Ben Plotnicki

We are just over a day away from the release of the first open WOD and I am getting pretty excited. I am doing my best to not predict what will come out of HQ and Castro’s Hopper. Some of that is in fear of another 7 minutes of Burpee’s. The truth of the matter is we are where we are and there is nothing that can be changed about that now. There is no I wish I would have done this or I should have done that, have faith in what you have done and go for broke.

As the day approaches I am the healthiest I have been in 3 months and am close to 85-90% healthy. I have lost much during the time of inability to do many things, and even some hunger and enthusiasm. As last week concluded the hunger to do well is beginning again. However, my chances of ever competing at the regional level again are drifting away and I have come to terms with that. Along with excepting that a couple of things have happened and I was no paying as much attention to them until now. For starters, I have set new goals for myself, but I will get into that in another post.

I quote movies often, but Ferris “Bueller’s Day Off” is not normally one of them but this quote is a valuable lesson “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

What has been moving pretty fast around me that I have been witnessing but not giving enough credit to is the growth and development of the athletes around me. I have been caught up in my own issues of recovering and pursuit of not being in pain to truly admire and give gratitude to their achievements.

To all of you that have been getting after it in order to become more fit in pursuit of that next level of competition, I admire what you are doing and have accomplished, but no time to get complacent the open is days away, so let’s get even hungrier.

For today’s post I am going to borrow some words from one of our highest acclaimed and well respected coaches in our community, Ben Bergeron. These rules and words were posted on his blog today, and could not be any truer words of wisdom for competitors alike.

Three things…

1.  If you are a beast, and don’t “have enough time” to do the metcons/runs, but have time to throw around a barbell you are not going the Regionals or the Games.  Your weaknesses will be exposed – and it will be your fault for not having the balls to train your weaknesses.  The fact is, it’s not a time thing, it’s a priority thing.  The easy fix to this – just start every training session with the metcon and I bet you will have time at the end for your barbell work. You are a beast – so train like a ninja.

2.  NO EXCUSES – EVER.  It was raining, you had to do pull ups at the globo gym, your hand ripped.  Adversity happens to everyone, in every training session, everyday.  Every Games athlete deals with the same issues as you – but they recognize adversity as a part of life.  If you use excuses now what happens on game day?

3.  Pay attention to the small things.  This seems obvious when comes to things that directly impact your training: sleep, nutrition, warm up, cool down, recover and rest.  But there is one small thing that will trump all those together – your mental thought process.

Your Thoughts become your Words, Your Words lead to Action, and Action will dictate your Results.

If you have negative approach to a workout or are disappointed with your performance you need to turn it around mentally.  Instead of dwelling on how bad your handstand push ups are and fearing the workout, be excited at the opportunity to become better at a weakness.

During the workout recognize the voice in your head.  That is your personal coach.  Is that voice a good coach or bad coach?  Is the voice telling you that you can lift the weight, that you can do one more rep, that you can be a little bit faster?  Or is the voice reminding you about the pain, how heavy the weight is, and that you need more rest?

After the WOD reinforce anything that went well and use any negatives as a learning experiences.  Take solace in the fact that we fail in training to succeed in competition.  You need to fail reps, blow up, and try new things that don’t work in order to improve.  Focus on the improving, not the failing.  While you are lying on the floor after the wod tell yourself that you love the feeling of battery acid in your veins, you love working hard, and that you got 1% better today.