This started as a blog about training together as a family, in part to inspire other women & families to get involved. As female participation in jiu jitsu has increased, as we have grown as athletes and as we learned that families training together aren’t such an anomaly, the blog has evolved. Jen gets personal with posts on ambition, challenges & achievements in BJJ, CrossFit & with nutrition, while Tom's posts are more educational, informative and analytical in regards to training. On occasion you may hear from the kids.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

By Jen


I had every excuse to not go to CrossFit today. I’m not very creative, unless it has to do with excuses. I can think of every reason not to do anything.

I’m taking the day off from work to take care of projects around the house. With the many busy weekends lately, the house has become a victim of neglect. I’m hosting Thanksgiving so it’s time to get my butt in gear.

Since I don’t have to rush to the office I planned to start my Monday at CrossFit. This way I can get a little more rest between the WOD and BJJ tonight. But, when I woke up, I had every excuse to skip out.

• My allergies are acting up – I won’t be able to breathe properly.
• I have soooo much to do today – I should get a jump start on the list.
• I’m really tired; maybe I should let my body rest.
• Logan needs to wake up at 6:30. If I go to CrossFit I won’t be home in time to make sure she wakes up to her alarm.
• I have a backlog of TV shows on the DVR to catch up on.

The list of excuses goes on and on, and yes, they get weaker and weaker with each one.

The guilt set in and I made my way to CrossFit. I wasn’t feeling it, but figured showing up was the right thing to do. I confess I didn’t push myself as hard as I could, but I showed up. I’m wondering, is that enough? If I average 3 CrossFit WODS and 3 BJJ classes a week, can I really give 100% of myself every day?

I’m proud about what I pushed:
• The warm up included ten minutes of sets of 5 pull ups, 10 pushups and 15 air squats. I decided to try kipping the pull-ups since the repetitions were low. I’m only able to get 2 consecutively, but I tried. I decided to use the purple bands on the last few sets.
• I RX’d the push presses at 65 lbs – this was tough for me. These were my least favorite part of the WOD.

What I know I could have done better:
• RX the overhead Kettlebell swings at 16kg – I dropped down to 12kg
• Run faster
• Faster burpees

I’ll work through my list now and will head to BJJ tonight. Hopefully I’ll be feeling stronger so I won’t have to work so hard to come up with more excuses. But, I still wonder, on those days when I’m not feeling it – isn’t it enough to just show up?

2 comments:

  1. I think its definitely enough to show up. And sometimes your body actually does need a break. Are you conditioning for something specific? Or just for keeping in good shape?

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, not training for anything specific. Just usually neurotic about wanting to do my best in everything.

    ReplyDelete