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Fitness

Athlete Journal: Ruth Anderson Horrell, Entry 2 – 3/7/2013

This week I took a whole extra day off to battle my negative thoughts. As a result, I've trained better, feel happier in my work, and am ready for the Open!

Ruth Anderson Horrell

Written by Ruth Anderson Horrell Last updated on March 7, 2013

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!

Ruth Anderson Horrell

About Ruth Anderson Horrell

Ruth is a 28-year-old New Zealand representative CrossFit Athlete. She has represented the Australasia region at the World Reebok CrossFit Games in both 2011and 2012 (placing 31st in 2011 and 17th in 2012).

Ruth has always been an athlete. She competed successfully as a triathlete, long distance mountain runner, multisporter (coast to coast), and at netball and rugby. She found CrossFit in 2009 and has now competed in four regional events, placing 10th, 4th, and then qualifying for the worlds in 2nd place for the last two regionals.

Ruth competes for New Zeland as an Olympic Weightlifter. In 2012 she competed at the Oceania and Trans Tasman Champs. She is also a successful co-owner and coach atCrossFit Invercargilland works as a Locum small animal veterinarian when she has time.

Currently she is training towards being Australia’s best female CrossFit athlete and to qualify as an Olympic weightlifter for the next Commonwealth games. She trains in Los Angeles under the instruction ofDusty Hylandfor parts of the year. The rest of the time she trains at CrossFit Invercargill and is coached by Jules Dempsey at the Southland Olympic Weightlifting Club. For more about Ruth visit her website.

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