CrossFit Athletic Group

A conversation from the Ford/Stevenson soccer game this spring between myself and Mr. Bettys has been stuck in my head since March. It went a little something like this:

Mr. Bettys: "Hey Chris, I need to ask you a favor for this Summer."

Me: "Anything my dear fellow."

Mr. Bettys: "How can you make Madison look like Jessica?"

Me: /references Summer attendance

In case my writing leads to mixed messages, the point Mr. Bettys was trying to make was to compliment Jessica's muscles and hoping Madison would get there eventually, and the point I was trying to make was that it's really a simple (but not easily executed) series of choices involved in the results we see in here.

The difference between Jessica's development and Madison's from last Summer is about 20 hours worth, give or take. And Madison was about 20 or so hours ahead of Nick Krstich. And so on. It's not a coincidence, it's a choice, and it's a choice we have to be okay with.

If you have immediate fitness and sports-related goals, then the choice is clear, and that's the only beef I have with vacations. In the case of the above, Madison (who has no shortage of muscles) can either catch all the way up to Jessica this Summer, or she can miss 20 more days than Jessica; it's one or the other. It's the same theme when Mr. Andrew says Reese needs to get faster; what he really means is Reese eventually needs to get faster, just not right now.

The important thing to understand is CrossFit at the Champions Club should not always be at the priority - whether it's during a sports season, or a rough patch of work, or if you're 10 years old, or you need a mental break, or whatever. In fact, I think Katie Shakes is much more healthy (longterm) with her Summer attendance in the 70%ish range than Summers '15, '16, '17, and '18 when they were hovering around or above 90%. The choice she's making is to sacrafice about 10% of her fitness RIGHT THIS MOMENT to prevent a potential 70% decline in fitness that could result from a burnout.

When actually away on vacations I think staying physically active is way more effective than trying to make up a vacation workout. Swim, hike, run up some sand dunes, and do whatever else people do on vacations; anything you couldn't/wouldn't normally do if you were here. If you go to bed tired from that day, you did a good thing for your body. 

As with just about everything else, it's important to know what your body needs. If vacations are keeping your results lower than what you want them to be, then just make sure everything else is on point - food, sleep, etc. - so that when the time is right to lock in the attendance you'll be ready.

A great use of vacation time for Conamora after an 80% attendance for Summer 2020