Wishing for something to happen doesn’t make it happen. If you want to run faster – you’ve got to practice running faster. You can dream about it all you want, but if you don’t actually practice doing it, then running faster won’t happen.
This past week I saw that lack of practice in my attempt at the CrossFit Open workout. The Open is a series of five weeks of workouts that combine all sorts of different movements you would see in a CrossFit gym. Some are pretty complex and the average athlete has a lot of things to practice. Rewind a couple months and you all know that I’ve been dealing with a herniated disk in my neck which had limited anything overhead or my shoulder mobility. This past week’s workout had both overhead squats and – gasp – pull ups. I could say that I can’t do a pull up because of the neck thing – but being completely honest with myself – I wasn’t even practicing them before hand. And I knew it. I wasn’t going to be getting my first pull up last week. I’m not blaming it on the injury – though that factored in – but I’m disappointed in myself because for a year before hand I just haven’t practiced the movement to be even pretty close to getting one.
I’ve been practicing other things, though. And remembering what my goals are. I want to run a 2:05 half marathon in May on a pretty hilly course where I’ve only run 2:07 before. Then – in the fall – I want a sub-4:31 marathon. To get there, I’ve had to incorporate some faster running. And I’ve had to be smart about how and when I do that. 400’s at a 5K pace have been a stretch to hit, but I’m making it happen weekly. Some days I’m achy – heck – I’m 42! So that’s when I need to stretch, rehab and get stronger. I’ve been doing that and my hips and legs feel strong. Bright spot about Saturday is that I could overhead squat and I hadn’t been able to squat in months. But that pull up (or lack thereof) has shown me that I need to work on my arm and shoulder strength.And you definitely need your arms to
run!
Practice makes perfect. And I have a long way to go and lots to choose to work on making perfect. I’m not upset for not being able to do a pull up – but – being completely honest – I can be disappointed knowing I hadn’t practiced enough even before injury.
PS – thanks to two good work out friends though who knew my limits on Saturday and talked me down from the bar before I hurt myself and would need to start over from scratch.
