Burning Runner’s Advice For Would-Be CrossFitters
- By TJ Murphy
- Published Sep. 19, 2011
- Updated Feb. 19, 2013 at 8:50 AM UTC
Leave Your Ego At The Door
Use the competitive energy the setting of a CrossFit box generates to give a best effort—to ultimately compete with yourself and try and be better than you were the day, week or month before.
This is the most common piece of advice mentioned to newcomers in the CrossFit world. It’s also one of the best. It may also be necessary. It was for me and still is for me. The nature of a CrossFit “WOD”—or Workout of the Day—is that those in attendance compete with one another to complete the workout first or to tally up the most work within a prescribed time. Times and numbers are then recorded on a whiteboard. At Elysium and the other gyms I’ve trained at, I routinely am training side by side with women who kick my ass, not to mention the other guys. I learned quickly that you want to use the competitive energy the setting generates to give a best effort—to ultimately compete with yourself and try and be better than you were the day, week or month before. Also, the workouts are always changing, so one day you’ll rank higher because the workout was more tuned to your strengths as opposed to weaknesses.
My bottom line? Know that you’re going to get whipped on occasion (if not often), get to the gym on time, do your best, learn everything you can and keep coming back. I essentially have confined my thinking to those thoughts. My ego is locked in a trunk in the basement with the lights turned off.
FILED UNDER: CrossFit / Features / Injury Prevention TAGS: CrossFit / CrossFit Endurance / Nutrition Challenge / Workout Of The Day
TJ Murphy
T.J. Murphy is a 2:38 marathoner and five-time Ironman finisher. He is the former editorial director of Triathlete Magazine, Inside Triathlon and Competitor Magazine. His writing has also appeared in Outside Magazine and Runner’s World. He recently authored “Inside the Box: How Broke All The Rules, Stripped Down the Gym and Rebuilt My Broken Down Body.”