Comfort Zone

I'm going to migrate to a new blog, one that isn't NYC specific. I miss blogging. I think I want to make it more well rounded though. Still about fitness, still about the struggle to live up to my potential, but in a more gestalt way (nice word, huh?).

Today I did something I don't think I could have done a year ago. I'm staying at my aunt's (while someone stays at my house, it's like house swap) and so I'm not in my regular place for running and Crossfit. Situations like this in the past have not turned out well for me. I don't naturally like being outside my comfort zone. So, rather than try a new situation, I would do nothing. This time I was determined not to let that happen. I went to a Crossfit in the town where I'm staying. It wasn't my place, it wasn't my peeps, and I had just read their blog the day before that was all about programming for the top 5% -- meaning, yes, people complain their Xfit is too hard but it's supposed to be, they design their workouts for the top 5% of athletes. I thought: GREAT! I'm SO excited about going now! :{

To put added pressure on myself, I set up a time to go with a girl I went to grade school with. I knew she worked out there and we keep in touch on FB but I haven't seen her since the HS reunion over a year ago. She's an amazing athlete in top shape. Not only did I have reason to be intimidated by the facility, I picked a superior athlete to workout with.

It snowed last night. I thought about texting her and canceling. But if this year has taught me anything it's that you can't move to the next level if you don't put yourself out there. That applied with running when I finally left the security of my treadmill and took to the streets and trails. It was hard, it knocked me down a few pegs, but I fought back and emerged as a stronger, faster, more confident runner. I can take on steep hills, I can take on powerful headwinds. There are no conditions I haven't run in over the last year. I realized this morning when I was dreading going to Xfit that I need to apply that courage to this endeavor too.

So I went. The WOD was insanely hard. It was actually funny because one of the exercises was walking lunges holding a weighted plate (my favorite -- not) across the room and back, once at the beginning of the WOD, again at the end. I looked at the room and thought, well, this isn't so bad. It's just a little bigger than my Xfit. Then everyone disappeared out a door. My friend called me over and I found myself inside a huge warehouse, the size of a football field! It was across THAT room we had to go back and forth. Twice.

There were also 2 moves in the WOD I wasn't familiar with: ring dips and knee to elbow. One is when you use rings (like in male gymnastics) and do tricep dips. They're super hard because you aren't stable so it's not only the workload on the tricep, it's holding yourself steady to be able to complete the motion. Knees to elbows is where you swing on the pullup bar and pull your knees up to your elbows, like doing crunches in the air. Yeah. Not easy either.

I saw 2 people quit today during the WOD. If my friend wasn't there, I might have, too. But she coached me on to finish and I am so grateful for that. It wasn't only a huge accomplishment to get through that WOD: a total of 63 pullups, 63 ring dips, 30 knee to elbow, 45 back squats, and 200 feet of walking lunges, it was a mental victory that I put myself in a situation I wasn't comfortable with and I did it.

I was shaking so badly after that I almost missed a step leaving the place because I didn't have very good control over my legs. I'm sure I will be sore as hell tomorrow when I go running (again, not in my comfort zone) but guess what? I'm hoping to get back there Wednesday, too. I know it will be hard, I know there will be more movements I haven't done yet. I know there will be superior athletes who have been at this for close to 2 years and it shows. But I'm going to hang in there because I won't get to where they are unless I put myself out there.

The comfort zone. You just have to leave it sometimes. Some great things await you on the outside.