Mental Toughness

In addition to setting various tangible goals for 2013 (muscle ups, heavier lifts, faster rows, faster Fran, etc.), I am actively trying to work on my mental toughness.  Too often, what holds me back in a workout is either nerves (i.e. I don't drop under the bar enough) or an inability to embrace the suck and keep moving.  

I am part way through Jason Selk's 10-Minute Toughness.  He advocates spending 10 minutes a day on mental preparation for training.  I'm waiting until I finish the book to put his full method to the test, but today I experimented with aspects of what he talks about.

The WOD was five rounds for time of five front squats at 155/225 (from the ground), three rope climbs (no feet) and 12 knees to elbows.  

First, I visualized myself going through each and every rep.  I'm not a good visualizer, so this was tough.  I tried to focus on not stopping.  I wasn't sure if I should be breaking up the knees to elbows in my visualization, as this was bound to happen at some point in the WOD.  I also didn't realize that we'd be taking the bars from the floor, so in my visualization there were no cleans to deal with.  It's hard to say if the visualizing helped me. 

Second, I set a "process goal" for the WOD.  Instead of focusing on a time, I focused on something that I would do to achieve a faster time.  My goal today was to not rest any more than necessary between the rope climbs.  Usually, my thought process on the ropes goes something like this: I really don't want to fall; There aren't enough ropes so there's traffic here anyway; I really don't want to fall; I should let the faster people (i.e. everyone else) go first.  I decided that success for me today would be blocking those types of thoughts and powering through the three climbs one right after the other.

For the first three rounds, I did a good job of getting the climbs with very little time in between.  By round four, I did stop to catch my breath a bit and shake out my forearms, but only because I really needed to and not for long.  I slid a bit on one of my descents, and I ripped my hands a bit in round five, but for the most part I felt totally in control going up and down with less rest. 

20:38 at 83 lbs was not the fastest time by any stretch, but I feel pretty good about the workout.  I think I like the idea of setting process goals for each of my WODs.  Selk would probably say that a process goal should be measurable, so next time maybe I'll say something like "no more than five seconds rest between climbs" or something like that, but this was a good start.

I'll keep you posted.

-Gym Belle-