Today's guest post is brought to us by our very own Joy Sprimont.

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There’s a saying in the ultra-running world: Ultra marathons are hard.

It seems like the sort of thing that would go without saying among the runners. And I can guarantee all the non-runners out there are clutching their faces and saying, “Well, yeah.” But I think the fact that this phrase gets repeated drives at a point about our relationship to things that are hard.

I’ve discovered in myself an odd sort of magical thinking when it comes to doing difficult things. Somewhere along the way I’ve developed the idea in my mind that difficult endeavors will somehow become easier by simply “believing in myself,” or committing and hoping for the best. Or, that by working through the initial tough stages, I will become a master and then be able to coast, to rest on the laurels of my previous efforts.

I’ve caught myself thinking this about being a teacher, and now that I’ve done CrossFit and ultra-running for a year, I’ve started to get it in my head that those things should be easier now, too.

The thing about improving is that the goalpost is always moving. There is always a next step, a new level of discomfort as you push past your previous limits. If you get to a point where you think, “this should be easy,” you have gotten lazy. You’re probably not striving for what you could be capable of.

A lesson I’m learning right now is that hard things don’t just become easy. Hard things are hard, but the trick is that you can learn to sit with it longer. You can learn to endure pain and discomfort, tolerate it, be with it and be okay with the fact that you feel pain and discomfort. It’s a mental shift that’s changed everything for me.

Humans are hardwired for struggle. We trudge uphill towards the peak, yearning for the journey to be over, dreaming of what great heights and visions we will enjoy when we’ve reached the top. But how long can you stay on that hill before you start to get bored of your surroundings, and see another, higher crest in the distance? What even better, more beautiful views will it offer? Even more, you know that you simply don’t want to stand still for very long.

Most of life is the journey on the path, and once we stop taking steps, we tend to find that we get pretty bored. There’s a reason a victory won by cheating feels cheap, why we root for the underdogs who have to endure pain and sacrifice to finally achieve their goals. It’s because we know that without the pain and struggle, the accomplishment is not very meaningful.

Hard things are hard, and though you might not want to believe it, you want it that way. It’s part of who you are.

- Joy Sprimont

3/30/18

• Clean pull + power clean - 1,1,1,1,1

Then...

• 8 min AMRAP

• 1 power clean (95/65)

• 1 front squat (95/65)

• 2 power cleans

• 2 front squats

• 3 power cleans

• 3 front squats

• 4…

• etc.