Publisher’s Letter

Don’t avoid the pain

In January my wife and I decided to start doing CrossFit. It has been a fun, painful, rewarding, humbling and eye-opening experience.

I’ve known the owner, Billy Fletcher,  for years – and even seen a few classes when working on his ads for Go. In fact, it was a photo shoot in December that led me to consider starting the classes. I was demonstrating exercises for our models (CrossFit clients), and realized I could barely do a decline push-up. At the time I was in good cardio shape and my serious cross-training days seemed like yesterday, but I had obviously lost track of time. As a Clemson fan, it felt like realizing our “recent” national football championship was in 1981.

There is a competitive and very measurable part to CrossFit, which is part of what drew me to endurance sports. I used neglected muscles, and pain became a regular part of the routine – both during and after class. I made some gains, but found myself hating my weakest exercises (like pull-ups!). I looked forward to the endurance-based workouts, when I could finally post decent numbers (and see them on the incredibly important white board at the end of class).

Weeks went by and improvements were made. I went so far as to ask Billy what he would suggest for additional work outside of class or after class. While the workouts are intense, some are less than 15 minutes, and after most shorter classes I would ask him for suggestions. He would always recommend something terrible, like “clean and jerks,” and I found myself mentally begging him to just let me go run some miles.

That’s when I realized I was running from my weaknesses – literally. I wanted to avoid the areas that needed the most work. The exact opposite of what you should do.

What are you running from? Is your sub-standard swim keeping you out of triathlons? Have you convinced yourself that running is too hard? Is the treadmill the only piece of equipment you use at the Y? To improve yourself – physically and in a broader sense – break away from your comfort areas and identify the weaknesses you’d like to improve. Then run at them headfirst.

Richard Osborne

Publisher, Go Magazine