Mental Toughness sounds so cliché to me. Mental Toughness is something much deeper than the book you read about how to obtain it. If you type Mental Toughness in Google, you will see tons of strategies about how to become mentally tougher. But what can you really do?
Mental Toughness?
Mental Toughness sounds so cliché to me. Mental Toughness is something much deeper than the book you read about how to obtain it. If you type Mental Toughness in Google, you will see tons of strategies about how to become mentally tougher. But what can you really do?
First off, I just finished my 2nd 20 miler this week. Yahoo!!!! I’m starting to love the process. My weeks consist of running back to backs. That means twice a week I run long (16-30 miles) and then (10-20 miles) the next day. I’m doing CrossFit workouts 3-4 times a week and smaller runs throughout the week too. But the bulk of my training plan is running those “back to backs.” I can feel that I’m getting stronger. My day after the 20 miler, I don’t feel like I ran at all. The process is working. Now don’t get me wrong, my mental state is taking a beating out there for 3-4 hours right now. It takes a lot of “DON’T F***ING STOP!” “YOU ONLY HAVE 6 MILES LEFT!” There is a lot of coaching / yelling that happens on those trails. But I always seem to make it back to the start.
After finishing my last 20 miler, I thought to myself…. Now repeat that 4 more times! WHAT!!! 80 more miles to go. That’s what I would need to run my 100 mile Race. To me that would be the definition in Google if you typed in Mental Toughness. A picture of me beat down after 20 miles, putting my shoes back on, and running another 80 miles.
So how do I get there mentally?
Everyone has their process. Everyone is different. What I found that works is a lot of mental training. I watch tons of races on the internet. I watch the struggles and the victories of other racers. To visualize what they’re going through. I also, read books of examples of where Mental Toughness was needed, to help me realize what I’m going through is NOTHING compared to what they’ve been through. I’ll share some good books in another blog. The last thing I do is visualize the things that I can control vs. the things I can’t control. I start to think about the things that could go wrong. Then immediately think of how my crew can help me mitigate them. Then understand that things are going to happen outside my control and what I will do to get past them. Like getting lost for two hours on my last 50 mile Race. Having to back track and stay in the race mentally!
Hope this Blog provides one new thing you can do to work on Mental Toughness. If you want some more tips, or have any other insight email me at crossfitoneshot@gmail.com.
“You can’t run 100 miles!” “You’re too big to run this far.” “How you’re running now, you’ll be kicked off the course way before the end anyways.” “You’ll Quit before the finish line.”
“Quitting is EASY!”
You have to imagine the goal that I set out to accomplish is something much bigger than me. This is something that I 100% believe is a really hard challenge for myself. That’s why I signed up for it. I didn’t sign up for it knowing it is going to be a walk in the park. I have been training for the past three months to build a strong base mileage. So I know that I can go out and run far if needed. As last week approached I started to fill my head with all kinds of negative thoughts. Here are a few…
“You can’t run 100 miles!” “You’re too big to run this far.” “How you’re running now, you’ll be kicked off the course way before the end anyways.” “You’ll Quit before the finish line.”
All of these are my thoughts, which have made me want to divert from the goal. They have made me question why the heck I would even want to do this thing. Last week after lots of self-doubt, lots of excuses, and lots of internal debate, I came up with a plan. Court and I sat down and figured out what the week would look like. Our weeks are packed with juggling our son Lleyton, balancing our coaching/business hours, and now my running schedule. We put on paper my running schedule. Once I saw it on paper, the doubt came back!
I decided to just start the first run. I was trying to divert my focus on the huge task at hand. I was trying to not think about the realization that I have to run 30 miles this week. I could’ve very easily given up before I even started. But that’s not why I started this journey.
So here I am two weeks into this journey. At the end of this week I will have already logged 69 miles. Within these two weeks, I’m already learning. I’m learning that it’s harder to keep going than quitting. Quitting is Easy! But quitting is not going to change your life. The moments where we are pushed beyond our physical and mental limitations are the moments where we learn about ourselves the most. The hard part about life is we are constantly faced with things beyond our control. But that doesn’t mean we get to quit on them. We tighten our shoes, we take a deep breath, and we tell ourselves we will make it through this. We will fight hard to come out on the other side, way stronger than we are now.
Fight hard and don’t quit, at whatever life challenges you’re facing right now!
