Saturday, September 21, 2013

Keeping the Beast alive

Last weekend, I competed for the first time at BeastFest, a CrossFit competition hosted by Xplore CrossFit. It was so great to be back in Seattle and Xplore and meet all the folks there. While my performance in the competition was nothing to write home about ( I finished last and by quite a distance), the whole experience was special to me. For starters, it made me see where the bar is in terms of elite fitness - the quality of athletes at the event was truly awe inspiring. More importantly, this experience is going to be the 'ignition' to keep me going and training to the best level I can for my next training cycle.

If I look back at my training experience over the last year, there have been ebbs and flows. I have gone through periods of high and low motivation and hence, good and bad results. Every now and again when going through a bad phase or experiencing a rut, there would be this one 'spark' that has gotten me back on track. Watching the CrossFit games a few months ago was one. More often than not, this has come from watching a fellow athlete do something extraordinary, that normal guy at the gym who did something that made me say to myself 'I can be that guy'. I can't speak for everyone who trains out there but I definitely need re-ignition regularly. I have trained alone and done OK but need that other regular guy pushing me to do more and get better.

I experienced the power of community, social support and this 'spark' first hand at BeastFest. The motivation and support for every single athlete at BeastFest was incredible. I was struggling through event 3 which was a 12 minute AMRAP of 10 Thrusters @ 60K + run up and down Harbor Steps (roughly 50-60 steps) x 3 rounds. As I was struggling to complete my 10 thrusters for round 2, I was joined by a competitor who had completed his 3 rounds well under 7-8 minutes. He pushed me rep by rep for the Thrusters and step by step for the stair run. He didn't need to do that - he was probably tired and could have spent time recovering. Instead, he actually ran up and down the stairs with me and made sure I completed round 2. It was amazing - he pushed me to be better than I was!





The "Beast" in me is alive for now. When it is starting to fade out, I will reach out to my very own social support sphere to be my source of inspiration.

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