Mind games

Work and life have been crazy lately.
And as explosive and exhausting and intense as CrossFit is, it has provided the calming balance in my life.
Take yesterday: Brutal day at work. I filed three blogs and a front-page story. I had a blowup with my boss and a confrontation with a woman who has been a thorn in my side my entire career. It's politics, and I'm used to it. But when there's a lot going on all at once, sometimes all I want to do is punch someone or .... shoulder press and row?
First, we worked up to our two-time max shoulder press, when Lindsay became a perfect example of the power of mental strength. I failed at 85 pounds, and she got it up. Then she added 10 pounds more -- a pretty big jump considering we were approaching our maximum capacity. She actually thought there were only 90 pounds on the bar when she started the lift. She also thought she had put up the same weight a couple weeks ago during a work out that involved picking up a load from the ground and heaving it over your head any way possible. So no sweat lifting that much again, she told me.
So she did. Twice.
It wasn't till she dropped the bar and Justin complimented her on the 95 pounds she lifted that we realized how much weight she had just put up. Then Lindsay remembered that when she did the WOD a couple weeks ago, she was using a 15 pound junior bar that was 30 pounds lighter.
If she had realized before she tried to do the press, she said she doesn't know if she would have been able to. Now she knows she can, and I think that's awesome. (In appreciation, I posted this photo so you won't be the only lifting weight with a funny face on the internet.)
Anyway, after shoulder pressing, we did three 500 meter sprints on the rowers.
I have never felt more at peace, more unburdened by life's bullshit, than laying on the ground after my third sprint. Quads and glutes were still spasming. A sweat angel growing on the ground. My friends wheezing to catch their breath by my side.
It's crazy how pushing to the point of physical exhaustion can actually clear your mind.