Time and time again!!

Two things for me in this meme.

1. Understand your struggles are perfectly and divinely timed for great things to materialize. 


2. Do not focus on your struggles...focus on what the meme below says.  :)

Yes, what have we built new lately?  If you cannot name anything, you are not paying attention OR you are not putting in the time.  

I had a great talk with Coach Benko.  It revolved around qualities of being a competitive athlete.  

We came up with desire, skill, potential.  And the one factor that ties these all together to make an elite athlete is TIME.  Skill will develop over time. Potential manifests over time.  Desire becomes deeply embedded over time. 

We talked about athletes who have been at Synergy since the beginning. There have been A LOT of hours of WODs invested.  A lot of sore muscles, torn hands, elated feelings from PR's and "What the hell just happened there?" questions on flubbed PR attempts and of course so many family memories of doing this together.  This all comes from time invested...invested when we didn't feel like it and when we didn't want it to end (not sure we felt this TOO often of Coach Benko's programming). 

As I review my invested years into this sport I love, I clearly recognize I haven't invested enough time into my potential & skill.  Desire is a gift I have been given. It greatly out shadows my skill & potential.  It is however, a big strong wave that will carry my lack of skill & potential.   I also recognize I spent mental energy thinking about all the things I can't do, fighting the old as it says. When one hopes a movement doesn't show up, one is clearly denying the need to build the new, build new skills and increase potential.  So that's enough of that.  Let's build the new. 

So what will I do to bring my potential and skill up to my sky-high desire?  I will put in time and time again.  First priority is gymnastics.  Anything that requires swinging from an above ground apparatus is getting targeted.  BACK to the BASICS. I need better mobility, I need to find my best balance of max strength and efficient bodyweight movements. That means dialling in nutrition even more...and that means more time tracking small changes and evaluating any benefit. AND trying again. It takes time. 

I know something else pretty important that I have to practice better.  For invested time to give it's highest ROI, I must bring attention to the table.  I can put in a lot of time practicing pull-ups but without my attention to detail on quality of movement, how my muscles feel when it's right, when it's wrong, noticing a little success and being grateful for that, and recognizing when I'm stuck in a rut and need help....without paying attention to all this, my time is lost.  I'm pretty sure I mentioned in another blog post that butterfly pull-ups would soon be in a video...a video of me doing them. It took some time for this all to sink in and recognize my lack of a focused plan.  Now that i'm clear on the plan,  the time and attention are next. Besides...Rich knows what every Crossfitter is doing all the time!

Does all of this sound daunting? Where does all that time come from?  A focused, attention driven 15 minutes is more useful than 30 minutes of something that doesn't have a purpose, that is not taking you down the road to your goal.  Pay attention, be consistent with carrying out your plan and it won't require hours and hours of time. But let's say I test it out and keep you updated, ok?

AND I'm ok if it ends up meaning I don't watch an episode of Suits because I'm doing mobility or meal prep or need to get to bed.  'Cause I believe this...  

And let's end this on a LOVE note...who doesn't love a good love story?  Jacob knew about putting in time and time again with attention to reach his goal...7 years in fact!  I am NOT putting in 7 years to get efficient pull-ups. I draw a line.  I'll get them for the 2015 Crossfit games.  Done deal. 

You, me the sub, and miracles

Miracle

noun

1.

an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.

2.

such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.

3.

a wonder; marvel.

4.

a wonderful or surpassing example of some quality:

I have to say thanks to Coach Chad for asking me to step in this summer as a sub ( the Summer Cover Girl) and trusting me with his most precious resource...my team mates... ALL OF YOU! Here's what I learned from you.

It started in Church today with a quote that I can't quote for you because I don't remember it exactly.  A friend of mine takes his phone to church and I thought that strange but today I needed my phone with me to take a picture of this quote.  The message of the quote was this; our life is not so much about having a special message to give to others but to be a witness to the special-ness, the uniqueness, the divinity in each other.  What jumped out at me immediately as I listened were the very special moments I experienced while subbing in the Group classes. This has made me recognize what a special role our coaches play in our development as an athlete...but more so in our life.  YES, they are there to keep us safe, teach us correct movement patterns...give us a message for sure.  But I discovered something bigger than "the message" I delivered in each class. It was being given the opportunity to witness all kinds of miracles during each class.  Yup...look at #4 above in the definition of MIRACLE.  I witnessed that in some form every time I subbed. There was that look on your face that said, "Holy cow! Look what I just did!" and the look on my face that said "WOW..nicely done!".  AND it was the feeling in the gut to see you rise above...rise above yourself.  That witnessing, the encouragement, the look of "keep going, there's more" is what changes lives.  When you feel it, when I feel it we walk out of the gym into the rest of our lives with more "I got this" attitude.  I would like to name you all and the exact time your miracle happened...but I'm old, remember?  Poor excuse. I hope if you read this you know what I'm talking about. 

