Mental Toughness

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”  - Sun Tzu The Art of War

I had a great conversation with Coach Jordan yesterday towards the end of his 6:30 class.  He said to me "you know it's probably important that everyone knows that the Coaches, as athletes, wanted to quit just as bad as they did today."

Mind blown... 

I walked into the gym at 8:30 yesterday for the 8:45 class to get the workout in myself.  I knew that it was going to be a tough workout - most hero wods are - and I knew that the 135# Rx thrusters were going to take a huge physical toll over the course of 100 reps.  What I wasn't prepared for, and certainly didn't have, was the clarity around the mental toughness that would be required for the day.

By minute 12 on the clock and roughly 60 thrusters in, my trunk went mash-potatoes.  I received the second thruster in the minute and I didn't have the strength/endurane to hold it together and lost it forward.  I had to step back and re-assess the entire situation and forced myself to accept that 3 thursters per minute was the best I was going to manage.. if I was lucky.

The next two minutes was a negotiation of not stopping and doing whatever I had to to get my 3 and not let form blow completely apart.  I was crushed - and on the following round took a zero - and in that minute the real battle began.

"Just quit this is stupid..." , "135 is too heavy for me anyway what am I doing?",  "This isn't fun" - just a few of the many things that played through my mind in the course of about 40 seconds.

And then simply.. "quitting a workout isn't an option PICK UP THE BAR". 

The remaining 10 minutes was a mental battle with myself on the whys I should or shouldn't quit - and I resigned myself to the fact that the workout isn't actually about the burpees or thrusters.. but instead all about my own mental fortitude.

I finished Kalsu at 25:28 Rx.  

Yesterday I was reminded of a couple of things that make me love CrossFit for reasons beyond just getting physically fit.  It teaches you humility and perseverance.. I think both things that honor our fallen men and women and celebrate their lives and the lives of the loved ones who remain.  It also reminded me that there is nothing quite as satisfying as finishing a brutally hard workout and being able to reflect on the growth you experience as an athlete in that space.