Victory and the Fire



C.A.L. Saturday Night Lights 
Crossfit Temecula South Aug 4, 2012



I post so much about the fight. the journey. the path. I suppose there are victories in there too - My muscle up. Qualifying for Regionals. Finishing the Whole 30. and today standing on a podium.

It was a small competition.  In fact I only had two competitors in the advanced female division - my beloved training partners, Natalie and Kim. Sharing this competition with them was really special. I love them. We dig for our best together all the time, while 100% encouraging and helping one another.  Everyday they are with me in this journey.  Saturday, we just took it outside the box.  Competing with your support system beside you is very different from competing beside girls that have no vested interest in you whatsoever, except to finish ahead of you. I am so very grateful for these girls.

I won this one. I wanted to win it. We train to win. But I know these girls, I know where their strengths and weaknesses are. I knew where I could gain and where I might lose ground with them. I know what their training setbacks have been. They've each a few setbacks and they still made me fight for it. They were right on my heels. They are phenomenal athletes and any one of us could have taken it Saturday.  But in circumstance and drive, I was positioned to succeed this time. 

Now, for the road ahead, how do I take that to the next level? How do I come off a victory, celebrating it, but thirsty to be better?  Just by being honest and real and remembering my goals.
I guarantee if I took this opportunity to sit and bask in self satisfaction, and to ease up a little on my training, because "Hey I'm doing great", and then face this competition again next month... the outcome would be different. I wouldn't be positioned to win, because I wouldn't be as hungry for it, because I would miss valuable training time, because the little things we do and sacrifice EVERY DAY add up and count in the end.

I listen to all sorts of crazy motivational youtube clips.  Everyday. It feels silly to share with people, but I know it works for me. Every day on my way to the gym I have to stoke and fan the flames of desire and fight in my heart in order to get the most out of the training session.  At the competition, I sat off to the side with my head phones getting my self pumped up and hungry to start in the lead and stay in the lead. hungry NOT to quit. Not to slow down. Because once that timer starts and the weights start moving... it will get heavy, it will get hard, my lungs will burn, my legs and back will ache, and there will be a point that I want to just stop, before it's over.  Always.

I have to have my head fixed harder than my muscles.
This was fun :) I have only ever been on the podium in my life ONE time, and that was as part of a team.

As small as this competition was, it was a victory for me. I need to celebrate that.  I need to let it reach my heart and hold it there. The podium is possible. I am capable of suceeding at this when I work for it.  These months of focus, and consistent drive, have been working. 

Oh, yeah, I don't do this just to fight every day. I DO have an end, a goal I want to achieve.
And one rest day later, I need to move forward from this experience determined to be even better and stronger and faster next week and the next and the next.
Back to the box.