A-MAZING...and I want tattoos! :(

There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women. ~Madeleine K. Albright

Maybe I'm not not recovering...

Maybe this dude is just beating my hamstrings in my dreams...

What I plan to do from now until sectionals:

1. Try to keep eating well - and on days when I don't train - only 100g of CHO a day.

2. Amass cat nap time... and adequate sleep (tonight is not a very good example).

3. Rest Friday, train Saturday and Sunday, take active rest until Saturday...

4. Learn to define active rest.

5. Get a massage - preferably on Tuesday or Wednesday.

6. Freak out when they post the WODs.

7. Text people after freaking out.

8. Freak out after receiving people's texts about freaking out.

9. Make Tribe T-shirts, special thanks to Karis and the one and only Shanie Mac.

10. Remember that this is supposed to be fun. :)

BAYUM.

Pain is perception...

And sometimes pain is just REALLY pain.

Picture taken from CrossFitEndurance.com - are you surprised???

And in life, not just in CrossFit, you need to learn to distinguish between the two. How do you really know the difference?

I don't know about the rest of you but there are definite times within the course of a workout that takes me all of 7 whole minutes that I grab a moment to truly contemplate. It is almost as if for a whole minute (at least) a question is throbbing through my brain - will this kill me or will this help me be better?

Over and over and over again - will this kill me or will this help me be better?

I could be wrong but I don't think that this question arises to those outside of CrossFit and the world of intense sports. For the most part, most normal people with normal lives and normal days (who are those people anyway?!?!) believe safer is better. Why play with fire? Why do something that hurts? Why test your self? Why keep going when you're tired? Why bother trying when you really just don't want to? Is there nothing to be got on the opposite end of the spectrum? Is too much simply too much?

I wager - that occasionally, getting a little delirious and doing things we may fail at is what we were made for. It is how we learn.

I personally don't want to live an unexamined life but I also choose my examinations wisely. I like calculated risk. So sue me. (Well - most of you signed waivers so hopefully you can't.)

Examples:

1. Alyson Terranova likes sky diving. A. LOT. I see it as one more way to have bad dreams for months on end.

2. I will go exploring in Jerusalem, but only in certain parts of the city and with certain company. I will plunder Pompeii but only for a certain amount time and to certain depths.

3. I don't date people I don't know outside of one context. Frankly, I can't date strangers. Too many bad things can happen. Though so far, bad things happen either way... Hmm...

So, I'm a little picky. I leap cautiously. I don't like walking in water I can't see through. I don't like beginning a day without a plan... and I don't like feeling in a workout that I might seize up and just die.

But here's the thing. A workout - in the end - is just a workout... the worst that happens to you is that you stop. Yep. Right where you are you just stop. Maybe you've got an acute injury (seen a lot of those), maybe you're having an asthma attack (and I've seen those too), maybe you're just plain not ready to handle another thing emotionally...

In the end, the worst that happens is you're still alive, and you're just wishing that for once - in a controlled environment - you chose to leap where you could not see.

All I know is - there's something about what I do and teach for a living that really does this for people. Quite literally if you think about the mechanics of a box jump (which I have now semi-mastered for the first time in my life, thank you, DT) and the kind of courage that can only come from self-discipline that it takes to land confidently under a bar in the Oly Lifts.

Of course - like all great things that humans eventually accomplish - you must have a plan B. You must have a way to fall, a way to fail, and a second path to run. But if you have never dared to find out what happens if Plan A works... that's just not living yet. Calculated risk - is still risk! You must be willing to fail in order to succeed.

Success springs from moments of intervention. These are times when one is able to turn the tide of the mind. For a moment your fears are pliable - captive in your hands. There is absolutely no need, and no room for self-doubt.

And it may sound silly, but I love this overcoming of perception. I love convincing myself otherwise. That I can run harder than I thought, that I can jump faster, that I can pull one more rep, push one more time. It spills over into my life. It gives me joy. It gives me strength. It makes me wonder at the way we are made and all the potential we hold.

How much does a pound of snow weigh...

and other questions you'll ask yourself when snowed in virtually by yourself during the month of February.

Will I ever go to New Zealand?

Will I ever get tired of A.J. Heschel?

Is it silly of me to look at all the snow outside and still want these?

Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. - A.J. Heschel

Simple food.

Go to the market.

Buy whatever you see and combine it to make monstrously good food.

I bought 2 lbs. of pasture-raised turkey, 1 lb. of pasture-raised pork, 3 very curious looking sweet potatoes, a big chunk of grass-fed butter, and 5 slabs of really intriguing flatbreads (made out of brown rice and millet flour).

Why I feel ok eating a lot of carbs (~150g a day) from some otherwise questionable sources but not eating a lot of fruit:

1. A very active lifestyle.

2. Fructose is apparently not so good for you in any form.

3. Fruit is not easy to come by in nature except for one time of the year... and even then, wild fruit is waaaaaaaaaaay less sweet.

4. Most of the easier to buy fruits are higher in fructose, including what most "primal" or "paleo" baked goods and snacks are made of, agave nectar, honey, and/or dates. Even molasses has a pretty high sucrose level.

5. Fruit is an exception. And I don't always miss it... though sometimes I do. Sometimes I'd just rather eat bacon.

6. Leptins in grains, are also in nuts... sometimes in higher levels. Have to find this link.

7. I eat fruit. Just not NEARLY as much as I used to eat (piece with every meal at least).

8. Fruit just makes me crave more fruit!