Friday, July 8th 2016
This is a must-read blog entry. A huge thanks to Coach Mike for such a perfectly written piece…
#SORRYNOTSORRY
Friday partner WODs are a lot of fun here at CrossFit Cove. It’s a great time to come together as a community, meet someone new, and sometimes partner up with a friend. But, what happens immediately after the WOD can affect your mood and self-confidence.
Firebreather –Fie-r-bre’-th-er: (n)
A popular term in the CrossFit community for an extremely fit person who has extraordinary power output.
“He did that workout in 2 minutes and 31 seconds? Holy crap! He’s a firebreather!”
We’ve all been through it. You show up to a partner WOD, scope out the room for potential teammates, and then boom! The resident “firebreather” makes eye contact with you and asks you to be their partner. Worse yet, the coach starts pairing athletes up randomly and you’re paired up with the grizzled CrossFit veteran. You’ve seen them crush WODs on a daily basis and you’ve seen how much more they can lift than you. You’re excited because your team will likely finish the WOD first or in the shortest amount of time, but now you have to workout with them. Side-by-side; your performance will affect their WOD finishing time.
Fast-forward 20-30 minutes later…
The WOD is finally over. Your partner is making a sweat angel on the mat next to you and you are hunched over trying to catch your breath. They peel themselves off the floor, walk over to you, say great job, and give you an enthusiastic high-five. Your response: “I’m sorry.”
Wait, what?
Look back to the end of the second paragraph: “your performance will affect their WOD finishing time.” You suddenly changed your personal goals to reflect those of your partner. Why? On every other day, you push yourself to your limits and your results satisfy your goals. It’s not different than any other WOD, but for some reason you put their performance needs ahead of your own.
As coaches, this is one of the most common phrases we hear, and it’s also the most disheartening. We just watched you try your hardest and fight through every rep (literally). We watched you push yourself further than you thought you could. We watched you fail a rep because of that extra effort. After the WOD, we watch you writhe in pain on the ground in a pile of your own sweat (it’s very flattering). The last thing we want, or expect to hear are our athletes tearing themself down when we, and they, know that they just gave their best effort.
Be proud of where you are and how far you’ve come. Every. Day. Every day, you are stronger and faster than you were yesterday. Don’t let someone else dictate or lead you astray from your personal goals. Don’t forget why you are here and why you keep coming back. Take time to look back at where you started, look at your progress, and be proud. This is your journey. When you are finished, look towards the future and never lose sight of your “why.” Most importantly, unless you just dropped a barbell on your partner’s foot, never say you are sorry.
NEXT THUR (7/14) @ 6:30PM
FAREWELL WOD FOR COACH MATT!
Next Thursday we will be doing a special farewell WOD for Coach Matt. For those of you who don’t know, he’s heading up to Albany for medical school Apparently, in addition to being a great athlete, awesome Coach and overall good guy, it turns out he’s actually smart too. Who knew?
The goodbye WOD will run in lieu of the regular 6:30PM class, but the rest of the day’s schedule will remain ‘as is’. If you ever seen him workout, you know he’s a bit of a sadist. So expect something challenging for sure… but as always, we’ll have scales for all!
FOUNDATIONS NEXT WEEK
If anyone has friends or family who have been wanting to give this CrossFit thing a try, there are FREE Foundations/101 Classes coming up next week. Each session focuses on a different movement and we dial in on proper form and technique. These classes are also great if you wanted to review any movements.
Classes will run Monday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week at 6:30pm. Let us know if you or you know someone who wants to join us this week.
PARTNER WOD
We know the men of the Cove just did this for Guys’ Night, but the ladies wanted in on the action. So, our partner WOD is PARTNER DT!!!!!
Partner “DT”
Repeat from Friday December 24th
12 Deadlifts
9 Hanging Power Cleans
6 Push Jerks
Fitness: 115/75
RX and +: 155/105
You do a round then your partner does a round. For a total of 10 rounds (5 rounds each).
An aftermath shot from Guys’ night Partner DT. Expecting similar carnage (and shirts off) tomorrow!
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