The Fear
Do you ever get the Fear before a workout? The thought, “I definitely can’t do this. I don’t even want to try.” I get it all the time, and was beset by it both yesterday (pushups WOD) and today (burpee, thruster, pullups WOD). There are certain things that set it off for me: long runs, burpees. Mostly conditioning-related. I don’t second-guess my lifting ability, I guess, but when it comes to going faster, longer, harder, I seize up and think, “I can’t.”
Ridiculous.
What is the Fear? Fear I’ll die? Not likely. Fear I’ll come in last? Who cares? Fear I’ll have to stop many times? Again, who cares? But whatever the true source of the Fear is, I can’t put my finger on it.
But I remembered these two quotes while I was thinking about the Fear.
Never, never, never, never give up. -Winston Churchill
Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re usually right. -Henry Ford
And that’s it. You can’t let the Fear invade your ability to do the workout. The Fear comes from your mind, but the workout comes from your body, and all it takes is separating those two. Neither one needs the other.
I wonder if elite athletes get the Fear, or if they have been conditioned to ignore it. Or maybe after so many finishes, you start thinking, “There is no such thing as failure,” and the Fear goes away.
