GOATS!

What is a goat?   1.  any sure-footed agile bovid mammal of the genus Capra, naturally inhabiting rough stony ground in Europe, Asia, and N Africa, ...... 3. Informal a lecherous man 4. a bad or inferior member of any group... I suppose there are some number threes at Crossfit, but I haven't met any, so I am going to go with number four  --  an inferior member of a group. What are my "goats" at Crossfit, or what are the exercises I most dislike because either I can't do them or they are very hard for me? My biggest goats are box jumps, double-unders, and handstand push-ups. I have plenty of other goats, but I am just listing the things I cannot do with any regularity. I went in to this goat session with a renewed determination. I wanted to overcome my irrational fear of jumping on a box and to learn to jump rope as well as my 11-year-old! (Handstand push-ups are not happening anytime soon, and I am OK with that.) I realize that irrational fears are hard to overcome, hence the word irrational. For many years you couldn't pay me to get onto an elevator. I would walk up 20 or more floors to get to my destination and I avoided any buildings higher than 30 floors. After a time,  though, that became prohibitive and I overcame that fear (for the most part; small elevators will never happen for me), so I know it can be done. Heaven help the person  who ever gets stuck on an elevator with me, though. Back to the box jump. Thanks to some helpful Crossfit class members' suggestions, I stacked some plates in front of the box and jumped from them onto the box. Success. I could do this. As the AMRAP went on, I removed plates progressively so only one was left near the end and I could do this. Again, success. I left it at one plate, it was going so well. Maybe next time I will try to remove the last plate -- or maybe not. I am not putting any pressure on myself. The point is, we are capable of a lot of things we might have thought impossible or "too hard." The key is to ask for help, to be smart, and to acknowledge that you are afraid. Just don't let the fear win. Oh, by the way, I got 2 double-unders. It's not a lot, but it's 2 more than I've gotten  in the past 6 weeks. Onward and upward!!!!

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