Crossfit Fast Factory - St. Cloud, MN

By: Shoreline CrossFit
Yesterday, I failed at setting a PR on my push jerk. Four times. Four times I failed. I also spent approximately four hours practicing walking on my hands. I still can’t walk on my hands…

Sounds like a bust of a day, right?

Not really. Actually, not at all. I’ll tell you why….

I read a quote the other day, which reads, “When the time to perform arises, the time to train has passed“.

Yesterday, was a training day. Not a performance day.

Many of you may never have the desire to compete in CrossFit. By this I mean, compete in a legitimate competition; and this is fine. However, I don’t care who you are….there are some days at the gym when you are in competition with something; whether it be your past self, that person across the room, or some random time written on the whiteboard.

Then, there are days that are strictly for training. This was the day that I had yesterday.

Training days can be more productive, and certainly more frequent, than performance days. Here’s what I mean:

Yes, I failed four times at a personal record for the push jerk yesterday; but I finally learned why I fail. I used to think that it was because I push the bar away from my face. And it is…but I learned why I push the bar away from my face. After having Coach Chu, Shlee, and DP watch me, and videotaping it, I saw how I dip WAY too deep in that initial dip. Perhaps, the next time, I’ll fix this. If not, the next….

Nope. Still can’t walk on my hands. But, I watched CrossFit Journal videos and learned the progressions to be able to do so. I went around the gym surveying the athletes that can walk on their hands; asking for tips. I also held a free-standing handstand for longer than I ever have (any time compared to zero seconds is longer, right??!?!).

You see, these are things that you cannot learn in the heat of the moment in a competition or intense WOD; things that you cannot learn on performance day.

I think that a lot of us fall into the habit of craving too many performance days, and forego the training days.

Embrace the training day; frustrating as it may be, to better the performance day.

The Hive
30-20-10
Power Clean (135,95)
Ring Dip

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