Cindy (ugh), Grace (silly girl), Annie, Diane, Fran (hate that name)...yada yada

So, most of us walk into the gym with the mindset of not finishing last.  Well, here's what I learned---you can't worry about when or if you finish.  You need to be better then the last time you did it.  You need to continue to be better than YOU, not the guy next to you. Although we all know how frustrating is to be one round behind.  Let the frustration push you to do better than you.   I am no crossfit expert, and I don't pretend to be.  I wanted to impart of my wisdom for beginners to think about. 

Also, why are the workouts named after girls you might be asking.  There are so many theories I've heard but I am thinking because women are vicious. I don't know any of these women, but I wouldn't cross them.    See website here: http://crossfit208nampa.wordpress.com/the-girls/ 


Things to think about:

1. Improve your speed or fluidity (quit taking breaks!)

     If the workout is addressing AMRAP then you might want to look at improving your speed or fluidity while moving through reps of different exercises.  IE-- Cindy.

Cindy
5 Pull Ups
10 Push Ups
15 Squats

AMRAP in 20 minutes

When your done the workout, don't look around at what everyone else did.  Take a second and analyze what you could have done DIFFERENTLY.  Did you take too many breaks? (I am no stranger to this),  Did you have trouble remembering your count? Were you looking around to see where everyone else was?  Could you have completed one of the exercises faster?     For instance, for me I am faster at squats then both push ups and unassisted pull ups. Knowing that, I should be focusing on improving my time for the other two sets or on how I broke my sets up.

Sometimes when we get tired we stop doing all 5 unassisted pulls ups together in one set and we break them up into sets of 2 and 3 or 2,2, and 1 for when you are really out of steam.  This time after the WOD might be a good time to assess how many reps you can stand to do together and for how long.  If you ran out of steam and could no longer do sets of 5 pulls ups in round 5 make a mental note of that.  See if that improves next time.  Or, work to improve it--HELLLLLOOO OPENNNN GYM.

What I am trying to instill is do not look at your time as a whole, look at each individual part to assess what you did really great and what you can do differently.  I stress the importance of the congratulating yourself on doing something really great---after all you are doing more than some of people who have massive hangovers at 7:30am and are thinking about McDonalds.

2.  Worry about improving your OWN weight

If the workout has a Rx or Goal weight then you should be thinking about the last time you did it and what weight you did at that time.  Don't look at the person next to you and see what weight they are doing.  That is the fastest way to hurt yourself.

It's important to know your limits and know you won't RX the first time you do something.  IE--Fran

Fran
21-15-9
95 lb Thrusters
Pull Ups

I know everyone is guilty of this--you get through 21 and then you slow down, take more time in between, and treat it like it's all down hill from here. Honestly, for me, the more tired I get by the end of the workout 95lbs starts feeling like 200 when I go to thrust it.  Take that into account and keep a steady pace.

Like I said, don't look at the person next to you and try to compare to their weight.  Take sometime before the workout and see what you can do comfortably WITHOUT hurting yourself.  Use that weight and remember it for next time.  If your establishment is anything like Solstice you might not see that workout again for months, so it's good to have a journal to have it written down in.   So, when you do see that workout again look at what you did before and see if you can improve upon that weight.

Let's say there is a 20 minute time cap on this at your gym.  You pick a good weight that you know you can do, but you know you can't finish in 20 minutes. OH WELL. Don't knock your weight down just to finish and look good.  Do what you can do and don't worry about that time.  If you don't finish, you don't finish.  I've found it's more important to do all you can, leave it all out on the mat, then to sissy around and finish first or on time.  Yeah I said it, sissy around.


3.  Congratulate yourself, frequently
     If your not acknowledging your accomplishments, who is? Certainly not your mom.  She probably has no idea what crossfit is.  Matter of fact, my mom has no idea what I am talking about in this blog.  She does however read it.  She said to work on my grammar---ie your and you're.   She does like my recipes, because when I lived home I cooked for her. God knows what she's eating now.
      If your waiting for someone else to see how well you are doing you will be waiting a long time.  Get a good book.  It'll be like waiting to get blood work done on Saturday morning--which I've learned is the WORST time to make an appointment for blood work. 
      This might be where keeping a journal comes in handy.  My friend Kate once said to me okay let's sit down with a Marble Notebook.  My response was--okay first let's get a marble notebook.  Who has one of them who isn't in third grade?  Not me.  However, I do keep track of my accomplishments.  Ie---2 months ago I could not do an unassisted pull up  Now, I am trying to do 40 in 4 minutes.  Where did I come up with that number your probably saying to yourself.  I have no idea, it just came to me and it sounded good.

My point is--BE BETTER THAN YOU.  Don't try to be better than anyone else.  Trying to be Foucher or Spealer will only get you so far.  You should be the next big name, don't try to be someone else's.