, whether it’s the person who just killed an Rx’d+ WOD filled with my personal goats to the one who has the most focused, determined, “I’m going to get through this” game face on. Page is fabulous at the latter, and I love cheering her on. Every time I see someone battle through the mind suck and come out victorious, regardless of time, I’m inspired. As an aside, I know that my yelling at you guys to “pick up the bar!” during that dark 15 minutes of a WOD is not always wanted when you’re traversing your previously delineated mental, emotional, and physical boundaries (I’ve been waved away by just about everyone) but when you’re in that moment, I’m with you too. I know the best days are when I go home with a hoarse voice from being the loudest one in the gym. So, when I hit a dark place and actually break down and cry, I do so without fear or shame because I know everyone around me is only going to be supportive. In fact, I only venture out that far past my boundaries because everyone who is cheering me on believes I can.

 I still log my workouts so I know what weights to use/what times to shoot for, but my mental log marks small victories in relation to the people I’m with at that time. Jenn’s birthday workout? I thought 30lb dumbbell manmakers were a good scale (this was 2/25 and I had started Elements on 1/4) and no one stopped me. I guess you all believed I could do it…Ben and Neil actually accommodated my insanity by scaling up. You were all watching (Rosanne, you counted for me, remember?) and I knew with about 3 rounds left to go that I could NOT let you all down and DNF by going over 20 minutes. So I stopped whimpering and just went to work. I finished with a few seconds to spare under the time cap and almost cried. A “good workout” only achieves “great memory” status when it makes you want to sob hysterically, just a theory I’ve been working on. Neil called my time and was the first one to high-five me as I stood on my pull-up box and tried to hold the line on my emotional dam. When you’re knocking down walls, it’s hard to make sure you don’t accidentally demolish an outside one in your zeal. The thing is, I know it’s not just me that’s felt this way—every other day I hear “Everyone was watching me so I couldn’t drop down in weight/take an extra long rest/not finish.” When we did “Death By Pull-up” (one pull-up the first minute, 2 the second, until you can’t continue), I remember Jim T. counting for me and as I started round 21, I gasped to Luke “I can’t” and he told me “then show me what you can do.” Best thing still I’ve ever heard during a WOD. So I got in 18 when I thought I had nothing left. It was my fear and weakness that kept me from getting the full 21 in (I couldn’t face having to do 22 immediately after!), and Luke and Jim that pushed me through to that point. The first time I ever maxed out a power clean I had just watched Ben do it as part of his CrossFit Football programming and luckily Melissa was game to try it out with me even after we had done a workout. Her positive attitude even after multiple fails (I started getting trapped in the suck) helped me bump up the weight I could clean during WODs thereafter. I’m just as grateful to Darren for not only pushing me through many, many WODs and indulging in my 2-a-day schemes, but specifically for cultivating my box jumps. I do 24” now because he came up with the “Raemaker”—a burpee box jump—and did 50 with me after we did DT for the first time. For weeks after, every time I biffed I’d look at him for reassurance. He also did 200 burpees (Bex 100+) with me after Fran because I ate 2 cookies during the Paleo Challenge, so I’m not scared of burpees or falling now. I know there are a plethora of memories that I’m not mentioning here but trust me, they’ve become hand and toeholds I’ve used to climb the mental mountain every day.

 I’ve always resisted comparisons about what weights to scale with because I never wanted to hold anyone back. So now that we’re talking mental and emotional preparation, I say don’t model yourself after me either, but if you do need an extra push, look around.

Day 2: