day 65: check your ego at the door

25.09.10: day 65

"check your ego at the door"

our crossfit trainer wrote definitions of force and distance on the whiteboard as we sat on giant medicine balls, excited as children. he explained the theories behind the crossfit style using descriptions such as "continuously varied exercise" and "functional movements". then he told us what our workout was going to look like that morning.

500 meter row
40 squats (no weight)
30 sit ups
20 push ups
10 pull ups (with resistance elastic, if needed)

after teaching us all the movements and going through a warm up, we were ready, all lined up on the ergs. i looked over at CI and SB.
"i feel like i'm racing you guys!" i said nervously.
"but you're not", SB assured me. "you are only racing yourself".
i was able to complete the workout in 6 minutes and 44 seconds, which was a good time for a newbie, i was told. i was surprised at what exercise in the workout i found difficult. doing 40 squats after a rowing sprint was really exhausting for me. where as the sit ups didn't seem like too much of a problem. each member at the workout had a different strength and a different weakness; what was easy for some was hard for others and vise versa. i am starting to understand this is part of crossfit.
we are not specialists here, our trainer said. we may never be the best at any one thing but we strive to be pretty darn good at everything. that matches my training philosophy. i don't want to be a specialist in one thing if it compromises my performance too much in another. i want to train for...life in general. all and any adventure that comes my way.

learning to check my ego at the door will be a process, however. i am not necessarily competitive, just insecure about how i perform next to others. i am always comparing myself. it is the same problem i have in yoga.

so i decided to get a crossfit punch card and i am planning on attending one workout a week. i'll continue up dating on how this process is going for me. its something different, something new.
it seems like an incredibly supportive community and that is something i really enjoy.

more information can be found at:
http://crossfitzone.ca/