What is Talent?

Today I was sent an article to read entitled "Why Talent is Overrated" by Geoff Colvin. It is an article that hit pretty close to home with me because I have never been overly talented at anything. Don't get me wrong, I am good at many things, but I have never had an innate ability to be great at any one thing.

When I was young I took martial arts. I went to class and I practiced from time to time and I became very good, a black belt, in fact. But I had many weaknesses that others did not. Then in high school, I joined the diving team because I was really good at doing tricks on a big trampoline. Once again I practiced everyday with the team and I became very good. I made state all fours years, I had the highest degree of difficulty of anyone in Nebraska and I was one dive away from possibly being state champ my senior year. But I wasn't the best, probably not even close to it. Was I just not talented enough?

Talent is an interesting topic. Obviously those individuals who have an innate ability to do something well have an advantage over those who do not. But in this article Geoff Colvin explains that talent does not necessarily translate in to greatness, and even those with no talent at all, have the potential to be great. What explains those who attain high achievement, he says, is deliberate practice. Deliberate practice meaning signaling out your weaknesses and striving to make them better. It means consistently stepping out of your comfort zone and pushing the limits of your body and mind. It's taxing, it's brutal and it's never ending. But it has to be, because if it were easy, then everyone would be great and if everyone was great, then we would all just be normal.

Why this article hit so close to home for me is because I know how great I could have been at martial arts. I knew I could be much better if I practiced more at home or if I spent time visualizing my techniques instead of playing video games. I know I could have been an even better diver. But again, I never gave myself fully to the sport and I always came up one dive short.

It was the same with my school work. I went to class and did the homework, but I never truly tried to learn a lot of what I was going to school for. Success to me was an A in the class, not the knowledge I should have been gaining. This article opened my eyes to the way I have been going about my life. I have always thought of myself as someone who can achieve great things but up until this point I haven't put in the work greatness demands. Now it's time to stop thinking and start doing.

It's going to be a long road of small steps but I know I have do it if I ever want to be great.

No Hand Rips!!!

WOD: 7/10/08
Ten rounds for time of:
10 Pull-ups
20 Sit-ups
30 Air Squats

I was really excited and worried at the same time for this workout. Excited because I wanted to try my new butterfly technique on the pull-ups and worried because it was going to be 100 total pull-ups and a hand rip seemed very likely. Luckily for me, Ricky had some special tape he wrapped my bad hand in and I was pretty solid from there. The only problem left was the fact that we now have a new pull-up standard. No longer is getting your chin above the bar good enough, we now have to touch our chest to the bar for it to be a non-scaled pull-up. This put a damper on my ability to do the butterfly kips.

As for my total time; I actually DNF in the 25 minutes we were given. I got through 10 pull-ups on round 10 before time was called. I took too many break, mostly with the pull-ups to rest my hands. I am disappointed that I didn't finish but I am very happy my hands made it through! Hopefully they are just getting stronger and stronger so eventually they won't tear at all anymore.

On a sad note, I won't be at CrossFit until next Wednesday and more likely Thursday of next week. I am going to San Francisco this weekend and I don't get back until midnight Tuesday and then I am going to have to mow on Wednesday. Hopefully I am able to do something in San Fran, perhaps even a WOD or two if possible.

Shoulder Presses

WOD: 7/9/08
Press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Push Press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps

The object of this workout was to find your 1 rep max with strict shoulder presses by starting at a lower weight and working up through the 5 rounds. After that you would go back to your original weight and perform the push presses with 3 reps and build up to your previous 1 rep max. And finally you would start again except with the push jerk and do 5 reps per round. Below is what I lifted:

Press: Push Press: Push Jerk:
105# 105# 110#
115# 115# 120#
125# 125# 130#
135# 135# 140#
145# PR 145# 150#

I was happy to get a new PR with my 1 rep max shoulder press but I only beat it by 5#. The push presses were pretty easy and I only struggled on the last round. On the push jerks we switched to bumper plates so we could drop them if we needed which is why I was 5# higher each round. Good workout overall and I hope to get another PR next time!!

Hang Power Snatches

WOD: 7/8/08
Rest Day

This was actually an official rest day but since I hadn't worked out in 4 days I needed to go in and do something. Ricky had us work on our snatch technique. In my opinion, the snatch is one of the hardest and most technical of the Olympic lifts. Last time we did this lift I believe I got to 88# and that was it. This time I got to 110# but it wasn't pretty. I definitely still need a lot of work on the snatch.

I Hate Double Unders!!

WOD: 7/3/08
6 Fifty yard shuttle sprints (25 yards & back)
25 Double Unders
4 Fifty yard shuttle sprints
50 Double Unders
2 Fifty yard shuttle sprints
75 Double Unders

Rx'd at 9:07. I was the last of 4 of us to finish this workout because I suck at double unders... ugh. This was also my last workout of the whole week. Not good because I didn't work out at all the whole weekend and I definitely consumed at least a thousand adult beverages. Tomorrow is going to be rough.

Weighted Pull-ups and Push-ups

WOD: 7/2/08
Weighted Pull-ups 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Bench Press 3-3-3-3-3 reps

For the pull-ups I did:
10# x 3
15# x 3
20# x 3
25# x 3
30# x 2 (failed at 3)
9 strict pull-ups

Push-ups:
55# x 3
77# x 3
88# x 3
99# x 3
110# x 3

After this WOD a couple of us did another short workout. We did one pull-up then two push-ups for the first round and then 2 pull-ups and 4 push-ups the next and so on with as little rest as possible between rounds. I did strict pull-ups through 4 rounds and switched to kipping. I made it through 10 rounds before I decided to call it a night. This short workout alone included 55 pull-ups and 110 push-ups. Once again my shoulders were dead, but in a good way.

My Poor Shoulders

WOD: 7/1/08
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
12 Wall Balls (20)
12 KB Swings (1.5 pood)

I finished exactly 12 rounds with 5 seconds left on the clock and I called it good. This workout was brutal on my shoulders. After 4 rounds I had to break the KB swings in to 6 and 6 reps but I kept all the wall balls together until the last round when my shoulders were about to give out after the first 5 shots. I went in to class aiming for 12 but when we started I was thinking more like 10 because the workout was much harder than it looked (as usual). I was happy to get through 12 though. I actually had just finished round 11 when they called one minute left so I pushed as hard as I could through the last round to finish. I didn't even break up the KB swings in the round. Afterwards I couldn't even lift a bottle of water to my mouth to take a drink. Next time I am shooting for 14.