Chasing Perfection, Catching Excellence

Coached some great group WODs today at CrossFit Springfield. The WOD was Row 500, 400, 300, 200, 100m, each for time resting 2-3 minutes between efforts. Everyone showed up ready to rock and throughout the course of the day there were some excellent times posted in each class. I never cease to be encouraged by the level of effort given by the athletes who participate at CFS. I loved watching as partners cheered, pushed, and pleaded with each other to keep fighting through each row to the very finish. Energy like what we experieced in the box today relates quite well to a quote by Vince Lombardi who once said, "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." Today I witnessed, many times over, our members not just striving to perform to a standard, but rather, striving to set higher standards of performance. We are truly blessed to function within a community of people who genuinely wish to see each other be at their best.

2010 CrossFit Games Champ, Kristan Clever sums up what many CrossFitters often realize early on in their CrossFit experience (scroll down the main page to view the video): "I Can Totally Do That" with Kristan Clever - video

I tackled the 500m portion of today's CFS WOD with the sole purpose of besting my previous 500m row PR of 1:29. With the coaching and ultra-motivating screams of the noon crew I was able to, rowing 500m in 1:27 for a new (and quite painful) PR. Wanting to still do the 1pm WOD of Push Press (no push jerk) 2-2-2-2-2-2-2, I stopped while I still had some gas in the tank and went through the push press progression as follows: 155/175/195/215/225/235f/235. Wish I would've tried 245 but ran out of time. Afterwards, I did a met-con of 20-10 Push Jerk @ 135 & Burpee Pull Ups. I'd done this one back in January fresh and did it in 3:56. Today, with a higher burpee pull-up bar and after two short WODs my time was 3:59. I didn't worry much about my time as I was going, mainly just getting through it- that task alone was pretty greuling.