The best laid plans

I feel like such a newb; I got totally played last night and didn’t even realise it. The conversation went something like this:

• “How is it?”
• “It’s not very good. Have you been doing anything out of the ordinary? Lifting heavier weights?”
• “No. What should I do? Should I rest? I have a rest week coming up in two weeks. Should I move it up?”
• “If you can ….”
• “I can do whatever I want! I just have to listen to my body.”
• “Well, if you can …. It would be good.”

Someone figured out the best way to manipulate me, and the irony is it wasn’t even necessary because I’ve reached the point of implicit trust. Of course I also made the mistake of telling him I wasn’t sleeping well, which resulted in another 15 needles getting stuck into me. I think my record is 39 and this was 35, so suffice to say I was in a bad shape.

Well, I have spent most of this week thinking into how to evaluate and diagnose the most critical problems in a generic business. It’s complicated. I’m thinking of it in a couple of different lights, everything from who-what-when-where-why-how to where is it going/how is it getting there. It’s like a rabbit hole in a way.

Take marketing for example. You could look at it simply and evaluate the marketing plan (if there is one). But doing so ignores the broader context: How’s the messaging? Is the product right for the target market? Is there a clear customer value proposition? Does this all reflect the brand promise?

To a certain degree this would be implicit in ‘evaluate the marketing plan’ but if you’re trying to systematise the thing, you have to be able to break it apart. Similarly, you have to be able to diagnose severe problems. If there is no clear brand messaging that’s a problem, but less of one than, say, not having a clear customer value proposition. So the sequence of events in terms of making changes also matters.

It reminds me  a bit of learning how to do the air squat properly: we’re taught all the various ‘points of performance’ but when someone first starts there are a lot of things wrong so you have to focus on the most important in terms of safety & functionality. It happens that I’ve been showing a few people how to row properly this week, so I have a bit of a sense of it. Being a coach must be hard. I’m glad it’s not my job.

Outside of that, just more of the same. Here’s a quick rundown of the week outside of work:

• Tuesday pm sprint practice in the rain. Three comments: 1. I need spikes, 2. I can’t believe I sprinted for years in high school and no one saw fit to tell me that I’m doing it wrong, and 3. “Don’t go all out” is an instruction that doesn’t really work for me because I apparently promptly forget it. I’ll have to warn the coach in future to tell me rather to go 80% or 85% or whatever he wants.
• Driving home after was very dangerous. I was a bit ‘WOD drunk’ so I just stayed in my lane and drove slowly. I guess this sort of challenge is good for me.
• Meant to go to CCF for mobility but instead had a long phone conversation.
• Qigong … good session, I was very well able to control my brain.
• Very frustrating experience trying to chat with Mike … internet fail. At least we got to the important parts.
• It is cold.
• Slept very poorly. I was up between about 2 and 3:30am. This is highly unusual.
• Wednesday lunch at what is now called Gusto. Not very paleo but I survived.
• Coach told us that evening that we need to be sure to be eating more so we’re not accidentally leaving strength gains on the table. Works for me …. Oh, wait, rest week. Damn.
• Overhead squats felt good; wish I had more time to practice snatching. Haven’t done it for a month and it shows, and every time I plan to go practice at open gym my body has other plans.
• Dinner at Saigon with Kerry who gave me about a gazillion things to think about. I guess the most important takeaway is that I need to start with the end in mind. I know what I’m doing this weekend. Also, the beef salad is really, REALLY good.
• Slept poorly again. This is starting to get old.
• Pain has now shifted from my back to my side/stomach. Byron seemed to think this was a good thing.
• Christoph & Michael made crepes for Nca! Thursday. They were even sweet enough to make a non-gluten one for me, so I ignored the fact that it was not paleo. It had been a looong time since I’d had a crepe, and probably will be a long time before I have another.
• Felt like a human voodoo doll, and the thing about acupuncture is that it seriously can mess up your brain as well. I even forgot an early part of the qigong sequence and could not quiet my brain which meant …. The sh*t knocked me out so that I slept right through the night, and almost 9 hours.
• Found the new Deluxe location, which is the very definition of hidden Cape Town. It’s in an alley off an alley, kind of.

It’s annoying me that I’m taking so long to put together this framework. It’s also annoying me that I’m not 100% healthy.

But you can’t get everything you want in life. As it stands, I have little cause for complaint. Things could always be better, or different, but that’s coming.

Six months from now, I’m probably going to be in a very different space than I am now. As long as it’s forward progress, which I’m sure it will be, that’s only a good thing.

• “Don’t blame the cold, blame yourself.” – Jaco
• “I haven’t got him doing CrossFit yet.” – Ellie
• “I didn’t know you looked forward to your rest days.” – Jeff
• “You start to treat people a bit like variables.” – Nate
• “You’re not in good enough shape yet.” – Marcel (oh, snap!)
• “No, I definitely don’t want you to be deported.” – Doug
• “All’s fair in training and war.” – Amanda
• “Haha, I like it even more!” – Mike
• “How much time are you spending on all this?” “Too much.” – Ellie & Jeff
• “Don’t finance people like to make things complicated!”– Andrew
• “That is a compliment coming from you!” – Doug
• “Can’t it just be simple once?” – Jeff
• “Stereotypes exist for a reason. Ooooh, Nutella!” – Ellie (yes, I really said this. Sometimes I can’t believe the things that leave my mouth!)
• “Master the technique, and speed will come.” – Shirfu (now where have I heard THAT before???)