Everyone has bad days when training. How you perceive them and later improve upon them is what separates the athlete from the victim. A victim has unfortunate events happen TO them. The athlete experiences unfortunate events and rises ABOVE them. Ultimately it’s all about mindset and determination to follow through. Take these two examples:

Jill has a bad workout day. She doesn’t make the lifts she planned and gasses out during her metcon. She decides it is because she hates overhead squats and running. And because she didn’t have time for lunch today. And because it’s Wednesday.

Jack also has a bad workout day. He also doesn’t finish his 3 sets of 5 squats and took much longer to complete his metcon than usual. He is frustrated. Then he takes a minute to think about why. He deduces he didn’t sleep well last night and he has not kept up with stretching his hip and rolling his quads. He walks over to the back of the gym and uses the last 10 minutes of class to roll and stretch. He also makes a concerted effort to sleep better that night.

Both of the above athletes underperformed and both identified reasons why. The difference between them is that Jack is proactive about his performance while Jill has made herself a victim of circumstance. Jack will have much fewer “bad” training days while Jill will rack up many many more. Take a proactive approach to your training and recovery. Acknowledge the bad days and mistakes, identify the cause(s), and move on.

We saw some outstanding work at this last weekend’s competition. We have an Olympic Weightlifting meet coming up December 7th and some of you have heard we’ll be putting on a partner competition in April. Put your goals up on the goal board. Cross them out. Repeat.

WOD 09.24.13

Front Squat 5×3

Every Minute On the Minute for 10 Minutes:
Odd: 3 Cleans (80% 1RM)
Even:6 Bar Facing Burpees

Cash Out with 100 Double Unders or Max Doubles in a Minute.

(WOD courtesy of CrossFit Reach)