refinishing & relaxing.
It has been a hectic week! I have been wanting to post for a while; my head has been feeling cluttered and certainly, I have been doing some thinking. My family has been here visiting for the past week, both to visit and to paint the apartment that we (my boyfriend and I) just moved into. While in the process of painting, my stepdad discovered that our doors throughout the apartment were made of a beautiful cedar, covered up by many layers of paint. Thus began the scraping process. My stepdad started on one side and then stopped, realizing he hard started something bigger than himself as he did not bring the proper tools with him to complete the door. This left one side of the door scraped clean and more still to do so I then decided to take it upon myself to finish the door. Not only would this give my stepdad and I something to connect with (which is often hard since I live so far from home; our relationship suffers this distance and since I made our first initial years together extremely difficult, this is something I am often seeking to repair), it would also provide an opportunity to learn a new skill. I have recently decided that I need to be a person of many skills, that knowledge IS power etc etc – all of that stuff that everyone always tells you and yet, few people pay attention to. I always found myself saying I wish I could do that and then I realized, I can do that – all I have to do is learn. So I have taken on this new task: refinish the door. It is a somewhat daunting task as I have never done it before, there is much scraping, sanding, varnishing etc to do, but I am ready (and eager) to embrace the process. I found, as I began scraping, that I actually enjoyed the work. It was vigorous and I easily got lost in it. I am excited to see where this goes and see what I can create, with my own hands – something outside of the familiar world of literature. It shouldn’t be so surprising to me that I enjoy it because it falls in the same realm, really, of fitness: I am using the power of my body to see results.
On the topic of fitness my workout buddy gave me a bit of an eye-opener at the beginning of the (last) week. We both had a pretty rough session on Monday – it seemed like both of us, in spite of the fact we had new gains, we not satisfied with the work-out. My own muscles, tired from four days of intensive training in a row, were failing easily. I kept getting frustrated, talking down to myself, feeling like crap and I could tell Jon was feeling the same way. I kept reminding him that he was doing well and had pushed more weight in that session than a) he had ever before and, b) had even since last week. It made me realize that sometimes you just have to stop focusing on the goal ahead of you and take the time to stop and recognize your accomplishments. The truth of the matter is that we both have made extraordinary gains in the past couple of months; I am literally lifting double the amount as before and Jon as well. It is so easy for me to get caught up in pushing harder and doing more because I am such a perfectionist. I have to realize that this is also a part of the journey I am on: learning to overcome perfectionism. The thing is that I will never be perfect and trying to be so takes away from the work that I am doing. There needs to be a balance because it is definitely important to push myself and, to a degree, be hard on myself; otherwise, I will settle and I will not get the satisfaction I love from my workout but also, I need to appreciate myself and my abilities. Let’s be corny here and say, stop for a moment, give yourself that old proverbial pat on the back. Seriously. Anyway, that wasn’t actually the whole span of what I set out to write, concerning the eye-opener, but I guess it falls in the same category – I more just discovered my brain needed to write that when I set out writing. What I intended to discuss was the importance of RELAXATION. Post-workout, Jon and I were discussing when we would meet up for the week and I said that since my parents were visiting, I needed to meet up much earlier in the mornings and could only come for the first half of the week. Jon looked at me as if I were crazy and asked if I was going to work-out all the way until Thursday, even though I hadn’t had a rest day yet. I shrugged and said I had no other choice since I would be going out of town Friday and couldn’t work out Thursday. Jon reminded me that I needed rest, that so many days in a row was clearly exhausting. Obvious point in case: my muscles literally were failing while I was trying to lift weights at reps/weights that should have been well within my ability range. Despite this, I was still trying to insist that I absolutely had to come, no rest, until the point that I left town. Then Jon reminded me of something I said to him last week, that sometimes you just need to take some time off, let your muscles rebuild. True! So, I did just that. I skipped Tuesday, worked out Wednesday, and then I took the rest of the week off. Hard as it was not to feel guilty, I managed. Rest days are extremely important and then, every few months, it is important to take a week off. It actually makes you stronger – it gives your muscles time to adjust, rebuild, and then you come back stronger and more mentally willing to get back in the gym, attack the work-out! There is nothing more in the world I love than hitting the gym hard and leaving with an exhausted body but seriously, know your limitations, listen to your body and allow yourself the gift of a break every once and a while. It does the body and mind some good. Relax. Live a little. Look how this all came around, nice and neatly, full circle – I could practically wrap it up with a bow. Learn to relax, learn to get out there and live a little – take your life beyond the gym, learn a new skill. It is easy (especially for me!) to get caught up in working out, pushing yourself, but believe me, no one wants to be friends with someone who only cares about the gym. Don’t get so obsessed with working out that your body is exhausted, your ability suffers, and your world becomes limited. Life is all about balance and learning so get out there and do it – do it all, do it well!
Wherever you are, be all there! -Jim Elliot
WOD:
w/u: six minutes jump rope
4 x 800 (7.5 mph/7.8 mph/8.0 mph/8.2 mph) (1:00 min break/45 sec/45 sec/45 sec)
3 sets wall walks, until failure (the workout originally called for 3 sets/10 but I really could not do this)
4 x 800 (7.8 mph/8.0 mph/8.2 mph/8.0 mph except for a 40 second break where I ran for 7.2 mph)(1:00 min break/1:00 min/1:00 min/1:15 min)
3 sets 30 burpees
ofmindbodyandspirit 