I have been challenging myself to show one person that they can fight through what they’re going through. Obviously, it’s a personal struggle to make it through the Ultramarathons. But for me it’s more about the people I intend to inspire. The people who are in the fight for their life. The people who need someone to grind hard with them. To show them they can make it through this hard time!
Who is CFE?
I’ve been thinking about this since I decided to start my Blogging again. My thoughts were, “I hate resumes.” I’m not a fan of putting my resume out there or bragging about my accomplishments. However, I feel like they are a great way to start, so people don’t just think I’m some weirdo for running a very long way.
During my second deployment to Iraq I started to like running. Before that I wasn’t interested in running longer than I had to for the Marines. While I was in Iraq I started to do laps around our camp when we were back restocking gear, calling home, and getting some rest. That’s when my passion was born. After returning back from a hard deployment mentally and physically I started to run a lot. I signed up for some 5k’s and half marathons. Nothing crazy yet! Then I got the idea to run 36 miles, without ever running a marathon. Great idea right? I struggled walking for the next two weeks.
After I thought running was getting too easy for me, I decided to try triathlons. I bought a bike from Walmart and signed up for my first Sprint triathlon. Landed on the podium, returned the bike to Walmart, and then headed straight for the bike shop. I’ve completed tons of triathlons from sprints to the full Ironman distance. After I competed in Ironman Cozumel I found CrossFit. CrossFit became the platform that I would use to train for my triathlons. Not more triathlon specific training. I came to realize how important strength training was for Endurance Athletes. After 6 months of being a newbie in CrossFit I gained 40lbs and shaved off 45 minutes at the Miami 70.3. I was hooked on CrossFit!
I’m still using CrossFit as my primary method, but now my focus has switched to Ultramarathons. Ultramarathons being the distance beyond 26.2 miles. Last year I completed two Ultras. I did a 6 hour race, run as far as you can and a 50 Mile Ultra in Northern Wisconsin. I'll leave those adventures for another blog.
Why I do what I do?
Understanding in a few short paragraphs where I have come from, the question becomes where am I going? I feel like there is a lot of chaos in the World. I feel like a lot of people are going through really hard times. I feel like everyone can use more mental toughness, to help fight through these hard times. So I have been challenging myself to show one person that they can fight through what they’re going through. Obviously, it’s a personal struggle to make it through the Ultramarathons. But for me it’s more about the people I intend to inspire. The people who are in the fight for their life. The people who need someone to grind hard with them. To show them they can make it through this hard time!
Goal
In 2018, I will be running in the Cellcom 26.2, the North Face 50 Miler, and the Hennepin 100 Miler. I have been training for the Cellcom for two months now. April 1st, I switched to training for the 100 miler. I’m using these other races to challenge myself mentally and physically, but also to use this as part of my journey to changing lives. Please follow my journey. Share my journey with those who you think can benefit from it. Post comments, send me messages, and cheer me on. This is not going to be easy. But I want to change one person’s life in this process! I’m not going to quit until I do that!
As my elusive quest for fitness continues, I continue to look for new ways to improve not only my performance but my overall fitness.
Yoga and CrossFit? Why both?
Written by: Luke Espe, 12 Labours CrossFit
As my elusive quest for fitness continues, I continue to look for new ways to improve not only my performance but my overall fitness. Fitness is a term that has a very different meaning to each person, and that definition might change over time. Mine has changed drastically over the years, and I am sure it will continue to change.
It started with “How much do you bench press?” to “What is your 40 time?” to “How fast can you do Fran?” to “What is your snatch?”
Those questions pretty much sum up my fitness journey in the past 15 years. Probably a pretty standard progression for a lot of people, but it has evolved into more of a “How do you feel?” type of question. More importantly the question I have for my clients is “How do you feel?”. CrossFit sometimes gets a bad rap of being this brute sport with screaming, throwing up, bloody hands and injury…but as we continue to grow this brand and awareness of the brands meaning, we want it to be known that this is a way to improve your lifestyle.
Improving your lifestyle is not accomplished by hitting a WOD twice a week as we all know. It is much more than that, and we continue to try and give you those other pieces of the puzzle. Nutrition, Goal Setting, excellent coaching, elegant programming, a supportive Community, and a huge piece that some of us are still missing is recovery. Not only physical recovery, but mental as well.
Enter Yoga.
