You CAN and you SHOULD!!

Hey Pride, what’s up?

Today I’m going to talk about something that I believe in and I think more people should as well. I’m also going to lay out some segments that will return regularly to our blog. Feel free to leave some feedback on whether you like the segments or if we could do something better.

You CAN and you SHOULD do what, you ask? I am referring to signing up and doing an event that you don’t think you are ready for. I know and hear of a lot of people who say

“Nah, I’m not ready for that yet” or

“My fitness is nearly there so maybe next time”

And before anyone says that’s something they have heard me say a lot, yes I was and still am terrible with negative self-talk and it is something I work hard on daily. This however is how I have come to realise that signing up and doing something out of your comfort zone is so important. Before Amy and I started this journey we would never have thought what we have accomplished in our first year of challenges was remotely possible.

I’d like to share a little story about one of my experiences that sticks in my mind. I’d like to start the story with the fact that I have never been a swimmer (I could hold my own if my life depended on it but that was about it) and one of the first event we decided to sign up for was a beginners Sprint Triathlon. I started swimming 4 times a week and progressed well enough for a beginner and my form greatly improved but my main problem was with any distance over 100m. I would find myself quitting in my head so quickly after the first 50m that there was no way I was pushing past a 100m. It was the same thing week in and out

“I can’t go another one because I can’t breathe well enough”

“I’m only a new swimmer so I can’t do it”

“Everyone else must have better lungs than me” you get the picture.

This continued weekly and I spent a lot of time just swimming short 50 and 100m sets but never pushing myself hard enough, right up until the Triathlon which started with a 300m swim (I know 300m doesn’t sound like whole lot but to a rookie it was HUGE haha). Fair to say I was quite nervous about it as I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of everyone watching and competing. Lining up on the beach and waiting for the start gun would have to have been one of my most uncomfortable sporting moments but then something different happened.

The gun went off and I started swimming, keeping close to Amy’s feet and trying to keep pace with her (She’s a good swimmer so none of this negative mindset was happening to her at the time, at least for the swim anyway. She was stressing about the bike ride). Between making sure I was keeping up with Amy and starting to think about my transition into the bike leg (My favourite leg of the triathlon) I wasn’t thinking about how I “Couldn’t swim that far unbroken” and the next thing I knew I was running up the beach right behind Amy and in 3^rd place out of my heat. The bike leg went okay and my running leg was average (Something I do put off a lot) but the only thing I cared about come the finish was the fact that I completed the swim without stopping to take extra breaks. All of a sudden I had a new frame of reference for my capabilities and that was awesome to know.

One of the main things I have learnt with signing up is that it automatically gives me a better, more substantial reason for training. If I had said “I’ll start training for a triathlon but I won’t sign up until I’m fit enough” I can nearly guarantee that I would never have done one. The fact that I had signed up and really didn’t want to let myself down pushed me into that pool every morning. As a byproduct of entering you will find yourself training and exercising with more purpose and structure than without a goal and you will start to notice a mental change in your willingness to do the hard work day in and day out.

Now I know some people have absolutely no interest in competing and have their own personal goals that drive them and that’s awesome. I’m just sharing from my perspective on what motivates and drives me to be better and what I hear and see often from people when invited to compete in such events.

Another lesson I have learnt through these events is that it feels like everyone will be scrutinising your performance and judging your abilities and this holds a lot of us back. This however is mostly in your head, everyone is there to cheer on someone they know or to just enjoy watching and if they do notice you it’s usually because they are impressed with the fact that you are brave enough to do whatever event you are competing in. One of the greatest things I see at a lot of events is the person who struggles but never stops trying is the person who raises the most applause and encouragement from the people who do notice.

Basically what I’m trying to say is that without signing up and doing that first event who knows what else I may or may not have ended up doing in the past year. Once we had completed that first event it was only up from there and now in my head I can rely on the fact that since the first event I always know that I can do more than what I think I can do. It is something that helps me in my training weekly and the reason I constantly strive to find another event to challenge me and renew my frame of reference for what I can handle physically and mentally. So I put it to you, go out and pick an event be it an Obstacle Race, Triathlon, Functional Fitness comp, 5 or 10km run, Bike Ride, Charity Event, whatever interests you most, grab some friends or go it alone and sign up, train hard and gain yourself a new frame of reference!

Now that’s out of the way I’d like to introduce a segment that I will add in to the blog.

What’s Stuck!

One of the things I will share every blog will be my most interesting fact/ podcast/ book/ article/ movie  from things that I’ve heard/ read/ watched/ learnt that week. It could range from fitness to science to sports to movies or whatever just something that has stuck with me for the week. I’ll call this ‘What’s Stuck’!

A lot of this segment will end up being some my favourite or interesting podcast episodes as I listen to them quite often and find them extremely useful for continued education. I also spend quite a bit of my life listening to audio books so occasionally I’ll review and share an awesome one I’ve listened to lately. Adding to this anyone who knows me well knows that I have a huge love for movies and tv series so they will pop up every now and again also.

This weeks What’s Stuck is a podcast episode that really taught me something while listening.

The podcast in question is a short Takeaway Tuesday episode from The Mind Muscle Project (MMP). This episode is un numbered but was released between Ep59 and 60. In this episode the Mind Muscle boys, two young guys from Sydney who own a CrossFit Affiliate, have a quick chat to Regional Games competitor Brent Fikowski about his “3 questions to ask yourself after every training session” Brent is from Canada West, is a multiple regional qualifier only missing the games by 3 points over the last 2 seasons (Spoiler Alert* Over the recent weekend Brent qualified for his first CrossFit Games by dominantly winning his region). Brent goes on to say that since his last regionals he has re-evaluated his own training after finding himself leaving every training session with a negative mindset, always wondering whether he had done enough. He has come up with 3 questions that he now honestly answers after every training session:

1- Did you work hard today?

He goes on to say that this doesn’t necessarily mean that you were at 100% or hit a PR. There is a lot of factors that can affect daily effort including a bad nights sleep or being excessively sore. It just means you need to answer that question honestly for that days training, with that days problems.

2- Did you work on a weakness today?

This points to the fact that a lot of people go into their training with a bias for improving strengths and neglecting weaknesses. Theres no point constantly training and never growing by ignoring your weaknesses.

3- Did you move well today?

This is an important question to finish off. You need to ask yourself if while completing the first 2 questions did you do so with safe and correct form? You could quite easily work hard and on a weakness but if in doing so you moved terribly it doesn’t count for much.

The podcast finishes with the MMP boys giving their quick tips also but what Brent said has really stuck with me since hearing it and now has a place printed on my gym wall to reappear remind me after every session.

The Mind Muscle Project is one of my favourite podcasts so will most likely reappear a few times for this segment. I’d recommend anyone with an interest in fitness to give it a listen. I listen on iTunes but I’m sure there are other ways for non Apple peeps (I just don’t know what it is, sorry).

Anyway Pride, that’s what I mainly wanted to share this week. If you’re wondering I am currently still working on getting completely back in the swing of things since the honeymoon and have enjoyed my first full uninterrupted week of training since returning. I am training short term for the online functional fitness comp Aussies Fittest (you can check it out www.aussiesfittest.com.au) at the moment and I’m following the CrossFit Weightlifting program while adding in extra cardio sessions to also prepare for Spartan Race Brisbane in September.

Again thanks everyone for taking time out to read and I hope you get out, sign up for an event and enjoy your fitness as much as we do.

Until next time

Dice