Fight or Flight….

FIGHT!

I felt like the last kid at school to get picked for the dodge ball team. The Saturday morning Seneca Park Partner WOD included a ‘Farmer’s Carry’ where you pick up your partner and run 360 meters transporting their weight on your shoulders or back. Nobody wanted to lift my ass on their shoulders and I worried that someone strong enough to do it definitely wasn’t going on my back!

Thankfully Coach Sean spotted my dilemma and instructed me to carry two weights the prescribed distance with the visiting Coach Kellie as my partner. Lucky me, some people are scared to have a coach as a partner, but I saw her demonstrations of the backwards overhead medicine ball squat/throw and we kicked ass as a team! Our 100 sit-ups as the closer was completed with a 20lb medicine ball even the guys weren’t using, so take that!

Point is this is yet another reason I love the sport of CrossFit. I wonder if other athletes on game day feel the same way I do headed into a WOD. It usually follows the same pattern of anxiety followed by hard work then triumph.

On the way to the gym and in the moments before a WOD begins, especially if I allow myself too much time to think about or examine what I am about to do, my stomach is tight and sometime nauseas. I am nervous. Usually about the time the Coach is explaining the movements that little voice tries to pipe up in the back of my mind.

“You can’t do this….”

“What the hell are you thinking!?”

“Just quit now!”

But there is no quitting in CrossFit, so I shut that doubtful drone down and get to work.

By the end of my workout, no matter how hard I struggled or how far behind in time or rounds I come in on the board, I DID IT. I succeed. I love CrossFit all the more because everyday I give myself the chance to overcome self doubt. Face fears and WIN. The confidence that builds cannot be bought in a store, book, online or with any other method of weight loss in my opinion.

Everyday at some point during my workout, usually before I even begin, I want to quit. But I don’t. I fight my instinct to run and I try. I forge ahead even though sometimes I still feel defeated by my numbers on the stupid scale or a food slip up over the weekend. I attempt weight I’ve never lifted before, I strive to beat my previous time, and I push myself to finish before the person ahead of me.

I fight and everyday I win.