“Girls aren’t beautiful, they’re pretty. Beautiful is too heavy a word to assign to a girl. Women are beautiful because their faces show that they know they have lost something and picked up something else.” 
― Henry Rollins

I sat in the car parking lot at ACF pondering the hellish looking WOD that awaited inside and text the following to my group of ACF lovies:

I’m sitting in my car in the parking lot at ACF wondering why I’m not at home in bed right now with Oliver curled up on top of the covers and I’m also wondering why do we do these things to ourselves…

I continued, Like, why do we go to torturous WODs and deprive ourselves of beautiful things like pizza and red wine and chocolate and peanut butter M&Ms…

Pause.

One good outcome from this test, and this is a test…My brother and I talk just about every day now because he’s gone clean for the month of January in support of my efforts.

At this point I’m pretty sure no one is reading my rant, so I continue…

So now my brother calls just about every day and says things like, I miss beer, and then gives me updates on his weekend and how good he feels but that he’s not seeing colors yet but thought he would cuz he’s never been so clean…

At this point there’s no point in holding back so on I go..

This is a 54 year old man, he’s funny. And I’m babbling. Thanks for listening. Time to WOD.

One response came over the wire from my lovely friend Carmen who wrote, ‘Awwww I love it! Now go get that WOD!!’

The 8:30pm on Monday might be a new regular class for me. It is now being taught by one of my favorite ACF athletes and fellow Strong People and friend, Andrew. When you talk with Andrew one of the first things you notice is how much he loves to coach. How he loves to help people reach their goals. How he has found his passion in life. It all may sound cliché but you can see that certain sparkle in his eye when he talks with you. You can feel the good person standing in front of you.

Tonight before the WOD Andrew stood in front of the whiteboard and asked the class, Why?

Why do you Crossfit?

I wondered if he was reading my earlier texts which of course would be impossible but the coincidence only solidified the need to revisit the question; Why do you Crossfit?

As I copied the WOD into my logbook I wrote the following on the side margin in large capital letters: WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO YOURSELF?

There’s so many reasons why but it really boils down to this, I Crossfit to challenge myself. There’s really no other answer. When I rise to meet a challenge, even one so simple as an hour WOD, something happens; it wears me out, it calms my mind, it turns off the worry, it changes the way I see things, it releases the pressure valve, it simultaneously draws a finish line and hugs me as I cross it. It puts the book end at the close of my day.

I. Barbell Gymnastics:

Every Minute on the Minute for 7 minutes – 1 Power Clean + 1 Push Jerk + 1 Hang Squat Clean

Completed: Working weight at 80lbs.

II. Conditioning: 

3 Rounds for Time of:

25 Hand Stand Push-Ups

20 Wallballs (20/14)

15 Burpees

10 Toes 2 Bar

Completed: in 17:24. This WOD was very, very difficult. And the more I wanted to scale my burpees or pushups the more I told myself that it was simply not an option and it’s okay to finish last. Just do the work. And so I did not scale and did the work and was one of the last to finish.

I think the real struggle lies not within the actual WOD but for me within the understanding that there will always be a WOD. It’s not as if you finish one and it’s your last for ever and ever. No. You finish the WOD and you go home and you eat dinner and you go to sleep and you wake up tomorrow and do it all over again. And you keep doing it. You should keep doing it. You have to somehow find the motivation to keep doing it. Like getting out of bed and brushing your teeth every morning and going to work. It’s just what you do. As far as I know there is no place that you someday reach and are able to stop. No healthy place that I know. To maintain your health and to get healthier and to eat and sleep and love and live a good life you have to keep showing up.

Even if sometimes it means sitting in the parking lot struggling to find the gumption for a couple minutes beforehand.