I don’t know about you, but for me, doing a Crossfit workout with other people is way more enjoyable than doing it alone (not unlike some other physical activities). In addition, I find that no matter how hard I push myself doing a workout alone, I am able to push much even harder in a group workout where I have other people I am “competing” against. I’ll have an overwhelming desire to put the bar down, only to be inspired to continue so that I can keep up with my “competitors.” However, unless you’re a professional Crossfit Competitor (which I know you are not, because there is no such thing), you are not really competing against them. Ultimately, you are only competing against yourself. Crossfit was designed so that people become the fittest they can be in order to be prepared for life outside the gym. So our goal is to compete and win against how fit we where yesterday.

The other day we did the “Josh” workout, in honor of SSG Joshua Hager. This is a tough Hero workout with a total of 45 Overhead Squats and 90 Pull-ups. Cara approached the workout with her typical fierce attitude. But watching her complete her final round of 18 pull-ups was truly awe inspiring! Near the end, she was down to doing sets of 1 or 2 pull-ups at a time. She had several attempts where her eyes cleared the bar, and maybe even her nose cleared the bar, but her chin did not. Mind you, this was over fifteen minutes into this tough workout after she had completed 45 OHS and 85 pull-ups. If it was me doing the workout, I probably would have considered those “close enough” and counted them. But Cara did not do that. On several of her last attempts, she said loudly “That didn’t count; I didn’t make it over the bar.” She just kept pushing and struggling with every ounce of energy she had left until she got her chin over the bar all 90 times. It really was awesome to watch her push herself that hard and hold herself to such high standards. After the workout was done, I found out it was even more awesome than I originally thought when I saw that both her hands were streaming blood from 2-3 rips in each hand. I thought to myself again, “I DEFINITELY would have counted those nose-to-bar pull-ups.” If she had considered those pull-ups close enough, she could have shaved 1 – 2 minutes off her time and finished it in 15 minutes instead of 17 (and saved some major wear and tear on her hands).

As I thought about it later, however, I thought about how it would have been unfair to “Future Cara” to count those reps. You see, Cara is going to keep getting stronger and more fit. And she is likely to encounter Josh again sometime in the future. When she does, say she finishes it in 15 minutes the next time with all pull-ups over the bar. She can look back into her book to 9/11/09 and find that she legitimately improved by two minutes. If she actually counted those reps the other day, the Future Cara would look back and get the misimpression that there was no improvement at all.

That is why one of the key principles of Crossfit is that the workouts need to be measureable and repeatable. In essence, the person you are competing against in your workout today is the old you (the last time you did the workout) and the future you (the next time you do the workout). If you don’t accurately document your workout today, you are actually cheating in your competition against yourself – the old and future you. And nobody wants to compete against a cheater.

Great job Cara. Way to inspire!

Jim S.