You may have heard this story before but it means a lot to me and I like to share it. The first time I did the Girl Wod named "Grace" (30 Power Clean & Jerks for time with 95# for time) was in a competition. It was the first competition that I entered in the RX category. At the time I signed up, I couldn't even clean 95# and I somehow decided that I should enter a competition where I was going to be required to clean and jerk 95# for a total of 30 times! What was I thinking?!?!
I practiced and practiced and practiced some more. Every. single. rep. required patience, concentration and 100% effort. I finished last in the comp with a time of 6:55.
Since then I am reminded of how amazing I felt that day, whenever I hear the word Grace. I have even blogged about it before. Feeling confident about handling that weight I eagerly repeated the workout about 6 months later. I was 40 seconds faster with a time of 6:15. Then again, 6 months later with a time of 5:26. Now with a time that I was super proud of, I kind of put Grace on a shelf for a bit. I was almost scared to try it again. Seriously, how could I get any faster... I'm just a regular person, not a competitve athlete. But over time, Grace started creeping back in my mind. I wanted to revisit this test. It was not quite 2 years later, I was finally doing CrossFit on an almost daily basis and getting better, stronger and most of all more experienced with managing myself in fitness tests.
On April 27, 2017 I performed Grace for the 4th time and sored 3:53. I thought to myself on that day there's no way I will ever beat this time. Dear Grace, I loved you for your challenge but now I don't think I can do any better than this day. Next time I hope that I will even be close to this time. It's funny how the expectations we put on ourselves sometimes feels like a weight vest, hard to breathe and every move is harder than reality.
Since then I have continued to work on efficiency with the barbell. I have become stronger and smarter. I'm still a regular person, working on myself daily to be the best, healthy, happy person I can be. And now I do enjoy the competition with myself.
On Jan 9, 2019 Grace was coming. The night before I woke up three times thingking about my strategy. I was excited and nervous. I kept thinking to myself...how will I ever be faster that 3:53.
I wanted to video myself ( I do this from time to time to critique myself ). I set up the tablet and said to myself outloud. "You know what to do - it's ok if you don't beat your time- just do the best you can do today- and you don't have to leave the gym crying"
3, 2, 1, GO ....
I beat my time with a score of 3:16. I am so grateful that I did take the video because there are glaring opportunities for me to improve. I will happily repeat Grace sometime in the future.
If you'd like to watch the video here's a youtube link;
https://youtu.be/4H7Ly0YJ5AE
