102417// What's in a note?

MetCon//

With a Partner 20:00

Row calories,

Switch partners after

15 Toes to Bar

1/2 lap run

You're in the habit of recording your score after the workout either at the desk in the gym or later at home with your app. So what is that little note field for? What kind of stuff should you write down? 

For starters, I usually always remind you to make a note about the weight you used or the scale you chose. What else do you think might be helpful though? A great story I remember from the Level 1 seminar was how in the "old days" of the original Santa Cruz CrossFit, some athletes would note as much data as they could and sometimes take twice as long to write notes as the actual workout took. Time of day. What they ate before. How much sleep they got. The temperature and humidity. What they were thinking during the warm up. Why they split up the reps the way they did. You don't need to make note of everything, but jotting something down is a healthy mental practice for your training. 

There's a wealth of data to be collected. MacLarin will give herself advice for next time. If you're not happy with your score, why? Did you make a technique breakthrough? What external factors effected your performance? What could you have done better? Did you meet or surpass your expectations?

Keeping your scores and times is important because it's how we measure your fitness in CrossFit. Writing a note though, collecting that data, requires you do something much more valuable. It's less about data, but more about reflection. You should be taking a moment to unpack what the heck just happened. That decompression or release should be part of your cool down. When you can communicate or understand whats going on you can first of all move along with your day without dwelling on your workout, you can also be better motivated for your next workout. "Ok, I know what I did this time, I'm excited to give it another shot tomorrow." or "X worked really good, I'll remember that for next time and go even faster!"

You don't need to write a novel, but I think typing it out is better than just thinking about it for a little while and tucking it away next to the Pythagorean Theorem and the State Capitals!