Just a Cab Ride Away: A True Story

Sometimes the coach learns from the athlete.  This is about the day a CrossFit athlete taught me what commitment looks like.

The 7am class was getting underway, and I had just given warm up instructions when I saw a cab pull up outside the door and Colter, a 7am regular, hopped out and hurried into the gym.

“My car wouldn’t start,” Colter explained as he jumped into the warm up.

“So, you took a cab?”  That seemed a bit extreme.

“I made a commitment to myself to workout three times per week,” Colter answered.

In those early days Colter was a doughy, overweight, deconditioned vegetarian in his early 30’s trying to get his health and mojo back.  He won’t mind me telling you this because today in his mid 40’s he is a solid slab of hardened muscle who can whoop me in most CrossFit workouts.  But back then, he wasn’t the member anybody had pegged to become a hardcore athlete.  He looked like a three workout per week casual.  Which goes to show how much use looks are. 

If I hadn’t witnessed him getting out of that cab to make his 7am workout, I would never have guessed the commitment and determination hidden beneath that pudgy exterior.  But here was a man on a mission.  Someone who wasn’t going to let life side track him from his goals.  That one cab ride told me everything I needed to know about Colter’s trajectory and about the results he would achieve.

Another great inspiration is Empower legend Fierce who inspired our Unstoppable Challenge.  In 2019 she committed to completing every WOD programmed by CrossFit that year.  A few weeks into the year she discovered she was pregnant with her fourth.  She continued training right up to term.  Took a week off to deliver and got right back into the gym to catch up on the workouts she’d missed.  By December 31st despite spending 9 months of 2019 pregnant, Fierce had accomplished her goal of completing every programmed workout! 

The difference between interest and commitment is that interest is something you pursue only when its convenient.  Commitment is doing a thing no matter what.  If you ask around, most people will tell you that they are interested in getting fit.  Why then do so few people achieve the transformative results that Colter did?  It’s because actions, not interest, drive change.  As the saying goes, “You can have results, or you can have excuses, you can’t have them both.”

Now, I realize that sometimes life throws an unavoidable curve ball that makes it next to impossible to fulfill on your commitment.  For example, Colter could have been hit by a bus on his way to the gym and no amount of intention would get him out of traction and into the WOD.  But if we’re honest with ourselves, those sorts of events are rarely responsible for our missed commitments. 

We saw this during COVID.  Ask our Empower old timers if they let a closed gym stop them from getting their workouts done.  We exercised outside, on Zoom and in our own homes.  In fact, our coaching team did not miss a single day of classes throughout the pandemic.  Heck, we haven’t taken a day off since an August weekend in 2015.  Why?  Commitment.  If we have athletes as determined as Colter to stick to their training plan, then we intend to be there for them!

But the mind is tricky thing.  And as Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman warned us, “The first principle is not to fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”  So, how do you avoid that sly devil on your shoulder convincing you your excuse is legit?  I use something called the briefcase test.  I ask myself, if there was a briefcase with one million dollars cash waiting there for me, could I make it? 

If a truck ran me over, it doesn’t matter how much cash was stuffed in the briefcase.  But barring an act of God, with that much cash on the line, you can bet it would take something dramatic to stop my getting there.  I bet you could do it too.  Because when it’s really important to you, you will find a way to get it done.  Even if its inconvenient.

Colter could have skipped his 7am workout and come at a different time or on another day.  On the surface the whole taxi thing seems a bit extreme.  But what Colter was telling himself was that his health and fitness was important to him.  Too important to abandon for the price of cab fare. 

And why is it so important?  Well, which do you value more, one million dollars or your health?  Sure, one missed workout won’t kill you, but excuses are a slippery slope.  Excuses tend to be habit forming.  And it is your habits that determine your outcomes.  It would be easy to write this off as coach just going on another rant but, before you dismiss it, take an honest look at your life and see where you might be holding yourself back. 

At the end of the day, it comes down to standards.  What standard are you holding yourself to?  Are you after reasons to let yourself off the hook or are you chasing unreasonable results?

Monday

Warm Up
2 min Row
1 min Ring Rows
1 min Ring Row Squats
1 min Judo Push Up Rocks
1 min Beat Swing

Tech
Paused Push Up
Paused Squat
Pull Up Options

WOD
Tabata This!
Tabata row
Rest 1 minute
Tabata squat
Rest 1 minute
Tabata pull-up
Rest 1 minute
Tabata push-up
Rest 1 minute
Tabata sit-up

The Tabata interval is 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest for eight intervals.

Tabata score is the least number of reps performed in any of the eight intervals.