Guest Blogger S - "Be better than I was yesterday..."

Introduction to our Guest Blogger:

S is a good friend, wife, small business owner, fitness trainer, and marine scientist. S recently made a life change and left the glamourous life of the federal government, and began a new life with her husband. They left their careers, left Florida, and moved to Muscatine Iowa to open a Cross Fit gym call Warrior CrossFit Muscatine.

Now she is in the throws of all things new, and is making it work day by day. I am always encouraged by S, and love that she and her husband had the courage and faith in themselves to try something new. I am sharing an article that S recently wrote for her gym's Newsletter. I love the honesty with which it is written, and hope to have S write for our blogs about her life, small business ownership, health and fitness.

Dear Athletes,

I have a confession. I do not have an athletic background. I complete the same Work Out of the Days (WODs) as you each week, and I am rarely (if ever) the fastest time on the board. The most doubleunders I can string together? 8. And I hate practicing. I have days where I don't want to workout. I HATE pullups. I am in training, even as I coach each of you.

I did not play sports in school, at any level. When I first tried running at the age of 24, I could not jog for more than 30 seconds at a time. I didn't think seriously about my fitness until graduate school when I gained a muffin top and 15 pounds of beer chub. Fed up, I impulsively signed up for the 2006 Miami Marathon with Team in Training. Though training was grueling and humbling, I shed the chub, found a sense of accomplishment in my physical abilities, and raised money for a good cause. Further, I realized that exercise could fit into my schedule, which left me no excuses, and the habit of running stuck.

In 2009, at the request of a friend, I joined a boot camp class. While my friend's attendance gradually fell off, I fell in LOVE with the challenge, intensity, and variety of the workouts. My instructor CrossFitted and she incorporated CrossFit principles into our workouts. At the same time, Jacob and I worked out together more often - we just started dating - and he exposed me to even more CrossFit. I started feeling stronger, more fit, and dare I say, more athletic. I cared less about how I looked, and more about what I could DO.

Now CrossFit is my life. I find great fulfillment, daily, when I see each of you complete a WOD, try something new, overcome a fear, go up in weight, or encourage each other through that final rep. I'm still close enough to my own CrossFit beginnings to recognize what each of you are going through and I am so excited when I see a movement finally "click" for you.

I tend to be overcritical of myself and I have to remind myself that CrossFit is not about the number of rounds or the time I post on the board. CrossFit is about the effort I put into each WOD and it is about the desire to be better than I was yesterday. My goal as a coach is to help you feel the same way. If I can help you do that by improving your technique or increasing your mobility, then I succeeded as a coach.