HYROX DIARIES: Entry Seven

HYROX Diaries #7: the athlete mindset

I literally gave myself the ick the other day…

I was on my way to train with a friend for a partnered HYROX class that I love nice and early in the morning. My mood was on point, I was feeling amped and ready to absolutely smash it. Then they started giving me a bit of pre-context about how they might not be ‘up to it’ that morning and, before we had even walked through the doors, I could feel myself getting annoyed. The voice in my head said ‘why are you counting yourself out before we’ve even started’ (with a little eye roll and a sigh). 

Honestly it was giving me the ick. 

Then I had this realisation…  ‘Oh my gosh, is this how Robbie feels when he trains me?’

Because I do this all the time…

I’ve spent years becoming really in tune with my body, my cycle and my nervous system. This level of body awareness is important, I embody it and teach it. It has been a huge part of my own healing, especially after years of pushing through, ignoring my body and treating it like something that needed to be controlled.

BUT… there is a huge difference, between being in tune with your body and giving yourself a little buffer before you have even started.

You know the one, “I’m in this part of my cycle, so just letting you know I might not be at my best today.” Or, “My nervous system is a little dysregulated, so we’ll see how I go.” Or whatever version of that you use.

Sometimes that context is genuinely helpful. Sometimes you really do need to change the plan, take it easier, rest, pull back or stop. I am never going to be someone who says we should bulldoze through genuine pain, exhaustion or injury just to prove a point.

What I caught myself doing, though, was verbalising the doubt before I had even given myself the chance to see what I was capable of.

It’s almost like you are trying to justify it in advance. In case you don’t perform well. In case it is hard. In case you need to stop. But the only person you are really trying to justify it to is yourself.

An athlete doesn’t need to pretend something isn’t hard. I complain like all heck during training. I’ll be halfway through a circuit saying, ‘aaahhh….’,  ‘f*ck’, ‘whyyyyyyy’ (and all other words that put me in the category of having a potty mouth!), whilst laughing about how much burpees suck, and my pure hatred for lunges!

That is very different to coming in with excuse after excuse before you have even done the work.

I’ve realised, you can always stop if you need to. You can always modify if something genuinely doesn’t feel right. You can say, ‘today is not the day,’ if it isn’t. There is no need to create the out before you have even begun, but more often than not you’re very capable of doing the thing, you just need to get out of your own way. 

This is the mindset shift I’ve been noticing as I train for HYROX. I’m starting to take my training waaaay more seriously. I’m showing up to sessions with the intention of seeing what I can do, rather than looking for reasons I might not be able to.

So I’ve decided to be even more intentional about bringing more of that athlete mindset into my training. I can have the thought in my head, work through it and see how I go. I don’t need to narrate every reason I might not perform at my best before I have even started. Hopefully then I can stop giving myself (and most probably Robbie the ick) 😂

LFG!
Sheree xo