Are you like Amundsen or Scott?

“The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.” —Jim Collins

I watched something special happen last week.

It wasn’t a new PR. It wasn’t a flashy movement. It was just Coach Mark, quietly crushing a Threshold Thursday workout—with near flawless execution.

For those of you who missed it, it was a simple format: 1:00 on, :30 off for 30 minutes. Each round started with light-to-moderate barbell work, followed by monostructural movements. Nothing dramatic. Just clean, steady work.

Mark had a plan—stick to a manageable rep count every round, even early on when the energy was high and it felt like he had more in the tank. And that plan? It paid off. When the workout got real in the later rounds—when the whispers of "I can’t" started creeping in—he had the confidence of every previous round reminding him he could.

After the workout, Mark looked at me, smiling ear to ear. "I never do that," he said. Not because he couldn’t, but because, like many of us, he’d sometimes let the highs pull him too fast, and the lows drag him too far down.

And then, true to form, he dropped some wisdom: the idea of the 20-mile march.

The 20-Mile March

In 1911, Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott raced to be the first humans to reach the South Pole. Scott marched with his team when the weather allowed—resting when it didn’t. Amundsen? He and his team marched 20 miles. Every day. No more. No less.

Guess who made it?

Consistency > Intensity.

Consistency Is a Strategy

Consistency doesn’t mean you don’t work hard. It means you work smart. You set a standard that’s sustainable—then you show up and meet it. Day after day.

That’s what Mark did today. He didn’t sell out early. He didn’t coast late. He made a plan, held the line, and walked out of the gym with earned pride on his face.

It’s easy to go too hard when we feel good, or pull back when we don’t. But real growth? It comes from the middle ground—the rhythm, the repeatable reps, the quiet commitment to steady work.

Don’t Take a Dive

As we were talking about how the experience he'd just had in the workout and how it might apply outside the gym he grabbed an expo marker - imagine that - and drew a messy wavy chart on the whiteboard.

Ups and downs, peaks and valleys. Then he drew the flat line beneath it all and said, “Just don’t take a dive.”

That’s it. You’ll have days when you soar. You’ll have days when you stumble. But as long as you keep showing up—never diving so low you disappear—you win.

That’s consistency.

That’s the 20-mile march.

Steady — inside and outside the gym.

Always with purpose.

See you in the Lab,

Coach Keith

Community Fitness Lab — The Home of CrossFit Fairfield