I am going to give you two perspectives on yoga, one from a coach and the other as an athlete, with some additions from our Yoga Instructors.
COACHES PERSPECTIVE
As a coach there is one main goal for each and every one of our clients…and that goal is progress, no matter how fast or slow it might be. This does not necessarily mean weight on the bar, or how fast you do a workout! There are a few things that can increase that rate of progress, which include the following.
Movement…are we getting into positions correctly and moving in a pattern that is conducive to progress, not injury. Getting into a perfect squat is not an easy thing…especially when the mobility of a client is hindering them from getting anywhere near a proper squat. Mobility is a term that means much more than just flexibility. It is having a proper mix of Flexibility, Stability, and Body Awareness.
“The benefits of yoga for athletes are immeasurable. Regardless of the sport, a regular yoga practice will improve an athletes' flexibility, strength and balance. It goes without saying that stretching is important, but yoga offers much more than that.” Meg Fredericks Cocco
Getting into a regular Yoga practice is going to help with all three of these pieces. Our hips and thoracic spines are so jacked up from sitting at a computer all day that something as primal as squatting up and down has become close to impossible for people to accomplish.
Not only that but we don’t have the body awareness to accomplish this correctly, even with every coaching cue we could possibly throw at you. This is not an easy fix, might actually be the hardest fix of all is getting someone to actually FEEL what you are trying to explain to them. Where yoga thrives, is the amount of body awareness you gain by getting into positions you have never been to before, holding those postures and breathing through them.
I’ve said it for awhile and I will continue to say it, but clients with a Yoga background are the absolute easiest clients to coach. Their mix of flexibility, stability and body awareness make coaching easy by eliminating those barriers to proper movement. Don't worry it is not only people with previous yoga experience, it includes clients that go into a yoga practice regularly see vast improvement based solely on the fact that they can achieve a better positions by that gained mobility, stability and body awareness.
The last piece is the mental game that plays a huge role in any fitness quest, and yes I said quest again, sounds much more epic that journey.
In the first 6 months of CrossFit, we see incredible progress...then after about 6 months of so we start to see that progress slowing down. (a whole other topic, aka beginner gains) That is a hard pill for some to swallow, and it becomes a more stressful situation than it should….we start comparing ourself to others, asking questions like “why am I not progressing as fast as him or her?” Believe me, I know for a fact this happens because I have been there. Yoga gives you a space to reflect, to let go and be mindful of your quest.
“We practice mindfulness and presence to ultimately improve the quality of performance in this game called life. The most elite athletes have a drive that is fueled from within.” - Katie Ficca
This is an extremely powerful piece to the puzzle, if not the most powerful. For those of you that attended the Twilight Asana, they spoke of a term called “Kritajna” which means Gratitude. Dig a little deeper into that and it is this notion of striving for more out of yourself, while being thankful and enjoying that process or as I prefer "Quest" HA! Sorry I have the attention span of a gold fish and I'll take any chance I got to throw a Van Damme reference in there.
At least that was interpretation, and it has helped me out tremendously.
Being present and enjoying what is happening in the present is more of a lifestyle change than a change to the way you train. This is a whole other post in itself and since this post is already long enough lets just leave it at that…but when this starts to happen, you will suddenly enjoy the process much more.
ATHLETES PERSPECTIVE
A lot of the athletes benefits can be found above, but one piece that helped me out as an athlete would be BREATHING.
Yoga put me into some scenarios where it was very difficult to breath…CrossFit does that too, but Yoga brings that awareness piece into the breathing. Awareness to breathing can be as simple as not freaking out during some burpees, to learning how to control and brace your breathe for a heavy Deadlift.
“Breathing with complete awareness, deeply during a yoga class in a variety of postures absolutely expands lung capacity- amazing to tap into when you are lifting and sucking in a breath, when you need a rhythm for more wall balls or to finish that last minute on the rower.” - Erin Jeeter
Learning how to breath properly, and more importantly being mindful of your breathe is invaluable, and the benefit can be seen in every aspect of fitness, not only CrossFit or lifting weights.
To sum this up, I would like to again just put emphasis on the process. The process is more than just working out, its more than just eating right, and its more than just stretching. Respecting the process and more importantly enjoying that process is the key. Try a yoga class, give yourself a space to be mindful of the process and feel the benefits.
Thanks to our yoga instructors for the contributions to this and helping write the article, you can find their schedules below!
