EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to the athlete journal of Ruth Anderson Horrell, which will be posted every Wednesday. Hailing from New Zealand, Ruth competed in the 2011 and 2012 CrossFit Games and hopes to do the same in 2013. Check in every week to follow all the ups and downs of Ruth’s training for the 2013 CrossFit Games.
Athlete Journal Entry 2 – 3/7/2013
This week’s training brought many twists and turns. If I’m not training, I like to be refueling, sleeping, or recovering where I can. Most of my day I think about this year’s Games, in some form. However, I am also an affiliate owner, small animal vet, and WOD Gear distributor in New Zealand. Fair to say, sometimes there is so much going on it can really put a strain on my training.
It got me thinking about how much stress affects your sleep, your recovery, and even your ability to perform in a workout or focus on the skills of the workout. I had some skills not go as well as I would have hoped this week. That made me worry more and have some negative thoughts and fear. I took an extra day off (so two days off this week instead of one) and challenged my negative thoughts:
1. Am I good enough? I’ve been training long and hard, working all the areas I needed to. I’ve now built back my cardio and I’m rearing to go for the open. So, tick that one off.
2. What will others think of me? Not in my control and if anyone doesn’t believe in me I will be proving them wrong anyway. Tick.
3. Will I perform poorly? This one is rooted in fear about my performance, that I will fail a movement or perform poorly in a workout. It’s a pointless worry, so I put together some contingency plans on how was I going to overcome any problems or distractions while performing. Tick.
Stress is sometimes just an inevitable part of being a thinking, feeling person. As much as no ones likes it to get on top of them, sometimes it does. Stress can also affect your body physically. Under the effects of stress, muscle can become tense and tighten. Tight muscles can affect the overall coordination of the body movement and fluidity, which will influence your performance. Not cool.
This week I learned to tackle my negative thoughts head on and immediately counteract them with positive thoughts. For taking one measly day off, I have trained so much better, and feel much happier in my work!
Bring on the Open!
