“The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel, are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur.” –Vincent Thomas Lombardi

Normally I do Koko Head on Saturday mornings before work. Today, I decided to pass and take a rest day. On the way home I had a change of heart and decided to do Koko Head for “fun”. No PR attempt just have fun in the sun. Koko Head for me is a dreaded hill of pain even in the cool early morning hour. Guess What? I actually had fun doing it at 1pm in the blazing sun. For the first time, I actually looked up and enjoyed the views as I plotted up the hill. Normally, the only thing I ever see is the next stair in front of me and the benchmark numbers on the track. My overall time was just 1 minute and 52 seconds off my PR, but I enjoyed it so much more. Which led me to the conclusion that we all deserve to pull back a little once in a while and enjoy the benefits of our training. Athletes in other sports have “lighter” training days. Runners, weightlifters, swimmers and paddlers. It seems that only CrossFitters put on their game face and compete as hard as they can day after day. In the long run, this can be counter-productive. It makes us feel that if we don’t go hard we should just stay home or take a spontaneous “rest” day. Nonsense.
So here’s the deal, on the days that we feel less than stellar, whether it’s from lack of sleep, getting over a cold or just plain “feel junk” feel free to pull back. Go slower, go lighter, do less rounds, less reps or whatever. Before the workout starts, put a smiley face on the board next to your name. Thereby declaring to the world, that you will be participating in less than normal fire breathing capacity so as to avoid judgement and ridicule by your peers for your less than superhero performance. Simple solution and our fragile ego stays in tack. Brilliant!

Today’s Workout:

“Deck of What?”
Spades = Squats
Hearts = Burpees
Clubs = Sit-Ups
Diamonds = Push-Ups
Joker = 400m Run
Ace = 1 rep
Face Cards = 10 reps
Denomination on each card = # of reps required
Flip cards one-at-a-time then do the required reps for that suit. You will do 85 total reps of each movement and 2 – 400m runs.