These CrossFit outfits can be a bit of a funny thing to the
outside world. Especially the knee socks. I can’t believe I forgot in my last
blog post the most amusing thing from the entire week. I was leaving the gym
and I saw these two guys in a car staring at me like I had three heads. I was
wondering to myself what was wrong with them and then I happened to look down
at what I was wearing and I understood.
I also seem to recall a certain conversation in Los Angeles
where I said I would never wear one of these CrossFit Games outfits out on the
town. Well, I happened to be wearing the same outfit (complete with a huge 113
logo) on Wednesday of last week when I got home and got a message from my
friend Sam to ask her if I wanted to meet her for a non-drink at &Union (a
local bar). I hadn’t seen her since she was back from London so, one thing led
to another and I didn’t bother to change before heading out. I did, however,
put on long pants so the entire place wouldn’t stare at me.
So, never say never. Like when I titled my post ‘Summer’ and
that same Wednesday it deigned not only to be cold (13 with a high of 18), but
there was even HAIL. Pretty cool.
Anyway as is usual when going to &Union ran into some
people I knew (note to self: do not go to &Union after training without at
least fixing your hair ….). And is usual when hanging with Sam, met some
interesting people, one of whom turned out to be a bit of a major local
celebrity. Closest analogy I can come up with is the South African version of
Ryan Seacrest: (“He’s mostly famous for being famous.” “Oh, like Paris Hilton?”
“No, he actually has talent.”). I, of course, had no idea who he was. It’s
always more fun that way, no? When I told the girls at work the next day, I was
put right into my place.
The next evening we went to a rooftop party with Taxi
Violence and an open bar. And some dangerous people. Tequila shots are always
dangerous, and it’s amazing how easily one turns into four. But Taxi Violence,
you might remember, is a band I was quite impressed by when I first heard them.
What I apparently didn’t mention is that on the plane ride back from the United
We Stand competition in Durban my teammate Grant and I were sitting next to
some guys who looked for all the world like a rock band, but I didn’t recognise
them. I think we even asked them if they were a rock band. Well, they didn’t
really answer (probably insulted that we didn’t recognise them).
Well, turns out one of the guys from the band recognised ME,
and came to talk to me after they finished playing. Now how is that for
topsy-turvy world?
Friday morning we had an in-gym competition at an evil time
of 8am. On a public holiday. When the entire city was going crazy partying the
night before. Well, my body did not want to train on that day. I couldn’t even
jump down off the box and I literally wanted to quit early into the workout.
Not a good scene.
But I wanted to redeem myself the next day in the team
workout except that didn’t exactly work out according to plan because for one
reason or another none of my teammates was able to make it and so I spent the
entire time fuming because I wished I was somewhere else on that morning, and I
was in the mood for a hard workout. Obviously my competitive nature gets the
better of me sometimes and even when it’s a competition that doesn’t count for
anything it absolutely kills me not to be competitive to the point where I
actually don’t even try very hard. I should really work on that, because that’s
not the sort of attitude of a person I would want to train around, actually.
Well, you can fool some of the people some of the time, right?
But Mona redeemed the day for me by coaching me at her gym
on my squat clean and snatch. We did technique work of clean drops and squat
snatches. It’s always good to have different coaches who know what they are
doing. Case in point: I knew I was often pulling with my arms and not jumping
on the clean. Turns out I was also not shrugging at all, and on the snatch when
I thought the bar was coming too far out from my body it actually wasn’t. I
hadn’t practiced squat snatch in literally months so it was quite nice to see
how easy the positioning actually felt with light weights.
Later that afternoon I took Oriel out to a last dinner
(& ice cream) in Camps Bay, and then to the airport. She’s off to Colombo
next and I honestly can’t wait to hear about her next adventure. Speaking of
adventures, this week was the end of the official working year for Heart in
2011. We got our new Heart Capital web site live (mine is also live but I need
to write some content urgently…), and we had our official end of year party. I
also took over running the Hub on a day-to-day basis because nature abhors a
vacuum and a business can’t run without management. I can only hope that I can
get it to profitability soon enough to find someone to take over that job
because it’s not one that I particularly want. And thus my career as a
turnaround specialist begins.
But things are going to be a bit different in 2012, and in a
lot of really good ways. I’m excited.
I’m also thinking that I do definitely need this vacation. I
even need a vacation from the start of my vacation. I was so happy on Friday we
went to the beach and came home and watched a movie, then Saturday I declined
several invitations to go out to this huge party that was happening and instead
we went to bed at 10pm. But I was just reading this blog posthttp://whole9life.com/2011/12/the-question/ and thinking to myself well, when the going gets
tough do I crumble? I will usually pretend I don’t care or will even sabotage
my own performance. So I plan to drink on New Year’s and so I don’t want to
start my detox until then. But must I really use this as an excuse to eat ice
cream, cookies, and drink tequila?
It’s raining as I write this. I’ll take that as a metaphor
for washing away the things that aren’t working. Just as soon as my toe
recovers (I dropped a weight on it), I’ll be back at practicing those
double-unders for 15 minutes a day. Half-assed is not good enough. At least not
for me. Not for CrossFit. Not for work. Not for friendships and relationships.
Don’t settle. Don’t ever settle, right? If I’m going to do something I want to
do it well. End of story.
- “He was, believe it or not, which is why he is no longer.’ – Rob
- “Well you didn’t do a very good job!!” – Ellie
- “Colin said he thought you were interesting. But he was really high.” – Paul (how’s THAT for a backhanded compliment??)
- “I’m already hating tomorrow.” – Paul
- “I’m already hating tomorrow.” – Ellie
- “But you listen. That’s what I like about you.” – Mona
- “I’d like to see what my parents did with 50 cows.” – Oriel
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