"To be comfortable with the uncomfortable"

... as OPT said.

Today I learned a lesson. I learned a lot about how I can push myself harder. This is how I learned it:

We started out by playing around a little bit with kettlebells. We had some new faces at the training, which is always great, so we had to go through the basic swing etc a little bit.

Workout:
3 rounds for time of:
40m Bear Crawl
8/8 one hand kettlebell clean & push-press.

Result:
24 kg 5 minutes and 8 seconds, I think. Not sure about the time as always, since I try to remember it by head.

Next!

This time I was going to do one of the Scandinavian Challenge's workout... but slightly modified!

The workout was 50 double unders, 30 clean and jerk (overhead anyhow) @ 60 kg, 50 double unders. Since I can't do double-unders (my lower legs have their fascias pooped up so I can't do that kind of excersizes or I go boom), I did burpee's instead!

Workout:
25 burpee's
30x powerclean & jerk (overhead anyhow) @ 60 kg. No dropping weight from top position - take it down without breaking the floor.
25 burpee's

Result:
Time 13 minutes and 8 seconds if I remember correctly.
Once I had passed through the first burpee's I went directly to the powercleans trying to bring atleast 2/3 out of the way. What I didn't really realize was the amount of lactate acid that had started to build up in my body, together with the lack of O2. The first reps were really rough, and I expected the overhead anyhows to be a total pain in the ass. I kept a pretty low pace, trying to take them in pairs in order to keep the same pace through all the 30's. When I had come to about 25 they were beginning to be easier and easier, so I could push the last 5 in a 3+2 with maybe only 3-4 seconds of rest between them. The final 25 burpee's were hell though.

It was during maybe the last 5-10 overhead anyhow and the burpee's I found myself able to push harder and harder. I felt that my potential was more than I put out. That's bad because it shows that I could have done better, and I could have pushed myself harder. I didn't. Although I did push myself harder during the last burpee's than I normally do during burpee's, I still feel like I have more to give.

The last couple of months of training has really put an edge into my mind to pull out that extra that I haven't done before. I feel a lot stronger, faster and durable than before - and I feel that I can do even better. I'm not sure that I've ever felt this good.


/Simon.