Mental Toughness....

The above picture is my battleground.

Jack Martin was my high school cross country and track coach. He was an old school type of guy. He had a lot of sayings he would use. There is one of them that stands out to me. The saying is, "mental toughness through physical pain."

I thought this was just one of Martin's sayings. However, as I reflect upon it, it hits the nail on the head. To simply back it up, the more tough shit you go through physically, the tougher you get mentally. This means that you have to always battle through the tough times. It is simple to see it in your own life. Just for a second look back 5 years. I bet there are things you do today, whether is be physical as run several miles or mental as learn a new language. You are able to face these challenges because of your mental hardening.

I am a true believer that high intensity training is far and away the best way to train. There are so many different lessons to learn. You are pushed mentally every workout to get that one next rep or sprint out that last bit. When you are able to push hard in a workout, the rest of life seems so easy. I have said to myself numerous times when facing a tough situation, "please I can do this, I can do (insert workout)."

This is one of the reasons I train. It makes my everyday life easier. If I can suck up through the pain and push, I know that when I am done everything will seem so much easier. This is all a part of my mental conditioning. Of course there are days you do not want to train, but why would you not when it makes life easier?

Today was a day that pushed me mentally. I am still learning how to best use my new toy, the weight vest. I decided today that 3 rds of 50 double unders, 25 kettlebell swings would be great. This was to be done with the 50 lb. weight vest on. I am pretty good at double unders and figured it would not be that much hard. I was wrong.

I wanted to quit after the first round. I even toyed around with trimming it down to 2 rounds or less double unders. I could not in good conscience do this. I know that somedays I will want to quit. I cannot give into that urge to quit. I feel that it would be too slippery a slope for me. Once I cut one corner what is going to stop me from cutting others.

This mental toughness I believe is the difference between being successful and falling short. I was going to finish that workout come hell or high water. To me it became not about the stopwatch but about the struggle. The struggle to get just one more double under kept me going. I wanted to finish just to prove that I could. I was not going to let a workout beat me.

This never say quit attitude has to be taken into every workout. You have to feel that you will finish this as hard as you are able to. You have to have the mental toughness to never give into the urge to quit. When you keep up this attitude you will be surprised by what you can accomplish.

My total workout time was 18:31. The first round was 4 minutes, second finished at 12:40ish. It was in the middle round I had my struggle. I won that battle though.

Inspirational quote: "Mental toughness through physical pain." -Jack Martin