Life Lessons From my First Fitness Event.
I love that so much of our training in the gym gives us strong foundations and principles that we can take into every area of our lives. I recently took part in my first hybrid fitness event where I competed with my sister-in-law in a doubles event. I spent 8 weeks training, some of the exercises were going to be different to what I’d usually do in my gym sessions and mixing the strength with running was definitely a challenge. Especially whilst also trying to be able to complete the stations in the quickest time possible when usually in a gym session if you need extra recovery time, it has no impact!
Here are some of my key takeaways:
Pace Yourself
Going too hard at every station will leave you feeling fatigued – and maye a little faint – so you need to consider how far into the race you are and pace yourself accordingly. Don’t go too hard at the start and lose too much energy too soon. The same can be said for seasons in life – you can’t always give 100% all of the time. Learning when to slow down and take a recovery lap is the key to building real endurance.
Lean Into It
Pushing is easier than pulling. Why? Because you can throw your whole body at it. During training I found getting up close, and wrapping my arms around the sled allowed me to push with full force. Life works the same way – when things feel heavy and you doubt how much strength you have, sometimes the answer is simply to lean in and give it everything you’ve got.
Embrace Discomfort
Another reason pulling was tough for me – it was what I had practiced the least, and mainly because I didn’t enjoy it, and sometimes felt embarassed to try in front of others in the gym when feeling that I wasn’t very good at it. It’s easy to favour what feels comfortable and familiar but that is rarely where growth happens. The things that challenge us most are often the ones we avoid. In life, the more consistently we show up and embrace the things we don’t like, the less intimidating they become.
It’s Better Together
One of the best things about doubles events is being able to share the load. I usually train and run solo, so doing this with my sister-in-law made it far more enjoyable. Just like in life, we’re not meant to carry everything alone. We all bring different strengths to the table – and sometimes the best way forward is to lean on each other when we feel weak, and run the race together!