Three Hard Lessons Learned From Competing In CrossFit

It’s Monday morning, and my glutes hurt. Badly.

Literally. Both sides. Let me explain. 

About 49 hours ago I woke up at 5:03 am to head to the gym to meet up with my team. 

The last Saturday in September is an annual CrossFit event called Battle Pink. 

The fine people at Our Town CrossFit in Listowel Ontario work their tails off to throw a great event to raise money for breast cancer awareness. 

This year our club sent 4 teams of 3 to compete. 

Two teams were in the Elite division and 2 in the Recreational division. 

Myself and my partners David “Diesel” Pedrossa and Karen Lunn competed in the latter. 

Our heat for Event 1 kicked off at 10:10 am. 

It was the longest of the 3 events with a 30 minute time cap. It started with a 100 calorie team row. 

Diesel was on the rower, with Karen up next. 

The head judge yelled “10 seconds!”...the giant digital clock on the wall began to click down...then a loud chime...3!....2!....1!....GO! 

We took turns pulling with everything we had, rotating every 45 seconds. 

After 2 rounds each we were onto the box jump overs. The butterflies and pre-event jitters we had 5 minutes ago are replaced with burning lungs and jelly legs. 

Those box jump overs….great googly moogly. Diesel and I had practiced them the day before, alternating jumping onto the 20 inch box and off. When I say ‘practiced” we did about 20 each. But man oh man, sharing 100 of them after that hellacious row? 

Absolutely smoked my legs. 

David stumbled back over to the rower to tag Karen who started us again on the next leg, an 80 calorie row. Oh boy can Karen row! 

We stuck to our 45 seconds each of max effort and kept rotating, and after 5 rounds we were onto the 80 wall balls. David did an opening set of 20 and made it look easy. Karen took the second ball direct in the face, misjudging her distance from the target. SPLAT! 

She picked up the 14 pound ball and kept going. The 80 team wall balls were the easiest part of our day, and if you’ve ever done them, you know how much they burn. 

Back to the rower for 60 more calories. By now I’m in what I call the “bubble”. The cheering crowd is a dull static membrane punctuated by the sound of your labored breathing and the efforts of your team mates. Your inner voice is turned completely off except for perhaps counting. There is no politics, no Kardashians, no consciousness or drama….just effort. 

Off the rower to 60 power snatches. You pick-up a 55 pound barbell and lift it overhead in one motion with straight arms. To Diesel it’s a plaything. To Karen and me it’s manageable and deliberate. 

Back to the rower for 40 more calories. I am dimly aware of the first team in our heat finishing the Event as we press on. I remember thinking “good. If they can survive this so can we.” 

Off the rower. That seemed quick. I do a body inventory. I can’t feel my legs, arms or hair, just a dull burn in my lungs. No problem, I got this. 

40 squats at 85 pounds. Karen power cleans it up, puts it on her back and does 5. Back dumps it. I jump on the bar for 5 reps. My legs are jelly, and not the delicious kind. Diesel cranks out 10 like nothing. Five more for Karen. My five. David finishes it off. 

More teams are done, each one with loud cheering. We have our last row for 20 calories. We come off the row to the final step, 20 power cleans at 125 pounds. 

 All the other teams are finished except us. 

The entire gym is cheering us on! 

Karen picks up the loaded barbell, goes for rep 1 and I hear her mutter “uh-oh”. On a good day, with fresh legs and back that’s a hard rep for her. But today...just not gonna happen. She drops the barbell and starts cheering loudly for me. 

My max power clean is 150 lbs and I weigh 148 lbs after a big breakfast.. 

I pick up the bar and I swear it feels like a 250 pound deadlift. I don’t think I can power clean this. I pull and instinctively drop all the way under it into a full squat clean. I feel both ass cheeks touch my heels then the floor. 

I’m facing Diesel and his eyes look terrified, the size of saucers. He twitches as if he’s going to lunge forward to save me. I can feel my face turn purple with the effort. I try to get up with it...no damn way. I bounce once in my hips and get to parallel. 

Somehow the brain knows this is gonna hurt, and it turns off my eyes. It’s hard to explain. It’s like it shunts all available power to the lift and away from non-essential systems. Don’t need to see anymore...the world gets grayish and foggy. My ears can hear a cacophonous din of people screaming “UP!” simultaneously...but somehow my nervous system can distinguish the 3 voices of my coaches Steve, Cam and Brandon from the 99 other shouts. Slowly. Oh so slowly it begins to rise. Inch by agonizing inch. My reality, my entire existence is one big sticking point. 

I feel my mouth is hanging open, my eyes are bulging, my face is burning purple, every limb every fibre of tissue is straining. And with a sudden “WHOOSH!” I’m up and dropping the bar. It’s kind of like the feeling you get 90 seconds after you get into a warm bed...such a relief. That’s rep 1. 

Diesel bangs out 10 with it like it’s a toy. Oh shit. My turn again. 

I ain’t doing a squat clean anymore. I get 2 full power cleans with it somehow. I think I can do one more. But I can’t. I realize it mid-way through the pull as it enters the zone between my knees and hips. Instinct takes over yet again. My brain doesn’t work anymore, the precious brain sugar has long since burned up. 

My body robotically drops under the bar much to my chagrin. I thought the first squat clean was brutal. But this second one...there was a moment of clarity at the bottom. For me it was a defining moment of personal awareness. 

For most of my adult life when things got hard I would stop. I’ve made a terrible lifetime habit of quitting just when things needed a max effort. The search for the solution in my life knowing that I needed to “stop stopping” is what lead me to CrossFit. 

CrossFit has instilled in me the idea of “turning off the quit”. I loved the idea of deliberately practicing getting deep into discomfort for the sole purpose of strengthening your will to complete the task at hand. 

Sitting ass to grass with a barbell on my chest, exhausted, surrounded by my team and friends and all my community...it was some pretty powerful magic I tell you what. 

Success starts with a decision. And on that chilly Saturday morning I made a decision. I decided to stand it up. And so...I stood up that final squat clean. Not sure how. Seemed like an eternity under it. But it went up. The cheers were electric! 

I bounced it over to Diesel who finished the last 5 and grinned from ear to ear. We did it! We beat the time cap by more than 3 minutes. 350 cal row, 100 box jumps, 80 wall balls, 60 snatches, 40 squats and 20 power cleans in 27 minutes. 

One of my favorite parts of CrossFit is the loudest cheers are for those that finish last. 

We got a hundred high fives and hugs. It's hard not to feel like a winner when you have so much social proof. Shared suffering creates community. 

Yes, we had 2 more events to go on the day. And yes, we finished 11th out of 12 teams. We barely even cared. We were competing against ourselves. We vanquished the “I can’t” voice that lives in all our heads. 

What did I learn from the day? 

===> There is amazing power in setting a goal and finishing what you started. 

===> Finishing is a skill that can be learned and strengthened. 

===> Surround yourself with people who care on the same journey as you. 

You know what? 

It was awesome. All of it. 

The training, the event, the people, the entire experience. 

Thanks to all the volunteers at Our Town CrossFit who made it a special day. And thanks to all my amazing teammates who shared the day. 

Just remember…. You got this.

Want my training notes? CLICK HERE: How I Accidentally Became The 6th Fittest Baby Boomer In Mexico!