I did the 2nd workout for the Crossfit Games on Friday afternoon. It was a challenging workout in which you have 4 minutes to complete 25 toes to bar, 50 double under skips, and then 15 squat cleans. If you can get that all done in 4 minutes, you get an extra 4 minutes to repeat the workout, but doing only 13 squat cleans at a heavier weight. If you’re interested, here’s the full workout.
I went into the workout hoping to finish just one round. And I shocked myself when I finished the first round in 3 minutes. As fatigue set in, the 2nd round of 25 toes to bar got tough. The skipping was way harder than it should have been. And I ended up with just one minute to try and get all 13 lifts in . . . I ended up finishing just 9.
As physically drained as I was after the workout, I was emotionally and mentally ecstatic. I had done better than I wanted to, but more importantly, better than I thought I could do.
By late Friday night, I had recovered enough to take a peek at the Games leaderboard. To my absolute shock, my score was stacking up to be good. As in good enough to put me ahead of about 85% of all the participants.
All weekend, I watched the leaderboard, expecting to see my place fall . . . but a funny thing happened, while my name fell down as more people submitted their scores, it didn’t fall down as fast or as far as I thought it would. . . . Hmmmmmmmmm . . . based on the scores, if I re-did the workout, and managed to get in those last 4 lifts, I could move ahead by a lot on the leaderboard . . . cue my competitive spirit and my desire to prove to myself (and those around me) that I am ok at this thing called crossfit . . .
For the rest of the weekend, and especially all last night, I visualized the workout, strategized where I could pick up valuable seconds, and planned how I was going to attack it. But something just wasn’t sitting right with me.
Before I could get to the gym this morning though, I had a coffee date with a few friends. As I was preparing to leave, my friends joked with me about how I could get competitive, how I was a true Type A personality and that perhaps there needed to be a qualifier on the extent of my Type A-ness (as in I was Type A to the infinite power).
I was still laughing to myself about it all as I got into the car. And then I had my a-ha moment. What wasn’t sitting right with me was that I had, for all intents and purposes, killed the workout. BUT, I had had FUN doing it. Since I had no expectation of doing well, I had put zero pressure on myself to do well; I was able to just put my heart into it and do my best. And it had felt amazing.
I still went to the gym. I still warmed up. And it took me the better part of an hour to admit my decision out loud . . . I didn’t re-do the workout.
The way I worked out on Friday, I finally proved to myself that I can still be competitive, but have FUN. And since there’s no chance of me ever getting to the Crossfit Games, if I’m not having fun doing this, then why on earth would I be doing it? I can still be Type A (to the infinite power) in the way I handle my training, and preparation for things like these weekly workouts, but I can also turn it off when the work is done, step back, and be proud of my accomplishments.
PS: As of right now, I’m ranked 482/5,283 in Canada East . . . yup, I may be having fun with this all, but I’m still checking the leaderboard!
nancyhotson 
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