What is Crossfit.. to me?

I have recently seen a lot of these Crossfit commercial which try to define Crossfit. I think one of the great things about Crossfit is that it is hard find words to completely define.

Crossfit physically is a workout program. There is no additions to it. However, what that workout program allows you to do is amazing. It has given people with aliments the ability to live a pain free life. It is very common to hear about someone who was told they would have bad knees their whole life. Start Crossfit and have no problems again. However, there is more.

Crossfit allows you to become mentally fit. Crossfit goes beyond just training your body, it trains your mind. People who Crossfit are mental stronger then others. There whole idea that there are tasks not able to accomplish goes away. What other workout program does that?

However, what makes Crossfit unable to be defined only as a workout program are the people. The people you Crossfit with, become good friends. There are very few enemies in a true box. I have been in boxes which contain animosity. It is the worst thing for everyone. However, most boxes are friendly. Everyone is there to help each other out.

The community goes beyond your own box though. There can be a time when you run into a stranger, find out he is a Crossfitter, and all of the sudden you are good friends. This is because you both know what it is like.

Crossfitters are all very similar. They are highly motivated, determined, competitive yet easy going people. They enjoy pushing themselves to the limit, testing against others. However they know the true enemy is always going to be within. I know when I go slower, I am happy for the other, not angry. In what other community will you see that?

Inspirational Quote: "It chooses you. You do not choose it." -Unknown

good spot

This is a free write...

It has popped into my head a lot about moving. I am moving soon and will be taking a trip this weekend. I guess I look back and realize at one point I had a really good spot. However, it came time to move on from that spot. I did, because I know when I land again in another one, it will be great. I have had great coaches form me into a passable coach and athlete. I am always very thankful for that.

It is thanks to these people I have had the honor to call coach that I know I will end up in great places. I know not to settle for anything less then great. I owe a great amount of debt to these people. These are people who with no blood relation to me, treated me like family. Yes, we had our rough spots but who doesn't?

Unfortunately, I had to move away from my coaches. I wish I could stay close to them and help form me better. But it was time to move on. I know I will land on my feet again, someday. I look forward to that day.

crossfit games

I had the pleasure of watching a great sporting event this weekend, the crossfit games. To me this was one of the best sporting events I had the pleasure to watch. This is a little bias since I am a crossfitter. However, to someone who is new to the life, it did an amazing job of illustrating what makes the life so great.

Crossfit is a unique sporting event. This is because the spectators are a lot more then spectators. The spectators all are active in the sport. At a football game you might have some former players, but very few, and almost none active. At the crossfit games, ever specator is an active crossfitter.

This means that all the spectators understand the athletes’ pain. They understand how hard it is when the athlete is looking down at the barbell questionings how many more he/she can do. They understand cause they have been there, probably within the past week.

Beyond the spectators being so informed, the athletes are supportive. This is someone who just put everything they had into a workout, now yelling at you to finish it also. This is very unique to crossfit. It is rare in any other sport to see competitors helping out each other. Giving each other that emotional support necessary to finish it out. That is because as crossfitters, we all know what it is like and know how much a, “here we go!” helps out.

This last aspect is why I love crossfit. I can sit there and try my hardest every day to beat someone. However, this will not stop me from helping them when they need. It also will not stop them from helping me.

I am not saying that every crossfitter is like that. But it was nice to see even at the top of the sport for the year, the competitors are like that. It gives great role models to look up to for both their physical and moral attributes.

Inspirational quote: “our spectators can beat up your spectators!” crossfit commentator

pacing....

Time Management

I learned very quickly while running cross country in high school that pace is everything. My first race I was so nervous of running out super fast and dying, as a result I did the opposite. I believe that my first mile was in the 10 minutes range. However, the fear of going out fast and dying was real. There were tons of people who wanted to be a hero. They wanted to lead the race even if it was in the first 400. The ones who win the race though, find their pace and ignore the surroundings.

This is a lesson that I noticed again at the Carolina sectional. The guys who went at a nice even pace won. The ones who went super fast at the start died and finished poorly. It is misguided to believe you can go out quickly and maintain, your adrenaline runs out eventually.

I have been able to put these lessons to go use in my workouts. My goal is to never go out super fast and die. My goal is to maintain a good pace and pick it up as I go on. I have found great success in the past few months with this strategy. It has led me to many good workouts and I hope to employ it at law school.

The application should be rather straight forward. Do not work yourself at a blistering pace you know you will not be able to keep up. In shorter terms, do not work so hard that you burn out in the first month. Yes, you have to work hard, but the goal is to work your hardest over the whole year. There is no point in peaking in the first week. I hope not to hit my high in the first week and only have down to head.

Workout: 1 press, 3 push press, 5 push jerk, 7 push ups, 9 double unders, 10 rounds. This was all done with the 60 lb sandbag. I was able to finish in 9:39. My goal was under ten, so I am happy.

Inspirational quote: “You only have to be leading when you cross the final line.” -Anonymous

One L, my review

In prepping for law school I have started doing many things. I have been working on organization. I have been trying to grasp as many legal things as possible. I have also been reading as much as possible. In my preperation for law school I was recommended by a friend to read, One L, by Scott Turow.

This is a book about his journey in his first year at law school. He attended Harvard in the mid 70's, but lessons he learned are still relavent today. If you are even thinking about law school, I recommend you read it. However if you have no interest in law school I would suggest you avoid it.

One L is great for the purpose of educating soon to be one l's. One l is what a first year law student is called. Turow with his journals give real insight to how an one l will be feeling. How to deal with professors, students, and yourself. This book is very focused on this group. It would not have appeal for the most part outside of the soon to be law student group.

One L fails to attract other groups due to its narrow focus on a specific unique experience, the first year of law school. Due to this fact, if you are not an aspring law student it will be boring. Also, Turow seems to get on his high horse often, talking about how great Harvard is. This no matter who you are gets old after the first 50 pages. After that point it is just annoying snobbery.

Overall, One L for me was a good read. I was interested in the subject matter. I feel it has given me more insight to what I should be expecting to experience in the coming year. Hopefully it will help me do better in my first year.

how much do I eat?

When tweaking your diet, quality is probably the most important factor. This means not just getting the good types of fruits and vegatables, but also from good sources. The second most important factor behind quality is quantity. With quantity I have struggled in the past.

The most important part of quantity for me is making sure I get enough. I am very picky on what I eat. I want no grains, fruits and vegatables only. But beyond that, I want more vegatables always. However, I know the importance of making sure I am getting enough food and recently have added in more fruits. It is crazy to think that I would keep them out cause I do not want to eat to much. I do not know what I was thinking.

I say this because I know how important getting enough food is. You have to be giving your body enough to rebuild itself or you will not advance. The whole goal is to get into better shape, not the number on the scale, this is accomplished by giving my body all of what it needs to be health. I also have the advantage of being highly active. This means I am burning so much fuel each day, over eating is not a concern.

Giving your body the fuel neccessary for life means, enough for your activities and to recover. My concern is on the recovery side. I have always had injures. In retrospect, my running injuries are from bad running technique. I have been able to start fixing that with pose running. But I still need to make sure I am giving my body the fuel to recover from workouts, in order to avoid injuries.

The question is how do you know when you have had enough. The simple answer for me is when I think I have had enough, I eat some more. This is because I am very bad at short changing myself. I was on the zone for so long, I think that a few meals a month over what I need will hurt me. As a result I will overcompansate by not eating enough for any meal. However, I know to still stay in reason.

The question you have to answer is what is in reason for you. I highly encourage eating when hungry and until full. I know this does not work for me in my current situation, but has in the past. Now if you are highly active you need more fuel. The whole trick is to play with what you eat. But the first step is always eliminating grains and sugars.

Rest

This whole post just got delated and now I have to rewrite it. Reminds me why I am getting a MAC.

I have decided to take this week as a rest week. The concept of rest is something which I have struggled with. It seems counterproductive to not be working out. I know my body needs time to recover, but I feel it is. However this week will be a light to no working out.

This let me to think about how it can be incorporated to the rest of life. The simple fact is that you are forced to rest from things which you love to do. For most people, you are not allowed to do your hobbies for a living. This is what keeps them fun. You get short periods of stress free time to do them. You are also not able to do them all the time. This leds you to never getting sick of them.

If rest leds you to be able to get more done, then it is productive. This is what I am still learning. If by resting this week, I am able to do more push ups next week, it was productive. This can be put into the rest of the life. If by resting a little from your work, you are able to do more. Then rest must be an important factor. Lack of rest from a subject is why you see people burn out. It is impossible to not divert your attention and not burn out. This is why rest is important.

SOrry about the bad post. I will produce better. I am just very fustrated that when I was just about done, the computer highlighted all and delated and would not let me undo.