I have a friend that I always sternly tell to give themselves a little more credit. He is hard on himself, like very hard. Even if he achieves his goals he’s set out to achieve, he is always pushing himself for more. The other day I was chatting with him about a big goal that I have and some of the challenges I have overcome throughout this challenge and I downplayed these feats. And he called me out like a good friend should. “You can’t tell me all the time to not be so hard on myself all the time when you can’t do the same.” And so he was right.
I am not very good at giving myself kudos for the things I accomplish. Working on it but the I don’t want to “brag” goes through my head most of the time. But I am realizing that there is a definite difference between being egocentric and self-compassionate. We need to be self-compassionate. If we can’t cheer ourselves on, we shouldn’t expect others to do it. So I am going to try and cheer myself on more. And in doing so, hoping to inspire and cheer you on to do you too. 🙂
I haven’t been in touch over the past couple of months due to this big goal I was mentioning! I’m now two weeks out from this major challenge and have so much to share. Don’t worry, I will let all of you know my post race thoughts 🙂 But what an experience this has been so far and I wasn’t expecting to enjoy and learn so much.
Back In January, LP (my gym or should I say my amazing community) Challenged all of us to step outside our comfort zone and do something BIG that scared us and pushed us to be better. And in turn celebrating our fitness outside the walls of LP. And what a year it has been so far watching everyone do this. From 10k firsts, to 5k wins to Ironman training, everyone is pushing each other to be better.
So my goal… I wanted to do something with running as this was the part of my fitness that I “enjoyed” the least and was by far the area of my fitness I needed to work on the most. So I went all in…
Buckin’ Hell – 27km up a mountain….trail running….yikes! 27km +1850m / -800m elevation
And so I got to work.
Starting with my running endurance at a level of 5k or less and enjoying none of that, I needed to get to work! I pushed hard with my runs and continued to push hard in the gym. And maybe a little too hard, neglecting some imbalances and tightness I was developing. And then the unthinkable happened, I was sidelined. Like, couldn’t even walk sidelined. Let alone run any sort of mountain. I have had knee surgery in the past so this feeling was all too familiar and I was freaking out – just a little. 😉 I started to kick myself for setting this BIG GOAL as I didn’t think it was going to happen… I had “failed”.
But I haven’t failed and this decision may have been one of the best decisions I have made in a long time… Let’s dig in and see why and check out some of my biggest takeaways.
Process Vs Outcome Life View
I am a very competitive person. Striving to be my best but usually really, striving to win. Very outcome focused. But when the outcome of this race was in jeopardy with my injury, I had a choice to make. Push through and see what happens or give up because I knew that I could have had a better outcome if I didn’t get injured. I may like to win, but I also don’t like to give up. And the fight in me won over and so I pushed forward to see what I could do. As I mentioned, I am now two weeks out from the event and I am going to get it done! And that feels darn good. Maybe even better than I might have. It may not be the “best” time I could have achieved if I didn’t get injured but the lessons learned and development experienced was well worth the journey.
Mindset Help
The first mindset shift I worked on was getting out of my head that I wasn’t a runner. For a long time now, I have carried this negative view of myself that I wasn’t a runner and that I may never improve my cardiovascular performance. If I AM NOT a runner then none of this really matters and I just needed to push through for the next few months. But instead, I switched my mindset to focus on the person I wanted to become, the future me. I want to be all around fit and this included being able to crush runs! I focused less on the race itself and more on the identity of becoming better at fitness and this included being a runner! For the first month I literally told myself (even aloud sometimes…) “I am a runner” as I headed out the door. May seem silly to some but it really pushed me through some tough runs. If you are interested in learning a little bit more about identity-based habits, check out this article from James clear.
The second mindset tool I have been using is running for a greater purpose. Deep into runs when I wanted to stop, and this happened a lot, having a greater purpose pushed me forward. The belief that this run was bigger than me. It was a chance to showcase to those around me that no matter what is thrown your way, you’ve got this as long as you put in the work. A mindset shift reminding me what I am made of and why I started this in the first place.
And my two mantra’s that kept me from a few breakdowns 🙂
“You were born to be real, not to be perfect.”
“This life is a privilege. Pressure is a privilege”
Overall Fitness Improvements
I can’t really believe it still, but two things have happened. I am actually enjoying running and my cardiovascular fitness is actually getting better! Holla! Being in the fitness industry, I had always heard that training in a low heart rate zone would improve your cardio but I had a hard time believing it… How does one “work less” and improve? I couldn’t grasp this concept as I didn’t believe slowing down would make me better in the long run. My competitive nature coming out again. I always wanted to run a certain distance for time. But one of the best things I did was to actually slow things down and run for total time instead of running for as fast as I could for a certain distance. This allowed me to keep my heart rate lower and this had a positive impact on my aerobic system. Looking to improve your aerobic fitness, implement steady workouts at a moderate effort (for duration, not speed) and they will produce an aerobic training effect.
Checkins Are Important
In the past, I have been one to just give it everything on race day and hope for the best. I wasn’t up for testing myself along the way just in case the progress wasn’t there or it negatively influenced my thoughts of completing the end goal. But with this challenge, I scheduled three races increasing in toughness (5k, 10k, 21k) to see where I was at and to see where I could improve (feedback:)). And surprisingly, these check-ins have done the opposite of my initial thoughts. They have provided much needed victories along the way that gave me positive feedback to keep me motivated and constructive feedback that I could use to get better and know that I will have done everything I could to be prepared for race day.
When I signed up for this race, it was a crazy race that scared the crap out of me, but I thought it would be fun. But I got much more out of this experience than the feeling that I am going to have on race day. I didn’t realize the amount of personal growth that would happen from setting one goal. I have pushed my own personal walls down. I am happy to report that my limiting belief of being a runner has diminished and going through this journey has taught me that anything is possible.
What limiting beliefs do you have? What goals do you secretly have that you are afraid to go after? Let’s change our narratives and go after them together!
