Commitment

Commitment – I recently had a discussion with a client and Spartan Pro Team Athlete about commitment and what it takes be your absolute best. Living life on repeat sometimes is necessary if you want to obtain your sports performance goals. Talking about wanting to improve and actually doing what it takes are two completely different ways of life. Are you willing to hit the trail, road, or treadmill and stay on it? Are you willing to dedicate the time it takes to become the best runner you can be? Are you willing to train your grip/pull strength and grip/pull strength endurance to ensure you own every single upper body obstacle? Are you willing to hit the mountains and start climbing and stay on that mountain longer than you thought possible? If you live in an area where it’s flat, are you willing to get on the stairclimber and climb thousands of floors or crank the incline up on the treadmill and make that your playground for many hours during a training cycle? If you find yourself consistently failing upper body obstacles, are you willing to completely transform your grip and pull strength training? What kind of commitment are you willing to make?
At 43, I know I have to put the work in to continue to compete with the elites in our sport. I will spend hours some days convincing myself to get excited about a 90min aerobic training zone workout. There are times when I really don’t want to do the workout and there are times when I feel the minutes crank by so fast that I feel the need to increase the workout time. It’s a world of repeat sometimes and it’ll never be a world of instant success. I will tell you that the ego in me loves to be able to beat 95% of the elite field at 43 years old. Every single one of us has an ego and its part of the reason we do what we do. It drives us. I love the success and I know you do as well. I also know I can’t throttle back or it’ll go away so fast my head will spin! I want to be 50 years old and still beating the majority of elites. It’s a goal I have and I want to share my goals with you in hopes you’ll do the same with me. You motivate me more than I could ever motivate you. I know you got crazy excited when you completed your first Spartan race burpee free or maybe you’re still working toward such a goal. Every little success story validates your training. It’s not the only reason we train but it’s part of the equation.
My challenge for you this week is to recommit yourselves to your OCR fitness program. Find the time to get your workouts in! Many make the excuse, “I don’t have the time for mental or physical conditioning”. To that I say, “Increasing your mental and physical conditioning will actually increase the amount of time you have”. I believe every aspect of your life will improve. I want to hear your success stories, about your PR’s, how you conquered the rope climb, monkey bars, or rig for the first time, about your weight loss, health improvements, and any other success stories. Go get your run in! Go climb faster and farther than you ever thought possible. Don’t be satisfied until you can do conquer every obstacle out on course. Don’t ever settle for burpees or getting your wrist band cut off.
Soon you’ll see four time trials I’d like for of you to complete. Log your results and keep the results with you from now on. Periodically throughout your Yancy Camp Program, I want you to retest and see how they improve. These tests are four basic fundamental tests that relate to OCR – running, climbing, grip/pull strength, and the last being a well-rounded full body fitness test.