Rough Hands

My hands are rough. There was a time they were soft and smooth, but not any longer. At one time in my life, people told me that I could be a hand model. But not any longer... At one time, my hands were almost graceful, beautiful. But not any longer...

My hands are rough. I use them daily, in ways most people don't. I train, I lift weights, I hold heavy objects. The knurling of the Olympic bars has caused calluses to form, tear, and reform. The work I do on the pull up bar has caused calluses to form, tear, and reform. I sand the calluses down, but they still tear and reform. And they hurt sometimes. And they bleed sometimes. But I continue... Because I need the calluses to be strong -- I need my hands to be strong.

My hands are rough. I train hard and my hands pay the price. My hands are strong, they do what I ask them to do -- what most people can't do. My hands are constantly remodeling, losing calluses and forming new ones -- their own artistic performance, one blister, one tear, one callus at a time. My hands are beautiful.

Crossover Benefits of CrossFit

I haven't run in 2 weeks. I take that back, I haven't done a long run in 2 weeks. I've done a couple short, 1/4 mile runs, as part of CrossFit workouts. But not a long run. The past 2 weeks have been spent CrossFitting and strength training.

Today I ran 5k in 27:38. My best 5k time is 26:48 -- during a race. I nearly hit my race time PR. Considering that I haven't really ran in 2 weeks, I was quite surprised by the time. I expected to be slow, miserably slow. I expected to hate every minute of it, really hate it. But I wasn't slow, and I didn't hate it. In fact, it really felt good, and I found myself pushing for that time.

The past 2 weeks have been spent CrossFitting -- training my mental toughness -- my ability to mentally push myself when I don't think I can push any more. Training my metcon -- my lungs ability to do more in less time. Training my strength -- my muscles ability to better utilize their fibers.

And in 2 weeks of CrossFitting, and no running, I have seen better performance in my run, although I have not trained my run. I attribute this to the crossover benefits of CrossFit. Training my mind and my different energy systems through CrossFit has benefited other activities.

Motivation

There are many things that motivate me. My desire to constantly do better, be better -- in many ways (performance, with my family, my job, etc.) -- to develop that mental toughness that surmounts obstacles, achieves results and succeeds in the given situation.

This, along with an understanding of no matter how horrible, difficult, miserable (pick your negative adjective) things can be, they can always be worse, and they are worse for many people.

And as horrible as things can sometimes be for me, there is almost always a silver lining, or an end in sight. One more minute, one more round, one more rep... TIME!

There is also nothing like a good, inspirational article from AgainFaster:

http://www.againfaster.com/articles/from-the-archives-dedication.html
http://www.againfaster.com/articles/you-are-beautiful.html
http://www.againfaster.com/articles/youll-be-fine.html
http://www.againfaster.com/articles/fortitude.html

The list could go on, but I think you get it...