My boss left me a message about work.
I need to clear my mind. I need to work out. Alone.
So I change clothes, grab my gear bag, and drive the five minutes to my box. It’s the middle of the day, so I know no one will be there.
I unlock the door, open up a garage door, plug in my phone, and rev the music.
I already know what I’m going to do. I’ve had this workout picked out for just such an occasion. It’s the hero workout Yeti. It was named after Mark Thomas Urban who died during a jump in 2013.
It has what I need to work on in it (pull ups & muscle ups) and a long run in the middle–perfect for stress relief & thinking.
I get to work. Pull ups take less than two minutes. First round of muscle ups three minutes I need to work on stringing them together but today it was one at a time.
I just wanted to get to the run. It was a beautiful, autumn day out. Sun shining. A bit of cloud cover. Birds in the fields. Perfect.
After the run I had to do it all over again. No part of me wanted to do the muscle ups. It was me against myself. I did them. I had to.
I finished, closed up the gym, and went home and rolled out.
I thought about how the size of my thighs have increased in the last six months. I thought about my diet and how I’ve trimmed the fat to the point my abs might begin to show soon. I thought about how I just did 20 bar muscle ups in quick succession–a feat impossible one month ago.
I thought about how insane I appear to other people–choosing a challenging workout when I’m sore from a rough week already, desperately need a rest day, and do it anyways. I thought about how I crave what CrossFit does for me every day of my life and how did I live before. I count my blessings. I know God’s with me.
What I didn’t think about was my job or my boss or any other stress factor.
Goal accomplished. All by myself.
I can do it.
And so can you.
My Journey to the CrossFit Games 