Saturday, December 31, 2011

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end










Well, it’s another week of holiday in the books. Honestly I struggle a bit to remember what I actually DID do! I struggled a bit early in the week because I planned a 4-5 day rest cycle, depending on how I felt on the fifth day. As is turns out it was a 5-day rest cycle but I was seriously missing my exercise-induced dopamine by the afternoon.

Earlier in the week I had acupuncture (my side is healing, but I was encouraged to do yet more stretching and told that the intensity of my exercise was slowing my complete healing). Quite a hectic session actually, lasted 90 minutes and kind of kicked my ass.

Tuesday I spent with some friends (and friends of friends) having an extended brunch and afternoon at the Constantia wine farms. Wednesday was supposed to be the day the contractor came over to do a bunch of repairs but due to various issues we had to reschedule so I ran a bunch of errands. Just, you know, stuff …

Long meals and catch-ups with Roland, Kerry, Charlotte (did I miss anyone? I hope not…), beach and movie with Keith, more beach, a few workouts at Virgin Active (the local mass gym), getting back to CrossFit (yay!) for a particularly killer power clean/lateral burpee workout and then a beach workout with the Ballistix crew early Saturday, and some quality time setting goals for work and sport. The latter involved going through my old log books so I could see what my PRs actually were. This was a surprising amount of fun! Such anecdotes as:
  • My first ring dip (2010/10/13)
  • My first pullup (2010/11/16)
  • Bench press PR of 51kgs from about a year ago (note that I did 55 reps of 48kgs in a workout a week or so ago)
  • My first benchmark girl: Grace (not my best performance …  I forgot how to clean for about a minute, I seem to recall!)
  • Such amusing comments as: “Yech! Not very explosive” in reference to a clean complex we were doing at CFNE, “opening hips! :) PAIN…” (no idea what this was all about), “paleo zone + 2 bottles of wine” (ummm…. … then the next day “feeling kinda under the weather” hahaha) “it really hurt!” (in reference to 100 burpees for time … probably explains why I haven’t done this one since!)
  • Amusing notes from the original CCF log book such as: “Toss 20kg of ice cubes into the bathtub…” (seriously … where the hell are we supposed to get 20kgs of ice cubes from?? Must be a joke)
  • The 12 days of Christmas workout Laa-Laa and I did after a liiiiitle too much wine the night before

As I did last year here is a quick look back at 2011:

Q1 in which I won two athletic events (first time I’d ever won one!); Fittest in Cape Town and the Summer Trail Series, then proceeded to sprain my ankle by my own stupidity, an injury that lingers to this day.

Q2 in which we started to accelerate our portfolio, I got introduced to the South African music scene through the mesmerising experience of being sung to by a rock star-in-the-making, and qualifying our team for the CrossFit Games.

Q3 in which we competed in the Games and while it was good fun, I was disappointed in myself, humbled mightily, cleared out my storage locker and realised a bit too late that life really doesn’t revolve around me.

Q4 in which I learned just how good it can be to compete as part of a strong team, somehow managed to get my stress under control, battled a mentally tough injury, and celebrated ramping up staff at work while at the same time mourning a brand lost through poor execution.

It was a year of new friendships, new experiences; my goodness I learned a lot. I’ve set my goals and intentions for 2011 (some of which need to be revised up if the weights at Virgin Active are even close to accurate), and now it’s time to get on with life. Life is, after all, what happens when you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I’ll leave off 2011 with an SMS I just got from a friend: “A simple wish for you for the New Year: May 2012 be a year in which you exceed your own expectations. Put the past behind you and move forward with a clean slate. Learn to forgive yourself. Happy New Year!”

The past is just that. 2011 had some ups and quite a lot of downs.  I’m looking forward to 2012 because I have a feeling this is the year that a lot of things are going to come together for me, and hopefully for a lot of other people I care about.

  • “Obviously if you feel you’re losing feeling in your toes you might want to stop. But it’s a give and take, right?” – Roland
  • “I don’t want to become better at being crappy.” – Roland
  • “The most effective training methodology is the one that you do.” – Roland
  • “No milk or sugar but you show up with a box of chocolates?” – Rowan
  • “He’s on the mountain looking for edible bulbs.” – Sarah
  • “You could tell who I was talking about just from that?” “Uh, YEAH.” – Ellie & Craig
  • “Long Street should just be renamed Moron Boulevard.” – Keith
  • “Why would you deprive yourself of ice cream?” – Keith
  • “There are certain physiques that …. Well, you see them all the time at your gym.” – Keith
  • “Do you believe in evolution? Are you religious?” “Are you kidding? That’s like asking me if I’m a vegetarian.” – Charlotte & Ellie
  • “You’re on Clifton Beach, so you’re a f*cking poor recluse.” – Keith

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