It's the Little Things

Clean and Jerk
5-5-5: 165#, 185#, 205#
Rest
AMRAP Pushups = 63
Rest
Tabata Situps and Pushups = 185

Today was an average day. I went into the 10AM WOD without a good night's rest or anything in my stomach. Thus, I set myself up for mediocrity. Beyond adequate preparation, today I also learned the value of little things.

For instance, the clean and jerk done fast at light weight looks and feels simple. For someone who possesses above average strength, muscling up 135 pound clean and jerks is not excessively strenuous. However, dial that weight up to 200+, and form and technique make the difference between a finished or failed rep. Olympic lifts are fun because they are violent and aggressive, yet also technical. And the skill is what separates an average lifter from a great lifter.

Similar to life in general, it is the little things that will get you ahead. The olympic lifts require patience, dedication and attention to detail in order to improve. These are all skills that will not only translate into improved general physical preparedness, but general all-around preparedness as well.

This lesson was further reinforced by my outing at the track this afternoon with with Aaron M-J, Jon M, and Ryan P to do 10 100m sprints. I felt slow on round one and pulled up lame (a la Michael Johnson vs. Donovan Bailey) at the 70m mark. I'm still humiliated.

Again the little things came into play. I still have lingering muscle strength imbalance in my legs from knee surgery about 7 years ago. I attribute this injury to this because the exact same thing happenned during the last time I tried to sprint 1oom at full speed about 3 years ago. To this day, my left leg (on which I had knee reconstruction) is significantly weaker than my right leg. On most WODs, this doesn't impair me or my right leg compensates. However, in a sprint there is no masking weakness. Similar to the olympic lifts, it will take patience, dedication and persistance to improve the strength of my left leg. But, if I want to attain a higher tier of fitness, it is the little things that will get me there.

Train harder,

Ian