So thanks to all the coaches who witness our miracles everyday in that gym. We are grateful and depend on you for our continued, wonderful examples of surpassing quality.  

I'm going to get back to the Crossfit Games because I am surrounded by miracles of success EVERYDAY within the walls of Synergy.  So...come up to me anytime (except during a max lift, or a really hard met con...i guess that leaves warm up or cool down..haha) and tell me of your miracle...because your's makes mine that much closer.  

The Lion of Judah

It's Sunday September 7th.  The end to the Bridge City Beat Down.  Last night, Saturday, after the first day of competition I was in 15th place.  3 places short of the top 12 who qualify to do the final WOD on Sunday.  What happened Saturday?  I PR'ed my Snatch by a few pounds at 115lb. However, that put me quite far down since some of this group of women finished the Snatch Ladder at 175lb! So a win for me? Definitely!  Olympic lifting is an event I need to minimize the damage to my placing and it's coming.  The rest of the WODs on Saturday were mediocre for me.  I kept up to this group of STRONG STRONG...and let me make sure you heard that...STRONG women.  I did have happen what one cannot afford to happen in a competition.  I completely bombed a WOD, the Farmer's Walk, and that's what placed me in 15th after all scores were tabulated.

This is where my picture comes in.  I was in bed, batting my day around in my head and the errors I made that cost me.  I know restful sleep is compromised by reading the computer screen right before bed but I had to check some things on FB.  AND this was the first thing I see.  My amazing friend Rick Gutman posted this, giving a brief explanation of it and what it meant to him.  Rick said this is a depiction of The Lion of Judah.  I jumped over to the trusty Wikipedia to look it up because I wasn't familiar with it. Here's what I found:

The Lion of Judah is the symbol of the Israelite tribe of Judah. Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, is said to be the tribe's founder. The association between Judah and the lion can first be found in the blessing given by Jacob to Judah in the Book of Genesis. Both King David and Jesus hail from the tribe of Judah. The Lion of Judah is also a phrase used in the Book of Revelation to represent Jesus, and as one of the titles of Emperor Haile Selassie it is associated with the Rastafari movement.

Here's what Rick said...and Rick is a very qualified authority on the Bible:

I see... Running with Lion of Judah (Jesus) into the battle. The blinders and the 'Sheild' speak of 'Faith' The sword speaks of His 'word'. So much more going on here than that with the inscription on the sheild and the fire...

Lying there before I saw this, I was conversing with God saying "I'm ok with the day.  Not what I wanted but tomorrow is another day. AND if You are willing God, could You make it a little better day?"  I also realized I had to let go of my ego.  If I am using my talents, that were a gift to me to honour the Giver, then there is no place for ego.  AND The Lion of Judah was perfect.  Charging forward, faith burning like fire that I was ready to give it my all and God would answer.  He would answer in the best way for me.  He's got a few answers He falls back on:  

My plan was clear.  I would go into Sunday on The Lion of Judah with calm and faith that if I showed up, good things would happen. I guess He had something better in mind for me on Sunday than completing that Farmer's Walk on Saturday.  On Sunday, I played until I got my 1st Bar MU and then 6 more...I agree that was better.  I fought my way back with good workouts on Sunday BUT ended up in 13th, one away from making the final WOD.  I  felt like this except the caption on the bottom would be, "BUT, darn I really want to do that last WOD!!" :

Well God wasn't finished with my day yet. 12th place felt her body was finished and she would not be able to do the final WOD.  She hunted me down to tell me I was in!  WAHOOO!!!  I think I still ended up in 12th after the final WOD but in my head, I WON.  It was a great competition and I was honoured to be going head to head with some really STRONG women...you heard that right? REALLY STRONG.  Here's one of them...Whitney Darchuk-Parenteau, who is a beautiful person and a Lion of Judah competitor.  Yes, she won our division. 

I've got to get to bed but have to say Chad Benko, Valarie Perry and all the amazing volunteers who make our weekend go SO smoothly, YOU ARE AWESOME, SMART, DEDICATED & LOVED.   AND to Claire for calling me out on the Thruster WOD.  She actually said over the mic, "Laurie, get on that bar." I really didn't think I was looking at it that long.  Valarie, look up.  Dave, flick the ponytail.  I will always remember those cues. 

Let's get some rest and then back to training!!