The 2017 CrossFit Open is about to kick off tonight. For some of you the CrossFit Open is the start of your competition series. For others, it is an opportunity for you to put your Fitness to a test. Whatever the reason was for you to sign up for the Open, for CrossFit One Shot - it’s a community builder. It’s a great way to meet the other people you don’t see all the time. Sweating with others throughout these workouts will bring our community even stronger. I want you to consider the following as you mentally prepare for the workouts.
Preparation: The workouts that we put you through daily, are more challenging than anything you will face in the open. The only thing that will change will be the intensity due to the competition setting. As you stare at the 5 workouts, tell yourself “I’ve done a lot harder workouts on a regular basis.”
Standards: The standards will be the same standards that we hold at CrossFit One Shot. Know the standards before 3,2,1 Go…. Is sounded. The standards are set to ensure you’re hitting full range of motion for each WOD. When you hear “No Rep” correct it quickly and move on to the next rep.
“One Shot”: One Shot is a mindset. You have One Shot at life. You’re given One Shot to make something of yourself. You have One Shot, to be the best you that you can be. You need to take that same mentality into the Open. You have one opportunity to give everything you have for the Workouts. There are no repeats. Repeating workouts DOES NOT make you a stronger Athlete. Repeating workouts DOES NOT improve your fitness. Repeating only makes you better at that workout. Nothing else. When the clock starts, give everything you have for the minutes that you’re doing the workout. Compete with no one but yourself. When the clock stops, you will know that you’ve given it everything you had for that workout.
Lastly, HAVE SOME FREAKING FUN! Cheer people on, high five everyone, and have a blast. I’m excited to be competing in my 7th CrossFit Open right next to every one of you!
30 days is almost gone. All of you are almost there! You’ve either omitted sugars, alcohol, grains, or something out of your diet for the last 30 days. Or you’ve tracked and logged your food religiously.
Your body composition has most likely changed. Your pants size has gone down. Your energy levels have rised. You can see a 2-pack starting to form in that abdomen of yours. Maybe you don’t even want to go back to your “old ways” anymore.
Now is the time to start thinking of what you’re going to do come day 31. Are you going to binge eat? Eat #ALLTHEPIZZA? Drink #ALLTHECOCKTAILS? Stuff #ALLTHETACOS in your mouth?
I suggest, not. Don’t let the last 30 days of hard work go to waste. You’ve worked way too hard and felt way too good to throw 30 days out the window.
WHOLE30-ers
Grab your book, “It Starts with Food” and read up on the ways of how to reintroduce food into your diet. You’ve gone through 30 days of omitting, so that you can actually figure out if certain foods react a certain way when you eat them. Binge eating won’t help distinguish what food is causing the problem, however slowly reintroducing some will give you your answer.
FLEX-ers
Don’t just quit. Don’t just quit tracking. Flexible Dieting is the ultimate way to lead a sustainable life. The last 30 days, you shouldn’t have felt deprived AT ALL. Because you can eat what you want during Flexible Dieting, it is more emotionally and mentally stable.
What’s your next step?
Maybe it’s time to start with a nutrition coach. That’s where I come in!
An initial consultation starts with me getting to know you outside of the gym—your lifestyle, your activity level. From there we work closely together, doing weekly weigh-ins, monthly measurements and pictures, adding you to a private FB group, sharing more recipes, giving you little tidbits, and available access to any and all questions.
There is not a one size fits all for configuring your macro settings.
Your friend may weigh the same as you, but that doesn’t mean your macros are going to be the same. She may workout more than you, her metabolism may be slower, her activity level at her job is different than yours---and maybe she has some health things that you’re not aware of.
Why Flexible Nutrition?
Because we are human. We are moms. We are dads. We are business owners. We are construction workers. Fire fighters. Nurses. HR Directors. We hold all of the positions. And bottom line? WE ARE BUSY.
We shouldn’t have to feel shame or guilt when we need to send our kids to school with lunch money, rather than an organic-filled boxed lunch—because as we were making them lunch, our other child gets sick and needs our attention…or you were making your morning protein shake and the blender exploded all over, and you don’t have time to pick it up AND make another one…so you run through a drive thru on your way to work to feed yourself.
Flexible Nutrition allows us the opportunity to not feel guilt or shame with food, to learn balance and to make things work. It’s sustainable and FLEXIBLE.
Nearing Towards The End