Ad Hoc

Woke up this morning, promptly hit the snooze, went back to sleep. Repeated this process for the next hour before finally getting out of bed more than an hour after I had planned. I'm accustomed to soreness, but knew mentally that "it" (motivation, purpose, joie de vivre, whatever) wasn't there to today to enure me against the rigors of another balls-to-wall training day. So I did what most Crossfitters (and I don't exempt myself) are often remiss to do - let myself have a rest day. Not a rest day, even. Because I didn't rest per se, I just gave myself a little latitude to do whatever it is I felt like doing. If it was nothing, so be it. After breakfast I hopped in the tub and took a 20 minute epsom salt bath. Afterward I felt a little rejuvenated and went downstairs to mess around in the garage, no real game-plan. I ended up jerry-rigging a little set-up for chain suspended Goodmornings (see video below). It was (much to my relief) surprisingly stable, so I decided to work up to a heavy triple.

315 X 3

After a belated birthday lunch with my parents, I opted to take advantage of the uncommonly warm weather we've been having in Reno the past few days (56 degrees ... what?!) and go on a trail run. 

Roughly 6km. No real intent to go out and try to break my PR (28:14), just enjoy being outside soaking up some Vitamin D. Realized I was on a good pace at the turnaround point and decided to give it a go. Despite trudging through some muddy spots I managed a faster pace on the return trip, finishing with a hard effort the last 250 meters and clocking in at 28:00 even (PR).

Then, hanging out in the garage this evening:

Extra HSPU practice
(aka Pre-Soul Night Pump Sesh)

Max Reps in 5 minutes of:
"No-touch" Handstand Push-ups
-25

then,

Emom for 5 minutes:
Deficit Handstand Push-ups X 5 reps
-Complete

Lesson? The pursuit of PRs often requires a little PR - Personal Rejuvenation (catchy, eh? Tony Robbins better keep his banana hands off that acronym). I'm not particularly sure why (or if) people read the blog with any regularity. But I've perused the blogs of higher profile CF athletes and found they often omit the bad days from their logs. Truth be told, I have them ... often. I struggle with things. I get frustrated at my perceived lack of progress in some areas, and the painfully slow rate of improvement in others. I wake up some mornings questioning why I do this to myself - live this ascetic lifestyle to pursue a goal that has proved elusive the last 3 years. It's not easy. I go to school full-time. I work weekends at a bar, which sometimes has me up until 3-4 am. There are seemingly endless numbers of concessions and trade-offs I've made to pursue my goals, and sometimes I wonder if the costs exceed the benefits I've derived.

...And then I have days like this. Days that remind me that the life I pursue is one of my own invention, and is a matter of choice, not obligation. My only benchmark is the satisfaction I derive from my own effort, not my met-con times and Oly numbers relative to other competitors. The purpose comes from the process, not the elusive end result. Moreover, I'm fortunate to even have choices, that the majority of the dilemmas I face in my life are existential - not material - in nature. First-world problems, right? My life isn't zero-sum. Nothing need be pursued at the expense of something else if we can take the time to acknowledge and recognize the interconnectedness of the seemingly disparate facets of our lives. I master myself in the gym - physical, emotional, mental - so that I may master myself in other arenas, other fields of battle that are likely to be less publicized than Regionals and the Games. 

Lastly, a bad-ass song to appropriately bookend this little disquisition: