Patience

So today I wake up.  I check the Crossfit Carmel WOD for the day, and I remind myself that I am crazy if I try to attend despite my injury, as minor as it is.  My chiropractor says to take a week of.  My coach at Crossfit says to take a week off.  However, I love to keep at things and not stop.  But today, I experienced a few things that reach beyond Crossfit and they all seem to fit together as if my current situation is the road I was meant to be on.

A dear friend of mine sent me a very good website concerning Crossfit.  She is an A.C.E. certified personal trainer.  In the article, which you can read in its entirety here, the author discusses one of the potential criticisms of Crossfit being the pounding of so much heavy weight leading to injury given the fatigue in energy, endurance and form.  While I have many thoughts on the article, it made me think, "How long have I been neglecting form for time?"  "How many times do I compromise form when the Crossfit coach isn't looking" (like I used to do in h.s. when my soccer or basketball coach turned his back!)  And....."How many times have I left Crossfit WITHOUT STRETCHING after a WOD?"  The answer is.....too many.  I can not thank my friend enough for sending me the article because.......

Later in the day I had a frank discussion with my colleague at work who attends Crossfit intermittently amidst her busy life:  two working parents of toddlers.  We discussed her issues with finding time to continue to attend Crossfit.  She loves how it makes her feel, but she does not love working out, which I think represents a lot of people out there.  The theme of our talk was finding the patience to let other stuff in our lives go so we can invest in our health.  Of course, easier said than done.

Lastly, I answer an email today from a Crossfit friend.  This is the same person I did the Paleo 30 day challenge with.  We emailed our food intake to one another every day for 30 days keeping one another accountable.  Part of my email to him was the fact that I was so impatient today as opposed to yesterday about not being able to work out.  I miss it.  I look forward to the challenge every day, and his reply was that he was not working out going on 5 days now to let his own body recover, and he is not injured.  Ahhhhhhhhh.......patience he has. (I heard Yoda saying this to me as I read his email.)

So today was not about food discovery, or a new PR of any sorts.  Rather, today was about a series of events that take place in all our lives:  an email, a conversation with a co-worker, and a thought provoking article to read.  All of these together made me think that this fitness road that I am on has lead me to a different street.  In order to keep making gains physically, I need to remember that a little bit of patience and "slow down" will get me further in the long run.