“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.”

-Helen Keller

Above:  What do you think about when you’re in the middle of a WOD?  What do you hear yourself saying?  What motivates you to continue and finish?

Have you ever caught yourself drifting away during a WOD?  What do you think about?  What do you tell yourself?  In the middle of “Fight Gone Bad”, I caught myself staring at the outline of the dog on the 20″ tire during the Tire Jumps station.  The next thing I knew, I was thinking to myself, how great would it be to be a dog, dogs don’t do tire jumps, dogs don’t do crazy brutal workouts like “Fight Gone Bad”…  These random thoughts were broken up when the pain in my quads took over and at that point all I could tell myself is, be strong, keep going, don’t give up!  Then the grunting and yelling stage comes, this is the point in the workout that my body is trying to tell the pain that I’m not giving up! At this point, I’m in that dark place. Yes, that dark place where pain is the enemy and tolerating its existence is only making me stronger.  And, when its all said and done, when you are finished, when time is called, you return to your happy place, many times with a smile or grin because you’ve just survived another impossible CrossFit WOD.  You took yourself to the edge, jumped off and came back, came back stronger and better.

Its a funny thing about life, if you think about any CrossFit WOD that you’ve done in the past, you might remember being in pain and you might remember hating that pain, but you don’t physically feel that pain anymore.  Its like Lance Armstrong said, “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” So, the next time you are in the middle of a WOD listen and trust that little or loud voice that keeps pushing you to the finish line.  Endure that temporary moment of fatigue and pain, push through it and make yourself better.
Today’s Workout:
“Fight Gone Bad” (as explained on crossfit.com)
In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. Try to score max reps on each element for 3 rounds.

The stations are:
Wall-ball: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump: 20″ box (Reps)
Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)
Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of “rotate,” the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point. The weights given above are the prescribed by crossfit.com for men.

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