Friday, November 2, 2012

The Myth of the Off-Season


Most sports have on-seasons and off-seasons.  During the "on-season", you do everything right, and during the "off-season" you can decompress and let loose - give yourself a chance to mentally and emotionally recover from the stress of dedicating yourself to a physically challenging task for a period of months.  

In CrossFit (as a sport), there is a myth of an 'off-season" but this is actually just jargon, and a lie.  We train differently throughout the year, but there is no fucking off-season if your goal is to get better as fast as you physically can.

If you want to refute this, "I took it easy this summer, and am getting ready to buckle down and train," you say... well don't be surprised if you are surpassed by someone who you used to beat on the reg.  If gradual improvement and fun is your goal, you can afford to take some time off, but If you want to get as good as you can, as fast as you can you are pretty much shit out of luck.  

Now, is it worth it to be the best you can possibly be when you finally reach your level of competition?  The answer for me is, yes.  That is why I am doing it. (PRIORITIES AND COMPROMISES)  My coach asked me almost a year ago what I wanted to get out of this, and my response was, "I want to see how good I can be."  Nothing has changed, and I know that for as long as I want to pursue that goal, it will take a year round commitment.  Last May, I was arguably one of the worst people to compete on a team at Regionals, but it was the pinnacle of my training and a great experience.  I sacrifice a lot to my training because I know for as long as I continue on this path, I will always be as good as I can be, and I absolutely love competing. 

So here is a shout out to all of my friends and teammates who are probably starting to feel like they have a few wires exposed as we are "entering the on-season."  Your dedication and hard work throughout the summer has not gone unnoticed.  I feel ya, and I am right here with you.


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About Sam

I am a writer in Omaha, Nebraska sharing my adventures in the foundations of healthy living - nutrition, being active, and being funny.

I was born in Kansas City in the sweltering summer of July, 1986. I was nearly born in the car because I was so pumped to get my life started. I have been bouncing off of the walls ever since. Growing up I hung out with the big kids who were even older than my sister (and best friend) Allie. I quickly developed an "I'm over it" 'tude toward kids my own age whose pastimes seemed juvenile - an interesting perspective coming from a preschooler. My snobbish worldview was hard earned however, as I was forced to learn both multiplication and division early to keep up when we played "school," and I was always forced to do dangerous stuff first to make sure it was okay, like eating unidentified berries and making the first run on super steep hills while sledding. We biked all day, ate wild honeysuckle, painted the house with mud, and collected cicada shells for no reason other than they stick to fabric and freaked my mom out.

I quickly realized that even little legs can get you as far as a car can, and as a young child, you really have nothing but time. My adventures were only restrained by the fact that adults do not find it acceptable for young children to explore the town on foot unaccompanied. I prematurely developed a desire to be an independent self-supporting person, so I opened a Kool-Aid/popcorn business to finance my big plans. Looking back, I would say that the only issues holding me back were my limited advertising budget and the fact that I was still too short to ride roller coasters. People just don't take you seriously when you can't go on the upside-down rides.

I was moved to Omaha in the second grade. I continued walking all over the place, exploring surrounding neighborhoods and visiting grocery stores to pick up my favorites: Goldfish, Sprite, and sugar cigarettes. I don't even think you can buy those anymore, and for the record, I never started smoking.

I never lost my hard work ethic, and I needed to increase my income to afford my new hobbies of beading and Polaroid photography. At the age of ten I mailed in a response to an advertisement for paper delivery routes without discussing the issue with my family. Sometimes you need to take matters into your own hands when people don't share you vision. The people at the Omaha World Herald must have had a good feeling about me becuase they contacted my parents to tell them that they wanted to hire me but would feel better if there was an older family member onboard. I still wonder if Allie holds any resentment toward me for pulling her into the labor force when she was only twelve.

In third grade, I followed Allie's lead and began taking dance classes at Mary Lorraine's Dance Center. For the next eleven years it became "what I did." Nowadays, I train more like an athlete, but I will always move like a dancer, and being in a studio will always feel like home.

After high school I relocated again (this time of my own volition) to study "everything" in the College of Business Administration at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. I acquired a degree in marketing and finance that I may use someday. More importantly, I became a close friend and Alpha Phi sister with a cross country runner who easily persuaded me to train for the 2005 Lincoln half-marathon. I have been running ever since. In April 2011 I developed plantar fasciitis after jumping into an intense 50-70 mile/week schedule. This is the first athletic injury in my life. Although it has been indescribably frustrating both physically and emotionally, the silver lining is my increased receptivity to more variety in fitness disciplines.

I enjoy Pilates, yoga, enjoy Zumba, plyometric interval training, running, walking, and seeing how quickly I can run up stairs without losing my lunch. When I am too exhausted to move, I read and write. I love fiction, non-fiction, cookbooks, poetry, philosophy, song lyrics, and comedy. I have been writing for as long as I can remember. I love spell check, and felt tip pens.

I am happy and optimistic most of the time. I enjoy living simply and deeply. I hope you enjoy what I have to share.







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