I find it easier to do a long grueling workout instead of working on a hard skill like handstand walks.
Last year I ran my first marathon. While it was something that has been on my life long bucket list, maybe I also used it as an excuse not to work on skill work. There are two big goals that I’ve been wanting to accomplish since I started doing CrossFit 3 years ago: muscle-ups and hand-stand walks. I still can’t do them. Not that I didn’t ever work on those two skills last year, but they weren’t a priority.
I did the Chad 1000x workout this year for the first time and it took me 97 minutes to complete. I bring this up, not because I shouldn’t have done it, but because it might have been this very workout where I realized that I have a tendency to enjoy long grueling workouts where I can mindlessly grind it out instead of doing really difficult skill work on some movement I can’t quite do yet. I think it’s important for us to realize when we keep avoiding the skill work, like practicing handstands for 5 minutes, and instead go do something else that isn’t as taxing on the mind for 60 minutes.