Embrace the Suck
I sucked today. Real bad.
(In fact, two hours later while writing this.. I feel my lungs are still trying to suck oxygen to breathe!)
This morning at Crossfit, we did a Metcon for three rounds.
Usually, I do well in these type of workouts. But NOT today.
I came dead LAST. Not by a little bit. But by a large margin.
It was humbling.
It’s not that I always come first or never come last (in fact..far from it)… but for some reason, this workout SMASHED me.
I know we all have “Days” like this. Days in practice where you SUCK. Big time.
Excuses? Plenty.
This workout had 3 Kryptonites for me: Airdyn (Bike 🚲), Rowing 🚣♂️, and Wall Balls. They all SUCK (for me… because of my short, skinny little legs). Again “excuses”.
Maybe it was the jet lag or tiredness from flying from East coast to Westcoast in 48 hours.
Maybe (and most likely) because of the indulgence of the fantastic food I had on the weekend while being away! Again “excuses”.
Excuses doesn’t make the hurt less painful.
By the end of the first round, my body was saying STOP 🛑. By the end of the second round, it was saying “You’re done, my friend”.
My body was ready to QUIT. My mind wasn’t. For a split second, I almost did. But I had to refocus and concentrate on the next REP quickly. The next calorie. The next movement.
It’s hard to be inspired when you feel like quitting. It’s hard to be motivated when 98% of you wants you to stop ✋.
My “teammates” who are now well rested and are cheering me on to finish that last part of the 3rd round. Counting down every REP that was left. One agonising rep at a time.
Their words are encouraging… but let’s face it, it’s not going to make this LESS UNCOMFORTABLE. It’s not going to make this less painful 😖.
Their encouragement is to remind you to “Dig Deep, Hold on… and EMBRACE THE SUCK”.
We are all going to have days like this. There are days in practice where it is going to SUCK.
Accept it.
If every day is “sunshine ☀️ and rainbows”… then I might say you are not pushing hard enough. You are not finding your EDGE. You are not willing to expose yourself to your weaknesses.
Days like these highlights your vulnerabilities. It EXPOSES you. You can’t hide or outrun from your weaknesses. Sometimes the only way through is… to go through it.
But it’s ONE day.
There is always TOMORROW.
But you get to choose how you start tomorrow. Are you going to start feeling “sorry” for yourself? Or are you going to SHOW UP and do it again?
Because maybe tomorrow, you are a little bit stronger. Perhaps tomorrow you are a bit better.
Either way, it doesn’t matter… because what matters is that you SHOW UP and decide to EMBRACE THE SUCK.
