You know the point. You’ve probably reached it – where you love the lifting and you hate the metabolic conditioning, aka cardio hell, aka not lifting heavy shit. Hate it. Like you wish it dead. Like you want to stomp on metcon’s windpipe until it breathes no more. Or, worse, just ignore it until it goes away, like that kid in the lunch room in high school who always wanted to put his tray near yours. He went away finally, maybe metcon will too.
But, still, somewhere deep inside you, metcon keeps calling you. Or maybe that’s just your jeans, because your ass is growing because you haven’t been doing any metcon. Jesus Christo, you hate the metcon. Why do we have to do metcon?
Stop for a minute and remember your early days of CrossFit. If you’re like many of us, it was just you in your garage or a globo-gym, doing airsquats and push-ups and wall-ball until you wanted to puke. Metcon was fun then. It still sucked but you looked forward to it in a weird way, and once you were in it, life was painful but okay. You couldn’t breathe, you couldn’t think, you could barely function, but it was okay. I am not exaggerating when I say that you found salvation in metcon. It was your first introduction to CrossFit and it saved you from who you were before. It saved all of us.
So, the next time you dread the mini-metcon after the lifting, or the next time you step into your affiliate and the board says “Helen” instead of “Deadlifts 1-1-1-1-1”, don’t groan. Don’t whimper. Don’t bitch and moan. Just do it. Remember those early days. Remember that being fit is not solely being strong. Remember your growing ass. Then close your eyes and bang out 50 airsquats for fun. Open your eyes. The world’s a new place again, isn’t it?
