Congratulations to the many oustanding performances on 12.4. You have every right to be very proud of yourselves.
Peronal reflection:
One of the biggest personal victories of my life
Open WOD 12.4 from 191 reps to 243 in 24 hours
by Mike Lyons
DURING
My Saturday morning performance of 12.4 was a comedy of screw ups, but nobody was laughing. The WOD started out with three missed reps and declined from there. You know it’s bad when you’re judge starts saying “I’m sorry,” after a multitude of no reps. When fatigue set in all too early, the ball started catching a ledge kicking it into by face like the punch of a boxer. By the end, my bloody and swollen face looked more like the aftermath of an MMA fight instead of a CrossFit WOD. When I stumbled into the double-unders my legs felt cemented to the ground, and I failed my first seven attempts. My WOD ended only half way through the double-unders on my knees face down on the ground, feeling beaten. The normal congratulations were replaced by “I’m sorry,” and “Way to hang in there.” Man, was it ugly.
AFTER
I must confess. I was a beaten man both physically and mentally. As I sat under two big bags of ice, one on each thigh, the prospects of another attempt at 1 PM the next day was the last thing I wanted to do. All the rationalizations set in. I’ll not bother saying any more about those excuses other than in my mind, I felt perfectly justified in posting my 191 and closing the chapter on the whole unpleasant experience. That night I buried my sorrow in a batch of fried St. Paddy Day food and had a few drinks. After all, I wasn’t going to compete the next day.
A sleepless night later, I woke up with what felt like shredded remnants of legs. We all know what “Karen” feels like the day after. How could I possibly try again? I continued to rationalize.
THE TURN
But then my thoughts began to turn because of the words of my friends and loved ones. I must have heard ten times, “You’ve got to try it again.” From my brother, “Get your ass back in the gym,” was tempered by my daughter, “No matter what you decide, it will be ok.”
Then my own words began to haunt me. I’ve said endless times to hundreds of CrossFitters, “CrossFit is more about learning to overcome obstacles than working out.” “Never let your emotions make you do or not do something you might regret later.” And the final one I say to all our new CrossFitters, “When you’re sore, there’s nothing wrong with you. Your capacity is not diminished; you just hurt.” And finally, in a weird way, I felt connected to the many people on the Masters Facebook page. Like me, they put themselves through hell, then agonized over failures and celebrated victories with the masters’ community.
ROUND 2
So I packed my bag and headed to our second gym knowing I had to do the WOD again. No matter how it might end, I had to try. I did not want to carry the potential regret. I slowed my tempo significantly on the wall balls. I took on much smaller chunks of reps and took 7-8 deep breaths of rest in between. Being so methodical, I didn’t miss a single rep. At 100 I felt as if God had given me supernatural stamina. I was hurting, but was not getting buried. I could actually walk in a straight line to the double-unders this time and strung together 20 before taking my first of only five breaks. This left me 45 seconds to do three muscle ups.
Thanks to my CrossFit community that believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself. I’m so glad I didn’t settle for something I knew I was going to regret. Now where’s that bag of ice?
Monday WOD
50 • 40 • 30 air squats*
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4 • 3 • 2 rounds:
30 KBS
20 hand release push ups
10 pull ups
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50 • 40 • 30 air squats
* Yes you read it right, we are doing airsquats after the 12.4 wallballs. The best thing you can do is work those legs.
